Happy Feast of St Joseph. Painted 14 March 2024 'St Joseph and Jesus (2024)' © Vincent Cavanagh 2024 This painting may have only taken a day to paint, but it was a whole year—and two months—in the making. The product of a deadline that I didn’t think that I was even supposed to be working towards and God’s Timing. Aack! Leaving the histrionics aside, the photograph that this picture of St Joseph and the child Jesus is based upon was taken at a local church just before mass. A father was sitting with his family in a pew, about three rows over, holding his sleeping youngest son over his shoulder. One of those “take a photo or regret it”–moments from God. In the end, very little actually changed from the photograph—well, apart from changing clothes to robes, adding head coverings, and including hair on the back of St Joseph’s head, of course.
This whole hectic schedule of events was due to a conflicting parish event after the youth night and the lateness of the St Joseph’s Day Eve party at Joseph House being on at a prohibitively late time for me to attend. In the end the picture was printed (Thank God!) and present to the housemates, and it should now be hanging somewhere inside Joseph House. Vincent Cavanagh 19 Mar 2024 Now, as for an update on my previous update about working on writing down my experiences of WYD Lisbon, that’s no longer moving forward. I’m not joking when I write that it was a commandment from on high. And given how much I was reliving certain emotions to an unhealthy amount, I’m more than alright with just letting it drop and focusing on what God actually wants me to be focused on instead. Ask God before you leap into things whether you should be leaping into them at all. P.S. Also, the writing was the reason that I only had a single day left to paint Joseph and Jesus. (Face palm) Oi vey!
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A brief update as to what I’m up to at the moment.
*midst | as in: ‘in the midst of him’; not a synonym for ‘middle’. 19 Mar 2024 For any update about the writing, you'll find it at the bottom of the next blog post. Reviewing my 12-Month Social Media Exodus. Well, it’s been 12 months since I started my Social Media Exodus and now it’s time to review the year that was. Okay, so starting off, 2023 was World Youth Day year for me. You may have seen some posts here and there on the blog and archived on the website, and possibly also on Facebook (sarcasm). Speaking of the aforementioned social media platform, I think it’s safe to say that (apart from WYD) I haven’t been signed into it any more than strictly necessary. Nowadays it functions, for me personally, as more of an alert-slash-events manager and reference tool for finding people and past events. Since WYD I have been using Messenger far more than I thought I ever would in my whole life. It’s certainly been a change of pace having a social life. Twitter is all but officially mothballed, waiting for a reason (if any) to actively post on it again. Even though most Catholic parish Youth Ministries appear to have highly active profiles, I still don’t ever see myself returning to Instagram. Certainly not under my own name in any case. As for YouTube… oh, dear. Apart from proactively uploading two videos from WYD Lisbon featuring the lead vocals of Fr Samuel French I’ve been passively over-consuming other people’s YouTube videos. My anxieties over travel, packing, and WYD preparations absolutely did not help cut down on my ‘Watch time’ as I had hoped to rein in 12 months earlier. Being stuck in a maelstrom of choice-paralysis over what small new camera to buy to take over with me to Europe for the pilgrimage didn’t cut down wasted hours either. And in any case, I ended up taking more photos with my smartphone than I did with the camera I bought to stop me over-using said same smartphone. Live and learn, eh? I have bought a Peak Design camera strap that should help aid in using the camera more in future. And speaking of the future, I am all too aware of my current (ahem!) “habit” of bookmarking videos and website articles about various different foods, religious sites, and locations of interest across both East and Southeast Asia in the possibility of preparation(!) for 2027 World Youth Day. People are not kidding when they talk about the WYD / Travel-bug. As an aside, I still don’t think that I’d ever be able to learn, let alone read, Hangul / Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. I’ve accepted that a) I don’t have to know everything and b) that I’m going to be especially reliant on those who can and have persevered to learn Korean. Returning to YouTube specifically, I did come across the DF Tube Chrome Extension that has been of some great help in cutting down more video-related rabbit holes than I would have without it. Its main attraction (for me) was the ability to turn off the righthand video suggestion box whilst watching a YouTube video. Admittedly it makes things lopsided visually, but it does mean that I have fewer distractions from the video in front of me. Sadly, DF Tube can’t do anything about my procrastination. That’s all on me. So, to sum up. I have been relatively withdrawn from my social media profiles – discounting blogging about the WYD pilgrimage. I have gained a social life that is aided by messaging applications which come with their own problems – the applications, not the social life. My personal struggles with self-discipline and YouTube over-consumption remain. In part I know that some of this is due to a lack of projects and regular routine. Pray for me. Putting my focus on posting blogs and standardizing parts of this website has helped me feel less pressured than I would have been if I was still only posting on Facebook or Twitter. As well as not having as much comparison-itis with the edited and project lives of other people on social media. This doesn’t mean that I still don’t struggle with comparison, it’s just not as severe as it has been in the past. In closing I think that I will continue as I have done so these past 12 months and with God’s help get a better grip over my YouTube-surfing and other self-defeating habits. Until next time. Vincent Cavanagh 25 Jan 2024 Just a brief update to let you all know that, yes, I am still alive.
