A beautiful tribute to artist John August Swanson by Cecilia Gonzalez-Andrieu: a life dedicated to art, faith and justice americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2… My full comments fellow below:
John August Swanson drew on many currents and styles of art, but for all the complexity and symbolic depth of his work, it has always seemed that his natural audience was children--and those who retain the ability to see with the eyes of a child. . .
His work is for those who know how to see with their hearts, to be surprised and delighted, those who have not lost the spirit of play. John sees God at play in creation, in the dreamscape of a starry firmament, in the stories of Jesus and the people of God, . ..
in acts of solidarity for justice and peace. And it is no wonder that he pivoted easily from images of St. Francis and other saints to jugglers, clowns, and circus performers. St. Francis called his followers jongleurs de Dieu—tumblers, jugglers, acrobats of God. . .
—who performed for the Lord, just as John performed through his art, through his vision of a world imbued with color, wonder, and love. He was not afraid to appear simple or foolish, knowing that God has chosen what is foolish in the eyes of the world, to shame the wise.

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More from @RobertEllsberg

10 Jan
“Now It Can Be Told” runs the headline on a breathless @nytimes story of how Neal Sheehan got the Pentagon Papers from my father @DanielEllsberg. Sheehan wanted to counter the usual (accurate) narrative that my father gave the papers to the Times. . . nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/…
2/ whereas (as he relates in an interview held for publication after his death) by the time my father gave him a full set of the Papers in April 1971 Sheehan had already secretly made his own copy (my father having given him full access in March).
3/ In fact my father already told this story in his 2002 memoir SECRETS. There he relates the reason why he initially told Sheehan he could review the papers but not have or make a copy without some assurance that the Times was interested in pursuing the story. While Sheehan
Read 14 tweets
28 Nov 20
Feast of St Joseph Pignatelli (d 1811) “second founder” of the Society of Jesus. He was among the Spanish #Jesuits roused by soldiers after midnight on 4/2/1767 to learn that all Jesuits were to be expelled from Spain. The same had occurred in Portugal and later France.
The total suppression of the Society followed in 1769 when Pope Clement XIV, under pressure from Bourbon princes, disbanded the Society. At once 23,000 Jesuit priests were dispensed from their religious vows. There was an anomaly. The decree had to be delivered to each community.
Empress Catherine the Great refused to allow bishops in White Russia to deliver the brief. Thus, in this corner of Europe the Jesuits survived. Pignatelli received permission to affiliate with this province. Thus, without setting foot in Russia he became the only Jesuit in Italy.
Read 5 tweets
22 Oct 20
1. This marks the 400th posting of #TolstoysTalesofTrump! Learning that even my own father @DanielEllsberg was mystified by this saga, perhaps some explanation is in order. First: These are not actually written by Tolstoy (1828-1910), who did not live to see the rise of Twitter. ImageImage
2. The conceit of this series was to imagine a commentary on the age of Trump by transposing him into the world of Tolstoy’s “moral tales”—the world of vain and corrupt landowners, petty aristocrats, and capricious masters who mistake servility and fear for real love. ImageImageImageImage
3. Others have much better explored the psychopathology of the president (@yourauntemma @gtconway3d @MaryLTrump). Instead of simply noting that “Trump is a lying amoral narcissist,” I would reflect on our time thru the story of the master of a 19th cen Russian estate. ImageImageImageImage
Read 8 tweets
6 Aug 20
Dorothy Day on the dropping of the atomic bomb: “Mr Truman was jubilant. True man; what a strange name, come to think of it. We refer to Jesus Christ as true God and true Man. Truman is a true man of his time in that he was jubilant. He was not a son of a God, brother...
2/ of Christ, brother of the Japanese, jubilating as he did. He went from table to table on the cruiser which was bringing him home from the Big 3 conference, telling the great news; “jubilant” the newspapers said. Jubulate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese. That is, ...
3/ we hope we have killed them...The effect is hoped for, not known. It is to be hoped they are vaporized, our Japanese brothers, scattered, men, women, and babies, to the four winds, over the seven seas....President Truman was jubilant. ...
Read 7 tweets
30 Apr 20
In Jan 1967, Dorothy Day, disturbed by Cardinal Spellman's support for the Vietnam War, published an article: "In Peace Is my Bitterness Most Bitter." "It is not just Vietnam, it is South Africa, it is Nigeria, the Congo, Indonesia, all of Latin America. It is not just...
the pictures of all the women and children who have been burnt alive in Vietnam...It is not just the words of Cardinal Spellman...It is the fact that whether we like it or not, we are Americans. It is indeed our country, right or wrong, as the Cardinal said in another context..."
She went on to recall the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, who sits hungry at the gate. "Woe to the rich! We are the rich! The Works of Mercy are the opposite of the works of war...We cannot repeat this enough."
Read 8 tweets
19 Apr 20
I wrote Sr Wendy about a friend whose prolonged illness left him unable to pray. She replied: "I wish you could convince him that we can always pray. When we are sick we pray in a sick way, in a feeble, hopeless, useless way, which draws the utmost love and compassion ...
...from Our Blessed Lord. Essentially He is our prayer, praying within us...And in fact when we think we can pray, we may well be getting in His way. Blessed those who have nothing. Oh how often Jesus spoke about this state of interior poverty, of littleness, of powerlessness...
...and how beautiful it all sounds when we read it or write it or speak of it. How terrible it is when we live it. But here’s where we glorify Him – in that blind cold clinging. I must confess that it is never so with me but I know that is how it is with those very dear to Him...
Read 4 tweets

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