Creation of icons based on the Book of Revelation

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Archangel Michael Defeats the Enemy

Here is a rather cool painting of Archangel Michael, I recently completed in watercolour for a private commission and one of two  requested. Very loosely after a version by Guido Reni, which hangs in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rome.

I am rather fond of Archangel Michael especially as he is very busy chaining up the Enemy after some almighty battle amidst the hellfire and brimstone.  You will notice that he is looking very calm and glowy; in fact even Lucifer seems to be having an afternoon nap.  Well, I guess to these guys, such galaxy crunching warfare is just like working down on the farm for us mere mortals.  I can imagine them getting up after the final round and going off for a cup of tea and cake before the next contretemps begins.

I am not altogether impressed by Michael’s boots – they do not seem quite the sensible footwear an Archangel should don when going into fiery, smoking zones.  The Enemy has no such qualms as he is sporting some kind of serpent’s tail and I am striving not to think how ridiculous he would look slithering along with such an appendage.  One swipe of that sword and Michael would be doing him a grand favour.

I must gossip here very slightly about the mature ladies of St. Mary’s Church in Aylesbury who have had one of two peeks at this image as it was being developed.  I can honestly say they are a saucy bunch and there were a few excited comments about Michael’s legs.  One was rather taken with Lucifer.  There is no saving them, I fear.

At this point I would like to thank young Guy Sutherland, one of my biology A level students for being brave and sitting twice for me whilst working up the image.  He has one of those faces that, to an artist, simply exudes light and serenity- perfect for this rendition of Michael.  Also many thanks to his father Nick who supplied the sword and mum Lisa and step dad Jerry who have been supplying me with tea and coffee (and recently a most welcome cold beer on a hot evening) for a number of months whilst tutoring and coming transform their conservatory into a temporary studio for the sittings. I am considering sister Gemma or Joan of Arc at some stage, but she does not know this yet.

For any of Guy’s mates who read this blog I can quite categorically say Guy did not wear the dress or the impractical boots.  He did not!

Lastly I would like to thank my commissioner, Paul and his mum Anna for the joy of giving me some different art work to play with.  I feel my artist’s soul is rediscovering older technical loves again after many years focusing on one medium.

Using models certainly enlivens and humanises the process of creating art.

I have yet to book the Rector as a model but for some reason he keeps running away when I enter the church…

Posters of the image will be available from Serenity Icons shortly.

The Painted House

There is a magical painted house that lives somewhere this side of the great universal divide.  Can a house live?  I guess it depends on what you define the house to be and if you believe that all that exists is alive, even if purely a mere vibration on the atomic level.

Wondrous is this house!  It is what it is and yet each and everyone who comes to look at it, if they can be bothered that is, sees a different thing.  The myriad facets of its architecture are such that no one person can quite see it fully.  Though there are some who get mightily close but when they do they simply become one with the house and never wish to leave.

Sadly, most of the time, the house is dismissed as a little too vulgar, a little too eccentric, not quite the thing, not what the discerning and worldly person would want his acquaintances to associate him with.

It is decidedly shabby, too.  Years of erosion from the battering of its occupants and the disdain of those who pass through and by those who cannot see its worth.  Yet there are many hidden rooms each containing a jewel or prize so precious anyone finding such a treasure would keep it close to his heart and never part with it.  Even so, the nature of such treasures is they refuse to be hidden and the bearer becomes one with the precious object and emanates its light even so; at once becoming a focus for all and sundry to do as they will in accordance with their nature.  Such secret rooms and secret treasures are only allowed to be found by those who have the courage to bear the jewel within.  The house is ever mindful of its parts.

One day it was painted anew and afresh.  Glorious and wonderful; beautiful and divine.  “Here I am!”the house seemed to shout.  Come along and live within these walls and feed off of manna and rich wine.  Come within and find a host of saintly, angelic brethren ready and waiting to help you and do whatever you wish.  The light from the house was so astonishing it cast dim the surrounding landscape.  The inhabitants of this landscape, this world in which we live, saw the light and cried with horror.  Everything they held dear and precious was revealed for the illusion it was.  Their world made no sense anymore, their chief means of fulfillment disappeared in one stroke.  Like bored and aimless youth they aimed stones at the lighted windows, sprayed caricatures over the walls and kicked in the doors till they were not much more than broken splinters of wood tipped with the  bloodied specks of the fresh red paint.

