Ora et labora: Day 1

(pardon the lateness of this post, internet was out yesterday)

5/31/10


The bulk of the physical labor I achieved today took shape in the form of finishing setting up my studio space in which to work. Thanks to a friend who makes custom cabinetry I am now the proud owner of a couple of banks of old cabinets which will serve as both a work space as well as much needed storage. For the past couple of weeks I have half heartedly been “setting up the studio” but today I really got to it by assembling shelving, bringing down the wedging table (which is deceptively heavy) and trying to adjust my off center wheel (sadly thus far to no avail, any advice or help is greatly appreciated by the way.) In conjunction with the general “setting up” of the space I also finally got around to filling some buckets with water to slake down some dry clay I had laying around, hopefully when I run out of the casting slip I have right now I will be able to use the newly slaked clay as a base for new slip.

Speaking of slip I also poured and pulled a few molds today and am now the proud owner of three, count em’ three, small beads for the rosary. With a total of 53 “Hail Mary” beads on a rosary that means I’m down to an even 50 left to cast (and bisque…and fire…and assemble… but we’ll get to that when we get to that) No worries though, once I get the studio finally in all order I will be able to crank them out pretty quickly I think. Even if I set myself up to pull 5 a day and factor in an extra 10% failure rate for molds and 10% failure rate for firings I’ll be done pulling small bead molds in a couple of weeks.

Upon ascending the stairs from the dark recesses of the studio (aka the basement) I was also able to begin on the prayer component of this work. De profundis clamavi indeed! Under the advice of a priest I began reading the part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church devoted to prayer. A few things struck me as I read Part4, Section1, Chapter1, Article 1 "In the Old Testement":

- Humility is the foundation of prayer
- If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain
- The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective
- Prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to The Word of God

In addition to continuing my study of the Catechism on prayer I have decided that since my inspiration for undergoing this time of prayer and fasting during the creation of this piece are the monastic icon writers that it would only be fitting that I began a more structured prayer cycle. I am compelled to pray the liturgy of the hours but honestly need to find my breviary and then relearn how to pray morning and evening prayer. However, perhaps an even older and certainly an even simpler devotion is the recitation of the psalms. While I do not have the mental or spiritual organization as of yet to recite all 150 psalms I figured that if I recited a few a day, slowly cycling through them all, that would be an appropriate lay manifestation of a monastic prayer life. So today, Psalm 1 reminded me that, “on His law he shall meditate day and night”. That coupled with the Catechism reaffirming that “humility is the foundation of prayer” it was a providential message to say the least. The idea of praying and fasting while laboring to achieve powerful fruits is not only not new it’s in fact simply just doing what we are all called to do anyway.

Finally, since the work I am undertaking will take shape in the form of a rosary it seems only fitting that as I pray for the intentions of those sent to me (HINT, HINT) and for all of those that contribute to the creation of this work (HINT, HINT) that I do so by means of meditating upon the rosary each day. So today everyone, enjoy the graces of my prayers and meditation upon the Glorious Mysteries.

Today’s prayers:
- For the salvation of all souls
- In thanksgiving for Erik's contribution of cabinets and their delivery
- For the past, present and future intentions and salvation of all those who participate in prayer or proximity to “The Relic of the Communion of Saints”
 

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