BENEDICTINE ART DECO

 

In my Blog on Pentecost I used a painting by a Benedictine nun from Stanbrook Abbey in England and was curious to find more of her life.

DAME WERBURG WELSH  was born in 1894, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.  She grew up in an artistic family and attended school in Kidderminster run by nuns exiled from France. Her father, John, had been raised Protestant, but converted to Catholicism after reading Cardinal Newman's works.

Her mother was an Irish Catholic from Dublin and through her, the family met Desmond Chute, future artist, priest and follower of Eric Gill. He encouraged the talented girl in her artistic endeavors. She would go on to study at Bournemouth and Bristol art schools, where she excelled in life drawing.

However, by age 20, she felt called to a spiritual life and joined the Benedictine nuns at Stanbrook Abbey in Worcester.

She had expected to give up art but was actually encouraged to continue it as an expression of her faith, and her talent flourished across a range of forms paintings and woodcuts to designing priests’ vestments.

The abbey also ran a printing press, producing prayer cards, service booklets, book plates and theological publications, largely decorated by Dame Werburg, which gave needed income to the Abbey.

 As an enclosed order, access to the outside world was limited, concentrating instead on a life of prayer and contemplation. Through Desmond, she had connections with the Ditchling Community, a Roman Catholic group of artists and craftsmen founded by Eric Gill. In 1921, she met Eric when he visited Stanbrook with Desmond to learn about Gregorian plainchant. Recognizing her talent, Gill furnished Dame Werburg with appropriate wood carving tools and both men corresponded with her over a number of years about contemporary engraving techniques. 

While Gill’s influence is evident, she also developed her own distinctive variation of the Art Deco style. Echoes of Byzantine art, her favorite artistic period, are also visible as is the influence of Ernst Barlach, the German Expressionist sculptor (who is my favorite modern sculptor).

 Her art was displayed in Catholic journals between the 1920s and 1940s. However, it was only ever attributed to “A Benedictine at Stanbrook” because Dame Werburg was not seeking notoriety. In those days this was the acceptable monastic method. Even our mother Abbey in Connecticut did this with art and writings.

During World War II, she took on the role of managing orchards, becoming an expert on fruit trees, a hobby she carried on until her 80s. She was the sub-prioress of Stanbrook Abbey from 1956 until 1968. 

Dame Werburg continued to be a prolific artist into old age. She was clearly an extraordinary woman. She suffered a severe stroke in November 1989 and died February 1990 at Stanbrook Abbey.

N.B.  St. Werburg- Anglo-Saxon 7th Century saint and patron saint of Chester

WOMEN AT PENTECOST

We know women were at the foot of Jesus’ cross, when most of the men had fled and they were there when they laid Him in the tomb.

It was the women who walked through the desolate graveyard, hours just before dawn, carrying spices to anoint Jesus’ dead body for proper burial.

 And it was to woman that Jesus first appeared  after His resurrection. To them He gave the message to carry back to His apostles and disciples, that He truly was alive.  And what of Pentecost?  Were women present? Why would the Lord exclude them, when they placed such an important role in His life here on earth?

 We know that Jesus’ Mother, Mary, was huddled in the upper room praying with the other women and the rest of the disciples in the days following the resurrection. Luke notes that, upon their return to Jerusalem after Christ’s Ascension, “they were joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus …” (Acts 1:14, which argues for her inclusion among the “they” (2:1) who were “gathered together in one place” on Pentecost.  

The above painting is by the Benedictine nun from Stanbrook Abbey in England, Dame Werburg Welsh. Her painting shows us Jesus’ Mother robed in red, a sign that she was filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment she consented to be the Mother of God. Mary Magdalene is there, too, robed in white like the apostles. She is considered to be  the apostle to the apostles, the one whom Jesus chose to announce His resurrection. Surely she would not be excluded from this gathering!. There is simply no indication in Acts that only males prayed as the 120 disciples were gathered in one place (Acts 1:15). 

