Final Days

BASSANO, Jacopo.  
Adoration of the Shepherds.
1590-91. Oil on canvas.
San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Happy Advent. For our last Advent mediation, consider now the darkness of the world before Christ. Note in "The Adoration of the Shepherds" the contrast brought by the Light that ruptures the heavens and breaks open hearts of even the rustic shepherds. Consider the ancient night, the slumber of a dead world. Consider the distance Bassano portrays from heaven to earth.
For the Latin, make sure you study in these last days.  

Agenda:

1. Pray God to have mercy on you. 
2. Take Finals. 

Week III: Advent Meditation Part II

ALTDORFER, Albrecht. Nativity.
c. 1513. Linden panel, 36 x 26 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Yesterday we recalled the story of Moses and the golden calf at Sinai. How the people of Israel lost faith because of their impatience. And how many people still do this today and cannot wait for Christ to come back down the mountain of heaven. Let us today consider another aspect to that story. When Moses did descend the mountain and found the Israel breaking the first commandment he so recently received from God, broke the commandments themselves, almost as an object lesson for mankind. But what was it that he carried? Was it not the word of God? Whether or not they knew it, the Israelites were awaiting the word of God from Moses. But in Advent we wait for the Word of God Himself, who is Christ, waiting for his coming now in Christmas and for his return at the end of all things.    
 
Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Review the end books of The Ballad of the White Horse. 
3. Study for Finals!
4. Review HW:
1. Study for Oral Exam for Monday!  
1. Recall keys ideas from all books thus far
2. Think of the common themes
2. Review and study notes on The Ballad:
1. Check the Essay Prompts for the Final
3. Be good.

Third Week of Advent

ANGELICO, Fra. Annunciation (Cell 3). 1440-42.
Fresco. Convento di San Marco, Florence.

The Advent meditation this week concerns the task of waiting. The practice of waiting is a spiritual discipline, for it involves the requisite fruit of the spirit, patience, which in Latin means at root "to suffer." Advent obliges us to practice patience in the opportunity of waiting for Christmas, the first coming of Jesus; it also obliges us us to wait properly for the second coming of Christ. In this sense it will be instructive to remember a time when people could not wait properly. Recall the story of Moses and the golden calf at Sinai. The people of Israel grew tired of waiting for Moses to come down the mountain, so they lost faith and Romans 1 is fulfilled. How many people, including Christians, do this today? They get tired of waiting for Christ to come back down the mountain as He promised, and so they make for themselves an idol.  
 
Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Reviewed Essay Prompts for the Final:
3. Lecture on Book VI-VIII of Ballad of the White Horse  
1. Take notes
4. Review HW:
1. Study for Oral Exam for Monday!  
1. Recall keys ideas from all books thus far
2. Think of the common themes
2. Review and study notes on The Ballad:
1. Check the Essay Prompts for the Final
3. Be good.

Angeli annutat ad Mariam. Ave Maria.

BOTTICELLI, Sandro.  Cestello Annunciation.
1489. Tempera on panel. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Advent Meditation, day twelve: in this stunning image, one cannot help but be struck with the immediate and obvious contrast in forms. What suggests this heraldry? Consider today the the posture of Gabriel. Cur? The angel is lower than the woman. Angelus annutat Maria. What a glorious irony that this celestial being who stands daily for the throne of the Almighty God humbles himself in front of what will soon be the Mother of God. Consider this Advent our own humility. 

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Lecture on Book VI-VIII of Ballad of the White Horse  
1. Take notes
3. Review HW:
1. Study for Oral Exam for Monday!  
1. Recall keys ideas from all books thus far
2. Think of the common themes
2. Review and study notes on The Ballad:
1. Check the Essay Prompts for the Final
3. Be good.

Ecce ancilla domini.

BORDONE, Paris. Annunciation.
1555. Oil on canvas. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.

Advent Meditation, day eleven: what does it mean for a word to change our lives? Consider the word of the angel to Mary. Consider the interruption it bears, its effect shown in her startled gesture. Consider the fire and explosion in the heavens as Gabriel descends. How have we also been interrupted, and are able to know, as Mary did, how recognize the goodness of such a portent?  
In Latin today, we continue our journey through dark labyrinth of pronouns; again, make sure keep track of your thread.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Reading Journal (12/11): Semester 1 Books
1. What are the books we've read the semester? Briefly summarize each book (2-5 sentences). 
2. List 3 important characters from each book. Why are they important? 
3. What are 2 common themes that we see throughout these works? 
4. List at least 2 "turning points" the history of Christian civilization we find in these works. Explain.
3. Lecture on Book IV-V of Ballad of the White Horse  
1. Take notes
4. Review HW:
1. Review and study notes on The Ballad
2. Be good.

Maria, Dominus tecum.

BALDOVINETTI, Alessio. Annunciation.
1447. Tempera on wood.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Advent meditation, day ten: consider today's depiction of the annunciation. Consider the haste. Angeli currit. What does this rushing haste suggest? Consider, again, God's glory in the light that cuts through at oblique angles. Consider the dies serena. Consider how all these things work to glorify God?

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Lecture on Book VI-VIII of Ballad of the White Horse  
1. Take notes
3. Review HW:
1. Review and study notes on The Ballad
2. Be good.

Second Week of Advent: ad augustum per angustum

ANGELICO, Fra. The Annunciation. 1430-32.
Tempera on wood. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Advent meditation, day 9: consider the lux in Fra Angelico's Annunciation. Consider the divine light piercing through the garden and portico. Consider also Mary's figure as almost in pain. Consider how such news, such an experience, such a piercing revelation might bring the death of the Old Mary and birth of the New Mary.
It is also fitting for this season to meditate on the Incarnation. ad augustum per angustum. That is, "To honor through narrowness (being pressed)." When we think of the "scandal" of the gospel or the complete revolution of values for the world of classical antiquity, we often think of Christ's sermon on the mount or of his passion and sacrificial death. But the Christian revolution of classical values really begins with the Incarnation. It is truly a mystery that God became man. But it is also an offense that Omnipotence Itself pours out Its Strength into the limited, frail frame of a Baby. This offends every worldview where might makes right, every system that bases the Good on power. Every other set of values sees weakness as bad and strength as good. (This is why Feminism and Marxism is so flawed.) But the Christian story shows from its inception that God cares about the weak and lowly things. Attend to Mary's Magnificat. Christ is glorified, then, not because he comes as the strongest, most powerful thing in the universe; rather, Christ attains glory by his descent into the narrow limits of humanity's pressed being. For in this we see that out of the mouth of babe's Thou hast ordained praise. 

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Latin Proverb: Ad augustum per angustum
1. Literally: "To glory through narrowness." Augustum means "straits." Christ took on the definite form of a man and walked through the straits of human woe and the limits of hunger, temptation, and need, yet all the while without falling into sin.  
3. BWH Project: 
1. Presentations on a passage from The Ballad of the White Horse
4. Lecture on Book IV-V of Ballad of the White Horse  
1. Take notes
5. Review HW:
1. Review and study notes on The Ballad
2. Be good.