Atlas Martyrs 2008

Memorial of Atlas Martyrs

21 May 2008

Every year, to commemorate the Anniversary of the Atlas Martyr, William, friend of the community, sends us a bouquet of Red Roses to be placed at the Altar. This year he has made a presentation of his illustration of the Nunraw Memorial Grove and his edition of Pope Benedict’s address on the Martyrs.

Extracts from an address by Pope Benedict XVI THE SIGN OF MARTYRDOM - in memory of witnesses of the faith in the 20th and 21st centuries. We ask ourselves why did these our martyr brothers and sisters not seek at all costs to save the irreplaceable benefit of life? Why did they continue to serve the Church despite threats and intimidation? The eloquent testimony resounds of those who, since the dawn of the Church, have offered their lives to Christ in martyrdom and “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb". This quote from the Book of Revelation explains the reasons for martyrdom. The coded language of St. John contains a precise reference to the white flame of love which made Christ spill His blood for us. By virtue of that blood we have been purified. Sustained by that flame the martyrs also spilt their blood and were purified in love. "No-one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends". All witnesses of the faith experience this 'greater love', conforming themselves to Christ and accepting the extreme sacrifice without placing limits on the gift of love and the service of faith. Many fell as they performed the evangelising mission of the Church: their blood mixed with that of native Christians to whom the faith had been communicated. Others were killed in hatred for the faith. No small numbers sacrificed themselves so as not to abandon the needy, the poor, the faithful entrusted to their care, not fearing threats and dangers. These, our brothers and sisters in the faith, are like a great fresco of Christian humanity, a fresco of Beatitudes, which they lived even unto the shedding of blood. It is true that violence, totalitarianism, persecution and mindless brutality appear to be stronger and to silence the voice of witnesses of faith, who may seem as the losers of history in human terms. But the risen Christ illuminates their witness and thus we understand the meaning of martyrdom. The blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians. In the defeat and humiliation of those who suffer because of the Gospel is a power which the world does not know. It is the power of love, unarmed and victorious. When Christians truly are leaven, light and salt of the earth, they too become, as Jesus did, objects of persecution and signs of contradiction. Fraternal coexistence, love, faith, and choices in favour of the smallest and the weakest sometimes provoke violent aversion. How useful it is, then, to look to the shining witness of those who have gone before under the sign of heroic faithfulness, even unto martyrdom. In the apostolic work, the concern for the weakest and the search for peace, do not fear the difficulties and suffering this missionary activity brings, they are part of the 'logic' of courageous witness of Christian love. [Vatican City 8 April 2008].

Martyrs of Atlas (Updated Jan 2008 from Wikipedia. Links not activated –underlined for reference)

Died May 21, 1996, Algeria

Martyred by Armed Islamic Group

The Roman Catholic Trappist Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.) commemorate the death in 1996 of their seven brother monks of Atlas, Algeria.[1] The monks died after refusing to abandon their decades long service to the local Muslim community during the reign of terror that besieged the common citizens of Algeria throughout the late 20th century:

During the night of March 27-28, 1996, seven monks of the Cistercian Monastery of Our Lady of Atlas, near the village of Tibhirine in Algeria, were abducted by... a radical faction of the GIA (Groupe Islamique Armée). On May 23, the GIA announced that the monks had been executed on May 21, 1996. Their remains were identified and their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Catholic Cathedral of Algiers on Sunday, June 2. They were buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine on June 4, 1996.

The surviving members of the Atlas community have been helped by volunteers from several other Trappist monasteries in different parts of the world. Their community is now established near Midelt in Morocco.

The seven Brothers taken as hostages and then assassinated were all of French nationality. It has been decided that any future process for their official beatification will be undertaken in union with the other Christian martyrs of Algeria.

The men executed were Dom Christian de Chergé, Brother Luc Dochier, Father Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Father Bruno Lemarchand, Father Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.

[edit] External links
Martyrs of Atlas
The Atlas Martyrs, by Dom Donald McGlynn [2]

Tautra MARIAKLOSTER

Trinity Sunday.

We open each Liturgy invoking the Trinity. We close it by calling upon those same Persons.
Beginning the Solemnity of Holy Trinity, the Sign of the Cross can be given appropriate bodily actions as well described by someone.

1. With the Sign of the Cross, we trace the Trinity on ourselves.

2. We bring God into our minds first.

3. Then we bring the Trinity down to our hearts.

4. And, with our hearts filled with compassion,
we move the Trinity across our bodies to our shoulders and arms to better bear the burdens of our family and friends. (David Walker)

At the Mass we remembered James Simpson who was with us during the week. While with us he was grieving for his son, a young man, just past 20 years of age, who had been murdered. During the night James died of a heart attack. He died of a broken heart, as his family expressed this sad happening. May he rest in peace.