I am currently in the middle of a 6-week course on “Theology of Body” by Pope John Paul II which is taking up nearly all of my mental and physical energy and leaving myself with not much left in tank for anything. This is in addition to my general lack of focus and purpose in the wake of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 and finishing my 2024 Calendar. Currently, I find myself living (read: surviving) from one ex-WYD pilgrim social event/get-together to the next, which are so far averaging about a month apart. Post-World Youth Day Blues? Perhaps. I know that I shouldn’t complain, because before WYD I had never had any social life what is filling up my calendar now. But I am aware of how fickle sudden-social-relationships can dissipate in the blink of an eye unless they are tended to and (hopefully) cultivated into last friendships. Please kindly keep myself and all my fellow “Theology of the Body” course participants in your prayers. Thank you. Vincent Cavanagh 22 Oct 2023 Just before 7am Madrid time, we were checking our luggage in at Madrid-Barajas Airport. Qatar Airways was taking us on both the Madrid to Doha, and the Doha to Sydney flights. For our Madrid to Doha flight, we were in a Boeing 777. You might remember that when we landed in Milan for the beginning of our pilgrimage, a flight attendant gave this neck pillow into my keeping since it obviously belonged to an Australian pilgrim. Despite sending up flares on social media, and making other enquiries, its ownership was still unknown. I had hoped that someone would have claimed it at the Australian gathering in Lisbon, but no. Yet waiting in the lounge at Madrid airport the connection was made. This pilgrim was a helper with the White bus; and had elected to do his European sight-seeing before meeting up with the White bus pilgrims in Lisbon. Since he had already ordered an exact replacement of his missing neck pillow, he graciously bestowed it on me. You can’t make these things up! Going through the indoor tropical garden at Doha airport to find food. I ended up choosing sweet and sour fish with rice. Despite longingly looking up at the elevated driver-less people-mover monorail both times we were at Doha airport, my fellow pilgrims elected to do the 15-minute walk between where we landed and where the second flight was departing from. Yay! Thanks be to God. Just before 5pm on 12 Aug we were back home on ‘terra firma’, at Sydney International Airport, Mascot. We landed 10 minutes after the pilgrim flights from Paris. The pilgrims who flew home from Lisbon arrived in Sydney on 11 Aug. From a straw poll of pilgrims, the average length of sleep that first night home was 14 hours. All of us are slowly recovering from jetlag and exhaustion. We’ve been told to expect it to take two weeks to get back into normal sleep rhythms again. Please pray that all the seeds of grace placed by God in pilgrim hearts over these three-and-a-bit weeks will, in His timing, yield an abundant harvest. Amen. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 15 Aug 2023, 9.32pm Sydney After travelling all day from Fatima to a hotel close to Madrid airport we thought that Mass was out of the question. But God had a surprise for us. Our most resourceful seminarian just happened to know the dean of Madrid cathedral: and learned that in the months of July and August there is an 8pm Mass on weekdays. So off we went. We approached the Cathedral by this side entrance, which is quite small compared with the rest of the Cathedral. While the need for this Cathedral in Madrid was known for centuries it has only comparatively recently been built. Taking 110 years to build, it was consecrated on 15 Jun 1993 by Pope St John Paul II. The cathedral has one main nave, with two side naves; and three transepts off the main nave to give it the form of a Latin Cross. Our Mass was in the right-hand side nave dedicated to Our Lady of Almundena, or as we would call it, Our Lady of the Citadel. Under this title Mary, Mother of Jesus, is best known and loved by the Spanish people because the original statue has stories of miracles attached to it. The Christians of 8th century Madrid had deep devotion to Mary, Mother of God, and when the area was invaded by the moors, this statue was hidden to prevent its destruction. It lay hidden for some 300 years before a Christian king came along and demanded it be found. Although the secret location had been passed down from family to family, by the time this Christian king came on the scene the holder of the secret had just died without telling her young daughter where it was. After much prayer a miracle happened, part of the castle wall crumbled to reveal the statue. The patterns in this roof are very colourful and look a lot like palm fronds to me. Behind the priest with the white shirt is a reliquary box encased in glass. Inside the reliquary box are the remains of St Isidore the Farmer, patron of Madrid, who died on 15 May 1130. Although sometimes he is called St Isidore the Labourer. He and his wife St Maria belong to that rare breed of married Saints. They had a son who died in his youth. Not that holiness is limited to consecrated life, nor to martyrs; and not that holiness in married life