Consolation

Lucien Jonas (1880-1947)
Consolation (c.1905)
Oil on canvas
210.4, x 275 cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes

After this painting was executed, Lucien Jonas was mobilized in December of 1914 and in February of 1915 was offically accredited as 'military painter secunded to the Musée de l'Armée' in Paris.

During the war he travelled extensively along all sections of the front lines and produced thousands of drawings, oil paintings, charcoals, sketches and illustrations of all kinds.

His work was reproduced in the media of course and published in a multitude of magazines and books worldwide.

From the start of the war, the work of Lucien Jonas was quite sombre and bleak, full of pathos, suffering and religious symbolism combined with a fierce patriotism and love of France.

In these times, his style appears at times to be heavy-handed and overly sentimental and over emotional.

For more about Jonas and his war time paintings, see Pathos, Patriotism & Religion:Lucien Hector Jonas


Some of his war illustrations are below. One does wonder as to what kind of painter he would have turned out to be and what he would have produced if it had not been for the First World War.

Mourning

Jules Charles Boquet 1840 -1932
Le Deuil (1903) (Mourning)
Oil on Canvas
184.5 x 146.4 cm
Musée des beaux-arts, Rouen

Hope: an Encounter With Love

Zenit has published a short commentary on Benedict XVI's encyclical "Spe Salvi". It is written by Legionary of Christ Father Juan Pablo Ledesma, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university.

"The two wings with which the human spirit arises toward the contemplation of truth, taught John Paul II, are faith and reason. Using an image of St. Isidore of Seville, we can describe in a stroke the content of this second encyclical of our Benedict XVI. Hope is "the foot" one uses to advance toward future goods. The opposite is despair. And the one without feet despairs.

Throughout the whole of the encyclical the question arises always new and always current: Why do we hope? The image of the path, of the foot, synthesizes and crystallizes the integral vision of Christian hope that Benedict XVI offers us, because hope and salvation are inseparable.

I am astonished in the first place at his theological intuition in order not to enclose hope in the chains of a conceptual or static definition. On the contrary, he presents hope in its dynamism, in a personalized, comprehensible form, and in open and current dialogue with everyone.

Perhaps the most original aspect of this encyclical is the fact that it demonstrates hope in its integrity, embracing all spheres.

First, it addresses time, including the past, the present and the future, looking toward eternal life.

Then, it talks of the various schools where one can attain hope: prayer; action, because all serious and right action of man is hope in act; suffering, and here it's fitting to point out how suffering forms part of human existence and constitutes his greatness.

Additionally, God is joined to and is near to our pain. Christianity teaches that God -- truth and love in person -- participates in and joins our suffering, because he wanted to suffer for us and with us. Citing St. Bernard, Benedict XVI says, "God cannot suffer, but He can suffer with."

The Pope also speaks of hope in connection with the Final Judgment. Souls have hope of salvation in the resurrection of the body. The image of the Final Judgment is not a terrifying image, but an image of hope in Christ, our advocate.

Hope develops itself in two dimensions, like the two arms of a cross: They do not stay in themselves, but project themselves into the other, like salvation or sin, which are not individual. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one redeems himself alone.

That vision of Benedict XVI stands out in close relation and interaction between virtues and life. Faith is not only a tending of the person toward what is to come, and that is already totally absent; faith gives us something. Between the lines, the reader can summon those thoughts which the then professor Joseph Ratzinger taught in his "Introduction to Christianity": a faith that is hope, which places its trust in God the Father, who can neither be deceived nor deceive us.

The hope to which Benedict XVI invites us is personal, because it is born of the encounter with a person, who is love, truth, liberty. In a word: God. A hope revealed and witnessed by the first Christians.

It is thrilling to reread this encyclical through the prism of false hopes: from the revolutionary ideas of Barabbas and Bar Kokhba, the subjugation to fatal destiny, the unsuccessful attempts of the French Revolution to establish the dominion of reason and of liberty, the Europe of the Enlightenment, the false idea of human progress, up to the disastrous consequences of the Marxist errors, forgetting that man is always man.

Hope, therefore, transforms all personal, social and religious spheres. Christian hope is invoked in a prayer to Mary, the "Star of the Sea," which shines above us and guides us on our path; a path that should be run with the feet of hope."

Mass at Sea

Louis Duveau 1818 - 1867
Une messe en mer, 1793 (1864) [A Mass at Sea, 1793]
Oil on Canvas
187 H ; 350 L cm
Musée des beaux-arts, Rennes

Throughout his career , Duveau referred often to the history of Brittany in his works.

Here the scene refers to the religious fervour of the Bretons during the French Revolution.

During the period, churches in Brittany were destroyed and rendered unsafe for the celebration of the Mass.

The sombreness of the colours matches the anxious faces of the congregation.

Jacob and the Angel

Odilon Redon. (French, 1840-1916).
Jacob and the Angel. c. 1907.
Oil on board, 18 1/2 x 16 5/16" (47 x 41.6 cm).
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Rodin and the Pope

Auguste Rodin, 1840 - 1917
Pope Benedict XV
Conceived 1915; cast 1926
Cast by the founder Alexis Rudier, Paris.
Bronze
9 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches (24.1 x 17.1 x 24.8 cm)
Rodin Museum, Philadelphia

Auguste Rodin (France, Paris, 1840 - 1917)
Portrait of Pope Benedict XV, first modelled 1915, this cast 1971 (Musée Rodin 7/12)
Sculpture, Bronze, 9 1/2 x 8 x 10 in. (24.13 x 20.32 x 25.40 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Auguste Rodin`s (1840-1917) fame as a sculptor and the notoriety of his personal life have frequently been described and analysed in a vast body of literature. He is regarded as the foremost sculptor of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the last years of his life, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was hailed as a magician and miracle worker, poet and philosopher, sublime genius, and master sculptor. By 1900, Rodin was already considered to be France's greatest living artist.

