19th June. Sacred Heart

Reflecting on the origin of this feast that the love of God embraces us all, and that, as St.John says, God is love and in love God lives in us and we in him, I thought of all sorts of people we can exclude from our love. There was a wonderful resident artist at the Chaplaincy in Lancaster when I was there, Christine Dawson, whose art covered many areas. The first piece I saw was about the abuse women suffer and the floor of the exhibit was covered with egg shells so you had to walk on them when you went in. She then got to know the Islamic Society very well and they allowed her to do a couple of exhibitions about their lives. The second was about women who choose to wear a niqab, a face covering for the mouth and nose. She spoke to them over several months and then took photographs of them living ordinary lives. At the opening exhibition she invited the women to come along and many a good chat was had with them. What she brought out was that these were ordinary women who chose to wear the niqab for all sorts of different reasons, none of which bore out the reasons with which other people had regularly attacked them for doing it. As it happens we are all wearing face coverings now, at least in some places.