is uncommon; but it is a lot easier for religious orders to keep a cause for canonization going through several lifetimes of postulators. What makes St Isidore the farmer so special? He put God and prayer first. He would go to Mass each morning before work. At least once when his fellow workers complained that he wasn’t working, they found him deep in prayer, and an angel ploughing the fields in his stead. St Isidore is also known for his kindness towards animals, and for the hospitality of his home. Frequently St Isidore would bring hungry people home, and his holy wife always had a pot of stew on the fire waiting for them, and once when St Isidore brought home far more hungry people than usual God multiplied the food for them. On the far left-hand side is the statue of St Isidore the Farmer, and on the far right-hand side is the statue of his wife St Maria. The painted panel on the left-hand side is an icon of Pentecost. The painted panel on the right-hand side is an icon of the Baptism of Jesus. The golden statue underneath the carved crucifixion scene is the 16th century copy of the original statue. From the book of Revelation are the details taken; a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars, whose son was to rule all the nations. In the other painted panels around the Virgin of Almundena are scenes from the life of Jesus and the life of Mary. This tomb belongs to Queen Maria of Spain, a.k.a. Mercedes of Orleans, 1860-1878. In her brief 6 months as Queen before her death she became a co-initiator of the building of this cathedral. Because the cathedral is a short distance away from the royal palace, the cathedral is the Spanish equivalent of Westminster Abbey for major royal weddings and funerals. On pilgrimage the meals we had to locate for ourselves became known as either adventure lunches or adventure dinners because we had no idea where we were going, nor any idea what kind of food we would find. Thankfully it was easier to find gelato. What better way to end the evening than gelato? This time I chose two scoops of gelato, one Coconut and the other Bailey’s Coffee Flavour. Since we had to be ready for breakfast at 5.30am the next morning, and a 6am departure for the airport, after the gelato we made our way back to the hotel. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 11 Aug 2023, 12.30am Spain | 11 Aug 2023, 8.30am Sydney On our final afternoon and evening in Fátima we had a group session followed by Mass and then our last group session. These big group sessions, which contained some small group conversations, were designed to help us begin the internal processing of all that we had received on pilgrimage, before we return to our regular lives at home. After that all 4 bus groups gathered for a final dinner together. From here on we go in four different directions: some go back to Lisbon and catch homeward bound flights from there; some go by coach to Paris and catch homeward bound flights from there; some go by coach to Madrid and catch homeward bound flights from there; and some adult pilgrims continue to explore Europe with family and friends before coming home. This lovely statue caught my eye. It stands behind the reception desk at the Consolata Hotel in Fátima. Of course, everyone wanted the evening to last as long as possible before we went our separate ways. So the Green Bus members decided after that final dinner there was a necessity to go looking for gelato. Thankfully I got to this landmark before the rest of the gelato-seekers arrived. Getting a photo of it without pilgrims draped all over it is a bit of a win. If you look carefully through the pilgrim bodies, you can make out the contours of that landmark. Because our coach to Madrid wasn’t leaving until 9.30am, there was time for Morning Prayer and some silent prayer in the smaller of the two Consolata Hotel chapels. After studying maps before leaving home, it looked like we’d be coming into Madrid via Toledo. But to my surprise we actually came into Madrid via Salamanca. Perhaps the bus and truck fuel and food facilities on that route were better, because they were sure crowded. On the map the red marker is Fatima, the blue circle is our coach about to cross the Portugal-Spain border, and Madrid is like one of those places that all roads lead to. It was a 10-hour journey. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 15 Aug 2023, 10.58pm Sydney Meet Claudia. She took us for tours through both the basilicas and through the grounds of the Sanctuary of Fátima on the morning of 9 Aug. This is the largest piece of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. It was bought by a Portuguese man who offered it to the Sanctuary of Fátima not long after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. From 13 Aug 1961 until 9 Nov 1989 a large concrete wall separated West Germany and West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin, with security checkpoints for those passing from western to communist sides and vice versa. On 12 May 1991, St Pope John Paul II visited Fatima, and his words during that visit have been engraved on a plaque near this portion of the Berlin Wall. A rough translation goes like this: Thank you, Heavenly Shepherdess, for