Saint Aelred workshop Mt St Bernard abbey

900th Anniversary of the Birth of St. Ailred 1110 - 1167 St. Ailred by Fr. Michael Casey Monday 26th April- Saturday 1st May 2010 Mount St. Bemard Abbey

Guest Participants 1. Fr. Michael Casey Tarrawara 2. Sr. Elizabeth Whitland 3. Sr. Jo Whitland 4. Br. Benedict Caldey 5. Br. Luca Caldey 6. Sr. Elizabeth M. Brownshill 7. Sr. M. Phillipa Brownshill 8. Sr. M Stephen Brownshill 9. Fr. Aelred Portglenone 10. Fr. Nivard Bamenda/Nunraw 11. Fr. Hugh Nunraw 12. Sr. Denise Glencaim 13. Sr. Maria Hyning 14. Sr. M. Anthony Hyning 15. Sr. M Colette Hyning 16. Sr. Michaela Hyning 17. Br. Brian Bolton 18. Sr. Theresa Ware Carmel 19. Sr-. Zoe Ware Carmel 20. Sr. Ruth Ware Carmel Two nuns from Rempstone each day

From Nunraw two of the community attended the St. Aelred of Rievaulx 'Workshop' at Mount Saint Bernerard, Fr. Hugh and Fr. Nivard.

On the return home, Fr. Hugh gave at talk about the event in the Chapter. He has now produced his 'report' as below.

The photgraphs appended were taken by Fr. Nivard.

_____________________________________________________________________

9th. CENTENARY OF ST. AELRED's BIRTH

SEMINAR ON ST. AELRED AT MT. ST. BERNARD’s

by Fr Michael Casey. April 26^th May 1st.

Mount St. Bernards invited members of the Order, Bernardines and Carmelites from Ware to attend this Seminar. Twenty of us came and were joined by members of the Mt. St. Bernards Community. Fr Michael gave some eight conferences during the week with group discussions twice a day. We also had informal discussions about current problems facing Cistercian life in these islands which were quite lively.

Fr Michael began by giving us a realistic picture of St. Aelred considerably different from the popular impression given by Walter Daniel's biography which describes a community which was ideal without much in the way of difficulties. Aelred himself was accused of wanting the Abbot's job and scheming to get it. WaIter Daniel says that this is nonsense and was the work of evil spirits, In any case St. Aelred did not find the Abbot's job congenial. He says in his little book On Jesus When He was Twelve Years Old, that before he was Abbot the reading of the Gospel used to arouse fervent sentiments in his own soul - it isn't like that any longer now ties of worldly cares and secular business have drawn me from these delights(Ch. I).

On top of this Aelred had chronic ill health - kidney trouble and arthritis amongst other things which confined him in a sick room. Then there was the political situation. The Scots fought against the English at the battle of Northalteton and Aelred had friends on both sides. The Normans who had invaded England in 1066 laid waste the country between the Humber and the Tyne when the people of the North rebelled against them. Aelred as a Saxon was a member of a conquered race and he had both Normans and Saxons in his community. One would have expected racial animosity and Fr Michael referred to this, but interesting enough there doesn't seem to be any reference to this in his writings, although he talks about plenty of other things which were wrong.

Our Cistercian Fathers never thought of themselves as living in a golden age of Monasticism or in a great age of the Faith. Aelred refers to the fervour of the early monks, Antony , Macarius and Hilarion and then goes on to say that the monks of his day are materialistic, contentious and quarrelsome. (P.L. 195 Col 404).
In regard to the Church in general he says that money and ambition play a greater part in promotion to office than virtue and good repute. (Synodo de Pastore p155).

What are we to make of the often referred to, of Aelred's practice of admitting everybody and dismissing nobody. It was the custom in Medieval biography to describe an ideal rather than give factual account of what happened. If Walter Daniel did this, as he admits elsewhere in his Life of St. Aelred, not all of what he writes should be taken too literally.

St. Aelred's teaching can be best summed up in his own words: "What is more useful for you to know than how you should love your God, your Creator, your redeemer? Without doubt, brothers nothing is so useful, nothing so necessary" (Discourse 80).