He married Rose Beuret, his longtime companion, in 1917, three weeks before her death. Rodin died ten months later.

In 1862 Rodin's sister, Marie-Louise, died and Rodin entered the religious order of the Pères du Très Saint-Sacrement. However in 1863 he left the religious order.

Pope Benedict XV served as Pope from 1914 to 1922. He adopted a strict policy of neutralityduring World War I

Rodin travelled to Rome in1914, but the Pope never had time to sit for him.

When the sculptor returned in 1915, Rodin sculpted a Bust of Pope Benedict XV during the trip . Although Rodin had asked for twelve sittings, the Pope refused to continue after three sessions and would not allow Rodin to see him in profile or from above. Instead, he proposed Rodin should copy a bust made by the Austrian sculptor Count Lipai.

Back in Paris, Rodin complained to Renoir, the Pope had not given him a chance even to look at his holy ear.

Bretons Praying

Dagnan-Bouveret, Pascal-Adolphe-Jean
(January 7, 1852 - July 3rd, 1929)
Bretons praying, 1888
Oil on canvas
124x85cm
Private collection

Le pain bénit

Léon Henri Antoine Loire, 1821-1898
Paris (France) 1821 - Paris (France) 1898
Le pain bénit 1859
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France


Dagnan-Bouveret, Pascal-Adolphe-Jean
(January 7, 1852 - July 3rd, 1929)
Le Pain Bénit 1885
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

After an intense mytical experience, Dagnan-Bouveret painted little but religious subjects.

It is only later in his career, first in the mid 1880s and then more dramatically in the 1890s, that Dagnan turned to religious themes.

These became increasingly more visionary and supernatural during the early years of the 20th century.

Spiritual themes reflected Dagnan's determined turn toward religious revivalism, a genre that obsessed many painters in the 1890s.

It also reflected the powerful influence of his wife whose own devout Catholicism was influential in moving Dagnan toward some of his religious themes.

Dagnan's spiritual paintings found strong support in the atmosphere of the Catholic Revival in France

Interior of the Sistine Chapel

Léon Bonnat (1833-1922)
Intérieur de la Chapelle Sixtine [Interior of the Sistine Chapel] (1870s)
Oil on canvas
H. 45.5; W. 59 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

This almost deserted and nearly touristy vision of one of the highlights of the Vatican (the decoration of which is barely suggested) is swiftly brushed in a narrow range of colours.

There is only a single female figure sitting in the foreground near the left-hand edge of the painting, facing the viewer.

This woman, probably Mrs Kann with whom the painter travelled to Italy, is adjusting her
lorgnette to look more closely at the decoration or perhaps at the painter who was busy sketching this curious moment.

Cardinal Charles Lavigerie

BONNAT Léon
(Bayonne, 1833 ; Monchy-Saint-Eloi, 1922)
Cardinal Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie (1825–1892) 1888
Oil on canvas
239 H ; 164 L cm
Musée national du château et des Trianons, Versailles

Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie (31 October 1825–26 November 1892) was a French cardinal, archbishop of Carthage and Algiers and primate of Africa.

In 1856, he accepted the direction of the schools of the East, and was thus for the first time brought into contact with the Islamic world.

Cest lit, he wrote, que J'ai connu enfin ma vocation.

Activity in missionary work, especially in alleviating the distresses of the victims of the Druzes, soon brought him prominently into notice.

Lavigerie landed in Africa on the 11th of May 1868, when the great famine was already making itself felt, and he began in November to collect the orphans into villages

In 1874 he founded the Sahara and Sudan mission, and sent missionaries to Tunis, Tripoli, East Africa and the Congo. The order of African missionaries thus founded, for which Lavigerie himself drew up the rule, has since then become famous under various translations of the French Pères Blancs or White Fathers, after the white Arab dress they wore.

Their official name is La Société de Missionnaires d'Afrique (Society of Missionaries for Africa).

Religion in Rome 1812-1814

HAUDEBOURT-LESCOT Antoinette Cécile Hortense (Paris, 1784 ; Paris, 1845)
LE BAISEMENT DES PIEDS DANS LA BASILIQUE DE SAINT-PIERRE A ROME 1812
Oil on canvas
H. 148, l. 196 ; H. 182.5, l. 230
Fontainebleau ; Musée national du château

HAUDEBOURT-LESCOT Antoinette Cécile Hortense (Paris, 1784 ; Paris, 1845)
LA CONFIRMATION PAR UN EVEQUE GREC DANS LA BASILIQUE DE SAINTE AGNES HORS LES MURS A ROME 1814
Oil on canvas
Musée des beaux-arts, Rouen

Gaudium et Spes

"[W]hen man gives himself to the various disciplines of philosophy, history and of mathematical and natural science, and when he cultivates the arts, he can do very much to elevate the human family to a more sublime understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty, and to the formation of considered opinions which have universal value.

Thus mankind may be more clearly enlightened by that marvelous Wisdom which was with God from all eternity, composing all things with him, rejoicing in the earth, delighting in the sons of men.

