Don't look at me in that tone of voice #ThreeShots☕️📚😇
Amazing art, something, and St. Rose Venerini
Happy Friday, as they say. (“They” being pretty much everyone I work with.) Let’s lean into the Easter season and the joyful remembrance of what got us here (hint: it happened on a Friday…).
1. Coffee and art ☕️
A while back, a friend told me she couldn’t resist this picture by Kristyn Brown:
Then, while I was scrolling through Instagram (which, I’d like to add, is full of beauty and wonder and smiles), I discovered the work of Ruben Ferreira.
I mistakenly thought he was the artist behind the painting above; turns out he was inspired by it and did his own rendition/version. (It gets me every time, from both artists.)
I’ve always been a fan of Thomas (the Twin, the Doubter, the Person Just Like Me), but now? I mean. YES. WHAT HE PAINTED.
And this picture of the Mary and Joseph (found only on Instagram, at least for now) is something that I think may become the background on my phone (which is saying something pretty major, folks, because it’s ousting one of my other favorite Mary images).
And “Silent Night”? YOU GUYS. 💕
The expressions he captures are spot on (“The Risen Jesus,” especially!) and—this may sound super weird—but he gets the hands right. I don’t know why, but I often find myself struck and distracted by bad hands in art.
So. Wow. Grab another cup of coffee and just pray your way through his art collection. (And there’s a lot of great behind-the-scenes—including a note about the actor who posed for Jesus—on his Instagram.)
2. Book bits 📚
I remember, as a kid, LOVING the Ramona Quimby books. Having been through a spurt of Junie B. Jones read-alouds with my six-year-old, and because of the news that Beverly Cleary died, I thought I’d try them again.
But the library didn’t have them on audio, and I was convinced that audio was the way to go.
So then the audiobooks available weren’t Ramona books.
And, sadly, I found myself rather meh about Ellen Tebbits and the sequel (written about a decade later), Otis Spofford. When the Ramona series came available on audio, I never listened, because I was afraid I would hate them.
Maybe I’m just not in the mood. Maybe living with Junie B. Jacob (which is what I call my six-year-old lately) is enough. Maybe I need to read with my eyes and not with my ears.
🤷♀️
In other reading, I enjoyed The Power of When, though I took it with a dose of “use what you need and treat it as advice from a good friend and not Gospel truth.”
I’m listening to Northanger Abbey via CraftLit (the website is not updated, but you can find it on your favorite podcast app; it’s the latest book) and finishing up Jane and the Man of the Cloth (second in the Jane Austen mysteries which I’ve raved about before). I’m also muddling my way through St. Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue, a few pages at a time.
Up next: Not sure. I have some deadline reading to do, but also some library books that need attention. Oh, and an author who checked in about the book they sent me. Oh, and…
It’s the best kind of “problem” to have, don’t you agree? What are you reading?
3. Saint of the Day: St. Rose Venerini 😇
St. Rose Venerini in one sentence: Pioneer in education of women and girls. But there’s more. So. Much. More.
She lived in the 17th century in Italy. She’s said to have consecrated her life to God at age 7, though at age 20, she accepted an offer of marriage.
Did she love the guy? Was this because she was doubting what God wanted? THE INTERNET DID NOT TELL ME.
And so, I picture a young woman, committed to marriage, and then finding herself once again single, because her fiancé died shortly after the engagement.
That’s when she entered the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine.
But the men in her life were throwing wrenches in her plans, because she had to leave the monastery after her father died a few months later.
Not long after, her brother died (he was 27).
Her mom, worn out by grief (says the internet), died next.
Sick of death yet? I’m sure Rose was, too, but then her sister died, leaving her with one other sibling at home. At this point, Rose was 24, and she did what any good Catholic girl would do: She gathered girls and women of the area in her home to pray the rosary.
Right? If you faced all that death, you’d also gather people in your home and pray with them. Right? I guess, having now made the acquaintance of Rose, I now have an example if it should ever happen to me…
All those rosaries prayed with local women, along with her own spiritual growth under the spiritual direction of Jesuit Fr. Igniatius Martinelli, gave Rose some insight. Many of the young women hadn’t been taught to pray.
She was moved by the poverty and ignorance of the young women around her. Maybe, she thought, there was something she could do—and it wasn’t in the cloister where she was needed.
Long story short: She founded a school for poor girls, and that led to more schools. She failed and failed again, and eventually was told by Pope Clement XI, “You are doing that which we cannot do. We thank you very much, because with these schools you will sanctify Rome.”
Prayer for today 🙏 O God, who raised up blessed Rose Venerini in your Church to show others the way of salvation, grant us, by her example, so to follow Christ the master, that we may come with our neighbor into your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Quote from St. Rose Venerini: “I feel so nailed to the will of God that nothing else matters, neither death nor life. I want what He wants. I want to serve Him as much as pleases Him and no more.”
Don’t forget to smile. Sometimes, it’s the easiest way to turn the world upside down. 😃
Blessings and coffee,
Sarah