COMMENT (Post Friday, 12 November 2010)

St. Peter's Square on 8 Oct 2002 St. Josemaria's canonization

In the Navarre Bible Commentary on Luke 17:11-19, the quotation from St.. Joseph Escriva seemed to echo another reference to Jesus Mother.

The lines blurred to me. Nivard needed to clarify the type-layout and makes more sense;  - compare the columns.

Bible Commentary on Luke 17:19

Edit the typography

However, only one of them, the Samaritan, who returns praising God and showing his gratitude for the miracle, is given a much greater gift than the cure of leprosy. Jesus says as much: "Your faith has made you well" (v.19) and praises the man's gratefulness. The Gospel records this event to teach us the ­value of gratefulness: "Get used to lifting your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because he gives you this and that. Because you have been despised. Because you haven't what you need or because you have. "Because he made his Mother so beautiful, his Mother who is also your Mother. Because he created the sun and the moon and this animal and that plant. Because he made that man eloquent and you he left tongue-tied .... "Thank him for everything, because everything is good" (Bl. J. Escriva, The Way, 268).

However, only one of them, the Samaritan, who returns praising God and showing his gratitude for the miracle, is given a much greater gift than the cure of leprosy. Jesus says as much: "Your faith has made you well" (v.19) and praises the man's gratefulness. The Gospel records this event to teach us the ­value of gratefulness:  "Get used to lifting your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because he gives you this and that. Because you have been despised. Because you haven't what you need or Because you have. "Because he made his Mother so beautiful, his Mother who is also your Mother. Because he created the sun and the moon and this animal and that plant. Because he made that man eloquent and you he left tongue-tied .... "Thank him for everything, Because everything is good" (Bl. J. Escriva, The Way, 268).

The Sunday Luke 20:27-38 Homily had an unusual grace of word on Mary and find Bl. J. Escriva prompting (17:19) on the Mother of Jesus.

It suggests to keeping note of the Mary ‘dimension’ to be found in difficult hard sayings in Jesus encounters in the Navarre Commentary.

“Then, perhaps by a moment of grace,
he asked her a question. He asked her if she thought
that in heaven Jesus knew Mary as his own mother.
The young mother had no doubts about that, so the priest answered:
'I cannot imagine that it would be any different for you and your daughter.'”

Have pity in your heart, and don't forget that he may yet be an Augustine, while you remain just another mediocrity" (St. Joseph  Escrivá, The Way, 675). ...

All Saints of the Benedictine Family

Happy Birthday , Nivard,
... on your 80th Birthday and Anniversary of Profession.

SAINTS Benedictine Family (and oases for prayer)
http://feastofsaints.com/links.htm

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard                  
To: donald                              
Sent: Sat, 13 November, 2010 9:29:20
Subject: All Benedictine Saints

                    All Benedictine Saints - Profession Day (+ Jubilee 80, 12th)

A Jubilee is a day of joy and thanks-giving for all the blessings received over the years. Heartfelt thanks to God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thanks to family and ancestors, both natural and supernatural. 

I thank especially Abbot Mark and the Community here at Nunraw for the showers of blessings I’ve received over the past three years. 

Today is my birthday as a Cistercian. 

I made both professions into the hands of Dom Malachy. He will now be smiling on us all from above, as is dear Fr Luke whom we laid to rest yesterday.

   

Our contemplative life cultivates our intimacy with the Lord. It embodies everything that we have ever desired. We live it for the sheer joy of that intimacy. This love binds us together in an inseparable and deliberately chosen companionship.

Let us pray.

   O God, your Son promised to those who leave everything to follow him a hundredfold in this world and in the world to come, eternal life.  Helped by the prayers of St Benedict and all the saints who lived by his Rule, may we be strangers to worldly desires and enjoy the riches of your love.

   Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.      Amen

Bidding Prayer:               

Father, you called us to this way of life in your Church. In it may we love, honour and follow your Son to eternal life in the kingdom you promise.  

   Through Christ our Lord.

 Prayer after Communion,

 Let us pray.