Tautra
Abbot Raymond will be going to Norway for the Pastoral Meeting of the Region of the Isles, (Superiors), 19-25 May. The Meeting is being held at the monastery of Tautra Mariakloster, Tautra, 7633 Frosta, NORWAY, for the first time. The Region of the Isles includes the Trappist communities of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Norway.

St Pachomius - St Aelred of Rievaulx

Fr. Hugh will be celebrating his 80^th Birthday 27^th May 2008.
In his thumbnail comment for the Feast of St. Pachomius he made the association with the like mind of St. Aelred. He later gave me the following precise reference - on communal monastic life.

Aelred of Rievaulx on Community Life- 3rd Sermon on St. Benedict 9, 10, 11. (The Liturgical Sermons Cistercian Publications, 2001)

9. For each one of us has his unique gift from God, one this but another that. One person can make an offering of more work; another, more vigils; another, more fasting; another, more prayer; and another, more lectio or meditation. From all these offerings let one tabernacle be made, so that, as our legislator commands: No one shall say or presume that anything is his own but all things are common to all. This is to be understood, brothers, not only of our cowls and robes but far more of our strengths and spiritual gifts.

10. No one therefore should boast on his own about any grace given by God as if it were exclu­sively his own. No one should envy his brother because of some grace, as if it were exclusively his. Whatever he has, he should consider the property of all his brothers, and whatever his brother has, he should never doubt is also his. Or that Almighty God can immediately bring to perfection anyone he pleases and bestow all the virtues on anyone person. But in his caring way dealing with us he causes each person to need the other and to have in the other what one does not possess in oneself. Thus humility is preserved, charity increased and unity recognized. Therefore each belongs to all and all belong to each. Thus each has the benefit of the virtues while preserv­ing humility by the consciousness of individual weakness.

11. Let our lay brothers not complain that they do not sing psalms or keep vigils as much as the monks do. Nor let the monks complain that they do not work as much as the lay brothers do. For very truly I say that whatever anyone person does belongs to all and whatever all do belongs to everyone. For just as the members of a single body do not all have the same function yet, as the Apostle says: The many are one body in Christ, they are each members one of another. Therefore let the weak say: I am strong. Because, just as someone else possess the patience of infirmity in him, so he in someone else possess the strength of endurance.

PACHOMIUS

14th May. Fr. Anselm (Eamon McGrath) celebrated his 90th birthday. Abbot Raymond joined in the celebrations in Southend on Sea.
15th May. St. Pachomius. Fr. Hugh was on his favourite home-ground of communal monasticism as he spoke at the Community Mass. He could from experience of both the anchorite and of the communal style of the monastic vocation.

St.PACHOMIUS .
“To live in great simplicity,” said St. Pachomius, “and in wise ignorance, is exceedingly wise”.

– the basic facts: Father of Spiritual Communal Monastic Life Born ca. 292, Thebes, Egypt Died 9 May 348, Egypt Venerated in Roman Catholic ChurchEastern Orthodox ChurchesEastern Catholic ChurchesOriental Orthodox ChurchesLutheran Church Feast May 914 Pashons (Coptic Orthodox)Roman Catholic Benedictine celebrate his feast day on May 15. Attributes Hermit in a garb, Hermit crossing the Nile on the back of a crocodile
St. PACHOMIUS the Great of Upper Egypt, Abbot of Tabennisi
(Coptic: BAKHUM)IV Century

---

Born of pagan parents in the Upper Thebaid of Egypt, St. Pachomius (292-346) was a soldier before his baptism in 314. He became a hermit in 317. Called the Father of Cenobitic Monasticism, he wrote a rule that balances the communal life with the solitary life. The monks live in individual cells but work together for the common good of the community. Prayer is both corporate and private. He established his first monastery around 323 in Tabennisi. St. Pachomius died during a plague, and at the time of his death, he was the spiritual leader of about 3,000 monks.

St. Jerome translated the rule of St. Pachomius into Latin in 404, and only this translation survives. The rule of St. Pachomius influenced St. Benedict in preparing his own rule for monks. (Karen Rae Keck)
I his 3rd Sermon on St. Benedict, St. Aelred, himself the Abbot of a very large community at Rievaulx, echos the spirit of St. Pachomius. The monks together in their various occupations as tailors or cooks, as herders or woodwokers etc. -Brothers working together in unity.
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May Flower 2

May Flower 2

We are into Pentecost-tide and I would also like to wish you the Glories of May. But thereby hangs an ongoing discussion. When I wrote about, “Not casting a cloot until May is oot”, it was pointed out that it does not refer to the Calendar Month of May but to the MAY FLOWER.. When May Flower has blossomed we can put off our winter garments. Being curious to which flower is the May Flower I was happy to be

informed that it was the LILY OF THE VALLEY. Significantly it has not yet appeared.

