Matthew 28:20

Elephant (2003)

i liked him, even though couldn't tell you if it's real or from a film, like when they stare into your soul, supposed to be sarajevo 1941, a beautiful boy.

In the Lamentations of Great and Holy Week, particularly in the service of Great and Holy Friday, the Church chants to Christ crucified:

“Like a pelican, wounded in Your side, O Logos, You granted life to Your dying children, pouring forth upon them life-giving streams.

This imagery does not arise from zoological observation but from an ancient symbolic tradition embraced by Christian contemplation. According to early legend, when a pelican finds its young lifeless, it pierces its own breast and lets its blood flow over them, restoring them to life.

The Church discerned in this image a prophetic icon of the Lord Jesus Christ. When His sacred side was pierced upon the Cross, there flowed forth blood and water — not merely as signs of death, but as fountains of renewal and life for fallen humanity. As the pelican, in the symbolic narrative, revives its young through its own blood, so Christ grants life to His children through His precious Blood, being “wounded for our transgressions.”

The Holy Fathers contemplated this image in light of the Mystery of the Eucharist. The Cross is not confined to the past; it becomes a living and sacramental reality in the life of the faithful. Christ does not merely abolish death by His death — He offers Himself as living nourishment, declaring: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.”

Thus the pierced side of Christ becomes the doorway of the Church, and His Blood the inexhaustible fountain of salvation. From the wound springs life; from total self-offering is revealed the fullness of divine love.

Adolf Wamper (1901-1977)

Viet Cong guerrillas prepare traps used to injure U.S. and ARVN troops, Quang Ngai Province, December, 1965.

(Photo credit: Rolls Press/Popperfoto)

His Falling Asleep

In 1960 Father John’s health began to decline and he knew that death was approaching. He received Holy Communion on August 4 and peacefully fell asleep in the Lord the next day at the young age of 47. On August 8, 1980, his relics were found to be incorrupt and fragrant, and he was canonized by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992. His feast day is the day of his falling asleep – August 5 (August 18 Julian calendar). His relics are enshrined in a side chapel of the Monastery of St. George the Chozebite. Those who have been blessed to be on pilgrimage to the Holy Land know this monastery for its spectacular location: is literally built into the side of a cliff in Wadi Qelt of the West Bank of Israel.

Relics of St. John Jacob the Chozebite, of Neamț, (St. George's Monastery, West Bank).

Source details and larger version.

They’ve had many lives and many ages: cats I’ve met in my time travels.

Baby chimpanzee holding kitten at Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s hospital and leper village, Lambaréné, Gabon, 1954 - by W. Eugene Smith (1918 - 1978), American