VATICAN CITY, MARCH 3, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II offered personal counsel when facing times of difficulty: the invocation “Jesus, I trust in you.”"It is a simple but profound act of trust and abandonment to the love of God,” the Pope said. “It is a fundamental point of strength for every man, as it is capable of transforming life.”"In the inevitable trials and difficulties of life, in moments of joy and enthusiasm, entrusting oneself to the Lord infuses the soul with peace, induces us to recognize the primacy of the divine initiative and opens the spirit to humility and trust,” he added.”In the heart of Jesus, those anguished by life’s sorrows find peace; those afflicted by suffering and illness find relief; those who feel constricted by uncertainty and anguish feel joy, because Christ’s heart is filled to overflowing with consolation and love for those who turn to it with trust,” he said.

postscript:

Peter Paul Rubens. Christ Risen.
1616. Oil on canvas. Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy.

The Flemish baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, b. June 28, 1577, d. May 30, 1640 was the most renowned northern European artist of his day, and is now widely recognized as one of the foremost painters in Western art history.

The hallway is brown, the mirror at the end belonged to Richard Brown (father of John R. Brown, grandpa of Bryan J. Brown) and the poster on the wall is of famed Kansas civil rights activist John Brown of Harpers Ferry fame.

Richard Brown would break out in a smile were he to see his mirror gracing the Institutes’ hallway.  Grandpa went to his great reward back in ‘94.  He was a man who spent much time in the Word of God, and knew it cover to cover.

Nothing made Richard Brown happier than a good discussion of some topic in the Bible.  He looked forward to the second coming as the Hope for all mankind.  Grandpa was not much of a churchgoer, but he loved the Lord and lived his faith. 

Grandpa thought his son and grandson were doing the right thing in standing up for Life and calling the government to account for allowing the wholesale slaughter of the same. 

Grandpa Brown was a poor farmer most of his life,  and never had much of anything worth all that much.  The antique mirror that now hangs in the Institute was attached to  the nicest furniture he ever owned — and that was not all that rich of a unit.

I do not think that Grandpa woud have ever taken the direct action that I took.  Or the action that his firstborn, John, has taken.  (Dad has been an outspoken Christian activist for decades, and has risked arrest, and even been arrested, for the cause.)

Grandpa Brown’s way was less confrontational.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Grandpa’s life struck me as a fulfillment of this admonition from the Old Testament: 

Thus Curry stands as a departure gate into post-modernity.  Could this Topeka mural of Brown  be considered as prophetic as it was historic? 

Postscript

Source:  The Kansas State Historical Society

John Steuart Currywas born on November 14, 1897, in the small northeastern Kansas town of Dunavent. The eldest of five children in a farming family, his inclination toward art began at a young age. Curry’s biographer and friend, Lawrence E. Schmeckebier, once wrote that as a youth on his father’s farm Curry was interested in drawing everything:

. . . horses and fighting animals, railroad engines and trains, pictures of battles from the Revolutionary War, hosts of everyday things about him. He kept a scrapbookfilled with newspaper and magazine clippings of cowboy and Indian scenes, illustrations by such westerners as Remington and Dunton, also hundreds of his own pencil sketches of guns and revolvers.

In 1928, Curry finally received national fame with the purchase of his painting “Baptism in Kansas” by the wealthy patron and New York art museum owner Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Curry was then introduced to two other artists who shared his love for the Midwest, Grant Wood of Iowa and Thomas Hart Bentonof Missouri.  Curry’s “Baptism in Kansas” in 1928, Benton’s “Boomtown” in 1928, and especially Wood’s “American Gothic” in 1930, all seem to encapture the unique experience of American rural life. These Regionalists attempted to create a distinct style of art that promoted idealism and rejected the duplication of popular European trends. In 1946 Thomas Hart Benton wrote, “We agreed that unless American Art came back to dealing with things about which American artists knew something it would accomplish nothing.” They painted images promoting a new American identity that included subjects of family, religion, and nature.