In the Acts of the Apostles, which we have daily been reading at Mass throughout this Eastertide, we see there are many more women who played a significant role in the life of the church. They participated in all the activities of the church.

Luke, the author of the  Acts,  shows how the status of women would be greater in the church than in their previous position in Jewish culture. There are twenty-three women or groups of women mentioned in the book of Acts. Not only do we have Jesus' Mother and friends, but also widows, professional women, other prominent women, and relatives of other disciples. We read that they all joined in with the task of the mission of the church in various ways.

To mention a few:  The disciple named Tabitha (Gk. name of Dorcas)  was singled out for her acts of kindness to her community. The primary focus of her ministry was to poor widows, for whom she made tunics and other items of clothing.

Priscilla with her husband, Aquila,  ran a small business in Corinth making tents. Unlike her husband, Priscilla likely wasn’t Jewish but a Roman woman from an upper-class family, judging by her name. After meeting and working with Paul, the well-traveled couple  became valued members of the apostle’s missionary team. Unusual for the time, Priscilla and Aquila are always mentioned together, suggesting they were equal partners in life, business and ministry. Even more unusual, Priscilla is almost always named first, indicating hers was perhaps the higher-profile role within the church. 

Both in his Gospel and in the book of Acts, Luke took great effort to portray women in all their diversity from the rich to the servants (perhaps because he wasn't Jewish?). He shows us real women of warmth and wit and intellect, who played essential roles in the spread of the new faith.

Today, we see a new Pentecost with more and more women taking an active role in the Church's mission to spread the Good News of Jesus' mercy and love.

COOPERATOR FOR THE EUCHARIST

 

 

Another laywoman being considered for canonization, also related to the Salesians (see Blog April 19), is  SERVANT of GOD VERA GRITA,  an elementary school teacher, born in Rome in 1923. After being trampled on by a crowd fleeing a bombing in Savona on the 4^th of July 1944, her injuries marked her irreparably. She was 21 years old. Despite her condition, she accepted to teach in schools in the Ligurian hinterland. In Savona, in the Salesian parish of Mary Help of Christians, she participated in parish life. From 1963 the Salesian Fr Giovanni Bocchi was her confessor.  When she became a Salesian Cooperator in 1967), she entrusted herself to the guidance of Fr Gabriello Zucconi.  These are Catholics who are living the Gospel message in the spirit of Saint John Bosco while choosing to live in the world.

On September 19, 1967, a mystical experience began inviting her to live the joy and dignity of a daughter of God in full, in communion with the Trinity and in Eucharistic intimacy with Jesus.  . "We are the wine and water: you and Me, Me and you. We are one thing: I dig in you,  dig, dig to build myself a temple: let Me work, do not set me obstacles. ..The will of My Father is this: that I remain in you, and you in Me. Together we will bear great fruit."

It was the first of the messages that make up the "Work of the Living Tabernacles" that Vera, struggling with the fear of being the victim of deception, wrote in obedience to Fr Zucconi.

The messages explicitly refer to Don Bosco and his "da mihi animas cetera tolle" that tend to renew in the Salesians the sense of union with God and trust in Mary Help of Christians, to give God through a tireless apostolate that cooperates in the salvation of humanity. The Work, by the will of the Lord, is entrusted in the first instance to the sons of Don Bosco for its fulfillment and diffusion in the parishes, in the religious institutes and in the Church: "I chose the Salesians because they live with the young, but their life of the apostolate must be more intense, more active, more heartfelt."

The cause for the beatification of the Servant of God Vera Grita was launched on 22 December 2019, the 50th anniversary of her death, in Savona.

Antonio Boccia, the World Coordinator of Salesian Cooperators, then spoke, expressing his joy and emotion at this new Cause of a Salesian Cooperator.

