St. Jude Church, New Orleans

I loved this church in New Orleans. Ironically I had gone to the near by great cemetery where the still remembered Voodoo queen is laid to rest only to find the cemetery closed.  I then happened on St. Judes. St. Jude is the Saint of Lost Causes. I certainly have thought myself that on occasion.  Probably why of I love the great Blues numbers played so well in New Orleans, “Oh When the Saints” .  I do want to be in that number but am so easily distracted by the world.  While I know I was interested in the ‘shrine’ of the voodoo queen, as an artist,  the Lord of Creation, the Jesus of my understanding, intervened and took my steps to the nearby St. Jude’s.
It was open and inviting. I walked in, crossing myself with a bow, then kneeled in the pews and prayed.  I like to pray in churches. I like to sit and meditate.  I did this for a while until a cell phone rang and the only other person in the church, a woman, began to carry on a conversation with some distant person about groceries and shopping.  It was my cue to leave.
Outside there was a crypt to the Virgin Mary and a garden. Lovely places to sit and contemplate faith, hope and deliverance.  I was lost but now I’m found.
Jesus Christ mean’s ‘christ within and christ will come again’.  Often for me the sense of lost and found is moment by moment. I listen to the latest in politics and this seems like hell, then I see someone helping another and I feel I’m in heaven. It’s perspective.  I like St. Jude.  Probably because it took the Beatles to introduce me to this saint.  Then throughout my life I’ve had the sense of being lost and found.  There’s a sense of alienation, something triggers a feeling and memory and I’m back in the past my life being threatened and feeling that sense of helplessness, horror and imminent death or dismemberment.
St. Jude’s was a lovely church to visit , pray and meditate in. I love these sanctuaries.  I am so thankful for the work through the ages of Catholics and Christians that have created these shrines in the west. I am thankful for religions the world over that have made ‘third spaces’ that remain today where I can visit and feel safe. I can even feel a bit of serenity at times.  New Orleans is a city of energy and also peace.

 

Gratitude and St. Patrick's Day

Thank you God for St. Patrick and all the saints of all religion.  Thank you Lord for all the signs and all the symbols of your love.  Thank you for bringing us out of the Irish days of bestiality and yearly warfare with our celtic brethren, the days of superstitions and sexual abuse of children.   Thank you Lord for the histories which tell both the good and bad of our people and the willingness of our people to speak of the unspeakable.  Thank you Lord for the transparency of the history of Celts,  our great loves and passions, our great loyalties and powerful beliefs.  Thank you for our chosen relationship with the fey world, our nearness to you and awareness of the sacrilege.  May other nations be so honest about their origins as we all began in history in times far different than today with leaders far different and strength far differently defined.  Help us to move closer to the light and push back the darkness. Help us to go forward and not back to the ‘horror, the horror’ of Conrad.  Help us to see the lies and be aware of the false truths. Help us all to wear the Breastplate of St. Francis.  Thank you for all the education in that great book, “How the Irish Saved Civilization”.  Thank you for the adaptations that have brought the celts around the world to celebrate this day.  Thank you for the unity and end of war. Help each of us gain clear vision within, so that the battles outside will end as the battles within do.  Help heaven to reign here and now in all our inner visions so that we may live in faith as St. Patrick did trusting love over fear.  Thank you God of Gods and Love of All for this briefest of lifetimes, this sojourn into the self importance of a few score years in eternity.  Help me always to know you and see you in all.  Help me to be closer to you in all my endeavours. Be with me Lord and always remind me that it is always you in every face and every circumstance.  Relieve me of the veils of maya and illusions.  Help me know truth and see as you see.  Thank you Lord for all that is your creation, all that I reduce in dualism but is great in whole. Thank you Love for all the wonder and wild.  Thank you love for family and friends and pets and places of worship. Thank you always and ever.  But today mostly thank you for St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the Celtic blood of yore that courses through my veins. Thank you for being touched.