The growth of the Regionalist art movement can best be understood in the context of the rising nationalism and isolationism that occurred in the U.S. between the two world wars. Separation from European trends and a focus on American identity were concepts permeating American culture throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Through the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, the federal government commissioned Regionalist artists to complete murals on public buildings that promoted the Protestant work ethic and family values.

The first exposure of the Kansas public to Curry’s artwork came in 1930-31, when a traveling exhibition of his paintings was sent from New York to the Mulvane Museum in Topeka. The showing produced harsh reactions from Kansas viewers and critics. Many claimed that Curry focused only on the negative aspectsof Kansas life. They labeled the paintings “The Tornado,” “Holy Rollers,” and “Mnt” as depicting miserable weather, religious fanaticism, and lynch mobs. 

 In 1937, artist John Steuart Curry was asked to return to Kansas to cover the interior walls of the Topeka capitol with scenes from the state’s history.  

As Curry finished “The Tragic Prelude” and “Kansas Pastorale,” murals adorning the east and west second-floor corridors of the capital building, tensions flared between Curry and the public over his use of fanatical abolitionist John Brown as a focal point.

End of quote from http://www.kshs.org/cool2/curry.htm

Fanatical, funny word, fanatical.  One man’s fanaticism is another man’s only reasonable response.  Some say living for Christ is fanaticism.  Others live for football, hunting or the stock market with the same degree of fanaticism and call it quite normal.  

Richard Brown was meek, mild and harmless, and most who knew him considered his life one live in obedience to the Lord. 

John Brown was outspoken, wild and a man of great action and even violence.  Most who knew him considered his life one lived in obedience to the Lord.

They could be bookends in many ways.  Both are brought to mind in the Institute’s hallway.

Lord help us find the right balance between extremes in all we do and say.  And help us to revere and preserve our heritage.

The above poster greeted us when we first walked through the former abortion clinic.  It was one of three that the former team left behind.   We assume that the above poster was on this door while the building was used as an abortion clinic. 

The poster celebrates “reproductive options” in history, all the way back to early Greek and Roman times, through Elizabethian England and into modernity.  (Including Margie Sanger and Planned Parenthood.) The poster presents a “womyn-centric” view of the world, employing a neo-marxist, female fertility lens to look back down the corridors of time.  

It is a teaching tool, a catechism if you will, destined to be posted and designed to be read.  The goal of this catechism is to teach the reader to celebrate contraception, including abortion services, as the empowerment of women. 

Which brings to mind the following quote from Mother Teresa: “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”http://www.gargaro.com/mother_teresa/quotes.html .  This teaching poster was on the door into the southeast room on the clinic’s first floor.   Christian counselors who have discussed the abortion experience at 827 Webster Street with women who were unfortunate to be served at that location tell us that this room was where the women waited to be called into one of the three “procedure” rooms.  The women have described huddling in start silence around a space heater. (The clinic’s boiler had failed and the management had resorted to electric space heaters rather than put any money into the filthy facility they ran — for profit.) 

We are pretty certain that the noise of the vacuum aspiration machines could be heard from this waiting roon, and any cries or loud sobs would have been audible as well. It was a room of despair, a hopeless suite leading to a robbed womb.  (And much money for George Ulrich Klopfer and Susan Hill.)

 No more!  The following picture, mounted on translucent material, now beams out of this room day and night!  The original was painted by the great Perugino.  This masterpiece celebrates true femininity, the women of faith and substance who look to the Christ Child for deliverance and sane, women-affirming teachings on how to live this life we have been given.    Postscript

The Virgin and Child Surrounded by Two Angels, St. Rose, and St. Catherine.

Oil on wood.

Louvre, Paris, France

Borrowing from Wikipedia and New Advent:  Pietro Perugino (1446–1524) was a well-known painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance.  He was born Pietro Vannucci in Città della Pieve, Umbria, Vannucci; his nickname characterizes him as from Perugia, the chief city of Umbria.Perugino adopted a rising tradition and made it his own by adding to it the decorative taste of his master, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and influenced by the powerful style of Piero della Francesca.He was a contemporary and peer of  Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  The latter once told Perugino to his face that he was a bungler in art (goffo nell arte).  Perugino brought an action for defamation of character, unsuccessfully  Perugino’s most accomplished student was  Raphael. There can be no doubt that the artists mentioned in this post have given Christendom a great wealth of beauty to comtemplate. 