But a friend of the first elderly lady has since

stated that the May Flower is the HAWTHORN Flower.

(Natural History Source names the Lily of the Valley and gives the Alternative as Hawthorn - so they were both right).

The Hawthorn is the MAY TREE. The first SPRIG to flower is presented to a loved one and it becomes part of MAY DAY celebrations.

I therefore scoured our Hawthorn hedgerows but there is NOT YET any sign of the flower in bloom. So we have keep our SHIRT on yet a while, and keep watch. This, 13 May is extremely late for the appearance of the Lily of the Valley or the flower of the Hawthorn.

Another name for the little white flowers is “MARY’s Tears”. When Mary wept at the Passion of her Son her tears became the May Flower.

I am told that there is a Website ‘the Garden of Mary’ giving traditions associating particular flowers with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today, 13^th May, being the commemoration day of Our Lady of Fatima, the Holm Oak figures as the tree of the Appartions.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Pentecost

Felt Presence – St. Columba’s, Viewpark, (Motherwell Diocese)

Never a dull moment. At the end of my morning stint at the Guesthouse, I went out the front door to head back to the abbey only to be confronted by the front of a large Coach looming over me. Apparently I had booked this SVDP (St. Vincent dePaul) party for Saturday 10th but had entered the month as that of JUNE, instead of today in May!!!!!!

We marshalled the resources in short order.

In the afternoon Abbot Raymond had the Mass for the Eve of Pentecost at the monastery. The Holy Spirit gives us His heart. Are the words of Jesus not extraordinary? Taking the words from our Antiphon for the Song of Zachary, “Received the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them”, he wove a meditation around that special role of the Holy Spirit as the heart of the Trinity. If it is appropriate to speak of the Father as creator, of the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Spirit is the Reconciler, the bond uniting the Three. It is the model of reconciliation, communion, in our own lives.

The Abbot was able to thank the people from St. Columba’s for their generous support for the monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, Nigeria. He will be returning there in the New Year for the election of the Suprior of the young community.

So, in spite of my initial bungling of the date of the event the visitors made a happy day of it, crowned by Charles having a royal setting prepared for the evening refreshments.

PENTECOST. 2008. Chapter Sermon. Fr. Hugh

Excerpt . . . . .

St. Aelred refers to St. John the Evangelist as 'He who knew the secrets' He wrote what is traditionally called 'The Spiritual Gospel' and it is here that we find Our Lord's thought most intimately described.

- - - - - - -

At Christmas God came among us , at Pentecost He is God come within us. Our Lord said it is good for you that I go away because if I do not go away the Holy Spirit will not come to you. Christ withdraws in his human nature only to become present in a more wonderful way in the Holy Spirit. In his sacred humanity Christ could only be present in one place at a time, in the Holy Spirit he is the Soul of the Mystical Body, making the whole thing work.

Previously the Holy Spirit was seen at work at special times. We read how the old man Simeon was full of the Holy Spirit at the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, above all we see his activity in the Annunciation to our Blessed Lady.

- - - - - - - - -

How can the fruits of the Holy Spirit be most fruitfully received? 'Upon whom shall the Holy Spirit rest' said St. Bernard, 'except upon the man of humility and peace'

These are ambitious virtues because they are the conditions in which the Holy Spirit can act.

A 12th.Century monk of Dryburgh wrote that the vitality of monks depends on their peacefulness. Surely these are qualities which we can cherish in ourselves and promote in the environment in which we live. Archbishop Conti in a remarkable sermon for Maundy Thursday in Glasgow Cathedral said that important qualities in a priest are gentleness and respect.

The Russian Saint Seraphim of Sarov said: 'Be a man of peace and thousands will find salvation near you’. And elsewhere, ‘When a man lives in peace God reveals his mysteries to him’.

The May Flower

One old saying is “April Showers Bring May Flowers”.

Another is,”Ne’er cast a cloot till the month of May is oot. (Scottish saying).

The Scots would not be saying not to cast any clothing until May is past if experience shows them having to put their winter garments back on again, as with the chilly Scots mist this morning 11th May.

In fact they would not make this mistake if they remembered the accurate canny Scot’s saying that did not refer to the Calendar month but the seasonal flower, the MAY FLOWER.

When the MAY FLOWER appears then it is time for lighter clothing.

The question remains, What flower is the May flower?

ANSWER.

After the Pentecost Mass this morning, an elderly lady had the answer to the above question. She recalled that when she was young her husband used to the first Lily of the Valley he found. The May Flower has been familiar in her family tradition as the Lily of the Valley.

