Betty watches the noon Mass at the Basilica of National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception every Sunday. This is after we watch the Saint Cecilia Mass from Boston at 9:30. I usually listen to the music from my office. Both the music and the photography appeal to Betty. The Shrine has been an important part of my life. In childhood we visited D.C. regularly (The shrine was just the crypt church then) I lived in D.C. for a year during the Carter administration when I did my postdoctoral residency in program evaluation at Saint Elizabeth Hospital (then a part of NIMH) I used to go there for Saturday evening Mass.
Today at the end of the Mass, they dedicated a new outdoor Way of the Cross
I like the shape of the garden which echoes much of the Basilica. The brief blessing service was obviously well choreographed and rehearsed. I think the woman in the wheelchair is likely the donor or at least a near relative. The whole Mass was broadcast on EWTN.
Interspersed with the video feed were stills of the stations themselves.
The service is only fifteen minutes long at 1:35 out of 1:50 minutes in this YouTube video:
The procession is accompanied by the bell ringing and you can see most if not all the stations.
I did not watch the Mass but did one of my current projects which integrates Betty's art with my photographs. As part of making a collage, Betty makes a couple hundred pieces of paper with various designs. They themselves are beautiful works of art. Before she cuts them up I photograph them and then integrate them with my photos.
For Lent I feature photographs of driftwood that collect on the shore of Headlands Beach State Part. I see this deadwood on the sands (echo of deserts) and near the water (echo of sea of Galilee and baptism) as dead life ready to be transfigured into art. My series in previous years has consisted of minimal transformations, cutting, orienting and minimal cleanup of picture. Betty's art offers the possibility of surrounding the driftwood with a transforming cloud.
There are three Icons (Pictures) in the post, one at the top, one before the optional readings and one before the Gospel Canticle. In my desktop computer using the Windows Edge browser if you click on any of the icons it displays it full page with a toggle at the bottom to move among them.
Betty is much improved. She is off the opioid caliber pain relief that was necessary for over a year and now can drive again! (I never understood how long, tedious and painful that process is; no wonder people become addicted to them). Very good news for me, since I no longer have to drive her places. Also, she is no longer traumatized by the grief. I credit most of that to Betty's artwork. When I met her, she was finishing an art therapy degree with hope to going into that field. At that time art therapists had hoped to have legislation making them independent practitioners. That never happened; doctors were too powerful. At least Betty has benefitted from her own art therapy.
ADDITIONAL LAETARE SUNDAY NEWS
We should always praise the rich, the famous and the powerful when they do good things just as we should praise our clergy, the bishops and pope when they do go things. We should however not be complacent about anyone virtue, especially our own.
Last year's Laetare Award went to:
She is another descendent of a wealthy family dedicated to the public good and the good of others that has made the family tradition into her own contributions. We don't want discourage wealthy people from these good endeavors. In fact we should pray for them since Jesus himself told us that it would be very difficult for them to get into the Kingdom of Heaven
Jack, I am so glad to hear that Betty is doing better!
ReplyDeleteI did watch the video of the procession and the outdoor Stations. It looks like they have beautiful grounds at the Shrine. I liked the "change ringing" of the bells with the procession.
I'm very impressed with yours and Betty's collaborative art. My favorite is the first picture with the blue mosaic tiles and the driftwood.
I always love the rose vestments for Laetare Sunday. I wore a pink sweater to Mass myself yesterday. Easter is a bit early this year, so late Lenten weather is unpredictable. We had spring like weather last week with one beautiful 74° day. But yesterday winter was back with a blast. Came out of 11:00 am Mass to 19° and 35 mph wind, and swept a bit of snow off the car. The unpleasant days make us appreciate the good ones! It appears that DC had favorable weather for the procession.