At the risk of offending the Institute’s Protestant friends and supporters on this first day of 2008, please consider the closing prayer from a recent Novena that Bishop John D’Arcy asked the good Catholics of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese to pray. All are invited to carefully note the prayer’s scriptural warrant.

“Almighty God, we offer this novena to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. She occupies a place in the Church, which is highest after Christ and yet very close to us, for You choose her to give the world the Life which renews all things, Jesus Christ. And so we pray as Mary:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name.”   Luke 1:46-49

The Institute is not sponsoring Mary worship. That is not Christian.  It is not even Catholic. The Institute is merely agreeing that the Mother of Jesus should be called “blessed.”  She certainly was blessed to carry the Incarnation in her womb!  She is not analogous to a mere beast of burden who carried Jesus into Jerusalem.  She is instead more like an Eve who did not say yes to the great deceiver, but instead said yes to the Holy Spirit.

To the Institute’s Protestant friends and supporters: Try this link instead of a novena.  It was sung this morning at St. Charles by an outstanding youth quartet and choir.   http://www.kodachrome.org/marydid/  This song is very moving, and was probably sung in many Protestant churches during this Advent season.

   The above picture that  opens this posting is on display in the window of a former “procedure” room at 827 Webster Street.  The Institute had two prints made on an expensive translucent material.  Drive by after dark for the full effect.  Viewing those two paintings of true femininity and motherhood shining through the windows of a former abortion clinic while Christian music is broadcast into the adjacent park is a spiritually uplifting experience. 

Postscript  Accoridng to Wikipedia, “The Madonnina, commonly known as the Madonna of the Streets, was a painting created by Roberto Ferruzzi and first publicly exhibited in 1897 at an art exhibition in Venice. … Although not originally painted as a religious picture, this painting was received by the public as a beautiful image of the Virgin Mary holding her Infant Son, and has become the most renowned of Ferruzzi’s works.

The Original is lost.  In this instance the original was altered into the likeness of an icon.

This is the very door through which abortion bound women passed over the 28 years that 827 Webster Street served as Indiana’s most notorious abortuary. Women who, like Mary, found themselves in crisis pregnancies. Women who were most often not loved and supported by the father of the child, the father that sent his own child through this ominous door.

The Scriptures tell us that Joseph supported Mary in her crisis, even before he was told (by an angel) that the child she carried was unique among the children of men. Most of the women who walked through this door and climbed the steps beyond the door did not have a man of Joseph’s caliber in their life. And once this door closed behind them, the most important man in their child’s nascent life was the “doctor.” A “doctor” being reward to exterminate the unwanted “product of conception”.

Two patients entered, but only one exited. One dead, one wounded. It was a modern slaughter of the innocents. The fruit of the womb was turned into a product that was “harvested” for profit by men of King Herod’s spirituality.

Abortion is a direct attack against the basic building block of human society, the family. Those who ply the trade commit acts of treason against the human race by furthering the culture of death. (Despair ye not, for a general amnesty is available! Click here: Jesus Forgives and Heals)

The ArchAngel Institute proclaims its allegiance to the Culture of Life this Christmas, and encourages everyone to do the same. This allegiance is best demonstrated through resistance to the modernist attack on the family. The antidote to such attacks is found in the great example set by the Holy Family. Let us join with the late Pope John Paul II in extolling the very good news and very great virtue found in the Holy Family. Let us join John Paul II in holding the Holy Family out as the foundation of Christian civilization on this fallen (yet redeemable) orb.

