Artandicon's Blog

  • The Two Domes of Creation

    I had Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) neck surgery at the end of March to correct a damaged disk. A very fine surgeon removed it, replaced it with a new one, and fused it for strength. Two days in the hospital and I went home to recover. I was tired for several weeks, but…

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  • The Iconography of the Nativity

    What Makes a Nativity Scene? The gospels remind us the story of Christ’s birth isn’t necessary for our salvation. Only our faith in Christ’s saving work for us on the cross is necessary “to transform our humble body that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables…

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  • The first bright light of creation must have been an awesome sight. Of course, only God was there to see it or hear it. The earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. Genesis 1:3 tells us, “Then God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light.” I have…

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  • The Creating God

    In the dead heat of summer, our gardens aren’t putting forth the fruit of our planting. Maybe the animals of our neighborhood have made their too frequent nightly visitations, so our harvest is skimpy. We can forget God is a both a creating god and a recreating god as well. The first words of the…

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  • THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN THE SCHOOLS

    When does an image become a meme? Or an icon, an idol, or a shibboleth? I ask those questions, and then have go about defining them. We all know what an image is—a representation of something which actually exists. An icon is the Greek word for image, but to become a venerable image, it must…

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  • A Prayer to End All Suffering

    I don’t don’t know about you, but I don’t willingly sign up for pain or suffering. Pollen season isn’t my friend. I could do without all this yellow and green stuff clogging my brain cells and my lungs. As I cough and die, swill decongestant tonics, and huff my asthma inhaler, I wonder if this…

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  • Sharansky’s Hanukkah

    NOTE: This extraordinary story comes from Arguable by Jeff Jacoby, an opinion writer for the Boston Globe, on December 12, 2023. I’m sharing it with all of you because even in the worst of times, even with the least of resources, if we have faith in God, we can be a light unto the world.…

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  • Rabbit! Rabbit! Welcome to November

    My parents would often say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” If this is so, I’ve had a one whale of a time in 2023. I don’t know where the time has gone, for I’d swear I just woke up in the bright new year of 2023, and now this year has grown a beard…

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  • REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11th

    Looking up at the night sky, I think of the Eskimo Proverb which says, “ Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.” The fatal September 2001 event at 7:14 am CDT…

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  • Seeds of Dissent and a Harvest of Distrust

    Nothing springs full grown to life in an instant. Everything begins in a seed, which is planted, watered, and nourished into full growth. Only in myths or fantasies can an idea come into being instantly. Zeus had a very bad headache, a “splitting headache,” that birthed his daughter Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She leapt…

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