{"id":25634,"date":"2020-04-01T22:05:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T21:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/?p=25634"},"modified":"2020-04-01T22:05:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T21:05:49","slug":"art-of-the-month-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/art-of-the-month-april\/","title":{"rendered":"ART OF THE MONTH -APRIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This painting, The Descent (or Deposition) of Christ from the Cross,\u00a0 is on a wood-panel by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden.\u00a0 It dates from around 1435 and can be found\u00a0 in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. There is a copy of this painting in the Chapel at Turnbull Hall, the Catholic Chaplaincy of the University of Glasgow. Jesus is dead and has been lowered from the cross, by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.\u00a0 The flesh tones of the Body of Christ stand in stark contrast to the beautiful and sometimes rich garments the others are wearing.\u00a0 Look at the grief on the faces of those around the Dead Christ.\u00a0 Bewilderment, grief and piercing sorrow.\u00a0 Mary, the Mother of Jesus, seems to faint or swoon with shock and is comforted by John, the Beloved Apostle.\u00a0 This small group alone care tenderly for the Beloved One.\u00a0 Where are all those he healed and cured and comforted during his public ministry?\u00a0 Where are we?\u00a0 Are we mere on-lookers?\u00a0 The month of the Crucifixion!\u00a0 This year, Good Friday falls on 10th April which happens to be the anniversary of the election to the See of Peter in 2005\u00a0 of His Holiness, Benedect XVI.\u00a0 Holy Week and Good Friday in particular, presents us with time and opportunity for being holy in all things.\u00a0 A time during which we may strengthen ourselves and the pupils, as Saint Ignatius of Antioch has it in his letter to the Church of Ephesus, \u201cby your faith, your encouragement, your patience, your serenity.\u201d As we observe the Passion of the Lord, we mark the day with fasting and abstinence.\u00a0 It may be useful to remind ourselves of what this involves.\u00a0 As on Ash Wednesday, on Good Friday everyone 14 years of age or older is bound to abstain from meat. Those of us who are 18 or older, but under 59 years of age are bound also to fast on on these penitential days.\u00a0 In practice, what does this involve?\u00a0 We should eat only one full meatless meal. Two other small meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to each one\u2019s needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. So, we could have two snacks during the day to keep us from feeling unwell. That apart, eating between meals really shouldn\u2019t happen! Ill health, of course, could be an excusing cause but we should not lightly excuse ourselves from these these rare acts of penance and mortification.\u00a0 The greatest act of mortification the world has ever known was the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord.\u00a0 Look again at the painting and at the unusual shape of His Body.\u00a0 Does it remind you of anything?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s a clue.\u00a0 The artist, Rogier van der Weyden, was commissioned by the Leuven guild of archers for their chapel and very cleverly and uniquely, he positioned Christ’s body in the T-shape of a crossbow to reflect the commission.\u00a0 The feet of Christ seem still to be nailed together; the arms still stretched as they were on the Cross as if to suggest the Crucifixion will not end until the world does. The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to speak of \u201cthe eternal freshness of the wounds of Christ.\u201d Holy Week is such a poignant time but one comforting thought that gets us through Good Friday is that, of course, it is not quite the end!<\/p>\n

Monsignor Monaghan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This painting, The Descent (or Deposition) of Christ from the Cross,\u00a0 is on a wood-panel by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden.\u00a0 It dates from around 1435 and can be found\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25634"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25638,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25634\/revisions\/25638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}