St. Mechthild

Unveiling the Maltese Monastery of St. Mechthild: Markus Glaser statue of St. Mechtild

 [NOTE Google Translation from German - servable]

Editorial    

23.06.2010

 

The garden of Malta pin in St. Mechthild Eutritzsch has a new focus. On the occasion of the Summer Festival on Saturday, 19 June revealed the Leipzig Graduate sculptor Markus glasses his work: a statue of St. Mechthild.

Donated the sculpture from the "Friends of Catholic nursing home Leipzig eV", which is committed for years under the chairmanship of Dr. Clemens Nartschik the development of Malta's monastery was accompanied and supported.
Dance easily figure Mechthild strives upward - as if she wanted to follow in their flight of the nightingale, which she holds in her hands. The statue of St. Mechthild of Hackeborn radiates energy and vitality. Barefoot balancing on one leg and singing seems to be the Holy of the 13th Century mystic less than shown because as the world faces an artist. 
For Dr. Clement Nartschik is this sculpture of the core of mystical vision of God represented accurately: "From the depths of contemplation grows a great joy, which leads from the inner life into the world again. The statue is an appeal, nature and the world with all five senses to experience! " 
Albrecht Graf Adelmann, manager of the operating carrier Maltese Tradition transferred, this interpretation of life in Malta Pen: The put on the figure to express joy of life should be the basis of daily interaction in Malta Convent St. Mechthild. The artist Markus Glasses hosted in his opening words to the unveiling of the figure, a user to enter, the work of art with all senses - not only by viewing but also by touch.

Sculptor Markus Glasses with the statue of Saint Mechthild.

Photo: St. Mechthild Malterserstift

In a bold and energetic lines, it represented the mystic, like a link between heavenly and earthly.Different sculptural elements at different levels of observation underscores this. At the feet of Mechthild to find books, an owl and a raven, which refer to the visual characteristics of their mystical knowledge transfer: the conservation of their sisters in writing down their visions in the Liber specialis gratiae, and the light and dark aspects of mystical vision. Owl and Raven show as birds of the night, of wisdom and mystery, this allegorical.
Mark Glass was born in 1960 in Leipzig, studied from 1981 to 1987 sculpture / sculpture at the School of Industrial Design in Halle Giebichenstein with Prof. Bernd Göbel and since 1988 as a freelance sculptor in Leipzig. In addition to working in bronze, cast stone, stone, wood and ceramics, he is also responsible for numerous restoration works in museums, churches and castles of the region.
From his workshop of the Cross are in Holy Trinity in Grimsby, the Elizabeth character in the grounds of the Elizabeth Hospital in Leipzig, the Christ figure in the village and the St. Nicholas Ball column in Leipzig before the Nikolai Church.He was involved in restoration work of the epitaphs Paul's Church in Leipzig, the Royal Palace and the Zwinger.
 www.malteserstift-leipzig.de

Friday, 19 November 2010 St. Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century) Saint Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century)         St. Mechtildis was born to a noble family in Heifta, Saxony, and was placed in a Benedictine convent at age seven.         Mechtildis was a mystic, and aided St. Gertrude with her Book of Special Graces or The Revelation of St. Mechtildis.    ©Evangelizo.org NOVEMBER 19 St Mechtilde of Hackeborn  1241-1298 Of a noble family, when she was seven, her parents placed her in the convent of Rossdorf where her sister, Gertrude, was soon elected abbess. The community moved to Helfta in 1258, and the five-year old St Gertrude was placed in Mechtilde's care. They became close friends and mutually influenced and helped each other. It was Gertrude who first wrote down Mechtilde's mystical experiences in what became The Book of Special Grace, a book whose "every page is alive with color and splendid with light and sound." Mechtilde, who possessed a beautiful voice, was for many years chantress and chant-mistress at Helfta. MBS, p. 303; Peaceweavers, CS 72, p. 213 "What best pleases God in members of religious orders is purity of heart, holy desires, gentle kindness in conversation, and works of charity." Menology OCSO Wrentham + + +  Musical and Spiritual Gifts Gifted with a beautiful voice, Mechtilde also possessed a special talent for rendering the solemn and sacred music over which she presided as domna cantrix. All her life she held this office and trained the choir with indefatigable zeal. Indeed, divine praise was the keynote of her life as it is of her book; in this she never tired, despite her continual and severe physical sufferings, so that in His revelations Christ was wont to call her His "nightingale". Richly endowed, naturally and supernaturally, ever gracious, beloved of all who came within the radius of her saintly and charming personality, there is little wonder that this cloistered virgin should strive to keep hidden her wondrous life. Souls thirsting for consolation or groping for light sought her advice; learned Dominicans consulted her on spiritual matters. At the beginning of her own mystic life it may have been from St. Mechtilde that St. Gertrude the Great learnt that the marvellous gifts lavished upon her were from God.

Evrard des Barres Knight Templar

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Evrard des Barres: A Templar Grand Master Ends His Days at Clairvaux

The arms of Evrard des Barres. (Source.)

