View allAll Photos Tagged Parable
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
The war is a big crash. As well as an anti-war. We all are participating. We just couldn’t avoid it. If we’re trying to be neutral, we’re just making stronger the other side. It’s affects all of us. We couldn’t stand aside because there isn’t that side where to stay apart. Striking sign – even Switzerland isn’t neutral this time. It’s become the part of the World Anti-war Ist. Because it’s already too hot even for this cool state. The good news – you needn’t kill to participate this party. On the contrary. It’s much better to heal than to kill to win this anti-war. Another good news – yes, all of us, maybe even the presidents and PMs are feeling that we couldn’t do enough to stop this nightmare war. But all of us could do something to make it less lethal, less nightmare. Speaking of PMs. Do you know that the Ukrainian surnames are pretty often ending on “-uk” with the stress on the last syllable and that way you could tell the Ukrainian? So, in Ukraine they have this new joke about Boris. They call him Johnsonuk because that’s how his account on insta was named. Also, they’re telling that there are 2 types of men: one that keep talking and other that just drive over here like Johnsonuk. Back to the subject: even more, there’s much more of us than those on the war side. Even in my stolen motherland Russia there’s more that 1,2 million people that signed a petition against that war in spite of the danger (you really could go to jail just for that: they’ll notice you that way and then they’ll find anything to accuse you, even just the like of some post on insta; I’ve signed too, of course) and many are doing much more dangerous things including the refusing to go to this undeclared war. I hope to say more about this in my next letter. There are about maybe 120 thousand that are actually invading Ukraine, looting and making other war crimes and much less than the population of Russia who participating this or that way directly. Mostly snitching on those who are against it. Also, there’re just few which are really wants that war and are high on it. I know just one person for sure. Plus, there’re members of all that chains that brings Russian oil, gas, coal and some other things in exchange for money, part of which are burning in this war and so on. So, even very weak afford, multiplied on our fantastic quantity, is matters and just bound to work and really works. So, keep on trying, my friends and brothers and sisters in anti-war arms and arts! Push harder if you could or just do anything you feel you could – and we’ll make it.
To be continued…
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series).
Recently I twice raised this question: why any country and almost anybody are so afraid to lose the war? And nevertheless, it’s almost constant war on the Earth. Seems that no one is afraid to begin the war. Columbine is an emergency. Mass murder in the war is absolutely normal. Especially if the enemy is marked as the bad guy. You don’t even have to know his name. He is wearing the wrong clothes or even some little piece on almost identical khaki – quite enough to kill. And now you usually don’t even see the colour of his or her uniform: someone just gave you some coordinates and you sending this huge metal thing which will kill or maim anyone inside this area. You wouldn’t even see this mess.
Beautiful model, my good friend and sister in arts – Irinka, @kraskivrukah on Insta. We made another collab, where met different arts, “Give Peace a Chance”. Irinka painted the picture about war and peace in two characters – War and Peace and danced in both characters, I made photo and filmed. So, we had 4 arts – photography, painting, dance and movie. Now we have in mind several more collabs.
To be continued…
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta, but without this texts)
We discussed how such sophisticated nation like Germans could follow those mad Chief in the WW2. Now, when I’m looking around, I'm beginning to understand. Sophisticated minds, like in times of Fall of the Roman Empire. They are broad and unstable. They could easily switch in that tribal thing which I’ve mentioned in my previous letter from the other world, Russia. And now we see another keyword – empire.
To be continued…
I want to speak about this nightmare times, to show, to see and to learn more. To do something together. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side” with rather unique opportunity to show the country when its doors are closing. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that. As well as on other social resources.
Give, and it will be given to you [Luke 6:38]
translation of the beginning of
Dăruind vei dobândi
("Through Giving You Shall Receive") – published 1992;
by Nicolae Steinhardt
nicolaesteinhardt.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/giving-you-sha...
"Blind, unwise, and of a narrow mind as I am, I was not foolish and unknowing enough to believe that Christ asks us to give from our surplus: that, even the pagans do. I was however unskilled and lost in the darkness enough to think – what seems entirely in accord with Christian teaching – that we are asked to give from the little we have, if not even from the very little. I even went as far as agreeing with the idea that from the parable of the two talants thrown by the widowed woman in the offering box (Mk 12:41-44, Lk 21:1-4) follows that we should give all we have, our entire possessions.
