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The Year for Priests

Written by Michael D. O'Brien

Saint Jean Vianney

To the Most Holy Virgin I entrust this Year for Priests. I ask her to awaken in the heart of every priest a generous and renewed commitment to the ideal of complete self-oblation to Christ and the Church which inspired the thoughts and actions of the saintly Curé of Ars. It was his fervent prayer life and his impassioned love of Christ Crucified that enabled John Mary Vianney to grow daily in his total self-oblation to God and the Church. May his example lead all priests to offer that witness of unity with their Bishop, with one another and with the lay faithful, which today, as ever, is so necessary. Despite all the evil present in our world, the words which Christ spoke to his Apostles in the Upper Room continue to inspire us: “In the world you have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). Our faith in the Divine Master gives us the strength to look to the future with confidence. Dear priests, Christ is counting on you. In the footsteps of the Curé of Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by him. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace!

Pope Benedict XVI, Letter proclaiming the Year for Priests, beginning on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 19 June 2009.

The Word of God is living and active...

Written by Michael D. O'Brien

The night is far spent, the day is at hand;

cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

(Romans 13: 12)

Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed

but glorify God because of the name. For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God;

if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey

the Gospel of God?

(1 Peter 4: 16-17)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him

and he will make straight your paths.

(Proverbs 3: 5-6)

O Most High, when I begin to fear,

in you will I trust.

(Psalm 56: 4)

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be.

What came to be through him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

(John 1: 1-5)

Jesus, you are the Light shining in our darkness

and the darkness cannot overcome you.

Dwell in us, we pray, that we might be light bearers

for your name's sake

and for the good of all those whom we meet.

Welcome

Written by Administrator

Welcome to the official online gallery presenting the works of painter, novelist, and essayist Michael D. O'Brien

Dear Guests,

In all my work I seek to contribute to the restoration of Christian culture. I try to express the holiness of existence and the dignity of the human person situated in an incarnational universe. Each visual image and each work of prose is an incarnation of a word, a statement of faith. At the same time, it asks the questions: what is most noble and eternal in man? Who is he? Why does he exist? And what is his eternal destiny?

I thank you for visiting and invite you to reflect on further issues in Christian art, literature, and culture by subscribing to my (somewhat irregular) newsletter.

There are more than a hundred articles, interviews, and transcripts of talks available on this site, which can be accessed by selecting the specific category under Writings in the menu on the upper left side of the home page. There are also four visual art categories for you to explore (see the categories in the Gallery menu on the left side): the Profiled Works gallery contains several pages of paintings completed during recent years, and available for purchase. The Modern and Byzantine galleries contain images painted during the past forty years, which are no longer available for purchase. In the Recently Sold gallery are images purchased within the past year. Please note that most of the galleries have several pages of "thumbnail" images. In all galleries you may click on the thumbnail for a larger version of each image.

Note to Newsletter subscribers: Several subscribers have written in to say they registered for the newsletter and have never received it. This may be due to you not receiving, or to overlooking, the auto-confirm e-mail that is sent to you upon registration. It is important to click on the confirm link in this e-mail, a procedure that prevents people from signing others up for the newsletter without their knowledge. Another reason you may not be receiving the newsletter is strict filtering of "junk-mail" by your e-mail server. In order to avoid this problem, go to your personal e-mail account on your server site, and under "permissions" or "approved" or "contacts" or "safe sender", please type in the following address from which the newsletter is sent out (please note this is not the web address): This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Due to a great amount of creative work ahead of me, and many backlogged projects, I'm no longer able to send out a monthly newsletter. From time to time an occasional one will arrive in your inbox.

If you find portions of the site too dark on your monitor please use the "site template" feature along the left column to switch to a brighter site design.

Michael D. O'Brien

Globalization and the New World Order

Written by Michael D. O'Brien
Those who undertake the building of an ideal planetary society will find that it is a great deal less easy to accomplish than they anticipated. That will be their moment of testing. In the best-case scenario, they might come to admit that genuine diversity and a broad spectrum of independent sovereignties is, after all, a healthier system of governing the people of the world—imperfect as always, but the best means of maintaining freedom. Or, driven by a pride that approaches the level of satanic, they may push onward, imposing the new order regardless of the opposition, dismissing whatever valid arguments the resistance may put forward. And if the resistance is strong, a very big stick will be needed. There will be imprisonment for those who resist (or even dissent from) the perceived “common good.” The new rulers will justify the loss of freedoms by promoting everywhere the illusion that the successful realization of the dream is the highest good, worth any sacrifice. (“It is better that one man should die than the entire nation be destroyed,” said Caiaphas) Translated into modern terms: “It is better that nations should die, and some of their peoples die, than our window of opportunity for global control be lost.” Formed by and living by the deformed ethic of “the end justifies the means”, they will consider themselves to be the true visionaries, the saviours of the world. In a phrase, this is secular messianism. (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 676)
Read more...

A Letter to Artists by Michael O'Brien

Written by Michael D. O'Brien
I have received many letters from young Christian painters, writers, and musicians, and ask those of you who have written to me to pardon my delay in responding to your inquiries. The amount of interest in StudiObrien has been overwhelming, and for that reason I’ve been able to reply to only a fraction of the letters I receive. This month, I would like to write to you a few thoughts about our calling. This will be a sort of Combat Journal from the Culture Wars, penned by a battle scarred veteran. I hope it will cover most of the questions I am regularly asked. I began to paint full-time for Christ on May 1st, 1976. Though I had been practicing as an artist since 1970, when I had my first one-man exhibition at a gallery, I had not until then made a commitment to overtly Christian themes, nor was I pursuing my art as a vocation. To a certain extent I was drifting and dabbling with the idea, but rather daunted by the seeming impossibility of it. Then I made a consecration prayer on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, 1976, quit my job, and threw myself off a cliff so to speak.
Read more...

The 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae

Written by Michael D. O'Brien

The massive failure to respond in a Christian manner to the exhortation of Humanae Vitae is not so much the result of selfishness or a spirit of rebellion on the part of families, as it is a loss of nerve. The root problem is fear. Anxiety saturates our age, and for a family the generalized angst is multiplied exponentially. It becomes very difficult to maintain a “nuclear” family when the “extended” family disintegrates. And when a society’s economy rolls over in the direction of great benefits to the infertile and relentless troubles for those who are fully open to life, it becomes difficulty squared.