We’ve been a little thin on Menology entries in the last few weeks as the saints of the Martyrology and the feasts of the calendar have provided so much material, but this entry for the 15th of November caught my attention when Fr. Joseph read it at supper:

At Clairvaux, Blessed Evrard, Monk, who, after having courageously fought against the Saracens, resigned his office of Grand Master of the Knights of the Temple, and shone as a star in the Order of Citeaux. He had the happiness of beholding the King of the Angels, and of being certified by Him that all his faults were forgiven.

Evrard des Barres was Grand Master of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, to give the full name, from 1147-1151. He entered Clairvaux near the end of the life of St. Bernard, whose treatise, “In Praise of the New Knighthood,” had provided a significant support for the fledgling order. In that treatise, though parts sound brutal to modern ears, we hear a new ideal of the knight that rebukes the excesses of many contemporary adventurers:

There is no distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to merit rather than to noble blood. They rival one another in mutual consideration, and they carry one another's burdens, thus fulfilling the law of Christ. No inappropriate word, idle deed, unrestrained laugh, not even the slightest whisper or murmur is left uncorrected once it has been detected. They foreswear dice and chess, and abhor the chase; they take no delight in the ridiculous cruelty of falconry, as is the custom…

When the battle is at hand, they arm themselves interiorly with faith and exteriorly with steel rather than decorate themselves with gold, since their business is to strike fear in the enemy rather than to incite his cupidity. They seek out horses which are strong and swift, rather than those which are brilliant and well-plumed, they set their minds on fighting to win rather than on parading for show. They think not of glory and seek to be formidable rather than flamboyant. At the same time, they are not quarrelsome, rash, or unduly hasty, but soberly, prudently and providently drawn up into orderly ranks, as we read of the fathers. Indeed, the true Israelite is a man of peace, even when he goes forth to battle.

Evrard was born at Meaux in Champagne around 1113 and rose rapidly through the Order of the Temple. By 1143, he was preceptor of France and in Easter of 1147 convoked the general chapter of the Order in France that gave its support to Louis VII in the disastrous Second Crusade, preached by St. Bernard. Evrard accompanied Louis and Eleanor of Aquitaine to the Holy Land and, after a successful march through Anatolia, was given command of the entire French force by King Louis, who praised the Templars in a letter to Abbot Suger, his regent during his absence. Once arrived in Antioch, Evrard arranged a loan for Louis, launcing the Templars career as bankers to the French monarchy and, arguably, sowing the seed of the order’s downfall some 150 years later. He took part in the disastrous siege of Damascus and, after the ensuing debacle, returned to France with the king, resigned his office, and lived for more than 20 years as a monk of Clairvaux, dying in 1174.

The Menology does not tell us of which faults Evrard was assured forgiveness, whether it was deeds in battle that weighed upon him or his less than exemplary record as Grand Master. One might also wonder what he and St. Bernard shared of their experiences. His role as preacher of the Second Crusade proved to be a disaster for the reputation of the dynamic abbot of Clairvaux and a sensitive subject with his biographers.

Whatever the guilt Evrard felt, the vision and his long life as a simple monk seemed to have brought him the solace he had sought in the cloister.

* * *

And, on a more spurious note, I should point out that conspiracy theorists list Evrard as being Grand Master of the Priory of Sion from 1147 to 1150. Here we have yet another connection between the Cistercians and the grand plot to control the universe, and still Opus Dei gets all the credit. Maybe we’re just better at this hidden life business.

Gertrude of Helfta

St. Gertrude the Great: CISTERCIAN

Cistercian Nuns of Helfta today 

In the new Cistercian Calendar, today is the feast of Gertrude the Great. The Holy Father gave an excellent reflection on her importance last month, which you can read here.

In recent times, there has been considerable scholarly argument over whether St. Gertrude was a Cistercian or Benedictine. I think the quote below from The Herald of Divine Love shows that, at the very least, she was a Cistercian by desire:

I was in my 26th year. The day of my salvation was the Monday preceding the feast of the Purification of your most chaste Mother, which fell that year on the 27th of January. The desirable hour was after Compline, as dusk was falling.

My God, you who are all truth, clearer than all light, yet hidden deeper in our heart than any secret, when you yourself resolved to disperse the darkness of my night, you began gently and tenderly by first calming my mind, which had been troubled for more than a month past. This trouble it seems to me served your purpose. You were striving to destroy the tower of vanity and worldiness which I had set up in my pride, although, alas, I was - in vain - bearing the name and wearing the habit of a religious. (…) From that hour, in a new spirit of joyful serenity I began to follow the way of the sweet odor of your perfumes (Song 1:3) and I found your yoke sweet and your burden light (Matt. 11:30) which a short time before I had thought to be unbearable.

The Abbey of Helfta, known as "The Crown of German Abbeys" because of the great women mystics it produced, was destroyed and secularized at the Reformation. Cistercian Nuns resettled Helfta in 1999. You can read about their progress in reestablishing this great house here.  

St. Gertrude the Great - window Christ King Catholic Church Min.

NOTE: Gertude is properly known as Saint Gertrude for, although never formally canonized, she was equipollently canonized in 1677 by Pope Clement XII when he inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology.
Her feast was set for November 16. Pope Benedict XIV gave her the title "the Great" to distinguish her from Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn and to recognize the depth of her spiritual and theological insight.

