Dom Donald's Blog

Saints of the Benedictine Family

2009-11-13T20:24:00.008Z

Contemplative Life Today

The 2^nd Reading of Vigils this morning spoke so clearly and resounding, it gave us the thought for today’s celebration of the ALL SAINTS of the Benedictine Family/

All Benedictine Saints

13 November

[Based on Some Thoughts on Contemplative Life Today,
by Clifford Stevens in Review for Religious, July-August 1991]

The pattern of contemplative life has neither changed, nor will it change. It is still a life of solitude, of withdrawal from 'the world', of silence and seclusion. However the image of contemplative life is changing from an ascetic protest and rejection of 'the world' to the cultivation of intimacy with God in the sacrament of solitude. It is the personal pursuit of closeness to God, not from a sense of exclusivity, but from a deep sense of 'commonalty' with the rest of the human family. The contemplative life is just one way of seeking and finding God, in no way minimizing other pathways and in no way deprecating the infinite variety of the Christian life and Christian holiness.

Every person, in the most secret part of his or her being, is contemplative. Every human being has a passion for God, a hunger for the known or unknown Divine that bursts into flame when, at certain moments, a glimpse is caught of the magnitude of God. To speak of the contemplative life is to speak of a kind of life that all people hanker after in the deepest part of their being; the formal contemplative life is simply an extension of this basic human hunger, a hunger for God that is perhaps the very blueprint of our existence.

In the depth of our being, then, we are all solitaries, and each one of us has a primitive face we show to God alone, a part of ourselves we can reveal to no one else, however intimate our relationship or profound our affection. We show to others only a small part of our total personality while, at the core of our being, we are all God-centred.

The contemplative life begins in astonishment at the overpowering reality of God's love, the magnitude of His plans for every human being. It is this fascination with God that draws a person into solitude, for only the freedom of solitude is adequate to contain that fascination and the probing of that astonishment. The contemplative has, in very truth, been astounded and struck with the wonder of God in a way that is beyond explaining. And it is this wonder and astonishment that draw him or her into solitude where the wonder can be nurtured and the astonishment explored and probed with all the energy of heart and mind. This, indeed, becomes the lifetime occupation of the contemplative, with the secluded life itself simply the setting and necessary environment for it.

Contemplatives are driven into solitude as lovers are drawn together, and for the same reason: to cultivate an intimacy beyond their power to put into words, but which embodies everything they have ever desired and is expressive of the deepest and most intimate longing of their being. The contemplative life reaches out to intimacy with God just as human lovers reach out to intimacy with each other, for the sheer joy of that intimacy and for the love that binds two together in an inseparable and deliberately chosen companionship.

And do You, Lord, have mercy on us.

All Benedictine Saints and Dom Blaise

There is also a Cistercian Blog from Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank.

http://subtuum.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-benedictine-saints-and-dom-blaise.html

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The community celebrates the Saints in heaven and speaks also beautifully of Dom Blaise of Spring Bank.

13 November, All Benedictine Saints

vultus.stblogs***org/2006/11/13-november-all-benedictine-sa.html

Thanks to Father Mark on November 13, 2006

Today we celebrated the feast of All Saints Who Militated Under the Rule of Saint Benedict. One might also translate the name of the feast as "All Saints Who Soldiered Under the Rule of Saint Benedict." It's enough to make a Jesuit envious!

I thought that Spinello Aretino's depiction of Saint Benedict exorcising a demon might be appropriate for today's feast. Saint Gregory the Great recounts the whole story in his life of Saint Benedict. The painting, however, tells more than the story. The monks are engaged in a building project. The undertaking comes to a halt when a "heavy devil" decides to sit on a stone. No one can lift the stone. This happens not infrequently in community life.

Saint Peter reminds us that we are all "living stones" destined by God to be "built into a spiritual house" (1 P 2:5). Sometimes one "living stone" becomes heavy to the point of being immovable. Then the upbuilding of the community stops and the "immovable stone" becomes the focus of much frustration and unhappiness.

What can be done when a "heavy devil" fastened itself to a brother or sister in order to impede the building of the community? Prayer and fasting, and recourse to the power of the Cross and the intercession of Saint Benedict are efficacious means by which the devil can be detached from the poor soul on whom he crouches. Once rid of the "heavy devil,"

Bede - Widows Mite

2009-11-12T20:42:00.004Z

The Widow’s Mite

Catena Aure – Gospel of Mark 12:41-44

Mystical Sense

Pseudo-Jerome: But in a mystical sense, they are rich, who bring forth from the treasure of their heart things new and old, which are the obscure and hidden things of Divine wisdom in both testaments; but who is the poor woman, if it be not I and those like me, who cast in what I can, and have the will to explain to you, where I have, 253not the power. For God does not consider how much ye bear, but what is the store from which it comes; but each at all events can bring his farthing, that is, a ready will, which is called a farthing, because it is accompanied by three things, that is, thought, word and deed. And in that it is said that “she cast in all her living,” it is implied that all that the body wants is that by which it lives. Wherefore it is said, “All the labour of man is for his mouth.” [Eccl 6:7]

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Allegorical Way

Bede: Again, in an allegorical way, the rich men, who cast gifts into the treasury, point out the Jews puffed up with the righteousness of the law; the poor widow is the simplicity of the Church: poor indeed, because she has cast away the spirit of pride and of the desires of worldly things; and a widow, because Jesus her husband has suffered death for her. She casts two mites into the treasury, because she brings the love of God and of her neighbour, or the gifts of faith and prayer; which are looked upon as mites in their own insignificance, but measured by the merit of a devout intention are superior to all the proud works of the Jews. The Jew sends of his abundance into the treasury, because he presumes on his own righteousness; but the Church sends her whole living into God’s treasury, because she understands that even her very living is not of her own desert, but of Divine grace.

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In 1982 in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly reproduced an article entitled

“The Widow's Mite: Praise or Lament?—A Matter of Context”. As a daunting scholarly survey the exegesis of the subject left one rather mesmerized.

In a very different context, ‘out of babes’ may come wisdom in new guise .

The Widow's Mite

Mark 12:41-43

PowerPoint Slide Masters

sermons4kidsDOTcom/widows-mite-ppt-slides.htm

Caryll Houslander The Widow's Poverty

2009-11-09T20:05:00.005Z

The Widow’s Poverty

Caryll Houselander (+ 1954)

The poverty of Christ is not destitution, though actually Christ was destitute for part of his life, and in every age one or more of the saints have had a true vocation for absolute poverty. Such saints are Saint John the Baptist, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Joseph Benedict Labre. For such a vocation there is room in modern life. So falsified are all our standards that we are inclined to forget that there is any such thing as intrinsic value ... Saints who are chosen by God to be destitute, to have literally nothing, are the pure gold that shows us that holy poverty has an intrinsic value.

There was an old man who called at his bank every week and asked to see his money in gold. "I like to see what I have got," he explained. We Christians have "got" Christ's absolute poverty. Although we are allowed to have reasonable comfort ourselves, the grace and power of Christ's real destitution belongs to us. His homelessness, his nakedness, his loneliness, the poverty of the dead man on the cross, all that belongs to us as Christians, and in times of crisis we can draw on it. At all times we can rely on it; without it the gentler poverty would have no value and we should be a spiritually bankrupt race.

The grace of Christ's utter poverty is given to all

the destitute and homeless people in the world, outcasts and refugees; without it, they would despair. Anyone of us at any time now may need to draw on this pure gold of Christ's poverty. From time to time, like the old man, we want to see what we have got.

Those saints who baffle the faithless by leading lives which seem to them to be useless, even selfish, lives like Christ's public life, poorer than the wild foxes and the birds, show us that his poverty is still our wealth, is still triumphant. Even in human nature as it is today, Christ, naked and foolish on the cross, can be king.

Poverty, not destitution, the simpler poverty which many people experience, makes us more sensitive, more selective, able to perceive the poetry in life.

Sunday, November, DAY BY DAY - MAGNIFICAT Missalette

Raymond - Widow's Mite

2009-11-09T17:03:00.002Z

32nd Sunday of Ordiary Time

Sent: Tue, November 10, 2009
Subject: Widows Mite

Homily of Fr. Raymond

THE WIDOW’S MITE

Jesus generally uses two types of Oral Teaching to get across his message: first there is the direct teaching - of the Beatitudes – for example, and then there is the more indirect, but more picturesque, method of the parables - short imaginative stories to illustrate a point.

There is however one, perhaps solitary, incident of Jesus teaching where he uses neither of these methods. This incident is the story which we call “The Widow’s Mite”. It’s very uniqueness underlines for us the importance of its teaching. Nowhere else in his public ministry do we hear Jesus holding up the example of any living person, not even of his mother, for the admiration and inspiration of his hearers. This, we must remember, is no parable, no little ‘made-up’ story to illustrate a point. No, this was a real life incident which happened before the very eyes of Jesus and his disciples. It was an incident which must have impressed Jesus so much that he spontaneously turned to his disciples and told them that the gift of this poor widow’s two coins, meant more to God than had all the great offerings which they saw the wealthy putting into the treasury.

If we try to analyse her gift logically it seems to make no sense. “It was all she had to live on”, Jesus tell us. Perhaps he didn’t mean that quite literally. It was the kind natural expression anyone would have made. Anyone, knowing her condition and seeing what she did, could easily have said “But that’s all she has to live on!”

However, whether it was literally true or not, the lesson remains the same. Her extravagantly generous faith and love were highly pleasing to God. It is foolish to look for logic here and argue that she should have had a greater sense of responsibility in the use of her little sum. She knew very well she would have to beg for bread on the morrow!

But the logic of the poor widow was one of faith and love which would argue like this: “What kind of security for my future are my two pennies? Precious little! My security lies only in God! It is into his loving hands that I confide them as I confide my future.

Ronald Knox Widow's Mite Mk 12:44

2009-11-08T22:02:00.002Z

MASS – 32^ndSunday in Ordinary Time

The Widow’s Mite.

“She put in all that she had her whole livelihood”.

There is nothing ornamental about the “Widow’s Mite” Gospel in the Knox/Cox vignette of this pericope.

Ronald Cox's examination or commentary conveys his experience of the chronolgy and the geography, his familiarity of the Mount of Olives to the Temple. "He walked, with his apostles, towards the Golden Gate; . . ."

Ronald Knox may also be described as having put all that he had his whole livelihood into the Word. After translating the whole Bible he goes on to write about it. See this trilogy of his constant sharing his interest with readers:

A Harmony of the Gospels

The Gospel Story, Ronald Knox & Ronald Cox

A New Testament Commentary for English Readers.

