4th International Tourism Cartoon Competition 2013, Eskisehir - Turkey

4th International Tourism Cartoon Competition 2013, Eskisehir - Turkey
International Tourism Cartoon Competition is held with the cooperation of Anadolu University Research Center for Caricature Art, Association of Tourism Writers and Journalists (TUYED) and Anatolia: A Journal of Tourism Research. The objective of the competition, which was first held in 2009, is to examine tourism, which is one of the biggest sectors in the world, with its various dimensions. Also, the competition aims to put forward cartoonists’ aspects in terms of travelling population’s experiences and relations during their travel. In this respect, the main objective of this competition is to assess such topics, developments and experiences within the tourism industry as accomodation, transportation, food and beverage, recreation, sightseeing, museums, envirenment, tourist-resident relationships, from cartoonists’ point of view.
Competition is held annually and is open to all cartoonists from all over the world, both amateur and professional. Nearly 100 submitted works which get to the final elimination take place in the Cartoon Book and the reward ceremony of the competition is held in İstanbul.
Theme: Resident* and tourist relationship
The topic of the Fourth International Tourism Cartoon Competition is resident (indigenous people) and tourist (vacationist) relationship.
Submission Guidelines
•The competition is open to all amateur and professional cartoonists.
•Each performer is allowed to submit maximum three works.
•The cartoons submitted to the competition may be prepared as original drawings, digital printings or computer printouts. The drawing technique is open-ended. Drawings may be colorful or black and white. On the other hand, performers are required to put signatures on their drawings.
•Drawings must be minimum A4 (21x29,7cm) and maximum A3 (29.7x42.0cm) size and potential deformation during the sending process should be avoided. Participants are responsible for any deformation caused by the posting procedure.
•Participants must write their names, surnames and addresses behind their drawings. Also, they must complete the Participant Information Form placed under submission page and send it together with their drawings.
•Cartoons sent may be of the ones previously published somewhere but previously awarded cartoons are not allowed to submit.
•Cartoons submitted for selection will be able to be printed in Anadolu University, Anatolia: A Journal of Tourism Research, Association of Tourism Writers and Journalists and in other printed materials of this organization such as books, catalogs, brochures, postcards, web sites and posters. All rights for any other publishing except these belong to the owner of drawing.
•Some selected part of the cartoons submitted for selection will be published in the album. Cartoonists whose drawings published in this album will be sent a copy of the album.
•Regardless of award-winning or taking place in the album, all the cartoons submitted for selection will not be returned and will be achieved in The Anadolu University Museum of Cartoon Art.
•All the cartoonists participated in the competition are implied to agree on the conditions and regulations of the competition.
•Award ceremony will be organized in April 2013 in Istanbul.
•Cartoons can be sent by way of postal service or Cartoon Submission system.
•Submission deadline is 18 January 2013.
Awards
The Grand Award: All inclusive holiday in a five star hotel in Turkey (7 days, 2 persons)
The Second Award: All inclusive holiday in a five star hotel in Turkey (6 days, 2 persons)
The Third Award: All inclusive holiday in a five star hotel in Turkey (5 days, 2 persons)
Professor Atila Özer Recognition Award: All inclusive holiday in a five star hotel in Turkey (7 days, 2 persons)
5 (Five) Mentions.
Selection Committee
Abbas NAASERI Cartoonist, Iran
Hüseyin ÇAKMAK Cartoonist, The Cyprus President of the Federation of Cartoonists Organizations (FECO)
Yoshiaki YOKOTA Cartoonist, The Japanese President of the Federation of Cartoonists Organizations (FECO), Japan
Eray ÖZBEK Cartoonist, Turkey
İbrahim YAZAR Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Turkey
Fehmi KÖFTEOĞLU Tourism Journalist, www.turizmgazetesi.com, Turkey
Osman Nihat AYDOĞAN General Secretary of Association of Tourism Writers and Journalists, Turkey
Bülent ÇELİK Cartoonist, Turkey
Nazmi KOZAK Editor of Anatolia: A Journal of Tourism Research, Anadolu University, Turkey
Mehmet KAHRAMAN Cartoonist, Turkey.
Important Dates
First Announcement: May 2012
Deadline for Submission: 18 January 2013
Meeting of the Selection Committee: 25 January 2013
Notification of Winners: March 2013
Award Ceremony: April 2013.
Contact
For Further Information
Nazmi KOZAK, Ph.D.
Anadolu University,
School of Tourism and Hotel Management,
Yunus Emre Campus,
26470 Eskisehir/TURKEY
Tel: +90 (222) 335-0580/2133
Fax: +90 (222) 335-6651
Gsm: +90 (532) 286-7584
E-mail: nkozak@anadolu.edu.tr
Postal Address
Volkan GENCE
Anadolu University,
Eğitim Karikatürleri Müzesi,
Akcami Mah., Malhatun Sokak, No: 6,
Odunpazarı, 26030 Eskişehir/TURKEY.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Resident who living in a place for some length of time.
( Source: http://www.tourismcartoons.com/?p=1&l=en ).
Previous competitions .