Within a moment the glorious dwelling was shabby once more, blended once more, with the dull drab of the local environment.  The painted house could now be dismissed and forgotten as it always was and always had been by the multitudes who passed it by.

Yet there were still the few who saw the poor house, felt compassion for its sadness and entered within. Once entered, the house would respond to its visitor with a prick from the red splinters of wood into searching palms; a shard of glass might enter the soulful eye; a hint of perfume from another world may enter the lungs and so fill the being of the explorer.  These attacks would penetrate and wound deeply, would give insights of glories unimaginable, reveal truths so painful and hard and would transfigure the soul into something akin to the source which was revealed when the house had been so shining and renewed.

The wounded ones would emerge eventually from their suffering and experience of the house, they would emerge and walk in the dim, dull desolate place and show their wounds and their agonies and also the joy they had found through the transformation.  In doing so they would be ignored, rejected, attacked, maligned and brutalised by those who were afraid of the revealing  light they bore.  Some would be accepted but only whilst they conformed to the needs of those around them as they ministered and helped.  Once this ministry was at an end they would find themselves tossed aside once more to endure further suffering. Yet they would not really be suffering because they knew this pain was the passport back to the holy painted house.  The heart pierced by the sword of human vitriol or ignorance could not suffer any further as it already bore the wounds from the painted splinters and shards of broken glass.  This mystical pain, suffused with the perfume of the Divine, is sweeter and more sublime than any passer by who dismisses the house could possibly imagine.

The painted house sits there still.  Its secrets revealed to those who can see and hidden from those who refuse to see.  There is still time to visit this holy painted house.  Just a little time, but still there is time.

 

 

On the Nature of Evil – a Philosopher’s Perspective

Once in a while I contribute to group discussions – one of my favourites is the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology  or ESSST.  There are always interesting people passing through and some are wild and entertaining, others serious and intellectual, still more who have steadfast viewpoints and once in a while there are posts that just exude considered thought and truth.  Today I am including in my blog, with permission from the author, some insights on the nature of evil.  The author is a Christian philosopher called David Huisjen, who is currently running around South Africa.

I am not usually enamoured of so called philosophers.  Generally they like to befuddle you with their learning, intellectual prowess and large words.  David is straight talking and sensible – I hope he understands I mean this as the highest of compliments.

Why am I posting this particular subject today?  No specific reason other than it is a topic we would do well to look at and become more aware of in our daily lives.  How it is part of us and how it is part of those we come across.  In understanding there is always the possibility of finding that hidden spark of the Divine buried deep within and hence the possibility of transformation.  I say this from personal perspectives and for the sake of globally devastating issues.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

Below is David’s take on aspects of the nature of evil.  For the full complement please go visit his blog.

Envy Too many people get hung up on competition with others to the point where they would rather destroy everything the other has than accept the roll of being the one with fewer toys. This sort of destructive competitive impulse has been the cause of ridiculous amounts of needless violence, pointless consumerism (and the environmental destruction it causes) and useless personal anxiety. If people could get beyond this impulse the world would be an infinitely safer and more pleasant place for all of us. And all it would really require is for them to grow up a bit.

BigotryThe ignorant assumption that “our group” is naturally better than “their group” might be useful for inspiring some sad souls whose self-image is in the crapper otherwise, but that doesn’t by any means excuse it. This might be harder to outgrow than envy, but it can be seriously improved on with education. When people actually come to understand something about where the “others” are coming from in terms of their own situations and motivations, they actually tend to discover that they aren’t nearly as strange, disgusting or inferior as they had previously assumed, or been conditioned to believe.

BullyingIn this form of evil –– yet another sort of defensive maneuver used in personal competition –– juvenile-minded individuals start looking for someone they can prove that they are stronger and “cooler” than, and they then proceed to find ways of torturing that vulnerable individual in order to beef up their own status. As a teacher I’ve told students that I consider bullies to be a life form somewhere between earthworms and cockroaches on an evolutionary scale, but that wasn’t a very philosophical way of putting it. The main point is that bullying causes all sorts of deep personal damage to both the bullied and the bullies that in turn lead to lifetime patterns of destructive and anti-social behavior in both. Teach kids not to bully each other –– teach adults not to continue bullying each other –– and a great number of the stupid and immoral things that businessmen and politicians do beat up on others could be eliminated within a generation.