It was needed that I stumbled upon reading, a while ago, a text of the French poet Henri Michaux (1899 – 1988) to understand, trembling, shuddering, that Christ asks something entirely different: to give what we do not have.
How blind, unwise, and of a narrow mind I was. And locked in the chains of the most lamentable common sense. How could I imagine that Christ-God who accepted to take on a body and be crucified on the cross lust like the unhappiest and most wicked of mortals, would ask us to give from the surplus or the little possessions, or even to give their entirety? How would He have called us to actions so simple, so of this world, that is, so possible! Did not Paul Claudel define God for us, attributing to Him the saying: Why do you fear? I am the impossible who looks at you.
Christ, thus, asks for exactly this: the impossible: to give what we do not have.
But let us listen to Michaux: in the monastery where he would like to be received, a simple candidate to monasticism shows up. He confesses to the geronda: know, Father, that I have neither faith nor light, nor essence, nor courage, nor trust in myself, and I cannot be of any help to myself, much less to any others; I have nothing.
It would have been logical for him to be rejected at once. Not so, however. The geronda (abbot, as the French poet says) replies: What does that have to do with anything! You have no faith, have no light; giving them to others you will have them, too. Searching them for another, you will gain them for yourself. Your brother, your neighbor and fellow man, him you are duty bound to help with what you do not have. Go: your cell is on this hallway, third door on the right.
Not from the surplus, not from the little, but from your unpossession, from what you lack. Giving another that which you do not have – faith, light, confidence, hope – you will acquire them as well.
„You have to help him with what you do not have.”
„Giving what you do not have, you acquire too, the naked, the deserted, that which you lack.”
„With what you believe you have not, but which is, which will be in you.
Deeper than the depth of your self. More mysterious, more covered, clearer, fast spring which flows unceasingly, calling, inviting to communion.”
Yes, only in this way you will be able to speak as a servant of Christ, of the One full of mystery: paradoxically (as he always has taught us: if you want to rule, serve; if you want to be exalted, humble yourself; if you want to save your soul, lose it for me; if you want to recapture your purity, admit your guilt) and amazingly (if you will give what you do not have, you will also gain what you have given others).
I think that nowhere, except for the Gospels, have more clear and more Christian words been spoken than in Michaux’s little poem, which stupefied and enthused me. Maybe in some fragments of The Brothers Karamazov and The Demons, maybe Cervantes creating El nuestro Senor Don Quijote, El Christo espanol, maybe Albert Camus in the text about Oscar Wilde (titled The Artist in Prison) and about the way to Christ not through suffering and pain (a good way, though an inferior one) but by an excess of happiness and moments of euphoria (a superior way). I think nowhere a poet or writer has spoken more closely of the unapproachable One.
Giving what we have no, we gain by rebound what – with unimaginable outrageousness – we have dared to give to another. The lesson is valid for any Christian, clergy or laity. For the monk, especially. Let him not worry, not fear, not be anxious, the monk who feels his inner-self deserted, haunted by lack of belief and weakness, full of darkness and aridness; let him not mind these in the least. Temptations of hopelessness, unbecoming tricks of the evil and dry one. Let him give those who come to him, in his cell, in the monastery garden, on the porch of the guest-house, at the alter gates – so they can find faith, strength, light, and a ray of hope, that which they expect from him and which he very well knows that in that moment he may not have. Let him give them. And, giving them, they will also refract back on him and he will be benefited by the gift made unto others.
„Giving the light you do not have, you, too, will have it.”
Do Michaux’s words, perhaps, not clarify in more depth the text from Matthew 25 about the fearful Judgment? Perhaps, have not the good ones given the thirsty from the water they lacked; the hungry from the food they did not have, the naked one the clothes they themselves were straining after?…
The secret of monastic life shows itself to be: to dare to give that which, temporarily, you may be lacking. Here then, is the Christian paradox in its entirety, splendor, and virtue. But here is the amazing promise: giving what you do not have, you gain what you knew to give from the emptiness of your being. The supra-natural gift is reflected on you, comes back to you like a boomerang, like a ray of light projected at a mirror, and enriches you, fills you up, overwhelms you.
