We left the hill top village of Pienza, Italy and carefully navigated our way down a very steep trail.  About halfway down the hill side we came to a small chapel carved out of the rock, estimated to be about 1,500 years ago.  The family which currently owns the property is busy reclaiming several Etruscan cave sites and came upon this chapel.   They know it is a chapel because on the back wall was carved this Madonna and Child.  What it tells us is that 1,500 years ago, Jesus was very real and known throughout the Italy.

Christ Rising From The Dead

Žitomislić Monastery, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Church of the Annunciation

Snap-Apple Night, painted by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833. It was inspired by a Halloween party he attended in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832. Currently in a private collection. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG

Christ the King Sunday is the final Sunday of the liturgical year and is a time when churches recall the events of the life of Jesus. On Christ the King Sunday, Jesus is represented as a king and takes his place on his throne beside God, the father of creation.  Jesus, robed and seated as king is shown in the accompanying picture from http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/cking-feast.jpg

“Muhammad the Apostle of God” as seen inscribed on the gates of the Prophet’s Mosque located in Medina, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia.  The mosque was the third built to Islam in the mid 620s by Muhammad.  Subsequent rulers added on to it over the centuries it is now the largest mosque in the world. 

This picture is a derivative work based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al-Masjid_AL-Nabawi_Door.jpg by AishaAbdel

Dance, candles and fireworks bring illumination to the darkness as Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Newar Buddhist celebrate Diwali throughout the world.   This picture is from an article by Andrew Onyango, Yummy Magazine, October 22, 2014

https://i0.wp.com/yummy.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/diwali-celebration-indiaAOFP.jpg

Within Julius II’s apartment in the Vatican is The Stanza della Segnatura (The Dispensation of the Sacraments) a fresco by Raphael 1508/9.  Around the altar two groups of religious people discuss the nature of heaven.  Above them are an assembly of Saints in the clouds with Christ at the center, the Madonna and St John the Baptist on either side.  To be in the presence of these life-sized figures is humbling to say the least.  On that particular day, the Julius II apartments were not very crowded and we had a chance to move around the room viewing the fresco from several perspectives.  For at moment I, as a Protestant, could understand and feel how there could be saints standing in heaven with God looking down on us ready to help us if we called upon them

Martin Luther became the unintentional reformer who provided the spark, which led to the Reformation.  This led to new way of looking at scripture, a new understanding of God’s relationship with people and the ministering of God’s word to the people.  Luther was not the first person to question the methods of the church, but politics and economics allowed him to be the one to set flame to the kindling and start the fire.

Portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder.  It is in the Veste Coburg, or Coburg Fortress, one of Germany's largest castles above the town of Coburg, in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria. Lucas Cranach the Elder  (1472–1553)