In his book the Mirror of Charity Aelred calls love "The hearts palate which sees that you are sweet the hearts eye which sees that you are good. And it is the place capable of receiving you, great as you are. Someone who loves you grasps you. The more one loves, the more one grasps, because you yourself are love, for you are charity" ( Para 2)

"Capable of receiving you". In Latin "Capax Dei” words difficult to translate sufficiently poignantly in English but much used by our Cistercian Fathers. It was always a truth much beloved and emphasised by the early Cistercians in their efforts to establish a School of Divine Charity.

Aelred stands out as a man who was kind and sympathetic, a good judge of human nature, someone who loved and enjoyed friendship who enjoyed his monastic life and wanted others to share that joy in spite of all the very real trials of his times.

On the fourth day of the Seminar we had a very enjoyable outing to Rievaulx, Ampleforth and New Stanbrook where we were given a tour of this beautiful and striking modern building.

Finally many thinks for everything to Fr. Michael and the Mount St. Bernards Community for this excellent Seminar and for their hospitality.

Fr. Hugh.

Nunraw.

Algerian Martyrs - “Sacrament of Encounter”

Atlas Martyrs anniversary 21 May, 2010

From: Donald ...
Subject: Fw: Blog Atlas Martyrs anniversary 21 May 2010
Date: Thursday, 20 May, 2010, 16:19

Dear, William,

Thank you for the loving commemoration of the Atlas Martyrs.

Within the hour, the beautiful memorial card and seven red roses were delivered by mail from the florist.

The flowers and words (made up of pure extracts from Fr Martin McGee's book, drawn together and ordered for presentation), you have sent, powerfully express the continuing presence of the Cistercian Monks of Tibhirine.

We will be united in the Mass tomorrow morning for memory of our Brothers of Atlas; Fr. Christian de Chergé, Br. Luc Dochier, Fr. Christophe Lebreton, Br. Paul Favre-Miville, Br. Michel Fleury, Fr. Bruno Lemarchand, and Fr. Célestin Ringeard.
…
Donald.

THE ATLAS MARTYRS

The Algerian Martyrs and the “Sacrament of Encounter”

To commemorate the deaths of the Seven Atlas Martyrs, this series of extracts from the exceptional book by Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, “Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People”, presents a short reflection on the issues that faced the brothers of Tibhirine and how the sacrifice of their lives and those of the other martyrs brought new meaning to the mission of the Church of Algeria. (Published 2008 Paulist Press ISBN 978-0-8091-4539-3)

Martyrdom of love

The witness of the nineteen Algerian martyrs in the 1990s is so powerful because it speaks of nineteen lives given for others out of love. These martyrs, all members of religious orders, knowingly assumed martyrdom out of love for their Muslim brothers and sisters, out of solidarity with them in their suffering. The Vatican II Church sent out martyrs to serve a non-Christian people, and these priests and religious felt bound by the same fidelity as if their people were Christian. The immense family of God’s children for whom one can lay down one’s life goes beyond all confessional, cultural, or ethnic barriers.

Universal dialogue of salvation

The Archbishop of Algiers, Msgr. Teissier reflects: “The love of God is universal. There is therefore a dialogue of salvation to be undertaken with all the peoples of the earth. This “universal dialogue of salvation” is necessary for the Church herself, who would be unfaithful to her mission if she wasn’t its servant”. He points out that what was peculiar to these Algerian martyrs was that they had sacrificed their lives “not so as to avoid renouncing directly their faith, nor to defend a Christian community, but through fidelity to a Muslim people.” They were martyrs of charity.

The influence of Tibhirine

As well as wishing to show solidarity with the villagers, a second reason for the monks of Tibhirine to stay was their wish to show solidarity with the beleaguered Christian Church in Algeria . “Nine hundred thousand Christians who suddenly disappear is an apocalype for the church. If Tibhirine remains, the Church is saved.” These words were spoken by Cardinal Duval in Rome in 1963 when closure of Notre-Dame de l’Atlas was under consideration. He knew that the Christian Church in Algeria would lose heart without the inspiration that a contemplative community like Tibhirine provided, a community whose raison d’être was not apostolic work but prayer and community life. Not only is a monastic community essential for the well-being of the Christian Church, but it is also a way of life that Muslims instinctively understand and respect.