Of course. If could not be otherwise! How could we think, even for a moment – not to say anything about years – that Christ wants to give from what we have: the surplus, the little, everything. Big deal, worthy endeavor! Too human, the poor, pitiful work! Something different is asked from us: what seems to be impossible. Something else is promised: what which cannot be conceived or believed.
Let every fear, uncertainty, shyness, fear of hypocrisy disappear from us, the monks: the monk is meant to give others faith and light even if he may be lacking them a shorter or longer while. Even if he is in a crisis of listlessness. Even if he were guilty of a weakening in the zeal and steadiness of monasticism.
Could he? Could he fulfill the miracle? Of course, since he is part of those about whom Christ says that „they are not of this world, as I am not of this world” (John 17:16). And again, „But not only for these I pray, but for those who will believe in Me through their word.” (John 17:20). And in the Book of Acts (20:35) Paul also says: „You have to help the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus: it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Truly, giving above nature, we receive grace above grace. Let the weak, thus, say: give me, Lord, when I am lost and naked, strength and impudence to be able to give from what I do not have. And You make this gift of mine – paradoxical, absurd and daring – return to me through your mercy which counts human wisdom ad madness and the adage „Nemo dat quod non habet” sounding brass and clanging cymbal. You who ask only the impossible and do only what the human mind cannot understand."
Monk Nicolae Steinhardt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Steinhardt
nicolaesteinhardt.wordpress.com/in-english/
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photo:
inner narthex 14th century mosaic detail
in the lunette above the entrance to the naos
of the Donor Theodore Metochites
detail from the icon panel of "The Enthroned Christ"
Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, Istanbul
www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/exhibitions/Byzantium/html/bu...
Chora Museum, Chora Monastery (Contantinople)
Μονή της Χώρας, Μουσείο Χώρας, Κωνσταντινούπολη
Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, Kariye Kilisesi, Istanbul
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chora_Church
www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/exhibitions/Byzantium/
www.byzantium1200.com/chora.html
www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-st-savior-in-...
www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/moving-image-collecti...
www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/chora
"The Enthroned Christ and the Donor Theodore Metochites are located in the lunette above the entrance to the naos [3]. Metochites kneels and presents a model of the church to a seated Christ. In Byzantine art, this was the standard way of representing an architectural donation. Metochites is ostentatiously garbed and wears a high hat symbolizing his important office and his court titles are inscribed behind him."
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Theodore Metochites
Θεόδωρος Μετοχίτης
Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves - most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But the “Richter-Fenster” in Germany’s Colgone Cathedral evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine. Contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter designed the 65-foot-tall work to replace the original, destroyed by bombs in World War II. As a starting point, he used his own 1974 painting 4096 Colors. To create that piece Richter devised a mathematical formula to systematically mix permutations of the three primary colors and gray.The Cologne window is made of 11,500 four-inch " pixels" cut from original antique glass in a total of 72 colors. Instead of representing something finite or tangible, the Richter-Fenster opens up myriad possible interpretations and alerts us to the act of seeing.
(The 2nd of 6 images from the series. The whole thing is on my insta, but once again without these texts).
Today I worked in my garden, almost naked (in Indian loincloth and the visor from the sun), and my friends wondered how I am not freeze. But I get used to. And I thought about this wonderful human ability and once again about this nightmare war. I thought about this rare chance to stop it because we aren’t get used to it even in almost 3 months. All the world is still horrified. That’s very important. That’s why I continue to write these letters from the other side of the war. That’s crucial. Because there aren’t our houses and lives that are destroying this very moment. The real bombs from the real bombers are falling somewhere else, not where I write and you read this, my friend. But we’re trying to help, to do something, to stop the war to the extent of our horror and compassion.
But we in Russia are get used to the same people in power, who unleashed this insane, stupid and unhuman war. With the same thinking and methods. It’s not that big difference. Tortures? Yes, they are torture people in Russia. Rape? Yes, just unofficially. Murders? But of course! Mass murders? Just google about Chechnya. But we’re get used to it. It’s about 2 decades with our mr. Zed, and he’s just weak imitator of his predecessors.