See WEB: flowers.org.uk/flowers/facts/k-r/lily-of-the-valley.htm
Lily of the Valley
Name: Botanically known as Convallaria.
Description: Little white bells arranged up a short delicate stem.
Origin: First cultivated in 1420.
Colour: White.
Availability: Mainly April and May.
Care Tips: Must not be left out of water too long. Keep cool and shaded.
Facts: Signifies a "return to happiness". Lily of the valley is much used in bridal arrangements for their sweet perfume. Traditionally associated with May 1st, especially in France where the "muguet" is handed out at special events.

See illustration.

Not surprisingly, as we put back warmer clothes, the Lily of the Valley
has not yet appeared at Nunraw.

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Following helpful COMMENT in previous Post I have learned more about the PELICAN & GAZELLE in Christian Symbolism & Culture,

PELICAN

In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. As a result, the pelican became a symbol of the Passion of Jesus and of the Eucharist. It also became a symbol in bestiaries for self-sacrifice, and was used in heraldry ("a pelican in her piety" or "a pelican vulning (wounding) herself"). (The example, of the emblems of both Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Corpus Christi College, Oxford are pelicans, showing its use as a medieval Christian symbol ('Corpus Christi' means 'body of Christ'). (See Wikipedia).

GAZELLE

Aberdeen Bestiary, Folio 14r Translation (WEB abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/translat/14r.hti), explains the Christian symbolism of the Gazelle.

The Greeks called these animals “dorcas, gazelle, because they have very sharp sight. They live in high mountains and can tell if men approaching a long way off are hunters or travelers. In the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ loves high mountains, that is, the prophets and Apostles, as it says in the Song of Songs: 'Behold, my beloved cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills (see Song of Solomon, 2:8). As a goat grazes in the valleys, our Lord grazes on the church; the good works of Christian people are the food of him who said: 'For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.' (Matthew, 25:35) By the valleys of the mountains are understood the churches spread through different regions, as it says in the Song of Songs: 'My beloved is like a roe or young hart.' (Song of Solomon, 2:9) The fact that the goat has very sharp eyesight, sees everything and recognises things from a long way off, signifies our Lord, who is the lord of all knowing and God. And elsewhere it is written: 'Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly'.

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Pelican & Gazelle

Thursday, May 08, 2008 - Divine Mercy Hour

Nunraw Guest House

The visitors are enjoying the first real heat of the Spring. The Word for the Morning Mass for the Guests was on the shining new day of the first heat-wave of this Spring. The bright sunshine has highlighted the winter’s crop of pot holes in the avenue and the gaps in the stone dykes. The volunteers have been setting about the mending and fixing. We think of the mending and fixing in our own inner life. As we approach PENTECOST, the best mender and fixer we have is the Holy Spirit.

The same sun was illuminating the Guest House Chapel for the Divine Mercy Hour of Adoration which is observed on Thursdays at 3 o’clock. I am not sure if it was a great distraction but my eyes looked up at the Historic Ceiling (c.1610). The painting is full of scrolling and windings. For the first time the PELICAN – the great symbol of the Eucharist’ seemed to jump down at me. Afterwards I took the attached photograph. I am not sure how to interpret the two winged figures with human faces and four legged bodies.

On the next panel, since I began taking a closer look at the adjoining panels, I was thrilled to discover the beautiful figure of the GAZELLE which I only ever saw in the flesh on the hills above the Dead Sea. In this painting the Gazelle has a band around its belly extending into the form of a large bow. Someone is surely going to tell me what it all signifies.

Monastic Vocation

Vocation - Monasticism

At our community pre-Compline Reading we are listening to the book of Abbot Hugh Gilbert OSB, Pluscarden Abbey. Unfolding the Mystery. Gracewing 2007
His Quote on page 26 reminds us of an enlightening monastic document.
John Paul II Orientale Lumen.
“The Monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human co-existence; it is where the human being seeks God without limitation or impediment, becoming a reference point for all people, bearing them in his heart and helping them to seek God”(9). --------------

The whole document is rich in the monastic tradition and makes great Lection Divina. The following excerpts touch on direct references to monks and monasticism.

Monasticism as a model of baptismal life

9. I would now like to look at the vast panorama of Eastern Christianity from a specific vantage point which affords a view of many of its features: <monasticism.>

In the East monasticism has retained great unity. It did not experience the development of different kinds of apostolic life as in the West. The various expressions of monastic life, from the strictly coenobitic, as conceived by Pachomius or Basil, to the rigorously eremitic, as with Anthony or Macanus of Egypt, correspond more to different stages of the spiritual journey than to the choice between different states of life. In any event, whatever form they take, they are all based on monasticism.

Moreover, in the East, monasticism was not seen merely as a separate condition, proper to a precise category of Christians, but rather as a reference point for all the baptized, according to the gifts offered to each by the Lord; it was presented as a symbolic synthesis of Christianity.