In this way, the human spirit, being less subjected to material things, can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the Creator. Moreover, by the impulse of grace, he is disposed to acknowledge the Word of God, Who before He became flesh in order to save all and to sum up all in Himself was already "in the world" as "the true light which enlightens every man" (John 1:9-10). "

From Chapter II, The Proper Development of Culture [Paragraph 57] of Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World

Confessional

Ernest Hillemacher (French, 1818-1887)
A Confessional in St Peters, Rome on Easter Sunday 1847
Oil on canvas
H. 0.685 ; L. 1.05 metres
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Philosophers and Shepherds

Good Shepherd Sarcophagus, from the Catacomb of Praetextatus, Rome,
Late AD 4th century
Marble
Lateran museum (later moved to Pio Cristiano Museo).

Jonah and Philosopher,
Sarcophagus from S. Maria Antiqua, Rome,
3rd century A.D.

In Spe Salvi, to illustrate his points, Pope Benedict XVI used the examples of the sculptures of philsophers and sculptures on Roman age Christian sarcophaghi:

It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God who governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person.

And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free. In ancient times, honest enquiring minds were aware of this.

Heaven is not empty. Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love.

The sarcophagi of the early Christian era illustrate this concept visually—in the context of death, in the face of which the question concerning life's meaning becomes unavoidable.

The figure of Christ is interpreted on ancient sarcophagi principally by two images: the philosopher and the shepherd.

Philosophy at that time was not generally seen as a difficult academic discipline, as it is today. Rather, the philosopher was someone who knew how to teach the essential art: the art of being authentically human—the art of living and dying. To be sure, it had long since been realized that many of the people who went around pretending to be philosophers, teachers of life, were just charlatans who made money through their words, while having nothing to say about real life. All the more, then, the true philosopher who really did know how to point out the path of life was highly sought after.

Towards the end of the third century, on the sarcophagus of a child in Rome, we find for the first time, in the context of the resurrection of Lazarus, the figure of Christ as the true philosopher, holding the Gospel in one hand and the philosopher's travelling staff in the other. With his staff, he conquers death; the Gospel brings the truth that itinerant philosophers had searched for in vain.

In this image, which then became a common feature of sarcophagus art for a long time, we see clearly what both educated and simple people found in Christ: he tells us who man truly is and what a man must do in order to be truly human. He shows us the way, and this way is the truth. He himself is both the way and the truth, and therefore he is also the life which all of us are seeking. He also shows us the way beyond death; only someone able to do this is a true teacher of life.

The same thing becomes visible in the image of the shepherd.

As in the representation of the philosopher, so too through the figure of the shepherd the early Church could identify with existing models of Roman art. There the shepherd was generally an expression of the dream of a tranquil and simple life, for which the people, amid the confusion of the big cities, felt a certain longing. Now the image was read as part of a new scenario which gave it a deeper content: “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want ... Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, because you are with me ...” (Ps 23 [22]:1, 4).

The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; one who walks with me even on the path of final solitude, where no one can accompany me, guiding me through: he himself has walked this path, he has descended into the kingdom of death, he has conquered death, and he has returned to accompany us now an.d to give us the certainty that, together with him, we can find a way through.

The realization that there is One who even in death accompanies me, and with his “rod and his staff comforts me”, so that “I fear no evil” (cf. Ps 23 [22]:4)—this was the new “hope” that arose over the life of believers

Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon (April 22, 1840 – July 6, 1916)
Saint Jean / Saint John
1892
Pastel over charcoal, 42.5 x 29 cm
Private collection

Redon was a Symbolist painter and printmaker, born in Bordeaux.

Until he was in his fifties he worked almost exclusively in black and white, in charcoal drawings and lithographs.

In these he developed a highly distinctive repertoire of weird subjects (strange amoeboid creatures, insects, and plants with human heads and so on), influenced by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe.

He remained virtually unknown to the public until the publication of J.K. Huysmans's celebrated novel A Rebours in 1884. The book's hero, a disenchanted aristocrat who lives in a private world of perverse delights, collects Redon's drawings, and with his mention in this classic expression of decadence, Redon too became associated with the movement.

During the 1890s Redon turned to painting and revealed remarkable powers as a colourist that had lain dormant.

Much of his early life had been unhappy, but after undergoing a religious crisis in the early 1890s and a serious illness in 1894-95, he was transformed into a much more buoyant and cheerful personality, expressing himself in radiant colors in mythological scenes and flower paintings.

Hope II

Gustav Klimt. (Austrian, 1862-1918).
Hope, II. 1907-08.
Oil, gold, and platinum on canvas, 43 1/2 x 43 1/2" (110.5 x 110.5 cm).
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

A pregnant woman bows her head and closes her eyes, as if praying for the safety of her child. Peeping out from behind her stomach is a death's head, sign of the danger she faces.

At her feet, three women with bowed heads raise their hands, presumably also in prayer—although their solemnity might also imply mourning, as if they foresaw the child's fate.

Philosopher Comments on Theme of New Encyclical

Monsignor Robert Sokolowski, a philosophy professor at Catholic University of America, explained in Zenit about the theological virtue of hope, the theme of the Pope`s recent Encyclical.

""St. Thomas Aquinas," said the priest, "has some wonderful remarks about hope. He points out that it deals with goods that have two features: They are possible to attain, but they are difficult."

Monsignor Sokolowski continued: "If something is impossible to attain, we do not hope for it. We might wish we could reach it, but our wishing is forlorn and resigned; we know we cannot attain that particular good.

"On the other hand, if the thing in question is possible and easy to attain, again we do not hope for it; we just go ahead and do it or obtain it. I do not hope that I will have lunch today; unless I am in some very desperate situation, I just have lunch."

Informed by faith

"Now, the theological virtue of hope is directed to our salvation and the beatific vision, to our life with God," explained Monsignor Sokolowski. "It is the theological virtue of faith that discloses this possibility to us."

