Holy water aims to quench thirst of body and soul
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Audra D.S. Burch
May 3--The instructions are simple: Read the Prayer . . / Drink the Water . . . / Believe in God! / Believe in Yourself!
Spiritual Water, the faith-inspired venture of two Sunrise businessmen, offers its drinkers clearer focus, positive thinking and connection to a higher power.
The 11 bottles in the company's collection bear prayers and impressively detailed images of Jesus Christ, St. Michael and the Virgin Mary. Spiritual Water joins a broad slice of feel-good products -- Testamint, Bible Gum and other bottled holy waters -- emerging at the intersection of religion and commerce, entrepreneurship and pop culture.
"There is a great history of people using religious images to sell products," says Daniel Sack, an administrator at the University of Chicago Divinity School and author of Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture. "You are talking about combining the great American traditions of religion and consumption."
Last fall, Elicko Taieb launched Spiritual Water as a way to inspire Protestants and Catholics. The water, purified from a municipal source in Santa Ana, Calif., is not available in stores, but Taieb says independent distributors sell about 2,000 to 3,000 cases a month.
"Church is on Sundays, but people need something to help them through the week," says Taieb, 33 and CEO of the company.
"The whole idea is for people to feel better and to know God is with them," he says.
Spiritual Water's message is delivered in a 16.9-ounce plastic bottle that sells for $2.
The Formula J' variety carries the image of Jesus in a crown of thorns and the Fatima prayer: Oh My Jesus, forgive us our sins. / Save us from the fires of hell. / Lead all souls into heaven, / especially those in need of the mercy. Amen.
"You drink it, and you just feel like you are in church," says Cecilia Joseph, a Sunrise real estate agent who liked Spiritual Water so much she became a distributor. "The pictures are so beautiful. You look at them and read the prayer, and it just feels good."
Alongside the standard nutritional facts -- zero calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, protein -- the bottles are printed with prayers in English and Spanish. Product varieties include Power Water with the Apostles Creed, Strength Water featuring the Serenity prayer and Essential Water with the Guardian Angel prayer (Angel of God, my guardian dear . . .).
"There is a story behind every bottle. It gives people something positive to talk about," says Eitan Peer, 36, executive vice president, who formerly worked in the wholesale perfume industry.
Taieb, who spent several years in the pest-control business, had been thinking about a faith-based venture for more than a decade. He looked at several products through which to deliver his message of spiritual enrichment.
Wear-your-faith T-shirts already had exploded in the market, along with jewelry and candles, even candy -- all products used for evangelism and/or profit. The New Jersey firm that makes Testamints offers berry, spearmint and peppermint mints wrapped in a verse of scripture. Bible Gum promises consumers they can can chew their way to spiritual enlightenment. Each box comes with a scripture verse.
But water, central to religious experiences, had not fully tapped the growing faith-inspired market.
Across the spiritual spectrum, water is used for baptisms and blessings, ordinations and ritual cleansing. "Water just made sense," Taieb says. "Everybody always has bottled water with them. In the car. At home. In the gym. Because it's the most important liquid for the body. The ingredients are the image and the prayer, which is for your body and soul. It's water from God. It purifies your soul and helps you to think positive."
Spiritual Water joins at least a handful of companies in its niche as part of the $11 billion U.S. bottled-water market that often convinces consumers they will feel better, look better, run faster, jump higher, sleep soundly, push harder, even lose a pound or two.
California-based Holy Drinking Water offers a $1.49 half-liter that has been blessed in a warehouse by a priest. Founder Brian Germann, a former police officer, says his product is designed to promote good behavior. "It's really a reminder for people to be better behaved . . . and to think of God," Germann says.
The message on the back of the bottle for those not so nicely behaved: Warning to sinners: if you are a sinner or evil in nature, this product may cause burning, intense heat, sweating, skin irritation, rashes, itchiness, vomiting, bloodshot and watery eyes, pale skin color and oral irritations.