 “Vera's heart and life was the Eucharist that she lived daily. The Eucharist was everything to her. Just as Jesus had given His life out of love, she gave her life for those she met in her work with a smile, gentleness, and kindness, so much so that she aroused awe and admiration in her colleagues at the school. She had a special concern for the less gifted students or those who suffered from their family situations... The Holy Spirit continued to make the Salesian charism breathe through her life.”

PRIESTS TODAY

 

Perhaps there is some encouraging news regarding new priests in our country. While numbers are not that much higher, the quality of the men is certainly something to be proud of. Not only is training in seminaries concentrating more on the Eucharist as opposed to “social apostolates”, but the men themselves say that they regularly partook in Eucharistic Adoration (75%) before entering seminary, according to a survey conducted by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

How much does education and family structure influence the decision tp become a priest?  Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations (CCLV) said:

 “Surveys of men recently ordained to the priesthood show that families and encouragement from the parish priests alongside Catholic schools provide optimal environments for a vocational call to grow. On this day, let us thank God for continuing to call men and women to serve him and his Church as priests, religious, and consecrated persons. We pray that all families, teachers, and priests will continue their essential work of instilling the faith and love of Jesus in our children.”

A large portion of the incoming ordinands attended Catholic institutions for their education, with the highest rates (43%) attending Catholic primary school. A further 34% attended Catholic high school and 35% went to a Catholic college.

The vast majority (84%) cited having two Catholic parents. Nearly two thirds reported their vocation being supported by family members, parish priests, and the community. 

I know I have said in the past, we are seeing young men come, either before ordination or after, who have a great devotion to the Eucharist.  There is much hope for the future of the Church.

"Nourish the faithful on Christ's Body and Blood and nourish yourself daily by meditating on the mystery of the Real Presence of Christ, which you are privileged to make physically present in the Eucharist."  Bishop Peter J. Jugis, Charlotte, N.C. Aug 2016, to newly ordained priests.

 

ASCENSION

 

Mykola Rybenchuk- Ukraine

Ascension

John Donne - 1571-1631

 Salute the last, and everlasting day,

Joy at the uprising of this Sun, and Son,

Ye whose true tears, or tribulation

Have purely wash'd, or burnt your drossy clay.

Behold, the Highest, parting hence away,

Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon;

Nor doth he by ascending show alone,

But first He, and He first enters the way.

O strong Ram, which hast batter'd heaven for me!

Mild lamb, which with Thy Blood hast mark'd the path!

Bright Torch, which shinest, that I the way may see!

O, with Thy own Blood quench Thy own just wrath;

And if Thy Holy Spirit my Muse did raise,

Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise

BIRDS AND WATER

 

This year’s theme for the May Migratory Bird Day (Global Bird Day)  is WATER: Sustaining Bird Life. Jim and I once again traveled our small island in search of the number of species still around after migration, especially of the water birds and the arrival of summer species.

 While so much of the world is suffering from lack of water, we in the Pacific Northwest are blessed to have such an abundance of this vital resource.

Water is fundamental to sustaining life on our planet. Migratory birds rely on water and its associated habitats—lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, marshes, and coastal wetlands—for breeding, resting, refueling during migration, and wintering. Yet increasing human demand for water, along with climate change, pollution, and other factors, are threatening these precious aquatic ecosystems.

Headlines around the world are sounding alarm: 35 percent of the world’s wetlands, critical to migratory birds, have been lost in the last 50 years. Utah’s Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and used by more than a million shorebirds, is in danger of disappearing within five years.

Across the Amur-Heilong Basin in Asia, climate change is amplifying the impact of habitat destruction by depleting natural water systems and depriving migratory birds of vital breeding and stopover site. Lake Chad, one of the largest water bodies in Africa in 1960, lost 90 % of its area, depleting water resources for local communities and also for many migratory birds.

 Reports are sobering examples which reveal that 48 percent of bird species worldwide are undergoing population declines.

