Head Coverings Redux

Having received some attention to the recent post on Veiling the Sacred, I have been doing some more reading on the subject and found a personal account of Christian head covering over at the Orthodox Christian Information Center which rings very true to me. I mean, if covering one's head in church allows us to participate more fully in the life of The Theotokos and makes us more harmonious with our Guardian Angel, what's not to like? The author's experience rings true and resonates with my personal experience. Amen, Elisabet! Now, if wearing a beret could only make me look like the model above ~ wait; it does? At least a little bit? Ah ha! When women realize head coverings are gorgeous, the churches wil be full of them, say what? If purity doesn't do it perhaps vanity will...

Here is an exerpt, but please click on over and read the whole thing.

QUOTE In 1995 I was chrismated Orthodox and was surprised to find myself again the only woman wearing a head-covering in my parish. An Orthodox sister told me, with a nod to my scarf, "We don't have to wear that anymore." I smiled and said, "I know, but I want to." St. Paul had said "ought," not "must." It was my voluntary obedience, even if I didn't understand the "why's." By now I had no intention of giving up the benefits. I felt blessed and protected, feminine, and, paradoxically, confident and free—in the presence of guardian and ministering angels.
In Orthodox worship the angels were even more in evidence. The Divine Liturgy is full of references to the various ranks of angels, emphasizing our participation with them in the joyous worship of the Holy Trinity. St. John Chrysostom (d. A.D. 407), in a sermon at the Feast of the Ascension, spoke both of angels and the veiling of women: "The angels are present hereOpen the eyes of faith and look upon this sight. For if the very air is filled with angels, how much more so the Church! ...Hear the Apostle teaching this, when he bids the women to cover their heads with a veil because of the presence of the angels." UNQUOTE

Theotokos of the Lifegiving Font

Outside of Constantinople, towards the district of the Seven Towers, there was in ancient times a very large and most beautiful church named in honour of the Theotokos; it had been built about the middle of the fifth century by the Emperor Leo the Great (also called "Leo of Thrace," he is commemorated on Jan. 20). Before he became Emperor, he had encountered there a blind man, who being tormented with thirst asked him to help him find water. Leo felt compassion for him and went in search of a source of water but found none. As he became downcast, he heard a voice telling him there was water nearby. He looked again, and found none. Then he heard the voice again, this time calling him "Emperor" and telling him that he would find muddy water in the densely wooded place nearby; he was to take some water and anoint the blind man's eyes with it. When he had done this, the blind man received his sight. After Leo became Emperor as the most holy Theotokos had prophesied, he raised up a church over the spring, whose waters worked many healings and cured maladies by the grace of the Theotokos; from this, it came to be called the "Life-giving Spring." The Church of Christ celebrates the censecration of this church on this day.

After the fall of the imperial city, this church was razed to the ground and the materials from it were used for building the mosque of Sultan Bayezid. Nothing remained of that church's ancient beauty, except for a small and paltry chapel, almost completely buried in the ruins. This chapel had twenty-five steps going down into it, and a transom window on the roof, wherefrom it received a little light. Toward the western side of the chapel was the aforementioned holy Spring, fenced about with a railing, and with fish swimming in it. Such was the condition of the Spring until 1821. Then even that little remnant was destroyed, occasioned by the uprising of the Greek nation against the Ottoman Empire; the sacred Spring was buried with it and disappeared altogether.

But in the days of Sultan Mahmud, when those subject to him were rejoicing in their freedom to practice their religion, permission was sought by the Orthodox Christian community to rebuild at least part of the chapel. Thus the work was begun on July 26, 1833. When the excavation had been made, and the foundations of the ancient church were found, there was rebuilt -- by a later writ of permission from the Sultan -- not merely a chapel of the holy Spring, but another new church, constructed upon the foundations of the ancient one. The building of this spacious, beautiful, and most majestic temple began on September 14, 1833, and the work was completed on December 30, 1834. On February 2, 1835, the Ecumenical Patriarch Constantine II, serving the Liturgy together with twelve hierarchs and a great company of clergy, as well as a boundless multitude of Christians, performed the consecration of this sacred church and dedicated it to the glory of the Mother of God. On September 6, 1955, however, it was desecrated and destroyed again by the Turks; it has been restored again, but not to the former magnificence.

Johnny Cash Documentary August 5

I've been a Johnny Cash fan since I was 10 years old. That's a while ago.

He was one popular singer my Dad and I could agree on in the turbulent 60's when the Beatles and Dylan were too weird for the parents. Cash provided a golden link from the days of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Bob Wills to the modern music era, and a bridge from the Depression survivors to the Vietnam survivors. He provided a much-needed bridge between my father and me. God bless you, Johnny. Check it out.

From MyWay News:

QUOTE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A 40-year-old documentary about Johnny Cash to air on the Public Broadcasting Service shows him in concert and in casual settings. But unlike the 2005 movie "Walk the Line," there's no mention of his well-documented substance abuse.
The documentary "Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music" is expected to air Tuesday as part of the 21st season of PBS' Emmy-winning P.O.V. series.
The documentary was made over several months in 1968 and 1969 when Cash was at the peak of his popularity. He's shown on stage and off: hunting, playfully holding a crow; coaxing his father to sing; signing autographs; posing for photos; and listening attentively to an aspiring singer. UNQUOTE


Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Truth, Beauty, Goodness

When exhorting the throngs at World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI at one point urged the young people to seek truth, goodness and beauty in their lives and in the world.

In the 14th century, in the book "The Life in Christ" by the Byzantine theologian, Nicholas Cabasilas, we rediscover Plato's experience in which the ultimate object of man's longing/poignancy transformed by the new Christian experience, is nameless. Cabasilas says: "When men have a longing so great that it surpasses human nature and eagerly desire and are able to accomplish things beyond human thought, it is the Bridegroom who has smitten them with this longing. It is he who has sent a ray of his beauty into their eyes. The greatness of the wound already shows the arrow which has struck home, the longing indicates who has inflicted the wound" (cf. "The Life in Christ," the Second Book, 15). True knowledge is being struck by the arrow of Beauty that wounds man, moved to apprehend "how it is Christ himself who is present."

A love for Nature, a love for her beauties, a love for art and music and surpassingly lovely architecture, a passion for goodness and truth: what are these but a love of souls? What are these but the yearning of the soul for its Creator and the intuition of the signature of the Author in His "books"? The miracle of an apple blossom, a rose, a water lily ~ its scent, its perfection, the delicate fuzzy tiny heart of the flower, like a soft golden crown ~ such stand as a marker of the right way on the highway to heaven. Veined with light, fragrant and serene, they carpet the pathways of The King.

It is very good that the curent pontiff is encouraging the young people in this.

Friday At The Rosemary Tree Pub

Pull a tall cool one and sit back. Or scroll to the bottom of the page & play some darts in The Pub. It's Irish time.

John Spillane ~ There Was a Man


We saw John Spillane and the Gaelic Hit Factory in Kansas City last autumn at the KC Irish Fest, and it was love at first listen. We may be the only Gaelic Hit Factory groupies in Nebraska. (Let me know if there are more of us out there.)

Buile Mo Chroi (The Beat of my Heart)



My Dark Rosaleen -