Fleshiness.

Y'know, I think one of the biggest obstacles I've ever had with living a spiritual life is that all of my prayers and devotions have always tended toward the 'fleshy' side of the faith. The first thing I learned as an anglo-catholic is the importance of seeing catholicism as an incarnational religion. Everything in prayer, worship, and the spiritual life is a reflection of the great mystery of God becoming man, and as a newly minted Christian, I was totally and completely wrapped up in amazement at that mystery. And so were my devotions: The Sacred Heart, The Five Wounds, Christ in his passion, Our Lady of Sorrows, St.Joseph, and Mary as Mother of God. These were and are my favourite devotions and subjects for prayer.

I think it probably has a lot to do with my personal life. It's easier for me to connect with God, the Trinity, by using these profoundly real and human means. It's one thing to say that God became man. It's another to say that God cried, God had to be fed, to learn how to walk, to talk, to feed himself, to read. It's one thing to say that Mary was the mother of God. It's another to say that she taught him, loved him, wept for three days over losing him, stood proud as he grew, and suffered in silence as he died. It's one thing to say that Our Lord Jesus had a real, human family. It's another to say that he grew up working in his foster father's trade, helping his mother, suffered seeing his foster father die, and saw his mother sorrowing interior at his own death.

It all says that God is Real, and he intervened in human history, lived a real life. Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh was a real man. He had wounds. He had a heart. He had a mother. And ot some extent, devotion to these human attributes is essentially devotion to the divine. Because there is only one Christ. He is'nt split into a divine half and a human half. He is one person of two natures.It's really all very beautiful. Christ is the image of the father, the brightness of his glory. He is the one by whom we know the Father. And how was he known on earth?

New Medieval art.

I think I have some of my confidence in my art back.

But, one major problem I have with the few people I let see my work is that, and I don't mean to gloat, my style is too unique. It leaves me open to some pretty harsh criticism. I call my style 'New Gothic' or 'New Medieval'. It's really just melding my own manga style with the Gothic art of the high and late middle ages.

Sometimes it's subtle, like the picture of St.Michael I have here. The design of the armor and the words around the yellow halo are of course of medieval origin*. Other times, it's more obvious and overt, like my picture of St.Hermenegild or my picture of St.Peter Pashasius. Both are obviously gothic in design. (St.Hermenegild with the costume, as well as the patterned background and tiled floor popular for saints of that time.** St.Peter Paschasius is my version of a French miniature of St.Remigius, taken from a book of hours.)

In all of my art, I generally reference MANY pictures for help. For example, for my picture of St.Peter, I referenced the bishop saints of Van Eyeck's Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,used his painting of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Canon Joris van der Paele for the carpet, and used Van der Weyden's Miraflores altarpiece to color the chapel. And again, for St.Hermenegild, the backround fabric is a direct copy of a swath of 15th century fabric that went up for sale last year.

In the end, I think my art is well designed but usually poorly executed. I think it looks better of you understand the concepts and ideas that I put into it, so a knowledge of the art of art of the middle ages is good. Of course, I could always learn to execute designs better, but that takes far too much effort, time, and money than is available for me at this time.

And also,

My new Sacred music faves:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, Wesley

Hear my Words, Ye people ,Parry. (Mostly the setting of O Praise Ye the Lord, with the wonderful 'Amen' at the end)

Magnificat in D, Walmisley

Thou Visitest the Earth, Greene

O Thou Who Camest From above (Hereford.)

New Favourites bands:

(In no particular order)

Scatered Few
Headnoise
One Bad Pig
Crashdog.

Look them up if you don't know about them.

SAMPLE

AWESOMNESS.

Though not of the epic sort. Permission was given for some of my classmates from seminary to come to the mass this evening.

TOMORROW NIGHT,

The solemnity of the patronal feast day of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, Overbrook, West Philly.

Procession and high mass at 7:00 PM.

Music:
Hymn in procession: Immaculate Mary, (Lourdes Hymn, Arr. by Richard Proulx)
Palestrina, Missa Brevis
Palestrina, Sicut Cervus
Josef Rheinberger, Ave Maria
Recessional: Hail, all Hail, Great Queen of Heaven! (Pone luctum)
Postlude: Fantasia in G major, BWV 572

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

WHY?!

Why did they do it!?

Why did they kill off Ace?!

I can't believe it! Luffy wasted his time going to Impel Down. Ace is dead and Luffy is apparently so shocked he's gone into a coma. Whitebeard is dead too, so it looks like Blackbeard has won once for all. (Especially since he's somehow absorbed his powers.) My only consolation is that they have finally re-introduced Trafalgar Law, who I cosplayed as last year.

