Jersey City Mandala Imparts Art Lesson Early

Three Tibetan Monks work on mandala in Jersey City, NJ City Hall [photo: Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal]

Three Tibetan Buddhist monks from South India  worked on a sand mandala for several days at the Jersey City, NJ City Hall.  These mandalas use millions of grains of sand in various colors  arranged in an intricate Medicine Buddhist pattern.

Centerpiece of Tibetan Buddhist Medicine Mandala at Jersey City, NJ City Hall  [photo: Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal]

Traditionally, after the work is created, it is then destroyed in a ceremony to symbolize the fleeting nature of life.

Well, this mandala went down differently.  When there was only an hours work left on the mandala, a toddler, whose mother was participating in a US naturalization ceremony with dozens of other new citizens, mistook the mandala as a play area. The boy jumped onto the mandala and significantly smudged the center portion of the center portion of the sand sculpture, thereby destroying days of painstaking work.

When the monks arrived to finish their work, the mortified mayor's aide greeted them with an ashen faced demeanor and revealed the damage.

Tibetan Monk prepares to repair smudged mandala at Jersey City, NJ City Hall  [photo: Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal]

The monks worked on repairing what they could so as not to disappoint the sides of the mandala which only had small portions disrupted.  Unfortunately, the middle section with  an array of eight Buddhas was an unsalvageable swirl of colored sand. It took about two hours to make the mandala presentable.

Smudged mandala at Jersey City, NJ City Hall  [photo: Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal]

Geshe Wangdu, the Buddhist monk who arranged for the three Tibitan artists to come from Sera Mey Kongpo Khangtsen for the display, brushed off the trouble.  In fact, Wangdu suggested that the child taught everyone the lesson which the mandala is support to impart. As Wangdu put it: "It's so beautiful, and then it's gone."  As former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey (D-NJ), who arranged for the peace tour to stop in Jersey City, later exuded: “This is so fitting that the hand of a child once again reminds us of life’s fleeting nature and of the need to do good while we’re present.

The official ritual mandala destruction ceremony was scheduled for later that day. The mandala was dissolved in a private ceremony.  Afterwards, the monks and a crowd of spectators marched down to the Hudson River to throw the sand in the water.

h/t: Jersey City Journal

A Rock Solid Perspective on Evil

Peeps Awaiting a Confectionary Resurrection

As the Easter Octave has come to an end, and most of our baskets are empty from the confectionary delights which celebrated the Feast of the Resurrection.   So it may be a good time to highlight the winner of the Washington Post's seventh Peep Diorama competition.

Leslie Brown and Lani Hoza of Charlottesville, Virginia cooked up a tongue in cheek memorial  for the loss of a beloved mass market treat:  "Peeps mourn their Peeps: Twinkie Rest In Peace".

This dirgeful diorama also honors other tasty treats involved in the union killing of Hostess in November 2013.

It is unclear what relation the Peeps were to Twinkie the Kid.

But in the spirit of Eastertide--the Twinkie will also be resurrected.  Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. bought the rights for Twinkies for $410 million.  Dean Metropoulos is  renowned for repositioning tired brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon.  The problem with Hostess is that the bankruptcy wiped out Twinkie manufacturing and distribution.  They promise that the Twinkies and other snacks will return to store shelves by the summer 2013.

Until then, we can appreciate the Peeps diorama.  After all, if one hasn't consumed a Peep for a day, it is so stale that it will seemingly  last forever like  Twinkie, so it well suited for diorama art.

h/t:  Washington Post

Teach Your Children Well

Remembering the Heroes of 9/11

Salvific History Sand Sculptures

Salvific History sand sculpture by Randy Hofman, Ocean City, MD 2009   [photo: BD Matt]

Randy Hofman, a 61 year old Ocean Pines, MD, has been making biblical sand sculptures to vacationers on the Delmarva shore since 1974 and Hofman has been doing it singularly since 1981. From the beginning of April to the end of October, it is Hofman's mission to bring the Christian message to the Ocean City boardwalk.  During the winter, Hofman concentrates on his paintings, but also does wood carvings and prints.

Randy Hofman works on a Sand Sculpture

Hofman estimates that it can take up to 15 hours to construct his elaborate biblical sand sculptures as he only uses a square shovel and a crab picking knife. This is remarkable for a sand canvas that can be 10 feet tall and 40 feet long.  Over the years, Hofman has done well over a thousand spiritual sand sculptures




Hofman never abandons a project and can sometimes work until dawn to complete the work.   While he does put a coating of Elmer's glue to give the sand sculpture some longevity, it is still prone to the elements and can be marred by a heavy rain or a crass carousing delinquent.

Hofman made Christian themed sand sculpting into a full time ministry in 1981. He also became an ordained minister in 1985.  He will occasionally evangelize as he works with the shifting grains of sand and will also engage with inquisitive passers-by.

 Hofman seems to revel that his handiwork prompts kids to ask their parents what it is all about.  The artist opined: ""I want it to click so that even someone who is spiritually ignorant can understand."