When God's call is total, as it is in the monastic life, then the person can reach the highest point that sensitivity, culture and spirituality are able to express. This is even more true for the Eastern Churches, for which monasticism was an essential experience and still today is seen to flourish in them, once persecution is over and hearts can be freely raised to heaven. The monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human coexistence; it is where the human being seeks God without limitation or impediment, becoming a reference point for all people, bearing them in his heart and helping them to seek God.

I would also like to mention the splendid witness of nuns in the Christian East. This witness has offered an example of giving full value in the Church to what is specifically feminine, even breaking through the mentality of the time. During recent persecutions, especially in Eastern European countries, when many male monasteries were forcibly closed, female monasticism kept the torch of the monastic life burning. The nun's charism, with its own specific characteristics, is a visible sign of that motherhood of God to which Sacred Scripture often refers.

Therefore I will look to monasticism in order to identify those values which I feel are very important today for expressing the contribution of the Christian East to the journey of Christ's Church towards the Kingdom. While these aspects are at times neither exclusive to monasticism nor to the Eastern heritage they have frequently acquired a particular connotation in themselves. Besides, we are not seeking to make the most of exclusivity, but of the mutual enrichment in what the one Spirit has inspired in the one Church of Christ.

Monasticism has always been the very soul of the Eastern Churches: the first Christian monks were born in the East and the monastic life was an integral part of the Eastern passed on to the West by the great Fathers of the undivided Church.[26]

The strong common traits uniting the monastic experience of the East and the West make it a wonderful bridge of fellowship, where unity as it is lived shines even more brightly than may appear in the dialogue between the Churches.

Between Word and Eucharist

10. Monasticism shows in a special way that life is suspended between two poles: the Word of God and the Eucharist. This means that even in its eremitical forms, it is always a personal response to an individual call and, at the same time, an ecclesial and community event.

A father in the Spirit

13. A monk's way is not generally marked by personal effort alone. He turns to a spiritual father to whom he abandons himself with filial trust, in the certainty that God's tender and demanding fatherhood is manifested in him. This figure gives Eastern monasticism an extraordinary flexibility: through the spiritual father's intervention the way of each monk is in fact strongly personalized in the times, rhythms and ways of seeking God. Precisely because the spiritual father is the harmonizing link, monasticism is permitted the greatest variety of coenobitic and eremitical expressions. Monasticism in the East has thus been able to fulfil the expectations of each Church in the various periods of its history.[31]

In this quest, the East in particular teaches that there are brothers and sisters to whom the Spirit has granted the gift of spiritual guidance. They are precious points of reference, for they see things with the loving gaze with which God looks at us. It is not a question of renouncing one's own freedom, in order to be looked after by others. It is benefiting from the knowledge of the heart, which is a true charism, in order to be helped, gently and firmly, to find the way of truth. Our world desperately needs such spiritual guides. It has frequently rejected them, for they seemed to lack credibility or their example appeared out of date and scarcely attractive to current sensitivities.

Whatever path the Spirit has in store for him, the monk is always essentially the man of communion. Since antiquity this name has also indicated the monastic style of coenobitic life. Monasticism shows us how there is no true vocation that is not born of the Church and for the Church. This is attested by the experience of so many monks who, within their cells pray with an extraordinary passion, not only for the human person but for every creature, in a ceaseless cry that all may be converted to the saving stream of Christ's love. This path of inner liberation in openness to the Other makes the monk a man of charity. In the school of Paul the Apostle, who showed that love is the fulfilling of the law (cf. Rom 13:10), Eastern monastic communion has always been careful to guarantee the superiority of love over every law.

This communion is revealed first and foremost in service to one's brothers in monastic life, but also to the Church community, in forms which vary in time and place, ranging from social assistance to itinerant preaching. The Eastern Churches have lived this endeavour with great generosity, starting with evangelization, the highest service that the Christian can offer his brother, followed by many other forms of spiritual and material service. Indeed it can be said that monasticism in antiquity—and at various times in subsequent ages too—has been the privileged means for the evangelization of peoples.

27. With regard to monasticism, in consideration of its importance in Eastern Christianity, we would like it to flourish once more in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and that support be given to all those who feel called to work for its revitalization.[66] In fact, in the East an intrinsic link exists between liturgical prayer, spiritual tradition and monastic life. For this reason precisely, a well-trained and motivated renewal of monastic life could mean true ecclesial fruitfulness for them as well. Nor should it be thought that this would diminish the effectiveness of the pastoral minis try which in fact will be strengthened by such a vigorous spirituality, and thus will find once more its ideal place. This hope also concerns the territories of the Eastern diaspora, where the presence of Eastern monasteries would give greater stability to the Eastern Churches in those countries, and would make a valuable contribution to the religious life of Western Christians.