A Harmony of the Gospels, R. Knox Translation

Public Life

Our Lord in Judea

§88. The Widow's Mite

MARK 12:41-44

41 As he was sitting opposite the treasury of the temple, Jesus watched the multitude throwing coins into the treasury, the many 42 rich with their many offerings; and there was one poor widow, who came and put in

43 two mites, which make a farthing. Thereupon he called his disciples to him, and said to them, Believe me, this poor widow has put in more than all those others who have put

44 offerings into the treasury. The others all gave out of what they had to spare; she, with so little to give, put in all that she had her whole livelihood.

LUKE 21:1-4

1 And he looked up, and saw the rich folk

2 putting their gifts into the treasury; he saw also one poor widow, who put in two mites.

3 Thereupon he said, Believe me, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.

4 The others all made an offering to God out of what they had to spare; she, with so little to give, put in her whole livelihood.

Chronological Harmony: Tuesday 1 April 30 A.D.

Gospel –trans. Ronald Knox

Ronald Cox.

Continuous Narrative

Explanations

The Widow's Mite

As he was sitting opposite the treasury of the temple, Jesus watched the crowd throwing coins into the treasury, the many rich with their many offerings; and there was one poor widow, who came and put in two mites, which make a farthing. Thereupon he called his disciples to him, and said to them, 'Believe me, this poor widow has put in more than all those others who have put offerings into the treasury. The others all made an offering to God out of what they had to spare; she, with so little to give, put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

The Temple Tuesday 4 April

The crowd dispersed after our Lord's touching words of farewell to Jerusalem (p. 324). He walked, with his apostles, towards the Golden Gate; there he turned and entered the Women's Court; from the Nicanor Gate he could see the altar of burnt offerings, and the sanctuary where God dwelt among his people (this scene recalls Jesus' first appearance in his Father's house, pp. 18-20). Although he was tired, he would not miss an opportunity of instructing his disciples: God wants men, not their money. The religious value of an act is in the intention; it is internal, not external. The only gift that pleases God is the heart.

THE GOSPEL STORY

Ronald Knox & Ronald Cox.

This is a new and exciting presentation of the New Testament: all the lucidity of the Knox translation combined with an up-to-date and scholarly commentary in one volume, This is a book that really explains those elements in the Gospels that are not clear to the twentieth-century reader -the back-ground of Jewish daily life, custom, traditional figures of speech and ritual in Roman-occupied Palestine. The left-hand pages contain the entire life-story of Jesus Christ told in the words of the Evangelists as rendered by Monsignor Knox. On the right-hand pages is Father Cox's commentary directly opposite the text it refers to. Further points for readability are quotation marks for direct speech, omission of chapter and verse numbers, 'thee' and 'thou' replaced by 'you' throughout and conversion of measures of time and distance into their modern equivalents, so that 'the ninth hour' is now 'three in the afternoon'. Father Cox, a New Zealander who studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and in the Holy Land itself, worked in close collaboration with Monsignor Knox-as is shown by the latter's witty epigram prefacing the book-and all changes were made with his permission and cooperation.

NOTE on book dust cover.

The picture on the dust-cover shows the Apostle John with his Gospel, and is a detail from a Roman sarcophagus, c. 33D-40 A.D., in the Lateran Museum, Rome. It is reproduced, by permission, from an illustration in the Atlas of the Early Christian World, Nelson, Edinburgh.

18s. Burns & Oates

1959

Ronald Knox, A NewTestament Commentary for English Readers.

Burns & Oates 1953

MARK 12.38-44. The Pharisees denounced; the widow’s almsgiving.

Mathew gives us a whole chapter (23) on the text of verses 38-40, and omits the story of the widow altogether. Curiously, in his long chapter on the Pharisees there is no reference, as in Mark and Luke, to their "swallowing up the property of widows". I t looks as if Mark depended, here, on a source different from Matthew's; possibly the connexion of the two passages is due to their subject, not to historical sequence. The traditional view that Mark wrote primarily for a Roman public seems reinforced by the fact that he gives here the Latin equivalent, "farthing," for the two "mites" which were Greek.

also by Ronald A. Knox ON ENGLISHING THE BIBLE.
Mgr. Knox has verified some of his difficulties in the tremendous task of making the Bible comprehensible to modern readers. . .

Goal & Objective of Monk

2009-11-06T21:35:00.005Z

Purity of Heart, goal and objective of the monk.

FRIDAY 6^th Nov. MASS

Gospel: For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. Luke16: 1-8

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

(from Magnificat Missalette)

Acting Prudently

"All the arts and disciplines," Abba Moses said, "have a certain scopos or goal, and a telos, which is the end that is proper to them, on which the lover of any art sets his gaze and for which he calmly and gladly endures every labour and danger and expense.

For the farmer, avoiding neither the torrid rays of the sun one time nor the frost and ice another, tirelessly tills the soil and subdues the unyielding clumps of earth with his frequent ploughing, and all the while he keeps his scopos in mind: that, once it has been cleared of all the briers and every weed has been uprooted, by his hard work he may break the soil into something as fine as sand. In no other way does he believe that he will achieve his end, which is to have a rich harvest and an abundant crop, with which he may thenceforth both live his life in security and increase his substance. Labouring in dedicated fashion, he even willingly removes produce from his well-stocked barns and puts it in crumbling ditches, not thinking of present diminution when he reflects on the future harvest. Likewise, those who are accustomed to engage in commerce do not fear the uncertain behaviour of the sea, nor are they afraid of any risks, since they are spurred on by winged hope to the end of profit. Neither are those who are inflamed by worldly military ambition, seeking as they do the end of honours and power, conscious of calamities and the dangers of their long treks, nor are they crushed by present fatigue and wars, since they wish to attain the end of high rank that they have set for themselves ... "

'The end of our profession... is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven; but the goal or scopos is purity of heart, without which it is impossible for anyone to reach that end. Fixing our gaze on this goal, then, as on a definite mark, we shall take the most direct route."

Conferences of John Cassian

Cassian, John (360-435)

Conferences of John Cassian offer the modern Christian a glimpse into the lives of 2nd and 3rd century Christian monastics. It documents the thoughts of Christians who took Jesus’ instructions to take up our own cross, leave our family, and renounce our possessions literally. The Conferences of John Cassian is an early archetype of the monastic way of life where the theology of denying self is implemented in daily living. Cassian’s work was highly respected by his contemporaries, as well as those who went on to have enormous influence on the monastic movement. Benedict referenced Cassian’s work while writing The Rule of St. Benedict, which went on to be the rule of life for countless Benedictine monks.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lacordaire (2)

2009-11-04T21:16:00.006Z

Lacordaire on God’s Inner Life

The name of Lacordaire has always had some fascination.

It took many years actually coming at this point to have the compulsion to learn more.

To begin the Magnificat Missalette had a Meditation on Lacordaire.

This called for a search in the Library and find the only book to hand, Pere Lacordaire’s Conferences for Lent in Notre Dame de Paris.

Then a Dominican visitor mentioned the biographical essay, Lacordaire, by L. C. Sheppard – the riveting story of his life.

The latest publication is obviously very selective

Batts, Peter M. Henri-Dominique Lacordaire’s re-establishment of the Dominican Order in nineteenth-century France. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004, £64).

To tackle 1870 English translation, I tried the second Conference, “The Inner Life of God”. Admittedly it proved to make daunting reading.

The illustration of the young people crowded to Notre Dame de Paris makes me puzzle. The writing is certainly academic. But have we any impression of the eloquence of the orator influencing thousand. (Never hear the likes in St. Bernard, it is said).

By some very good fortune, with Google search, a Catholic Writers Notebook, has only recently produced a commentary on the Conference, “The Inner Life of God”.

With acknowledgement to John O’Neil for his series in his Blog, catholicwritersnotebook.blogspot DOT com/2009/10/lacordaire-on-gods-inner-life-part-1.html, it may be convenient to attach the script.
It is most helpful, lucid and illuminating, in the rather challenging style of the epoc.

Catholic Writer's Notebook

NOTES ABOUT CATHOLIC LIFE & SPIRITUALITY IN THE 21st CENTURY

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Lacordaire on God’s Inner Life, Part 1

When discussing the Holy Trinity, the Fathers of the Church distinguished between theology and economy. “Theology” refers to the mystery of God’s inmost life within the Trinity and “economy” to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the “economy” the “theology” is revealed to us; conversely, the “theology” illuminates the whole “economy”. God’s works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §236).

With this in mind, I thought it beneficial to review the theology of God’s inner life as a transition into a later series on how we can use this knowledge of God’s inner life to discover how, by imitating Christ, we might participate in the economy of God’s works of salvation in our own time. For the first series, I’ve chosen to paraphrase some thoughts of Père Jean Baptiste Henri Dominique Lacordaire, O.P., delivered in a conference at Notre Dame in Paris in mid-19^th century. The series of conferences was published in London as a book entitled GOD in 1870. The following thoughts are gleaned from chapter two, “The Inner Life of God”, pages 27 to 58.

Père Lacordaire begins by defining life as a certain state of being, which defines as that mysterious force, called activity, which is the principle of beings’ substance and organization. Since activity is a permanent and common characteristic of all that is, he concludes that being is activity, citing St. Thomas Aquinas’ definition of God as pure act (Summa Theologica, Q. 3, a. 1). From this, Lacordaire concludes that “activity supposes action, and action is life, or, to put it another way, “life is to being what action is to activity” and “to live is to act”. A stone is; a plant grows; an animal lives – gradations of activity, whose presence constitutes a living being (Père Lacordaire, GOD, pp. 30-32).

Lacordaire formulated this in his first general law of life: the action of a being is equal to its activity. Applying this law of life to the inner life of God, he draws the conclusion that, as the action of a being is equal to its activity, it follows that in God there is infinite action, which constitutes the very life of God (Ibid., p. 32).

But what is action, he asks. Action is movement, he answers; but movement supposes an object, an end toward which it aspires. “I move, I run, I risk my life seeking something wanting to me and which I desire; for if nothing were wanting in me, my movement would have no cause, repose would be my natural state, immobility my happiness. Since I move, it is to act: to act is at the same time the motive and the end of movement, and consequently action is productive movement” (Ibid., p. 33).

Since action is the consequence of activity, it follows that production is the final end of activity and being, both of which are one and the same. According to the first general law of life, the action of any being is equal to its activity. To live is to act; to act is to produce; to produce is to draw forth from self something equal to itself. “Every being tends to produce in the plenitude of its faculties, because it tends to life in the plenitude of its life, and it attains that natural term of its ambition only by drawing from itself something equal to itself” (Ibid., p. 34). All of this, of course, is leading up to his second general law of life and how it applies to the inner life of God, which will be the subject of Part 2 of this series.

Posted by John O'Neill at 8:15 AM

Labels: The Trinity in Christian Life

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Lacordaire on God’s Inner Life, Part 2

We continue Père Lacordaire’s conference on the inner life of God. Having laid down and explained the first general law of life, that the action of any being is equal to its activity and how it applies to the inner life of God, he moves on to the second general law of life.