having with maternal affection provided this liberation. We paused in front of this large crucifix by a German sculptor, where our bishop gave us a short talk on the differences between Religious Monumental Art – of which this crucifix is an example – and Religious Devotional Art – such as the paintings just viewed in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. At first this crucifix is a bit confronting because of how stark and simplistic it is. However its scale is in proportion to the new basilica, and it can be seen from just about everywhere in the Fátima sanctuary precinct, so after a while your heart softens towards it and grows in appreciation of this artwork. In a kneeling pose, looking towards the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, is this statue of Pope St Paul VI. There are other statues of deceased popes who held the keys of St Peter from 1917 to the present era placed throughout the Fatima Sanctuary precinct, all of them looking intently towards the old basilica. Notably Pope Benedict XVI’s statue is not yet present, but there’s a spot marked out for whenever his statue is completed. There is an area in Fátima for lighting wax candles, and it seems like ‘the bigger the better’ is quite normal. Once upon a time it used to be a tradition in Portugal to make an offering of your body weight in wax. Now it is more normal to offer wax candles approximating your body height. That’s perhaps why the man in the photo is carrying such tall candles. Close by the Chapel of the Apparitions is this large oak tree. It is over a hundred years old. It marks the place where the three children would wait and pray the rosary prior to each of the 13th of the month apparitions of Mary, mother of Jesus. While it isn’t the holm oak tree upon which Mary stood, it is still a physical witness to the events of May 1917 to Oct 1917. Edited excerpts from the Sanctuary of Fátima website blog, 6 Feb 2007: This tree has been designated a tree of public interest by the Portuguese government. Before that designation in 2007 happened, the tree was in danger of dying because so many pilgrims took snippets off it. Now it is protected by a circular wall 100 metres in diameter. During the day there were just too many pilgrims around this statue of Pope St John Paul II to get a good photo. So after dinner that night, I decided to walk to this location, and then it was possible to view his life-like statue clearly. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 10 Aug 2023, 7.12am Portugal | 10 Aug 2023, 4.12pm Sydney On Wednesday, 9 Aug, we had a walking tour of the whole Fátima site. Part of that tour was exploring the Basilica of the Holy Trinity. We had been there for Mass the previous day. By 1973 the need for a much larger basilica than the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary was acknowledged. However the building of the Basilica of the Holy Trinity didn’t begin until 2004, almost 4 years after Francisco and Jacinta were beatified. The building itself wasn’t completed until late 2007, with most of the major artworks installed during 2008. Inside the Basilica around 8000 pilgrims can be seated, and there’s room on the altar-sanctuary to seat up to 100 clergy. From this photo you can see how vast the outdoor area between the two Basilicas. The whole area is used for night-time processions and for outdoor Masses at big events. You can also see how the Basilica of the Holy Trinity blends into the landscape and doesn’t detract from it. The exterior surface of the Basilica is made from locally sourced white stone. If you zoom into this photo a bit, you can better see the wall-covering mosaic and the seating for the clergy. Produced in the Vatican workshops, many international artists took part in this painstaking mosaic artwork. The photo also gives you an idea of just how many pews there are. In front of the group of Saints in the mosaic on the left-hand side of the altar is the Virgin Mary, with St Francisco and St Jacinta on either side of her, with possibly Lucia – without a halo, and garbed as a Carmelite nun – behind the Virgin Mary’s left shoulder. On the right-hand side of the altar, the leading figure of the mosaic Saints is St John the Baptist. For those of you familiar with the Catholic Mass, and Eucharistic Prayer No. 1, two groups of Saints are mentioned: the first group before the consecration is headed by the Virgin Mary, and the second group after the consecration is headed by St John the Baptist. At the far right-hand end of the mosaic, after this glorious depiction of the gathered Saints in heaven around the Lamb of God, there is a reminder that Hell, too, exists. Surrounding the big circular church interior of the Basilica is this wide underground walkway. There are 12 exits from the church interior into this walkway, one for each Apostle. Then you find all kinds of chapels, toilet facilities, meeting rooms, exhibition spaces, and sets of stairs opening out from this walkway. It was also a great place for those special moments of seeing familiar faces in unexpected places. One of those chapels off the walkway is this Blessed Sacrament chapel, which can fit up to 200 pilgrims for adoration and prayer. In the centre of