27. With regard to monasticism, in consideration of its importance in Eastern Christianity, we would like it to flourish once more in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and that support be given to all those who feel called to work for its revitalization.[66] In fact, in the East an intrinsic link exists between liturgical prayer, spiritual tradition and monastic life. For this reason precisely, a well-trained and motivated renewal of monastic life could mean true ecclesial fruitfulness for them as well. Nor should it be thought that this would diminish the effectiveness of the pastoral minis try which in fact will be strengthened by such a vigorous spirituality, and thus will find once more its ideal place. This hope also concerns the territories of the Eastern diaspora, where the presence of Eastern monasteries would give greater stability to the Eastern Churches in those countries, and would make a valuable contribution to the religious life of Western Christians.

For the complete text see
WEB vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters
See also:
'Orientale Lumen' Its Relevance to Liturgy and Monastic Theology. A Joint Symposium at Belmont Abbey. ‘Orientale Lumen’ ... WEB.benedictines.org.uk/theology/2005/index.htm –

The Land Called Holy ASCENSION

Questions on the ASCENSION raise the whole sense of the fact, the place the time.
Answers are more difficult to articulate clearly.
That is what Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap., Preacher to the Papal Household, provides so beautifully in his Homily for the Ascension.
I will try inserting a LINK - a further step in using the potential of the Blog facility.
Below is a Phot0 and Biographical Note from the Cantalamessa Website.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa is a Franciscan Capuchin Catholic Priest. Born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, 22 July 1934, ordained priest in 1958. Divinity Doctor and Doctor in classical literature. Former Ordinary Professor of History of Ancient Christianity and Director of the Department of religious sciences at the Catholic University of Milan. Member of the International Theological Commission (1975-1981).

In 1979 he resigned his teaching position to become a full time preacher of the Gospel. In 1980 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II Preacher to the Papal Household in which capacity he still serves, preaching a weekly sermon in Advent and Lent in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, bishops an prelates of the Roman Curia and the general superiors of religious orders. He is frequently invited to speak at international and ecumenical conferences and rallies. He is has been member of Catholic delegation for the Dialogue with the Pentecostal Churches for the last ten years. He runs a weekly program on the first channel of the Italian state television (RAI) on the Gospel of the following Sunday.

WEB.zenit.org/article-22466?l=english
Excerpt from Fr. Cantalamessa:

It is important therefore to try to clarify what we Christians mean when we say "Our Father who art in heaven," or when we say that someone "went to heaven." In these cases the Bible adapts itself to the common way of speaking (we do it today too, even in the scientific era, when we say that the sun "rises" and "sets"). But the Bible knows well and teaches that God is "in heaven, on earth and everywhere," that he is the one who "created the heavens" and, if he created them, cannot be "contained" by them. That God is "in the heavens" means that he "dwells in inaccessible light," that he is as far beyond us "as the heavens are above the earth."

We Christians also agree that in talking about heaven as God's dwelling place we understand it more as a state of being than a place. When we speak about God it would be nonsense to say that he is literally "above" or "below," "up" or "down." We are not therefore saying that heaven doesn't exist but only that we lack the categories with which to adequately represent it. Suppose we ask a person who is blind from birth to describe the different colours to us: red, green, blue. ... He could not tell us anything since we only perceive colors through our eyes. This is what it is like for us in regard to "heaven" and to eternal life, which is outside space and time.

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The Land Called Holy 2

"HOLY LAND REVIEW"

I see that the regular Franciscan magazine, "HOLY LAND" was dropped in 2006 and now has been re-incarnated as "HOLY LAND REVIEW".

It could be useful for display in the Guesthouse,
and also to encourage the Catholics who are having such a hard time in Israel.
The English and Irish Bishops are on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land this weekend.
There will be two Scottish Pilgrimages during the year.
Prayer is always the greatest need.
Here is the Editorial for the Spring 2008 Issue.

The Holy Land Review
Spring 2008

Insights into the Holy Land
by Father Jeremy Harrington
Welcome to the new Holy Land Review, a Franciscan Journal of Faith, Culture and Archaeology for the English-speaking world. To more effectively offer insights into the many dimensions of the Holy Land, its people and the ministry of the Franciscans, Custos Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., decided to take a new approach. The smaller publication Holy Land was discontinued with the Autumn 2006 issue. The Holy Land Review will be published four times a year from the Franciscan Monastery, Washington, D.C., in close cooperation with the Italian Terrasanta, headquartered in Milan.

It's been 60 years since the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. Scholars from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (the Faculty of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology of the Pontifical University "Antonianum") bring us up to date on what we have learned and on questions that remain. Was Qumran an Essene community? If so, was there any Christian connection? Is the Khirbet Qumran excavation directly related to the Essene community? What have the scrolls revealed about our Old Testament?