The faithfulness of Tibhirine

The monastic life, with its emphasis on the Opus Dei, is a witness easily understood by Islam, a religion that stresses the transcendence of God and our duty of worshipping him. In the faithfulness of the Tibhirine monks to worship, their neighbours could recognize a strong link with their own communal practice of praying five times a day. Since the start of the civil war in 1992, the relationship between the monastery and its Muslim neighbours had grown closer than ever. This relationship was a powerful example of the Christian-Muslim dialogue of daily life. Through living in prayer, silence, and friendship, side by side with their Muslim brothers and sisters, they had overcome the barriers of hate and mistrust between Christian and Muslim.

Sacredness of human life

All foreigners in Algeria had been put under sentence of death in 1993 by the GIA, an Islamic armed group, with the real prospect of assassination by the fundamentalists. If the monks were to leave Tibhirine in the face of the threat to their lives, would it not be to allow violence and intimidation to have the final word? Msgr. Teissier was himself well placed to meditate on this difficult question of prudence versus evangelical solidarity. In a reflection he writes that we need to respect the sacredness of human life and not risk it for ideological reasons: “But how can one renounce risking one’s life for people with whom one is in solidarity? It is so much in harmony with what we meet in the life of Jesus and with what we celebrate in the Eucharist… We are all placed in an exceptional situation where it is necessary to run the risk of dying on account of the ties which God has given us with brothers and sisters with whom we have drawn close on account of the Gospel. All our Algerian friends run the same risk. Many other Christians worldwide also live in similar circumstances. What is perhaps special to our case is that our ties of fidelity have been established with Muslims. Now that is precisely the special vocation of our Algerian Church .”

Sacrament of encounter

They were facing the difficult question that keeps coming up in the contemporary Church in Algeria and which was equally alive for Charles de Foucauld in his time: How does a Christian live out his beliefs in a Muslim Society? What does the Gospel have to say to a Muslim culture? And perhaps the new issue that Msgr. Teissier and others are grappling with, namely, the structural powerlessness of the Church. The mission of the Church in Algeria is less a matter of having big institutions and more a matter of being with the people. As Msgr. Teissier puts it: “Thus gradually we all grew in the conviction that the Algerian Church was the Church of Algeria, that is to say a reality in a relationship with a Muslim society and finding its raison d’être in this relationship. The Church wasn’t an end in itself as would be the case of a Chaplaincy serving only its own members. But Christians were united in a specific vocation of establishing an evangelical relationship with a Muslim people”. This new approach or emphasis on encounter, what the Church in Algeria calls the “sacrament of encounter”, is much more demanding of the missionary, as the quality of his own life becomes the key to the proclamation of the Gospel. The effectiveness of this sacrament depends on the transparency of Christ’s presence and love in the individual Christian and in his community.

Witness in weakness and service

The Algerian Church has learned to live in weakness. From being the Church of a colonial power, she has become a Church of a faithful remnant, powerless and at the service of a Muslim country. The Church in Algeria and its nineteen martyrs have absorbed the teaching of Vatican II and its return to gospel values in our relationships with other religions. In the sacrament of encounter, a new realization of what unites Christians and Muslims has been discovered, a realization that through the power of the Spirit at work in our common humanity we can reach out to each other. The nineteen lives offered out of love for their Muslim neighbours witness to the depth of friendship and love that Christians and Muslims can have for each other. In this love lies a sure hope for the future.

Ronald Knox Lightning Meditations

Our Pheasant Family

On the lawn a Cock Pheasant strides in glory, croaks in alert and keeps guard on the hen and her clutch of chicks in the tree shelter.

