Ascension of the Lord Solemnity

Universalis

Thursday 14 May 2015    (other days)

The Ascension of the Lord
Solemnity

Responsory

When Christ ascended to the heights he captured prisoners: he gave gifts to men, alleluia.

God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with trumpet blast. He gave gifts to men, alleluia.

---

Second Reading
From a sermon by Saint Augustine

No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

  Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.

  Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

  He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

  These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.

  Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.

Responsory

After his passion Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days and taught them about the kingdom of God, and while they looked on he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight, alleluia.

While he was in their company he told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised, and while they looked on he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight, alleluia.

---

Hymn	Te Deum

God, we praise you; Lord, we proclaim you!

You, the Father, the eternal –

all the earth venerates you.

All the angels, all the heavens, every power –

The cherubim, the seraphim –

unceasingly, they cry:

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts:

heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory!”

The glorious choir of Apostles –

The noble ranks of prophets –

The shining army of martyrs –

all praise you.

Throughout the world your holy Church proclaims you.

– Father of immeasurable majesty,

– True Son, only-begotten, worthy of worship,

– Holy Spirit, our Advocate.

You, Christ:

– You are the king of glory.

– You are the Father’s eternal Son.

– You, to free mankind, did not disdain a Virgin’s womb.

– You defeated the sharp spear of Death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in you.

– You sit at God’s right hand, in the glory of the Father.

– You will come, so we believe, as our Judge.

And so we ask of you: give help to your servants, whom you set free at the price of your precious blood.

Number them among your chosen ones in eternal glory.

The final part of the hymn may be omitted:

Bring your people to safety, Lord, and bless those who are your inheritance.

Rule them and lift them high for ever.

Day by day we bless you, Lord: we praise you for ever and for ever.

Of your goodness, Lord, keep us without sin for today.

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.

Let your pity, Lord, be upon us, as much as we trust in you.

In you, Lord, I trust: let me never be put to shame.

---

Let us pray.

Almighty God,

  fill us with a holy joy;

  teach us how to thank you with reverence and love

  on account of the ascension of Christ your Son.

You have raised us up with him:

  where he, the head, has preceded us in glory,

  there we, the body, are called in hope.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

  who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

  one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

---

Let us praise the Lord.

– Thanks be to God

Ascension-eve: The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord

Vespers 13 April 2015.

COMMENT:  

Ascension Pentecost office

 
The Ascension of the Lord (in Scotland).

This Reading from St. Leo below aptly reflects on "The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord".
                iBreviary.

+ + + 

Youtube  

1. 1. 

      4:00

      Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus--Beethoven Oratorio: Christ on the Mount of Olives--Hallelujah

      by danthonycal

      • 5 years ago
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      Oratorio, "Christ on the Mount of Olives" Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven wrote but one oratorio, "Christus am ...

SECOND READING

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
(Sermo 1 de Ascensione, 2-4: PL 54, 395-396)

The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord

Beloved, the days which passed between the Lord’s resurrection and his ascension were by no means uneventful; during them great sacramental mysteries were confirmed, great truths revealed. In those days the fear of death with all its horrors was taken away, and the immortality of both body and soul affirmed. It was then that the Lord breathed on all his apostles and filled them with the Holy Spirit; and after giving the keys of the kingdom to blessed Peter, whom he had chosen and set above all the others, he entrusted him with the care of his flock. 

During these days the Lord joined two of his disciples as their companion on the road, and by chiding them for their timidity and hesitant fears he swept away all the clouds of our uncertainty. Their lukewarm hearts were fired by the light of faith and began to burn within them as the Lord opened up the Scriptures. And as they shared their meal with him, their eyes were opened in the breaking of bread, opened far more happily to the sight of their own glorified humanity than were the eyes of our first parents to the shame of their sin.

Throughout the whole period between the resurrection and ascension, God’s providence was at work to instill this one lesson into the hearts of the disciples, to set this one truth before their eyes, that our Lord Jesus Christ, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died, should be recognized as truly risen from the dead. The blessed apostles together with all the others had been intimidated by the catastrophe of the cross, and their faith in the resurrection had been uncertain; but now they were so strengthened by the evident truth that when their Lord ascended into heaven, far from feeling any sadness, they were filled with great joy.