The Institute wishes you Merry Christmas in the following greeting from the front door of the former clinic:

The Son of God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and born in the stable at Bethlehem, chose to enter the world within a family, the Holy Family of Nazareth. Before the crib, the eyes of the heart and of faith look intently upon this Family: upon Jesus, Mary and Joseph. During the whole Christmas period our eyes will rejoice at the mystery of the Holy Family…. The Birth of the Lord gladdens us, the mystery of the Holy Family gladdens us. Everyone wants to share in this joy: this is the joy which today we want to wish everyone.John Paul II, December 25, 1994

Postscript:

The Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist (the Doni tondo)Michelangelo
1503-04‚Oil on panelDiameter 120 cm

Uffizi, Florence

The above icon of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is currently displayed in the storm door of the former abortion clinic. The glare on the glass makes viewing in this venue difficult, but the icon depicts Mary, with Jesus inutero, visiting Elizabeth, with John inutero. This moving piece of art was given to the ArchAngel Institute by Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church on May 19, 2007.

May 19 was a quite unique day, as that 827 Webster Street was the subject of an Orthodox exorcism, followed by a traditional Roman Catholic blessing, followed by a tribute to pro-life activists (especially Phyllis Avila) from decades past by Frank Avila, followed by a reading from Martin Luther, followed by an Evangelical invocation by Pastor Wendell Brane (Trinity Evangelical Church). This unique service opened and closed with bagpipes playing sacred music. One of the bagpipers was one of Fort Wayne’s finest, a man in blue. Details of this event are posted on this site and available in the archives of the News-Sentinel.

Father David Meinzen and Deacon Michael Myers performed the exorcism on May 19, and included with the service an explanation of why the Orthodox Church believed an exorcism appropriate under the circumstances. That informative and uplifting explanation will be posted on this website at a later date.

The above pictured icon was presented to the Institute on May 19. No icon could have been any more appropriate given the horrible acts that had taken place at 827 Webster Street over the 28 years prior to 2007.

The Gospel of Luke, at chapter one, describes the visitation that this icon depicts.

Note two items in particular …

First, here was John the Baptizer, many years before he immersed anyone, demonstrating both his mission and his personality. That is, he announced the presence of the Holy One of Israel (Jesus) and did so with great panache. Yes, it really is John, despite his diminutive size and very young age. It was John being John, while he was somewhere between conception and birth. John was closer to the latter than the former, based upon the accounting of months found in the Luke 1:24-26.

Second, John was responding to the presence of the entity then residing in the womb of Mary. That entity, the Holy One of Israel, was also somewhere between conception and birth. Many commentators believe Jesus was closer to the former than the latter when Mary visited Elizabeth. The Scriptures indicate that John was in the sixth month of gestation and Jesus in the initial days of gestation when this visit took place. See Luke 1:36-41.

In other words, this icon of the visitation celebrates a likely third trimester “fetus” responding to the presence of a likely first trimester “embryo.”

The scriptures and this icon could not be more pro-life. It is in this very passage that Catholics find the root of much of their Marian devotion. Elizabeth cried out, when little John bounced in her womb, “blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”

Mary responded, “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

Such is the text that the Scriptures tie to the historic meeting depicted in the icon of the Visitation.

Many pro-lifers, Orthodox or not, may want to obtain such an icon for their home. I have found it difficult to locate the icon on the Institute’s door online. Similar icons can be found online and are pictured below. Those wanting an icon like the one now gracing the former clinic’s porch should contact Eikons Studio at (216) 575-1416.

Today’s postscript presents more about icons.

Postscript

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church

The Orthodox & Icons (edited)

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world. It is considered by its adherents to be the least changed from its ancient theological roots which stretch back to the beginnings of Christianity itself. It is comprised of numerous theologically unified autocephalous congregations each shepherded by a synodbishops whose duty is to preserve the traditions of the Church, and who can trace their lineage back to one of the twelve Apostles through the process of apostolic succession. Orthodox Christians regard their church as: of independent

• The original Christian Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

• The preservers of the teachings and traditions given to the original members of the Church by the Apostles nearly 2000 years ago; and the developers of later traditions which expand and illuminate the original teachings.
• The preservers of Truth having never fallen into error, comparing all newer theological ideas to the already established beliefs and practices of the Church; accepting ideas that clarify and correctly teach, while rejecting ideas that are theologically incompatible with the original teachings.
• The compilers of the New Testament whose texts were written to members of the Church in ancient times and ultimately express already established Church doctrine (i.e. The Church was the basis for the New Testament, not the other way around)
• The Church which established and preserves the original Christian Calendar (based on the Julian calendar) setting the dates for the celebration of the significant events in Christ’s life in Chronological order.