Dangerous Comments.

THIS.

I doubt any American bishop would ever go this far, but as I myself have said repeatedly, this is exactly what needs to be said. There's no point in letting bishops and pastors quietly ignore papal directive and the will of the faithful in deferential to their own personal wants. We're a post Vatican II church, we're supposed to have gotten rid of clericalism. I though Vatican II specifically mentioned that Pastors of souls are to be in collaboration with the clergy and the laity. Ignoring the laity because something they want goes against personal taste is NOT collaboration.

Now, I mean to disrespect no one. The bishops are still the successors of the apostles, princes of the church and worthy of our respect for the sacrality of their office. I would never reccomend that anyone ever criticise a bishop to his face on this issue. But it needs be said, and it needs be dealt with. Someone has to bring this issue up, and honestly, I would rather that priests be honest and say that they don't want to accede to people's requests for reverent liturgy rather than deny that there are requests in the face of many obvious proponents for it. When a pettition for a cathedral to have a monthly Latin mass shows up with 500 signatures, and all of them families of the cathedral parish, it's only intellectual dishonesty to say that the support does not exist.

And now,

Some Sacred music.

TEA.

I'm addicted to it. I've always had sort of a thing for tea, something that I inherited from my Anglophile older sister. But I went further than she did. I'm hardcore. I had, before coming here, at least 19 different kinds of tea at home. And I knew them all. I had favorite brands and favourite mixtures of favourite brands. For some, I even used whole leaves. (Which, by the way,really DOES taste better. Don't let the packaged tea lobby convince you otherwise.) I knew what was the best way to boil water for ea, how long to steep the different kinds, etc.

And then, High school. And like most high school kids, I had two options: 1) Soda 2) Energy drinks.
I tried a little of both. By brother went with energy drinks, I went with soda, specifically, I went with either ginger ale* or a mixture of lemonade and Sprite.

Of course, here are the monastery, we only have soda on rare occasions, so what am I to do? Withdrawal was too hard. I needed a fix. I went back to tea, and she received me with open arms.
I'm slowly building up my collection again. I was saddenned to find that two of my companies are no longer in business, and another no longr ships to the U.S. For another, I can still get it, but I'll have to make a trip to a Japanese foodmarket downtown.

But it's worth it. It's the BEST white tea I've ever had.

EPIC AWESOMENESS.

(Click for full size, In case you want to know why Thor should be muc better than Ironman, considering it has a better premise.)

Anyway, I saw a preview for this movie (The long awaited Thor movie) yesterday and I was so excited I wanted to hit someone, only my only options were my fellow postulant and an angry looking man and his girlfriend to the right, so I thought that that might not be a good idea. I kind of value being alive and all that. I did do my happy dance interiorly though. (Obviously, I wouldn't do it. It's against decorum for soon-to-be religious to dance.)

Well,anyway, I'll probably not get to see this movie, even though I was one of those weird fanboys that was circulating and discussing rumours about this online back when the second Ironman movie was still in prodution. Part of me wants there to be a Green Arrow movie too, but he's probably not considered popular enough to have his own.

Oh yes, for your entertainment, I have another image to share:
[Link]

Sometimes people are hard-headed.

Like me. I've been some form of practicing christian since 2005, and it was'nt until recent months that I relised a very simple lesson: That all of Christianity can be summed up in one word: Charity.The creation, the Passion, the resurrection and ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, all the sacraments of the church given to us, the life which everyone should live, everything is charity.

And it took me this many years to understand something that I've read umpteen times in books and heard thousands of times in homiles.

How did this happen?

I not only got more than the 4 Llamas I already had and ended up getting my Super Llama, I ended up getting my ALBINO Llama, and am close to getting my Super Albino Llama badge. :D

Also, one of my works got double-digit favourites and views already, and I piked up two watchers.

DA finally does'nt hate me as much.

It's been a while,folks.

Sorry that I kind of dropped off of the earth again. Life is busy nowadays, what with the whole religious life/seminary thing. Slowly, I'm working my family through this, which is'nt easy. When you come from a family initially formed in Jack Chick's version of Christianity, going off to join a group of priests and friars consecrated to to the Blessed Virgin is probably the craziest thing possible to do. But God Wills what he wills.

And now, a Musical Interlude.

SNOW.

Wow, we already have two snowfalls before February. It's wonderful.