We meet personalities like Franciscan Stanislao Loffreda who discovered the village of St. Peter in Capernaum and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, former papal representative in Jerusalem and now papal nuncio to the United States. He tells of his love and hopes for the Holy Land. In addition, you will find in this issue book reviews, columns and important news from the Holy Land.

We invite your readership, your ideas and comments, and your subscription. Peace!

COMMENT
Following the COMMENT on what Jerome Murphy-O.Connor says, "That Luke is the only evangelist to mention the Ascension of Jesus. And that in the two places, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:1-12.”, it seems to me that the compression of an Archaeological GUIDE may tend to become a “Rough Guide”, the trademark of a Series of popular Travel Guides..

Two questions are very different.

1. Luke – “not recording an historical fact”.

2. Luke – using a “literary way of drawing a line between the terrestrial mission of Jesus and that of the apostles”,

In the first Fr. Jerome uses his archaeological scalpel to narrow the focus as to the historical fact. In that case is he entitled to make a theological statement that is tantalising inconclusive?

Regarding the first, A very different view is taken in the parallel, “Guide to the Holy Land” by the Franciscan, Fr. Eugene Hoade OFM.
"The place of the Ascension is determined by the Acts with a mathematical exactitude. In the Acts it is said that the Apostles after the Ascension of the Divine Master "departed from the Mount of Olives, which is distant from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey, and returned to. Jerusalem" (Acts 1, 12).
A Sabbath day's journey, i.e., the walk a Jew could take without infringing upon the law of the Sabbath rest is said by Rabbis to. be 1392 m., which is approximately the distance that separates Jerusalem from the top of the Mount of Olives. A Sabbath day's journey was 2,000 cubits.
Besides, the event of the Ascension was such for the Christians that they could not possibly forget the exact place whence Christ left to go to his heavenly Father. It was on the way towards Bethany.
(Eugene Hoade “Guide to the Holy Land” - Editions 1942-1996

The Scriptural references build up into an integrated body of all that was said about the Ascension by Jesus and others. It is a formidable collection.

“The general and most common understanding of the Christian doctrine of Ascension holds that Jesus bodily ascended to heaven in the presence of his apostles, forty days following his resurrection. It is narrated in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:1-12,[1] and mentioned in John 20:17, Ephesians 4:7-13, Romans 10:5-7, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 3:21-22”.

The Ascension knits together the words of Jesus and of Apostles and Evangelists into a non-simplistic understanding of the sacramental, ecclesial reality of the Ascension.

“Even within the pious Christian tradition, the language used by the Evangelists to describe the Ascension must be interpreted according to usage. To say that he was taken up or that he ascended, does not necessarily imply that they locate heaven directly above the earth; no more than the words "sitteth on the right hand of God" mean that this is his actual physical posture, but rather denotes his equality with the Father, according to Trinitarianism. In disappearing from their view "He was raised up and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9), and entering into glory he dwells with the Father in the honour and power denoted by the scripture phrase. It is something in which our lives are part”

If Shakespeare could say, ‘Death is the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’, his tongue was equally adept in finding the words that lift the mind to another plane, “There are more things in heaven and earth Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Coming to the second question, a more theologically grounded speaker takes us into the Ascension of Jesus and of each of us,

“This day, in which for the first time I may sit in the chair of the Bishop of Rome, as Successor of Peter, is the day in which the Church in Italy celebrates the feast of the Lord's Ascension. At the center of this day, is Christ. And only thanks to him, thanks to the mystery of his Ascension, are we able to understand the meaning of the chair, which in turn is the symbol of the authority and responsibility of the bishop. What, then, does the feast of the Lord's Ascension tell us? It does not say that the Lord has gone to a place far away from men and the world. The Ascension of Christ is not a journey into space to the most remote heavenly bodies, because in the end, heavenly bodies, like the earth, are also made up of physical elements.

The Ascension of Christ means that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death, which conditions our life. It means that he belongs completely to God. He, the eternal Son, has taken our human being to the presence of God; he has taken with him flesh and blood in a transfigured form. Man finds a place in God through Christ; the human being has been taken into the very life of God. And, given that God embraces and sustains the whole cosmos, the Lord's Ascension means that Christ has not gone far away from us, but that now, thanks to the fact he is with the Father, he is close to each one of us forever. Each one of us may address him familiarly; each one may turn to him. The Lord always hears our voice. We may distance ourselves inwardly from him. We can live with our backs turned to him, but he always awaits us, and is always close to us”. (Benedict XVI's MAY 9, 2005)

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The Land Called Holy

Ascension 1 May 2008
Chapter Homily - and further thoughts.
Donald

On the 40th day after his resurrection Our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven.