Citing Christ’s words, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required,” he demonstrates the law of production: for life to produce something equal to itself, it must produce life; for a living being to produce something equal to itself, it must produce a being like itself. Fecundity, then, is the extreme and complete end of production, the necessary end of activity. Thus, we arrive at the second general law of life: the activity of a being is begun again in its fecundity. Life is fecundity, and fecundity is equal to life. God, being infinite activity, is also infinite fecundity. For if God were infinitely active without being infinitely fruitful, one of two things would follow: (1) either his action would be unproductive, or (2) he would produce only outside of himself, in finite time and space. Neither of these would be the action of the infinite and purely spiritual being that is God. Therefore, the life of God is exercised totally within himself by an infinite and a sovereign fecundity (GOD, pp. 35-37).

The application of this law to God’s inner life, Lacordaire pointed out, is borne out in the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas in which he explains that in God there is an internal procession in the case of an action that remains within the agent itself. St. Thomas gives as an example the case of the intellect, whose action, an act of understanding, remains within the one who understands. Therefore, in God procession is to be understood in the sense of an intellectual emanation – more specifically, the emanation of a meaningful word from a speaker, where the word remains within the speaker [hence, the procession of the Word of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity]. This is the sense in which the Catholic faith posits procession within God (Ibid., p. 39).

From this, Lacordaire concluded that since action is a movement, a movement supposes the acting being and the desired being, and a relation between the acting being and the desired being, without which there would be no more action, no more activity because relation is the very essence of life. A relation consists in the bringing together of two distinct terms, the perfect conjunction of which is unity, the perfect distinction of which is plurality so that their perfect relation is unity in plurality (Ibid., p. 40).

This brings us to Lacordaire’s third general law of life: the end of fecundity is to produce relations between beings, giving an object to and a reason for their activity (Ibid., p. 41). The mystery of life is a mystery of relations, i.e., unity in plurality, plurality in unity.

God is one: his substance is indivisible because it is infinite. God cannot then be many by the division of his substance. Let the substance of God remain what it is and what it should be – the seat of unity; and let it produce in itself, without being divided, terms of relation, i.e., terms that are the seat of plurality in relation to unity. For those two things, one and many, are alike in order to form relations; and if the substance of God were divisible, there would be no unity, and likewise no relations.

God is a unique substance, containing in his indivisible essence terms of relation really distinct in themselves. As we apply these expressions of the visible order to God, however, their proportions at once become changed because they pass from the finite to the infinite; so, it’s no wonder that Catholic doctrine teaches that terms of relation take, in God, the form of personality. Every being, by that alone that it is itself and not another, possesses what we call individuality. As long as it subsists, it belongs to itself; it may increase or decrease, lose or gain; it may communicate to others something of itself, but not itself. It is itself as long as it is; none other is or will ever be so, except itself. Suppose now that the individual being possesses consciousness and knowledge of its individuality, that it sees itself living and distinct from all that is not itself, it would be a person (Ibid.,pp. 45-47).

In my next post in this series, we’ll explore with Lacordaire how many persons there are in God, how and in what order they are manifested in him.

Posted by John O'Neill at 8:23 AM

Labels: The Trinity in Christian Life

Monday, October 19, 2009

Lacordaire on God’s Inner Life, Part 3

In this installment of Lacordaire’s conference on the inner life of God, he takes up the theology of processions or origins and relations in God. The mind lives, like God, of an immaterial life, and consequently knows that life in which the senses have no part, and which is that of God. The mind does two things only, it thinks and it loves. It thinks, it sees and combines objects of divested of matter, form, extent and horizon. I speak of the mind as it is of its own nature, as it lives when it wills to live at the height where God has placed it.

Thought is not the mind itself; thought comes and goes; the mind always remains. My thought and my mind are two; yet I am one. My thought, although distinct from my mind, is not separated from it. My intellectual life is a life of relation; I find in it what I’ve seen in external nature: unity and plurality – unity resulting from the very substance of my mind, plurality resulting from its action. The mind, like the whole of nature, but in a much higher manner, is fecund, prolific. The mind, created in the likeness of God, remains inaccessible to all division. It engenders its thought without emitting any of its incorruptible substance; multiplies it without losing anything of the perfection of unity. The body keeps us too far from God; the mind has borne us even to the sanctuary of his essence and his life. (GOD, pp. 49-51)

God is spirit; his first act is to think. In God, whose activity is infinite, the mind at once engenders a thought equal to itself, which fully represents it, and which needs no second expression, because the first has exhausted the abyss of things to know, the abyss of the infinite. That unique and absolute thought, the first-born and last of the mind of God, remains eternally in his presence as an exact representation of himself, as his image, the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance (see 2 Corinthians 4:4; Hebrews 1:3). It is his word, his utterance, his inner word, as our thought is also our utterance and our word; but differing from ours inasmuch as it is a perfect word which speaks all to God in a single expression, which speaks it always without repetition, and which St. John heard in heaven when he thus opened his sublime Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).(Ibid., pp. 51-52)

In God, the thought is distinct without being separated from the divine mind which produces it. The Word is consubstantial with the Father, according to the expression of the Council of Nicaea in 325. In God, the thought is distinct from the mind by a perfect distinction because it is infinite; in God, the thought becomes a person. In God plurality is absolute as well as unity, and therefore, his life passes entirely within himself, in the ineffable colloquy between a divine person and a divine person, between a Father without generation and a Son eternally engendered. God thinks, and he sees himself in his thought as in another so akin to him as to be one with him in substance; he is Father since he has produced in his own likeness a term of relation really and personally distinct from him; he is one and two in all the force that the infinite gives to unity and duality; in contemplating his thought, in beholding his image, in hearing his word, he is able to utter in the ecstacy of the highest, the most real paternity: “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7), in this day which is eternity, the indivisible duration of unchanging being, in that ineffable act which has neither beginning nor end. (Ibid., pp. 53-54)

My next post will conclude this series on Père Lacordaire’s conference about the inner life of the Holy Trinity.

Posted by John O'Neill at 9:27 AM

Labels: The Trinity in Christian Life

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Lacordaire on God’s Inner Life, Part 4

Is the generation of his Son God’s sole act, and does it consummate with its fecundity all his beatitude?

In God, from the co-eternal regard interchanged between the Father and the Son, springs a third term of relation, proceeding from the one and the other, really distinct from them, raised by the force of the infinite to personality, which is the Holy Spirit, the holy, the unfathomable and stainless movement of divine love. As the Son exhausts knowledge, the Holy Spirit exhausts love in God, and by him the cycle of divine fecundity and life closes. As a perfect spirit God thinks and loves; he produces a thought equal to himself, and with his thought a love equal to both. Everything in nature teaches you that being and activity are one and the same, that activity is expressed by action, and that action is necessarily productive or fruitful; that the end of fecundity is to establish relations between similar beings; that relation is unity in plurality, from which results life, beauty, and goodness. And that God, the infinite being, the pre-eminently good, beautiful and living being is infallibly the most magnificent totality of relations, perfect unity and perfect plurality, the unity of substance in the plurality of persons; a primordial mind [the Father], a thought equal to the mind [the Word/Son] that engenders it, a love [the Holy Spirit] equal to the mind and the thought from which it proceeds; all the three, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, ancient as eternity, great as infinity, one in beatitude as in substance from which they derive their identical divinity.

If human society would aspire to perfection, it has no other model to study and to imitate. It will find there the first social constitution in the first community; equality of nature between the persons who compose it; order in their equality, since the Father is the principle of the Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; unity, the cause of plurality; thought, receiving from above its being and its light; love, terminating and crowning all the relations. If human society would aspire to perfection, it has no other model to study and to imitate. It will find there the first social constitution in the first community; equality of nature between the persons who compose it; order in their equality, since the Father is the principle of the Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; unity, the cause of plurality; thought, receiving from above its being and its light; love, terminating and crowning all the relations.

This concludes my series about Père Lacordaire’s conference on the inner life of the Holy Trinity. My next two posts will review why the works of mercy are an excellent form of active Trinitarian spirituality.

Posted by John O'Neill at 10:56 AM

Labels: The Trinity in Christian Life

Lacordaire Kindness & Humility

2009-11-01T21:15:00.005Z

Sunday 1^st November 2009 All Saints

It is the solemnity of ALL SAINTS.

The Beatitudes of St. Matthew end, “Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven”. (5: 1-12).

We distinguish between the Canonised Saints, the ones named, and the so called UNKNOWN saints.

There are so many UNKNOWN people who have themselves have countless other UNKNOWN persons.

Of the great UNKNOWN of souls we speak of is the language of the restricted view of men and women.

In God’s view there is NO UNKNOWN or ANONYMOUS person.

There are so many hidden saints we do not know. We think of the likes such as an hidden, unknown person, in the figure of Saint Therese of Liseaux. There was a great-turn of people for St. Therese in so many places in the country out for the pilgrimages for the visit of the relics.

She would have belonged to the countless hidden souls. It is only by an exception, she is called to tell the “Story of a Soul”. She wrote she would spend heaven doing good for others.

St. Bede refers to the 'patronage' of saints, in the same sense we understand as St. Therese and hidden souls ‘doing good for others’.

It is a powerful reminder that such is our goal also, no matter unknown, is to love, pray and serve souls in this life and in eternity. There is that lovely phrase of Lacordaire, the Dominican re-founder of the Dominicans after the French Revolution. (Present at this Mass, two Dominican priests, and the students from the University Chaplaincy).

Larcordaire speaks of “Kindness and humility are almost one and the same thing”.

We ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit for kindness and humility towards others.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

The Unity Between Humility and Kindness

The Christian must be humble; and humility does not consist in hiding our talents and virtues, but in the clear knowledge of all that is wanting in us, in not being elated by what we have, seeing that it is a free gift of God, and that even with all his gifts we are still infinitely little. It is a remarkable fact that great virtue necessarily begets humility, and if great talent has not always the same effect, still it softens down a great deal of the uncouthness which clings inseparably to the pride of mediocrity.

Real excellence and humility are consequently not incompatible one with the other; on the contrary, they are twin sisters. God, who is excellence itself, is without pride. He sees himself as he is, without however despising what is not himself; he is himself, naturally and simply, with an affection for all his creatures, however humble. Kindness and humility are almost one and the same thing.

The kind-hearted naturally feel drawn to give themselves up to others, to sacrifice themselves, to make themselves little, and that is humility. Pride is more hated than any other vice, not only because it wounds our self-love, but because it shows a want of that virtue of kindness without which it is impossible to win love. Be therefore kind-hearted, and you will infallibly become humble. Your eyes, your lips, the features of your forehead will all begin to look different, and you will find that you will be sought after quite as much as you were formerly shunned. But how become kind-hearted? Alas! first of all, by begging it earnestly and unceasingly of God, and then by striving always to seek others' pleasure and sacrifice our own to them. That is a long apprenticeship, but goodwill carries a man anywhere.

