"Windows Into Heaven" Final Week

This is the final week of "Windows Into Heaven", my retrospective solo exhibit at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, Alaska, which closes on Saturday, April 28th.

I'm grateful to all of the churches and individuals who generously loaned icons for the exhibit, to museum curators Jackie Manning and Aaron Elmore without whom this exhibit would never have come together and who did a beautiful and sensitive job arranging and hanging the work and the exhibit labels.  Thanks as well to all of the other museum staff for their many kindnesses and assistance throughout the entire exhibit, especially Brian Wallace who created a panoramic photograph of the entire exhibit.

Many thanks also to the Juneau Council of the Knights of Columbus for supporting the publication of the booklet that accompanied the exhibit.

"Windows Into Heaven" Solo Exhibit Held Over

The Alaska State Museum has decided to hold over my Solo Exhibit "Windows Into Heaven" for an additional two weeks: the final day will be April 28th.

If you are visiting Juneau before then (or live here and haven't had a chance to come by and see the exhibit), please come by before it closes and take a look.

Christ is Risen! ¡Cristo ha resucitado! Si Kristo ay nabuhay! Xristos Kuxwoo-digoot!

The Paschal Icon: The Descent into Hell 

One of the more beautiful Catholic liturgical traditions (and useful if you are a procrastinator like I am!) is the octave.  Easter and Christmas each have an octave -- sadly, Pentecost lost its octave after the Second Vatican Council -- that lasts for eight days.  Eight being the number of super perfection (seven being the perfect number,  It took God seven days to create the world, seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven corporal and spiritual works of mercy and of course, seven sacraments.

But it is on Easter, when , in the words of the Exsultet, Christ "broke the prison bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld"  which is the dawning of the eighth day, when all is brought to fulfillment in the Resurrection of the Lord.

There is only Easter Sunday, but it lasts for eight days.  Which is why, almost a week later, I am finally getting around to sharing Easter greetings with those of you reading this blog!

(In case you are wondering, the Easter greeting "Christ is Risen!" in the title of this post is in English, Spanish, Tagalog and Tlingit, all spoken by those who make up the Catholic Church in Southeast Alaska where I live.)