STUMP - Meep on public finance, pensions, mortality and more
STUMP - Death and Taxes
Memento Mori for Holy Week 2023
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Memento Mori for Holy Week 2023

Lots and lots of death, but there's extra

In which I talk about all sorts of death themes surrounding Holy Week, art works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and death in my life… remember your death while we are in life. It doesn’t mean things are morbid.


Episode Links

Spy Wednesday

Catholic News Agency: Why is today called Spy Wednesday?

Met Museum of Art

Salvador Dali

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May be an image of text that says 'Salvador Dalí. Spanish, 1904-1989 Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus), 1954 Oil on canvas Gift of The Chester Dale Collection, 1955 (55.5) Dali utilized his theory of "nuclear mysticism, a fusion Catholicism, mathematics, and science, create this unusual interpretation of Christ's crucifixion. Levitating before hypercube-a geometric, multidimensional form- -Christ's body is healthy, athletic, and bears no signs of torture; the crown of thorns and nails are missing. The artist's wife, Gala, poses devotional figure, witnessing Christ's spiritual triumph over corporeal harm. Several dreamlike elements from Dali's earlier Surrealist work feature in this painting: levitating figure, vast barren landscape, and chessboard.'

The Last Supper

No photo description available.
No photo description available.
No photo description available.

Juan de Pareja

Exhibit link

This exhibition offers an unprecedented look at the life and artistic achievements of seventeenth-century Afro-Hispanic painter Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608–1670). Largely known today as the subject of The Met’s iconic portrait by Diego Velázquez, Pareja—who was born in Antequera, Spain—was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for over two decades before becoming an artist in his own right. This presentation is the first to tell his story and examine the ways in which enslaved artisanal labor and a multiracial society are inextricably linked with the art and material culture of Spain’s “Golden Age.”

Representations of Spain’s Black and Morisco populations in works by Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Velázquez join works that chart the ubiquity of enslaved labor across media, from sculpture to silver. The Met’s portrait, executed by Velázquez in Rome in 1650, is contextualized by his other portraits from this period and the original document whereby Pareja was freed upon return to Madrid. The exhibition culminates in the first gathering of Pareja’s rarely seen paintings, some of enormous scale, which engage with the canons of Western art while reverberating throughout the African diaspora.

The Calling of St. Matthew link

St. Benedict of Palermo

Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_the_Moor

Benedict the Moor O.F.M. (Italian: Benedetto da San Fratello; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was a Sicilian Franciscan friar who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic[1] church. Born of enslaved Africans in San Fratello, he was freed at birth and became known for his charity. As a young man he joined a Franciscan-affiliated hermit group, of which he became the leader. In 1564 he was sent to the Franciscan friary in Palermo, where he continued good works.

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Benedict died at the age of 65 and, it is claimed, on the very day and hour which he had predicted.

St. Joseph, Patron of a Happy Death

Statue at my church

Prayer for a happy death

O Blessed Joseph, who yielded up thy last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me this grace, O holy Joseph, that I may breathe forth my soul in praise, saying in spirit, if I am unable to do so in words: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give Thee my heart and my soul.”Amen.

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STUMP - Meep on public finance, pensions, mortality and more
STUMP - Death and Taxes
Meep (Mary Pat Campbell) talks about mortality trends and/or public finance issues, usually with a connection to current events.