FATHER HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE

Father Lacordaire (+1861) was a great Dominican preacher who reefounded the Order of Preachers in France after the French Revolution.

(Many years ago, in a secondhand bookshop, for 50p. I bought an 1875 volume of Rev. Pere Lacordaire, “God, Conference delivered at Notre Dame in Paris" - a rare find).

Bartimaeus

2009-10-27T13:17:00.005Z

Bartimaeus gives us a great focus on the traditions in the accounts in the Gospels.
There is a rewarding study of Jesus' healings to see.
Our Vigils Reading gives a deepening into the "enlightening of eyes" by Clement of Alexandria.
Given the Gospel narrative, the contemplation by Clement creates the presence of prayer, "Receive Christ, receive power to see, receive your light".

Master, I want to see.

Bartimaeus: A blind beggar healed by Jesus outside Jericho, according to Mark (Mark 10: 46-52), though in Matt. 20: 29-34 the narrative is of two blind men healed. That the beggar followed Jesus 'on the way' (Mark 10: 52) indicates that he became a disciple when his eyes were opened. Discipleship is one of Mark's themes and according to Acts 9: 2 the early Christian community knew itself as 'the Way'. (Oxford Dict. of Bible).

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Christ Our Light II Gospel Themes

Gospel: Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, "Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me." And man y of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, "Son of David, have pity on me." Jesus stopped and said, "Call him

here." So they called the blind man. "Courage," they said "get up; he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke. "What do you want me to do for you?" "Rabbuni," the blind man said to him "Master, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has saved you." And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.

From the
Exhortation to the Greeks by Clement of Alexandria (Cap. 11: SC 2, 181-183)

Though related to the earlier Christian apologies, this work is concerned not with defending Christianity against calumnies, but with moral formation. We have been enlightened by Christ, the Word. If we obey his teaching he will give us a share in the divine nature. Quotations from classical authors are indicated, though no references are given.

[CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (c.150-215) was born at Athens of pagan parents. Nothing is known of his early life nor of the reasons for his conversion. He was the pupil and the assistant of Pantaenus, the director of the catechetical school of Alexandria, whom he succeeded about the year 200. In 202 Clement left Alexandria because of the persecution of Septimus Severus, and resided in Cappadocia with his pupil, Alexander, later bishop of Jerusalem. Clement may be considered the founder of speculative theology. He strove to protect and deepen faith by the use of Greek philosophy. Central in his teaching is his doctrine of the Logos, who as divine reason is the teacher of the world and its lawgiver. Clement's chief work is the trilogy, Exhortation to the Greeks, The Teacher, and Miscellaneous Studies].

The commandment of the Lord shines clearly, enlightening the eyes. Receive Christ, receive power to see, receive your light, "that you may plainly recognize both God and man." More delightful than gold and precious stones, more desirable than honey and the honeycomb is the Word that has enlightened us. How could he not be desirable, he who illumined minds buried in darkness, and endowed with clear vision "the light-bearing eyes" of the soul?

"Despite the other stars, without the sun the whole world would be plunged in darkness." So likewise we ourselves, had we not known the Word and been enlightened by him, should have been no better off than plump poultry fattened in the dark, simply reared for death. Let us open ourselves to the light, then, and so to God. Let us open ourselves to the light, and become disciples of the Lord. For he promised his Father: I will make known your name to my brothers and sisters, and praise you where they are assembled.

Sing his praises, then, Lord, and make known to me your Father, who is God. Your words will save me, your song instruct me. Hitherto I have gone astray in my search for God; but now that you light my path, Lord, and I find God through you, and receive the Father from you. I become co-heir with you, since you were not ashamed to own me as your brother.

Let us, then, shake off forgetfulness of truth, shake off the mist of ignorance and darkness that dims our eyes, and contemplate the true God, after first raising this song of praise to him: "All hail, O Light!" For upon us buried in darkness, imprisoned in the shadow of death, a heavenly light has shone, a light of a clarity surpassing the sun's, and of a sweetness exceeding any this earthly life can offer. That light is eternal life, and those who receive it live. Night, on the other hand, is afraid of the light, and melting away in terror gives place to the day of the Lord. Unfailing light has penetrated everywhere, and sunset has turned into dawn. This is the meaning of the new creation; for the Sun of Righteousness, pursuing his course through the universe, visits all alike, in imitation of his Father, who makes his sun rise upon all, and bedews everyone with his truth.

He it is who has changed sunset into dawn and death into life by his crucifixion; he it is who has snatched the human race from perdition and exalted it to the skies. Transplanting what was corruptible to make it incorruptible, transforming earth into heaven, he, God's gardener, points the way to prosperity, prompts his people to good works, "reminds them how to live" according to the truth, and bestows on us the truly great and divine heritage of the Father, which cannot be taken away from us. He deifies us by his heavenly teaching. instilling his laws into our minds, and writing them on our hearts. What are the laws he prescribes? That all, be they of high estate or low, shall know God. And I will be merciful to them, God says, and I will remember their sin no more.

Let us accept the laws of life, let us obey God's promptinhs. Let us learn to know him, so that he may be merciful to us. Although of it, let us pay God our debt of gratitude in willing speak, which we owe him for our lodging here below.

Raymond Sabbatical

2009-10-25T20:24:00.006Z

One of the world's busiest shipping centres. More clear in the origin photo.

Hong Kong return.

Fr. Raymond sends this word,

“Just a note to say that I have at last returned from the Sabbatical trip of a life-time 'down under”.

I would have been in touch regularly but for the fact that I discovered that the so called world wide web is not so easily accessible as its name would suggest!” (Raymond)

The Saturday BVM Missa de Beata was celebrated by Fr. Raymond to mark his home coming from the abbatial retirement. It does mean picking up the monastic threads of community life.

The final stage of his Sabbatical was at the monastery of Our Lady of Joy, Lantao Island, Hong Kong. He was there hile there the community celebrated the canonisation of Saint Rafael, Cistercian Monk, when visiting Trappistine Sisters joined in the event.

At the first Saturday of the BVM Missa de Beata he recalled his blessings in Hong Kong.

“Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed”.

The Liturgy of the monks at Lantao is in Chinese, but at Compline eack evening they sing the SALVE REGINA in Latin Gregorian. It made him at home with the Salve.

As he experienced the monks and sisters in Asia he felt the role of Mary, the Mother of the World.

From the southern point of his pilgrimage, the monastery of Kopua, NZ, he took photos of the Maori Madonna, named “The Southern Madonna - at Southern Star Abbey, Kopua”.

(See note on the artist;

“Julia B. Lynch 1896 – 1975 Julia Lynch (Sister Mary Lawrence of the Trinity RSM) trained at the Palmerston North Technical School and later at the Slade School of Art of University College London. She was a regular exhibitor in the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, also in Paris, Australia, Rome and in the London University Gallery”).

Hopefully, Raymond is to give to the community some account of his experience of the three countries and the Cistercian Abbeys; Tarrawarra Aus), Kopua(NZ) and Lantao(HK).

Pope on Bernard of Clairvaux

2009-10-22T21:10:00.004+01:00

----- Forwarded Message ----

From: Andy

To: Donald

Sent: Thu, October 22, 2009 1:29:32 AM

Subject: BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, LAST OF THE CHURCH FATHERS

Hi, Donald

Hope that all is going well with the "burning" of disks.

I received this today via the Vatican News Services and thought that you might be able to use it if you have not received it already.

Regards

Andy

Thank you, Andy.

It is not easy to keep pace with the Holy father.

It is doubly interesting to have this Catechesis on Saint Bernard by Pope Benedict in the public audience.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, LAST OF THE CHURCH FATHERS

Thu, October 22, 2009 1:29:32 AM

VATICAN CITY, 21 OCT 2009 (VIS) - In the catechesis he delivered during his general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father turned his attention to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), known as the last of the Church Fathers "because in the twelfth century he renewed and updated the great theology of the Fathers".

Born in Fontaines, France, Bernard entered the monastery of Citeaux at the age of twenty. In 1115 he was sent by St. Stephen Harding, third abbot of Citeaux, to found a new monastery at Clairvaux where Bernard himself became abbot. At Clairvaux the saint "insisted on the importance of a sober and restrained lifestyle, in food, in clothing and in the structures of the monastery, at the same time encouraging support and assistance for the poor", the Holy Father explained.

From Clairvaux, where the community grew steadily, Bernard corresponded regularly and often with people of all kinds, and wrote a large number of sermons and treatises. As of 1130 he also concerned himself with serious questions affecting the Holy See and the Church. With his writings he combated the heresy of the Cathars who, by spurning matter and the human body, also spurned the Creator. Likewise, he "defended the Jews, condemning the ever more widespread outbreaks of anti-Semitism".

The two central aspects of the saint's doctrine concern Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. He "did not introduce novelties to the academic discipline of theology but, with great decisiveness, likened the theologian to the contemplative and the mystic", in the belief that "true knowledge of God consists in a personal and profound experience of Jesus Christ and His love.

"This", the Pope added, "applies to all Christians. Faith is first and foremost an individual and intimate encounter with Jesus, it means experiencing His closeness, His friendship, His love". Thus Bernard was in no doubt that "through Mary we are led to Jesus", and he clearly demonstrated "the privileged place of the Virgin in the economy of salvation, thanks to her entirely unique participation in the sacrifice of her Son".

Even today St. Bernard's ideas "stimulate not only theologians but all believers. At times we think we can resolve the fundamental questions about God, mankind and the world using only the power of reason. St. Bernard however, solidly rooted in the Bible and the Fathers of the Church, reminds us that without a profound faith in God, nourished by prayer and contemplation, ... our reflections upon the divine mysteries risk becoming a vain intellectual exercise and lose their credibility".

Benedict XVI concluded: "Theology defers to the 'science of the saints' - to their intuition concerning the mysteries of the living God, to their wisdom (a gift of the Holy Spirit) - who become a point of reference for theological thought. ... In the end, the most authentic figure of theologian and of evangeliser remains that of St. John, who placed his head against the Master's heart".

20th Century Trappist Monk Canonized

2009-10-21T20:51:00.008+01:00

Abbot Mark, Nunraw, represented the community at the canonisations at St. Peter's Square, Sunday 11th October 2009. He only had a disposable camera for this shot.

Regarding a Biographical Article on Saint Rafael, I was delighted to hear from Brother Theophane, (Hong Kong). He, many years ago, kindly gave me material on this subject for our Website.

Now with the CANONIZATION of Saint Rafael Arnaiz Baron, it is timely to update on his biography.

I am very happy to avail of Br. Theophane’s offer.

He wrote to me.

Wed, October 21, 2009 2:45:10 AM

From: Our Lady of Joy abbey, Lantao, Hong Kong

Br. M. Theophane Young

20th Century Trappist Monk Canonize1.doc (27KB)

To; Donald,

Peace from Lantao!

. . .