The Visitation: Conclusion To The "Lady Month", May

"...All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathizing

With that world of good

Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored

Magnify the Lord..."

(From The May Magnificat, by

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.)

Fashion Modeling Competition | Your own Fashion | Boys Fashion Competition

Dear visiters avail a chance to show yourself as a model. we are collecting best pictures of you. shoot yourself and send us your best modeling photos, maximum photos limit 9 and minimum limit is 4. Send us your pictures on adsapcce@gmail.com.

Best and selected photos will be published on this website.
Send us your best pictures, then we publish your picture album on he99Fashion page, 
If your pictures album likes and comments is more then others we publish your picture on Fashion websiite. ( Fashion Competition Winners )
Please Note
Mention your name and country name.
We should publish your pictures with your name.
Last Date: 14-06-2012
Thanks you!
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"I Believe I Am So Called"

One of the first questions which an ordaining bishop asks a candidate for the priesthood is: "...do you believe that you are truly called by God and his Church to this priesthood?" The candidate responds: "I believe I am so called."At the ordination ceremony representatives of the Diocese and of the candidate's parish confirm the call to priesthood from the community of the candidate whom they present. Thus, the one ordained enters into the mission and ministry of the whole people of God, the Church, with the unique responsibility of presbyter.

48 years ago today, though in the Roman Catholic Church and according to its rite, I and my classmates accepted our call as priests of the Church. It was a day like no other and its memory lives on in our hearts and lives, wherever our journey has taken us these many years later.

My stepfather, Tom DeHaven, for whose funeral Mass I was celebrant only two short years after this day, and my Mom, Grace, who died in 2003, were full of pride and incredible joy on the day of my ordination. Thanks be to God that we were all together for this milestone. And thanks be to God for every day since then, whether it brought continued joy or new sorrow. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

I've always loved this poem written by J. B. Lacordaire:

To live in the midst of the world

with no desire for its pleasure,

To be a member of every family

yet belonging to none,

To share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets;

to heal all wounds, 

To go daily from men to God

to offer Him their petitions,

To return from God to men

to offer them His hope,

To have a heart of fire for charity

and a heart of bronze for chastity,

To bless and be blessed forever...

My God, what a life!

And it is yours,

O Priest of Jesus Christ!

(Père J. B. Lacordaire)

