Struggles, Openings, Blessings
The same night he got up and took his two
wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the
Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything
that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the
hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then
he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said,
"I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him,
"What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man
said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have
striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked
him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that
you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place
Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is
preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of
his hip.
Genesis 32:22-31
Vision After the Sermon
(Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)
GAUGUIN, Paul
1888
National Gallery of Scotland
Edinburgh
http://www.artbible.info/art/large/603.html
This painting, which dates
from 1888 and was made in Pont-Aven, Brittany, is one of Gauguin's most famous
works. The Breton women, dressed in distinctive regional costume, have just listened
to a sermon based on a passage from the Bible. Genesis (32:22-32) relates the
story of Jacob, who, after fording the river Jabbok with his family, spent a
whole night wrestling with a mysterious angel. In a letter the artist wrote to
Van Gogh he said 'For me the landscape and the fight only exist in the
imagination of the people praying after the sermon.'
Interesting two sites:
Paul Gauguin: Vision after the Sermon. 1888. Analysis
A discussion and
analysis of the painting may be viewed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5lhKvKvWPg
One who gains strength
by overcoming obstacles
possesses the only strength
which can overcome adversity.
~
Albert Schweitzer
When we tackle obstacles,
we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience
we did not know we had.
And it is only when we are faced
with failure do we realise that these
resources were always there within us.
We only need to find them
and move on with our lives.
A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam
Lucky Penny Barn Party
Sunday,
July 27, 2014
Thank
you,
Gail
and Chuck Ridings!
There
was plenty of fun for young and old!
It
was wonderful to see Bonnie Vivian and finally meet Pete Martinez!
They
gave me “Gospel,” one of his Country Music albums.
Bonnie
and Pete just returned from Normandy, France, where Pete performed for the
70th
Anniversary of the WWII Normandy Invasion on June 6th and returned to perform
again in July.
http://www.petemartinezusa.com
Our
Saturday “Walkies” group celebrated Eileen’s and my birthdays
at
Prague Restaurant on Wednesday evening.
Karla
Byrd and I share a birth date (a few years apart!) and our Chew and Chat group
celebrated
on Thursday at Grappa in Belmar.
Jackie
McFarland, Sondra Kellogg, Karla Byrd, Vicki Hall, Carolyn Alexander.
We
missed you, Kay Owen!
I
also received birthday wishes at Rotary on Friday.
Tom
Ware spoke at the “Tom Ware and the Warehouse Gang”
Opening
Reception at the Center for the Arts Evergreen.
A
very nice exhibit!
Ann
Simpson posed with “The Thinker,” one of her four sculptures in the show.
Another
one of Ann’s sculptures is “True Love.”
She
has incorporated a number of heart shapes into the figures
as
well as into the negative spaces.
There’s no problem so awful,
that you can’t add some guilt to it
and make it even worse.
~
Bill Watterson *
Auguast 3, 2014 Eighth
Sunday after Pentecost — Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time/Proper 13
Previous OPQs may
be found at:
* Bill
Watterson is the author of the comic strip “Calvin & Hobbes.”
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from
there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it,
they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great
crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening,
the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the
hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages
and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go
away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing
here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to
me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five
loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the
loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the
crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the
broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand
men, besides women and children.
Matthew 14:13-21
Agnus Day, by
James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission
of www.agnusday.org
Agnus Day appears with the permission
of www.agnusday.org
Genesis 32:22-31 with Psalm 17:1-7, 15 or
Isaiah 55:1-5 with Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
cra