I have attached an article I wrote for our local Diocesan newspaper re Rafael's canonization, in case you might want to replace the one by me on your website. Alternatively, you could just add a sentence indicating his canonization's fact/

date/place onto the present article.

. . .

Fraternally in His Love,

(brother*) Theophane

Thank you Br. Theophane.

Herewith is your splendid article, and see if some illustrations may be appropriate.

20^th Century Trappist Monk Canonized

Brother Rafael Arnaiz y Baron OCSO was canonized in Rome on October 11, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. This, just a little over 70 years since his death from diabetes in Spain at the age of 27 in 1938, is the first canonization of a Cistercian monk in many centuries and the first-ever of one of the monks of the 17^th century Trappist reform of the 900-year old monastic order of Cistercians.

Rafael was first brought to the attention of the Catholics of the world by Pope John Paul II when, at the International Youth Congress of 1988 in Santiago (St. James) de Compostela, Spain, he strongly recommended Rafael as a model for contemporary young people. Four years later the same Pope beatified the young architect-become-monk, who, through his often illustrated writings, was already quite well known among Spanish-speaking Catholics. Now his life and some of his writings are beginning to be translated into other languages such as French, Italian, English, Japanese, Indonesian and even Chinese, so Catholics all over the world can come to know him and his down-to-earth spirituality.

Born into a fairly well-off, devout Catholic family in 1911 in Burgos, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Castile in north-central Spain, Rafael was the oldest of four children. The others were two brothers, Fernando, who became a Carthusian monk, and Leopoldo, who married, and one sister, Mercedes, who became an Ursuline nun but died at the age of 29 in 1946. Theirs was a happy family, with the strong faith and genuine piety of the parents being passed on to the children: frequent Mass and Communion and the nightly family rosary were taken for granted. Rafael received his sense of good artistic taste and his love for nature from his engineer father, and his abilities in leadership and constancy amidst tribulation from his musician mother.

When he was nine, Rafael fell ill with a very serious pleurisy infection, so his parents took him to the Spanish capital of Madrid for treatment. There he responded well and recuperated quickly, to his family’s relief. The following August, 1921, his father, as a gesture of thanksgiving for his recovery, took Rafael on a pilgrimage to the famous shrine of the Virgin of the Pillar in Saragossa. While there, his father consecrated the 10-year old Rafael to Our Lady; later, his mother attested that it was from this time on that there grew in Rafael the especially ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary which would become one of the characteristics of his spirituality.

From his earliest years, Rafael’s personality was marked by affability, serenity, and playfulness. He had a lively imagination and was full of joy. He was pleasant to be with, compassionate towards those having troubles, and mixed well with all around him regardless of their social standing; so he had many friends. In a word, Rafael loved people, and it was this, plus his intense piety, which enabled him to exercise a good influence on many, even while a young student. Later on, he put these qualities to practical use as a member of the Catholic Action and St. Vincent De Paul Society movements.

Rafael was educated under the Jesuits, in Burgos and later in Oviedo. He was an intelligent and serious student, distinguishing himself in Mathematics and especially talented in art. With these two academic strengths, it was no surprise that he chose to study Architecture at University, and was readily accepted at Spain’s premier School of Architecture in Madrid in 1930.

Later that same year, on a visit to his Uncle in Avila, Rafael, at his Uncle’s suggestion, made his first visit to a Trappist monastery, the nearby San Isidro Abbey. For Rafael, it was ‘love at first sight!’ When he encountered the Trappist simplicity, austerity, and silence, his spirit soared and he became keenly aware of his thirst for God. The aesthetic beauty of the monastery, its liturgy, and its surroundings likewise touched his maturing artistic sensibilities. After speaking with the monks of his promptings to follow their way of life, he took their advice and went back to Madrid to finish his studies before taking such a step.

The following three and a half years were purposeful ones for Rafael. Prayer and penance became a regular part of his routine, adding to the joyful friendship of his companions and the diligent attention to his studies that already marked his days. Surely his resolve to belong to God as a monk was tested, both in innocent pursuits like partying and dancing and in more serious temptations against his virtue. He stayed on course. In 1933, he had to interrupt his studies to do six months of compulsory military service. It was not long after that that he wrote to the Father Abbot of San Isidro seeking admission to the monastery. He was accepted to enter as a ‘choir monk’ (which meant he would go on to be a priest-monk), and his father took him there to do so in January 1934.

The next 4 years were a veritable spiritual roller-coaster ride for Rafael. The early heights of the “sweet times of love” were all too soon rudely interrupted by the onset of the diabetes that abruptly brought him low and eventually affected every aspect of his life and led to his early death. After his initial entrance to the monastery, Rafael had to leave three times, twice because of illness and once when called up to fight in the Spanish civil war (he was rejected on medical grounds!). Each time he left, his family welcomed him back, later testifying that he was the same Rafael they knew and loved, congenial, flexible, and spending time with his music and art; but they also admitted that he was different: he spent a lot of time alone reading the Bible, and he spent “hours and hours”, as his younger brother Leopoldo put it, in Church doing his spiritual exercises and visiting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Each time, Rafael ended up returning to San Isidro, his “la Trapa” as he liked to call it. He asserted in his writings that he knew that he would be happy only there, that his cross, tailor-made for him by God, was there, and that his life of love could be carried out only there – that for him, a life devoted to God alone was the only way to stay on track.

His last two years in the monastery, Rafael had the status of an Oblate, the lowest position in the community: no vows, no community life, no priesthood – a real trial for a vivacious and intelligent young man. This was a real test of his humility, of his abandonment to God’s Will, and of his sincerity in his wish to love God alone – indeed he did make a private vow to love only Jesus during the last months of his life. He spent all of his time in the monastery infirmary, and that was how, with his Spiritual Director’s encouragement, he took to writing down his spiritual experiences. Now it is apparent that, as usual, God knew what He was doing! Rafael proved to be an excellent writer, and that plus his accompanying illustrations contributed to his quick fame and wide influence after his death in April 1938.

Some of Rafael’s ideas on simplicity speak especially to us nowadays, as when he says: “We want to seek greatness in complexity and think that only when things are difficult have they anything worthwhile to offer…. I have seen that to achieve anything in the spiritual life, I need to be free from complexity and contortion, from clever speculation and technicalities. I have seen that we reach God by just the opposite. True knowledge of him comes through simplicity of heart and integrity….

If anybody were to spell out to me just what I had to do to be pleasing to God, I think that with the help of God and his Blessed Mother, I would just do it!”

St. Rafael, be our guide in our efforts to love God, in Himself and in all around us.

M. Theophane Young OCSO, 2009

Via Media

2009-10-20T21:14:00.001+01:00

I learned more about Josiah from the monastic Vigil Reading this morning. This unusual illumination on this young man in holiness, by Newman, grown against the political grain.

In passing, the reference, “He kept the narrow middle way”, makes how Newman’s words surface other ways in the two volumes of ‘The Via Media’.

TWENTY-NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - TUESDAY

First Reading

2 Chronicles 35:20 - 36:12

Responsory Sir 49:1.3.2

The memory of Josiah is like blended incense prepared by the perfumer's craft; it is sweet as honey to every palate and like music at a banquet.+ He set his heart upon the Lord, and in a lawless age made godliness prevail.

V. He took the right course, reforming the nation, and uprooting iniquitous abominations.+ He set his heart ...

Second Reading

From a sermon by John Henry Newrnan

The archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am badly wounded. His servants, therefore ... brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchers of his fathers.

Thus the best king of Judah died like Ahab, the worst king of Israel; so little may we judge of God's love or displeasure by outward appearances.

God continued his promised mercies to his people through David's line till they were too corrupt to receive them; the last king of the favored family was forcibly and prematurely cut off, in order to make way for the display of God's vengeance in the captivity of the whole nation. He was taken out of the way; they were carried off to Babylon. As for Josiah, as it is elsewhere written of him, His remembrance ... is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine.

He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity. He directed his heart unto the Lord, and in the time of the ungodly he established the worship of God. All, except David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, were defective; for they forsook the law of the Most High; even the kings of Judah failed.

In conclusion, my brethren, I would have you observe in what Josiah's chief excellence lay. This is the character given him when his name is first mentioned; he did ... right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

He kept the narrow middle way. Now what is this strict virtue called? It is called faith. It is no matter whether we call it faith or conscientiousness, they are in substance one and the same: where there is faith, there is conscientiousness - where there is conscientiousness, there is faith; they may be distinguished from each other in words, but they are not divided in fact.

They belong to one, and but one, habit of mind - dutifulness; they show themselves in obedience, in the careful, anxious observance of God's will, however we learn it. Hence it is that Saint Paul tells us that the just shall live by faith under every dispensation of God's mercy.

And this is called faith because it implies a reliance on the mere word of the unseen God overpowering the temptations of sight. Whether it be that we read and accept his word in scripture (as Christians do), or his word in our conscience, the law written on the heart (as is the case with heathens); in either case, it is by following it, in spite of the seductions of the world around us, that we please God.

Rafael Arnaiz Baron

2009-10-20T21:03:00.002+01:00

COMMENT

. . . Donald,

What delight your Blog! I have been absolutely fascinated by the articles on the life and canonisation of Saint Rafael, juxtaposed so exquisitely with the Gospel story of the Rich Young Man to whom Jesus' heart went out... and also the homily of Saint Peter Damian and article on Saint Bernard.

It is such a joy that you share the delights of feasts and memorias with us, thank you!

With love in Our Lord,

William.

______________________________________

COMMENT:

To Donald,

Congratulations on the canonisation of Bro Rafael and what a GREAT Saint and model for our young men of today as well as being a model for all of us committed to following Jesus in the consecrated life.

I really loved your Blog and the input there.

God bless you and may Saint Rafael send you all some good vocations.

Yours,

Mary

Martyrs Patron: Canada Americas

2009-10-19T19:01:00.009+01:00

I9 October

SAINTS JOHN de BREBEUF and ISAAC JOGUES,

Priests and THEIR COMPANIONS, Martyrs

Optional Memoria

Between the years 1642 and 1649 these eight members of the Society of Jesus, who had gone to North America to preach the true faith to the pagans of that land, were killed by the Huron Indians and the lroquois tribes after they had' suffered terrible tortures. Isaac Jogues died on 18 October 1647 and John de Brebeuf on 16 March 1648.

UNIVERSALIS, the Online ‘The Divine Office’ did not include the Breviary Reading. (http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm)

From the spiritual diaries of St John de Brebeuf

Let me die only for you, since you have died for me

For two days without break I have felt a great desire for martyrdom and have been eager to endure all the torments which the martyrs suffered.

My God and my Saviour Jesus, what return can I make to you for all the benefits which you have conferred upon me?

I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings, and I will call upon your name. I make a vow in the presence of your eternal Father and of the Holy Spirit; in the presence of your holy Mother, and of her chaste spouse, Saint Joseph; before the angels, the apostles and martyrs, and my blessed fathers Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier,-yes, my Saviour Jesus, I make a vow to you never to fail, on my side, in the grace of martyrdom, if by your infinite mercy you offer it to me some day, to me, your unworthy servant.

