Deviation Actions
All glory, laud, and honor
to you, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.
You are the King of Israel
and David's royal Son,
now in the Lord's name coming,
the King and Blessed One.
The company of angels
is praising you on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
with palms before you went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before you we present.
To you before your passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to you, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.
As you received their praises,
accept the prayers we bring,
for you delight in goodness,
O good and gracious King!
I hope you have all been doing well! We've been enjoying some uncommonly nice weather here (it's about 73 degrees right now, and humid! Though...I think we're about to get a really big thunderstorm, and the temperature will plummet to about 25. Hah. One last cold blast and then hopefully it'll really be spring). I just finished reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens on Friday, I got Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi done about a week or so ago, and I just finished Herald of Divine Love by St. Gertrude the Great today.
However, the most exciting thing that's going on in my life right now is: I'M GOING TO ROME!!! ISN'T THAT CRAZY??!! I'm actually going to be in Europe! ME! IN EUROPE! EUROPE!!!! Like, the continent on which pretty much everything I love IS. EUROPE. LIKE WHERE ALL THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING COOL AND AWESOME EVER HAPPENED EVER. Like, WHERE ALL THE FAMOUS AND AWESOME AND AMAZING PEOPLE WHO SHAPED WESTERN CIVILIZATION FOR ALL TIME LIVED. AND I'M GOING TO BE THERE TOO. ME. I'M GOING TO, IN SOME SMALL WAY, HAVE A PARTICIPATION IN THAT SPACE HALLOWED BY MARTYRS, LAUDED BY THE GREATEST POETS, AND RULED BY THE GREATEST OF EMPIRES. I WILL BE A PART OF THAT GREAT MASS OF HUMANITY WHO HAS BREATHED THE SAME AIR AND REPOSED IN THE SAME LAND. I AM GOING TO BE IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF HISTORY'S GREATEST PEOPLE HAVE LIVED AND WORKED. THE EUROPE THAT HAS BUILDINGS OLDER THAN MY COUNTRY. EUROPE. AHHHHH!! AND: SO. MUCH. HISTORY. I'm so excited that I still don't really believe it's happening. The first time it sort of hit me was a couple nights ago when I had a dream that I was boarding the plane and I had forgotten everything. I was in quite a state, let me tell you. But: I'M GOING TO ROME!!!
I still can't fathom that. Rome. The Rome of the early Republic. Rome of the Seven Hills. The Rome of Caesar. The City of Gold and Marble. Capital of the Roman Empire. Queen of Cities, Queen of Empires. The Eternal City. Rome of the Emperors. The City that ruled over the whole world. Rome of the early Christians. Resting place of Saints Peter and Paul. City made holy by the martyrs. City governed by saints. City of the Popes. City of the Mother-Church. The Rome that has endured through wars, conquests, famines, earthquakes, plagues, more wars, sieges, fires, natural disasters and untold devastation and destruction. The same Rome. The Eternal City. Rome.
If I say it often enough maybe it'll finally sink in.
So I'm going to be in Rome (ROME! AH!) for the canonizations of the blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27th, 2014. I'm going to be there during the preceding week (so, the Octave of Easter, i.e. Easter Week). I'm on a particular tour, so it's very scheduled (which I think is actually a very good thing). We're going to be flying there on Monday. On Tuesday (April 22nd) we're going to be touring the sites from the Ancient Roman period (the Colosseum, Pantheon, Mamertine Prison, the Forum, etc.). Wednesday will be St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums; Thursday we'll be going to Orvieto; Friday we'll be in Assisi; Saturday we'll be at Castel Gandolfo, and in the afternoon we'll have some free time for the exploration of Rome. Sunday is when the canonizations take place, and after that there will be more free time. Then we're leaving Italy on Monday (on a long flight home).