But now I feel some wild hope. We couldn’t just tell him go away, see. Couldn’t even make him lose the next election. He fakes them. Maybe our mister has more chances to get rid of us who couldn't stand him anymore than we could say good riddance to him. He really knows how to accumulate and save the power, as nuts as he is. But now all of you and us there in Russia, who helps and saves Ukraine as the country (our mr Zed wants to destroy it completely, to make it part of Russia), are also helps and saves Russia. There’s the long way to freedom and maybe I’d rather live under our occupation (again: I think that Russia is occupied by the same ones who now trying to occupy and destroy Ukraine), than have this war. But it’s happening. And maybe when my Ukrainian brothers and sisters will win with the help of all the united world, then we will regain our freedom and our country as well.
To be continued…
For Macro Mondays - "Seeds"
I like to look up information on things I photograph and was fascinated to learn how many parables there are about the mustard seed. The Buddhist version speaks to the universality of grief:
"Kisa Gotami’s only son died. In her grief, she carried the dead child to all her neighbors, asking them for medicine. At length, a man replied to her request: "I cannot give thee medicine for thy child, but I know a physician who can. Go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha."
Kisa Gotami went to the Buddha and cried: "Lord and Master, give me medicine that will cure my boy." The Buddha answered: "I want a handful of mustard-seed” but then added: "The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent, or friend."
Kisa Gotami went from house to house, but when she asked “Did a son or daughter, a father or mother, die in your family?" all answered: "Alas the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief." There was no house where a beloved one had not died.
Weary and hopeless, Kisa Gotami sat down at a wayside, watching the city lights flicker up and then extinguish again. And she considered the fate of men: their lives also flicker up, then are extinguished. And she thought: "How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all; yet there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness."
Putting away the selfishness of her affection for her child, Kisa Gotami buried her child. Returning to the Buddha, she took refuge in him and found comfort."
Dorothy and her party confront Oz, a blustering conman, after completing their Hero’s Quest along the Yellow Brick Road. For the #YellowRoad #flickrfriday theme.
Dramatis Personae, from left:
The Wizard ………. Heedless Demens tyrannus
Toto ………………….. Brave, inarticulate, scruffy loyalist
Dorothy ……………. Blind Justice, not yet aware of her power
Tin Woodsman … Arthritic ancient man, crippled by grief
Scarecrow ……….. Wobbly advisor, disabled by uncertainty
Cowardly Lion …. Wishful ignoramus, blinded by fear
Will Justice prevail?
Phraseme based on a parable of Jesus.
Matthäus 7:26-27:
26 Und wer diese meine Rede hört und tut sie nicht, der ist einem törichten Manne gleich, der sein Haus auf den Sand baute.
27 Da nun ein Platzregen fiel und kam ein Gewässer und wehten die Winde und stießen an das Haus, da fiel es und tat einen großen Fall.
(Lutherbibel, 1912)
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
(King James Bible)
Last image from this series (for now, and then – who knows?). Meantime I’ve wished happy birthday to my close friend, super guitar hero Mark Makarov aka markmcarow, with another series, which seems good to me. And lost many things which I wanted to say to you. Good, that I have much more. I’m beginning some series on Flickr and then switching for others and for others from those. Maybe it’s ok. Anyway, I just couldn’t make art straight like an arrow. Can you?
And who you'll be rather see 1st: suprer-guitar hero Mark or bareass lovely Rita running wild through the winter forest (see my previous post bout that if u feel so)? Both 're good I could bet u anything.
(Continuation. Please see the previous images and the texts of this series if you feel like that).
I’m somewhere in between of the 3 series which I started to show you recently. Of course, all my series are presenting in albums, but are many of us looking at the albums? So, there we have the question of the narrative. But maybe the best way to do anything is to make what one really wants right now. If possible. And if it’s not – than maybe to quit and find the place where it will become possible. And maybe rather arabesque narration is as good as any other… For me now most of the questions come down to the question of freedom.
(To be continued…)
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
Today, April 1st, is my birthday – first ever when I feel the war around. It’s the beginning of the night, the birthday will be almost tomorrow, but I’ve got me some wine, drink from the bottle, listen Kronos Quartet “Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace” and posting the continuation of this anti-war project, slow paced as war (Cheers!).
There’s this ghost plane of my life where that war is in its full rage all around. As if something dreadful and unimaginable is happening right here and now. As if someone is dying. And maybe that’s me. I thought about postponing my birthday, but my friends decided to come anyway. We’ll play a lot of music and hopefully make more photo series. My favorite models and sisters in visual arts – photographers and filmmakers will come.
