Chapter meeting for May
Happy May!
Hope nobody got bitten by rabid animals on St. Walpurgisnacht yesterday. St. Walburga (May 1) is the patron against rabid animals, but her feast day also coincides with earlier pagan May Day festivals like Beltane, which involved orgies and animal sacrifice. Sister Jean presumes that her association with rabid animals comes from the nutty behavior of the pagans at this time of year.
If you're of a pagan turn, rent the cult classic, "The Wicker Man," from your DVD provider. Features the inimitable Christopher Lee as the pagan priest.
May Day is also an important celebration for Communists worldwide, including ailing dictator Fidel Castro (speaking of rabid animals), who was unable to appear at yesterday's May Day parade in Havana. The Sisters pray for Senor Castro, of course, who raised literacy rates and reduced infant mortality to enviable levels, but whose notions of personal liberty were somewhat impoverished. Moreover, as Cuba's economy continues to dip, many young Cuban women are pursuing careers in the lucrative sex trade. So we also pray for the day when the U.S. government will normalize relations with Cuba and perhaps improve standards of living there.
Sorry for that sidetrack rant on Cuba.
Also associated with St. Walpurgisnacht is one of Sister Jean's favorite plays, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" As you all know, this Edward Albee play is about a marriage that has gone so haywire that one of the episodes is called "Walpurgisnacht," a scene in which the couple, George and Martha, pull out all the stops in emotional self-destruction. Rent the film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Bound to make you feel better about your current--or even ex--spouse.
OK, enough about rabid dictators and marriages, from which we ask St. Walburga's protection.
Three other big saints this month (see links at right). Sister Jean's favorite, St. Julian of Norwich, who kept cats in her hermitage and so is the Sisters' unofficial patron of pet cats; St. Isidore the farmer, for whom angels would do the ploughing while he was busy praying; and St. Brendan the Voyager, whose seafaring trip to Heaven and back again is a strange and wonderful tale worth reading.
Sadly, St. Brendan would have found less ice around the northern seas than he did over a thousand years ago. Bad news on the polar ice cap front prompts the Sisters to ask for your prayers. As St. Julian says, "God made us, God loves us, God protects us." But the politicians need a boot up the fanny from us now and again.
Check the Lectionary link in a few days for Sister Jean's book report on "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy," a new-old Rumer Godden book about nuns!
Happy May!
Hope nobody got bitten by rabid animals on St. Walpurgisnacht yesterday. St. Walburga (May 1) is the patron against rabid animals, but her feast day also coincides with earlier pagan May Day festivals like Beltane, which involved orgies and animal sacrifice. Sister Jean presumes that her association with rabid animals comes from the nutty behavior of the pagans at this time of year.
If you're of a pagan turn, rent the cult classic, "The Wicker Man," from your DVD provider. Features the inimitable Christopher Lee as the pagan priest.
May Day is also an important celebration for Communists worldwide, including ailing dictator Fidel Castro (speaking of rabid animals), who was unable to appear at yesterday's May Day parade in Havana. The Sisters pray for Senor Castro, of course, who raised literacy rates and reduced infant mortality to enviable levels, but whose notions of personal liberty were somewhat impoverished. Moreover, as Cuba's economy continues to dip, many young Cuban women are pursuing careers in the lucrative sex trade. So we also pray for the day when the U.S. government will normalize relations with Cuba and perhaps improve standards of living there.
Sorry for that sidetrack rant on Cuba.
Also associated with St. Walpurgisnacht is one of Sister Jean's favorite plays, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" As you all know, this Edward Albee play is about a marriage that has gone so haywire that one of the episodes is called "Walpurgisnacht," a scene in which the couple, George and Martha, pull out all the stops in emotional self-destruction. Rent the film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Bound to make you feel better about your current--or even ex--spouse.
OK, enough about rabid dictators and marriages, from which we ask St. Walburga's protection.
Three other big saints this month (see links at right). Sister Jean's favorite, St. Julian of Norwich, who kept cats in her hermitage and so is the Sisters' unofficial patron of pet cats; St. Isidore the farmer, for whom angels would do the ploughing while he was busy praying; and St. Brendan the Voyager, whose seafaring trip to Heaven and back again is a strange and wonderful tale worth reading.
Sadly, St. Brendan would have found less ice around the northern seas than he did over a thousand years ago. Bad news on the polar ice cap front prompts the Sisters to ask for your prayers. As St. Julian says, "God made us, God loves us, God protects us." But the politicians need a boot up the fanny from us now and again.
Check the Lectionary link in a few days for Sister Jean's book report on "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy," a new-old Rumer Godden book about nuns!
posted by Your Librarian at 6:01 AM
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