He added: "Faith reveals to us the truth that God has redeemed us in the death and resurrection of Christ, and that this has made it possible and thinkable that we should become affiliated in the life of the Holy Trinity.

"We share in the sonship of Christ. The faith of the Church shows us that our destiny is not just to live in this world and in our human community, but to share in God's life. So this life becomes possible.

"But it is obviously difficult; in fact, it is not only difficult but impossible for us by ourselves. Our salvation has to be God's work, and so we call it the work of grace. We hope not in ourselves but in God. And yet, although salvation is God's work and his grace, it does become ours as his gift."

Not optimism

"This theological virtue of hope is different from optimism," said Monsignor Sokolowski, making a distinction, "which is a more mundane kind of attitude, one in which we expect that 'things will turn out all right, after all.' This is not a bad disposition, even though it may at times be quite unrealistic."

"Also," he added, "there can be such things as a worldly hope, say, in human nature; we might think that if you let people exercise their freedom, they will, in the long run, use it well and for the common benefit. This would be the kind of hope behind the idea that a 'democracy' or a republic is better for human affairs in the long run, because more people contribute more talents to the common effort."

"Theological hope is a confidence not in human nature but in God, and not in regard to human flourishing but to eternal salvation," said the professor.

"It presupposes the virtue of faith, which is the acceptance of the truth of God's word, which opens up to us the dimension in which hope itself is possible," Monsignor Sokolowski added.

"Hope in turn leads to charity, in which we respond to God's love for us by loving him and by exercising charity toward one another, in the kind of friendship that grace alone makes possible."

The Raising of Lazarus

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Holland, Leiden, 1606 - 1669)
The Raising of Lazarus, circa 1630
Painting, Oil on panel, 37 15/16 x 32 in. (96.36 x 81.28 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Raising of Lazarus is Rembrandt's only painting of this miracle marking the culmination of Christ's ministry, but he also made drawings and etchings of the same subject.

Christ's divine and human nature is revealed as he stands in the cave where Lazarus was buried, his hand raised to perform the miracle, his face filled with apprehension and triumph.

Sermón soporífero

Fernando Cabrera Cantó
1866 - 1937
Sermón soporífero
Oil on canvas 102 x 79 cm
El Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, San Pío V

Hope and Sufferance

Hope and Sufferance
by
Peter Howson
Pastel
20'' x 26''

Spe Salvi: A Digression on Slavery ?

Saint Josephine Bakhita

On the day before he issued his Encyclical Spe Salvi, the Pope replied to an open letter sent by 138 Muslim scholars to Benedict XVI and Christian leaders. For the text of his reply,see here in Zenit. The text repeatedly refers to the need for dialogue on the basis of mutual tolerance and respect.

It is noteworthy and perhaps not without coincidence, that in his Encyclical, the Pope makes more than a passing reference to Sudan and the institution of slavery.

In Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict uses the example of Saint Josephine Bakhita to illustrate what is meant by Christian "hope". He says:

"[A]t this point a question arises: in what does this hope consist which, as hope, is “redemption”?

The essence of the answer is given in the phrase from the Letter to the Ephesians quoted above: the Ephesians, before their encounter with Christ, were without hope because they were “without God in the world”. To come to know God—the true God—means to receive hope. We who have always lived with the Christian concept of God, and have grown accustomed to it, have almost ceased to notice that we possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God.

The example of a saint of our time can to some degree help us understand what it means to have a real encounter with this God for the first time. I am thinking of the African Josephine Bakhita, canonized by Pope John Paul II. She was born around 1869—she herself did not know the precise date—in Darfur in Sudan. At the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled; as a result of this she bore 144 scars throughout her life.

Finally, in 1882, she was bought by an Italian merchant for the Italian consul Callisto Legnani, who returned to Italy as the Mahdists advanced.

Here, after the terrifying “masters” who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of “master”—in Venetian dialect, which she was now learning, she used the name “paron” for the living God, the God of Jesus Christ. Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there is a “paron” above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her—that he actually loved her. She too was loved, and by none other than the supreme “Paron”, before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited. What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her “at the Father's right hand”. Now she had “hope” —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”

Through the knowledge of this hope she was “redeemed”, no longer a slave, but a free child of God. She understood what Paul meant when he reminded the Ephesians that previously they were without hope and without God in the world—without hope because without God. Hence, when she was about to be taken back to Sudan, Bakhita refused; she did not wish to be separated again from her “Paron”.

On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice. On 8 December 1896, in Verona, she took her vows in the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters and from that time onwards, besides her work in the sacristy and in the porter's lodge at the convent, she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people.

The hope born in her which had “redeemed” her she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody.
...
We have raised the question: can our encounter with the God who in Christ has shown us his face and opened his heart be for us too not just “informative” but “performative”—that is to say, can it change our lives, so that we know we are redeemed through the hope that it expresses?

Before attempting to answer the question, let us return once more to the early Church. It is not difficult to realize that the experience of the African slave-girl Bakhita was also the experience of many in the period of nascent Christianity who were beaten and condemned to slavery. Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much bloodshed. Jesus was not Spartacus, he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like Barabbas or Bar- Kochba. Jesus, who himself died on the Cross, brought something totally different: an encounter with the Lord of all lords, an encounter with the living God and thus an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within.

What was new here can be seen with the utmost clarity in Saint Paul's Letter to Philemon. This is a very personal letter, which Paul wrote from prison and entrusted to the runaway slave Onesimus for his master, Philemon. Yes, Paul is sending the slave back to the master from whom he had fled, not ordering but asking: “I appeal to you for my child ... whose father I have become in my imprisonment ... I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart ... perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother ...” (Philem 10-16). Those who, as far as their civil status is concerned, stand in relation to one an other as masters and slaves, inasmuch as they are members of the one Church have become brothers and sisters—this is how Christians addressed one another.