Icons

The term Icon comes from the Greek word eikona, which simply means image. The Orthodox believe that the first icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary were painted by Luke the Evangelist. Icons are filled with symbolism designed to convey information about the person or event depicted.

Icons are not considered by the Orthodox to be idols or objects of worship. The parameters of their usage was clearly spelled out by the 7th ecumenical council. Justification for their usage utilizes the following logic: Before Christ God took human form no material depiction was possible and therefore blasphemous even to contemplate. Once Christ became human, he was able to be depicted. And because he is God, it is justified to hold in one’s mind the image of God Incarnate. Likewise, when one venerates an icon, it is not the wood or paint that are venerated but rather the individual shown, just as it is not the paper one loves when one might kiss the photograph of a loved one. As Saint Basil famously proclaimed, honor or veneration of the icon always passes to its archetype. Following this reasoning through, the veneration of the glorified human saint made in God’s image, is always a veneration of the divine image, and hence God as foundational archetype.

Icons can be found adorning the walls of churches and often cover the inside structure completely. Most Orthodox homes have an area set aside for family prayer, usually an eastern facing wall, where are hung many icons.

In the final analysis it can be said that this is

the greatest icon known to planet Earth:

Man, created in the Image of the Living God

Live to your highest potential

Be an icon today and everyday

The ArchAngel Institute is headquartered in the building on the right. The building on the left is the Women’s Care Center, a very fine crisis pregnancy center.  Why is the Fort Wayne abortion clinic no longer on Webster Street?  Probably for two reasons:  One, the CPC right next door.  Two, because Allen County Right to Life, Indiana Right to Life and good pro-life activists and politicians across the Hoosier State worked to pass reasonable legislation.  Reasonable and potentially life-saving legislation that forced abortionist George Ulrich Klopfer and abortion provider Susan Hill to clean up their act.  As we documented earlier on this website, the abortion clinic was seemingly operated against the same lax health standards as a proverbial “back alley” butcher shop.  Imagine that, abortionists who care more about money than the safety of the desparate and often abandoned women seeking their services. 

This old clinic could not meet the new code for outpatient medical centers.  And so the building went up for sale.  The rest is now history . . . ironic history.  Click here for more on that subject: Cosmic Irony is Underway on Webster Street

Alas, the Fort is not abortion free.  It is, however, Susan Hill free. That feminist activist and Klopfer went separate ways, and now Klopfer is alone in the child killing business in Fort Wayne.  He moved out to Inwood Drive, near State and Coliseum Blvd.  Here is the best part — the Women’s Care Center opened a new office next door to Klopfer’s clinic just as he was opening up in a new location that complied with the law that ACRTL helped to enact.  

Such acts (the care ministry of the WCC and the political activism of ACRTL and the statesmanship of those who enacted the laws) constitute the Culture of Life taking good ground.    The Institute thanks God the Father for such activists this Advent!

Back to the red brick building above.  The storefront was about all that most abortion bound women saw for the 28 years that the building participated in the grisly business of pregnancy termination on demand.  No time to walk through the park, no time to take in the character of the southern wall, no time to tour the place.  They were rushed toward that storefront by “escorts” who had (and yet have on Inwood Drive) only one goal:  get the pregnant woman “safely” past those who would offer any choice other than an abortion.  (These escorts claims the title “pro-choice,” but that certainly is a misnomer given their bias for surgical pregancy termination.) 

