Category: Florence

Praying in Florence

3/24/2022

Why do we become stuck in the belief that prayer happens best when we are in a church, or when we sit down in some pious way in some quiet spot? Thankfully I’m moving away from those ideas as the only or best prayer ways.
Yes, I have some favorite player churches here in Florence, but the entire city is becoming a favorite prayer landscape. In the parks I can be thankful for God’s creation. Every person I pass along the Arno can receive God’s love through me. My prayers for Ukraine feel pure and hopeful, as a walk along with God and God walks along with me. Try it!

Annunciation in picture and message

12/11/2021

Below is today’s post on www.acottagebythesea.net. Put here I want to talk about the different poses and expression that the artists have given Mary when she is told she will be the god-bearer. As I consider God’s call to me, at various times I resonate with each Mary. I can receive God’s call with joy, acceptance, and willingness, but also with fear, reluctance, and denial. My stance can be confident, privileged, and powerful, but also meek, common, and humble.

Every time I come to Florence I get fixated on the paintings and frescoes of Annunciation . Just when I think I have snapped every depiction of Mary and Angel Gabriel, a new one appears. Yesterday, it was at the Academia. Most of us go there to see Michelangelo’s David, but I also love to climb to the first floor to absorb the paintings of the Florentine School 1370-1430, which include Late Gothic and Early Renaissance works. Most have been restored to the vibrant colors that were a landmark of the shops (bottega) where the artists and apprentices worked to create these magnificent altar pieces.
Wealthy patrons made sure that their own portrait joined the adoration of the magi or was present somewhere in the picture, tympanum, or predella. They were eager to do what they could do gain a place in heaven and to gain favor with the powerful in the city.

Walking around Florence with God

9/29/2021

I’m in Italy, ten nights in Florence, three in Rome. I tell people that I’m here walking around with God. And, that is true, although I also like walking around to find good restaurants, and of course I walk around museums, churches, and parks.
   I’m writing this in the Gardino delle Scuderie Reali, adjacent to the Boboli Gardens. A grandmother is enjoying two grandchildren; a group of students is having class; two people are walking hand in hand; a woman is sitting on a bench texting. Life is happening in Italy.
   What does this have to do with walking around with God? Well, it implies that God is with me, which means I am bringing God to these people who happen to be here this afternoon. Of course God is with them, but in case they don’t know it, I’m sending his presence to them through the Holy Spirit.
   If that sounds mysterious, well it is! Don’t try to figure it out. Instead, go somewhere nearby and send out love and peace to whoever is there. You will feel loving and peaceful, which a good thing for you, and it will become less mysterious. In believing that you are making a difference to them, you will grace. God’s grace is there for the asking. That’s the way it works.

The annunciation is still going on

12/17/2020

Filippino Lippi

Paintings of the Annunciation are my favorites. In Florence, there is one at every turn.
    What’s going on here with Mary? In some painting she seems to be saying---wait a minute, not me; not now, not yet. In others she seems to acquiesce, sometimes reluctantly, other times with joy. Whatever we might be feeling about God’s call, we can find a companion in Mary.
    We might not like the what God is calling us to do or be, but too bad; God will persist; God will win.
    If we don’t want to believe God is calling us, we might as well let that go, too. God is calling us whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not. As Christians, that what we’ve signed up for.
   But fear not, all will be well. It won’t be easy or without suffering, but we will be redeemed. Like Mary, we will might as well say, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38).

Celebrating in Florence the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

12/7/2020

From my apartment window

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which celebrates Mary’s conception. It’s an orthodox holiday, certainly not one observed in my United Church of Christ calendar. That being said, I love the holiday because for three years running, 2016-18 I watched it celebrated in Florence. Everyone was out in the street for the 5 PM lighting of the Christmas tree in front of the Duomo, Santa Marie dei Fiori. One year I watched from the apartment I rented right on the on the piazza.
(The Immaculate Conception is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. Wikapedia).

Prayer walk at San Marco

9/20/2019

I did it again. I can’t help but take pictures of Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the monk’s cells at the Convent of San Marco. I snap away every time I go there.
     As usual I arrived when the doors opened at 8:15, and thus pretty much had the place to myself. This year I spent more time looking, less time photographing. Walking slowly along the two corridors, looking in each cell, meditating on each fresco, became an inside prayer walk.
     A majority of the cells depict the crucifixion. The Dominican monks of fifteenth century Italy were expected to contemplate on Jesus’ suffering and death. I wouldn’t have wanted one of those crucifixion cells; my choice would have been the first cell on the corridor picturing Jesus in the garden with Mary Magdalene after his crucifixion and resurrection but before his ascension.
     When I was in college we studied Renaissance paintings from an historical and artistic perspective. We were NOT to tap into the religious story or attend to any spiritual feeling we might glean. That was the 60s and unless you were Roman Catholic school, there was no way to include both. In the classroom, art appreciation and religious decrement were mutually exclusive.
      Thank God I don’t have to deal with that any more.

Morning walk along the Arno

9/19/2019

In Rome I prayed for peace in thirty-six different churches. I will continue to do the same in Florence, but prayer walks are my preferred way in this city. I’ve always claimed that I go to Florence to walk around with God, and that still holds true. The Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.” How could I not say it as I walking along the Arno?
This morning I started out among clouds. I stopped for a cappuccino and continued on my way. God’s creation was changing. I stopped in a little chapel along the Arno. God’s love remained constant. (I'm having trouble loading pictures onto my blog, so for now I'll only offer one of the sunny ones.)

Annunciation pictures at the Uffizi

4/16/2019

Here are the Annunciation pictures I took at the Uffizi the other day. I can’t get enough of them, so I snap them over and over and over again. Maybe I should be posting pictures of Holy Week to correspond to the current season, but I resonate with the beginning of Christ’s life, and with what God is asking of Mary—to be the Christ bearer. I keep asking what God wants me to bear and what I hear is hope and love.

San Marco again~

4/10/2019

I did it again. I went to San Marco and took photos of Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the monks’ cells. Each scene from the life of Christ offers a metaphor for life: the journey from birth to death, from suffering to hope. Whatever is going on in my life, in the lives of those I know and love, or in the lives of the people in the world, transformation and hope in present in Jesus’ life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

The WONDER of garbage collecting in Florence~

4/8/2019

A friend suggested that each year we chose a word to live by for the upcoming 365 days. I have chosen one for this trip: WONDER. So, here I am again in Florence, living into a sense of wonder as I walk around with God.
I’ve pretty much given up defining God—no words other than vague phrases: mystery, beyond words, a state of being, a sense of wholeness, contentment, deep peace in the soul, a feeling of that all is well. My experience tells me that knowing God comes to me when I am being in the present moment, no thoughts of the past or future, which is wise way to be when meditating.
As I wander the streets of Florence in a sense of wonder, I’m in a in a different kind of meditative state. I’m not sitting still with an ‘empty mind’. I’m aware of the NOW, but I’m also drawing on the past; my past experiences do matter. The future is also with me, but to a lesser extent.