Even my parents arrived from the Baltic Sea. We didn’t see each other several years, through all this covid times. Maybe we need more mutual support at these times… Also, now I feel much more necessity of an art in my life. Now art is vital.
I’ve uploaded this whole project on Behance and I’d like to share it wide if possible. Because, as I’ve wrote there, the art could be the powerful weapon in this World Anti-War I were we are now. Here it is www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28...
To be continued…
I want to speak more about these dark times, to show, to see and to learn myself. To do something together to get out of this dark. Alive and sane if possible. Now my photo art become the “photo-diary from the other side”, “from the stolen country”. I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that.
May you enjoy this reflection like I did:
In my profession I have always held positions that required me to manage other people.
At times I have found this to be rewarding and at others very frustrating. Over these years I have begun to notice certain consistencies in all people I have managed. One of those is a dislike, and sometimes outright fear, of change. For the longest time I empathized with my employees when it came to change as it was hard, confusing and unpleasant in many respects.
But as I have grown older I have found that change is one constant that never goes away. From the very time we are conceived until that last second when we die we undergo constant change. It is all around us and in every part of our lives.
This is also the case with our faith. In many of the parables, Jesus used the imagery of plants, trees and cultivation. This was an effective way for Him to explain many things about the Kingdom to the people in a simple way. Using seeds and trees in His parables He shows us a number of things, one of which is that our faith is not a static thing, but something that begins and changes through growth.
Just as an acorn in almost no respect resembles a full grown oak, so our faith when it first began should only remotely resemble our faith as it is now due to growth and change. Like the oak, our faith should grow stronger through the nourishment of the Scriptures and good sunshine from our Lord himself.
- Don Claunch, SFO
EXPLORE # 412 on February 1, 2008.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Lk 15:8–10.
(The last image from the series. See the texts of the earliest ones in my account here, on my insta or behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
We’re survived our V-day, our Mad Hatter mr president didn’t declared WWIII against everyone including us, Russians (well, he did, but not officially) or nuked the world at that day, as many of us was afraid. Good for him. Good for us. Congratulations! Let’s live on and continue our common World Anti-War I (WAWI?). Ok, we really haven’t good and swift master-plan how to make it and this horror is still dragging alone, but there’s such a lot of us, I suppose millions, who doing something to create and re-create Peace. I hope that we will win. Eventually. Maybe pretty soon. I there in Russia feel that we here blew through 1941 to 1944 in one swift go. Not that everybody noticed…
My anti-war projects to be continued. I’ve already finished 4 more. I just couldn’t write with the same speed, but I feel that to write along with images is important. And thank you so much for your support in that work, my friends! Though I haven’t enough strength even to answer to your comments ASAP. I’m answering, but sometimes very slow. I feel the war all around me and it’ very devastating feeling…
Taken by WR
PP: C+ca15
Gdańsk - bazylika Mariacka – ambona, przypowieść o Dobrym Pasterzu.
Gdansk - St Mary's Church - Main pulpit, the parable of Good Shepherd.
Dawna, gotycka ambona zaginęła podczas wojny. Obecna, wczesnobarokowa, pochodzi z gdańskiego kościoła Św. Jana, spalonego podczas walk o Gdańsk w marcu 1945. Autor konstrukcji i dekoracji rzeźbiarskiej jest nieznany, za autora dekoracji malarskich uznaje się Izaaka van den Blocke (1572 lub 74, Mechelen lub Królewiec – Gdańsk, 1626 lub 1628).
Gdansk - St Mary's Church - Main pulpit. After the old pulpit was lost during the war, the present one was mounted; dated 1616/1, it was rescued from St John’s church, during the devastating fire of 1945. The author of architectural structure is unknown, the paintings are attributed to Izaak van den Blocke (1572 or 74, Mechelen or Königsberg – 1626 or 1628, Gdańsk).
(W.R.)
ポーランド、グダンスクの聖母マリア教会の講壇。
もとここにあったゴチック様式の講壇はやはり戦争時に失われてしまいましたが、これも隣の聖ヨハネ教会にあったものを持ってきたそうです。初期バロック様式。
Church:
Bazylika konkatedralna Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku, Bazylika Mariacka / St. Marienkirche / Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Mary's Church
1379-1466, Heinrich Ungeradin et al. Gdansk, Poland.