Indeed that blessed company had a great and inexpressible cause for joy when it saw man’s nature rising above the dignity of the whole heavenly creation, above the ranks of angels, above the exalted status of archangels. Nor would there be any limit to its upward course until humanity was admitted to a seat at the right hand of the eternal Father, to be enthroned at last in the glory of him to whose nature it was wedded in the person of the Son.

RESPONSORY
John 14:2, 3, 16, 18

I go now to prepare a place for you,
– but I shall return to take you with me,
so that where I am you may also be, alleluia.

I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Paraclete
to remain with you for ever.
– But I shall return to take you with me,
so that where I am you may also be, alleluia.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Lord,
as we celebrate your Son’s resurrection,
so may we rejoice with all the saints
when he returns in glory,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Gospel Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 10, 2015 Fr. Bill Grimm

COMMENT:  

U.K. General Election 7 May 2015; 

The village of Garvald. East Lothian, had the Polling Station.

The community of Sancta Maria Abbey, all who wished, made their votes. 

Frs. Leonard and Raymond at the exit Polling

Religious orders:

Monks from Sancta Maria Abbey in Nunraw cast their votes at a polling station in Garvald, East Lothian,

while Tyburn nuns vote at St John's Hyde Park,

Central London

The Sisters of Tyburn Convent, London

 The Scottish Mail

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071533/Now-talking-stops-Britain-goes-polls-unpredictable-election-generation-one-four-don-t-know-vote-for.html#ixzz3ZeYYyEi5 

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Sunday Gospel Reflection With Fr. Bill Grimm

International May 08, 2015 Today's continuation of our Easter celebration is a joyous proclamation of the great love God shows in calling us to be united with Christ. It is a day to look at our faults and failings and put them in perspective.

DGO Gospel:
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John15:9-17.

Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.  ..... Commentary of the day : 

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church 

Sermons on St. John, no. 65 

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love.”

The Lord Jesus affirms that he is giving his disciples a new commandment: that of mutual love… Did this commandment not already exist in the Old Law, since it is written: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18)? So why does the Lord call "new" a commandment that was so obviously old? Is it a new commandment because, in stripping us of the old man, he clothes us with the new one (Eph 4:24)? Certainly, the person who listens to this commandment, or rather, who obeys it, is not renewed by just any love but by the love that the Lord carefully distinguishes from purely natural love, when he says, “as I have loved you.” … Christ gave us the new commandment to love one another as he has loved us. This is the love that renews us, that makes us into new persons, heirs to the new covenant, singers of the “new song” (Ps 96:1).

Dearly beloved, this love renewed even the righteous ones of past times, the patriarchs and the prophets, just as it later renewed the holy apostles. It is the love that now renews the pagan nations. This love raises up and gathers together a new people from the entire human race scattered over the whole earth, the body of the new Spouse of the Son of God.

'mystic' Karl Rahner, 'Christ the vine' Cyril of Alexandria

Bearing Much Fruit

Christ the True Vine       

  http://www.catholiclane.com/bearing-much-fruit/christ-the-true-vine/    

COMMENT:

The Gospel of Sunday of 5^th Week of Easter is repeated on Wednesday of the week.

Gospel John 15:1-8, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ...."

For the Sunday Homily, we are indebted to Redemptorist Publication 'The Living Word, quoting Karl Rahner, "The Christian of the future will either be a 'mystic' ... or ... will cease to be anything at all."  

For the Tuesday Patristic Reading, John by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop

(Lib. 10, 2: PG 74, 331-334),
I am the vine, you are the branches

"Make your home in me, as I make mine in you."

Illustration

Karl Rahner SJ, one of the great theologians of the last century, wrote many books in which he tried to make sense of the Catholic faith for his contemporaries. That's what a theologian has to do. Towards the end of his life he wrote an influential essay on the future of the Christian faith. It began with this provocative statement: "The Christian of the future will either be a 'mystic' ... or ... will cease to be anything at all."