By virtue of their Baptism they had been reborn, they had been given to drink of the same Spirit and they received the Body of the Lord together, alongside one another. Even if external structures remained unaltered, this changed society from within. When the Letter to the Hebrews says that Christians here on earth do not have a permanent homeland, but seek one which lies in the future (cf. Heb 11:13-16; Phil 3:20), this does not mean for one moment that they live only for the future: present society is recognized by Christians as an exile; they belong to a new society which is the goal of their common pilgrimage and which is anticipated in the course of that pilgrimage."

The story of the saint is perhaps not as well known as it should be.

For more about the saint and the devotion she inspires, see

The Canossianun Bakhita – sister Fortunate

As regards the appalling situation in the Sudan and in particular Darfur, and the institution of slavery there see

Western Nations Condone Human Rights Outrages

Bishop Macram Max Gassis

Guardduty

The Society of Missionaries of Africa ("The White Fathers")

and in particular

Sudan - The Darfur Conflict - The Sudan (in pdf format)

Sudan: Fact sheet

The Encyclical

The Times published the following report, summarising the latest Encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi (Saved By Hope) .

"Pope attacks 'cruel and unjust' atheism in his message of hope

By
Richard Owen of The Times, in Rome


The Pope launched an attack on atheism today, saying that it had led to some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” known to mankind.

In his second encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved By Hope) Pope Benedict said that atheism purported to be “a type of moralism, a protest against the injustices of the world and of world history”. Atheists argued that “a world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God”.

Since there was “no God to create justice”, atheists said, Man himself was called on to establish it on earth. This protest against God was “understandable”, the Pope said, but “the claim that humanity can and must do what no God actually does or is able to do is both presumptuous and intrinsically false”.

Benedict added: “It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice: rather is is grounded in the intrinsic falsity of the claim. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope.”

He did not single out any modern atheists by name.

The Pope said that faith in progress through science was also illusory. While there had been great scientific advances for mankind offering “new possibilites for good”, science also “opens up appalling possibilities for evil, possibilities that did not formerly exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed has become a terrifying progress in evil.”

He also said that Christianity itself had ignored Christ's message that true Christian hope involves salvation for all, focusing instead on indiviudual salvation.

“We must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world is not in our power,” the Pope wrote. “Only God is able to do this.” He added: “Heaven is not empty,” and that Paradise and Hell were real places, not myths.

In the 76-page document, peppered with scholarly and theological references but written in a clear, limpid style Benedict argues that the modern world was shaped by the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, the latter inspired by the ideas of Karl Marx. He praised Marx's “acute analysis” and “precision” in describing his times.

But Marx's “fundamental error” was that he “showed precisely how to overthrow the existing order but did not say how matters should proceed thereafter”. This has led to the Soviet system and other horrors of the 20th century. Marxism, the Pope wrote, had left behind “a trail of appalling destruction” because it failed to realise that Man could not be “merely the product of economic conditions”.

The encyclical takes its Latin title from St Paul's Letter to the Romans in the New Testament. An encyclical is the most authoritative statement a Pope can issue to the faithful.

Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, a Vatican biblical scholar, who presented the document, said that it was addressed not only to Catholics but also to Protestants and Orthodox Christians and even to non-Christians. He noted that it had been signed and released on the feast of St Andrew, which is celebrated with particular devotion by the Orthodox Church.

The Pope, who has shown increasing concern over global warming and other “green” issues, said that “Christian hope” also meant protecting the planet.

“We can free our life and the world from the poisons and contaminations that could destroy the present and the future. We can uncover the sources of Creation and keep them unsullied, and in this way we can make a right use of creation, which comes to us as a gift,” he said.

Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), issued in January 2006, was on erotic and spiritual love (“charity”). Asked if the Pope was working on a third encyclical on “faith” to complete a trilogy on faith, hope and charity, Father Federico Lombardi, his spokesman, said that this was “not excluded”.

The Pope, who was elected in 2005, is also working on another encyclical on the theme of social justice in an era of globalisation, to be released next Easter.

In Spe Salvi he quotes St Augustine, St Bernard and Sister Josephine Bakhita, a former Sudanese slave who in the 19th century was rescued by an Italian priest and became a nun and was later canonised by Pope John Paul II as a “symbol of hope”. He also quotes secular thinkers, from Plato to Francis Bacon and the German Marxist philosopher Theodor Adorno.

In the document the Pope says: “A distinguishing mark of Christians is the fact that they have a future: they know that their life will not end in emptiness.”

He says that redemption “is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal”.

Jesus did not bring a message of social revolution like the Roman slave Spartacus, he says, “he brought something totally different, an encounter with the living God, an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within, even if external structures remained unaltered.” Jesus showed us “the way beyond death”.

The Pope says many people reject faith today, “simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment.”

He concludes: “Our hope is essentially also hope for others: only thus is it truly hope for me too.”

Hope

GIOTTO di Bondone
(b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)
Hope1306
Fresco, 120 x 60 cm
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

Hope (Spes) is portrayed as winged female figure, receiving a crown from God the Father.


Today, 30th November 2007, the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Pope Benedict XVI has published his Encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope)

Vespers

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925)
Vespers 1909
Oil on canvas, 71 x 91.5cm
Walker Art Gallery
Liverpool

It was painted during a visit to Corfu in 1909.

Sargent was noted for being a portraitist. However in this painting he shows his mastery of landscape.