8th International Cartoon Festival Solin 2012, Croatia

8.INTERNATIONAL CARTOON FESTIVAL - SOLIN 2012 (CROATIA)
1.PARTICIPATION
The organizer of 8th International festival of cartoon Solin 2012. Is the city Solin. The festival is opened for everyone regardless of nationality, age,sex, or profesion.
2.THEME: 1. FREE ; 2. ARHEOLOGY .
3.ENTRIES
Conditions of entry:
1. All entries must be original cartoons. Framed works, also, will not be accepted.
2. Entries can be either black and white or colored.
3. There should be the name, surname and the address on the reverse side of cartoons.
4. Maximum 5 entries will be submitted.
5. Maximum size of entries is A3 format (40x30 cm)
4.DEADLINE
Entry deadline is the 10. August. 2012. Please write ; PRINTED MATTER - NO VALUE.
5.ADDRESS
8.INTERNATIONAL CARTOON
FESTIVAL SOLIN 2012
«DOM ZVONIMIR»
Kralja Zvonimira 50,
21210 Solin, CROATIA
6.PRIZE AND AWARDS
PLAQUE....................................................1008 EUR
PRIZE CITY SOLIN................................... 3 PRIZE
7.EXHIBITION
The exhibition will take place in the galery of the culture home „ZVONIMIR“ Solin on the 24.08.2012.
8.OTHER CONDITIONS
Authors of works that quality to the exhibition are given a presentation copy of the exhibition catalogue (DVD). The works will be returned only on the special reqest of an autor. The postage EUR5 will be paid by autor. The organizer reserves the right to reproduce the works sent to the festival, Solin 2012, as the advertising material without being obliged to pay a fee to an author whose work may be used. The prize-winning works become property of the organizer.
Cartoonist-designer
MARKO IVIĆ
PRESIDENT 8.INTERNATIONAL CARTOON FESTIVAL- SOLIN 2012 CROATIA

ENTERY FORM

LAST NAME ---------------------------------------------

FIRST NAME --------------------------------------------

PSEUDONIM --------------------------------------------

STREET ---------------------------------------------------

POSTCODE -----------------------------------------------

CITY -------------------------------------------------------

COUNTRY -----------------------------------------------

TELEPHONE --------------------------------------------

E-MAIL ---------------------------------------------------

NUMBER OF ENTRIES -------------------------------

MALE-FEMALE ---------------------------------------- .

The Prayer Book

The full name of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches and the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. 


Parish worship in the late medieval church in England, which followed the Latin Roman Rite, varied according to local practice, and thus used a local form or "use". The most common was the Use of Sarum, found in Southern England. The Sarum Rite wasn't collected into a single book; rather the forms of service that were to be included in the Book of Common Prayer were drawn from the Missal for the Mass, the Breviary for the Daily Office, the Manual for the occasional services, baptism, marriage, burial etc., and the Pontifical for the services appropriate to a bishop: Confirmation and ordination. 


Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury first during the reign of Henry VIII, then during that of his son Edward VI, was largely responsible for producing books in English for use in the liturgy. In his early days Cranmer was somewhat conservative, an admirer, though a critical one, of St. John Fisher (c. 1459-1535), an English Roman Catholic scholastic, cardinal, and martyr. It may have been Cranmer's visit to Germany in 1532, where he secretly married, which began the change in his thinking. As Henry began diplomatic negotiations with Lutheran princes, Cranmer came face to face with a Lutheran embassy c. 1538. The Exhortation and Litany, the earliest English-language service book of the Church of England, was the first overt tip-off as to his changing views. His was not a mere translation from the Latin: its Protestant character is made clear by the drastic reduction of the place of saints. It borrowed substantially from Martin Luther's Litany and Myles Coverdale's New Testament, and was the only service to be finished within King Henry VIII's lifetime that might be considered to be "Protestant". 


It wasn't until Henry VIII's death in 1547 and the accession of Edward VI that a revision could proceed. Cranmer finished his work on an English Communion rite in 1548, obeying an order of Convocation of the previous year that Communion was to be given to the people under both elements of bread and wine. The ordinary Roman Rite of the Mass had no provision for any congregation present to receive Communion. Cranmer, therefore, composed in English an additional rite of congregational preparation and Communion, based on the Sarum rite for Communion of the sick, to be undertaken immediately following the Communion of the celebrant, in both elements. 


