Wise ones

In the year 2000, at the turn of the millennium, the National Catholic Reporter newspaper ran a contest, inviting artist to produce a rendition of Jesus for this time. The winner, “Jesus of the People” was painted by New England artist, Janet McKenzie. You can see it here. https://janetmckenzie.com/joppage1.html

I came in contact with Janet’s work a couple of years later when Orbis Books (Maryknoll) published a book, Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: the art of Janet McKenzie. It included reflections for each piece. Joan Chittister, OSB, wrote the reflection for “The Visitation.”

Through this project Orbis sent us prints of some of Janet’s other works and the one that really impacted us was the one called “Epiphany. We framed it and use it annually.

It features Janet’s usual androgynous people, both in gender and race. But, if you look closer you can see that they are definitely female. What a wonderful visual of the Magi, especially as it portrays women as the wise ones from the East.

It is eye opening when you first begin to experience such things as: to reading commentaries of biblical books from the point of view of the women involved; seeing visuals such as this that feature women as the principal players or discovering the spiritually rich material now available from a woman’s perspective, as well as a man’s.

So be sure to watch for wise men and wise women--both travel through our lives.

Sharing our "joy"?!

That time of year has come again...what time is that, you ask? The time when I share with all my friends in California, my cousins in Florida and the Carolinas and friends everywhere who grew up in Erie or visited often as a child, the snowy winters of the Great Lakes.

We had our first lake effect snow of the season December 25 and 26, and it was a winter wonderland for Christmas. I was so happy for the kids. They say Frontier Hill and Peak 'n Peak were full of sledders and skiers.

Here's a look at our 20.8" that fell on those days:

Looking out my bedroom window, with a huge amount of snow on the bird feeder. 

That's my yellow ruler to give you perspective!!

Here's the magnolia tree in the inner courtyard taken from a sister's room on 2nd floor. 

See how the bottom limbs are almost lying on the snow!

And here's a shot looking outside at 6:30 am on Christmas morning.

An outside security light gave some light, but otherwise it was pretty dark.

Quite idyllic

 Waking Christmas morning to 5-6" of new fresh snow and these: 

The male is a little squeamish, comes if the indoor lights are off!

 The female, however, comes right over to the window feeder--and stays!

Christmas 2020

 

This year our chapel Christmas tree is lovely. Quite perfectly shaped. A perfect height and even, for the first time that many of us can remember, adorned with little lights.

We are very much enjoying the ten minutes before Morning Prayer when only the tree and the Advent wreath are lit in the dark chapel. Quite a special moment.

Here it is all by itself.

Please know of a special and continual remembrance in our prayers and prayer services,  for all of you and for your loved ones, at this unusual and really quite sad Christmas time. Let us be good to each other--and for all those in our families and local communities.

Mild December gifts

 

December has been a mild one---so far. Here in Harborcreek we have had barely 4" of snow and daily high temperatures in the 40s and, just lately, 30s. Among the benefits that such mildness brings are these two fishermen who we ran into last weekend when we were walking down to the lake through our Glinodo property. 

They are seen here leaving for the day, each of them dragging two very large fish (Walleye??) hanging on hooks that they are holding...what does that make the fish, about 24"? At least, I would say.

So instead of making ice fishing plans on the bay, which has to have a minimum of 4" of ice, I believe, they are still enjoying the flowing open waters of all of the creeks emptying into Lake Erie. Especially ours: Seven Mile Creek.

Merry Christmas to them...and happy fresh fish dinners to all.

Around the house

Here are a couple of "projects" around our house right now. The first is a project that one of our novices organized. With the help of many Sister-elves (I know, corny!), they produced 50-60 ceramic Benedictine crosses as Christmas gifts to our neighbors at Benetwood Apartments. This year our annual dinner with them had to be cancelled, so hopefully this makes a nice substitute neighborly gesture to our friends there.

A second "project" is a special collection idea. The committee of sisters who were interested in organizing Advent/Christmas events, came up with this idea in lieu of exchanging Kris Kringle gifts this year. It also satisfies the need we all have to help the people of our city in some way. This photo shows the four boxes into which we can put our donations. Some sisters choose only one, some put in something in all four. Either way, hopefully these organizations will get some much-needed support from the Benedictine Sisters of Erie this Christmas: local needy children and adults, assistance to families at the Mexican border, a group working on Black Lives Matter, and the community Christmas collection cause.