God Tempted

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
God Tempted
2005
Pencil on gessoed panel
22 x 21 cm / 8¾ x 8¼ in

Lazarus

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
Lazarus
2005
Oil on canvas
76.5 x 61 cm / 30¼ x 24 in

Crucifixion of St Andrew

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
Crucifixion of St Andrew

St John

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
St John II
2005
Pastel on paper
60 x 49 cm / 23¾ x 19½ in

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
Patmos I
2005
Pastel on paper
46 x 60 cm / 18¼ x 23¾ in

See also:

Flowers East

THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES

Peter Howson Official Website

http://www.peterhowson.co.uk/

Christ in Hell

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
Christ in Hell
2005
Pencil on gessoed panel
22 x 21 cm / 8¾ x 8¼ in

Judas

Peter Howson (b. 1958)
Judas

2002

Howson`s works are always interesting and never dull.

For more about Howson and his works, see The Peter Howson web site.

La Cité de Dieu

La Cité de Dieu (first volume)
St. Augustine
Paris, early fifteenth century.
Vellum, 339 leaves, 423 x 330 mm.
National Library of the Netherlands

This is a copy of the French translation of De Civitate Dei by St. Augustine.

The miniature reproduced here depicts God the Father, enthroned amidst the four doctors of the Church: top left St. Augustine, top right St. Gregory the Great, recognizable by his papal tiara, bottom left St. Ambrose, and bottom right St. Jerome, dressed as a cardinal with his attribute, the lion, at his feet.

The most important authors of Christianity have been depicted writing, with their writing sheets kept flat by red ribbons weighted with lead pellets.

The written sheets which St. Gregory has hung to dry on a line are famous among manuscript experts.

Framing the page is a magnificent, densely decorated border of green and pink leaves which, linked at the bottom by a true-to-nature rendering of hills with trees, gives the overall impression of a forest full of birds and playful hunting scenes.

Christ in Cookham

Sir Stanley Spencer b.1891, d.1959
Christ in Cookham from the series Pentecost, Last Judgement
1951-1952
Painting
oil on canvas
127.0 x 205.7cm stretcher; 141.0 x 220.0 x 7.5cm frame
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia

Stanley Spencer's religiosity was marked by an almost mystical fervour

A Christ of Romanesque solidity presides over workers, village worthies, children and most of the local football team.

The setting is a cottage garden in Cookham, Spencer's rural birthplace which he habitually portrayed as an earthly paradise.

The Spanish Civil War: an attempt at reconciliation ?

The Times reports that:

"Last month the ruling PSOE (the Party of the Spanish Socialist Workers) passed a law of historical memory (la ley de memoria histórica), assigning public funds to the families of victims of the 1936-39 civil war so that they can exhume their bodies.

In 2000, 13 unmarked graves of dead Republicans were discovered in a hamlet in northwest Spain. Their deaths, as the losers in the civil war, had never officially been honoured or even mentioned.

As dozens of similar Republican graves were found all over the country, the Spanish began, for the first time, to talk openly about the war.

It was a radical departure from El Pacto de Olvido, the consensual agreement to simply “forget” and never to discuss the war or the 40-year dictatorship that followed it. ...

Designed mainly to honour the Republican dead, the law of historical memory eventually covered “all victims of the war killed for religious or political reasons”. The words “religious reasons” refer to the war's other victims, the nearly 7,000 Catholic priests, nuns and monks murdered in the conflict by Republicans. Their ghosts still haunt the Spanish.

Three days before the law of historical memory was passed, nearly 500 of those religious victims were honoured by the Catholic Church in a mass beatification ceremony. The 498 individuals now on the path to sainthood were killed, often after being tortured, in 1934, 1936 and 1937.

The Vatican described them as “martyrs of the 21st century”. Spanish Catholics such as Alejandro Rodríguez de la Peña, secretary-general of the Asociación Católica de Propagandistas (The Catholic Propagandists' Association), describe them as innocent victims of the wave of anti-clerical persecution that swept 1930s Spain."

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

The Times has published a letter from Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor , Archbishop of Westminster, on the subject of The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which has just been introduced into the legislative process in the House of Lords where it has just obtained its Second Reading.

It is a government sponsored Bill of great length and complexity. It raises many difficult and complex ethical problems.

In his letter, the cardinal calls for a free vote to be given to members of Parliament in both Houses in regard to the Bill. This is unlikely to be conceded by the Government.

In his letter, the Cardinal said:

"Sir, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which receives its second reading in the House of Lords today, raises three issues of particular importance.

One is the quality of regulation. New research techniques, and most recently licences for research on human-animal hybrids, have been pushed forward with inadequate attention to the long-term ethical problems they pose. The Bill does nothing to remedy this. It should be used to create a statutory national bioethics commission bringing together a broad spectrum of experts with a clear mandate and an independent role. Only such an authoritative and independent body can ensure that serious ethical scrutiny is no longer an afterthought but a precondition of such research.

Secondly, the Bill proposes to remove the need for IVF providers to take into account the child’s need for a father when considering an IVF application, and to confer legal parenthood on people who have no biological relationship to a child born as a result of IVF. This radically undermines the place of the father in a child’s life, and makes the natural rights of the child subordinate to the desires of the couple. It is profoundly wrong.

Thirdly, this Bill can and will be used by all sides to seek a change in the abortion law. Debates about this will easily generate much more heat than light unless the energy of both sides is focused on the right question, which is: “Given that 200,000 abortions a year is far too many, how can a deliverable change in the law most effectively reduce that number?” Of course the law is only one aspect of what needs to change if that number is to come down significantly. But it would send a powerful and necessary message if Parliament were to amend the abortion law with the clear intent not of making abortion easier, but, as a first step, of making it rarer.

