Give me the grace, Good Lord by Thomas moor

http://www.apostles.com/moreprayer.html


To set the world at naught.
To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men's mouths.

To be content to be solitary.
Not to long for worldly pleasures.
Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.

Not to long to hear of earthly things,
but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.

Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help.
To lean into the comfort of God.
Busily to labor to love Him.

To know my own vileness and wretchedness.
To humble myself under the mighty hand of God.
To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.

Gladly to bear my purgatory (연옥) here.
To be joyful in tribulations.
To walk the narrow way that leads to life.

To have the last thing in remembrance.
To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand.
To make death no stranger to me.
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell.
To pray for pardon before the judge comes.

To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me.
For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.

To buy the time again that I have lost.
To abstain from vain conversations.
To shun foolish mirth and gladness.
To cut off unnecessary recreations.

Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.

To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.

These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap.

Amen

September , the Martyr's month in Korean Catholic Church

The History of the Korean Catholic Church


By the grace of God, who wants to save all nations, Catholicism come to Korea around 220 years ago. At that time, ambassadors of Jo-sun ( the ancient name of Korea) who visited Beijing in China, frequently met missionaries to get knowledge of Western culture.
They communicated with pen and paper and discussed scholarship and religion.
Some of them accepted Catholic books that the missionaries wrote in Chinese and studied them by themselves.
In 1784 , a scholar, Seoung-hoon Lee, was baptized as Peter in Beijing and returned to Korea. He organized the first Korean Catholic community, but the community was persecuted for the reason that they believed in God. They were exiled, all their properties were taken away and they even lost basic human rights. They suffered.
There are several reasons for the persecution.
First of all, the government regarded Catholicism as heresy because Catholics refused to serve either their ancestors or the King. In addition, the exclusivism of Confucianism , the unionism of politic and religion , party conflicts and political power, a principle of seclusion, exacerbated the persecution. As a result, the Catholic Church suffered for more than 100years just after it was accepted, and there were around 10 serious persecutions.
The Korean Catholic community started without any priest and, for a while, they could have only two Chinese priests. For 40 years, they had tried to practice Catholicism as a lay people’s community until a priest, Mo-bang , came to Korea in 1836. He was the first French missionary (Société des Missions trangères de Paris) in Korea.
For 40years the lay people’s community had tried hard to have priest or bishop and visited Beijing many times even though it took more than 6 months to get there those days. They were eager to have the sacraments’ blessing and appealed to the Pope and the bishop of Beijing.
It was very dangerous to help the missionaries who came to Korea, but many Korean lay people were brave enough to keep to their faith . They served those priests with zeal and were ready to die at any moment.
As a believer, persecution is a real victory for the church. It means, not only the Church grows through persecution but also our freedom of belief is the realization of the blood of many martyrs.
Finally in 1886, the Korean Catholic Church got the freedom of belief. By this time, after 100years’ persecution, there were more than 10,000 martyrs who were “By martyrdom a disciple is transformed into an image of his Master by freely accepting death for the salvation of the world -- as well as his conformity to Christ in the shedding of his blood” (Lumen Gentium 42) .
Among them, 103 martyrs ( 11 clergymen and 92 lay people ) were sanctified by John Paul 2nd in 1984 , the 200th year of the Korean Catholic Church.

The motivation of this project

When I was at primary school, every day after school, I liked to look at one picture that was hanging on the wall in our living room. I didn’t know what it was but do remember that it was such a gorgeous painting.
When I grew up, I got to know that it was the ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ icon.

An icon (from Greek εἰκών, eikon ) is an image, picture, or representation and came from the Orthodox Church and is mainly painted on wood. Icons are not well known in Korea and even when I was a kid, it was quite a unique opportunity to see it at home.
Without being awareness if it I had kept the image of the icon in my mind and had tried to copy it several times. Sometimes on paper, sometimes on textiles, but none of them were successful and finally the memory was dismissed.
At the beginning of 2006, at St.Euginia Church in Stockholm, I joined an icon class and I was reminded of the old image again.
During my first icon class, I worked on the “Our Lady and Jesus ‘icon which brought to mind the icon of my childhood.


Suddenly the image overlapped with the image of 03 Korean saints who loved people with God’s love and died for their faith.
When I met Alexander Deriev for the first time, he questioned me as to why I choose his icon course and I answered ,” I’d like to paint the 103 Korean saints’ icon someday.”
Even I was surprised at what I said. Why did I say so?

Why I decided to paint the 103 Korean saints’ icon
It’s because I’m here in Sweden.
I been in Sweden for 5 years, and had always felt an irresistible yearning for home in Korea, and even while concentrating on work I couldn’t shake off the feeling of loneliness. Little by little I became more concerned about my identity as a Korean and Catholic .
At the same time, I was very much influenced by " the Opus Dei (in Latin; God ' s Work): some feature of its spirit emphasizes the Catholic belief that everyone is called to be a saint and that ordinary life and work can be a path to sanctity".
The 103 Korean saints overcame the strict hierarchical and lived holy lives with a strong faith in God.
Eventually they all died for their faith which fills me with compassion and admiration.
I’d like to make shiny clothes for them and invite them to enjoy the beauty of nature here in Stockholm
This thought encouraged me to paint their icon
For several months, I researched the 103 Korean saints’ lives and tried to understand each one’s belief.
Through this process I could affirm my identity.

Finally I started the project June 2007 and it took the whole summer to accomplish. While I was painting these icons, I could see not only those 103 Korean saints, but also all the people whom I had met in Korea. For example, the French priest I met as a child, passionate Sunday School teachers, liberal choir members, devout ladies from Regio Marie, a pretty Sister who led bible class and my dear friends who studied to be priests, etc. For this reason, this work was full of joy .
Now, 103 Korean saints are my ‘ancestors of faith’ as well as friends and family.
They are alive here in Stockholm through these icons.
This work is a true ‘Opus Dei’ for me. Thanks be to God.

+ All Korean Saints, pray for us.

Sep. 2007 Stockholm
Ji-Young Kim

새로운 디자인 project 를 앞 두고...

그간 쌓아둔 많은 자료들을 정리해 본다. 참 오래도록 머뭇거렸다.
어찌나 두려웠는지...

디자이너로서 만든 첫 작업의 결과가 그대로 창고에 방치된 이 후로
난 더 이상 붓을 잡지 못하고 잡다하 주변 일에만 전념했다.
나의 본분이 무었인지 스스로에게도 말 하기를 두려워 했다.
그 고비를 진작에 넘겼어야 했는데...
너무나 먼 길로 돌아온 듯한 느낌이다.
왜 그럴 수 밖에 없었을까?

도나도의 말 대로 난 싫은 소리 듣길 거부하는 게다.
뭐든 찬사 받을 수 있는 일만을 해온 결과, 내 삶의 주체는 타인이 되어버렸다.
그들의 판단 여부에 따라 일의 가치가 결정되었다.
그러니 늘 목마름을 느낄 수 밖에...
이젠 남들의 이목을 보는 것이 아니라 내가 중심이 되어 작업하련다.
그리고 스스로 판단하고 수정하고, 또 몇 번이고 반복하는 수고를 아끼지 않으련다.

지난한 노력으로 일궈낸 103인의 이콘 작업을 기억하면서...