Scape-goatingRather than following the ritual given in the Jewish scriptures that this practice takes its name from, these days we have extensive numbers of evil people who look for vulnerable individuals to take the blame for all of their problems and the results of their bad decisions. The classic example that everyone seems aware of is what Hitler did with the Jews: claiming that all of the Germans’ problems were then Jews’ fault, thus they deserved to die. Usually, however, this evil practice is far more individualized and subtly personally vindictive. It can be a teacher, a classmate, a co-worker, a boss, a spouse, a neighbor… that the escapist accuses of having caused all of the problems in their life, or that of their child. And far too often these accusers manage to convince themselves that the charges they press are perfectly valid. Not only can this do the same sorts of damage on both sides as bullying, but it also prevents people from ever facing up to their personal responsibility for the state of their own lives. Fix that, and a whole range of other problems automatically get dealt with in the same stroke.

Sexual abuseThis is one of the more traditionally recognized forms of evil, where some aggressor (male or female) chooses some involuntary participant (male or female) to satisfy his or her sexual desires. Even if this is not a physically torturous experience, which it most frequently is, the emotional damage this causes to the victim in terms of a loss of self-confidence and a personal sense of value are immeasurable. The way in which this can prevent the victim from experiencing sex as a form of deep personal bonding thereafter is a tragedy of the highest level. The way in which victims of such abuse proceed to self-medicate and take out their sense of bitterness and resentment on others can lead to social dysfunctions of epic proportion. What counts as criminally prosecutable rape is not the issue here. The question is, are both parties in the sex act doing it as partners, in every sense of the word? If not, regardless of the legalities involved, there’s something evil going on. Another thing that can turn sexuality into a form of abuse is when it is based on some form of deception, such as adulterous cheating. I believe that complete physical intimacy should always have, at the bare minimum, a fully voluntary and mutually respectful quality to it. Ideally it should also have a dimension of emotional and/or spiritual connection to it. Lacking the latter can make it cheap; lacking the former can make it out and out evil.

Dehumanization Perhaps in the broader sense of the word, dehumanization is the common thread in all of the evils mentioned above, but in the deepest sense of the word this is the essence of what combatants are trained to do to each other: don’t think of the enemy as a fellow human being; think of him as a target to take out as part of the game, or an animal to be hunted down, or a strategic objective to be accomplished. Give them slang names that keep you from thinking of them as real people. That makes it a lot easier, if necessary, to torture, rape, kill and mutilate these individuals in order to gain an advantage in battle. While I’m not a strict pacifist, I can’t believe that any objective which requires that form of psychological conditioning in order to be achieved can be used as a justification for such means. Whenever we have to stop thinking of other people as inherently valuable human beings in order to do what we intend to do, we have stepped over the line into complete evil, regardless of how we try to justify it.

So what do all of these things have in common? Besides a laundry list of sins that I particularly hate, is there some basic quality to all of these things that makes them really evil? And to what extent are all of these tendencies inborn rather than the result of corruptions we are educated into? My answers –– and you are free to disagree with me without my consequently considering you to be evil –– are that in our postmodern world these are the things which most deserve to be hated, because they lead to the greatest damage to and destruction of the human spirit. They isolate people from God (or a sense of spirituality, if you prefer) and from each other, and they prevent people from truly loving themselves in a healthy way. These things potentially happen for all sorts of reasons, but more than anything else because of a tendency for cut-throat competition to become the meaning of life for some people. If “winning” is ultimately more important to you than any other form of human satisfaction, that makes you a potentially very evil person.

Franciscan Prayers and a tribute to Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The moment I sent an email, over a year ago, inquiring about becoming a Tertiary Franciscan, my spiritual direction and life changed.  I am still at the early novice stages and yet my whole life has been turned upside down and inside out in a way only a follower of beloved St. Francis or Christ could understand.  Though as an iconographer I am not surprised either – we look at all things through converse perspective.  The way of the kingdom is not the way of the world.  It is not.

The hardest part of all is to keep following in the way despite the reactions of people around us and especially family.  I have recently been given a book on becoming a disciple of Christ, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, by my novice guardian.  How timely was this book.  It seems to be my pattern to experience something first before gaining the understanding sometime later.