City Art

I talked with a lovely gal, a traffic engineer in the city's traffic office, this week. Here's the story I got from her. 

She was visiting friends in Montana a couple of years ago and notice painted boxes around the city. She was so taken with them that when she returned home she talked about them at work. One thing led to another, as many good ideas do, and, after applying for a grant to the Erie Arts and Culture group, the traffic dept. erected four boxes over their traffic control equipment right in downtown Erie around Perry Square. The boxes were painted by a local artist, and all show beautiful flowering plants and bushes of our region.

They were such a hit that they applied for a second grant and, lo and behold, they received the OK for more "city art." Now 15-20 more of these unique pieces can be found again built around traffic control boxes throughout the downtown area. This time they each showcase special people or groups of people that are important to Erie, as one of the sides of each box details their history.

What a wonderful thing for our city. Thank you to L. at the City of Erie traffic department!

Here's one of the original four.

This one is at 8th and Parade St. and honors the founder of Kraus Dept. Store. 

The side not shown here gives a brief bio. on him.

 This is one of a number that offer "Welcome" to the many new citizens 

who have come into our community during the last few decades.

Our favorites

 

Today I am showing this photo, my first good "catch" of the chapel south windows. It was taken about 12-15 years ago now, but at exactly this time of year--the first week of December. It was on a Saturday morning, about 10:00 a.m. I was in the dining room vacuuming the carpet, when a friend ran in and said, "Come, you have to see the chapel windows!" So I did and then ran for my camera and this was the result.

After that I kinda' got hooked on them, as many of us are. I took each window individually, took each one with its reflection on the adjacent wall and even took a number of shots of the floor.

A couple of times I got very lucky and caught some of the colors going through a glass or plastic piece in the environment in the center of the chapel. Once I got some through the plastic stands for the handbells and, of course, there's the "famous" Sunday morning photo that two or three of us took--through the Charlie Brown Christmas tree the year the light went right through its branches onto the wall behind it.

But there is one shot that I don't have, though I've tried: the sunlight through the north windows. It's very hard to catch as it has to be at sunset, with strong, bright sun and at just the right angle, which honestly, I don't know the best time of year for all of those conditions to occur. But I almost got it, at least I got a pale version of it, a couple of times. Someday, maybe.

P.S. I love to see visitors trying to take photos of them. Sometimes, if they don't seem to mind, I'll go in and suggest they stand in this spot or that spot and get a certain shot. It's very nice to share them, as everyone is just as taken with them as we are.

P.P.S. Another "window memory": whenever we have a professional photographer here, especially for the first time, we'll show him/her around, making suggestions on possible places for pictures that they could use with their article or interview. No matter how many place we suggest, at the end of the tour they are sure to say, "Could we go back to the chapel, I think that's where I want to set up a shot." 

The windows, of course, the windows!

O Come Emmanuel

The Federation of St. Scholastica, an organization of 20 American Benedictine women's communities of which we are one, (there are three other federations in the country, also), will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary soon. To that end there is a page on the federation's website that is dedicated to pre-celebration events--one is the sharing of weekly reflections by various community members. This month and next I was asked to be that person. 

Many of my reflections are taken from ideas that came, over the years, from this blog. If you are interested in taking a look, you can find the first two weeks here.

Other news this weekend comes from the premier appearance of the handbell choir for the 2020-2021 season. Sunday's prayer included our playing of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"--fitting for the season. It came off without a hitch, as they say, but that is no small feat because we have two "rookies" in the choir of 10 ringers. Congrats Jen and Colleen on your debut--you were just great! Rookies no longer.

Duck Blinds Part 2

"The recent several-days windstorms blew many of the blinds across the road or onto the multi-purpose trail. One was even blown into one of the lagoon ponds. That is the reason for the support pole and the oddly positioned blind. Some of the blinds were even blown apart. During my Presque Isle run they were interesting sights, well over a dozen blown off moorings." This is the comment that my Duck Blind Part 1 received by community friend Victor R. Thanks so much Victor for sharing this fascinating first-person story of this year's duck blinds at Presque Isle.

Here is the final grouping: 

                                    This one seems to be in the water. I liked its side door!

Here's one we spied across Misery Bay--again in the water.

This one looked like it had a hard time in the storms Victor mentioned.

We almost missed this one. It's quite hidden from cars whizzing by.