Showing posts with label Monks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monks. Show all posts

Saturday 31 August 2013

COMMENT: Benedictine monk, Haymo of Halberstadt

COMMENT:
After the Night Office Reading, Br. S. asked about the Benedictine monk, Haymo.
The short answer is at hand, directly:


Haymo of Halberstadt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymo_of_Halberstadt
Haymo (or Haimo) (died 853) was a German Benedictine monk who served as bishop... Haymo entered the Order of St. Benedict at Fulda as a youth, where the celebrated ...affairs of the State, preached often and lived solely for the welfare of his diocese. ...Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes ...
You visited this page on 30/08/13.


Haymo of Halberstadt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Haymo (or Haimo) (died 853) was a German Benedictine monk who served as bishop of Halberstadt, and was a noted author.
Contents
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Biography[edit source | editbeta]

The exact date and place of his birth are unknown. Haymo entered the Order of St. Benedict at Fulda as a youth, where the celebrated Rabanus Maurus was one of his fellow-students. He went together with him to the Monastery of St. Martin at Tours to profit by the lessons of its great teacher, Alcuin.
After a brief sojourn at Tours, both friends came back to the Benedictine house at Fulda, and there they spent most of their life previous to their promotion to the Episcopal dignity. Haymo became chancellor to the monastery, as is proved by his records of its transactions, which are still extant. It is probable that owing to his great learning he was also entrusted with the teaching of theology in the same monastery, but there is no positive proof of this.
He had been living for only a short while in the Benedictine monastery at Hersfeld, perhaps as its abbot, when in the last weeks of 840 he was nominated to the Bishopric of Halberstadt. Hearing of Haymo's promotion, Rabanus Maurus, his old friend, gave him at great length—in a work entitled "De Universo" and divided into 22 books—advice that would help him in the discharge of the episcopal office.
In compliance with Rabanus's suggestions, Haymo stood aloof from the Court of King Louis the German, did not entangle himself in the affairs of the State, preached often and lived solely for the welfare of his diocese. The only public assembly which he attended was theCouncil of Mainz, held in 847 for the maintenance of the ecclesiastical rights and immunities. Haymo died on 26 March, 853.

Writings[edit source | editbeta]

There is no doubt that Haymo of Halberstadt was a prolific writer, although a number of works, particularly those of Haimo of Auxerre, have been wrongly ascribed to him. Most of his genuine works are commentaries on Holy Writ, the following of which have been printed: "In Psalmos explanatio"; "In Isaiam libri tres"; "In XII Prophetas"; "In Epistolas Pauli omnes" and "In Apocalypsim libri septem". As might be naturally expected from the exegetical methods of his day, Haymo is not an original commentator; he simply repeats or abridges the Scriptural explanations which he finds in patristic writings. As a pious monk, and a faithful observer of Rabanus's recommendations, he writes almost exclusively about the moral and mystical senses of the sacred text.
He is also the author of an Epitome of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, of a large number of sermons, and of a spiritual work, De amore coelestis patriae. An extant passage from his writings, relating to the Holy Eucharist, shows no substantial difference between his belief with regard to the Real Presence, and that of the other Catholic theologians.
His works are contained in volumes cxvi-cxviii of Migne, Patrologia Latina.
Some homilies once attributed to Haymo of Halberstadt are now to be attributed to Haymo of Auxerre.[1]

Tuesday 4 December 2012

COMMENT: ... his own particular melody

Gabrielle's being moved by Mass sung in five parts, leads the Lord to higher realms. In turn the monastic chant inspires the life of praise. 
Monastic community has its own regular choir observance of the regular Hours.
St Benedict Opus Dei Cathedral Norwich 
St. Benedict calls this the Opus Dei, (The Work of God).    
HE, (Christ, the Beloved, Imitation.), “in heaven you hear My praises sung in billions of parts,”
If the blessed ones each has his own particular MELODY.
The monk’s ‘own particular melody’ sings already from his monastery choir stall.!

The Opus Dei  (The Work of God) was nothing more nor less than the monk's daily prayer, vocal because Saint Benedict, as a Christian, assumed that his monks must serve God with their voices, their gestures, and their attitudes of prayer; made in common because, as we shall see, every important action of his monks was to he done in common. 
http://www.osb.org/gen/knowles/dkb02.html 
+ + + 
Weblog HE AND i, Gabrielle B.
                                        Background - Eliz Wang
1949
December 11 -  End of the novena to the Immaculate. I was deeply moved by the Mass sung in five parts.