Thus the large front window was never much of  a focal point while the building was operated as an abortion clinic.  It was a cold, blank stare on a building that housed unspeakable pain and life-ruining grief. 

No longer.  That very window now proclaims the most wonderful mystery known to mankind — the mystery of the Incarnation.  The source of joy, hope and true happiness. 

Many artists have endeavored to capture the moment when the ArchAngel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen, out of all of the billions of daughters of Eve, to be the gateway for the Incarnation.  Her womb would cradle the One who hung the stars.  Her flesh was to be His flesh.  To wax scientific, her very DNA was to be the DNA of God-made-man. The only source of DNA. (I.e., it truly was a virgin birth.)  

What an amazing mystery!   And what a rebuke to the abortion industry.  God became man –not when Mary noticed she was pregnant – not when the babe in the womb passed into the third trimester – not when its head passed through the cervical os – not once a breath was taken by the Christ child.

God became man when Mary said yes, allowing the spark of life to explode inside her womb.  Just as it was with us all.  (With the exception that the explosion that was Jesus occured in the holy ground of Mary’s womb without the presense of Adam’s seed.)

More will be posted on this very important foundational truth, including a discussion of the artist Leonardo da Vinci,   Today we merely present this wonderful paiting, which now graces the front window of the abortion clinic, and the Holy Scripture posted beneath da Vinci’s masterpiece.

“The Annunciation” by Leonardo da Vinci
c. 1472-1475
Oil and tempera on panel
38 1/4 x 84 5/8 in. (98 x 217 cm)
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

From the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1:

26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. 31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. 33 And of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? 35 And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Please consider praying the following for the nine days between December 21 and December 29 for a special intention of the Institute.  This special intention involves communicating the Gospel of Life and building up the Culture of Life.

Those who pray with us during this special nine day period are requested to pray this prayer: 

PRAYER TO CHRIST THE KING

Say the following prayers each day:  O Lord our God,  

You alone are the Most Holy King and Ruler of all nations.  

We pray to You, Lord,  in the great expectation of receiving from You,

O Divine King, mercy, peace, justice and all good things. 

Protect, O Lord our King, our families and the land of our birth.  

Guard us we pray Most Faithful One.  

Protect us from our enemies and from Your Just Judgment 

Forgive us, O Sovereign King, our sins against you. 

Jesus, You are a King of Mercy. 

We have deserved Your Just Judgment 

Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive us. 

We trust in Your Great Mercy. 

O most awe-inspiring King, we bow before You and pray; 

May Your Reign, Your Kingdom, be recognized on earth.  Amen.

Postscript: 

The above picture is entitled "St. Michael the Archangel."   

It was painted in 1635 by Guido Reni. 

The original of this picture now gracing the "exit" door of the 

former abortion clinic is found in Rome.  It is above the altar of the 

first chapel in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini.

Reni also painted the ArchAngel Gabriel — albeit in a much softer manner than Michael:

Angel of the Annunciation
Oil on canvas, 58,5 x 46,5 cm
Landesmuseum, Oldenburg

This is the third in a series of posts honoring the three ArchAngels that inspired the birth of the ArchAngel Institute. As stated in Monday’s post, the former abortion clinic is decorated with sacred art in celebration of Advent. The ArchAngel Institute will focus upon that great art and the messages communicated through that great art between December 8 and January 6, 2008.

This post explains why the above picture of the ArchAngel Michael is now displayed in the former abortion clinic’s southeast window.

The angel’s names is a rhetorical question: “Who is like God?”

Who is like the Uncreated Creator, the Infinite Personal, the Ground of All Being?

The ArchAngel Michael, by his very name, pushes us toward the philosophical.

The only rational answer to the above rhetorical questions is “no one.”

God stands alone. He is the Creator, all else is the created.

Michael the Archangel (a created being more like you than like God) is mentioned by name four times in the Bible: Daniel 10, Daniel 12, Jude and the Apocalypse 12.

The latter is the inspiration for the painting above. A reproduction of this painting by the artist Raphael (entitled “St. Michael trampling the dragon,”) currently hangs in the southeast window of the former abortion clinic.