Since January 2007, the company has sold about 15,000 bottles, mostly over the Internet, Germann says.
The holy-water business has not been free of criticism.
"Frankly, water has a really deep symbolism in the Christian tradition," Sack says. "Some people may be concerned about the idea of selling bottled holy water for a profit."
Taieb says his water is sold with the best intentions.
"We are trying to connect people with God, not take advantage of people," he says, adding that 10 percent of his company's profits will go to charity. "Water is just the vehicle for a positive message."
To see more of The Miami Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
[link] Copyright (c) 2008, The Miami Herald Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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Copyright of Miami Herald, The (FL) is the property of Miami Herald, The (FL). The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Source: Miami Herald, The (FL), May 03, 2008
Item: 2W62W62334461438
Section: Life, pg. D1
Illuminated, hand-lettered Bible a huge project that brings sacred text to life
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By Brenda Suderman
Shortly after the Saint John's Bible exhibit opened in Minneapolis three years ago, Helen Delacretaz's office phone started ringing in Winnipeg.
The message was clear: Winnipeggers wanted the illuminated, handwritten Bible to visit their hometown.
"It was interesting to be able to work strictly from the viewer response and the audience," says Delacretaz, head of Winnipeg Art Gallery's exhibits and public programs. "It's not often we get requests from people (that) we're able to fulfil."
Those calls for a Winnipeg exhibit of the Saint John's Bible will be answered on Saturday, when 98 pages of the 1,150-page document go on display at the Memorial Boulevard gallery -- the only Canadian stop on a nine-city North American tour. This exhibit marries contemporary artwork and calligraphy with the words of the Christian Bible in English, using the New Revised Standard Version.
The first hand-lettered Bible commissioned by Benedictine monks in 500 years, the Saint John's Bible is a convergence of a lifelong dream of British calligrapher Donald Jackson and the funding and support of the Roman Catholic monastery in Collegeville, Minn,, about six hours south of Winnipeg.
Jackson, who does calligraphyfor Queen Elizabeth, first approached the 170 monks at Saint John's Abbey and University in 1995 with two questions, recalls Tim Ternes, director of programming and education for the university's Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and future home for the Saint John's Bible.
"Do you want the handwritten word of God? Will you help me do it?" recalls Ternes of Jackson's initial pitch. Following three years of deliberation, the first words of the immense project were inked on Ash Wednesday in 2000.
Using medieval materials and calfskin vellum, Jackson and a mainly Wales-based team of six calligraphers and six artists began the exacting process of writing and illuminating the sacred text.
Illuminations are illustrations, letters and borders traditionally decorated with gold, silver or platinum leaf.
A committee of biblical scholars and theologians in the United States chose 160 passages to illustrate, and the process of creating the images involves months of cross-Atlantic discussion between artists and the committee, says Ternes, who was in Winnipeg last month for a preview of the exhibit.
"This is a Bible for the 21st century. It is not a medieval Bible, it is not a history project," Ternes says of the book of images that reflect contemporary reality. Those include a dark-skinned Adam and Eve illustrating the first page of Genesis and an illustration of the parable of the sower in which the subject is wearing jeans.
Winnipeggers will be able to view pages from the Pentateuch (the first five books of Jewish and Christian scriptures), as well as the four Gospels with their full-page illustrations, the Book of Acts, and the Psalms.
Also in the exhibit is a worktable complete with the tools used to create the words and images.
Although the words are familiar to many people of faith, the Saint John's Bible offers gallery-goers another perspective on sacred scriptures, explains a biblical scholar involved in the project for nearly a decade.
"When you realize every mark on the page was placed by a human being, an artist or a scribe, there's much more of a communication with the text than when it came off the printing press," explains Rev. Michael Patella, professor at Saint John's University and chair of the text and illumination committee for the Saint John's Bible.
After years of careful planning, proofreading, illustrating and lettering, all that's left to letter in what Jackson has dubbed his Sistine Chapel are the final pages of the New Testament.
