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

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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)

Emperor Diocletian abdicated the throne of the Roman Empire and moved to Split on the coast of the Adriatic.  He left  two Augustus emperors with two Caesar (emperor assistants) to fight among themselves to determine who would be the Roman Empire’s emperor.  The final two clashed at the Milvian Bridge on the edge of Rome.  Through his victory Constantine was able to set the stage for making Christianity the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.  The picture of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge by Giulio Romano 1520-1524 currently resides in the Vatican City, Apostolic Palace

According to the Torah, which are the first five books of the Old Testament, we are to raise a noise at the start of the new-year.  This brings us to the sounding of the Shofar, a trumpet type instrument ideally made from ram horn.  The horn of any animal from the Bovidae family is acceptable except a cow’s horn.  The Shofar has no pitch devices inside it.  Like the bugle, all variation in notes is through the player’s lip positioning and movement.  The Shofar is blown 100 times during the day in a pattern of mixed blasts and notes.

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