Cathedral Arts
Praying in Color Advent Retreat
Saturday, November 16 from 10:00-1:00 pm
Suggested donation of $15 for retreat and $5 for lunch
Advent is the season of preparation for God’s coming into the world as flesh and blood at Christmas. Lush and heady words pepper our Advent vocabulary—incarnation, anticipation, repentance, preparation, annunciation…. But Advent is also a season of down-to-earthiness and the senses. It is a time for awakening the head, heart, and body.
With left-brain and right-brain exercises, we will explore some meditative and playful practices to journey through Advent--practices that also equip us to travel the entire liturgical year. Paper, pens, and colored markers will be provided. No artist skill is necessary. Just bring a spirit of Holy Adventure.
9:30 am - Welcome and Coffee
10:00 am - Start of Retreat
12:00 pm - Light lunch available ($5 donation)
1:00 pm - Closing
Sybil MacBeth Biography
Sybil MacBeth is the author of the series of books called Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God and a practical guide called The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist. Her lifelong love of prayer and fifteen years of teaching experience as a community college mathematics professor prepared her for the workshops and retreats she leads throughout the United States and Canada. Her workshops cater to various learning styles and focus on building community through prayer and play.
Sybil lives in Sarasota, Florida and is married to Andy, a retired Episcopal priest. They spent almost a year in Jerusalem in 2021-2022. Sybil loves to sing, dance, read, play Pickleball, talk about God…. Check out her website and blog at prayingincolor.com.
An Artist’s View of St. Peter: Wise, Human, Struggling Like Us
The Feast of our patron saint, Peter, is June 29. We can perhaps identify with the disciple Peter depicted in the stained-glass window from 1914 above our main altar. Trying to walk on water, Peter is struggling in a very human way to reach Jesus. We have an entire story before us.
Peter appears in a quite different way in an impressive painting on the south wall of St. Mary’s Chapel. In this rendering we see Peter as saint, robed in red and blue and holding one gold key. The artist has departed from many traditional depictions in which Peter is arrayed in yellow and blue and holds two keys. Here the rich colors and brilliant gold background in an elaborate gold frame tell us that this is an important, idealized symbol. But the face is not that of an idealized saint. The expression on the face of this mature, human man evokes wisdom, kindliness, and perhaps the struggles of life.
The artist is Adelia Samaha, a longtime St. Petersburg resident, who has had a close association with St. Peter’s. She has painted many portraits in her long career and is also well known for charming decorative painting on a variety of surfaces. Our former St. Theresa’s Guild commissioned Adelia to create this painting, which she completed in 1974.
In a year when we are celebrating many other significant anniversaries, it is appropriate to acknowledge this one. This year also marks our 55th anniversary as the Cathedral for the Diocese of Southwest Florida (1969); our 135th year as a worshiping community (1889); and the 125th anniversary of the completion of our original worship space (1899).
The model for St. Peter is Adelia’s paternal uncle, Joseph Malouf (1893-1968), who became Archbishop of the Melkite Church in the Diocese of Baalbek, Lebanon. (The Melkite Church, composed mainly of Christians from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1724.)
Take a few moments to look at the window and the painting. How do they affect you? What do they tell you about this ordinary person who became a saint? Think of the ways in which visual arts inform us that other arts do not. Give thanks for the vision and skills of the artists who enhance our spiritual life so beautifully, and for eyes to behold their work.