I bind myself to it in such a way that during all the rest of my life I shall no longer be free, no longer have the right, to avoid opportunities of dying and of shedding my blood for you. (Unless in some emergency I should judge that for the time being it might be for your greater glory to act otherwise.)

And when I receive death's blow, I bind myself to accept it from your hand with all gladness, and with joy in my heart.

And so, my beloved Jesus, I offer to you from today, in the joy that this brings me, my blood, my body, and my life j so that I may die only for you, if you grant me this favour, since you have been so gracious as to die for me.

Enable me to live in such a way that finally you may grant me this favour, to die so happily.

Thus, my God and my Saviour, I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings, and I will call upon your name, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

How I grieve, my God, that you are not known, that this savage country is not yet wholly converted to faith in you, that sin is here not yet blotted out!

Indeed, my God, if all the torments which captives must undergo in this country, even the most cruel tortures, were inflicted on me, I offer myself most gladly to them, that I alone may suffer them.

http://www.catholicculture.org/

When Isaac Jogues returned to Paris after his first capture and torture, he said to his superior: "Yes, Father, I want whatever our Lord wants, even if it costs a thousand lives." He had written in his mission report: "These tortures are very great, but God is still greater, and immense."

In the Office of Readings we have an excerpt from the mission journal of St. John de Brébeuf, who had been a student of the great Jesuit spiritual writer, Louis Lallemant. He wrote:

For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered.... I vow to you, Jesus my Savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant.... On receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit.... My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it.

Rafael Arnaiz Baron

2009-10-18T21:28:00.006+01:00

Raised to the Dignity of the Altar

RAFAEL ARNAIZ Y BARON writing

2009-10-18T18:53:00.005+01:00

Publication: To Know How to Wait

Outside End Cover.

RAFAEL ARNAIZ Y BARON was born in Burgos on 9th April, 1911. After taking his degree in Oviedo he entered the School of Architecture in Madrid. On 15th January, 1934 he was admitted into the Trappist Monastery of San Isidro de Duefias, Venta de Baiios (Palencia), which owing to ill-health, he several times left and re-entered, dying therein the spring of 1938.

His writing presents something unique in piety and in mysticism, bringing a beneficial disquiet to every kind of soul, Those who read this selection of Brother Rafael's thoughts compiled by a Cistercian, cannot fail to doubt the truth of these words.

Today when the trend of religious thought among enquiring laymen is towards the Contemplative Orders, and is becoming increasingly influenced by the Cistercians, this book, with its emphasis on self-abnegation as an antidote to the prevalent world unrest, and "waiting on God" as necessary for the attainment of peace of soul, will bring a salutary feeling of divine discontent. Here is revealed, and with the utmost humility and simplicity, the intimate meditations of a young Spanish Trappist.

By those who know nothing of the Spanish soul, the todo o nada of its mystics, To Know How to Wait may not be understood fully. Cynical critics may dismiss as masochistic the author's insistence on suffering for the love of God, or may describe his writing as indicative of some other pathological condition. But by the reader who humbles himself as Brother Rafael did, this little book will be recognized for what it is, the work of an enlightened man whose one desire is ultimate union with Christ. His sanctity was such that the Cause for his Beatification is proceeding.

TO KNOW HOW TO WAIT

FRAY MA. RAFAEL ARNAIZ BARON

Translated by MAIRIN MITCHELL

SANDS & CO (PUBLISHERS) LTD LONDON

1964

TO KNOW HOW TO WAIT

Selected thoughts some unpublished, of Fray Ma.

Rafael Arnaiz Baron, Trappist Monk, chosen by a Cistercian Religious of the Abbey of San Isidro de Duefias, Venta de Bafios (Palencia).

The cover design, and also the drawings in the book are the original work of Brother Rafael.

CUM PERMISSU SUPERIORUM

San Isidro de Duefias

June 14, 1962.

NIHIL OBSTAT: Joannes M. T. Barton, S.T.D., L.S.S.

Censor deputatus.

IMPRIMATUR: Patrieius Carey, Vie. Gen. Westmonasterii, die 11 Maii 1964

The Nihil obstat and Imprimatur are a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be tree from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

© Copyright by EDITORIAL EL PERPETUO SOCORRO Covarrubias '9. MADRID.

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION PUBLISHED 1964

By SANDS & co (PUBLISHERS) LTD

15 KING ST., LONDON, W.C.2.

76 CAMBRIDGE ST., GLASGOW

MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRlTAIN

BY NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS LIMITED

GATESHEAD ON TYNE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

On various points concerning life in the Cistercian Order I have consulted the Rev. Fr. Adrian, O.C.R., Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, Coalville, Leicester, to whom my grateful acknowledgments are made.

For his kindness in reading the proofs of this book I am much indebted to Rvdo. P. Mafia Patricio Cuerin, O.C.S.O., Abadia Cisterciense de Viaceli, Cobreces, Prov. Santander. Translator.

CONTENTS

Page

Prologue IX

Note XVI

Translator's Note xvii

I.God: Only God Suffices

Il. Love of God

Ill. Holy Abandonment

IV. The Will of God

V. Longing for the Beloved

VI. Love of Jesus

VII. The Eucharistic Life

VIII. The Cross

IX. To Partake of the Cross

X. Mary

XI. Apostleship

XII. Virtues

XIII. Sanctity XIV. Peace

XV. The World

XVI. Freedom

XVII.Renunciation

XVIII. Sickness

XIX. Death

xx Temptation

XXI.Solitude

XXII. Silence

XXIII. Hope For Nothing From Men

XXIV. Mortification

XXV. Asceticism

XXVI. Difficulties

XXVII. Eternal Life

XXVIII. The Brevity of All Things

XXIX. Spain at War

XXX. Intentions

XXXI. La Trapa

XXXII. Matins

XXXIII. Vespers

XXXIV. Christmas

XXXV. New Year

XXXVI. Epiphany

XXXVII. Palm Sunday

XXXVIII. Holy ThurSday

XXXIX. Forgive Us, Lord

Index

PROLOGUE

Rafael Arnaiz Baron was born in Burgos, on Palm Sunday, April 9th, 1911. His parents were devoutly catholic, and his early spiritual life was nurtured by his mother, later by the Jesuit Fathers. He reached adolescence without loss of virtue, and in his expression reflected the purity of his life.

On starting to study for his degree, a dangerous illness obliged him to keep to his bed for a long time. Soon after his recovery his parents took him to Zaragoza to give thanks to the Virgin del Pilar. "The Virgin". His mother writes, "engraved herself on his innocent soul with singular predilection, for, if it were so before, now, from the time of that visit to the Pilar, he showed himself ardently devoted to Mary:'

Having taken his baccalaureate in I929, he commenced his studies at the School of Architecture in Madrid, but neither the rather free life in the capital nor the frequent journeys to distant parts of the Peninsula, nor the meetings with students little given to reticence, affected his moral virtue. Nor did his life in . . .

MISSIO - Mission Sunday

2009-10-18T18:35:00.004+01:00

Mass 29th Sunday Oct 18th 2009

Holy Gospel according to Mark 10: 42-45

"The Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve,"

Matthew

Mark

Matthew 20:24-28.

24 The ten others were angry with the two

25 brethren when they heard it; but Jesus called them to him, and said, You know that, among the Gentiles, those who bear rule lord it over them, and great men vaunt their

26 power over them; with you it must be otherwise; whoever would be a great man

27 among you, must be your servant, and whoever has a mind to be first among you,

28 must be your slave. So it is that the Son of Man did not come to have service done him; he came to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for the lives of many.

Mark 10:41-45

41 The ten others grew indignant with James

42 and John when they heard of it. But Jesus called them to him, and said to them, You know that, among the Gentiles, those who claim to bear rule lord it over them, and those who are great among them make the

43 most of the power they have. With you it must be otherwise; whoever has a mind to 44 be great among you, must be your servant, and whoever has a mind to be first among

45 you, must be your slave. So it is that the Son of Man did not come to have service done him; he came to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for the lives of many.

(R. Knox Harmony C. “Our Lord Outside of Galilee”).

MISSIO - Mission Sunday

Excerpt from Homily: Fr. Pat. McGuire SMA

National Director for the Propagation of the Faith

"The Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve".

Mission Sunday for me has become a time to "take stock" not just of what I do within Missio, but more importantly to re-examine my response to the Gospel as a priest and missionary. I confess that I am seldom happy with my reflection. There is always so very much more needing to be done. Thankfully the Good Lord sometimes gives us a glimpse of what He can achieve when we follow His lead.

One such blessed moment came in West Africa at Easter while visiting a leprosy settlement. The community leaders happily led me through their new school, rice mill, clinic and on to their pride and joy - the new church which had been funded mainly through help from Scotland. I had the honour of celebrating Holy Mass attended by the whole village. When I had almost completed the distribution of Holy Communion I was led to the backbenches of the Church where the most profoundly sick waited patiently for me.

One elderly lady held out her hand to receive the Lord. Wearing an old and dusty dress, clearly she had come straight from working on her farm. Her face was lined with the pain of her illness and of her efforts to feed herself and her grandchildren. Placing the precious host into her calloused hands where only stumps of fingers remained, I was moved to look into her face. As she held the Lord, I saw the lines on her face disappear. She radiated a smile that somehow reflected the purity of the bread, the very body of the Lord. She seemed to be transformed and, for the briefest moment, I felt what Jesus must have felt so often in his life and his words in today's Gospel took on a whole new reality for me - he came to serve.

Mission is His gift, we are but His instruments.

In the message to us for Mission Sunday the Holy Father says, "I wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelising all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church". Without a word one elderly lady reminded me of the value of that Mission. We feed the hungry, heal the sick, we uphold human dignity, but even more importantly we offer the supreme gift of Jesus himself, the servant and the "Throne of Grace".

. . .

Please remember the Mission of the Church in your daily prayer . . . In your name, Missio Scotland will continue to give glory to God through your service to His people,

Sincerely . . .

Rafael Arnaiz Baron Comment

2009-10-14T13:07:00.008+01:00

Posted by ocd sister at 3:54 AM

Labels: Br Rafael Arnaiz, Carthusian

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never heard of him, prior to today. He seemed to have been a very holy man. It seems he also had a great impact on many lives, both before and after his death. It goes to show how God can use a man who had such a short earthly life, to impact so many people. I pray that I could impact only one person in as positive a way, as St Rafael had. His life is an inspiration. Raphael

October 12, 2009 3:28 PM

ocd sister said...

Welcome, Raphael. Brother Rafael is extremely popular in Spain. I wish his complete works were available in English. They are wonderful, full of love for Our Lady, so simple and at the same time so rich!

