Elizabeth, there is much here that I resonate with, so thank you for writing so thoughtfully about the challenges of adjusting to a break in your usual rhythm of life. What caught my attention in particular was your mention of being in a "conversation with John". For me, it's Matthew at the moment, how he portrays Jesus as the compassionate healer one minute and the fiery prophet of doom the next. It's so interesting when you consider that the gospels were penned by actual people with personal histories and thoughts about the end of the world as they knew it. There is indeed much for us to learn from them in regard to speaking and writing about the times we live in.
Oh I really like your icon, particularly that it folds and has male and female sides! I have a small ‘Madonna and child’ that I bought from an Orthodox church in Latvia on our cycle tour of the Baltic. However, I’ve not really made it work for me in practice yet. Having seen yours I might try and make myself a folding one to carry. Like you, Hildegard of Bingen has a particular resonance, partly because her music is one of the things that began to draw me back into the ‘Christian orbit’, along with later Renaissance polyphony. I also love her poetic expression ‘I am a feather on the breath of God’, that seems perfectly to coincide with the sense I get from a certain type of mindfulness meditation. I might make the male side St Francis as he is the male saint I feel most drawn to, particularly in the light of a Pope Francis that reasserts the role of humanity as ‘stewards of creation’, pushing back against ruthless exploration of man and planet.
Elizabeth, there is much here that I resonate with, so thank you for writing so thoughtfully about the challenges of adjusting to a break in your usual rhythm of life. What caught my attention in particular was your mention of being in a "conversation with John". For me, it's Matthew at the moment, how he portrays Jesus as the compassionate healer one minute and the fiery prophet of doom the next. It's so interesting when you consider that the gospels were penned by actual people with personal histories and thoughts about the end of the world as they knew it. There is indeed much for us to learn from them in regard to speaking and writing about the times we live in.
I loved this, Elizabeth. I recognised myself in the taste / appropriation comment - but that's no kind of life!
Lovely, thank you.
Oh I really like your icon, particularly that it folds and has male and female sides! I have a small ‘Madonna and child’ that I bought from an Orthodox church in Latvia on our cycle tour of the Baltic. However, I’ve not really made it work for me in practice yet. Having seen yours I might try and make myself a folding one to carry. Like you, Hildegard of Bingen has a particular resonance, partly because her music is one of the things that began to draw me back into the ‘Christian orbit’, along with later Renaissance polyphony. I also love her poetic expression ‘I am a feather on the breath of God’, that seems perfectly to coincide with the sense I get from a certain type of mindfulness meditation. I might make the male side St Francis as he is the male saint I feel most drawn to, particularly in the light of a Pope Francis that reasserts the role of humanity as ‘stewards of creation’, pushing back against ruthless exploration of man and planet.
This article makes me want to get one now. ❤️👍
I think I should paint you an icon of St Wite.
I mean I would of course have been delighted by this anyway but the first thing that came up when I googled her was this:
“Who was St Wite? Nobody knows. She is a mystery, and that is part of her power.“
So now I’m extra keen.
I wrote about her a few months ago, a little is known. I find her incredibly inspiring and mysterious.