I already have a number of churches I want to see, but since our schedule is pretty tight, I'm sure I won't see all of them. But that's okay. My top list is as follows: 1.) St. John Lateran, 2.) St. Cecilia in Trastevere, 3.) Sancta Maria sopra Minerva, 4.) St. Alphonsus Liguori. (I suppose I'm fortunate in that I really want to see all of the gothic churches in Rome and there really are very few of them. So that's my top "extras" list).
Some of you may think I'm being excessively excited, but I tell you most solemnly that I still don't feel that I'm doing this trip to Rome justice. I wish I could appreciate it more than I do, and I hope I can stir myself to be even more excited. I want to be able to take advantage of this wonderful and rare opportunity; it would be a real crime to squander it, and I certainly don't want to do that. I think I'm going to spend a good bit of time this week trying to prepare for this trip, for which end I am posting these travel plans in the hopes of soliciting some advice from those who are much more travel-experienced than I am.
This will actually be my first time ever being on a plane, so that should be interesting. I really don't know how long the flight will be, though I got some estimates ranging from about 11-14 hours. So we'll see. Travel, I'm sure, will take pretty much all day. Therefore, I'm going to try and equip myself with a whole lot of reading materials for the trip. I have a mortal dread of sitting around and having nothing to do.
Does anyone have advice for what kinds of things to bring? Or sites I should be sure to hit in Rome? Should I bring a backpack and some little sketch pads? Any little quirky odd things I ought to know about traveling around Rome or Italy beforehand?
I'd really appreciate any tips people could give me. BohemianBeachcomber gave me a number of useful tips already, but more would certainly be welcome.
From a sermon by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop
"Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.
Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.
In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens—the proof, surely, of his power and godhead—his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.
So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel."
Pax Vobiscum!
Valete!
~Omnes ad Iesum per Mariam~
Your Sister in Christ,
* ~ Theophilia ~ *
New art e-mail address: theophilia.art@gmail.com
Please contact me at this address if you’d like to request a commission or if you’d like to order prints. Or you can send me a note.
How to Order Prints:
Send me a note/e-mail that:
Indicates exactly what picture(s) you want (preferably a link to the picture that I made, since, for example, saying that you’d like “Our Lady of Guadalupe” when I have four different versions could lead to rather embarrassing mix-ups).
Indicates the size and number of the print(s) you want.
Sends me your address (or whatever address you want me to send it to).
(And if applicable) gives me the date when you need it by so I can make it a priority.
Then I will reply with my address and the amount owed for the purchase of the requested prints. Then you can send me a check for the amount, and once I have received the check and it has cleared, I will send the prints your way. If you decide to cancel an order, let me know as soon as possible. I usually take a long time about cashing my checks anyway, so you’d probably be fine.
Print Prices:
Shipping: $3.00 (except for Wallet, I can fit those in an envelope, so only $0.50 for postage)
2.5 x 3.5 (Wallet) - $1.00
4x6 - $5.00
4x8 - $7.00
5x7 - $8.00
6x8 - $8.00
8x10 - $20.00
8x12 - $25.00
POSTERS
Shipping: $6.00
11x14 - $35.00
12x18 - $50.00
8x20 - $50.00
16x20 - $65.00
18x20 - $90.00
20x30 - $110.00
24x36 - $150.00
Shipping covers the costs of purchasing the container (shipping tubes for the bigger ones) and mailers in which to ship your item, and then for the actual postage.
I can also do mugs, calendars, mousepads and magnets, but those get a bit pricey for me to ever order, much less for someone else to purchase. But if you’re super keen on getting a mug or something, let me know.
Reading List
1. The Man on a Donkey - H.F.M. Prescott
2. The Deluge – Henryk Sienkiewicz
4. Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare
5. Chronicles of the Crusades - Joinville and Villehardouin
6. Poetic Diction - Owen Barfield
7. The Decameron– Boccaccio
8. Woman - Edith Stein
9. A Grief Observed– C.S. Lewis
10. The Problem of Pain– C.S. Lewis
11. Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
12. Lost in the Cosmos– Walker Percy
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