The many serious ethical issues raised by this Bill require that Members of both Houses are given a free vote in accordance with their conscience, not only on the abortion issue but the Bill as a whole. Opposition parties are already allowing this, and I urge the Government to do likewise.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor

Archbishop of Westminster "


It is clear that it is not just the Catholic Church which has grave reservations about the Bill. This is evident from the Second Reading Debate in the House of Lords.

The Second Reading Debates were on 19th and 21st November 2007. They are reported here and here.

It is due to be considered in Committee on 3rd December 2007.

More details about the Bill including the Bill, Explanatory Notes, Amendment Papers and Proceedings can be accessed here.

In the Second Reading Debate, a member of the Joint Committee which met before the Bill was introduced, the Anglican Bishop of St Albans said:

"It is relatively easy to expose the ethical issues by asking a simple question: does the kind of scientific endeavour and therapeutic treatment which this Bill allows need regulation at all and why not let scientific and therapeutic market forces rip? As soon as one asks the question one begins to realise what some of the ethical issues are. Unregulated research and treatment could jeopardise our common understanding of what it means to be human; it could jeopardise our understanding of what we believe to be the meaning and purpose of human life; it could jeopardise our understanding of human relationships; and an unregulated free-for-all could and might lead to the unscrupulous treatment of the most vulnerable and could and might lead to some appalling abuses of power.

I outline again the four major philosophical ethical areas: first, the meaning of our humanity; secondly, the meaning and purpose of our lives; thirdly, the meaning, purpose and value of human relationships; and, fourthly, the right use of power. Those four ethical issues are accompanied by others—for example, because we have the ability to carry out research and treatment, how do we decide whether we should, and what criteria should we use to determine this? How are we to decide whether the kind of research and treatment outlined by the Bill is likely to harm or enhance individuals in society? And, conversely, what might be the effects on individuals in society if we fail to carry out the proposed research and treatment? In my view the moral questions inherent in the Bill tumble over each other in rapid succession.

I again remind noble Lords that our ability in the Joint Committee to tackle some of those questions was hampered by two things—first, as I have said, lack of time, and, secondly, having to spend time on whether the HFEA and the HTA should be coalesced into RATE. That proposal has wisely been abandoned, but the time the Joint Committee spent on that could have been spent on some of the ethical questions. In that committee some of us became aware of both the significance and the accuracy of what Sir Liam Donaldson described as the, “deficit in medical ethics in this country”.

Some consider that medical ethics are somehow subservient to the science being undertaken. The then Minister said in her evidence to us:

“It is a mixture of science and ethics in these areas and part of getting the ethics right is taking public opinion with you in terms of support for the science”.

I do not share that utilitarian view of ethics. [emphasis added]

Our lack of time as a committee also meant that we were unable to explore in as much depth as some of us would have liked not only the questions I have outlined, but the one that is key to this whole enterprise: what is the moral status of the human embryo? Does every embryo from the moment of fertilisation have a unique indelible moral status or does the moral status of the embryo change as the embryo develops? I recognise that the Warnock report—and many philosophers and theologians have before and since—debated this question, but ethically that question lies at the heart of this Bill, and, because of changes in science and technology and changes in public attitudes, it needs to be debated again.

I have read something about the science involved in human fertility research and treatment. I found much of that science breathtakingly interesting. I recognise that it is carried out in some instances with remarkable humility—it is very moving—but I am among those who believe that this Bill is of such fundamental importance that greater and further consideration of the ethical issues should and must be given.

I share the view of the Joint Committee that a joint bioethics committee of Parliament should be set up. If noble Lords want the details they should look at paragraph 295 on page 77 of the Joint Committee's report. I hope that that recommendation will be acted on as a matter of urgency. Such a committee should be appointed not to provide retrospective reflection on legislation but to provide a lot of prospective thinking.

We hear much—even today we have heard much—about impact assessments. What is the point of impact assessments if they do not include the ethical dimensions of the issues before us? Of course I recognise the beauty and humanity of much of the science, but it would be tragic if that beauty and humanity were to be damaged by any deficit in ethical thinking in this Parliament. It would be even more appalling if those who might be brought to birth as a result of the proposals outlined asked of us: “Why? Why were they in such a rush? Why didn’t they have the courage or the wisdom to give deep and long consideration to the morality of the proposals before rushing into law?”.

The Bill is not only about us in our generation. It is not only about our place in the world scientifically and technologically. It is also potentially about generations of people yet to come. It seems to me that we owe it to them to ensure that we give as much attention to the ethics as we do to the science and to the regulatory mechanisms. It is for their sake that we must get the ethics, and therefore the legislation, right."


It is interesting to note that the ethos behind the Government`s appoach to the subject is strictly utilitarian. This is shown even more by the speeches of the Government spokesmen who spoke in the debates. The Government do not wish to debate the serious and complex ethical issues involved in the subject. The Bill is a hurried attempt to deal with the subject in a cack-handed and superficial manner.

The Great Collection

Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765)
Interior of a Picture Gallery with the Collection of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga 1740
Wadsworth Atheneum Art Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut

Giovanni Paolo Panini was one of the leading painters of vedute, or topographical views, in Rome during the eighteenth century.

His views of modern Rome, as well as his capricci based on the better-known ruins, had an enormous vogue among Grand Tourists and examples are to be found in most older galleries. Piranesi, though far more of an archaeologist, was influenced by him, and so was Canaletto.

