My friend Maria, who blogs at Another Cup of Coffee, has been reminding of my tardiness in updating my blog. Her recent post for the Weekly Photo Challenge over at dailypost.wordpress.com has spurred me to action with this week’s great topic: Humanity Continue reading
Hello! Thanks for reading about Catholic Photo Challenge #5!
I called in the big guns for help on this new challenge. My dear friend Maria Johnson (begojohnson.com) has graciously agreed (OK, I twisted her arm live on Catholic Weekend) to guest post for this challenge. Thanks Maria! Continue reading
I was having a tough time coming up with a theme for this photo challenge when I ran across an article written by my bishop, Most Reverend Edward Slattery, Bishop of Tulsa, in the latest issue of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, our diocesan magazine. Continue reading
In the spring of 2006, I had the privilege to help lead a group of University of Tulsa Newman Center students on a pilgrimage to the Shrines of France. One day, while traveling through Normandy, we stopped to visit the D-Day beaches and the American Military Cemetery there. Continue reading
The imagery of light and darkness found throughout Scripture is very powerful, as we see here in Isaiah 9:1:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;Upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone.” (Isaiah 9:1)
“On the Move” is the theme for this week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com. Continue reading
The challenge this week from dailypost.wordpress.com is to share a post with letters. I knew what I wanted to capture, but it took a few days for the weather to cooperate.
For as long as I can remember, most likely my entire life, I’ve seen the Public Service Company power plant lit up at night, as you see above. Perched alongside the Arkansas River in the middle of the city, it’s hard to miss. Continue reading
The sky really is that blue some days.
I have a thing for monuments, which is the theme for this week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com. Continue reading
Blood Moon over Tulsa, OK
4/15/2014
This may seem a bit weird, but I guess I’ve turned into an amateur birder of sorts. While working up at my family’s lake cabin today, I caught site of several new birds flitting from tree to tree. Continue reading
This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is “Threshold.” The description they give is:
A threshold is a point of entering; that point just before a new beginning — that split-second moment in time, full of anticipation. All the hard work is over; relief is palpable.
I really didn’t know what to do with this challenge. My current day-to-day routine doesn’t really lend itself to much photographic creativity, so I pondered it until Sunday evening when I attended Mass at my parish. I sat in a different place than I usually do, so the procession to receive Holy Communion took me on a different path, past the Church’s hand carved Stations of the Cross, along the western wall of the Church.
It was a rare opportunity to see the Stations up close and to have a few seconds of contemplation with each. The 14th station, depicted above, of Christ being laid in the Tomb really speaks to me. It’s emotional and raw and in a way that I hope meets the definition of “threshold” given above.
An evangelical church that I pass each day on my drive to work currently has this on its marquee:
“What began with a tree ended with a tree.”
The phrase has bugged me all week because it is NOT the whole story. It’s not even the end of the story. The marquee recalls on one hand the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, source of the “apple” which caused man’s descent into sin, and, on the other hand, it brings forth the image of the tree from which Christ’s crucifix was made.
It over simplifies the enormity of Christ’s life and death and overlooks the critical need for His Resurrection. Christ removed from the cross and laid in the Tomb, as recounted in the 14th Station, is in this instant of reflection, a threshold for what had to happen after the Crucifixion to finish Christ’s mission on earth – proving that death is not the end for Him or us.
I took photos of all the Stations after Mass that evening. Not the best photos to be sure, but not bad for a little meditation.
This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is “Reflection,” an interesting topic to be sure:
Reflect: to consider where we’ve been in life, where we are now, and where we’re going.
It was a busy week, so I don’t feel like I did this topic much credit, but here are a few shots that I’ve taken in the last 6 months or so. I find them ‘reflective’ in the sense of an inner conversation that the bring to me, but that may not be obvious to you.
The most recent of the photos is this one:
This caught my attention the other morning. At Christmas I was collecting some pretty Christmas cards that I intend to frame someday. This one of the Madonna and Child has been sitting on my breakfast table for months when I noticed it’s reflection in my camera’s display. I thought it was interesting as a reflected image ON the camera, rather than one taken THROUGH the camera. What do you think?
