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Art Flies Like A BananaDecember 10, 2024
So, the title of this note is derived from the semantic exercise involving the phrases “Time flies like an arrow” and “Fruit flies like a banana.” In exploring the meaning implications, one may have opened a can of flies, so to speak. But somehow the phrase expresses something to me – which is all that counts in art, perhaps. Does it suggest that at $6.2 million, some art, even a banana, is indeed flying – off the shelf. Or is it that those drawn to such works we might disparagingly call art flies? Or is it that the whole discussion and definition of art is bumping up against absurdities? Charlton Fortune says the artist must approach the Blessed Virgin “with the same overwhelming excitement as that which invaded the shepherds at Bethlehem.” Must not people of prayer themselves seek to approach such works of art in the same manner? And how, then should one approach Calvary – overwhelmed, though differently. Perhaps the core message we find in the note from Brother Sixtus in this issue is the need for reverence, and how relics play a role in fostering reverence. Perhaps the core message we find in Abbot Michael’s homily is that the reverence we owe Mary is rooted in her having been able to “do whatever He tells you” – whether it be God the Father, or God the Son. Perhaps the consumption of a $6.2 million banana was meant to convey irreverence, an irreverence inherent in the work itself. I don’t know. But I do remember someone said that where your treasure is, there too is your heart. Maybe the unifying message here is to revere what calls for reverence – a message resonating with the themes of Advent and Christmas.
Pax,
Blake Billings
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Opening Doors, Opening Words
December 2, 2024
The phrase “opening doors” carries familiar literal and figurative meanings. The play between those two meanings takes on a Christian sense in the Jubilee Year practice of the Holy Door, and as Br. Sixtus suggested to the oblates, we remember that Christ Himself is “the Gate” and “the Way.” The physical Holy Door connects us to a spiritual opening. So too can the phrase “opening words” suggest a double sense – the words with which we begin, and the words that render accessible a new reality. Words are front and center in our articles this week – in discussion of “jubilees”, in poetry, and in the question of the vernacular in the liturgy. I was grateful to Brother Sixtus for prompting some of my own reading about John Fandel, as well as of his poetry. I remember well Fr. Ambrose passing on to me his poem about Portsmouth as suited to a School Song, though I knew little of the man, his connection to Portsmouth, nor his prayerfulness. I did find that his poem lent itself readily to a melody. I noticed in one of the testimonies given on Legacy that John’s spoken voice had a musical quality to it. We also hear in this issue the voice of his superior while at Portsmouth, Aelred Graham, who addresses the words of liturgy. Graham was himself extraordinarily gifted, and we hear in the brief reflection reproduced here of his own interest in prayer and meditation. Perhaps we should rediscover his interest in teaching the youth how to meditate – which perhaps moves at counterpoint to Fandel’s poetry, seeking to remove ourselves from the word rather than to craft it. Though both of their endeavors, we must note after all, are in service only to the Word. Advent opens a new year for us in that service. May its words, heard with “the ear of the heart,” open doors of holiness through which may all may pass.
Pax,
Blake Billings
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A Life in Full
November 27, 2024
One of the commemorative pieces on Chauncey Stillman that I perused in collecting information on him was subtitled “Remembrances of a Life in Full.” This resonated with me as thematic for our issue, and very personally for my own life, as well. Our issue opens the liturgical season of Advent and our new year for the Church. The themes of Advent lead me to think of the life, and to the full, that Christ has promised to us. Our Advent Season leads us to the coming to fruition of His plans for that life, as He enters into our own life, born that sin may die, born to bring new life. The personal element that strikes me along with this theme is that Chauncey Stillman was the contributor of the scholarship funds that made possible my attendance at Portsmouth Abbey School, class of 1977. I was able to speak with him by phone in the late 1980’s, not long before his death in 1989, intending to thank him. The call did not go well. He did not approve of my studies in Leuven, Belgium, which he considered heterodox in its theological orientation. I tried to justify my interests, but he was having none of it. My hope is, despite all that, that my gratitude was expressed and understood. I would be happy to make the call again, and to only add that since that time, the bulk of my career, my “life in full” to this point, has largely been occupied with my engagement in the community here at Portsmouth Abbey, a community that has shaped my own faith, my own conversion story, and a relationship he was fundamental in making possible. It was an advent I have recognized only in retrospect, but with growing gratitude.Pax,
Blake Billings, ‘77
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About
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Blake Billings '77, Ph.D. is a graduate and current faculty member of Portsmouth Abbey School. He received his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, then joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps to assist in an inner-city parish in Oakland, California. From Oakland, he went to Leuven, Belgium, receiving degrees in theology and philosophy. He returned to the Abbey in 1987, teaching for three years before getting married and returning to Leuven to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy, which he was awarded in 1995. Having taught in higher education at various schools, including St. John's University, Fairfield University, and Sacred Heart University, he decided his calling was at the secondary level, gratefully returning to Portsmouth in 1996, where he has resided ever since. He became an oblate of the Portsmouth community ten years ago. His four children were all raised on campus and graduated from the school, the youngest in 2020.
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