Did he mean that we must all have visions like St Teresa of Avila? Karl Rahner thought that the old Catholic culture that he had known as a boy was fast disappearing, eroded by an increasingly secular world. It meant that the average Christian could not depend on a Christian culture that everyone took for granted. So he thought that unless Christians had a deep and personal experience of God they would not be able to keep up the practice of their faith. That is all he meant by saying that each person needed to be a mystic. No matter how big the institutional Church seems to be, if its members do not have in them the life blood of a personal encounter with God, then it will wither away.

Gospel Teaching

Jesus took for granted that his Jewish faith needed laws and institutions like the Temple if it was going to transmit its message to the next generation. And so he knew that his Church must be built on the rock of Peter; then God would preserve it from all its enemies. But in today's Gospel, he tells his disciples at the Last Supper that if they are to survive they must remain close to him. He takes the image of the vineyard, which was used to represent Israel in the Old Testament, and in a sense identifies himself with it by saying: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser."

If the disciples are to survive then they must be branches of Jesus, the vine. And just as a vine is pruned to make it more fruitful, the disciples will also grow by being tested in their faith. Jesus tells them to remain close to him and have the living sap flowing in their branches, or else they will shrivel up. He insists that at the heart of their faith there is this close personal relationship with him: "Make your home in me, as I make mine in you." As they are united in Christ so they will be united through him to the Father. But this experience is not just for special members of the Church, like the apostles. The Spirit is given to everyone. All are called to have this "mystic" experience of being so close to Christ in their daily life that they produce good fruit.

Application

It is easy to get carried along by externals. The Church is essential to our faith. We cannot say, as some do, that we want Jesus but not the Church. In the Creed we affirm our belief in Jesus Christ and also in "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church". The institutional Church is a key part of our faith, but there is always the danger of just going through the motions and dying on the vine. The institution will shrivel unless its members have the sap of the living Christ flowing through them.

As Karl Rahner pointed out, it is much more difficult now to be carried along by other people's faith in a society that is both secular and often hostile to our beliefs. How can we produce the fruit that will show that Christ's Church is alive and well? We do not need to be mystics like some of the great saints, but to make sure our practice of the faith, whether it is going to Mass or saying our prayers, is firmly based on a close personal relationship with Jesus. We don't at first have to do anything but rather to be at peace in his presence, to allow him to dwell in us: Then we can share a deep communion with him as we receive his body and blood in the Eucharist. If we change the image from sap, we could say that his real presence in his blood gives us new life. If we do have this close relationship of the branch to the "true vine", then it will produce good fruits especially in the way we love God and one another.

Summary

1.                   We are all called to have a personal experience of God.

2.                   The institutional Church is necessary but its members must be branches of Christ, the vine; we will only be alive if we dwell in him and he in us.

3.                   Our faith is to be inspired by this personal close relationship with Christ so that the Church will produce good fruits.  +++++++++++  

iBreviary

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Type: Weekday - Time: Easter

Office of Readings

SECOND READING

From a commentary on the gospel of John by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop
(Lib. 10, 2: PG 74, 331-334)

I am the vine, you are the branches

The Lord calls himself the vine and those united to him branches in order to teach us how much we shall benefit from our union with him, and how important it is for us to remain in his love. By receiving the Holy Spirit, who is the bond of union between us and Christ our Savior, those who are joined to him, as branches are to a vine, share in his own nature.

On the part of those who come to the vine, their union with him depends upon a deliberate act of the will; on his part, the union is effected by grace. Because we had good will, we made the act of faith that brought us to Christ, and received from him the dignity of adoptive sonship that made us his own kinsmen, according to the words of Saint Paul: He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

The prophet Isaiah calls Christ the foundation, because it is upon him that we as living and spiritual stones are built into a holy priesthood to be a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. Upon no other foundation than Christ can this temple be built. Here Christ is teaching the same truth by calling himself the vine, since the vine is the parent of its branches, and provides their nourishment.

From Christ and in Christ, we have been reborn through the Spirit in order to bear the fruit of life; not the fruit of our old, sinful life but the fruit of a new life founded upon our faith in him and our love for him. Like branches growing from a vine, we now draw our life from Christ, and we cling to his holy commandment in order to preserve this life. Eager to safeguard the blessing of our noble birth, we are careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and who makes us aware of God’s presence in us.