A year later, in 1549, this Communion service was included in a full prayer book, set out with daily offices, readings for Sundays and Holy Days, the Communion Service, Public Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, The Visitation of the Sick, and Burial. The Ordinal was added in 1550. The Preface to this edition, containing Cranmer's explanation as to why a new Prayer Book was necessary, began: "There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted." Although the Prayer Book is commonly attributed to Cranmer, the details of how it was developed are obscure. A group of bishops and divines, both conservatives and reformers, met first at Chertsey, then at Windsor in 1548, agreed only that "the service of the church ought to be in the mother tongue". Cranmer collected the material, including the above-mentioned Preface, from many sources. He borrowed much from German sources, particularly from work commissioned by Hermann von Wied (1477-1552), Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, as well as from Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), a German Lutheran theologian, to whom he was related by marriage. The Church Order of Brandenberg and Nuremberg was partly his work. Many phrases are characteristic of the German reformer Martin Bucer (1491-1551), or of the Italian theologian, Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562), who was staying with Cranmer at the time of the finalising of drafts, or of his chaplain, Thomas Beccon (c. 1511-1567), one of the "Six Preachers of Canterbury". Nevertheless, Thomas Cranmer gets the credit for the overall job of editing the Book and its overarching structure including the systematic amendment of his materials to remove any idea that human merit contributed to their salvation. 


The 1549 Prayer Book dispensed with the Latin, and with all non-biblical readings. It set up a rigorously biblical cycle of readings for Morning and Evening Prayer, according to the calendar year rather than the ecclesiastical year, and a Psalter to be read consecutively throughout each month. Cranmer provided that the New Testament, other than the Book of Revelation, be read through three times in a year, while the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, would be read through once. 


The Book of Common Prayer was introduced on Whitsunday, 1549, after considerable debate and revision in Parliament. There is, however, no evidence that it was ever submitted to either Convocation. Neither reformers nor their opponents were pleased with it, indeed the Catholic Bishop Gardiner could say of it was that it "was patient of a Catholic interpretation". It was clearly unpopular in the parishes of Devon and Cornwall where, along with severe social problems, its introduction occasioned some of the "commotions" or rebellions in the summer of that year, partly because many Cornish people lacked sufficient English to understand it. The banning of processions and the sending out of commissioners to enforce the new requirements were particularly disliked. Apparently there was also opposition to the introduction of regular congregational Communion, partly because the extra costs of bread and wine would have to be paid by the parishes. Mainly, however, there was intense resistance to making part of regular worship a religious practice previously associated with marriage or illness.


Given this history, can we be surprised that, since 1549, there have been multiple revisions of the Book of Common Prayer, both in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church here in the U.S. To quote Thomas Cranmer again: "There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted." 

Lest We Forget...

Memorial Day is an annual federal holiday observed in the United States on the last Monday of May. It's a day for remembering the men and women who have given their lives while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Formerly called Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War, but by the 20th century it had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars. It typically marks the beginning of the summer vacation season, just as Labor Day marks its end. It's common for folks to visit cemeteries and military memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in service. In many places across the country, volunteers place American flags military graves. 

By the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as people visited the graves of their deceased relatives in church cemeteries, whether they had served in the military or not. Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries, especially in the American South, are held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer, notably in the mountain areas. Oftentimes, in family graveyards where long-deceased ancestors, as well as those more recently deceased, are buried, this becomes an occasion for an extended family reunion to which some people travel hundreds of miles. The people gathered put flowers on graves and get reacquainted with kinfolk and others. There's often also a religious service and a "dinner on the ground," i.e., a potluck in which people spread dishes out on sheets or tablecloths on the grass. This practice probably began before the Civil War, and so may reflect the real origin of the "memorial day" idea. 

 The holiday's name gradually changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day, first used in 1882, but not more common until after World War II. It was declared the official name by Federal law only in 1967. On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, moving four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend, a concept not entirely acceptable to many. The law moving Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress's change of date within a few years. 

Scholars, following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah, often hold that the U. S. has, in effect,  a secular "civil religion", one not associated with any specific religious denomination or viewpoint, which has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. A sense of corporate and individual obligation to carry out God's will on earth, at least theoretically, is a theme lying deep in the American psyche. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth entered the civil religion. Memorial Day gives ritual expression to many of these themes, heightening in the local citizenry a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion has generally borrowed from different religious traditions, so that the tension between the two is minimally apparent. Nevertheless, the gravitation towards more evangelical and fundamentalist influences in recent years, blending personal motivation with attaining national goals, has been and should be cause for concern.

