Blogging Around: Biblical Art, American Causes for Sainthood, and My Conversion Story

Summula Pictoria: a Little Summary of the Old and New Testaments

Second Dream of St. Joseph, Daniel Mitsui

Daniel Mitsui is an artist I greatly admire and whose paintings I have featured here occasionally. I especially enjoy his "translations" into Asian styled art, although not all of his work is done that way.

He's got an ambitious new project planned.

Over fourteen years, from Easter 2017 to Easter 2031, I plan to draw an iconographic summary of the Old and New Testaments, illustrating those events that are most prominent in sacred liturgy and patristic exegesis.

The things that I plan to depict are the very raw stuff of Christian belief and Christian art; no other subjects offer an artist such inexhaustible wealth of beauty and symbolism. Were I never to draw them, I would feel my artistic career incomplete. I hope to undertake this task in the spirit of a medieval encyclopedist, who gathers as much traditional wisdom as he can find and faithfully puts it into order. I want every detail of these pictures, whether great or small, to be thoroughly considered and significant.

Find out more here. Be sure to browse Daniel's website to see his gorgeous art and read his thoughts and inspirations as an artist.

US Causes for Canonization

We've got more holy Americans than you might think. Certainly than I was aware of when reading this National Catholic Register piece about the causes underway for canonization. I was impressed by the timespan since the causes range across a time period from the 1500s to 2006.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

I also enjoyed looking through the list and seeing the wide variety of holy people represented. I was happy to see a particular favorite of mine included, who is relatively unknown: Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1853). He's a former slave from Saint-Domingue whose charity for the poor made him well-known and loved in NYC. He and his wife opened their home as an orphanage, employment bureau, and a refuge for travelers. They also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and destitute travelers. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.

Also I was pleased to see Servant of God Mother Rose Hawthorne (1926) listed. Does that last name look familiar? Yep. She's Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter who converted to Catholicism, trained as a nurse, and began a charitable organization to care for impoverished cancer patients. Later, in 1900, she founded a new order which was then named the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. I admire her intensely.

This is the summary of a two-part story so if you are interested in more details be sure to check out their links.

My Conversion Story

I met fellow convert Nancy Ward at the Catholic New Media Conference when it was in Dallas a few years ago. She's a lively go-getter, a Catholic writer, and a very kind supporter of my blog and writing.

I'm honored to have her featuring my conversion story at her blog, JOY Alive, in preparation for an interview she'll be doing to help get out the word about Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. While you're there be sure to check out her site, which:

... reaches out both as an expression of my desire to share my own experiences and an invitation to those of you who want to explore a life of joy. As we share our stories we share the joy of our hearts with one another. We will learn more about each another, more about our true selves and more about how intimately the Lord loves us.