I love evening light. It suggests possibilities. It calls to my mind time in chapels, motes in the sun, ballgames, preparing supper for friends.
I once freaked out the person looking in on my house when I went away for a long time with this permanent arrangement of fruit firmly on the dining room table. I was roundly castigated, up to the minute he tried to move this very heavy collection.
Which I brought it back piece by piece from Rome, … as Preserved Killick would say.
I like going to museums on weekends when I can, so today… eis deficientibus … I am channeling my inner natura morta, my inner still life.
Also, here is an old chalice. I used this during Lent. It is dear to me. I kept this in my lockable niche in the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica for years, for I said Mass there everyday.
Let nobody claim that in the past people did not understand "noble simplicity".
The patten has a dent, from the first week in a parish where I was assigned.
Just a glimpse of life, in the evening.
I will now eat supper.
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Beautiful.
Friends;
Our right to life group is in need of a Chalice. Each Saturday we have Mass, the start of Benediction, and exposed adoration. Some stay in church while the others process a few blocks to the local abortion factory. We pray the rosary continually till we return to church and finish Benediction. Each week we have a different priest who generously gives of his time. The church’s vessel is glass, but sometimes a metal chalice is brought to church, at other times it is not. Do you have a Chalice that could be left at this church for all the priest to use?
Contact Fr. James Reutter @ 513-922-4460
His Parish web site http://www.olv.org/
JMJ
Tom Lanter
The picture of the chalice with the natura morta in the background…
Awesome combination.
That picture belongs in a museum. A catechetical lesson for all.
For just as the seeds of dead fruit die and give life abundantly, so does Christ, in dying, bear the fruit of life for us all.
Absolutely brilliant, Fr Z.
Noble simplicity. Wonderful.
Bellini’s landscape with St. Francis has a light that seems to me just like the light around 7:00 in the evening here as it falls on the dry grasses of Texas.
http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/ltrupe/art%20history%20web/final/chap17EarlyRenaissance/BelliniSaintFrancis.jpg
Beautiful photos. I love the history of the chalice being used at St. Peters.
Wonderful.
To think, these Sacred Vessels hold the precious Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I enjoyed the phrase…’noble simplicity’.
…the evening light in these photos is awesome.
From a Russian Poet:
Anna Akhmatova
“Broad and yellow is the evening light” (1915)
The coolness of April is dear.
You, of course, are several years late,
Even so, I’m happy you’re here.
Sit close at hand and look at me,
With those eyes, so cheerful and mild:
This blue notebook is full, you see,
Full of poems I wrote as a child.
Forgive me, forgive me, for having grieved
For ignoring the sunlight, too.
And especially for having believed
That so many others were you.
“… as Preserved Killick would say”
Are you a fan of the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian? [Very much!]
Father, what date is your chalice? I’m guessing possibly 17th century, from the small bowl and heavy base.
The dent in the paten. I bet there is a story behind that!
I must admit that I’m curious about the lockable niches, Father.
Did they have any sublime or intrinsic beauty to go with their functionality, or were they more like the “bus station” / “commuter student” lockers one might find in a college building?
Oh, Father, THANK YOU for that moment of beauty!! I think we all needed that in the midst of the Holy Father’s tears. Thank you for bringing our hearts toward something so simply beautiful that carries such deep meaning, and which nudges us toward a prayer of thanks.
Beautiful pictures, Father Z!
And what a neat story behind the chalice and paten!
How did the paten dent come about? Did somebody drop it? Makes me think of the novel ‘The Silver Chalice’ by Thomas Costain-the chalice described in the book had a dent on its lip.
Irishgirl, I like to imagine that Fr Z rapped someone on the head with the paten for not kneeling for communion!