O Judge of nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts

the men and women of our country who in the day of decision

ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may

not rest until all people of this land share the benefits of true freedom

and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the name of

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Diablo 3 Game Characters HD Wallpapers

Getting Ready

We're busy here on island getting ready for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.  It won't be as large of a celebration as the 65th anniversary, but we'll be having a few veterans of the battle out here, as well as a special plane bringing out other guests for the day.  As far as other things going on around here, we have a few seal pups on the beaches around here, some Laysan ducklings running around, a lot of nesting birds with chicks, and some good weather.

Jennifer, Peter, and Christine are cleaning up the memorial for Memorial Day and for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.

This is the finished product of the picture I showed you last week.

Albatross fledging season is getting close, so the tiger sharks are starting to become a lot more common.  People have been seeing them in the harbor quite frequently and I saw this one a few days ago on the way back from Eastern Island.  It looked about 8-9 ft long.

The red-footed booby chicks have hatched.

Here's a Red-tailed tropicbird flying by.  I took some pictures of the White-tailed tropicbirds too, but they weren't so great.

We started a volleyball league.  We haven't been playing much at all for the last year.  We're only playing for 3 weeks, but it's better than nothing.

UFO movie news round-up (27 May, 2012)

Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Prometheus: the making of a new myth

“What made Ridley Scott revisit the world of his iconic movie Alien more than 30 years later? The reasons are complicated, writes Damon Wise, and the results aren't what you'd expect.”

Article featuring comments from Ridley Scott indicating that Prometheus might be the beginning of a whole new franchise. Read it here. 

Men in Black 3 stuff

MIB 3 director Barry Sonnenfeld tells io9 what he has learned from the second movie’s mistakes and how his threequel is better as a result.

Meanwhile, Lee Spiegel of The Huffington Postreminds us of the real-life MIB encounters that inspired the movie franchise.

Finally, on the MIB front, it’s an “illegal alien” face-off between MIB 3 and Mars Attacks over at Bryce Zabel’s Movie Smackdown site. Go see who wins!

Former SETI Director: Hollywood’s aliens are too nasty!

Former SETI Director Jill Tarter tells Universe Today that Hollywood’s alien invasion movies are a big bag of bollocks… but phrases it more politely than that…

“While Sir Stephen Hawking warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I respectfully disagree. If aliens were able to visit Earth that would mean they would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not to need slaves, food, or other planets. If aliens were to come here it would be simply to explore.

Considering the age of the universe, we probably wouldn’t be their first extraterrestrial encounter, either. We should look at movies like ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Battleship’ as great entertainment and metaphors for our own fears, but we should not consider them harbingers of alien visitation.”

Read the full article here.

ALF! You know, from the ‘80s?

Lovable ‘80s TV alien ALF is headed for the big screen according to his creator Paul Fusco, who tells The Hollywood Reporter:

“ALF could be more outspoken now than ever, because the world is a whole different place than the '80s. And I think the character still stands up and certainly has more to say now than ever,” he says. “I think we would approach it in a fresh way. I don’t think we would duplicate the TV show, but I think we would maybe put it in a storyline where we would explain how ALF got here and put him with a new family and let the character speak for himself.”

Read more about the history – and possible future – of ALF, here.

Sticking with the ‘80s theme...

Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats... ho!!!

This is old news (it was first reported in February of last year), but I’ve never mentioned it on Silver Screen Saucers until now. Five years ago, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it would be producing a big screen CGI adaptation of the 1980s animated TV series, ThunderCats. However, the project got lost in development hell, and there it remains to this day. Fans of the heroic alien cat-people thingies might be interested in the following test footage for the movie that found its way online last year (don’t get excited, though. It’s naff)...

The best alien invasion movie ever?!

Last but not least, visionary filmmakers Michael Bay (Transformers) and Peter Berg (Battleship) have teamed-up to bring us their dream project ;-) Could this be the greatest alien invasion movie ever? View the trailer here...