Cardinal Gonzaga (born Mantua 1690, died Viterbo 1756) was a great intellectual and collector, the Secretary of State and close to the Pope, Pope Benedict XIV (Lambertini). His residence (which is now the Villa Paolina) was near Porta Salaria and Porta Pia. The cardinal's picture gallery was portrayed in the painting which accurately reproduces 148 works from the cardinal's collection.

He helped to found and install the Pinacoteca Capitolina, to reopen the Accademia di San Luca, to preserve ancient museums from plundering, and to regulate the exportation of works of art.

He was an honorary member of the Accademia di San Luca and of the Accademia dell'Arcadia. He was the inspiration of an extraordinary cultural movement, encouraging the Popeto conserve and restore the basilicas and the ancient churches.

The greater part of his library is now in the National Central Library in Rome.

In the above painting, the Cardinal stands with the artist in the centre of the composition beside an enlarged copy of Raphael’s Madonna della Sedia).

Pierre Subleyras (Saint Gilles 1699 - Roma 1749)
Benedict XIV and Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga
1749-1750,
Oil on canvas, cm 131x178.
Museum of Rome

St John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia

Jean-Paul Laurens (1838 – 1921)
St John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 1894
Oil on Canvas
127 x 160 cm
Musee des Augustins, Toulouse

Laurent was a major exponents of the French Academic style.

Strongly anti-clerical and republican, his work was often on historical and religious themes, through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to monarchical and clerical oppression.

In 398 St John was requested — against his will — to take the position of Archbishop of Constantinople. He deplored the fact that Imperial court protocol would now assign to him access to privileges greater than the highest state officials.

Amongst others, he made an enemy in Aelia Eudoxia, the wife of the eastern Emperor Arcadius, who assumed (perhaps with justification) that his denunciations of extravagance in feminine dress were aimed at herself.

An alliance was soon formed against him by Eudoxia, and others of his enemies.

They held a synod in 403 to charge John, in which his connection to Origen was used against him. It resulted in his deposition and banishment.

He was called back by Arcadius almost immediately, as the people became "tumultuous" over his departure. There was also an earthquake the night of his arrest, which Eudoxia took for a sign of God's anger, prompting her to ask Arcadius for John's reinstatement.

Peace was short-lived. A silver statue of Eudoxia was erected near his cathedral. John denounced the dedication ceremonies. He spoke against her in harsh terms: "Again Herodias raves; again she is troubled; she dances again; and again desires to receive John’s head in a charger," an allusion to the events surrounding the death of John the Baptist. Once again he was banished, this time to the Caucasus in Armenia

It was one of the great clashes between Church and State in the early Church. The painting could not be anything other than indicative of the clashes between Church and State in Nineteenth century France.

José Benlliure y Gil (1855 - 1937)

José Benlliure y Gil (1855 - 1937) studied painting under Domingo, and showed from the first such marked talent that he was sent to the Spanish school in Rome

He became the leader of the Spanish art colony in Rome, where he practised as painter and sculptor.

He was born in Valencia and died there.

He executed a series of paintings on the subject of the Mass. In 1932 he gifted these to the city and these are now housed in the main art gallery in Valencia, El Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia San Pío V (housed in a former convent and seminary)

Monaguillos. Oil on canvas 108 x 105 cm

Sacerdote revestido Oil on canvas 85 x 63 cm

Oyendo misa, Rocafort Oil on canvas 98 x 148 cm

Misa en la ermita Oil on canvas 96 x 146 cm

Epistolae Familiares

Extract from Epistolae Familiares by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini [Pope Pius II](1404-1464).
Printed At Leuven by Johannes van Westfalen in 1483
National Library of the Netherlands

This is the collection of letters by the humanist Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1404-1464), who became Pope Pius II in 1458. Some twenty editions of this work were published in the fifteenth century, in different versions.

A Psalter

Detail from Psalter
Made in Normandy c. 1180
Parchment
232 x 169mm
National Library of the Netherlands

This is the picture of the month of May, in which a knight on horseback rides out to go hawking. The hawker, draped in ermine, is shown at the moment of taking off the hawk's hood, a rarely depicted detail.

The style with its bright colours and austere outlines, as well as the physiognomy of the falconer's face reveal that the miniature is painted by an artist coming from Normandy or the south of England.

The manuscript was made for an unknown, possibly noble patroness, who had herself portrayed in a kneeling position in a full-page miniature before the beginning of the texts of the psalms.

Two Saints by ZURBARÁN

ZURBARÁN, Francisco de (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 - Madrid, 1664)
St Francis
1650 - 1660
Oil on canvas
H. 209 ; L. 110 cm
Museum of Fine Art, Lyon, France

According to legend, Pope Nicholas V went down into the crypt where St Francis was buried. Opening the tomb, he found the body of the saint with its eyes turned to heaven in ecstasy. It is only a legnd as the tomb was not discovered until 1818.

However the theme resonated.

The painting was originally painted for a convent in Madrid. It then made its way to the Convent of the Colinettes in Lyon. After the Revolution it was bought by the Museum.

It is a monumental and sculptural apparition which is painted. Light comes from an open door on the left. There is aninvisible presence in the scene. The eyes of the figure are turned inwards. The mouth is open as if in silent conversation.

ZURBARÁN, Francisco de (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 - Madrid, 1664)
The Apotheosis of St Thomas Aquinas 1631
Oil on Tempera
486 x 385 cm.
Museum of Fine Arts, Seville

This was painted for the College of St Thomas Aquinas in Seville in 1631.

It is an ambitious painting.

At the front one can see the founder of the College, Diego Deza. The Emperor Charles V is shown kneeling with others in prayer.

The saint is flanked by four Doctors of the Church. Above them are the Holy Spirit, Christ, Mary, Saint Paul and Saint Dominic.