          "What will you say in heaven when you hear My praises sung in billions of parts? Each of the blessed ones has his own particular melody. "




+ + + +
GREGORIAN CHANT AS A PARADIGM OF SACRED MUSIC
BY WILLIAM MAHRT
We could all agree that the liturgy should be beautiful, yet this is a question that rarely receives much attention, and this lack of attention has meant that some important aspects of the role of music have been forgotten. But what constitutes the beauty of the liturgy? What, even, do we mean by “beauty” in the context of the liturgy? The scholastics gave complementary definitions of beauty, “those things which when seen please,”1 and “splendor formae.”2 The first describes what happens when beauty is apprehended—delight; the second gets at what it is that delights us—showing forth in a clear and radiant way the very nature of the thing. In the liturgy, music has a fundamental role in showing forth its nature, a role which traditional liturgical documents support....

Sunday 4 September 2011

Post-Card of Glendalough


Post-Card from Noreen.
26.08.’11
Dear N and D,
Greetings from Glendalough.
. . .
The video presentation was on the history of monasticism in Ireland. 
... Thoughts were with your brothers and prayer for you and for vocations.
...
Yours 
Noreen

Saturday 13 August 2011

New Abbot at Pluscarden

To: "Pluscarden Abbey Pluscarden"
Date: Thursday, 11 August, 2011, 10:38
.
To Dom Anselm,
At Nunraw we all pray that this new challenge will be a fruitful one for your community and an enriching one for you.With kind regards and God’s blessing

Pluscarden elects new Abbot


Pluscarden elects new Abbot | Abbot Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, Fr Anselm Atkinson,Abbot of Plusgarden.

Fr Anselm Atkinson
 Following Abbot Hugh Gilbert’s nomination as Bishop of Aberdeen,   Fr Anselm Atkinson has been elected as the new Abbot of Pluscarden. He was born in Cardiff, in 1956 and brought up in Liverpool. He became a novice at the age of eighteen at Pluscarden. He is the only Pluscarden monk to have been sent to study at Rome. He attended the Biblicum while living at the Curia.

He then returned to Pluscarden where he taught scripture to novices and juniors, he was sent to  was sent to St Mary’s Monastery, at  Petersham, Massachusetts Abbey  to help Fr Cyril.  After Fr Cyril’s death he became Superior and has remained there ever since.  In 2003  Fr Anselm was elected Abbot Visitor of the English Province and followed this role throughout the world. He was elected Abbot of Pluscarden on 9 August.

                                               See also:  http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18349  

Thursday 9 December 2010

Of Gods and Men - Des Hommes Et Des Dieux

The film of the Seven Monks of Algeria has become a Media Event.
Access is open to the Web on a amazing exposure.
Day after the release 4th December the Goggle trawled about 11,400 results (0.27 seconds),
today about 42,500 results (0.25 seconds).
  




Search Music - Amazon com Sampler

Here’s an interesting Review on Of Gods and Men music.
Amazon.Com Review.
4.0 out of 5 stars beautiful religious chants, September 19, 2010
By Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France)
This review is from: Des Hommes Et Des Dieux (OST) (Audio CD)
This music accompanies a film of quite extraordinary sensibility. Though I am not at all religious, I greatly loved this music in the context of the film. The performances are clear and vivid, adding a great deal to the film. They are in French and Latin, ancient rhymes and chants, most often from the old testament, I believe. 

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Of Gods and Men - cast of the film.

1. L' Amour Selon Frère Luc
2. Seigneur, ouvre mes Lèvres
3. Puisqu'il Est Avec Nous
4. Psaume 142
5. Dieu, viens à mon aide
6. Nous Ne Savons Pas Ton Mystère
7. Notre Père
8. En Toi Seigneur nos Vies reposent
9. Psaume 4
10. Cantique de Siméon
11. Voici la Nuit
12. Salve Regina
13. Ô Père des Lumières
14. Lac des Cygnes, Op. 20 Scene Moderato
15. Testament Spirituel De Frère Christian [Extrait]



CAMBRIDGE

At the Cannes Film Festival the 2010 Ecumenical Jury awards its Prize to



It could be the ultimate Christmas film this year, with great drifts of snow but also a message of hope in a dangerous world. It's the latter that makes Of Gods and Men the perfect nip of seasonal philosophy. The film explores events leading up to the 1996 kidnap and massacre of seven French monks living in Algeria – an event that horrified France and stirred up a cauldron of controversy in a country that had just finished watching the banlieues burn in Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine.