Divine Forgiveness by Randy Hofman (2009)   [photo: BD Matt]

Gratitude for Sacrifice on the Cross by Randy Hofman (2009)   [photo: BD Matt]

Glorified Resurrected Jesus  by Randy Hofman  (2009)   [photo: BD Matt]

See more spiritually themed sand sculptures at CalamityDC's Pinterest site
h/t: Randy Hofman

Requiem for Nellie Gray–Funeral for a Friend of the Pro-Life Movement

Nellie Gray, the founder of the March for Life, died at the age of 88 on August 13. Gray was  given a Requiem Mass at St. Mary, Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington, DC.  Her funeral was a beautifully sung Trinentine High Mass, celebrated by Pastor Alfred Harris, with Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O’Malley and Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl in attendance. Gray had been a parishioner at St. Mary’s for sixteen years.

Nellie Gray served in the Women’s Air Corps during World War II. Afterwards, Gray earned her undergraduate degree in business, a Masters degree in Economics and went to night school at Georgetown Law School while working as a career public servant for twenty years at the State Department and the Labor Department.  In fact, Gray argued cases before the Supreme Court.  But she was so outraged by the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade (1973), that she listened to God’s voice and dropped everything to oppose what she discerned was a travesty of justice.  In fact, she retired on a meager government pension and never took monies from March for Life to supplement her pension.

During her eulogy, her colleague from the March for Life attorney Terry Scanlon noted Nellie’s determination once her mind was made up.  Scanlon noted that Gray was the driving force in the anti-abortion movements “Respect for human life–no exceptions.”  Scanlon said that Gray was actively planning the 40th anniversary March for Life when she passed away.

Cardinal O’Malley recalled working with Gray during the early days of the March for Life, when they would exhaustingly paper Capitol Hill offices with materials protesting the virtual Abortion on Demand decision.  O’Malley, who is a Capuchin priest, quipped that today is the first time that he was around Nellie Gray not wearing sandals, which is the order’s customary vestment.

O’Malley opined that it always seemed like the coldest day of winter when the March for Life.  But memorializing January 22 as the day of infamy had great symbolic value and galvanized Pro-Life forces to spread the light for life in the dead of winter.  The first March for Life only had a couple of hundred participants.  Now, the March for Life is an annual event which the Lamestream Media either minimizes or ignores despite the fact of hundreds of thousands of participants, many young people, redress their government for this unjustice to the unborn.

Cardinal O’Malley philosophized that this world seems obsessed with celebrity, yet our real champion is a person like Nellie Gray, who discerned God’s will, abandoned all of her professional pursuits to do what she thought was right and helped build God’s kingdom.

Cardinal Wuerl offered a personal story about Nellie Gray’s outlook on life.  Wuerl was on the dais for the annunal March for Life, on what he too thought was the coldest day of the year.  Gray focused on Wuerl and asked “Where’s your hat?”  What Wuerl took from that interchange was despite the crowds and the circumstances, Gray looked at people as individuals and she was concerned about someone in trouble.  Wuerl extrapolated a probing question “Where’s your voice?” challenging people to recognize the barbarity of killing pre-born children.

When connecting scripture to the question “Where’s your voice?”, Cardinal Wuerl thought of Pentacost where the Spirit of God came down upon the Apostles, which made them bold and they began to speak.  Wuerl marveled at how Gray’s righteous indignation over the Supreme Court overturning abortion laws nationwide made one woman bold and the fruits over her work seem to reconnecting young people to the spirit speaking out for unborn babies.

Preparing the High Altar for Nellie Gray's Requiem, St. Mary Church Washington, DC [photo: BD Matt]

Casket of Nellie Gray lying in repose at St. Mary's Church Washington, DC [photo BD Matt]

St. Mary's Pastor Fr. Alfred Harris celebrating Nellie Gray Requiem Mass, Wash. DC [photo BD Matt]

March for Life V.P. Terry Scanlon offering Nellie Gray Eulogy   [photo: BD Matt]

Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley reminisces on Nellie Gray  [photo: BD Matt]

Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl's reflections on Nellie Gray's importance  [photo: BD Matt]

Celebrant Fr. Albert Harris incenses Nellie Gray's casket   [photo: BD Matt]

Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl offers a final benediction for Nellie Gray  [photo: BD Matt]

Pall bearers for Nellie Gray's casket as Knights of Columbus look on  [photo: BD Matt]

Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley comforting mourners for Nellie Gray   [photo: BD Matt]

Pope Blessed John Paul II, during a pilgrimage to Mexico in 1979, offered a prayer which captured the driving force behind Nellie Gray’s discernment of her mission from God:

Virgin of Gaudalupe, Mother of the Americas, grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings.  Loke upon us with compassion: teach us to go continually with Jeus through a great love for all the holy Sacraments.

Thus, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all the true joy and true peace, which comes to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen

Easter Baptism in Iraq

What a wonderful way to join Chrisendom. Hallalujah!

Spring at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington DC

Entrance of the Franciscan Monastery, Mt. St. Sepulchre,  Washington, DC



St. Francis in the Garden Statue, Franciscan Monastery, Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washinton, DC



Franciscan Monastery (rear), Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washington, DC



Marian Statue, Franciscan Monastery, Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washington, DC



Altar of St. Anthony of Padua, Franciscan Monastery, Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washington, DC

Baldaccino, Franciscan Monastery, Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washington, DC