The experiences of truly following Christ are not for the fainthearted or those who wish to claim allegiance with worldly values and ideals.  Indeed, you cannot choose to follow in this way, you are chosen and it is often subtle at first. With increasing awareness, the veils of mystification are rolled back, and you begin to see the potential of who and what you are and where you are being asked to go.

Bonhoeffer understood this very well, very articulately and his inspired translation of the truth of the Beatitudes is sublime, moving and significant.  I am indebted to this heroic man.  There is still yet more to read, and more to digest.

As with writing an icon there are long stages of preparation, darkness and faults to rectify.  But as the icon nears its completion the development of the beautiful image beaming with uncreated light comes together more rapidly.  Each aspect of attention paid to it, lovingly, prayerfully helps it to unfold the beauty of the prototype in heaven, to bring the essence of that saint closer and closer.  We think we are writing the icon but it is indeed writing us, (see  my last post on Mary).  We are just the instrument of its revelation.

For my icon school this week I finished with a beautiful prayer I found on a Franciscan prayer website and I am sure they will not mind me repeating it here.  What I love about this prayer is how much the saint loves Jesus Christ.  He calls him, addresses him and loves him by name throughout.  You can feel his devotion in every word you utter. I leave it with you and wish all who read and understand this a blessed night.

A Spiritual Communion
By St. Conrad of Parzham

I have come to spend a few moments with Thee, O Jesus, and in spirit I prostrate myself in the dust before Thy Holy Tabernacle to adore Thee, my Lord and God, in deepest humility. Once more a day has come to its close, dear Jesus, another day which brings me nearer to the grave and my beloved heavenly home. Once more, O Jesus, my heart longs for Thee, the true Bread of Life, which contains all sweetness and relish. O my Jesus, mercifully grant me pardon for the faults and ingratitutde of this day, and come to me to refresh my poor heart which longs for Thee. As the heart pants for the waters, as the parched earth longs for the dew of heaven, even so does my poor heart long for Thee, Thou Fount of Life. I love Thee, O Jesus, I hope in Thee, I love Thee, and out of love for Thee I regret sincerely all my sins. May Thy peace and Thy benediction be mine now and always and for all eternity. Amen.

Regeneration

For the past six weeks I have been diligently working on the second of a pair of icons for a large church in London – the Madonna Hodegetria.  The gilding went well and matches with the first icon of Christ and the initial transfer of the image was good.  However, very soon after beginning I found I was not quite as happy with the composition I had sketched yet I doggedly continued.

Twenty years an artist behind me and more than half of them as a professional, I can honestly say that there are many challenges and they never go away.  At times, one can paint almost instantaneously and create something pleasing, beautiful and sublime.  It is almost as if the work creates itself and you are just the instrument of its manifestation in the world.  How I love these moments.  Here is one such painting below.

Then there are the times when the work progresses steadily and, though the inspiration is not so mind blowing, the result is just as pleasing but some thought and effort have been required to reach the end point.

And then….. there are the demanding ones.  What do I mean by demanding?  It is not that the painting is especially difficult or complex but there is a quality that the universe seems to demand of the artist.  If the artist is not tuned into it then it refuses to give until the said artist gets her act together and sorts herself.

Mary has been demanding.  Big time.

I had been so looking forward to beginning this work and was overjoyed with the feeling of love and warmth and compassion coming from the prototype.  But a few weeks into the laying on of the initial layers of Chaos, or roskrysh as the Russians call it, I began to find myself going over and making good an increasing number of errors.  Yesterday, I had it written down to sort out the face of the child Christ who was not behaving himself and refused to look like the contemplative child I had in mind.  Looking at the errant boy I decided to go back over the whole of the face with the dark green sankir I use as a base and withing ten minutes I had not only covered his face and hands but those of Mary as well.  In the subsequent few hours I had practically gone over the whole icon and reapplied the tempera.

What a transformation!  The dulled areas of orange had brightened up by orders of magnitude, the sketches of the faces were where I truly wanted them to be and the line work on the robes was just right.  It would seem the confusion of the past six weeks was over and I had realigned myself and the icon with the universe.  Now as I am working on it again I feel a balance and harmony that signify the work is on track.