     Almighty God, we pray that strengthened by the power of this sacrament, we may learn by the example of St Benedict and his disciples always to seek you above all things, and to bear already in this world the likeness of Christ, the new Adam, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.                        

Leo the Great 'watching' in the Church

Wed 10th November

Memorial of Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church 

Watching in the Church - Lavra Netofa, Israel, Upper Galilea 

On Wednesday Fr. Raymond asked me to supply for he is suffering severe  ‘flu. Gospel of Luke 17:11-19.

During the time of the days of Fr. Luke’s wake we keep watch and offer this Mass for his soul.

At the same time we celebrate St. Leo the Great day.

A brief of the life of Leo is one of the proofs of the ‘watching’ in the Church for the Church.

‘Watching’ of the Church is not quiet but thrilling in influence.

Pope Benedict has just had two days in Spain, Compostello and Barcelona, the UK visit, again the vitality of the ‘watching’ in care of the Church.

Leo sets the stage of the Church at ‘watch’.

  
1. Leo the Great was Pope from 440 to 461 during the time of the invasion of Attila the Hun.

When Attila marched on Rome, Pope Leo went out to meet him and pleaded for the army to leave.

As Leo spoke, Attila saw a vision of a man in priestly robes, carrying a bare sword, and threatening to kill the invader if he did not obey Pope Leo.

2. As Leo had a great devotion to St. Peter, it is generally believed Peter was the visionary opponent to the Huns.

3. When Genseric of the Vandals invaded Rome, Pope Leo's sanctity and eloquence saved the city again.

4. Pope Leo called the Council of Chalcedon to condemn heresies of the day: Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Manichaeism, and Pelagianism.

5. He wrote letters and sermons encouraging and teaching his flock. Many of these writings survive today;
it is for these writings that Leo was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1574.

Leo’s ‘watching’ fulfilled mighty actions in the Church.

Hidden lives fulfilled that same service in God’s will.

As Fr. Luke’s life is hidden so we offer this Holy Mass in our own same hidden watching in the Church for all souls.

Memorial of Martin of Tours, bishop

St Martin of  Tours

Thursday. November 11

Saint Martin of Tours.

Phlmn 7-20

Lk: 17:20-25

In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus speaking about the kingdom of God. In his first sermon before he began his public ministry, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is close at hand, repent and believe the goodness “(Mk 1:15).In today’s gospel Jesus tells the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17:21). 

The good news of salvation  preached by Jesus, forgiveness of sins, signs and wonders  and healings indicates that God’s Kingdom has been ushered in and through Jesus and yet Pharisees did not want to accept and recognise them. It is through metanoia or conversion of heart one can receive this kingdom.  

The kingdom comes to us  by grace to those who humbly like a child  invites  the Triune God to be the lord of their lives and walk each day in love under the guidance  of this Triune God.  

Today, we pray for a deeper understanding of  the presence of God’s kingdom which is the presence of the Holy Trinity dwelling within us and that we may realise that the same Triune God dwells in my fellow human beings and this calls for love, respect of other’s dignity and justice which flows from love. This truth is being reflected in the life of St. Martin of Tours whose feast we are celebrating today.

JOHN 2:13-22
FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA IN ROME

----- Forwarded Message ----

From: Fr. Nivard 

Sent: Mon, 8 November, 2010 19:21:11

Subject: Lateran Basilica Mass

Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.’

  The Churches which we inherit are neither the purchase of wealth nor the creation of genius; they are the fruits of martyrdom and come of great deeds and sufferings.

   Their foundations are laid very deep, even in the preaching of Apostles, the confession of Saints, and the first victories of the Gospel, in our land. All that is so noble, in their architecture, all that captivates the eye and makes its way to the heart, is not a human imagination, but a divine gift, a moral result, a spiritual work.

   O happy they who, in a time of sorrow, avail themselves of this bond of communion with the saints of old and with the universal Church! Happy they, who when they enter within their holy space, enter in heart, into the court of Heaven!

   

Let us pray.

   God our Father, from living stones, your chosen people, you built an eternal temple to your glory. Increase the spiritual gifts you have given to your Church, so that faithful people may continue to grow into the new and eternal Jerusalem. 