“Lord, you know all things; you can tell that I love you.”. Jn. 21:17 Lightning Meditations – Ronald Knox (Sheed & Ward) 1959. Heart and Head c.xxxvi pp73-74. LIGHTNING MEDITATIONS - CHAPTER XXXVI Heart and Head THE Church describes the heart of her Incarnate Lord as a treasure-house of all wisdom and knowledge. Most evidently, the popular devotion which tinges our prayer during the month of June is a devotion to the whole of our Lord's sacred humanity, not to one single part or aspect of it. That we should treat the Sacred Heart as the symbol of his emotional nature is not surprising. The language of lovers has claimed the heart for its symbol ever since the Middle Ages, and we have learned, in consequence, to treat it as the centre of the feelings, relegating the intellect to the head. The "heart-work" which John Wesley was for ever vindicating against its critics was precisely the enlistment of the emotions in the service of religion. But from the beginning it was not so. To the Hebrews, as to the Romans, the heart was the seat of the intellect; "My son, give me thy heart" is only an appeal for the pupil's attention, and the "largeness of heart" granted to King Solomon was wisdom, not sensibility. This habit of speech is found in the New Testament as in the Old; nor is the distinction between head and heart observed in the liturgy, where cor and mens seem to be almost interchangeable. Have we a right to limit the range of the Sacred Heart by making it a symbol of our Lord's human tenderness, nothing else? It is well that the sinner should find pardon, the mourner comfort, in the source from which pardon came to the Magdalen, comfort to the widow of Nairn. But there are other burdens that may be cast, if we will, on those patient shoulders. There is (for example) a kind of intellectual fatigue which overtakes us when we are introduced to the daring speculations of modern sci­ence; we cannot understand the very terms of them. Well, here is the effigy of that Heart which is the treasure-house of all wisdom and all knowledge. We have found a fresh avenue of approach; “Lord, you know all things; you can tell that I love you.”. Jn. 21:17. (Knox ‘you’ version). _____________________________________________________ Lightning Meditations by RONALD KNOX - Dust Jacket (Philip Garaman SJ) - For more than twelve years Ronald Knox con­tributed a monthly short sermon to the Sunday Times, and in 195"I seventy-one of these were for the first time collected in a book, which he called Stimuli (which a Dutch review charmingly trans­lated for its readers as "Stikkels, prikkels"); and in the Introduction he warned readers that for all their typical urbanity these sermons did indeed contain Stikkels and Prikkels "ready to pierce the skin of your conscience, though it be as tough to kick the goad as the university of Tarsus can make it". But of course, it would have been most unlike Ronald Knox if this book had consisted merely of scoldings. There was plenty of comfort as well as admonition; one never lost sight of the fact that this was one of us talking, and had therefore that much less inclination to dismiss what was being said as altogether too lofty for one's own humble plane. This second collection contains sermons of a later date than those published in Stimuli; there is, of course, the same urbanity and the same sharpness, but in addition there is that much more practice in doing the thing perfectly; and, that, with a craftsman as expert as Ronald Knox, means something quite considerable. The title is strictly to the point; each example lights up our conscience like a flash of lightning. No word has been altered from the text as the author preserved it in his carefully kept cuttings; occasionally a footnote has been added to supply a date or a reference. Otherwise this is pure Knox in every sense.

Atlas Martyrs anniversary

Pope at Fatima 13 May 1210
The Pope said: "For the most part, the sufferings caused by these transformations have been faced with courage. Living amid a plurality of value systems and ethical outlooks requires a journey to the core of one's being and to the nucleus of Christianity so as to reinforce the quality of one's witness to the point of sanctity, and to find mission paths that lead even to the radical choice of martyrdom." Monks of Tibhirine 21 May 1996