Rafael loved holy mother St Teresa and St Therese. At times when I read him it's like reading any of our Carmelite Saints. So I claim him as "one of ours" that the Trappists were lucky to get. *grin* To any Cistercian reading this, I love Cistercian writings (not just St Bernard!).

In case you're interested, I'm aware of one biography, in English, with a small selection of excerpts from his writing, but I don't have it. I'm also aware that his complete works are available in German. I shall try to translate more from his diary and letters (Spanish critical edition, MEC collection, Editorial Monte Carmelo).

May your namesake, Br Rafael, intercede for you and grant you many graces and blessings!

October 12, 2009 6:09 PM

God Alone: A Spiritual Biography of Blessed Rafael Arnaiz Baron (Monastic Wisdom Series) by Gonzalo Maria Fernandez (English: try Amazon supply).

Blog Salesians

http://salesianity.blogspot.com/2008/11/trappist-monk-nears-canonization.html

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Trappist Monk canonized today: St. Rafael Arnaiz Baron

http://louangedesagloire.blogspot.com/2009/10/canonization-of-br-rafael-arnaiz-ocso.html

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Canonization of Br Rafael Arnaiz, ocso

Rafael Arnáiz Barón was born on April 9, 1911, in Burgos (Spain), where he was also baptized and received confirmation. He began his studies in the Jesuit Fathers' college, receiving the Eucharist for the first time in 1919.

Gifted with a precocious intelligence, since the beginnings of his infancy he gave clear indications of his inclination towards the things of God. In these years he received the first visit of what would be his companion: the illness that would force him to interrupt his studies.

Once recovered from it, his father, in thanksgiving for what he considered the special intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, took him to Zaragoza towards the end of the summer of 1922, where he consecrated him to the Virgin of the Pilar.

His family moved to Oviedo, and there Rafael continued his studies, enrolling himself in the Architecture School in Madrid.

With a brilliant intelligence, Rafael was gifted with profound qualities for friendship. As he grew in age and developed his personality, his spiritual experience of christian life also grew.

In his well disposed heart, God wanted to inspire the invitation to a special consecration in the monastic life. Having made contact with the cistercian monastery of St Isidro de Dueñas, he felt stronly attracted by what he saw was the place that matched his intimate desires. He entered there on January 15, 1934.

God wanted to mysteriously try him with a difficult illness - insulin resistant diabetes - which forced him to abandon the monastery three times, where he would then return with a generous and faithful disposition to what he felt was the call of God.

Sanctified in the joyful fidelity to the monastic life and the loving acceptance of God's plans, his life was consumed early in the morning of April 26, 1938, after having just turned 27 years old. He was buried in the monastery's cemetery.

His fame of sanctity soon spread beyond the monastic walls. With the fragance of his life, his numerous writings continue to be diffused with great acceptance and for the benefit of all who have come in contact with him.

On August 20, 1989, His Holiness John Paul II, on occasion of the World Youth Day, proposed him as a model for all youth in Santiago de Compostela [Spain], declaring him Blessed on September 27, 1992, for the joy of the holy Church and as a pledge of graces for the entire people of God.

-- Adapted from Boletín Informativo del Beato Rafael and translated by ocdsister

-o-

"Today was a happy day for me. In holy communion I have promised the Lord not to abandon him in these days of his sacred Passion. Always with me, deep inside my heart, very close to the sufferings of your Corss. Jesus, do not let me withdraw myself from you. Sweet Jesus, how I love you!

As I approached to receive communion, I remembered the apostle John, whom you let rest on your chest during the Last Supper. Do I have to envy him? His virtues, yes, but not your love...

My Jesus, I am not worthy, you know that, and yet you let me rest beside your divine heart as the beloved disciple. I promise to love you much, like no one in the community, more than all together, and not abandon you in your pains and most sacred Passion.

Virgin Mary, help me to be faithful to my good Jesus."

-- From the writings of Brother Rafael, translated by ocd sister

Pope Benedict XVI canonized Bl Rafael today at St Peter's Square in the Vatican. Saint Brother Rafael, pray for us!

Saint Rafael Arnaiz Baron

2009-10-14T06:36:00.005+01:00

Canonisation

To introduce the Mass, rather than remembering the names, it is an easier visual.

On the façade of St. Peter’s for the canonisations, hang the tapestries. In the centre is a Bishop, on either side are the two priests and to the flanks are the two non-clerics, the monk and the foundress of the Sisters of the Poor.

The Pope had it difficult to compress the five biographical notes. For Saint Rafael Arnaiz he succeeded to have five quotations. He concluded neatly:

”May he be given to reinvigorate the interior life of Christians today. May he be given so that his Brothers in the Trappists and the monastic centers can continue to be a beacon that reveals the intimate yearning for God which He placed in every human heart.”

Wednesdy 14th October

Community Mass

Celebration of the Eucharist

Saint Rafael Arnaiz Baron

(Lunes 12 de Octubre - 08'30 h.

Solemne Celebración Eucarística en honor de
San Rafael Arnáiz Barón.
Presidida por S.E.R. Mons. Antonio María Rouco Varela.
Basílica de San Pedro, Ciudad del Vaticano.)

Rafael Arnaiz Baron

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Raised to the Altars October 12, 2009 - GODZDOGZ ... a polish Bishop; Sister Jeanne Jugan, who helped found the Little Sisters of the Poor; Rafael Arnaiz Baron, who renounced his rich upbringing to dedicate himself to prayer and our brother Francisco Coll y Guitart OP, whom we posted on earlier this year. That post can be read here. The Congregation ... http://godzdogz.op.org/2009/10/raised-to-altars.html

VATICAN - Among the five new saints canonized by Benedict XVI is Father Damien: "His missionary ... October 12, 2009 - FIDES NEWS ENGLISH ... Fides) – On Sunday, October 11, the Holy Father Benedict XVI celebrated a Mass in Saint Peter's Square, where he canonized 5 new saints. In the homily, making reference to Jesus' dialogue with the rich young man (cf. Mk 10:17-30), the Pope focused on Jesus' words: "Come and follow me!" and ... http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=25158&lan=eng

Saint Jeanne Jugan, Intercede for Us! October 12, 2009 - THE CATHOLIC KEY BLOG ... Jugan – the humble, holy foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor has been declared a Saint! Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, in an exercise of his infallibility as Vicar of Christ on earth, has made this solemn and definitive declaration in St. Peter's Basilica this morning. Referring to ... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheCatholicKeyBlog/~3/GCykgR51ccU/saint-jeanne-jugan-intercede-for-us.html

Pope Canonizes Saint Damien October 11, 2009 - ANGELS, WONDERS, AND MIRACLES OF FAITH Photo REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Pope canonizes leper saint Damien, hailed by Obama - U.S. - Reuters Reuters reported that Pope Benedict canonized Saint Damien and four others on Sunday. The following story is by Stephen Brown : VATICAN CITY ( Reuters ) - Pope Benedict created ... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AngelsWondersAndMiraclesOfFaith/~3/B-jkajzZFl0/pope-canonizes-saint-damien.html

Sainted October 11, 2009 - SERVANT AND STEWARD ... throughout the world, together with Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, Francisco Coll y Guitart, Rafael Arnaiz Baron and Marie de la Croix (Jeanne Jugan). I made my way to the Basilica of St. Peter and arrived there about 7:00 a.m., knowing the "doors" where not scheduled to open until 8:00 a.m. As I ... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/OhEL/~3/cc-pJ2cDrNE/sainted.html

EUROPE/SPAIN - "Seek the Face of God": Pastoral Letter to the Youth on the occasion of the ... October 1, 2009 - FIDES NEWS ENGLISH ... to the youth "in age and in spirit," in light of the canonization of Trappist monk Maria Rafael Arnaiz Baron, which will take place on October 11 in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. The letter was signed by: Archbishop Francisco Hellín of Burgos, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of ... http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=25093&lan=eng

A September 8, 2009 - CATHOLIC BLOG DIRECTORY A A Casa de Sarto - Rafael Castela Santos Ab Opposito - Tom & Carrie Herring Abba's Little Girl - Patty Bonds, Arizona Abbey of Saint Walburga - Abbey of St. Walburga, Colorado Abbey Roads - Terry Nelson, Minnesota Abbey's Road - Abbey, Alabama Abbot Cuthbert Johnson - ... http://catholicblogs.blogspot.com/2005/08/a-casa-de-sarto-rafael-castela-santos.html

Trappists are a branch of Cistercians who are a branch of Benedictines... ME MONK. July 23, 2009 - ME MEANDER. ... and one is about to canonized as a model saint for youth. Brother María Rafael Arnaiz Baron: Holiness in Ordinary Daily Life From Zenit.org, July 22, 2009 A Cistercian monk proposed by Pope John Paul II as a model for youth is set to be canonized this October. ... http://monkallover.blogspot.com/2009/07/trappists-are-branch-of-cistercians-who.html

Litany of Humility by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val June 26, 2009 - DIVINE RIPPLES ... And the remedy is humility. Here's a prayer that I'll say more often. Litany of Humility Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius Xprayer O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus. From ... http://divine-ripples.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html#5625387541329040908

EUROPE/SPAIN - Spain renews Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus after 90 years, on June 21 June 2, 2009 - FIDES NEWS ENGLISH ... 8:30pm will be presided, respectively, by Bishop Joaquin Lopez Andujar of Getafe and Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy, Auxiliary Bishop of Getafe. On Saturday, June 20, there will be a Youth Prayer Vigil beginning at 12 midnight, going throughout the night, presided by Bishop Jose Ignacio Munilla of ... http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=24371&lan=eng

Good Advice and a Very Good Prayer April 23, 2009 - HAPPY CATHOLIC ... but had forgotten about it. Nothing is more grounding. I include it here. Litany of Humility Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus. From the ... http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2009/04/good-advice-and-very-good-prayer.html

Jeremiah

2009-10-13T13:18:00.004+01:00

Vigil Reading begins with Jeremiah in October
The monk Damasus Winzen is one of our monastic writers on Scripture.

Word in Season

TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Monday

Jeremiah 1: 1-19

Second Reading

From Pathways in Scripture by Damasus Winzen (1901-1971)

If we ask what the book of Jeremiah means to us today, we hear very often the answer that Jeremiah initiates a new period in Old Testament piety which frees the individual from the bonds of community life, that he is the first to record faithfully his innermost religious feelings, and that he is one of the great fighters who fought the battle for liberty of the spirit against tyranny of dead ceremonials. Looked at in this light Jeremiah would automatically become one of the "great liberals," and that would mean one of us. In reality he was wholly God's.

God took possession of him before he was born. During his life the word of God was his one and overwhelming passion.

Abraham received the promise;

Jacob, the blessing;

Moses, the staff.

David was anointed.

Isaiah had his lips cleansed with burning coal.

Ezekiel had to eat the scroll. As for

Jeremiah, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched his mouth saying: I am with you, I put my words into your mouth. This day I give you authority over the nations and kingdoms, to root out and pull down, to wreck and to ruin, to build and to plant.