Cf. in Polish: bazylikamariacka.gdansk.pl/bazylika/zabytki/historia/ [2018.12.15].
The book that the resident suggested that I borrow from him is very fragile. Someone has tried to hold the cover together with tape. When I begin to read it, I will do so with great care.
Meantime last night or about so (my relationships with the Time are fascinating) I’ve begun or more precisely continued another project. It turned out to be small that time but promises to be big now (I’ll explain in a minute). We’ve taken photos for that project about a year ago and I feel closer to it just now. More or less. Rita run through the winter forest not just naked, which is relatively easy, but barefoot and sat bareass on snow-covered stumps, which is tough absolutely (the whole idea was all hers!). She’s my hero. Real artist. It was just pre-war like some presentiment or precognition. Homeless. Out of all the previous life. Wild. Rita called that project “Run wild”, so be it, I do like this title (decided I right now, translating the title Russian-English). It was getting dark in the forest because it took me that long to get out and that’s – because I didn’t believe that Rita really means it so why bother, let it go as it will. I’ll show you what we’ve got for you, hopefully pretty soon. So, I desire to upload all that that I’ve got for now in this previous project. It’s important for me as well. Cause I’m still bet on freedom in these awful times. Any times. How d’you like it?
Why do I still mention Behance and Patreon? Don’t get them till now. And insta? Just hate it. Fb and vk – about the dead either good or nothing. But what else do we have? What do you have?
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta and behance www.behance.net/gallery/140662555/Give-Peace-a-Chance-%28..., but without these texts)
I wanted to tell you something about life under occupation. I’ll clarify: I’m Russian, living in Russia and my motherland is stolen and occupied. We couldn’t freely express our opinions in fear of arbitrary arrest, heavy fine, detention and prison. We couldn’t even like posts in social media freely. One of the latest news – one Russian was fined for his blue and yellow sports shoes. This fines usually are more than average monthly wages. Some “patriots” or maybe bots are snitching on you for the comments on social media. Students in schools are snitching on those teachers and on and on. So, Russia is occupied as well as Ukraine. Just without shelling but with murdering. They had much more time here, they needn’t this. They had all the system of the state to use it as they wish. Pfff, I decided to take a little break and tell you about life under occupation in the next letter. There would be more fun.
To be continued…
Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. — Luke 18:1
I find that line immensely encouraging. I’m grateful Scripture precedes the famous story of the “persistent widow” with that little comment. It’s encouraging because Jesus obviously understands that we all have reasons to give up. It’s encouraging because in the story He tells, it looks like nothing is working, not for a long time.
One of the reasons I love the Bible is because it is such an honest book.
How many Psalms are basically built around the question, “Where are you God? Why aren’t you doing something?”
My wife just called me into the living room. “I have disappointing news,” she said. Her eyes were moist. My stomach had that queasy oh no — what next? feeling. I braced myself. We’ve had several rounds of bad news this spring and I just don’t know how much more I can take right now. “The radiologist called and gave me the report.” I sat down and listened. It wasn’t what we were hoping for. It certainly wasn’t the report of healing we had been praying for over the course of the past seven months. My heart sank.
“But we prayed.”
I know we all have stories like this — stories of disappointment in prayer. We tried, we put our faith in God, but nothing seemed to change. It can be brutal on the heart and on our relationship with God. Prayer creates a terrible bind for us. We long to pray; it’s part of our nature. We long to see things change in our world. But then, when prayer doesn’t seem to work, it can really knock the wind out of you.
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? — Psalm 13:1-2
Which brings us back to not giving up. Jesus urged us not to give up. But how? I’d like to try and offer a few words of encouragement.
First off, don’t go “global.” It’s an expression I use as a counselor to describe what happens when somebody is upset, and they go from the event that made them upset to everything makes them upset. You know how this works — you forget to feed the cat, and your wife or housemate is mad and they say, “You always forget to feed the cat. You forget to lock the door and you forget to mail the taxes and you….” They go global; they let one disappointment trigger them into “everything is disappointing” when in fact it’s just not true.