All three of these books and all four of these passages have this in common: they are eschatological. In other words, they deal with the final conflict between good and evil.

According to the Apocalypse 12:7, “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.”

I meet many Protestants who are amazed when informed that the Catechism of the Catholic Church contains eschatologically teaching, which is to say teachings on the “end times.”

Conversely, more than a few Catholics are surprised when told what the Church teaches about the end times, and how closely it conforms to some popular Evangelical literature on the subject.

Catholics should not be surprised to find such teaching in their catechisms since the Nicene Creed, which is recited at every Mass, promises that “from [Heaven] He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

Advent is a celebration of this coming day of the Lord. By way of example of how this is taught in the Catholic Church, consider the Friday, December 14 Mass at Our Lady of Good Hope parish. Pastor Mark Gurtner opened that service with the following song from the Advent section of a popular Catholic hymnal

When the King shall come again

All his pow’r revealing,

Splendor shall announce his reign,

Life and joy abound and healing;

Earth no longer in decay,

Hope no more frustrated;

This is God’s redemption day

Longingly awaited.

Lyrics by Christopher Idle

Catholics often recite “world without end, amen,” and might be lulled into thinking that the current status quo ante is to remain in the future. That is not the case. The created order will remain, but its future will, one day, be quite different than the status quo we now know.

Those interested in starting a study of what the Church teaches on the end times should begin in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 668. This resource is available online at http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/

Here is a taste of the Church’s end times teaching:

Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the king’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by th evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover. . . . the present time is a time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time marked by ‘distress’ and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.

CCC 671-72 (excepted)

It is in this time of waiting and watching that a furious spiritual war is raging all around us. The ArchAngel Michael presses the battle against Lucifer (Satan) and his fallen comrades (demons) as time rushes us all toward God’s ultimate victory – the victory which that Raphael depicts in his painting of the ArchAngel Michael finally putting Lucifer to the sword.

The Catholic catechism prophetically teaches that

“Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.” CCC 675. This same magisterial document then addresses a great persecution, a great apostasy, and the coming Antichrist – events that add up to a time of great distress for the Bride of Christ.

“The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. . . . God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.” CCC 677 (excerpted)

While most Evangelicals, Protestant or Catholic, have never heard the Church’s teachings on this coming time of worldwide distress, that is not because the Church has failed to transmit its end times teachings. Some of the glossing of the scriptures that are preserved can be traced back to the Church Fathers of the first three centuries of Christianity.

Teachings on the crucial role that the ArchAngel Michael play in the end times are included in this deposit of faith.

The Raphael painting now on display at the Institute is accompanied by the following verses stressing the scope of the spiritual war now waging in the created order:

Genesis 3:15 and Revelations 12:10

In closing, while we all hope to live to witness the Creator’s final victory over Lucifer through his appointed ArchAngel, we must take to heart the wise counsel currently posted on the marquis of Our Lady of Good Hope parish: “Be Patient Brothers and Sisters until the Coming of the Lord.”

And all of the faithful reply, with the Apostles Paul and John, “Marana tha! Our Lord, come!” 1 Cor. 16:22, Rev. 22:17, 22 and CCC 671

Postscript:

The above painting, entitled “St. Michael trampling the dragon” was created around 1518 by Raffaello Santi (Sanzio), the artist better known as “Raphael.” The original now hangs in Musée du Louvre at Paris. Raphael was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect who is considered one of the greatest and most popular artists of all time. He trained under his father, the painter Giovanni Santi and the master Perugino. Raphael work is celebrated for its perfection and grace. Together with his peers Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that historically unmatched period in the history of great art.

As stated in Monday’s post, the former clinic is now almost decked out for Advent as the ArchAngel Institute.

This post explains why the angel from the above picture is in one of the windows.

But before that is explained, the term “Advent” should be defined.