It was the Emmanuel (God with us), the God of the Word made flesh, who took possession of Jeremiah. In no other prophet was the union between the prophet's heart and the word of God as intimate and as deep as in Jeremiah. The word was his strength and his cross. It made him, a youth of twenty years and by nature a timid man, a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall against the whole land. The word of the Lord, he exclaimed, is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot. As for me, he cried out, your word is my joy and my delight, for I bear your name, Lord, Lord of hosts!

He never mixed the word of God with purely human dreams and desires, as the false prophets did. The word of God in his mouth was like a hammer that smashes the rock into pieces. The words of the letter to the Hebrews must be applied to Jeremiah's preaching: For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind.

Responsory Ps 119:161-162; see Jn 6:63

Though princes persecute me without cause, I stand in awe of your word. + I delight in your word like one who finds a treasure.

V. Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life. + I delight ...

Saint Rafael

2009-10-12T11:07:00.009+01:00

Mass is being celebrated today, 12th October, in joy of the Canonisation of the Cistercian Monk,Brother Rafael Arnáiz Barón

of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance

DOCUMENT

Papal Homily at Canonization Mass

"Jesus Invites His Disciples to the Total Giving of Their Lives"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered today at the canonization Mass of the following blessed:

Bishop Zygmunt Szsczęsny Felińsk, founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary;

Dominican Father Francisco Coll y Guitart, founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary;

Father Jozef Damiaan de Veuster of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar;

Brother Rafael Arnáiz Barón of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance;

Sister Marie de la Croix (Jeanne) Jugan, founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Before the Blessing, the Holy Father addressed the faithful and led them in praying the Angelus Domini.

During the Sacred Rite, after the proclamation of the Gospel, the Holy Father gave the homily.

Dear brothers and sisters!

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" This is the question that opens the brief dialogue we heard in the Gospel, between a man, identified elsewhere as the rich young man, and Jesus (cf Mk 10:17-30). We do not have very many details about this nameless character: all the same from the little we do have we are able to perceive his sincere desire to attain eternal life by living an honest and virtuous existence on earth. In fact he knows the commandments and has obeyed them since childhood. And yet all of this, while important, is not sufficient -- says Jesus -- there is one thing missing, but it is an essential thing. Seeing then that he is willing, the Divine Master looks at him with love and proposes the qualitative leap, he calls him to the heroism of sanctity, he asks him to abandon everything and follow him: "Sell what you own and give the money to the poor...then come, follow me!" (V. 21).

"Then come, follow me!" This is the Christian vocation that flows from a proposal of love by the Lord, and that can be realized only thanks to our loving reply. Jesus invites his disciples to the total giving of their lives, without calculation or personal gain, with unfailing trust in God. The saints welcome this demanding invitation and set about following the crucified and risen Christ with humble docility. Their perfection, in the logic of a faith that is humanly incomprehensible at times, consists in no longer placing themselves at the center, but choosing to go against the flow and live according to the Gospel. This is what was done by the five saints who today, with great joy, are being put forward for veneration by the universal Church: Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, Francisco Coll y Guitart, Jozef Damiaan de Veuster, Rafael Arnáiz Barón, Marie de la Croix (Jeanne) Jugan. In them we can contemplate the realization of the words of the Apostle Peter: "Look, we have left everything and followed you" (V. 28) and the consoling reassurance of Jesus: "There is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times as much...and persecutions too, now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life" (VV. 29-30)

. . .

Brother Rafael Arnáiz Barón of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance

Turning to today’s Gospel, to the youthful figure who presents his desires to Jesus, wanting to be something more than a reliably obedient to the duties imposed by the law, he is in contrast with Brother Rafael, canonized today, who died at the age of twenty seven as an Oblate of the Trappists of Saint Isidore de Duenas.

He too was from a well-to-do family, as he said himself, with a "slightly dreamy spirit", whose dreams however, did not vanish in front of the attachment to material possessions and other goals that worldliness insists on at times.

He said yes to the proposal to follow Jesus, in an immediate and decisive way, without limits or conditions.

Thus he set out on his path, which from the moment in the monastery when he realized that he "did not know how to pray ", led him in just a few years to the summit of spiritual life, where he describes with great simplicity and naturalness in many writings.

Brother Rafael, still close to us, continues to offer, through his example and his works, a fascinating journey, especially for young persons who are not satisfied easily, but who aspire to the full truth, the most inexpressible joy, reached for the love of God.

"Life is love... This is the only reason to live," said the new Saint. And he insists: "From the love of God come all things."

May the Lord receive one of the last prayers by Saint Rafael Arnáiz, while he gave his entire life up to Him, pleading: "Take me and give Yourself to the world." May he be given to reinvigorate the interior life of Christians today.

May he be given so that his Brothers in the Trappists and the monastic centers can continue to be a beacon that reveals the intimate yearning for God which He placed in every human heart.

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Saint Raphael Pictures Gallery http://www.abadiasanisidro.es/rafael/index.html

Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)

BLESSED RAFAEL ARNÁIZ BARÓN

(1911-1938)

Saint. Raphaël Arnáiz Barón

Canonized on Sunday October 11, 2009.

Biographical Note from: ocso.org

Rafael Arnáiz, known in the monastery as Brother María Rafael, was born on 9 April 1911 in the city of Burgos, in north-central Spain. He was the first of four sons born to a well-to-do, deeply Christian and Catholic family. As a boy he went to several schools run by the Jesuit Fathers. By the time of his adolescence it became clear that Rafael had special human, intellectual, artistic and spiritual gifts. These qualities were remarkably well balanced in him, producing an open, positive, joyful attitude to the world of persons and things, characterized by exuberant good humour, respect and humility.

His deeper commitment to Christ began in 1930, just after he graduated from Secondary (High) School. As a graduation present, he was allowed to pass his summer vacation with his Uncle Leopoldo and Aunt María, the Duke and Duchess of Maqueda, at their residence near Avila. It marked the beginning of a fruitful spiritual friendship between the nephew and his Uncle and Aunt. At their encouragement, Rafael made his first contact with the Trappist monastery of San Isidoro de Dueñas.

It was September 1930. He was seduced by the silent beauty of the monastery and bewitched by the soaring melodies of the Salve Regina at Compline. Three years later, after finishing his architectural studies, he entered as a postulant, then became a novice, convinced that this was his true vocation. He brought nothing with him except "a heart full of joy and the love of God."

From that moment on, Rafael’s personal odyssey runs at high speed, for he will live only four more years. The precipitating factor is a violent case of saccharin diabetes which appears four months after his entering the monastery. The saddened, perplexed novice is forced to rest at home for a few months then return to the monastery, which he does three successive times from 1935 through 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. Rafael is called into the Nationalist Army but is declared unfit for active duty. On his final return to the monastery he is obliged to enter as an oblate, taking the last place and living on the margin of the community, but God’s Providence uses this to show Rafael’s intense vocational commitment and the generosity of his gift of self. He passed away in the monastery’s infirmary at the age of 27, on 26 April 1938.

Despite the short time frame of his monastic experience, Rafael embodies the Cistercian grace in a remarkably pure and intense way. It is a mystery of detachment. From beginning to end he let himself be led through a series of bewildering contradictions and perplexities – sickness, war, inability to pronounce his vows, abnormal community relations – until he totally renounces himself, his self-will and his good, but limited, human ideals. Humiliation is his constant companion until he reaches the true life of the vows, which lies on the other side of death. Rafael’s God, his Christ, is not the object of study but the Companion of a transcendental lived experience of absolute Love. His one desire was to live in order to love: love Jesus, love Mary, love the Cross, love his Trappist monastery.

This is the outstanding characteristic of his personal spirituality. He is "a crazy Trappist, crazed by the love of God:... God alone!"

Rafael was proclaimed as a model for the youth of today by Pope John Paul II and beatified by him in 1992.

God is good

2009-10-11T21:19:00.003+01:00

The Risen Young Man

"God is good". Mt. 19:17 (R. Knox translation)

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28^th Sunday (B) Homily, Fr. Aelred

Mark 10: 17-27

In today’s Gospel a man comes to Jesus and asks him what we must do to gain everlasting life. It is clearly a genuine and deeply felt question, because Jesus looks at him with love. Though it does not say so in the text, Jesus may be feeling sadness too, since he knows that the man is going to find what is asked of him extremely difficult.

Basically the man has kept all the rules that he has been taught from childhood outwardly, he has done what he feels has been asked of him. But Jesus knows that inwardly the man’s heart is set, not on God, but on money. And the man cannot give it up, not even for God. Jesus tells him that in order to follow him, it is necessary to make an incredibly difficult choice – either to see his money as his security, or to trust in God. Like in the parable of the fool and his barns, the man has not been able to see that everything he has is given to him as a gift from God. Instead of responding to God’s generosity by being generous himself, and sharing what he has, he holds on to what he has got. His treasure is a collection of material goods, not the true treasure of faith, love and wisdom.

Jesus gives us so many reminders of the dangers of wealth in his parables, because the call of money, status and security is so attractive and alluring that it can easily take our minds and hearts away from God and make us selfish and unloving, hoarding instead of generous.

Money in itself, is neither good not bad. It can be hoarded for selfish use, it can be spent excessively and showily for status reasons, or it can be shared with those who have less than we do. What we decide to do with what we have is one way of telling where our heart truly lies.

Archbishop Kaigarna of Jos, in Nigeria, recently said on a visit to the UK that there is a terrible poverty in Nigeria, but there is also great wealth. He said that this wealth is concentrated in the few who have benefited from Nigeria oil - the rich elite. But he went on: “There is also the wealth of those who live in poverty – the wealth that comes from living in solidarity with each other and acknowledging our dependence on God. People who are poor know what it means to depend on God and trust in one another”.

Whatever our material means, or lack of them, let us all pray that we may give God first place in our lives, not only during this Eucharist, but in all we say and do and are.

Raphael San Isidoro

2009-10-11T12:17:00.005+01:00

During Mass this morning we honoured the Cistercian SAINT, Raphael of San Isidoro. Abbot Mark represented Sancat Maria Abbey at the Canonisation in Rome.
We await the details to replace the older Notice of the Consistory.

Sunday 11 October 2009 - ROME

Canonization
of
Blessed Br. Raphaël

Br. Rápale Arnaiz Baron

Cistercian Monastery,

San Isidoro, Spain

On Saturday February 21, 2009, in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace at 11 a.m., the Holy Father presided at an ordinary public consistory for the causes of canonisation of ten Blesseds.

At the end of the ceremony, the Pope announced that the canonisation of Blesseds Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, Francesc Coll y Guitart, Jozef Damian de Veuster, Rafael Arnaiz Baron, and Mary of the Cross (Jeanne) Jugan will take place on Sunday 11 October.