When Stasi gave me the bad news this morning I wanted to go global; in my disappointment I wanted to say, “Prayer doesn’t work. I’m done praying about everything.” When the truth is, we have seen stunning answers to prayer over the years, many answers to prayer. No — not all the time. But many times. Yet when my current prayers don’t seem to be working, I suddenly I forget all the answers I have seen over the years. I have to catch myself and remember what is true. This is in fact exactly what the Psalmist does, just a few lines later:
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me. — Psalm 13:5-6
He reminds himself, “God does love me; He has been good to me.” This is heartbreaking, but this is not my total experience of God, not even close. Which brings me to my second lesson: I have to anchor myself in what is true: God is good. He cares immensely. He is involved. When disappointment strikes and my prayers seem to be bouncing off the ceiling, I simply must anchor my heart in these truths or will go down like a sinking ship.
Third, I want to stop and ask why — “why aren’t my prayers working, Lord? What is it I need to know?” Prayer is, after all, a conversation with God. It isn’t supposed to be speech-making, where we come in and have our say and leave before He can say anything in return. The one thing that has changed my prayer life more than any other is asking Jesus, “Lord, what do I pray here?” He can then re-direct my prayers in a far more helpful and effective direction.
Back to the story of the persistent widow — you’ll notice that it is a story about persevering in prayer. Most of the great biblical prayer stories are. How many times did it take Elijah to call down the promised rain? Not once; not twice; eight rounds of all-of-your-heart-soul-mind-and-strength prayer. In Acts chapter 12 James had been seized by Herod and executed. He then arrested Peter and put him in jail and the outcome looked the same. But the story shifts with the phrase,
But the church was praying very earnestly for him. — Acts 12:5
The Greek for “very earnestly” is the same description of the prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane. This is serious prayer. The text also indicates that the church is praying for Peter all night long.
And Peter is rescued.
In humility I don’t think we can begin to discuss the dilemma of “unanswered prayer” until we have learned to pray like the persistent widow, or Elijah, like the church in Acts 12.
One last thought for now: did you notice that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray:
Lord, teach us to pray. — Luke 11:1
It had never crossed my mind that prayer is something to be learned. I assumed it was more like sneezing — you just sort of did it, and God took care of the rest. A very naive view of prayer. You couldn’t get away with that attitude in your marriage, or career, not as a parent, or in anything you enjoy doing. Everything you value in your life you had to learn. And so it is with prayer, especially with prayer. This is our great secret weapon, friends. James says,
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. — James 5:16
If it is, I humbly accept that it is something I want to be trained in.
I understand disappointment in prayer, I really do. I also understand there is nothing my enemy would love more than for me to give up praying. And so I return to the Psalms, and I let them express my heart: both “how long, O Lord?” and “But I trust in Your unfailing love” for You have been good to me. And back to my knees I go.
Original devotional written for Devotional Daily by John Eldredge, author of Moving Mountains, copyright John Eldredge, 2016
The parable of Plato's Cave is the most famous in philosophy. Central to it all is the relationship between light and shadows, form and appearances.
Plato (428-348 BC) was the greatest student of Socrates. In fact we only know of Socrates (who never wrote a word) through Plato's brilliant texts. The important 20th century philosopher and mathematician A.N. Whitehead, once descibed all Western philosophy as a "footnote to Plato". He was not far wrong. Plato is to philosophy what Shakespeare is to literature.
But back to the parable. Plato asked us to picture a group of slaves (very significant choice) chained up and facing a wall in a cave. Behind them is a burning fire that creates a shadow play on the wall. The unfortunate slaves think that these shadow images (appearances) are in fact the full extent of the world.
Outside the cave, however, the sun shines brightly. It is the true Light and the true Cosmos (all that is). But the slaves never see it. The problem is, says Plato, that people have substituted a shadow world of appearances (i.e. things as they appear to us) for the Ideal Form of things-as-they-actually-are in the Mind of God.
Hundreds of books have been written on this subject, especially on its relationship to the theory of knowledge and to spirituality, but the major takeaway is this:
Do not trust your senses. They are part of your experience as a slave to the material world. A far better guide to true liberation comes from leaving the world of appearances behind and seeking the True Light - revealed to us through intuition, dreams, prophecy and the arts.
Aldous Huxley began his book on "The Doors of Perception" (1954) with these words from William Blake:
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."
Let us not forget that Huxley also predicted the contemporary world in his book "Brave New World" (1932).
Luke 12:13–21 (ESV)
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
One of my favourite Bible stories - the Parable of the Lost Sheep - portrayed in stained glass at St. John The Baptist, Aldbury!