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The Anonymous Spirit

Ask any ordinary Christian to name the two most important feasts of the Church year. The response will likely be: “Christmas and Easter”. I guess there’s a certain logic to that, but I think that a more appropriate response might be “Easter and Pentecost”. 

We read in Acts 19:2: “[Paul] said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’” Up to maybe 35 or 40 years ago, that would’ve been most Christians’ typical response. Someone has referred to the Holy Spirit as “the forgotten God”. Even if we have heard of the Holy Spirit, chances are that many of us aren’t at all sure what that means or, rather, who that Person is. If you had to describe what image comes into your mind when you think of the “Holy Spirit”, it wouldn’t be unusual if you visualized a sort of blur.

There are at least a couple of reasons why our understanding of the Holy Spirit is so nebulous. For openers, the Christian Scriptures don’t say a great deal about the Holy Spirit. There are only some 19 references throughout the four Gospel accounts. Even what is said there isn’t always clear, leaving us with a somewhat vague image of the Holy Spirit.  Secondly, it’s hard for us to distinguish what is characteristic of one Person of the Trinity from that of the other two Persons. Normally, it’s easier for us to relate to one God, rather than to the individual Persons of the Trinity. Theologically, that’s sound. St. Thomas Aquinas, great medieval theologian and doctor of the Church, says that the only difference between the three Persons-in-one-God is in the relations they have to one another. The Father begets the Son; the Son is the only-begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. That, of course, sounds very technical and confusing. What Aquinas means to say is that the Spirit’s mission is inseparably bound up with the mission of the Father and of the Son. Finally, the Holy Spirit is nebulous because of a sort of “anonymity” of the Spirit. The Spirit works in us, according to St. Paul, but it’s sure hard to tell just when or how the Spirit does this.

It’s a bit like when we eat food or take medicine. The energy burned up when we work comes from the food we take into our bodies. But in lifting a box or dashing up the stairs, we don’t say: “That’s good granola from breakfast causing this to happen.” If you have a headache or some other pain and take an Advil, usually the headache or pain goes away. But you don’t trace the medicine through your system in order to track each and every stage of its effects. It works “anonymously”. We know that only through its overall results.

So it is with the Holy Spirit. In the Creed we profess to set our hearts on “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” This Spirit of God and of Christ is Holy precisely because the Spirit gives us wholeness of being: the Spirit is creative and life-giving. Being in relationship with God the Holy Spirit gives me a new and conscious awareness that I’m alive in the Spirit. That’s a source of tremendous hope. Additionally, being in relationship with God the Holy Spirit gives me a new orientation to everyone and everything around me, a truly enabling and transforming experience.

Two questions from the Outline of the Faith, found in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 852) are quite relevant to all this: 1) “How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the New Covenant?” and 2) “How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?” The answers given to these questions, surely not the “last word” by any stretch of the imagination, may stimulate our thinking and prayer during the “long, green season” of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit’s whole mission is to “lead us into all truth” and to “enable us to grow in the likeness of Christ”. Over the course of our lives, through all the ups and downs, we gradually come to recognize and experience the Holy Spirit’s presence when we finally truly “confess Jesus as Lord” of our lives. The other side of that coin is that the only way we can come to such recognition and experiencing of the Spirit is by finding true peace, shalom, as it’s expressed in Hebrew. That involves learning how to become integrated, made whole, made ever increasingly one with, God, ourselves, the other people who come into our lives, and the creation around us. It’s what Jesus was hinting at when he said: “I repeat, you’ll be able to tell them by their fruit.”

Perhaps the most moving and beautiful testimony to the reality of the Holy Spirit for me is a poem written by St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross/Edith Stein (1891-1942), Jewish philosopher and Carmelite nun, whose canonization as a saint in Rome in 1998 I was privileged to witness. The poem, “And I Remain With You: From a Pentecost Novena”, was apparently one of her last, if not the last, having been written at the Carmel in Echt, The Netherlands, in the summer of 1942 (she died in August at Auschwitz). I urge you to read the whole poem, from which I’ll share just two stanzas below.