Here’s another one that I like. It’s taken over the bay adjacent to St. Fidelis Seminary on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, where I taught. I did my best to capture the beauty and mystery of the clouded full moon over the water, but I lacked a proper tripod to really do it justice. Still, it’s an image that I can lose myself in, both with memories of the past and questions of the future.
I’m getting this week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com in just under the wire, I think.
The challenge this week is to show “abandoned.” I’ve been pondering it all week and though I knew I didn’t want to show something like an abandoned car or house or something like that, I couldn’t put my finger on something new to photo.
Instead, I decided to show you this photo that I took a couple of years ago. I think it’s interesting for a number of reason.
First, this is graffiti that I photographed from the wall of a building just outside Vatican City in Rome. I was there with Fr. Roderick Vonhogen for the Beatification of Pope John Paul II. I saw this as we were walking along a side street and nearly didn’t stop to shoot it.
Second, it grabbed my attention, and I use it now, because it expresses a hopelessness of the future, an “abandonment,” if you will that seemed so out of place in Rome.
I often wonder about the person who sprayed this on the wall and hope that he or she found answers for their angst. I think this feeling of abandonment, which we all feel from time to time, is a good thing to ponder during this season of Lent.
This afternoon I had the chance to see the film “Son of God,” with my sister. From what I understand, much of the footage came from last year’s “The Bible” mini-series. While I was in Papua New Guinea, Archbishop Stephen Reichert of Madang lent us his copy of the mini-series (probably one of the few in whole country), but I was only able to watch the first two episodes before we had to return it. Therefore, I don’t know first hand if the film is just a re-edit of that footage or not. Continue reading
I may have to try this one a couple of times. It’s an intriguing assignment! This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is called “Threes”.
“IN A NEW POST PUBLISHED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE ‘THREE.’
If you want to try a three-picture story, great! If not, try three images of the same subject taken from different perspectives, three images of the same thing at different times, […]”
For this post, I’ve chosen one of Tulsa’s most iconic symbols, “The Golden Driller”, a large statue at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds (aka Expo Square) which recounts the city’s storied past as the “Oil Capital of the World.” The three photos above show the Driller from different perspectives. It doesn’t exactly tell a story, but he’s pretty stoic and taciturn, so you get what you get.
This is a whimsical post, for the most part. This morning after church, some street art in downtown Tulsa caught my eye, so I decided to wander the area and see what other pieces of art I could find.
I don’t know if “street art” is the right term for this, but I’m referring to original art that is clearly not graffiti, gang-related, or any type of vandalism. This is the stuff that I think is decorative or purposeful – for a business perhaps.
Anyway, there’s more of this type of art around than I would have thought. These photos were all taken close to downtown Tulsa and are pretty imaginative. I won’t say that I particularly like some of these styles, but I do find it interesting. If you’re wondering about all of the “skeleton” depictions, I think these were part of a “dia de los muertos” celebration a couple of years ago.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for more as time goes by. What do you think? Does this type of art add or detract from a city’s ambiance?
This week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com is all about the “selfie.”
I’m really not sure what I think about this photo or “selfie’s” in general. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of rampant vanity, I think, if you become enamored with taking photos of just yourself.
I took this shot with my iphone 4, backlit from a stark winter view outside. Not very imaginative, I know, but I really dislike photos of myself.
All this winter weather has me grumpy. I’ll keep thinking about this and see if I can come up with something more interesting.
Got any ideas? Maybe a different take on what “self” means. Hmm…
There’s a great old building in the town of Adair, Oklahoma that I pass often on the way to the lake. I was thinking about this week’s photo challenge from dailypost.wordpress.com when I decided to take a closer look at what this building has to offer. Continue reading
When I was younger, I never really liked my first name – Steven. It seemed ordinary to me. No pizzazz, not a name that anyone would think was cool.