As is fitting in a post arising out of a city (Fort Wayne) that hosts Concordia Seminary and that has been a seat of Lutheran administration since 1837, we will turn to the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, to define Advent for us:

The word “advent” is from the Latin word for “coming,” and as such, describes the “coming” of our Lord Jesus Christ into the flesh.

Advent begins the church year because the church year begins where Jesus’ earthly life began–in the Old Testament prophecies of his incarnation.

Advent specifically focuses on Christ’s “coming,” but Christ’s coming manifests itself among us in three ways–past, present, and future. The readings which highlight Christ’s coming in the past focus on the Old Testament prophecies of his incarnation at Bethlehem. The readings which highlight Christ’s coming in the future focus on his “second coming” on the Last Day at the end of time. And the readings which highlight Christ’s coming in the present focus on his ministry among us through Word and Sacrament today.

http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=3903

The ArchAngel Gabriel is featured in the middle window of the first floor. It is the window between the two speakers broadcasting the very good news that we celebrate during Advent. It is fitting that the window between the speakers playing Christmas music depict the ArchAngel Gabriel, since this angel is considered God’s announcer of good news.

The name Gabriel means “God’s hero.”

According to the online New Advent encyclopedia, throughout the Scriptures the Angel Gabriel is depicted as

“the angel of the Incarnation and of Consolation, and so in Christian tradition Gabriel is ever the angel of mercy . . . Gabriel is mentioned only twice in the New Testament, but it is not unreasonable to suppose with Christian tradition that it is he who appeared to St. Joseph and to the shepherds, and also that it was he who “strengthened” Our Lord in the garden.”

www.NewAdvent.net

There is no angel more closely identified with the Advent season than the ArchAngel Gabriel. We will discuss this powerful entity once again when we discuss the art that now hangs in the front window of the Institute.

While the ArchAngel Gabriel is considered the most exotic creature to announce the birth of our Lord, he was certainly not the first to announce God’s marvelous plan to create an army of insurgents (i.e. the Church) on this fallen orb. That plan was pre-announced centuries in advance, and especially as it related to our General who was appointed to take point in the re-conquest of Planet Earth.

Two thousand years of so before this great General’s birth we were told he would be born of a woman descended from Eve.

Centuries before this great General’s birth we were told that he would be a descendant of King David, would be born in Bethlehem and would be a suffering servant.

Advent could be celebrated by reading the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that the birth and life of Jesus fulfilled. It would be a study well worth doing. Point your browser toward these resources to begin such a study:

http://www.carm.org/bible/prophecy.htm

http://windmillministries.org/frames/CH20A.htm

(References are not endorsements of the ministries, but merely reflect the Institute’s belief that helpful information can be found at the site referenced.)

All of humanity needs to hear the message that the ArchAngel Gabriel trumpets during Advent. Our celebration of Advent marks the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ while preparing us to greet Him at His Second Coming. His first coming was in humility as a suffering servant. His Second Coming will be as a conquering King.

Readings from the Gospel of Luke, chapter one, accompany the depiction of Gabriel on the Institute’s south wall.

We are taught in Holy Writ that our Creator seeks to heal us from our rebellion and the sad affects of life on a fallen planet. Advent is a celebration of the freedom, the deliverance, the salvation that our Loving God wishes to visit upon us, one and all.

Your Creator has entered His own creation. He became the helpless babe in a manager. That babe grew up to rule the Cosmos. Choose to bow before Him today, for it is well established that in the end all will do so, willingly or not. We will all, like the ArchAngel Gabriel, finally announce that Jesus is the Ultimate Authority in Heaven and Earth.

The ArchAngel Institute encourages all to do so willingly, while there is yet time to choose to do so.

As the Apostle Paul writes,

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:10-11

Confess the babe in the manger as your King and Lord during this Advent season.

Postscript:

The depiction of the ArchAngel Gabriel posted in the Institute’s middle window is from Fra Angelica’s fresco The Annunciation, painted in the late 1430s. The original remains at the friary of San Marco in Florence. Fra Angelica was well respected for his dedication to art and the Lord Jesus Christ, and is entombed in the church of St. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. (More on that church later.)