Gratefully, we have to hand a very timely article for the anniversary of the Cistercian monks who died in Algeria. We thank you the Editor of SHM www.messenger.ie The Sacred Heart MESSENGER May 2110 The Master’s Footsteps (63) In this series, Fr. John Murray, Parish Priest of St.Luke’s, Belfast, reflects on some of those who followed in the footsteps of Jesus. Fr. Christian de Chergé The stories of the lives of the martyrs often fit into this category, of men and women who over the centuries have written the story of Christ in their blood. Most of us grew up hearing the stories of the early Church and the 'Christians being fed to the lions' - it is well documented even by pagan historians like Tacitus in the early second century. The persecution of the Church in Elizabethan times, during the French revolution and of course during our own Penal times are also well recorded. But many martyrs have died for the faith in the last century. This month I want to remind ourselves of the silent witness of the Trappist (Cistercian) martyrs of Algeria who died in 1996. Christians will recognise the beauty and values of the Islam faith but will also know that some people within that worldwide creed have distorted its principles and warped its ideals. Such a contrast to the suicide bomber is the one who gives his life for the sake of the other. 'If it were ever to happen ... that I should be the victim of the terrorism that seems to be engulfing all the foreigners now living in Algeria, I would like my community, my church, my family to remember that my life was given to God and to this country.' Fr. Christian de Chergé, prior of a Trappist monastery in Algeria, began a letter with these words and sealed the envelope with these: 'to be opened in the event of my death.' The letter was indeed opened three years later, after Christian and his fellow Trappists - seven men in all - had been killed by fundamentalist rebels in 1996. However, unlike other Christian martyrs these Trappists did not offer their lives for the conversion of their Muslim neighbours, but as a witness to the One God of all and for the cause of friendship among all God's people. For Fr. Christian at least it was the repayment of an ancient debt. In 1958 when he was a young man of 21 he had served as a soldier fighting Algerian rebels in the brutal war of independence. One day, his party were ambushed and his life was saved by a friend who happened to be a devout Muslim. This man shielded him with his own body. This man's sacrifice, which Christian believed was prompted by religious faith, brought about his own conversion and eventually ordination to the priesthood and ultimately to the Trappist contemplative order. Christian studied in Rome, and then asked to be assigned to a monastery dedicated to Our Lady in the Atlas Mountains near Algiers. Many French religious had fled the country in the wake of the war, but at the urging of the archbishop the Trappists had stayed on to offer a contemplative Christian presence among their Muslim neighbours. The monks lived a traditional Trappist life of prayer and work, but they made a point of offering a place where Christians and Muslims could pray and talk together. A building in the monastery enclosure was offered for use as a mosque and so the 'sound of chapel bells mixed with the Muslim call to prayer.' This group was called 'Ribat el Salam' or the 'bond of peace'. To many of their neighbours they were trusted and respected. But to others, the Trappists were foreign 'infidels' - as one dispatch put it 'they live with the people and draw them away from the divine path, inciting them to follow the Gospel.' By 1993 the country was on the verge of anarchy and an ultimatum was given to all foreigners to leave the country, but the monks decided to stay. They also declined any military protection which was offered. It was at this time that Fr. de Chergé wrote his last testament. The months progressed and several priests and women religious were killed. Still the monks remained. 'For us it is a journey of faith into the future and of sharing the present with our neighbours who have always been very closely bound to us. Now all that is left for us is to give our blood to follow Christ to the end.' That end came in 1996 on 21 May when rebels invaded the monastery compound and seized the monks and marched them into the mountains. A few weeks later a note was sent: 'We have slit the throats of the seven monks. Glory to God!' The heads were discovered the next day and they were buried in the small cemetery at the monastery. De Chergé's family remembered his letter and opened it and discovered his prayer of forgiveness for his murderers: 'For me Islam and Algeria ... are body and soul.' Indeed, Christian was so concerned that his eventual death might be a stumbling block to the dialogue he had helped to establish: 'I do not see how I could rejoice if this people I love were to be accused indiscriminately of my murder. It would be to pay too dearly for what will, perhaps, be called 'the grace of martyrdom', to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.' He offered thanks for all his friends and family. But he reserved his final words for his murderer: 'You too, my last minute friend, you who know not what you do. Yes, for you too I wish this thank you, and this adieu which is of your planning. May we be granted to meet each other again, happy thieves, in paradise, should it please God, the Father of both of us. Amen! In sh'Allah!'

Paul's Caesarea prison cell identified

COMMENT. See Post 16 May 2010

Jerusalem Post Article:
Paul's Caesarea prison cell identified

Article date: May 20, 1998

Author: HAIM SHAPIRO

Archeologists at Caesarea have identified the prison room in which Paul of Tarsus, one of the most important figures of early Christianity, was held.

Paul, known as the Apostle to Christians, was born a Jew named Saul. According to …

Ascension Thursday

Thursday, 13 May 2010

The Ascension of the Lord – Solemnity

Morning Chapter Sermon – Br.Barry

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:46-53.

ASCENSION 2010.