And when it is completed and bound in seven volumes, this 21st-century Bible designed to last centuries will have a decidedly practical future at the abbey.
"The Saint John's Bible is not being made to be a museum piece," says Ternes. "It is being made to be used."
brenda@suderman.com
The Sistine Chapel of Bibles
It may not be created by Michelangelo, but the Saint John's Bible is often compared to the famous Italian chapel because of the size, scope and span of the project.
Project cost is US$5.5 million.
Pages of the Saint John's Bible measure 60 centimetres in height and nearly a metre wide across a double-page spread. The completed Bible will contain 1,150 pages bound in seven volumes.
Full-sized copies of the seven volumes -- there are multiple volumes because it's all too big to contain within one book -- printed on cotton paper and decorated with gold and silver ink are priced at $115,000 US.Only 360 sets will be produced. Last Friday, Pope Benedict was presented with one of these volumes.
Copies of each of the seven volumes, about one-third the original size, are available for about $70.
Medieval tools and materials were used in order to give the Bible a long shelf life, projected to be up to 1,500 years. The text is written on calfskin vellum using turkey, goose and swan quills, handmade inks, hand-ground pigments, overlaid with gold, silver and platinum leaf.
Calligrapher Donald Jackson designed a script especially for the Saint John's Bible.
The completed Bible will include 160 illuminations, illustrations and drawings, with full-page illuminations at the beginning of every one of the 66 books .
Source:
[link]What's so new about an old book?
As a New Testament scholar and professor who owns more than the proverbial stack of Bibles, Rev. Michael Patella finds the Saint John's Bible tugs at his spirit in a new way.
"The images and the art just take the word of God and present it in a way that is not a harangue, but in a way that is inviting," explains the longtime professor at Saint John's University.
That accessibility is the major difference between a mass-produced printed text and one lettered and illustrated by hand, says Paul Dyck, a textual historian who introduces his undergraduates to the art of bookmaking.
"The reason there were decorated pages was to make pages memorable and a suitable location for thinking about the sacred text," explains the English professor at Canadian Mennonite University. "In the medieval world, you really haven't read a text until you've memorized it and made it part of your life."
No matter what religious tradition, illuminated and hand-lettered sacred texts offer several levels of interpretation to gallery goers, says Helen Delacretaz, the WAG's head of exhibits and programming.
"This really brings to calligraphy to the forefront and beauty of just text," says Delacretaz of the exhibit.
"It's the detail and the painstaking quality of these books and how beautiful they are."
For Patella, that's the essence of the Saint John's Bible. It represents centuries of the Christian spiritual tradition presented in an unusual mixture of the contemporary and medieval, and most of all, it is compelling to the viewer, regardless of his or her religious persuasion.
"Judaism and Islam (also) have tremendous illuminated art and handwritten text," he says. "Come and enjoy the art tradition and enjoy it for what it is."
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Copyright of Winnipeg Free Press (MB) is the property of Winnipeg Free Press (MB). The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (MB), Apr 06, 2008, pD1
Item: 7BS7BS164103422
Drained by vampire tales, writer Anne Rice turns to Christ
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Jennifer Garza
Mar. 14--Author Anne Rice has written extensively about immortality -- she's enthralled millions with her bestselling "Vampire Chronicles."
In her new book, "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" (Random House, $25.95, 256 pages), Rice explores what Jesus' life must have been like in the months before his baptism by his cousin John and the beginning of his ministry.
The author recently discussed her work, her Catholic faith and her decision not to write about vampires anymore.
Q: Why did you decide to write from Jesus' point of view?
A: To me, that was the way to bring the reader as close as possible to the Lord. I knew it was risky, but every good book I've written is from this point of view. I was discouraged when Norman Mailer did this in his book ("The Gospel According to the Son"). But then I realized there is plenty of room; no one book closes the whole field.
Q: Why did you decide to write about this time in Jesus' life?
