Los Viejecitos de Madrid

I have a new life goal, inspired by this lovely photo from artist/friend Claira le Marchand, taken by Vittoria Fontana (where were we? Parque del Oeste? No, I guess it was Casa de Campo. I think it was in May when we had a picnic in the park.)

I'd love to wind up like these old people some day. They live life at such a slow pace compared to how I live mine. They walk everywhere, or ride the bus (cars are expensive, driver's licenses are a nightmare to obtain compared to America, and the metro is for young folks with good knees who don't mind lots of stairs and rushing around the city via dark, underground tunnels). While they walk, the men whistle or mutter to themselves about the world around them, and they clasp their hands behind their backs in a way that reminds me of something out of the nineteenth century. Often, they walk as couples. It's amazing how many old couples wander the streets together, hand in hand, or arm in arm. They are just adorable, people!

Really, they walk incredibly slowly. I was constantly rushing past them at breakneck speed. A friend remarked to me that the old people simply cannot walk fast any more, even if they needed to. Sometimes they need canes or a friendly arm for support. I didn't need anyone. They look around casually; I looked forward. I had places to be, people to see, all on a tight schedule with marginal time for continually getting myself from point to point.

What else do I admire about them? Their dignity, maybe. This generation in Spain saw the horrors of a bloody civil war and the Second World War, a brutal dictatorship that lasted for decades, and the shock of a moral and sexual revolution that arrived with postmodernism 20 years later than in the rest of the Western world. Yet here they sit, enjoying the sun. That's resilient humanity for you.

Looking forward to the days when I'll be able to walk a little slower. Not yet, of course. But I hope that, when I do get there, I'll enjoy it.

That is all!

Lenten Readings

I love these trees. So glad I'm in Tennessee to see them bloom this year. I did miss them last spring.

If last year was the first time I really appreciated the cycles of the Christian liturgical calendar, then this year is the first time I'm actually fasting from something for Lent. Something a little too near and dear: desserts. It's day three and I'm already better for it.
Just some good reading for the first week of Lent:

Isaiah 58 (A mix of NIV 2011 and NLT)
6 “This is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
And if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Deuteronomy 8 (NIV and ESV)
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you, [but] to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.


A Good Source of Spiritual Readings for Lent

Travel Wishlist: St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai

I guess Egypt isn't the best place for Western travelers at the moment, but I think it'd be super awesome to visit St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai.

Sunrise from Mt. Sinai. Wow, God.





Here's the Virgin and Child with angels and Sts. George and Theodore.

The monastery also has the oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator.
Crap, people, you can even see a descendant of THE burning bush.





The Ladder of Divine Ascent
This painting is particularly significant to me on a symbolic level.


Some day. I will get there (that can be left ambiguous. Hopefully I will both visit the monastery and make it to heaven).


http://www.sacred-destinations.com/egypt/sinai-monastery

A Prayer before Study

Prayer is so essential to my writing process. Again, I just love this:

A Prayer before Study

by St. Thomas Aquinas

Ineffable Creator,

Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom,

has established three hierarchies of angels,

has arrayed them in marvelous order

above the fiery heavens,

and has marshaled the regions

of the universe with such artful skill,

You are proclaimed

the true font of light and wisdom,

and the primal origin

raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness

into the darkened places of my mind;

disperse from my soul

the twofold darkness

into which I was born:

sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.

Refine my speech

and pour forth upon my lips

the goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me

keenness of mind,

capacity to remember,

skill in learning,

subtlety to interpret,

and eloquence in speech.

May You

guide the beginning of my work,

direct its progress,

and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man,

Who live and reign, world without end.

Amen

[Raccolta #764, Pius XI Studiorum Ducem, 1923]

List of Things To Do if I ever get thrown into a 6' cell in a dungeon in Toledo for 9 months like St. John of the Cross

Assuming that the Friar guarding my cell, like the one who was so extravagantly kind to St. John, smuggles me pieces of paper and something to write with. And, excepting any mystical ecstasy that makes me only want to rewrite Song of Songs in impassioned vernacular Spanish, this is what I hope I would do:

1. Get really good at drawing my own hand while holding the writing utensil. Then get equally practiced drawing with the left hand.
2. Memorize the multiplication tables, perhaps through 100, depending on my inclination and attention span. Jail is hard on you, so I don't want to set the bar too high.
3. Sing a lot, but in a kind of exploratory ramble, the way 4-yr-olds do. Topics to cover: happy memories of when I wasn't imprisoned, leading to expressions of how I feel during the purgative experience while my soul is perfected in anticipation of mystical union with Jesus.
4. Finish my honors thesis.

http://carmelitesofeldridge.org/juan3.html