• A remarkable thing about the Ascension is that there is an eye-witness account of it – a description of the indescribable. All the same the first effect of the Ascension was to once again render God invisible to physical sight. What are the disciples to do now with their faculty of sight?
• Vision is the most important of the senses. Indeed, the traditional name for the greatest happiness humans are capable of is borrowed from the power of seeing – the beatific vision, defined as ‘ the seeing that confers bliss’ and the famous Jesuit scientist Teilhard de Chardin wrote that the aim of evolution is ‘ the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes’. A Peruvian woman coming to the U.K. to work said that the first thing that struck her on arriving in this country was the large number of people wearing glasses. An odd confirmation, perhaps, of Teilhard’s idea.
• The spiritual sight which is faith looks around for suitable objects for its physical counterpart and many fitting things have been developed. In no particular order – there is the monstrance and Eucharistic devotion; there is the catacomb art of the early Church in Rome; there are statues and holy pictures; there are icons and crucifixes, of which St. Aelred suggests that the highest use we can make of our sight is to gaze on a crucifix or cross; there are church buildings, their exterior and interior; for monks, there is the whole monastery building; the practise of lectio divina is principally about the use of sight, as far as the five senses are concerned.
• St. Paul has another one. ‘God’s everlasting power and deity are there for the mind to see in the things he has made’, he wrote to the Romans. In this one verse he has combined the faculty of physical sight (‘the things he has made’ ) with spiritual sight ( ‘his deity is there for the mind to see’ ).
• This word ‘deity’ that St. Paul uses is a rare one in the New Testament. It occurs in only two other places, (as far as I can make out), both associated with St. Paul . One is in the Acts of the Apostles in his speech in the Areopagus to the men of Athens ‘that all nations ought to seek the DEITY and by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him’. As in Romans, it is God as Creator that St. Paul is indicating here. The third instance occurs in the second chapter of Colossians, in the verse translated in the Jerusalem Bible ‘ in his ( Christ’s ) body lives the fullness of DIVINITY’.
• Put all these three references together and you have - Christ there for the mind to see in creation. This is only the teaching of the canticle in Colossians: ‘in him were created all things in heaven and on earth’.
• All that is for those who look with faith. For a society in which only scientific truths are regarded as real, an invisible God is a serious problem. If you cannot see it on a screen or measure it with a machine then it cannot be real seems to be the attitude. It is no coincidence that such a society has come to be dominated by the entertainment industry, an industry totally geared to attracting the eyes. Such a society has no place for religion and sure enough we are all familiar with the moves that have been made to banish religion from public life. We can be certain that it won’t stop there.
• If it has a problem with an invisible God and with religion then it will have a problem with the Church. There are two sides to this: on one side of the coin they will fail to see what ‘Lumen Gentium’ calls ‘the divine institution of the Church’. It says: ‘the Church exists in Christ’; ‘the Spirit has its dwelling in the Church’; the Church is ‘the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery’; it is ‘ the setting in which the communication of Christ’s life to believers takes place’; ‘ Christ presents himself to us in his body which is the Church’.
• The other side of the coin is that this society will only be capable of seeing the visible structure of the Church, its outward appearance. In other words it will see flawed human beings.
• Does the Church say about itself that its members are not flawed individuals? Of course not. Again from Lumen Gentium: ‘the Church is marked on earth by a genuine if imperfect holiness’ and ‘the Church is at once holy and in need of constant cleansing’.
• The doctrine of the divine institution of the Church is the one that is particularly undermined today and it is a doctrine that will need its martyrs too.
• The Ascension, then, might be said to celebrate the invisibility of God but like all festivals it is celebrated by a feast for the senses.
  
  (Ref: Joseph Pieper 'In Tune With The World')

UK Coalition Government.

Sixth Easter Week WEDNESDAY 12^th May

Introducing the Mass this morning, the thoughts and prayers are in our minds about the events of the country in attaining to a UK Coalition Government.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”.

For days the discussions and talks have been non-stop. On the one-track subject, 1.8 million watched the TV. And even from the bite-sounds, it appears that in it all there is never a mention of God.

In spite of the impression of Godlessness, the minds and hearts are quietly searching.

The Gospel here suggests that Jesus was sympathy with his own disciples in the same way we feel. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”.
Jesus is opening the whole prospects and promise of the Holy Spirit. So it was the disciples are to learn – just in the same way heard to St. Paul as we read it in the Reading of Blessed Guerric of Igny. (below).