A: I wanted to give a sense of what was going on that last winter before his public ministry. I wanted to show his humanity and the kinds of societal pressures -- the pressure for a 30-year-old man to marry, for instance -- and what was going on at that time historically.
Q: What kind of research did you do?
A: I studied the Bible, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. And I talked to a lot of scholars. I saw every movie and miniseries about Jesus. I drew on Scripture, history, archaeology and plenty of praying, crying for the Lord.
Q: Why? Were you nervous?
A: Oh, of course. I'd get down on my knees and say, "Help me go with you in the desert, Lord. Let me write this scene for you, let this be art for you." These books took a lot out of me because I wanted them to be accurate, because I believe completely in the Bible. I had to make this work because in a way, this is an answer to "The DaVinci Code."
Q: What did you think of that book?
A: I thought it was a riot. I had no idea people would take it seriously. There were so many lies. I was amused because I thought the book was clever ... then the world went crazy over it. By the time the movie came out, I thought, "I want to answer this."
Q: You were raised a Catholic but left the church. What brought you back?
A: I went back in 1998. I just realized that I had been searching for years for a way to go back. Finally, I just let go of all the questions and said, "Lord, I'm going to trust in you."
Q: How have your fans reacted?
A: There's a small but vocal group with a bit of a mean streak. They go online and say awful things, but they aren't the majority. I'd say 99 percent are positive.
Q: Do you have any plans to write any more vampire novels?
A: I don't think I'll go back. I toyed with the idea of writing a redemptive novel -- where Lestat is redeemed -- but I don't want to enter that world. I really mean it when I say I want my work to be for the Lord.
Q: Are there plans to make the "Christ the Lord" books -- this is the second in a series about the life of Jesus -- into movies?
A: I would love to see a movie of just this book, (but) I've had many disappointments in Hollywood. (I) think the book has to capture the imagination of a powerful producer. I need a deep believer and a powerful producer.
I loved Mel Gibson's movie. I think Hollywood is furious that no one has been able to capitalize on his success with "Passion of the Christ."
Q: How has writing these "Christ the Lord" books affected your spiritual life?
A: They've challenged me to be a better Christian. Not just going to church once a week, but really changing my life. ... On a practical level, I go to Mass every Saturday. I wish I could go every day. But for health reasons -- I have diabetes -- that's not possible.
Q: What is your next project?
A: I'm working on the next book, "The Kingdom of Heaven," which is about Jesus' ministry and ends with the miracle of Lazarus.
To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
[link] Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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Copyright of Sacramento Bee, The (CA) is the property of Sacramento Bee, The (CA). The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Source: Sacramento Bee, The (CA), Mar 14, 2008
Item: 2W62W62836614715
VATICAN REVEALS SEVEN NEW SINS
Story Type: NEWS
Section: LOCAL, Pg. A3
GUELPH
"Forgive me father for I have sinned -- against the environment." That's what confession could sound like this Lent.
Pollution, financial inequality, drug abuse, birth control and stem cell research are sins, a Vatican official told the Italian media this week.
Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti spoke about social sins in the globalized world to the Vatican's newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano.
Environmental degradation has long been understood as a moral issue for Catholics, said Father Jim Profit, director of Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph. While that is not a new idea, the ecological crisis is a recent problem, he said.
Faith and the environment come together at the Jesuit centre, located on a farm and orchard in Guelph's north end. The Bible tells people to care for the environment, Profit said.
"We experience God within creation itself. A violation against creation is, in some ways, an affront to God," Profit said. "Care of the Earth is a religious practice. That's what we try to live out of here."
Profit said Canadian bishops recently stated, in response to climate change, that people have a moral responsibility to care for the environment for future generations. Whether pollution is a sin depends on an individual's conscience, Profit said. It is a sin to do something you know is wrong, he said.
On the other hand, if an individual accidentally pollutes a stream by allowing pesticides to go into it, they didn't sin because the damage was unintentional, he said.
