On this Thanksgiving Day, I am in New York, preparing for a Day of Recollection I'm giving Sunday for Saint Meinrad Archabbey's oblate chapter here. In the meantime, my confrere Fr. Meinrad (the oblate director) and I are enjoying some sight-seeing and the generous hospitality of two oblates in Farmingdale on Long Island--Paul and Irene Muhs.
This is my first-ever visit to the New York City area. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Fr. Meinrad and I took the train into Manhattan to see all the requisite sights (downtown and midtown), and today we are enjoying a day of rest and gratitude with the Muhs (perhaps more restful for Fr. Meinrad and I than the Muhs, God bless them). I may post more about all of this here at a later date. In the meantime, above is a piece that I found particularly striking yesterday during our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a Dutch carving out of oak from the early 15th century called "Apostles in Prayer." Of course, the Met has much grander pieces -- "Washington Crossing the Delaware," the Temple of Dendur, the Frank Lloyd Wright collection (including an entire room from a house he built in Minnesota), and several vibrant Tiffany glass windows were among my favorites -- but this relatively small, intimate, and prayerful sculpture seems most fitting for the posture of reverence and gratitude we do well to recall on this Thanksgiving Day (and every day, for that matter).
Tomorrow, we go into the city again for the highlight of the sight-seeing (for me, anyway), a visit to the Cloisters Museum on the Hudson -- think medieval and monastic!
Until then, a Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may all give God thanks and praise.
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