I got a jolt when I opened a Daily Commentary for Thursday 1st May. The commentary was not on ASCESNSION THURSDAY but on May Day and St. Joseph the Worker.

In Scotland we keep to the 40 days.
What could be more appropriate than to celebrate Ascension Thursday on May Day. The swallows have appeared around the monastery building. Br. Patrick has given the lawns their first spring trim. All is set for a good Ascensiontide.

Someone I know was at the place of the Ascension on the summit of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast.

He wrote: “To celebrate Ascension, I attended Vespers at the shrine on the summit of the Mount of Olives, and the dawn Mass next morning.

The Chapel/Mosque/Ombomon (neither Cross or Crescent showing) is owned by the Muslims but on the Annual Feast of the Ascension the Armenian, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Syrian Churches are each allowed to hold their Liturgies.

Although not in the Koran, the Muslims believe in Jesus’ Ascension but not in his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The shrine is now but a tiny aedicule, Chapel, which is but a remnant from the Byzantine period Church and of the later Crusader octagonal reconstruction. The Muslim guides like to point out to the Pilgrims/Tourists the mark of the footprint of the ascending Jesus in rock embedded in the floor. Jerusalem Christians in the pre-Constantine period venerated the Ascension in a cave on the Mount of Olives. Fuller details are given by the Irish Dominican, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, who has spent most of his life in Jerusalem, has just published his 5th Edition of his archaeological guide, ‘The Holy Land’. Oxford 2008.

Vespers, led by the Franciscans, extended into a procession, three times round the small octagonal building. As we passed along we were flanked by the canopies or tents erected by the non-Latin Churches. I regret that I did not stay for the rest of the morning and day. It was a golden opportunity to participate in this array of Eastern Liturgies.

To attend the early morning Mass of the Ascension we had to start off at 4.30 am from Via Dolorosa. As we crushed in around the Altar it got very hot. Not surprisingly, some of the group felt faint in the confined space and had to go outside for fresh air. They could then later joke that they almost completed their Ascension.

Vespers and Mass of the Ascension at the summit of the Mount of Olives gave me a sense of how the monastic life itself pivots around the Holy Places. On this aspect of things, it was interesting to hear Prioress Christine, of the Benedictine Convent almost next door, say how impressed she had once been by a paper given by a Bursar of Stanbrook precisely on the theme of St. Benedict’s sense of the sacredness in the monastic milieu. As one theologian has demonstrated, the growing importance of the Holy Land in Christian thought during the first centuries A.D. was associated with the emergence of a SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY, one that saw the presence of God in his creation, particularly in the land and places made holy by the prophets and, most importantly, by the Incarnation.”

Words of a monk at Latroun, Fr. Augustine’s Homily at the community Mass, brought this thought to the specific feast of the Ascension in the Holy Place of Mount of Olives. He spoke of how, “To grasp the moment of both the Ascension and the Parousia is to contemplate the mystical ladder seen long ago by the Patriarch Jacob, the mystical ladder which has inspired so many commentators including St. Benedict in Chapter 7 of his Rule.(After ascending all these steps of humility, the monk will quickly arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear. RB 7:6).

On my way up Mt. Olivet, I was diverted by my interest in the Place where Jesus Wept, Dominus Flevit, but in fact this is on the direct way of ascent to the Place of the Ascension. There could not be a more dramatic expression of the sorrow of Jesus over the destruction of Jerusalem and the joy and glory of His Ascension. There is a great raising of mind and heart in the vision of St. Stephen, “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. Act 7:55

The Ascension, while it is the complement of all our Lord’s feasts, it is the fount of our sanctification. As the Preface of the older Mass proclaimed, “He was lifted up into heaven so that He might make us partakers of His Godhead”. “It is not enough” says Dom Gueranger, “for a man to rest on the merits of our Redeemer’s Passion,
not enough to unite to his memorial of the Resurrection as well.
Man is saved and restored only by the union of these two mysteries with a third: that of the TRIUMPHANT ASCENSION OF HIM WHO DIED AND ROSE AGAIN”.

The powerful attraction of the Holy places still exercises its magnetism. Whether it be example of Egeria reverencing the exposed space of the Ascension in her time, 384, its destruction by the Persians in 614, with the massacre of1207 victims of whom 400 were Nuns of the monastery of Mt. Olivat, or the disincentives of the terrorist age in the Middle East of today, Pilgrims, professed or anonymous, keep coming. The physicality of Incarnation is inseparable from a sense of the sacredness of the place. "No matter how many centuries have passed, no matter where the Christian religion has set down roots, Christians are wedded to the land that gave birth to Christ and the Christian religion." Essential to the living witness of this Middle Eastern (not European) religion, claims Wilken, is the vitality of Christian communities in the land of Jesus' birth. (see, “The Land Called Holy”, R. L. Wilken).

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