Regardless of if a person believes in sin, pollution is an ethical issue, said Lindsay Gamester, the manager of a Kitchener-based food café who was in Guelph yesterday. Instead of believing in sin, she said she believes in karma.
"If you believe in sin, you don't want to harm a brother or sister. Wouldn't that follow under the same as harming the planet? To me, that's the same thing," Gamester said.
If Gamester, 23, was drafting a list of modern-day sins, she would include the failure to create community.
"There are small communities being created within a larger community, but still you don't know your neighbour. You can live in a house for 25 years and not know someone who lives down the street, let alone invite them for dinner one night," she said.
lvarano@guelphmercury.com
SOCIAL SINS
Seven social sins
1. Bioethical violations (birth control)
2. Morally-dubious experiments (stem cell research)
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to the widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG.COM
Ran with "SOCIAL SINS" which has been appended to the end of this story
Copyright (c) 2008 Guelph Mercury. All Rights Reserved.
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Source: Guelph Mercury (ON), Mar 12, 2008
Item: Q4K068432482908
For Lent, cleric is giving up traditional message
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Stephanie Innes
Feb. 29--For a Christian leader to question religion during Lent seems counterproductive.
Yet that's exactly what the Rev. David Wilkinson is doing during Lent -- the 40 days that Christians retrace the steps of Jesus Christ as he journeyed to the cross. Lent began Feb. 6.
Wilkinson's "Trilogy of the Dark" is a series of sermons he's giving on Sundays leading up to Easter, which this year falls on March 23. Wilkinson is pastor of St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church, 4625 E. River Road. His sermons are at 7:45 a.m. and 9 a.m.
This Sunday's sermon is titled "The Massive Coverup." Last Sunday's was titled "The Pretensions of the Powerful."
Wilkinson says he is relying on four resources -- the Bible; Jesus of Nazareth; Jesuit priest, scientist and French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin; and the Hollywood film "The Golden Compass."
Teilhard de Chardin was silenced by the Roman Catholic Church because of his writings, which attempted to reconcile his Catholic faith with evolution.
"The Golden Compass" was criticized by some faith groups for what they said was a promotion of anti-religious themes. The author of the book "The Golden Compass" is Philip Pullman, a noted British atheist. The book is part of a trilogy, "His Dark Materials." The other books are "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass."
"The trilogy introduces new dimensions of thought and awareness that includes angels, nature spirits, daemons and spirit," Wilkinson said.
In Pullman's fiction, a daemon is an animal-creature that represents a person's inner soul, usually in the form of a strong personality trait the person possesses. Someone with a cat daemon may be independent, for example. Daemons and humans exist in tandem -- they are strongly attached yet separate at the same time. Children's daemons can change, though usually they settle into one form at adolescence.
In the trilogy, there's something called "Dust" that Wilkinson parallels with the Holy Spirit. In "The Golden Compass" film, an oppressive, restrictive governmental authority called the Magisterium -- sometimes interpreted as organized religion -- prevents Dust from its true workings.
The Magisterium is obsessed with inflicting its own beliefs on everyone and doesn't like the daemons, which it believes to be the cause of sin. As a result, the Magisterium kidnaps children in order to sever them from their daemons.
Wilkinson said the themes in "The Golden Compass" are timely.
"In every area, we have evolved; but in the area of religion, we're still stuck," Wilkinson said. "I think we're being lulled into a somnambulistic stupor. Pullman writes about moving into a larger room of faith, rather than staying in a small room of religion that creates separation."
And what about appearing irreverent in one of the holiest periods of the Christian calendar?
"Frankly, I have never been so excited about a sermon in my entire ministry," Wilkinson said. "It is unorthodox to say the least, yet it is timely in a period of our history when people are becoming increasingly disinterested in Christianity."
--Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com.
To see more of The Arizona Daily Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
[link] Copyright (c) 2008, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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Copyright of Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ) is the property of Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ). The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Source: Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), Feb 29, 2008
Item: 2W62W61320151854
Oops! And Dorian Gray...
Oscar Wilde 
Optimism
Tired
