Marians of the Immaculate on the MoEs

Follow this link to read an article about the Missionaries of the Eucharist posted on the website of the Marians of the Immaculate. The Marians of the Immaculate promote the Divine Mercy message and devotion. It was a highlight of our walk to visit them at the Divine Mercy shrine in Stockbridge, MA.

2011 Walkers

Here's an introductory video of 6 of the 8 people I walked around New England this summer with sharing the beauty of the Faith.

Seeking the Image of God in the Human Person

(Originally posted on the blog of the Missionaries of the Eucharist)

A special aspect of the time that I've spent with the Missionaries of the Eucharist is being able to share in the lives of many different people, even if only for a short time.  Here are some sketches from life of some of the people I have been able to spend time with.  Some of them are fellow missionaries, some of them friends of the missionaries- members of host families and others who have spent time with us.  I feel that a special privilege I have as an artist is that when I am able spend time with someone through drawing them, it is a unique opportunity to reflect on the dignity and beauty of the human person and seek to perceive the image of God in people.

Blessed John Paul II's Theology of the Body has really had an impact on me as an artist.  Pope John Paul II really emphasizes in his teaching that the person, made in the image of God, is revealed through the body and therefore the human body communicates into the visible world the mystery of God more powerfully than anything else in the created order.  In his General Audience of February 20th he stated that:

The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus be a sign of it.

 Along these lines, in his Letter to Artists Pope John Paul II writes that "Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God."

For this reason I feel it my responsibility and privilege as an artist to go deeper into the mystery of the human person, whose spiritual mystery is expressed visibly through the body.  For going deeper into the subject of the mystery of the human person one reflects on the mystery of God.

-Shana

What I'll be doing this summer.

Dear Readers,

This summer I have the privilege of being a Missionary of the Eucharist. We are walking from Maine to NYC, proclaiming the beauty of the Catholic faith-particularly through the Theology of the Body. I invite you to follow us at the Missionary of the Eucharist blog:

http://blog.themoes.us/

You can find the MoE's on facebook as well.

Please pray for us and the people we will encounter on our journey!

Just for fun, here's a video from a few years ago that I find thoroughly amusing:

Sr. Helena fsp on Blessed John Paul II

Here is Sr. Helena fsp's testimony about (now "Blessed" as of yesterday!) Pope John Paul II. If any of my readers haven't caught on I LOVE LOVE LOVE this man. Sr. Helena with her humor, sharp mind and authenticity is always a pleasure to listen to. I feel very similar to the way she feels about Blessed John Paul II as communicated at the end of this video.

I post this as I just today finished up the written component of my honors thesis on the Theology of the Body so these past few days I've been thinking very much about this beautiful man.

But then on the other hand, heck, when don't I think about him. Maybe when I get around to it I'll write my own testimony about my favorite man in the history of the world after Jesus.

Enjoy!



Blessed John Paul II, pray for us!

Fantastic Article on Catholicism and Feminism

I just came across and read a superb article by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese:
Catholic and Feminist: Can One Be Both?

Here's an excerpt I particularly liked:

The great twentieth-century theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, also insisted upon the exemplary quality of the feminine for all human beings. Insisting that the word for "answer" or "response" is feminine, he drew the lesson that "woman is essentially an answer [Ant-wort] in the most fundamental sense. . . ."12 For "if man is the word that calls out, woman is the answer that comes to him at last" (254). Thus Balthasar wrestled with the same problem that angers feminists today, namely, how can the idea of equality between women and men be reconciled with the idea of man's primacy? Unlike feminists, however, Balthasar refused to agree that the difference between men and women diminished women's dignity and importance. To the contrary, he insisted that "the word that calls out only attains fulfillment when it is understood, accepted and given back as a word." In his view, man's dependence upon woman thus confirms that "man can be primary and woman secondary" because "the primary remains unfulfilled without the secondary. The primary needs a partner of equal rank and dignity for its own fulfillment" (254).

Throughout the most compelling modern Catholic teachings on the nature and dignity of woman runs this emphasis upon a complementarity of women and men that in no way diminishes women's importance or standing. Indeed, if we follow Balthasar, man himself is "responsive" or feminine in relation to God. In this respect, it is tempting to argue that, as the answer that fulfills the word, women embody the exemplary human posture — that of receptivity or confirmation.

Sr. Miriam's Conversion Story

I just got done watching this and thought I should share in case anyone else would be interested. Sr. Miriam James Heidland is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). I found this talk posted on youtube through her blog that I follow NunEssential. I find her story captivating and of course appreciate how she integrates Theology of the Body into it. She's a sister who is on fire about TOB. In the second video the audio and video are slightly out of synch but I found I got used to it. The talk is long but I thought it was worth listening to. Here are the videos:





Enjoy!