Ronald Knox Widow's Mite Mk 12:44

MASS – 32^nd Sunday 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	§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

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)

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-19th 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 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

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

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

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).