Prior Christian de Cherge's
Testament
Brother Christian’s testament
Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to fall victim to the terrorism which seems to now want to engulf all the foreigners living here, I would like my community, my church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.
May they accept that the Unique Master of all life could not be a stranger to this brutal departure. May they be able to associate this death to so many other violent ones, consigned to the apathy of anonymity.
I've lived long enough to know that I am complicit in the evil that, alas, seems to prevail over the world and even of the one that would strike me blindly.
I could never desire such a death. In fact, I don’t see how I could ever rejoice in this people I love being indistinctly accused of my murder.
I know the contempt the people of this country may have indiscriminately been surrounded by. And I know which caricatures of Islam a certain Islamism encourages.
This country and Islam, for me, are something else. They are a body and a soul.
My death will of course quickly vindicate those who hastily called me naïve or idealistic, but they must know that I will finally be freed of my most burning curiosity and will be able, God willing, to immerse my gaze into the Father's in order to contemplate with him his children of Islam as he sees them.
In this THANK YOU, where from now on all is said about my life, I include you of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you as well, friend of the last minute, who knew not what you were doing.
Yes, for you as well I want this THANK YOU and this FAREWELL which you envisaged.
And may we meet again, happy thieves in paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both.
AMEN! INCH’ALLAH!
from Press-kit, SONY Classic Pictures

Nunraw Abbey  Memorial Grove of the Seven Monks of Atlas
Under snow 8th December 2010

Friday 3 December 2010

Cistercian Monks - Tibhirine ATLAS


~ Martyrs of Algeria ~
(†1994-96)


Film: Of Gods and Men

Film: Of Gods and Men | Xavier Beauvois, Of Gods and Men, Michael Lonsdale, Lambert Wilson

The monks of Tibhirine
 Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men opens in the UK today. If you only go to one more film this year - see this one. It is Catholic cinema at its best - beautifully filmed, with a haunting soundtrack, sensitive performances and a gripping human story that deals with faith, community, ecumenism, and the meaning of vocation.

Set in a monastery in the Atlas Mountains in Algeria, it is based on the true story of a group of Cistercian monks who got caught up in the Muslim fundamentalist uprising in the mid 1990s.  They are a contemplative order, gathering for Mass and singing the Office throughout the day, studying and working quietly in the kitchen and gardens. But they also have strong bonds of friendship in the Muslim community in which they live. One monk, Brother Luc, (Michael Lonsdale), runs a medical clinic for the villagers - he also has a useful stock of children's shoes; they sell their honey at the market and are invited to attend village celebrations. The Superior, Brother Christian, played by Lambert Wilson, studies the Koran and is friends with the local Mullah.

When a group of Croatian workers are murdered, the authorities urge the monastery to accept a military guard, but they refuse,  because the villagers don't have any protection. As more foreigners are killed the monks are urged to leave, and they deliberate slowly and carefully over this. One tells the villagers they are “birds on a branch, not sure whether to fly”, but the villagers tell them they are the branch itself, providing protection from the chaos beyond. Finally the monks unanimously decide to stay in solidarity with their Muslim friends.

The group of middle aged and elderly men are very endearing and totally believable. There is a very touching scene when one elderly monk falls asleep in bed with his glasses on, book in hand, and his brother monk gently removes them and covers him with a blanket.  Lambert Wilson gives a masterful performance as leader of the community; his inner struggles play in silence on his features.

The tension builds when a group of Muslim fighters break into the monastery just before Christmas Midnight Mass and Fr Christian calmly tells them that he can't help them because it is a sacred day. He quotes from the Koran and the fighters leave them to continue their celebration.

In another gut wrenching episode the monks continue to sing while a helicopter gunship swoops round and round over the rooftop.  One says that "staying here is as mad as becoming a monk in the first place."

Near the end, Brother Luc decides  to serve wine and play a record of Swan Lake during their evening meal. The camera gently moves around the table playing on the smiles and tears of the men's faces in a scene which is the moral and emotional heart of a remarkable film.

For Fr Peter Malone's more detailed review which we published in May, see also:  http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16222




Des Hommes et des Dieux - Of Gods and Men  | Des Hommes et des Dieux - Of Gods and Men
 One of the finest religious films, and one of the best Catholic films, in years.

No controversy here.  The film won the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes 2010.  It also won the Grand Prix du Jury from the festival itself.

The subject is the Trappist community of Mt Atlas, Algeria, in the 1990s.  Living their monastic life amongst the local people and ministering to them, especially with medical services, they were viewed more and more with suspicion in the country, especially because they were French expatriates, by government troops who were becoming more active against the increasing terrorist attacks, and by the terrorists themselves.  Seven of the monks were killed in the latter part of May, 1996.