 World Migratory Bird Day serves as an international call to action for the protection of migratory birds, whose ranges often span multiple countries, and are facing many different threats worldwide.

TENDER MOTHER AND LOST CHILDREN

 

Virgin of Tenderness- Ukraine

As we remember our own Mothers this day- alive or with the Lord- let us continue to pray for all mothers in the Ukraine, especially those who are separated from their children, either due to evacuation, defending their country, or death.  May the Mother of God, who is also our own Mother,  who  experienced human struggles of her own, losing her only son, give comfort to the people of Ukraine and may she comfort  all mothers in Russia  also suffering great loss.  May  she bring hope where there is no hope and a lasting peace now and future generations!

"Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

 Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen."    Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary- March 2022

N.B. Also called "The Eleusa"  (Greek:  tenderness or showing mercy) is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mother in icons in which the Christ Child is nestled against her cheek.

FATHER OF MEXICAN ART- NUNS AT PRAYER

Last week, in the Blog on nuns and monks, I used a painting by a Mexican artist which I loved, so decided to do some research on him.

ALFREDO RAMOS MARTINEZ  was a painter, muralist, and educator, who lived and worked in Mexico, Paris, and Los Angeles. Considered by many to be the 'Father of Mexican Modernism', he is best known for his serene and empathetic paintings of traditional Mexican people and scenes. 

As the renowned Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío wrote, "Ramos Martínez is one of those who paints poems; he does not copy, he interprets; he understands how to express the sorrow of the fisherman and the melancholy of the village.”

 He was born in 1871 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the ninth child to a successful merchant trading in jewelry, fine fabrics, silver, embroidered suits and hand-woven sarapes from Saltillo. All members of the Ramos Martínez family were involved with their father's business and it was expected that the artist, too, would one day join the ranks of "honorable merchant". However, Alfredo’s evident talent and instincts propelled him towards a career in the arts; a choice that his family ultimately supported.

 From an early age he was winning awards for his art. At the age of nine, one of his drawings, a portrait of the governor of Monterrey, was sent to an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, where he won first prize.

 He studied at the most prestigious school  in Mexico. The Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.   hough he found the teaching methods at the Academy repressive and counter-intuitive to his more emotional  impulses,  he created enough work to sell while still a student. 

 Gratifying as his youthful accomplishments were, the news from France, and the examples of the brilliance of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, persuaded the young painter that he needed to be in Europe to continue his education and define his career. Though his family was by no means poor, they did not have funds to support his European dream. 

In a supreme bit of good fortune, Phoebe Hearst attended a dinner in Mexico City for the President of Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, which featured place mats designed and painted by the young Ramos Martínez. Hearst was so impressed with the decoration that she asked to meet the artist and see other examples of his work. After their meeting, she not only bought all of Alfredo’s watercolors, but agreed to provide financial support for the artist's continued study in Paris. 

While in Paris, Alfredo attended various artistic and literary salons and made the acquaintance of the modernist Nicaraguan  poet, Rubio Dario.  He was then invited into the  circle of rather extraordinary bon vivants such as Isadora Duncan, Paul Verlaine, Eleonora Duse, and Anna Pavlova. Though sales of his artwork were proceeding, and Alfredo had achieved a degree of comfort as a 'Parisian', in 1909 he felt a strong desire to return home to Mexico.By this time Mexico was a nation in turmoil. The Mexican Revolution  was beginning  and the 30-year rule of President Porfirio Diaz was on the verge of collapse. The art students at the National Academy called a strike in order to protest the 'aesthetic dictatorship' of the Academy. They demanded the establishment of a 'Free Academy' and proposed Ramos Martínez as director due to his success in Europe.

With the example of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in mind and fortified by his sense of the primacy of the artist's personal vision, Ramos Martínez's Open Air Schools redefined the nature of artistic instruction in Mexico.

