Melissa Green
from Akeldama

In the kingdom of birds, children, birds of prey are the ruling class, hawks and falcons are the barons, and ravens are the clergy, or so they say. This morning, we are going to draw birds. How many can you think of? Doves, eagles, vultures, goldfinch, larks, owls, partridges, cranes, swallows, wrens and sparrows. A symbol of the Holy Spirit, another name for the Paraclete, which we have carved up over the scriptorium door, is actually a falcon. The falcon looks straight into the sun. He can see a mouse from the top of the mountain.

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I have drawn a falcon and two other birds for you to copy. While you are drawing, children, let me tell you about the caladrius. It’s only found in king’s houses, a kind of white heron with yellow legs and beak and a long neck like a swan. If it doesn’t look at a sick man, the man will die, but if it stares into the face of the patient, the man will live. The caladrius draws the illness into itself and guards open the doors and it flies up over the trees toward the sun where the sickness will be burned away. This bird is like Christ who takes the whole infirmity of man upon himself. The robin and the goldspink came to the dying Christ, attempting to ease His pain by trying to pull out the nails and thorns in His Crown, and that’s why they’re red-breasted.

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