Trip to chapel at the Vatican in Rome

Argh… this day is simply escaping from me! I have come back to a desk buried in piled up work. I don’t think I’m going to be able to do more than make brief notes for the next few days here. One thing I don’t want to forget to mention is the extraordinary experience I had of visiting the Redemptoris Mater chapel at the Vatican. It is decorated primarily with artwork by the contemporary artist Marko Rupnik, and I was spell bound by the way in which he used mosaics to share the biblical narrative. I was also captivated by his use of women in the images, particularly since this is a private chapel that the pope often uses. Among other women he specifically included were Edith Stein and Elizabeth Von Tharden (I don’t know if that is spelled correctly, and I don’t know anything else about this last woman except that she was Lutheran and martyred in some way). I wish that I had been allowed to take some photographs, because digital images would allow the glowing nature of the images to really shine forth…