What brought about the change is my own awareness that I had let my Franciscan prayers slide a little – not completely, but I had begun to drop the night prayer and skip the odd morning prayer.  My excuse is my life being madly busy- but this is an excuse.  I know very well that without the foundation of my offices I am incapable of managing the myriad of things I am being asked to do and am enjoying doing.

I have found this backsliding to be a regular event in my life and I am certain it is the same for others, too.  It is almost as if we are given the chance to rebel a little; be slightly disobedient, in order to remember what it its like without the support of God’s word, His love and our relationship with Him.  When we return, we are reinvigorated in prayer and devotion and more zealous to maintain the practices we know are our daily bread and sustenance of the soul.

Almighty God is a wise father, He interferes very little and lets us make our mistakes so we can truly learn.  He is not always there to pick us up when we err and make it right or offer us succour and sympathy.  It is a tough love but it is the greatest love.  We become something so much better if he lets us find our true selves eventually.  He is very patient – certainly with me!

Now I am going back to Mary.

Serenity Icons

Announcing the launch of Serenity Icons in association with Rhys and Simon Weaver who are developing a print publishing website to raise money for St. Mary’s and sort out the printing and marketing  side of my work – for which I have no ability whatsoever.

New things will be added over time and we are beginning with a series of small icon prints on plywood boards.

Check it out by clicking link above or on the shop navigation bar at the top of the page.

The Extraordinary Ordinary

It seems I have some space this morning and there are three thousand and one things that need my attention but I am strongly moved to write this post because of the simple beauty of the experience.

Yesterday, on duty as Artist in Residence at St. Mary’s church in Aylesbury, I had just finished setting up for what is now a thirteen hour day.  I noticed a young man had come in with an army type jacket, huge knapsack and sparkling earring.  He wandered around quietly, taking in the building and then stopped near where I work to write a prayer request.  As he walked back towards the altar I said good morning and asked if he was a soldier.  He laughed and said no, he was from Aberdeenshire.  His parents have moved back to Aylesbury recently from Scotland and they had lived in Aylesbury when he was younger.  Then he just stood there and spoke in his quiet Scottish accent of how he loves this church, he loves the feeling when he comes in.  “I can feel the presence of God in here,” he said in a voice that was quiet and full of reverence and wonder. “I love this place.” He did not know me, and I had barely said a thing and here I stood being blessed by his response.

What could I say to that?  There were no words that could be spoken in answer.  He had said everything that was needed to be said.  This ordinary young man whose lips were full of beauty and praise. I knew then what a special day it was going to be.  I saw him later sitting quietly praying in the Lady Chapel.

Not long after, a special friend of mine, one of the wardens at the Quaker house, arrived for a chat as we had not seen each other for some weeks.  Her words feed the roots of my soul and we share many spiritual understandings and sometimes feel like we are talking in another language altogether.  As we sat by my beloved icon of Christ another young man came in with rough work clothes and builders’ boots.  He stopped to look at the sketch of Archangel Michael I am working on for a commission based on the work of Guido Reni.  He turned and asked if I had drawn it and I replied in the affirmative.  “Who is it?” he asked.

“Archangel Michael,”  I replied.

“Who is that man on the ground?”

“The devil,”  I said

“Why is the angel’s face so beautiful and peaceful?” he inquired and I replied that it is the same with St. George; that to defeat the Enemy requires love, not anger or aggression.

He nodded his head and then said the most profound thing, “Yes, that must be right as if we are full of rage and anger then the devil would feed off of it.”

“That is an incredible and very true insight, ” I answered and sat transfixed whilst this young man from Southcourt told us this most excellent thing before going for his coffee and saying he wished he could draw like that and did I do lessons!

In the afternoons I am working with a small group of people who wish for some gentle encouragement in their lives.  We started last week and very soon they were giggling over portraits I had asked them to do of one another.  This week we were exploring pastels and looking at how choosing colours has an affect on the work we produce.  Working with colours they would not choose habitually produced some incredible pieces of instant work.  One lady sketched out a cross and a white being bursting out of the ground.  She had not seen what it was – she thought it was just shapes and colours but another spotted it immediately and we could all see.  Later we were joined by one of the regular church goers who suffers terribly from epilepsy and within a few minutes he was making us laugh and started singing songs from the Jungle Book.

Going to wash my hands later I saw my face shining with light from the reflected beauty of these extraordinary ordinary people. This place has a special magnetism and for those who can see, it is glorious.

