An Easter meditation
'There is no need to worship God on Sundays - come and get killed by Baal!'
I saw this ad on the tube. (A painfully) perfect image of our world. 'Kill your soul - we entertain you to death.' Sorry, dear world, no need for complaints that you are in such a mess, terrorism, global warming, knife crime on the rise, wars, etc. You are suffering from what you have forgotten. Dear world, you are standing in place of the closed down convents, churches sold and turned to be pubs. Or to put it simply, this happens to you - when we, your inhabitants, no longer worship God on Sundays.
Mini-mirrors of Love. A playful and happy little animal, Kity the cat. Nawette's cat. Someone's cat. And this makes a big difference. In her eyes the care and love given to Kity is reflected. There is so much to learn and 'read' from this glance....
Two worlds. A harmonious scene from a Saturday walk in Golders Garden. It is in stark contrast with the lack of beauty of the damage intentionally caused by someone in the kitchenette of the church (a smashed skylight window, during the night.) The more I contemplate the two images, the more the value of Christian life and faith in God is confirmed in a tangible way. Like two icons, a positive and a negative one, they are pointing to their 'prototypes', God's infinite goodness and the denial of it. These two qualities can happen to the human soul. Just wonder, how the person's life who caused that intentional damage compares to the beauty of this mini-model of the Garden of Eden?
A collection of metaphors. This drawing depicts Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman. (It was made during our mini-Sunday school.) We can marvel at the spontaneous theological wisdom with which children are blessed. The jar has a warm colour, This forms the centre of the image. The water is given with love to the thirsty Jesus. The jar of water is glowing with life: as genuinle life is revealed to the woman. She is the 'giver', but actually, and this is what the warm colour tells us, she is the 'receiver'.
Her life, as we learn from the Gospels, was far from being perfect. Actually, in terms of personal relationship, it was a kind of sad story. Yet, the blue stream of water, embraces her. This water, the flow of endless welcome, love and repentance stems from Jesus. The blue cross on his chest shows that the water behind them is not ordinary water - but the flow of grace and life. It is not accidental that the 'dark path' of the lady ends with his arrival to Jesus.
Our congregation was intrigued by the message of the 'sharp mountains'. All of these peaks point upwards, towards Heaven. They express our determination that we want to be fine tuned to this 'heavenly vertical'. This is the house of love. Also, these mountains look like frehsly sharpened pencils! In the week ahead, all of us are called to write our part into the book of life.... into the book of compassion. Ready?
...And by the way! What can you read into the other two drawings of the same scene?
Her life, as we learn from the Gospels, was far from being perfect. Actually, in terms of personal relationship, it was a kind of sad story. Yet, the blue stream of water, embraces her. This water, the flow of endless welcome, love and repentance stems from Jesus. The blue cross on his chest shows that the water behind them is not ordinary water - but the flow of grace and life. It is not accidental that the 'dark path' of the lady ends with his arrival to Jesus.
Our congregation was intrigued by the message of the 'sharp mountains'. All of these peaks point upwards, towards Heaven. They express our determination that we want to be fine tuned to this 'heavenly vertical'. This is the house of love. Also, these mountains look like frehsly sharpened pencils! In the week ahead, all of us are called to write our part into the book of life.... into the book of compassion. Ready?
...And by the way! What can you read into the other two drawings of the same scene?
Our spiritual growth. The opening up of these flowers, metaphorically, tell us that innately all of us know and love God. The flowering and our awe together express when we 'do this love' consciously.... This flourishing is also an answer, symbolically, to the problem, raised by the Church Times (3 March), 'Can Catholics Embrace Mission'? Mission through the Eucharist is about this quiet but deep-rooted growth. Where do the roots of this plant lead us?
Revelation to a child's hands. This snowman, Nylha's drawing, is a perfect expression of our Advent expectations. I genuinely believe that this is a real masterpiece. Nay, it is a theological masterpiece! The vibrant rythm of lines and the dance of colors tell us that God's Words, with which He created the world, have remained active. They vivify our world and our personal existence. The creation of our beautiful world was a miracle. Yet sustaining this world is even a greater miracle! Our birth was a miracle enough - yet our day by day health and renewal is an even greater miracle!
16 October 2016. A moment of Annunciation. This is one of the usual moments of our Sunday worship at St Alphage. While we were praying the Angelus at the and of the Mass, as if a 'parallel event', one could contemplate this magic moment of the Annunciation. This is amazing how the piano and on top of it the flowers can tell the same story - of being greeted by the powerful Light of God. A powerful Angelus indeed.
Is there such a thing like 'a visual social history of Grahame Park'? Or, in a more modest way, what could be more expressive of the story of Saint Augustine's than Arthur's hand? The way in which he guards his little companion. Contemplating this gentle move, one gets a glimpse of how important we are to God. Like this seemingly unseen, insignificant creature - Suzy - we are important to Someone. The most important.