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
"For one carved instant as they flew,
The language had no simile --
Silver, crystal, ivory
Were tarnished. Etched upon the horizon blue,
The frieze must go unchallenged, for the lift
And carriage of the wings would stain the drift
Of stars against a tropic indigo
Or dull the parable of snow.
Now settling one by one
Within green hollows or where curled
Crests caught the spectrum from the sun,
A thousand wings are furled.
No clay-born lilies of the world
Could blow as free
As those wild orchids of the sea."
-- E. J. Pratt / Seagulls
This is a journaling tool created for our "Parables" sermon-series during the summer of 2011.
Goal: Create a tool for people to journal through the Parables as we studied them together on Sunday.
Audience: ~400 church goers (youth to 70+)
Direction: Create a journaling tool for congregants.
Project: Parables - The Greatest Stories Ever Told
Other important info: This tool is for a 9 week series. Each Sunday we are discussing a different parable. Each week has it's own imagery and all 9 images are included on the cover (and can be seen in greater detail at www.flickr.com/photos/thevailchurch. We wanted to keep each week's imagery simple and tie it all together with the idea of engaging in the stories of Jesus. Thus, a journal was proposed.
One idea was to make a variety of journals using only one-week's artwork (4 or 5 different journals with different artwork). However, that was cost prohibitive, so we decided to feature all 9 weeks in the final artwork.
Grace appears in the midst of friendship. The past is prelude, the future beyond reach. This is now, and all is well again.
My friend Ed, a poet, shared with me a little parable he wrote for his sons when they were young. It concerned the wonders that arose from an unlikely friendship between a field mouse and a disfigured purple pumpkin with a boundless empathy.
I have tried to capture the spirit of them in a couple of illustrations.
Ball filter (free!) at dumpr.net
www.dumpr.net/amazing-circles.php
Based on this image:
www.flickr.com/photos/galleryofsloth/6475324745/in/photos...
"Parable In Autumn" from Seattle sculptor Buster Simpson's "Parable."
“There is in the sacred heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return.”—Pope Leo XIII
“Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want to learn to love everyone and all species. If I succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on Earth… This is the real message of love.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
“God is the indivisible oneness devoid of all boundaries or separation.”—Amma
“All are but parts of one stupendous Whole: Whose Body Nature is, and God the Soul.”—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
“But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.”—Vincent van Gogh
“Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.”—Malcolm Muggeridge
“God enters by a private door into each individual.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”—John Muir
“The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Allâh is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as (if there were) a niche and within it a lamp, the lamp is in glass, the glass as it were a brilliant star, lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east (i.e. neither it gets sun-rays only in the morning) nor of the west (i.e. nor it gets sun-rays only in the afternoon, but it is exposed to the sun all day long), whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself), though no fire touched it. Light upon Light! Allâh guides to His Light whom He wills. And Allâh sets forth parables for mankind, and Allâh is All-Knower of everything.
-Surah An-Nur-35
August - Divers 2020
'The Parable of the Good Shepherd' (engraving)
'We chose to work on a detail of the engraving depicting the shepherd with a sheep on his back. The idea is to transpose the shepherd's pose with a fox on his back. This central character of the fresco refers directly to the Rue des Renards (foxes) in which the fresco has been produced. It is also a nod to this rather lively neighbourhood populated by bars and a fun-loving population. The shepherd is watching over you. From a rendering point of view, we blend styles between realistic depiction, Bruegel-like backdrops and contemporary motifs. It's another way to express the cosmopolitan side of the neighbourhood.'
Farm Prod
Parcours Bruegel
Bruegel meets street art
visit.brussels, together with the Brussels collective Farm Prod and with the support of the City of Brussels, has developed a 'PARCOURS Street Art' tour honouring the great Flemish master Pieter Bruegel in the heart of the capital. No less than 11 frescoes now adorn a number of facades in the Marolles district.
Link : parcoursstreetart.brussels/en/parcours/parcours-bruegel/
Photos of August 2020
Photos de aout 2020
( Diverses photos prisent en 2020 sans sujet reel.
Various pictures taken in 2020 without real subject. )
God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/gods-work-gods-disposition-and-g...
".......
Next we’ll take a look at a parable told by the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace.
3. The Parable of the Lost Sheep
(Mat 18:12-14) How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
........"
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