that golden square shape is a simple circular monstrance holding a consecrated host for veneration. Spending time before a consecrated host visible in a monstrance is called adoration: because Catholics believe in the consecrated host Jesus Himself is truly and fully present. In the exhibition space, there was a temporary exhibition on the Rosary. It will remain there until late 2024, when a new temporary exhibition will take its place. Gathered in this exhibition were many rosary beads used by popes, and saints. St Padre Pio’s rosary beads were there. There were some art installations, but they didn’t capture my attention, and artworks. This set of rosary beads belonged to one of the Marto children, either to St Francisco or to St Jacinta. The beads and crucifix are made of bone; and strung with string or twine. In the exhibition, this painting did capture my attention. It was painted by Simon Rodrigues in the year 1605; and it is called either ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ or ‘Shepherds Worshipping’. He was a Portuguese artist who died in 1629. For the colours to still be so vibrant after over 400 years is amazing. These are the main entry and exit doors to the Basilica of the Holy Trinity. It has been designed so that when you come out, there is a direct line of sight to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 9 Aug 2023, 1.08pm Portugal | 9 Aug 2023, 10.08pm Sydney The tour we did of the basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary on 9 Aug was part of a much wider tour of the whole sanctuary precinct. The other two parts can be broken up into the Basilica of the of the Holy Trinity and the memorabilia around the grounds of the Sanctuary. The construction of this basilica began on 13 May 1928, only 11 years after the apparitions began and two years before official papal recognition of the apparitions as ‘worthy of belief’. What this phrase means is that firstly nothing has been found within the apparition narrative that is contrary to the Gospel, and secondly that everyone is invited to take it seriously while at the same time there is no compulsion to do so – in effect, if it helps you run with it, if it doesn’t help you then you can ignore it without peril. Such a papal declaration only happens after extensive study: of the messages received; of the accounts of the events; of the lives of the seers; and of the spiritual fruit produced; all interspersed with rigorous debate; and is never given lightly. The colonnades on both sides of the basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary resemble the colonnades at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome in that they give pilgrims a sense of being gathered together in love. The statue of Our Lady in the niche of the bell tower was donated by the United States of America in 1958. In the monogram above the statue you can see three intertwined letters, N, S and R. They stand for ‘Nossa Senhora do Rosario’: in English, Our Lady of the Rosary. The crown beneath the cross that tops the bell tower was designed to be seen from the nearby freeway: tall enough and big enough to be seen from a considerable distance away. The external altar area with the all-weather canopy is called ‘Altar do Mundo’ or Altar of the World. Why? Because it makes very large open-air celebrations of Mass possible when it seems like all the world comes to visit. It is particularly necessary in the warmer months from April to November when very large crowds come on the first Saturday of the month and on the 13th of the month, and whenever the pope visits. The writing you can see upon that golden arch, ‘Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii Fatimae Ora Pro Nobis’ in Latin, means in English: 'Queen of the Most Holy Rosary of Fátima Pray For Us'. But it isn’t painted on, it’s a mosaic, and it was made in the Vatican workshops and donated by the Catholics of Singapore. It has been painted; and has been painted right onto the wall. In it our Lady of Fátima, full of light and peace, is inclined towards the three children. To her left is a depiction of the annunciation. To her right are several bishops or popes deliberating with the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the background. In the foreground is the Angel of Peace ministering the Eucharist to the three children. Behind the children is a depiction of an unidentified Pope, in a protective pose. In this photo you can see one of the two upper balconies, it’s the one on the right-hand side. With both balconies and the generously sized nave, up to 1500 pilgrims can be accommodated for the celebration of Mass. Consider how Fátima is on the opposite side of the world to the Broken Bay diocese. Then consider that the parish of The Entrance is named Our Lady of the Rosary, the parish of Wyoming is named Our Lady of the Rosary, the church at Killara is named Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the cathedral at Waitara-Hornsby is named Our Lady of the Rosary – and you begin to glimpse the worldwide impact of Fátima. Vincent Cavanagh #bbwyd #wydlisbon #wyd2023 #lisboa2023 9 Aug 2023, 12.39am Portugal | 9 Aug 2023, 9.39pm Sydney |
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