Nowhere is the significance of the twelves brothers/tribes apparent than in the windows designed by Marc Chagall for the Abbell Synagogue at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. In the synagogue the twelve windows, each with a round-arched top, are arranged in a square, three windows per side. Primarily in shades of blue, yellow, and red glass, Chagall has explored the symbols of stories of each of the twelve brothers...
(Resources listed here reference more than one reading and are normally shorter than the resources listed under the individual texts above. If you are looking to link the readings, check these resources.)
(Resources listed here reference more than one reading and are
normally shorter than the resources listed under the individual
texts above. If you are looking to link the readings, check these
resources.)
All those who join themselves to the Lord’s mission and message of love and compassion are welcome on his holy mountain.
How is it they live for eons in such harmony—the billions of stars—
when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.
There are wars where no one marches with a flag, though that does not keep casualties from mounting.
Our hearts irrigate this earth. We are fields before each other.
How can we live in harmony? First we need to know: we are all madly in love with the same God.
(St. Thomas Aquinas, We are Fields before Each Other, from “Love Poems from God”)
Last summer I had the opportunity to visit the tomb of Rupert Mayer, a Jesuit priest who was a leader in the Catholic resistance movement against Nazism in Munich, Germany. Fr. Mayer’s early ministries were among the poor, especially immigrants. He also served as a military chaplain during the first world war, sustaining a serious injury to his leg. Fr. Mayer was an outspoken critic of Nazism, regularly condemning Nazism from the pulpit.
Robert E. Lee conceded defeat at Appomatox on a Sunday. The following Sunday he went to church. He was an Episcopalian. When it came to communion, a black man walked up to the rail and knelt down. And no one followed...But on this Sunday, one white man did go up and take his place on the kneeler. That man was Robert E. Lee...
