Slowly, slowly

Is there not something uncannily engaging about the nature of the conglomeration of tiny vulnerable tesserae, imperishable after the passing of two millenia? I believe oriental carpets are similar - the smaller the knot the more beautiful and intricate visualizations possible, and yet also the more long-lasting the piece (the dense pile better resists friction of the dirt). Firing of ceramics in the oven creates a chemically inert vitreous surface that resists even harsh industrial pollution!

Neat how the boys got to stand on them - what other precious archaic artifacts are so resilient they can withstand being trodden on, eh?

Something we Christians may take succor from, that Christ entrusted his Church to be constituted by we "broken vessels"? The more insignificant and lowly the soul attended to, the stronger the fraternal bond. The more insignificant and lowly the act of love is, the stronger the bond of fidelity (calling to mind the spirituality of St Therese of the Child Jesus and Mother Theresa of Calcutta). An apt metaphor for the times, no? "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me", that the world's refining fire perfects the Church such that "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Thanks for sharing!

p.s. in this 500th anniversary of Calvin's Reformation of Humanity (a retread of the Manichean redesign of God's Divine plan for integral human development) let's not be remiss in celebrating our freedom to visit cemeteries - he had folks flogged for praying at the graveside
http://catholicism.about.com/od/indulgences/p/Cemetery_Visit.htm
I can imagine all cemeteries everywhere as a kind of human mosaic awaiting the Lord's Second Coming, and pray for each and every sinner, living and deceased (Calvin included) that they not be a lost piece of the jigsaw puzzle of our eternal life, for how could we rest happily if the picture were incomplete? Perhaps purgatory can be considered to resemble archeology, with we the living being the archeologists, cherishing the jumbled pieces as yet uncertain of the divinely ordained place they shall occupy, trusting that the Lord in his great Wisdom has the Merciful Solution? The lives of the Saints give us an impression of what glory awaits us, just like the incomplete classical mosaics (bikinis and all, chuckle) alert us to delightful realities of the lives of those who went before us!

Visiting graves is terribly hard. For me, it always hammers home how dead someone really is--- that they're not just missing, that they're gone. I'm terrible about visiting my family graves... I know I SHOULD go.....but.....

The weird thing is that I LOVE graveyards when noone I love is buried in them...

Hi,
I know the ocean is very healing after someone has died. I too love being at the ocean since my son died. But as to his grave, I feel that I am so lucky to have him buried a mile from the house, where I pass him whenever I go out to do errands and say "hi" on my way home. I can stop in and be with him every day for a few minutes, or hours praying the rosary as I walk the cemetery. Just knowing his body is somewhere close, that if it is time for the resurrection of the dead, I will be with him immediately, is comforting.