Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
– Thomas Merton
Le Louvre et le Pont-Neuf, by Maximilien Luce in Musee D’Orsay
I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to be found and lost than Paris. And the impressionist work in Musee D’Orsay is wonderful to behold. I found this piece to be especially inviting.
When we persevere with the help of a gentle discipline, we slowly come to hear the still, small voice and to feel the delicate breeze, and so to come to know the presence of Love.
Wholeheartedness is a precious gift, but no one can actually give it to you. You have to find the path that has heart and then walk it impeccably….It’s like someone laughing in your ear, challenging you to figure out what to do when you don’t know what to do. It humbles you. It opens your heart.
Dive deeply into the miracle of life and let the tips of your wings be burnt by the flame, let your feet be lacerated by the thorns, let your heart be stirred by human emotion, and let your soul be lifted beyond the earth.
In this image from the front of an altar in Toulouse, France, the artist has painted his idea of Our Lady giving the rosary to Dominic
This is very special feast for Dominicans (laity, sisters, nuns, and friars) all over the world. There is a story (which although is probably not factual, must be true, as all wonderful stories are) that Mary gave the rosary to Dominic and asked him to teach it to others so that the whole world would eventually pray the rosary.
I am imagining that this week’s photo challenge might be a challenge for some . . . the folks who stumble through the morning. Fortunately I am a morning person: I consider this to be the best part of the day, and found this wonderful description of a beautiful morning by Arthur Conan Doyle.
How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!
– Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
True . . . it’s not a London sky. Still wisps of pink clouds in the morning can inspire in any part of the world.
St. Francis of Assisi is probably one of the best known and loved saints. He is the founder of the Franciscan Order; he and St. Dominic, who founded the Order of Preachers, were contemporaries. One of his sayings that is especially loved by Dominicans is:
OPreach 