Let the wisdom of John teach us how we live in Christ and Christ lives in us: The proof that we are living in him and he is living in us is that he has given us a share in his Spirit. Just as the trunk of the vine gives its own natural properties to each of its branches, so, by bestowing on them the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, gives Christians a certain kinship with himself and with God the Father because they have been united to him by faith and determination to do his will in all things. He helps them to grow in love and reverence for God, and teaches them to discern right from wrong and to act with integrity.

RESPONSORY
John 15:4, 16

Live in me as I live in you.
– Just as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself apart from the vine,
so you cannot bear fruit unless you live on in me, alleluia.

I chose you to go out and bear fruit,
a fruit that will last.
– Just as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself apart from the vine,
so you cannot bear fruit unless you live on in me, alleluia.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Father,
you restored your people to eternal life
by raising Christ your Son from death.
Make our faith strong and our hope sure.
May we never doubt that you will fulfill
the promises you have made.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Maximus of Turin. Christmas Weekday before Epiphany

Altar of the Holy Name of Jesus,
with the IHS monogram
at the top, Lublin, Poland.

Christmas Weekday before Epiphany

TUESDAY

Year I

    

Optional: Memorial: The Most Holy Name of Jesus

Patristic Reading, Night Office, 

First Reading

Colossians 3:5-16

          Responsory See Gal 3:27-28

All of us who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

+ We are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Y. There are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. + We are all . . . .

From a sermon by Saint Maximus of Turin
(Sermo 6, 1-3: CCL 23, 257-258)

The Christmas mystery

Brothers and sisters, our hearts still echo with the joy of the Lord's birth, and our continuing gladness creates in us a sense of heavenly festivity. For, though the joyous day itself has passed, the sanctification that joy brought is still with us. As the newborn Saviour grows with each day that passes since his birth, so our faith in him grows stronger. Time brings the Lord an increase in age, and us an increase in salvation. It is for his own sake that the Lord grows in age; it is for our sake, not his own that he grows in holiness - since the holiness of Christ is eternal and perfect. He is said to grow in holiness because he causes our faith to deepen. For though Christ after his birth is small in body, his sovereignty is nonetheless divine.

Still then does the joy of the Lord's feast thrill our being. It bids us cry out for very gladness and say what the angels said at Christ's birth: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.

Note carefully what the angels said. They did not say "peace to men," that is, to all men without restriction, but peace to men of good will, so that we might understand Christ's peace to depend not on the simple fact of being human but on man's will; not human wickedness but Christian goodness. Peace is not bestowed on all, but on those who have been tested and found true. It is not given to be scattered abroad, but proposed as a good to be chosen. The peace of Christ, then, belongs to those who believe Christ to be the author of peace. It belongs to those who do not experience within themselves the conflict of sin. It is found in those w hose wills are not defiled by the blood offered to idols.

It is fitting that only an incorrupt will should possess the Saviour whom an immaculate virgin bore. Indeed, just as Mary carried him in her womb while remaining stainless, so our souls must be pure if they are to retain him. Mary was a type of our souls. As Christ looked for virginity in his mother, so he looks for integrity in our affections. A soul that is virginal with regard to sin conceives and bears the Saviour when it preaches him; it keeps him present when it observes his commandments. Faith retains him once he has been conceived in us; the confession of faith sends him forth once he is born; concern for him keeps him ours once he is grown.

Let us therefore rejoice at the feast of him whose birth the singing angels proclaim, and the simple shepherds seek out, and the pious magi adore! The grace-filled angels honour Christ as God, the innocent shepherds seek him as Lamb, and the adoring magi worship him as Priest. The veneration offered by the magi plainly shows Christ to be a priest; indeed, their gifts manifest the whole mystery of Christ. For they offered, as best they could, what they knew would be beautiful in Christ's eyes: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold is for kingship, the myrrh for his resurrection, and the frankincense for his propitiatory sacrifice. Gold symbolizes power, myrrh incorruptibility. and frankincense priesthood.