1. Who are you, sweet light, that fills meAnd illumines the darkness of my heart?

You lead me like a mother’s hand,

And should you let go of me,

I would not know how to take another step.

You are the space

That embraces my being and buries it in yourself.

Away from you it sinks into the abyss

Of nothingness, from which you raised it to the light.

You, nearer to me than I to myself

And more interior than my most interior

And still impalpable and intangible

And beyond any name:

Holy Spirit--eternal love!....

1. Are you the sweet song of love

And of holy awe

That eternally resounds around the triune throne,

That weds in itself the clear chimes of each and every being?

The harmony,

That joins together the members to the Head,

In which each one

Finds the mysterious meaning of being blessed

And joyously surges forth,

Freely dissolved in your surging:

Holy Spirit--eternal jubilation!”

(The Collected Works of Edith Stein, The Hidden Life: Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts, Translated by Waltraut Stein, Ph.D., ICS Publications, 1992, pp. 141 & 145)

The Vigil of Pentecost

The liturgical Easter season has run its course once again, and today we prepare for the celebration of the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost completes Easter. The events of the Resurrection and Ascension during the past 50 days occurred, in God's providence, so that the Holy Spirit might become our "portion and cup", our "goodly heritage", as Psalm 16:5-6 so beautifully puts it. Fr. Karl Rahner expresses it another way in this striking statement: "[The Holy Spirit] is ours to such an extent that, strictly speaking, we can no longer say what man is if we omit the fact that God[self] is man's possession. God is our God: that is the glad tidings of Pentecost."
(The Eternal Year, Helicon, 1964, p. 106)


In most parishes, the liturgy is accompanied by special joyous music and, in many places, by the reading of the Gospel passage in several languages by parish members. The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday, the feast's official name according to the Book of Common Prayer, also traditionally merits the (unofficial) wearing of specially-colored clothing, probably in imitation of this feast's liturgical color, red. My good friend and colleague, Fr. Leo Joseph, OSF, pastor of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lakeport, CA, has a splendid explanation of the background for this in the latest parish newsletter. It's too good not to pass on to you.


" Tomorrow is Pentecost! It is the day each year when not only the priest and deacon, but all of you are encouraged to wear RED. This also includes the gentlemen of the parish, you must have a red shirt or at least a tie in your wardrobe. So let's show our colors!

   

'Why red? Didn't this day used to be called Whitsunday in the old Prayer Book?'  'Why, yes Virginia, it did!' 'Well, why did they change it -- just to make me feel old and confuse me?'  'No, but of all the divine mysteries, this is one that I can unravel for you.'

   

The color red is is a powerful symbol of love, Divine Love, which was shed abroad upon the Church by the descent of the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost. Red is also a vivid sign of tongues of fire, the form that Love took in its lighting on the heads of the Mary and the disciples on that morning. Red also stands for the blood, their own blood, that the disciples were bound to shed, if necessary, in proclaiming the Good News and living the teachings of Jesus. 

   

The use of red vestments and altar adornments only goes back to the late Middle Ages, but has been in constant use ever since. The older English Church tradition called for the use of the "Best Vestments" for this day, no matter what color that may be.

   

As far as I know, the use of the name Whitsunday, and the season Whitsuntide, is uniquely English and refers to the white garments that the neophytes, or newly baptized, wore on this day and the week following their baptism on Whitsun Eve. As we remember from the celebration of the Vigil of Easter, the public administration of Baptism was regularly done at that time, but since England did not share a mild Mediterranian climate, the formal celebration of Baptism was deferred until late Spring or early Summer so as not to lose too many new converts in an era when Baptism still involved a copious amount of extremely cold water!

   

With the advent of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the title of the day was styled The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday; and the Sundays following were numbered after Pentecost, as the Roman Church used to do, instead of after Trinity, as the English Church always did. But in the meantime the Romans changed their numbering of those Sundays to "In Ordinary Time". Now if all of this makes sense to you, I recommend that you listen to an old recording of Anna Russell's explanation of Wagner's Ring Cycle!"