St Mary’s Icon School – term two

A new page has been inserted into the index for the beginning of term two.

http://apocalypseicons.com/st-marys-icon-school/term-two/

The Influence of Mary?

Today was my day for being in situ at St. Mary’s as the resident artist.  What a day of delightful discoveries, friendship, warmth, a commission- even two and a proposal of marriage.  Can’t be bad. I am wondering if it is the influence of Mary whom I have just started working on as the companion icon for the Christ recently completed.  She is a mischievous lady, I have decided but full of wonderful discoveries.

The sun was shining and for the first part of the morning I took my table outside and worked in the beautiful churchyard with robins, squirrels and a pair of doves for company.  But not for long.  Many people pass by the church on the way into town and as I sat ensconced outside there was a marvellous opportunity for many conversations, smiles of hello and good friendship.

There are people who work at St. Mary’s who continually stun me with their depth of character, faith and belief.  Ordinary people with not so ordinary lives: complications, problems, tragedies and much fun too.  We all have  issues yet here  are these people working in this community of fellowship and able to, little by little as they get to know me and I they, having confidence to share.  This has been so good for me too as I am intensely private but have discovered how sometimes just a little bit of letting go of my own worries at times has been warmly accepted and understood and compared to similar difficulties.  Thank you dear ones for being just as you are and allowing me to be just as I am.  This is beauty indeed.

A family comes by and the little boy is curious about my lady.  We have a conversation and I explain about the green sankir on the faces and why the baby Jesus is to be painted as an older child, due to the wisdom of the  Christ child.  They return later to see what progress I have made – not much and they are quite amazed at how long the work will take.  I am brought the best cappucino of the week from the refectory and have  more conversations with staff, one of which was so enlightening and positive I am almost taking off with happiness because of it.

My lovely old friend the architect comes by and brings his coffee and chair to sit with me whilst I work.  He shows me some sketches extrapolated from a fragment of a sculpture of Eros and some incredible griffins he has sketched which would have sat next to Eros.  He is like me, just so enthralled by all the process and the history, the art, sculpture and creative work in general.

At my left appear a recent commissioner for a watercolour – see dear Rabbit Paula below – bearing a bunch of tulips and white roses and a card.  She has been so delighted by the picture.  Her son waits patiently behind ready to discuss a pair of commissions of Archangel Michael he is wanting.  We reach agreement over one but I am unsure of the other – we are deciding between two images at the moment for that one but the work will begin in earnest over the weekend and I am ecstatic about it as I love Archangel Michael and the Michaelangelo which is one of the images he would like.

Another new friend pops by, a delightful Hindu man who regularly comes to pray in the church and then goes to the Catholic church to pray before returning home.  His name means ‘tears of the ice of the moon’ – wow, so incredible.  It turns out he knows my commissioner for Arch. Michael. Then begins a discussion with the architect about the origins of the  Three Wise Men and who they actually were.  The young man wanting the St. Michael paintings  is full of knowledge about them and I discover they were Zoroastrian astronomers. His mother tells me he has a room full of bibles and is in the process of collecting a copy of all the different versions he can. How could anyone not love doing the work I do when I meet such incredible people all the time.  People are works of art in themselves and it is such a joy to discover all this richness right under my artist’s eye.

The conversation gets confused and I find that my Hindu friend is offering proposals of marriage! He thought, when I said I was working on ‘Mary’ today, that I was getting married and he was upset as he had lost his chance!  Dark clouds coalesce and my friends help me indoors and we wrap up the craziness of the conversation.

As I eat my lunch one of the bell ringers comes in and starts taking pictures with my camera so I can use them in my blog.  She is a tremendously gifted photographer and decided my camera was ace and went off taking pictures all over the church.  Falling over one of the display boards she snaps a picture of a part of one of the windows and decides it is the best one of that window she has taken.  And beautiful it is too – here it is below:

God is great!

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!

May this year see our stony hearts transformed into hearts of light by the grace of Almighty God.

Those of you familiar with Dr. Who will know he has two hearts but we can do better than that, we have four.