Despite all the politics, the Open Air Schools flourished and Ramos Martínez was acknowledged as a true innovator in the Mexican art world and frequently called the 'Father of Modern Mexican Art'. To quote Ramón Alva de la Canal, "...the true force behind contemporary Mexican painting wasn't Diego Rivera; it was Alfredo Ramos Martínez."

Ramos Martínez' art pedagocial ideas were introduced in Japan by the Japanese painter Tamiji Kitagawa, who worked as a teacher at the Open Air Schools in Tlalpan and Taxco during the 1920s and 1930s, and became an influential figure in the liberal art education movement in postwar Japan.

While Ramos Martínez invested most of his energy in teaching and the establishment of his Open Air Schools, he also continued his own work as a painter. In 1923, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts. In 1928, Ramos Martínez married Maria de Sodi Romero of Oaxaca. 

Their daughter, Maria was born one year later, suffering from a crippling bone disease. Alfredo resigned as Director of the Academy and sought treatment for his daughter's condition. The family first traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and eventually settled in the milder climate of Los Angeles.

He had great success in California and his works were bought by many celebrities, such as Alfred Hitchcock , costume designer Edith Head, and actors Charles Laughton, Gary Cooper, and James Stewart.  

Albert Bender (art collector who was one of the leading patrons of the arts in San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s. He played a key role in the early career of Ansel Adams and was one of Diego Rivera's first American patrons. ) became a lifelong friend of the artist and acquired numerous works for his personal collection. He also purchased and donated Ramos Martínez works to several San Francisco institutions, including the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the California Historical Society, and Mills College.

In addition to his mastery of all conventional media including drawing, printmaking, watercolor, and painting, Alfredo was an extremely skilled muralist who excelled in the technically challenging art of traditional fresco painting. 

Alfredo died unexpectedly at the age of 73  in 1946, in Los Angeles. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. At the time of his death, he was working on a series of murals entitled "The Flower Vendors" at Scripps College.The unfinished murals have been preserved as a tribute to the artist. 

In recent years his genius been appreciated and his works are commanding high prices. His 1938 painting Flowers of Mexico brought over $4 million at Christie's, New York in May 2007. As with the other major Mexican modernists, indigenous peoples were the principal subjects in the mature works of Alfredo Ramos Martínez. And as much as I appreciate them, I love his work of nuns at prayer.

Images:

    Top-    Crucifixion and Nuns

    Left-    Nuns & Franciscans

    Right-  Nuns in Procession

    Left-    Friars & Nuns

    Bottom- 8 Nuns in Chapel

 

 

BEATING HEARTS

 

There is another great witness that runs through the history of faith: that of the nuns and monks, sisters and brothers who renounce themselves and who renounce the world to imitate Jesus on the path of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to intercede on behalf of all. Their lives speak for themselves, but we might ask: how can people living in monasteries help the proclamation of the Gospel? Wouldn't they do better to put their energies into the mission? Coming out of the monastery and preaching the Gospel, outside … outside the monastery?

In reality, the monks are the beating heart of the proclamation. This is curious: they are the beating heart. Their prayer is oxygen for all the members of the Body of Christ, their prayer is the invisible force that sustains the mission. It is no coincidence that the patroness of the missions is a nun, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. Let us listen to how she discovered her vocation – she wrote: “I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood it was Love alone that made the Church’s members act, that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that love comprised all vocations. … Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love .... my vocation, at last I have found it.... my vocation is love! … In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love” (Autobiographical Manuscript “B”, 8 September 1896).

Contemplatives, monks, nuns: people who pray, work, pray, in silence, for all the Church. And this is love: it is the love that is expressed by praying for the Church, working for the Church, in the monasteries.

