Poverty and Prayer
Young Beggars
DECAMPS, Alexandre Gabriel
French, 1803–1860
Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston
Alexandre Decamps practiced an energetic, naturalistic style, employing rough brush strokes with strong contrasts between light and dark. His innovations were often met with criticism among the academic practitioners. He was one of the first, if not the first, painter to travel to the Holy Land for the purpose of representing scriptural themes in their most historically accurate settings. This small painting, while not a direct Biblical illustration, graphically portrays the poignancy of children who must beg for food in order to live. In the left of the painting, almost too dark to perceive, is a woman/man? holding a small child over high steps as the little one hands a piece of bread to the children below.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
~ William Butler Yeats
In a country well governed,
poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed,
wealth is something to be ashamed of.
~ Confucius
A gorgeous sunrise last Sunday!
Book Club was at Emily’s.
Linda, on the right, organized the Open Door Studios this year and did a wonderful job!
This was taken at the reception at Evergreen National Bank on Friday evening.
Have you ever had wine and beer served from a teller’s window?
http://www.evergreenopendoorstudios.com/artists.htm
A little different kind of sculpture for Harold.
http://www.linkesculpture.com/LinkeSculpture.com/Welcome.html
At the lake on Saturday morning, a bull elk tried to corral his harem.
Peace at last.
Tom Newsom is known internationally for his Santa Claus paintings.
He is working on this one for the 2011 Christmas card for the National Railroad Museum.
This was Tom’s first year with Open Door Studios.
Just look at the detail! Tom paints in gouache.
Tom, his wife, and both sons are all professional artists.
Gail Frasier in her studio.
Lynne Milliken with some of her paintings.
Harold, Tom, Gail, and Lynne are all members of our Wednesday Breakfast group.
Ann Simpson’s husband cleared out their living room and dining room to show Ann’s paintings.
Betsy Buckner’s are all over their house.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer
until I prayed with my legs.
~ Frederick Douglass
September 19, 2010 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Previous OPQs may be found at:
http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm
Then Jesus said to
the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought
to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said
to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your
management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said
to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from
me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what
to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their
homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How
much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said
to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked
another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.'
He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended
the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this
age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children
of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest
wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal
homes.
"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;
and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you
have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the
true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who
will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will
either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Luke 16:1-13
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org
“You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Luke 16:13
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USCurrency_Federal_Reserve.jpg
Jeremiah 8:18—9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13