Pollywog in a Bog

My kids' new favorite song, from one of my favorite bands.

St. Ambrose

My last post concerned the Immaculate Conception whose feast day is celebrated on my twin's birthday. I've often complained that my sister gets to be associated with the Virgin Mary while I, having been born on December 7, am forever linked to "a day that will live in infamy"--Pearl Harbor Day.

December 7 is also the feast of St. Ambrose, someone I've mocked for having been named, well, Ambrose. My friend Cory insisted that, in spite of his delicate name, Ambrose was in fact a "Bad- A" and bought me a print of a copy of the picture shown here to prove it.

This painting is called "St. Ambrose and the Emperor Theodosius" by Peter Paul Rubens*. It shows Ambrose facing down the Roman Emperor, Theodosius, after he massacred a bunch of women and children in Macedonia. St. Ambrose denied the emperor entry to the cathedral at Milan and refused to lift the emperor's excommunication until he made public penance. This might not be a bad policy to adopt with some of our more "ardent Catholic" politicians. . .

Ruben's disciple, Anthony Van Dyck, painted an almost identical painting to this one. It's this copy that I now have a matted and framed print of, thanks to Cory. I would have included it in the post, but the best version I could find had a digital watermark.

*not to be confused with Pee Wee Herman

"More Spacious Than the Heavens"

Our family had dinner at a Melkite Catholic church on Saturday night. Part of the evening included a tour of the church.

The Melkite Church is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church (they acknowledge the Pope as the head of their Church), but their liturgical traditions come from the East, not the West. Icons figure very prominently in the way they worship, especially icons of Mary, the Theotokos (the “God-bearer”).

The sanctuary of a Melkite church is very different from that of a Latin (Roman) church. Most notably, there is no crucifix behind the altar. Instead there is an icon of Mary similar to the one pictured here.

This type of Marian icon is known as Platytera, which literally means “wider” or “more spacious”. In the Eastern Church, Mary is venerated under the title, Platytera ton ouran. In English, this title is literally “more spacious than the heavens”. Mary is given this title because, unlike the heavens/universe, Mary, the Mother of God, could contain God and did for the nine months leading up to Christmas.

Yesterday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas is only 16 days away. It seems to me to be a fitting time to open our hearts to the one who was “more spacious than the heavens”. In doing so, we also welcome the One she carried within her.

The Saintmakers

The kids at Boola and Pepere's house. Thanksgiving 2008.

One Little Indian

Every year at the kids' preschool there is a Thanksgiving "play" put on by the preschoolers. It's the same thing every year. All the kids are divide into groups and deliver lines every time their characters are mentioned.

The narrator tells the story of the first Thanksgiving: there's a preacher ("Praise the Lord!"), pilgrim men ("Ahunting we will go!"), Indian men ("Brave and strong!"), turkeys ("Gobble, gobble, gobble!"), and pilgrim women ("Oh, my goodness!").

This year, our Francesca (nee' Annamaria Francesca) was spectacularly miscast as one of the Indian women concerned with keeping things quiet around their sleeping children ("Shhh! Baby sleeping!").

Cute and cuddly she is, but she couldn't sneak up on a buffalo to save her life.

BTW, the kid is much cuter than the picture.