This love for everyone inspires the life of nuns and monks, and is translated into their prayer of intercession. In this regard, I would like to offer you the example of Saint Gregory of Narek, Doctor of the Church. He is an Armenian monk, who lived around the year 1000, who left a book of prayers, in which the faith of the Armenian people, the first to embrace Christianity, is poured out; a people that, joined to the cross of Christ, has suffered so much throughout history. And Saint Gregory spent almost his entire life in the monastery of Narek. There he learned to peer into the depths of the human soul and, by fusing poetry and prayer together, marked the pinnacle of both Armenian literature and spirituality. What is most striking about him is the universal solidarity of which he is an interpreter.        

And among monks and nuns there is a universal solidarity: whatever happens in the world, finds a place in the heart, in their heart, and they pray, and they pray. The heart of monks and nuns is a heart that captures like an antenna, it picks up what happens in the world, and prays and intercedes for this. And in this way: they live in union with the Lord and with everyone. And one of them said: “I have voluntarily taken upon myself all faults, from those of the first father down to the last of his descendants, and I have held myself responsible for them”.

It is what Jesus did: they take upon themselves the problems of the world, the difficulties, the ailments, many things, and they pray for them. And these are the great evangelizers. Monasteries are … but how can they live closed up, and evangelize? It is true… because with the word, for example,  by intercession and daily work, they are a bridge of intercession for all people and all sins. They weep, even shedding tears, they weep for their sins – after all, we are all sinners – and they also weep for the sins of the world, and they pray and intercede with their hands and heart raised up.

Let us think a little of this – if I may permit myself the use of the word – “reserve” that we have in the Church: they are the true strength, the true force that carries the People of God forward, and this is where the habit comes from that people have – the People of God – of saying “Pray for me, pray for me”, when they meet a consecrated man or woman, because they know there is a prayer of intercession. It will do us good – to the extent we are able – to visit a monastery, because there one prays and works. Each one has its own rules, but their hands are always occupied: engaged in work, engaged in prayer. May the Lord give us new monasteries, may he give us new monks and nuns to carry the Church forward with their intercession.

                                                                                            Pope Francis  April 26, 2023

Images:  Top -     Alfredo Ramos Martinez- Mexico (d. 1946)

              Right-    Gwen John- Wales (d. 1939)

              Botom -  Ancadi Mas Fardevila – Spain (d. 1934)

CORONATION CROSS FROM WALES

 

The second time in my lifetime, we will have a British Coronation. King Charles III of Great Britain  was presented with a relic of the True Cross by Pope Francis  as an ecumenical gesture on the occasion of the centenary of the Anglican Church in Wales. The two fragments came from a relic preserved in the Lipsanoteca Room of the Vatican Museums.

The fragments now are under glass in the center of the coronation cross, which is made of recycled Welsh silver bullion.  King Charles III  will walk into Westminster Abbey for his coronation behind a processional cross containing the relic.  

The beautiful Cross of Wales is inscribed on the back with the words in Welsh: “Byddwch lawen. Cadwch y ffydd. Gwnewch y pethau bychain,” meaning, “Be joyful. Keep the faith. Do the little things.”  This message is part of the final sermon of St. David, the patron saint of Wales.

The cross  is made by master silversmith Michael Lloyd from the  silver b, a shaft of Welsh windfall timber and a stand of Welsh slate.  The cross will be officially received by the Church in Wales at a service to follow the Coronation. It will be shared between the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Wales. The gift of the cross was commissioned by the King, as Prince of Wales, to celebrate the centenary of the Church in Wales.

  Anglican Archbishop Andrew John of Wales blessed the cross during a service April 19.

"It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the chaos of life — or even our achievements — that we don’t always stay grounded in faith. So as the Cross of Wales makes its way into Westminster Abbey on May 6, we can take a look at its shining glory, and remember that there is so much happiness to be gained in our faith, and if we focus on all those little things, the bigger things will generally sort themselves out."

Speaking on behalf of the Catholic Church in Wales, the Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia, Mark O’Toole, said, “With a sense of deep joy we embrace this Cross...It is not only a sign of the deep Christian roots of our nation but will, I am sure, encourage us all to model our lives on the love given by our Savior, Jesus Christ."