Your story is just one,
and perhaps not the important one.
The self is not the principal thing.
--Michael Ondaatje,
Warlight
Everywhere today, we see families, communities, churches, and whole countries focusing more or less exclusively on their own needs without concern for other families, communities, churches, and countries. From the narrowness in our churches, to identity politics, to whole nations setting their needs first, we hear, “Not my concern! I’ll take care of myself. You take care of yourself!” By ignoring the needs of others we eventually corrupt our own wholeness so that we are no longer able to treat ourselves with respect and empathy and, when that happens, we lose respect and empathy for life itself – and for God.
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Image source: La Grande Prostituée / The Whore of Babylon, Apocalypse Tapestry, Musée d’Angers, France. Symbolic female figure found in the Book of Revelation. Here, the figure is depicted as utterly self-focused. The symbol found in the little mandorlas above and to the side of the figure is the bivium, or, crossroads; it is a Pythagorean representation of the antagonism between Good and Evil, and was meant to remind the viewer that they must not stray from the right path. Notice that the reflection of the “beautiful woman” in the tapestry shows her true face, and the scarlet robes and hip belt she wears are signs of her true profession. https://www.facebook.com/groups/436021857719038/posts/1093909415263609/
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