Responsory

The true God, begotten of the Father, came down from heaven and entered the Virgin's womb, so that we could see him in visible form, clothed in the flesh and blood that came to us from our first parents. t And from that virgin womb he came forth, God and man, light and life, creator of the world.

V. The Lord came forth like a bridegroom emerging from his bridal chamber. t And from that ..

St. Maximus of Turin

Saint Maximus of Turin Virtually nothing is known about the life of St. Maximus, except that he was the bishop of Turin, in Northern Italy, and died sometime during the first two decades of the fifth century, AD, as the Roman armies were losing ground against the barbarian hordes.  Over 100 of Maximus' homilies survive.  The mostly short, moving sermons of this Early Church Father were so moving that they were copied and passed down through the Middle Ages as models for medieval homilists to follow.   Mystery of the Lord's Baptism | Saint Maximus of Turin | Epiphany ... www.crossroadsinitiative.com344 × 480Search by image This excerpt from a sermon by St. Maximus of Turin for the Feast of the Epiphany (Sermo 100, de sancta Epiphania 1, 3: CCL 23, 398-400) is used in the Roman ...

Life of the Soul, Bl. Columba Marmion. 30 DECEMBER - CHRISTMAS SEASON

Bl. Columba Marmion OSB

Night Office Saints, Bl.

Sixth Day of the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord.

Year I

First Reading

Colossians 1:15 - 2:3

Responsory Col 1:18.17

Christ is the head, and the Church is his body; he is the first bom from the dead, + so that in every way the primacy is his.

V. Before anything came into being, he existed: he holds all things in unity. +  So that in ...

Second Reading

From the writings of Blessed Calumba Marmion, O.S.B. (Christ the Life of the Soul 16-19).

Christ as head of the redeemed 

From the creation of the first man God inaugurated his plan for us: Adam was endowed with grace that made him a child of God, an endowment for both himself and his posterity. By his own fault, however, he lost the divine gift on his own account and equally for his descendants. Since his rebellion we have all been born in a state of sin, stripped of the grace that would have made us children of God; indeed, we are the very opposite: children of wrath, enemies of God and liable to his anger. Sin thwarted God's design.

Yet in rehabilitating us God proved himself even more won­derful than in creating us, as the Church suggests in a Christmas prayer: "Lord God, we praise you for creating our human nature, and still more for restoring it in Christ." What divine marvel is this for which the Church gives him praise? It is the mystery of the incarnation. Through the Word made flesh God intends to recreate all things. This plan is the mystery hidden in God's mind from the beginning of time, and now revealed to us through Saint Paul. Christ, the man-God, is to be our mediator; he it is who will reconcile us to God and win us grace once more. Since this was foreordained by God from all eternity, Saint Paul rightly speaks of it as an ever-present mystery. It is the last majestic feature of the divine decree of predestination as the Apostle sketches it for us. Let us listen to him with faith, for we are now at the very heart of God's work.

God's purpose is to establish Christ as head of all the redeemed, and of everything that claims any title in this world or the next; so that through him, with him, and in him we may all reach union with God, and thus effectively attain the holiness that he re­quires of us.

The fullness of divine life is in Jesus Christ, and this fullness is to overflow to us and to the entire human race. The divine sonship which belongs to Christ by nature, and makes him the unique Son of God in the absolute sense, is to be shared with us through grace. Thus Christ is by God's, decree the first born of a great family of brothers and sisters, who are children of God by grace as he is by nature.

Here and here alone is the fountainhead of our holiness. Just as the whole being of Christ Jesus is summed up in his divine sonship, so the whole being of a Christian is summed up in our participation in that sonship in and through Jesus Christ. Holiness for us has no other meaning. The more abundantly we share in God's life through Christ's communication to us of that grace which he possesses in fullness forever, the higher will be our holiness. Christ is not simply holy in himself, he is our holiness. All the sanctity God has predetermined for human beings is stored up in Christ's humanity and from that wellspring we must draw.

          Responsorv   Phi! 2:6-7; jn 1:14

Though his nature was divine, + Christ did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a servant.

V. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. + Christ did not.