   We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  

   Amen

Bidding Prayer:               

Father, You called us to be your Church. May we love, honour and fallow you to eternal life in the kingdom you promise.  

   Through Christ our Lord.

 Prayer after Communion,

 Let us pray.

     Father, you make your Church on earth a sign of the new and eternal Jerusalem. By sharing in this sacrament may we become the temple of your presence and the home of your glory.

  Grant this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

                         

J H Newman in DGO for Feast of John Lateran, slightly modified.

Lk 20 Jesus knew Mary as his own mother

Bible Alive Homily

7 November • Sunday

Luke 20:27-38

Some years ago a young mother was grieving over the tragic loss of her three year-old daughter. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that the child was seriously disabled and could do little on her own. Her mother literally carried her everywhere. In order to find some comfort, she asked a priest what heaven would be like and whether, at the end of time, her daughter would still recognize her as her mother. It turned out that Jesus' words to the Sadducees in today's reading had disturbed the mother and she wondered what it meant that there was no marriage in heaven. Would our earthly relationships still continue in heaven?

The priest at first did not know how to answer. He did not want to give an answer that was based on wishful thinking, nor did he want to cause doubts in the woman's mind.
Then, perhaps by a moment of grace,
he asked her a question. He asked her if she thought
that in heaven Jesus knew Mary as his own mother.
The young mother had no doubts about that, so the priest answered:
'I cannot imagine that it would be any different for you and your daughter.'

Perhaps we all have questions about what heaven will be like. Sometimes we have certain fears. Surely one concerns the thought of eternity. The question hovers at the back of our minds: will we get bored with heaven? Eternity is a concept that is impossible for us to grasp.

But there is one experience on earth of which it is impossible for us ever to tire. To love and to be loved is the universal longing of all of humanity. In spite of so many failures in love and in marriage, we also sense that love is the one thing that can truly fulfil us. It is the power of sin, present in the world and in our lives, that threatens to disrupt our deep desire to love and to be loved.

In his answer to the Sadducees, Jesus says that in the resurrection we shall be like the angels and can no longer die. The implication is that there will be no more sin and therefore, there will be nothing to impede our loving and being loved. We shall be children of God perfectly fulfilled by God's love for us and our love for him.

Lk 20:27 Jesus challenged by the Sadducees

+ + + +

Thank you,
William,
You give so much to us to fit the pieces in this Luke 20:27 search.
For the moment the windows open everywhere.
God bless.
Donald

Jesus challenged by the Sadducees

---- Forwarded Message ----
From: WILLIAM …
To: Donald ….
Sent: Sat, 6 November, 2010 19:01:21
Subject: Gospel Luke 20:27 a window on the Resurrection

Dear Father Donald,

Verse 33 has a brisk translation of the words from the Sadducees in the commentary "Sacra Pagina", which reads - "one is tempted to translate, 'Remember, all seven had the same wife'", their point being the impossibility of a physical resurrection. The commentary concludes with a comment: "Compare Paul's statement on the discontinuity between 'flesh and blood' and the glorified resurrection body, 1 Cor 15:35."

One doesn't need to engage so deeply with St Paul's letter to the Corinthians to gain an insight, but refer to (the Sacra Pagina commentary on) the recent reading from the Epistle to the Philipians which contains the wonderful verse, 3:21 (which has occupied me ever since):

"who will change our humble body conforming to his glorious body"

"The language of v.21 demonstrates what the saviour will do. 'Change' has as its root the term 'likeness' (schema). It means to change the outward form or the appearance of something. God has eternal plans for the 'body', the soma as opposed to the flesh (sarx), which for Paul implies the whole person. The body exists in at least two forms, the 'lowly body', or 'earthly existence', and the 'glorious body' that belongs to the risen Christ. Only the saviour can change one to the other. The word for 'change' involves both the inward and outward substance. The point is that human flesh is impermanent, subject to illness, disease, dissolution. The action of Jesus has transfigured flesh (made of it a soma?) because by him its enemy, death, has been destroyed".

All our faith needs are such insights on which to contemplate.

. . . in Our Lord,
 praying that the influenza may flee before the coming wintry weather,

William