Category: Christianity

I need to read “Life of Constantine” by Eusebius

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How did The Lord God appear to Constantine?

Tancredi Scarpelli (1866-1937) Emperor Constantine seeing the sign of the Cross
Tancredi Scarpelli (1866-1937) Emperor Constantine seeing the sign of the Cross

According to traditional accounts, the Emperor Constantine the Great had a vision or a supernatural experience that played a significant role in his conversion to Christianity. The specific details of the experience vary across different historical sources and accounts. The most well-known and widely accepted story comes from the Christian historian Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote about it in his work “Life of Constantine.”

Eusebius describes that in the year 312 AD, on the eve of the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky along with the words, “In this sign, you shall conquer.” The vision reportedly appeared to him either in a dream or as a bright light during the day, depending on the version of the story.

Following the vision, Constantine claimed to have seen the symbol of the cross in the sky and subsequently ordered his soldiers to paint the Chi-Rho symbol (☧) on their shields, which represented the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek. Constantine went on to win the Battle of Milvian Bridge, and he attributed his victory to the Christian God.

This experience is often referred to as the “Vision of the Cross” or the “Conversion of Constantine.” It had a profound impact on Constantine’s religious beliefs and his subsequent policies, leading to his legalization of Christianity through the Edict of Milan in 313 AD and eventually his conversion to the faith.

The vision played a crucial role in Constantine’s embrace of Christianity and its subsequent rise to prominence in the Roman Empire.

We sit by and watch the Barbarian

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“The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers…. In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true.

We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.” – Hilaire Belloc

The Madonna of the Lilies

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The Virgin of the Lilies (French: La Vierge au lys), also known as The Madonna of the Lilies, is an 1899 oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, now owned by a private owner.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

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The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a 1633 oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It was previously in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston but was stolen in 1990 and remains missing. The painting depicts the biblical story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, specifically as it is described in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. It is Rembrandt’s only seascape.

The painting, in vertical format, shows a close-up view of Christ’s disciples struggling frantically against the heavy storm to regain control of their fishing boat. A huge wave beats the bow and rips the sail. One of the disciples is seen vomiting over the side. Another one, looking directly out at the viewer, is a self-portrait of the artist. Only Christ, depicted on the right, remains calm.

The close-up treatment of the subject and the overall composition go back to the print made by Adriaen Collaert after a design by the Flemish artist Maerten de Vos. That print depicting The storm on the sea of Galilei was plate 8 in the 12-part Vita, passio et Resvrrectio Iesv Christ which was published by Jan and Raphael Sadeler in Antwerp in 1583. Rembrandt’s painting follows the portrait format in his composition and also depicts the boat in a forward tilting position. Like in the print, most of the space of the work is taken up by the main motif, which is the disciples on the boat struggling against the elements.

Children need heroes.

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Giving hope to discouraged parents – “My praying with them at home and taking them to church is not enough to compete with what is happening to them at school. I’m not going to win.”

As we talked, she admitted that she doesn’t know what her daughter is reading at school. She can’t keep up. But she has noticed that what her daughter reads influences her ideas. And what her daughter brings home from the school library is not what she wants her to be reading.

Classical Difference’s post Talk to Strangers Oct 13, 2022

If you can’t rescue your children from government education and send them to a Classical or Classical Christian school at least offer them reading material that inspires their dreams, offers them hope, teaches them morals and sets worthy examples.

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” ― C.S. Lewis

Even our local library has become a cesspool of modern slop. I recommend two sites for worthwhile children’s books. https://archive.org/ and https://www.gutenberg.org/

My son and I recently read The Children’s Plutarch, tales of the Greeks & tales of the Romans. You can get them for free here – https://archive.org/search.php?query=Children%27s+Plutarch&sin=

or buy them on Amazon in several formats

The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks (Yesterday’s Classics)

The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Romans (Yesterday’s Classics)

The Creation

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The six days of the Creation. This is a page size miniature that Michiel van der Borch made in a manuscript of Jacob van Maerlant’s rhymed Bible. The text was Van Maerlant’s translation and adaptation of Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica.

Michiel put his name and the date below another miniature in the manuscript, making him the first painter known by name in the Netherlands.

Top left: God addresses a group of angels, who represent Light.

Center left: God creates a firmament which he called Heaven. It divided the waters in heaven and below.

Bottom left: on the third day God separated land and water in the waters below. He made plants and trees grow on the land.

Top right: on the fourth day God set the sun, the moon and the stars in the firmament of the heaven.

Center right: the creation of the great whales, the fish, and of the birds.

Bottom right: the sixth day. God created cattle, “creeping thing”, wild animals, and, finally, man. God pulls Eve from one of sleeping Adam’s ribs.

I love Lamb Of God iconography.

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Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.Agnus

Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.Agnus

Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.