Trending Articles

Friends of SOAR

For great posts about the business of art, check out The Artsy Shark HERE!
ArtistsBillofRights.org reviews competitions and appeals seeking creative content, listing those that respect your copyrights and highlighting those that don't. Art Matters! publishes calls to artists, and not all of them may be compliant with ABoR's standards. Visit their site to learn more.
We support the Embedded Metadata Manifesto.  Metadata is information such as copyright notice and contact info you can embed in your images to protect your intellectual property, save time when uploading to social sites and promote your art. Click to visit the site and learn more.

Art Classes at the GP Museum of Art- Nov/ Dec 2017

Grants Pass Museum of Art Classes

Art Classes! Visit our Website Elderhood, Wisdom, and Our Inner Knowing workshop with Janet L. Stanley, M. A. Saturday, Nov. 18 1-4 pm “We are the Crones, the Wise Women whose truths must be given voice, our spiritual journeys embraced and our sage insights welcomed. Come join me as we celebrate elderhood, our collective wisdom and how this inner knowing will help heal Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.” $20 per person How to Paint Snow with Kristen O’Neill Saturday, Dec 2 1 – 4 pm All materials provided Create your own painting of a winter scene Learn about color theory (warm & cool colors) Have a fun afternoon! All skill levels are welcome $30 per person, includes all materials. Art Journaling: Recipe for a Perfect Holiday with Karen O’Brien Saturday, Dec 16 10 am – 1 pm In this class we will learn how to begin our own

Continue reading Art Classes at the GP Museum of Art- Nov/ Dec 2017

O WISDOM

O WISDOM WORD OF ETERNAL BEING YOU REACH FROM ONE END OF EARTH TO THE OTHER WITH PROVIDENCE AND TENDERNESS COME AND TEACH US TO LIVE IN YOUR WAYS. Each year I yearn for this day when at the hour of vespers we sing the first of the O Antip…

Continue reading O WISDOM

O WISDOM



O WISDOM

WORD OF ETERNAL BEING

YOU REACH FROM ONE END OF EARTH TO THE OTHER

WITH PROVIDENCE AND TENDERNESS

COME AND TEACH US TO LIVE IN YOUR WAYS.

Each year I yearn for this day when at the hour of vespers we sing the first of the O Antiphons preceding Mary’s prayer in her pregnancy, the Magnificat. Each day the divine child she carries in her womb and in her heart is invoked by a different name leading up to December 23rd and the most popular verse, “O come, O come Emmanuel,” really the most paradoxical statement one can imagine because it would mean, “Come, God, who is already with us.”

In the past I wrote meditations each year as I contemplated these beautiful names of the Holy One. Then one year I slipped into the silence of awe. No more words. Until now. This morning I felt urged to delve once again into the antiphons hoping to discover there a meaning I might hold to in these present times. Whether we agree with the trajectory of these times or not, everywhere I look I hear whispers or cries of the heart. Uncertainty, ambiguity, ambivalenceall describe the heart that is aware. The whole earth is involved, from Washington to Aleppo, from the melting glaciers in the Himalayas to the flooding islands of the Pacific. Every focus of our human endeavors is affected, every discipline of thought, every tradition of belief. Where is Wisdom?

Wisdom is in the depths. We search for her, dig deep into the ground of being to unearth her jewels. Wisdom springs dancing from the Eternal, and Wisdom’s play is the spiral of creation, of universes evolving. Deep and Wide is Wisdom. Wisdom unites. Wisdom is ever compassionate and forgiving. Wisdom holds opposites in balance. When the humble and simple open the door of the heart, Wisdom enters.

Though Wisdom is not present in war of any kind, she is within the hearts of all who struggle, who strive, who mourn, who suffer violence, whose victimization results in acts of violence from which their own suffering increases. And Wisdom mourns, weeps for the suffering world while standing in the core of our carnage. Nothing that we do fails to penetrate the Divine Heart.

Our world stands in dire need of her. O Wisdom, Come.

Today is the 80th birthday of Pope Francis. This coincidence made me sit up and take notice. This pope of simplicity and inclusion and gentle love was born on the day celebrating Wisdom. That makes bells ring in my head! Happy Birthday, Papa Francis!

(to wish him a Happy Birthday: [email protected])

Continue reading O WISDOM