Monthly Archives: September 2023

Recollected at home

A few friends and acquaintances have remarked on childhood religious customs in the home, one of them being maintaining quiet on certain occasions. Sundays, Holy Week, or the day of a significant religious event like First Communion were days for quiet play and sedate activity. No radio, no running, wrestling, shrieking or loud laughter.

My own dad tried to institute some kind of religiosity on Sundays, with quiet in the home being one feature. Staying at home was another feature, much as we wanted to go to friends’ houses to play. Our friends were mostly at morning-long church services, in any case. We substituted a lovely walk in the local nature preserve followed by a scoop of ice cream.

It was interesting to meet people later in life who had experienced a similar effort towards teaching children an appreciation for quiet and recollection. As far as I’ve ever heard it was always with a spiritual intent.

It reminds me of this episode in the life of the prophet Elijah (Elias):

From 1 Kings (3 Kings in the Vulgate):

And Achab told Jezabel all that Elias had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezabel sent a messenger to Elias, saying: Such and such things may the gods do to me, and add still more, if by this hour tomorrow I make not thy life as the life of one of them. Then Elias was afraid, and rising up he went whithersoever he had a mind: and he came to Bersabee of Juda, and left his servant there, And he went forward, one day’s journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers. And he cast himself down, and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree: and behold an angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: Arise and eat.

He looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth cake, and a vessel of water: and he ate and drank, and he fell asleep again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said to him: Arise, eat: for thou hast yet a great way to go. And he arose, and ate, and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, unto the mount of God, Horeb. And when he was come thither, he abode in a cave: and behold the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said to him: What dost thou here, Elias? And he answered: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have thrown down thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And he said to him: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passeth, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: the Lord is not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake: the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: What dost thou here, Elias? And he answered: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have destroyed thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him: Go, and return on thy way through the desert to Damascus: and when thou art come thither, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

And thou shalt anoint Jehu the son of Namsi to be king over Israel: and Eliseus the son of Saphat, of Abelmeula, thou shalt anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall escape the sword of Hazael, shall be slain by Jehu: and whosoever shall escape the sword of Jehu, shall be slain by Eliseus. And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him kissing the hands.

A joyful visit

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I love this painting of the Annunciation and Visitation for the joyfulness it carries. Not only in the bold colors but also in the comportment of Our Lady and Saint Isabel (Elizabeth).

What’s really cool about this painting is that it’s the outside of the doors of a retablo that opened above an altar.

Inside you would see the following:

This latter gives a good idea of the scale of the piece. It is in a museum, but I have not found the history of it, for which Church it was originally built and so on. It would have been quite dramatic above an altar, and candlelit.

Someone once pointed out, and it stuck with me, that traditional European sacred art was intended to be viewed in light filtered through stained glass and candlelight. And so when it is displayed in electric light, especially very bright light, you do not have the same experience. Especially in regards to candlelight, which tends to flicker and move, which makes for a certain ‘living, breathing’ quality to the images.

Ants

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Are there ants in my tea? Might be.
Are there ants in the water? What a bother.
Are there ants in the sugar? Small and big, for sure!
Watch out!
A parade of ants carries fresh fallen blossoms.
Ants with fierce bites hide in the grass.
Ants with gold bottoms explore the forest floor.
Agitated ants run mysterious zig-zags on the bathroom floor at night.
We guess the earth here is at least 60% pure ants.
But despite dad’s warning rhymes, I’ve been careful to avoid
any chance to have ants in my pants.

They’re back

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Sometime in the last year a pair of thrushes built a nest in a large fern on the varanda and raised four chicks. We enjoyed the initial lovely singing and nest building. The raising of the chicks involved more messiness and aggravated parents, who only scold and don’t sing while raising the nestlings. When the chicks had grown and flown, we tidied up the battered, half-dead fern and it regrew.

This month the same birds are back, having spent the last two weeks building a nest and singing pretty songs around it.

At our house in Connecticut a pair of birds, of a species I forget, built a nest in the same spot every year. Perhaps they weren’t always the same exact birds. The nest was on top of the bathroom exhaust fan, but despite the regular noisy use of the fan they built there anyway. It was very safe from predators.

One year a fledgling didn’t leave the nest with his brothers and sisters, but was flapping there, struggling. I climbed a ladder to see why, and his foot was entangled in some nesting material. I untangled him, but his foot was damaged from having the circulation cut off for a long time. I imagine he learned to take off and land with one foot. He flew fine.

Here are our local thrushes, pictures taken last time they nested. They are similar to the American Robin both in song and behavior. A touch more aggressive, maybe a bit larger, more muted coloration. They’ll eat anything when nesting – fruit, seeds, insects… I hide the feeding station around the corner so other birds can eat, too, out of their site.