Happy and Blessed 2017 to You!

Happy Octave of Christmas! Catholics continue to celebrate the birth of Christ, so here are some more images from Christmas day! First are shots of our Shrine of the Holy Innocents decorated for the Holy Days, located near the friary (1-7). Exterior shots (1-2); interior (3); close up of the Tabernacle (4); the walls with wreaths and St. Joseph statue (5); and a close up of one of the interior trees (6). I don't get the statue of Mary overshadowing the Nativity figures (7). I suspect no one wanted to move the delicate statue. It just seems a but Godzilla-ish to me, but what do I know!

Christmas Day was a bit warm. Here is a shot of the nteresting cloud formations at sunset on Dece,ber 25th (8). I love the whispy clouds that appear as if painted by a feather. The sun was highlighting it as it went down and so caught my eye. And here is the parish priest (Aussie for Catholic "pastor") with some parishioners in front of the manger at the church (9)

On Christmas Day we had a feast delivered to our home by one of the parishioners. Here is our tree surrounded by a bunch of presents from the parish (10). Some images of the appetizers, which included baked brie with fresh peaches and a seafood tray of smoked salmon, prawns and oysters (11). Our Fr. Robert set up the dining room table (12). Here's a closeup of the wonderful cherries in season at this time of the year (13). I'm told they sell for $50 a kilo! (We've been given boxes of them from parishioners and we've never had them go bad on us!) And here we gather around a table of goodies: Br. Dominic, Fr. Robert, Br. Thomas, Br. Jerry, myself and Fr. Gerard (14).

Later in the week, I took the bus to Sydney to exchange a book at Abbey Independant Book Store; it was a thoughtful and local gift from my younger brother.Along the way, I ran into a Cuban restaurant in Sydney (15-18). Here, I offer my father a look at the menu for the day (17-18). The fellow behind the counter was Portuguese!

I traveled with Br. Thomas who is up visiting from Melbourne and we headed to the art museum. Along the way, we discovered a pretty flower bed in bloom (19-22). Here is a painting at the museum that always brings a tear to my eye (23, with a close up 24). They also had this fellow from Indonesia named Eko Nugroho who embroiders bright images that are a commentary of life in Indonesia; I liked this one best (25). This collection of bikes also caught our eye (26).

There was also a contemporary art exhibit from Japan that was very interesting. This first piece is called "Black Waves" by "teamLab," which I guess is an electronic artist group (27-30). It is meant to look like a Japanese folding screen, but it was flat up against the wall. I would have loved to see this be like a 3D accordian. The panels were video monitors and the screens moved like real waves. It was very cool. It was on a continuous loop. A second piece was of these flowers (31-33). The screens were interactive. Flowers floated around on a dark backdrop. As a viewer moved closer to look at a monitor, the flowers nearest to the viewer would bloom (look at the right side of image 31 to see the blooms); walk away and the blooms wither and the stalks are more leafy/green (32). Again, very cool. Sadly, I didn't catch the title or artist. I wonder if it is from teamLab?

Finally, though I did not take this image, nor was I present to see it this year, here is a shot from of the Harbor on New Years Eve (34). May these fireworks seem dim compared to our compassion and love given freely away to those most in need in 2017! Let's make this be a new year of kindness and mercy and love!