First is the heart of stone.  When we act and react with this heart we do not feel empathy for others and yet when others hurt us we feel aggrieved and bitter.  It is as if a mountain has been damaged by some external force and the mark is left in situ for centuries until the effects of weathering soften the edges a little.  With a heart of stone we bear grudges and keep score for year after year.  We look for opportunities to hurt back or undermine those who we feel have caused us upset.  Often this cause is of our own making and a result of our own behaviour but we do not own it, it is the other who is at fault.  It is where Jesus tells us the world pays back evil for good.  When our lives are filled with chaos we need to ask  ourselves what is it in our own nature that is the cause of this.  But rarely with a heart of stone is this achieved. It is the kind of heart that is present in those who oppress others, in families, in institutions and in whole countries.  Others are no more important or interesting than a table or a chair.  They are things.  As the Hebrews do on the eve of Passover when looking in every nook and corner for the presence of yeast that needs to be thrown out; we need to root out the stoneyness present in our hearts as, if there is even a trace of it, it can contaminate the rest.

Second is the heart of water.  This is a little softer and more forgiving in quality.  If you throw a stone in a pond it send out ripples across the whole pond but eventually it settles and is calm again.  It is better to have such a heart.  But there are times when a storm comes and the water gets stirred up and floods damage the surrounding areas.  As the tides are affected by the moon so is a heart of water affected by external forces.  Emotions can go up and down and it may feel as if we have no control over them.  we behave as it there is nothing we can do about the outcomes of our behaviour.  But this is an illusion. We are always responsible and there is always something we can do to mitigate our offences.  The quality of a heart of water is to be happy when things are going well but to cause havoc when our lives are not so pleasant. We blame.  Let us remember how Jesus was able to walk on water.  This is a metaphor for the ability to rule our house of emotions masterfully.  Striving for equanimity in all things will restore balance and harmony in our lives.

Thirdly is the heart of air.  So much better than that of water.  If someone throws something at you and it flies past your head, you may feel a slight breeze as it passes but no more.  A heart of air is one that is spacious and able to fill all places and extend around the globe as the thin blue line of our earthly atmosphere attests.  It is global, accommodating and contains that which we need in order to live and breathe.  Yet even so, this is not the perfect heart.  At times a tornado or a hurricane is possible and the fury of it is destructive.  Being global in nature, this destruction has the power to cross many boundaries and hurt many people.  We must be watchful therefore as we grow in the spirit, as the damage we can do is not local but global in nature.  Those with hearts of air have a major responsibility for self-awareness.  The heart of air is akin to the human mind, the thinking.  We are still not conscious fully of how our thoughts can affect the world.  Every bitter thought, every hateful idea is not hidden from God.  It has a life and power of its own and a world filled with such thoughts of hate and anger and bitterness is the root cause of all the suffering we see around us and the destruction that is increasing.  We think a simple negative thought of our own is of no consequence, no one can see it.  However, this is not the case and we are all responsible for everything that happens to others in this world.  What can we do?  St Paul tells us very clearly. Capture every thought and examine it closely. This takes work and effort.  Let us take the time to do this holy work.

The fourth heart is the heart of light.  The perfect heart.  The heart that is like Jesus’ heart.  If anything goes through a beam of light, it is not affected.  The beam of light continues to shine.  Light can be distorted by the presence of air, of water and prisms of solid matter.  This is why the beauty of truth is often contaminated by the creatures of this world.  Imperfect hearts distort the beauty of the divine.  But the divine remains as it ever was and ever is and ever shall be.  To attain a heart of light is to become risen, to become transcended, to escape the sting of death.  We become something other from within and our own bodies become transformed by this light.  The world hates the heart of light.  It is a foreigner and an alien and it belongs in the kingdom of God, in Zion.  This is why Jesus said to Pilate his kingdom in not of this world. The transfiguration of Jesus shows us how the heart of light can come into being.  For us this process is very slow and gradual but it is happening and happening all the time.  We need to be vigilant and watch for signs of it.  We need to nurture the changes that cause it to flourish.  It is our inner Garden of Eden.

We all have qualities that match each one of these four hearts.  Sometimes we may feel we have the heart of light and then someone upsets us and we fall back down to the ground state of the heart of stone.  We are only as good as the lowest level we can maintain.  This is a very hard teaching and St. Francis comments on it to his brothers.  Yet we have hope because we have Christ who died for us and went through the process of transformation.  If we can, but cling onto his robe and hold tight, we will be saved from the iniquity that is within our own self.

Praise God.

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