POEMS TO AWAKEN YOUR SOUL This poem is taken from the section "Poems to Awaken your Soul" at the back of :Your Time is Now":
THE MIRACLE AT THE WEDDING AT CANA [John Chapter 2; 1-12]
Jesus attended a wedding celebration with his mother.
The wine supply ran out at this wedding in Cana.
Jesus’ mother turned to Jesus for help.
But Jesus replied that his time had not come yet.
His mother left it up to Jesus and told the servants to assist.
Six large stone water pots were standing there in the midst.
Jesus told the servants to fill them with water to the brim.
The servants did what he said and listened to him.
When the jars had been filled Jesus told the servants to dip.
And take some to the master of ceremonies” and they followed his tip.
The master of ceremonies tasted the wine and remarked to the host.
“You have saved the best wine for last. You are a great host.’
When I wrote this poem I had not yet visited Paris and The Louvre Museum of Paintings. I visited Paris in August 2014 and I was thrilled to see that there was a painting of "The Wedding Feast at Cana" by Italian Painter Paolo Veronese. It was the largest painting in the Louvre. I bought a copy.
This is what is stated in the records at The Louvre: "
In 1553, Veronese was summoned to Venice where he gave free rein to his decorative talent in vast canvases that blended masterful composition, splendid contemporary costumes, and luminous colors. The Wedding Feast at Cana graced the refectory designed by Palladio for the Benedictine monastery on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. With masterly freedom of interpretation, Veronese transposed the biblical episode to the sumptuous setting of a Venetian wedding." For those of you who do not know the Biblical story of this event I quote from a write-up by the Louvre, Paris below: "A biblical scene within a Venetian banquet In Cana, Galilee, Christ is invited to a wedding feast during which he performs his first miracle. At the end of the banquet, when the wine is running low, he asks the servants to fill the stone jars with water and then offer them to the master of the house, who finds that the water has been turned to wine. This episode, told by the Apostle John, is a precursor of the Eucharist. The bride and groom are seated at the left end of the table, leaving the center place to the figure of Christ. He is surrounded by the Virgin, his disciples, clerks, princes, Venetian noblemen, Orientals in turbans, several servants, and the populace. Some figures are dressed in traditional antique costumes, while others—the women in particular—wear sumptuous coiffures and adornments. Veronese depicts, with apparent ease, no less than 130 feast-goers, mixing biblical figures with men and women of the period. The latter are not really identifiable, although according to an 18th-century legend, the artist himself is depicted in white with a viola da gamba next to Titian and Bassano, all of whom contribute to the musical entertainment. The bearded master of ceremonies could be Aretino, whom Veronese greatly admired. Several dogs, birds, a parakeet, and a cat frolic amidst the crowd.