Fortunate that they had the procession yesterday. Today they are sending kids home from school at noon because the weather forecast for this afternoon and evening says possible hurricane winds (60-80 mph), thunderstorms, hail, trees down etc. I don’t ever remember them closing schools early in advance of bad weather unless a blizzard is forecast! We had an 86 degree day last week. It will be high 60s today and high of 40 tomorrow.
DeleteYes, glad to hear Betty is doing some better and is more mobile.
DeleteHoping the storms might help douse your wildfires, Katherine.
March is the worst month in Michigan, and is either more violent than it used to be, or I am old and feel more vulnerable about bad weather.
Fortunately, we live in a "sweet spot" in the middle of the state, so we usually miss the ice storms to the north and the tornados to the south.
Last I heard the fires were mostly under control. What we really need is some rain.
DeleteIt is good news that Betty is doing better. It’s a blessing that she has such artistic talent. I think that music and art are very healing activities. She is talented in both areas - a gift always, but especially important in healing - emotional and spiritual.
ReplyDeleteHappy St Patrick's Day. The Old English Martyrology celebrated St P more than 1,200 years ago:
ReplyDeleteOn ðone seofonteoðan dæg ðæs monðes byð Sancte Patrices tyd ðæs halgan bisceopes, se gelærde ða mægðe to geleafan Hiebernia, þæt is Scotta mægðe. His fæder nama wæs Calpurne, and his modor nama wæs Contablata. And he sylf wæs on hundteontigum geara and on an and ðrytegum ða he his gast ageaf. And ær ðam ðe he come on Scotta mægðe, ða cyld clypedon and cwædon: "Cum, Sancte Patrice, and gehæle us ec."
On the seventeenth day of the month is St Patrick's feast, that holy bishop St Patrick, who instructed in the faith Hibernia, the land of the Gaels. His father’s name was Calpurnius, and his mother’s name was Contablata. And he himself was 131 years old when he gave up the ghost. And before he came to the land of the Gaels, the children had called and said: ‘Come, St Patrick, and heal us too’.
The things that look like the letter "d" with a cross stand for "th." It's a letter still used in Scandinavian languages.
Patrick's parents' names suggest he was thought to have had a Roman father and British mother. Certainly the Welsh have claimed him, and there were Romans still in Britain at the time of Patrick's birth.
The Martyrology contains a number of Irish saints, testimony to the fact that the Anglo-Saxons had deep roots in the Celtic Church, which pre-dated the Roman Church's mission in the north and west.
Nothing about snakes ...
Happy St. Patrick's Day to you as well!
DeleteI don't know if this is true or not, but I was reading that his father was a deacon, and his grandfather was a priest (this would have been before mandatory celibacy).
There are a lot of St. Patrick legends. My favorite is the one where their enemies who were pursuing them saw Patrick and his followers as deer, and went on by. Hence one title of the prayer known as St. Patrick's Breastplate or the Lorica is The Cry of the Deer.
I was able to pick out a few identifiable words and phrases in that Old English example (or was it early Middle English?)
My husband wants something Irish for dinner. I can't stand the smell or the taste of corned beef, so it will be roast beef and colcannon. And some green frosted cookies I picked up yesterday.
About the snakes, I saw a cartoon one time of St. Patrick driving out the snakes. He was driving a car and the snakes were in the back seat saying "Aren't we there yet?"
DeleteI don't think there ever were any snakes in Ireland. Lucky them!
The other Irish saints are interesting too. I was thinking of a poem attributed to St. Brigid, beginning "I would I had a great lake of ale for the King of Kings..." Probably apocryphal.
It's old English, but the Martyrology is pretty easy reading. Yes, the deer story has a lot of reverb in Celtic folklore.
DeleteMy Icelandic friend posted that there were never snakes in Ireland or Iceland. Somebody asked, "Did St Patrick go there, too?" Lots of genetic studies on native Icelanders show that they are roughly half Irish. So those old sagas about the Vikings stealing off with Irish women when they settled up there have some factual basis.
I read the Lake of Beer prayer at my parents' memorial service.