the orient and the occident

don't you just love the sound of those words
I remember discovering them way back
in the readings from my favorite class "world cultures"
...history...

and I re-read them yesterday for the first time in years
in the writings on the wall
of the exhibit we visited

east and west
the occident and the orient

driving into the sun this morning
            going
and into the sun tonight
            coming back

I turned a corner yesterday
and saw these glistening in the sun
after another week of rain
I had to pull off the road



I came around the same corner again this morning
and I had to pull over again





the same little mushrooms in the morning sun and fog
one of the many things I love about autumn

froggy, doggy, whaley...mornings
I don't have the ability to capture the beauty of God's creation
new every morning
but sometimes it takes my breath away

mushrooms shining like precious jewels
with His sun that He makes rise on the evil and the good
and His rain that falls on the just and on the unjust
           Matthew 5:45

rays shining thru the clouds
have always been acknowledged as the visible
presence of God
in our family...
we'll be drving down the road and the sun will burst thru
and someone will say "there's God..."

THE year is at the spring,

     (well, it's autumn?!?!?)

And day is at the morn;

Morning is at seven;

The hill-side is dew-pearl'd;

The lark is on the wing;

The snail is on the thorn;

God is in His heaven—

All is right with the world!

             Robert Browning

Our women's group went on an excursion
ten women
treat bags distributed as we piled into
three vehicles
to the Smithsonian in the strip district

one of only three cities in the US
to house the traveling Vatican Splendors exhibit



at the 'birthday luncheon' at Lidia's afterward
we couldn't help but share what we had learned

"that by the time Michaelangelo was 30 he had sculpted
the Pieta (@24) and David"
"that it took 127 years (the years of the Reformation)
and 21 popes to build St. Peter's Basilica"
"that the selling of indulgences was part of the 'fund-raising'
     for the building fund!"
"that St. Paul was never a follower of Jesus while on earth"

sharing the many dimensions to our own faith journeys

I loved how they organized the many items of the exhibit
categorically as well as thematically and chronologically
I'm sure it was a huge project
I love how it all says and becomes 'art'

artifacts

'rocks'

relics

architecture...

plans

icons

frescos

mosaics

calligraphy

paintings

Greek

Roman

Medieval

Renaissance

Baroque

Neo-classical

modern

maps

sculpture

cathedra

chasubles

ciboriums

monstrnaces

patens

and chalices

but what I learned...
and my favorite thing
was about this tiny little spoon
with an image of
one of Raphael's Sistine Madonna's angels

the one with his little head propped in his hand












the placard said the spoon was used to add a few drops of water
to the wine at the consecration of the Eucharist
the water represents 'the people'
the wine 'Christ'
and the two become one
"when the water is mingled in the cup with wine,
the people [are] made one with Christ,
 and the assembly of believers is associated and conjoined
with Him on whom it believes;
which association and conjunction of water and wine
is so mingled in the Lord's cup,
that that mixture cannot any more be separated."
                St. Justin Martyr mentions this practice
                in his Apology @  150 ad
                a century later St. Cyprian wrote on this theme
                in an epistle against a splinter group
                that used only water in their celebrations

everyday...something new