Offering this Mass we pray for the new leaders, the joint Prime Ministry, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and the people of this country.

John 16 DRB	NRSV	GNT	Vulgate
12 I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now.	12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.	12 ῎Ετι πολλὰ ἔχω λέγειν ὑμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειν ἄρτι·	12 adhuc multa habeo vobis dicere sed non potestis portare modo
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to come, he shall shew you.	13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.	13 ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν· οὐ γὰρ λαλήσει ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὅσα ἂν ἀκούσει λαλήσει, καὶ τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν.	13 cum autem venerit ille Spiritus veritatis docebit vos in omnem veritatem non enim loquetur a semet ipso sed quaecumque audiet loquetur et quae ventura sunt adnuntiabit vobis

MEDITATION OF BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY The Spirit of Truth Words had no effect on the apostles until they received the gifts. For when Jesus himself came and stood before them, he convinced them not so much by showing them his body as by breathing on them his Gift. You know that when he came to them the doors were locked and he stood among them, but they were startled and frightened and supposed they saw a spirit. But when he breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and when later he sent from heaven the same Spirit with another gift, these gifts were indeed undeniable proofs and testimonies of resurrection and life. It is the Spirit who bears witness in the hearts and on the lips of the saints that Christ is the truth, the true resurrection, and the life. Thus the apostles who had previously doubted even after seeing his living body, after tasting his life-giving Spirit with great power gave testimony to his resurrection. So it is much more important to receive Jesus in our hearts than to see him with our eyes or hear him with our ears. The Spirit makes a much deeper impression on the interior man than material things make on the exterior senses. What room is left for doubt when he who bears witness and he who is the object of that witness are the one Spirit? If the Spirit is one there must be a complete understanding, everything fits together. Blessed Guerric of Igny (+ 1157) was an abbot and a close friend of Saint Bernard. Cistercian Fathers 32, Trs. 1971.

Comment on Holy Spirit

Many thanks, William,
Pondering on the Blog Posting as we are asking for the Holy Spirit’s
first of the fruits of love and joy.

You remember well us, the Atlas Martyrs' anniversary, always fresh in our Spring time.
The recent issue of the "Sacred Heart Messenger" (May 2010) features an article on the Brothers, and Fr. Christian with a new picture.

Happy Ascension Thursday.

Donald

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: William J ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Tue, 11 May, 2010 16:59:41
Subject: Re: [Blog] the Holy Spirit

Dear Donald,

The copy of your Blog posting arrived late last evening and I have been pondering it. Our life has to become an invocation of the Holy Spirit if evangelization is to proceed, "allow[ing] [ourselves] to be possessed and led by Him".

In the book you lent me last summer, Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, “Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People”, he wrote of the “sacrament of encounter”, being much more demanding of the missionary, as the quality of his own life becomes the key to the proclamation of the Gospel. The effectiveness of this sacrament depends on the transparency of Christ’s presence and love in the individual Christian and in his community".

This is evangelization, the very presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But if the disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, I have the feeling that out in the world today there are voices that ask Jesus to show them the Holy Spirit. We can 'picture' Jesus, and often do so, either in our meditations on the Gospel scenes or in images, icons in our churches. But with regard to the Holy Spirit we are blind in our imagining, for the Holy Spirit is of the nature of the wind caressing our face, of the love we give, the smile we receive.
To know the Holy Spirit, we have first to interiorize the love of Jesus and learn to 'sense' His spiritual presence. That is why the Holy Spirit is so little known or, dare I say, appreciated, in our world, where all is given over to the 'material' in sight and sound.

To appreciate the ways of the Holy Spirit, particularly in evangelization, we need to maintain an attitude of listening, for we can hardly speak the words given to us by the Holy Spirit unless first we listen. Our life has to become an invocation of the Holy Spirit. "The Holy Spirit ... is He who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of His mystery". I look forward very much to seeing your selection of texts over the remaining days leading up to Pentecost!

I am preparing a 'card' in loving commemoration for the anniversary of the deaths of the Atlas Martyrs using extracts from Fr Martin McGee's book which I took down before I returned the book to you, to send with Seven Red Roses next week, with an advance e-copy to you should you find it to purpose for your Blog.

... In Our Risen Lord,

William