I didn’t really have any other name in mind, but for awhile I thought I could go by my middle name – Craig. I didn’t know any other Craigs so, it seemed like an option, but I knew I probably couldn’t make it stick. My older sister was Christine. Growing up everyone called her Tina, but in high school she managed to make the switch to Cris, with the intriguing missing ‘h’. It only half worked though. All the family older than her still called her Tina, but her siblings and friends all called her Cris, so she was even more intriguing by being one of those dual-named people.
According to my dad, I was supposed to be called Sean. That’s what my mother wanted, but somehow my dad, who didn’t like the name, pulled a switcheroo and had Steven written on my birth certificate. So let it be written, so let it be done!
Today is December 26th, the Feast of Saint Stephen, and so I’m celebrating my Name Day. Almost like another birthday, those lucky enough to be named for a saint can celebrate their namesake’s feast day and revere him or her as a patron saint and an example for their life. It’s a very cool tradition so I love it when parents pick traditional saint names for their kids.
I’ve known for quite awhile that the day after Christmas (also called Boxing Day) is Saint Stephen’s Day, but I really never gave much thought to why he was important or why his feast day would be placed where it is. Now that I’ve learned more about our faith, I can really appreciate Saint Stephen and the very important role he had to play in the early Church.
Here (Acts 6:1) you can read how Stephen was chosen as one of the first deacons of the early Church, to assist the Apostles in their work within the community of disciples. You can also read here (Acts 6:8) how Stephen was debated by some of the people in the outer community, falsely accused and eventually brought before the Sanhedrin (the local Jewish court responsible for religious matters), accused of blasphemy.
Before the people and the court, Stephen gave a brave discourse on the history and stubbornness of the Jewish people to see and accept the presence of the Holy Spirit among them. They became so infuriated with him, that Stephen was cast out of the city and stoned to death, becoming the protomartyr, or first martyr of the Church.
During his homily today, Msgr. Gregory Gier, rector of Tulsa’s Holy Family Cathedral, made some very interesting points about why Saint Stephen, besides the fact of his martyrdom, is important to the history of the Church.
Saint Stephen, much like Christ, as he was dying, turned his soul over to the mercy of God, and prayed that his persecutors would be forgiven (Acts 7:60):
“Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep.”
We know from Scripture, that one of persecutors of Saint Stephen was Saul, who would later be known as Saint Paul. We also know that he was present at Stephen’s stoning; and, was thus one of those whom he prayed for. Saul, was not an evil person. He was a very well educated and learned Jew. He had dedicated himself to serving God, and because of that was a zealot against anything that went against current Jewish teaching. He thought he was doing the will of God by persecuting the followers of Jesus. It took a direct intervention by God to convert him and to convince him that Jesus was the Messiah. You can read about the conversion of Saint Paul in Acts Chapter 9.
According to Msgr. Gier, it’s not wrong to attribute some of the grace from Saint Stephen’s death as a martyr, and his final prayer, to the conversion of St. Paul. The answered prayer of the Church’s first martyr is the forgiveness and conversion of Saul and the creation of the Church’s apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul.
There’s so much to take from the story of Saint Stephen:
What else can I say but I think it’s pretty cool to be named for Saint Stephen and I wouldn’t change it now that I understand what an honor it is.
If you get a chance to visit Rome, I urge you to visit the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. It’s the main shrine to Saint Paul and is said to be the site of his tomb. As you stand before the altar, to the left you will see a side chapel dedicated to Saint Stephen.
St. Paul Outside the Walls is one of my favorite places to visit because, with that side chapel of Saint Stephen, you are constantly reminded of the role that he played in Saint Paul’s life and how any life can be redeemed and converted by the Holy Spirit. I’ve been to that basilica three or four times and have been in all the other chapels and even the sacristy, but I’ve never been inside the chapel to Saint Stephen. Someday, I’ll go there and find it open.
I also encourage you to visit the Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, in Rome. There you can visit the tombs of the deacons and martyrs St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, as well as the tombs of St. Pope Hilarius and Blessed Pope Pius IX. What I love about this basilica is that they allow you to descend into the crypt where you can actually lay hands on the tombs of these great saints. It’s such a blessing!
Thanks for reading all this! I hope you take some inspiration from the story of Saint Stephen.
Saint Stephen, pray for us!