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BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Saint Gertrude the Great

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

• St Gertrude the Great, of whom I would like to talk to you today, brings us once again this week to the Monastery of Helfta, where several of the Latin-German masterpieces of religious literature were written by women. Gertrude belonged to this world. She is one of the most famous mystics, the only German woman to be called "Great", because of her cultural and evangelical stature: her life and her thought had a unique impact on Christian spirituality. She was an exceptional woman, endowed with special natural talents and extraordinary gifts of grace, the most profound humility and ardent zeal for her neighbour's salvation. She was in close communion with God both in contemplation and in her readiness to go to the help of those in need.
• At Helfta, she measured herself systematically, so to speak, with her teacher, Matilda of Hackeborn, of whom I spoke at last Wednesday's Audience. Gertrude came into contact with Matilda of Magdeburg, another medieval mystic and grew up under the wing of Abbess Gertrude, motherly, gentle and demanding. From these three sisters she drew precious experience and wisdom; she worked them into a synthesis of her own, continuing on her religious journey with boundless trust in the Lord. Gertrude expressed the riches of her spirituality not only in her monastic world, but also and above all in the biblical, liturgical, Patristic and Benedictine contexts, with a highly personal hallmark and great skill in communicating.
• Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256, on the Feast of the Epiphany, but nothing is known of her parents nor of the place of her birth. Gertrude wrote that the Lord himself revealed to her the meaning of this first uprooting: "I have chosen you for my abode because I am pleased that all that is lovable in you is my work.... For this very reason I have distanced you from all your relatives, so that no one may love you for reasons of kinship and that I may be the sole cause of the affection you receive" (The Revelations, I, 16, Siena 1994, pp. 76-77).
• When she was five years old, in 1261, she entered the monastery for formation and education, a common practice in that period. Here she spent her whole life, the most important stages of which she herself points out. In her memoirs she recalls that the Lord equipped her in advance with forbearing patience and infinite mercy, forgetting the years of her childhood, adolescence and youth, which she spent, she wrote, "in such mental blindness that I would have been capable... of thinking, saying or doing without remorse everything I liked and wherever I could, had you not armed me in advance, with an inherent horror of evil and a natural inclination for good and with the external vigilance of others. "I would have behaved like a pagan... in spite of desiring you since childhood, that is since my fifth year of age, when I went to live in the Benedictine shrine of religion to be educated among your most devout friends" (ibid., II, 23, p. 140f.).
• Gertrude was an extraordinary student, she learned everything that can be learned of the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, the education of that time; she was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into profane studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation. If we know nothing of her origins, she herself tells us about her youthful passions: literature, music and song and the art of miniature painting captivated her. She had a strong, determined, ready and impulsive temperament. She often says that she was negligent; she recognizes her shortcomings and humbly asks forgiveness for them. She also humbly asks for advice and prayers for her conversion. Some features of her temperament and faults were to accompany her to the end of her life, so as to amaze certain people who wondered why the Lord had favoured her with such a special love.
• From being a student she moved on to dedicate herself totally to God in monastic life, and for 20 years nothing exceptional occurred: study and prayer were her main activities. Because of her gifts she shone out among the sisters; she was tenacious in consolidating her culture in various fields. 
  Nevertheless during Advent of 1280 she began to feel disgusted with all this and realized the vanity of it all. On 27 January 1281, a few days before the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, towards the hour of Compline in the evening, the Lord with his illumination dispelled her deep anxiety. With gentle sweetness he calmed the distress that anguished her, a torment that Gertrude saw even as a gift of God, "to pull down that tower of vanity and curiosity which, although I had both the name and habit of a nun alas I had continued to build with my pride, so that at least in this manner I might find the way for you to show me your salvation" (ibid., II, p. 87). She had a vision of a young man who, in order to guide her through the tangle of thorns that surrounded her soul, took her by the hand. In that hand Gertrude recognized "the precious traces of the wounds that abrogated all the acts of accusation of our enemies" (ibid., II, 1, p. 89), and thus recognized the One who saved us with his Blood on the Cross: Jesus.
• From that moment her life of intimate communion with the Lord was intensified, especially in the most important liturgical seasons Advent-Christmas, Lent-Easter, the feasts of Our Lady even when illness prevented her from going to the choir. This was the same liturgicalhumus as that of Matilda, her teacher; but Gertrude describes it with simpler, more linear images, symbols and terms that are more realistic and her references to the Bible, to the Fathers and to the Benedictine world are more direct.
• Her biographer points out two directions of what we might describe as her own particular "conversion": in study, with the radical passage from profane, humanistic studies to the study of theology, and in monastic observance, with the passage from a life that she describes asnegligent, to the life of intense, mystical prayer, with exceptional missionary zeal. The Lord who had chosen her from her mother's womb and who since her childhood had made her partake of the banquet of monastic life, called her again with his grace "from external things to inner life and from earthly occupations to love for spiritual things". Gertrude understood that she was remote from him, in the region of unlikeness, as she said with Augustine; that she had dedicated herself with excessive greed to liberal studies, to human wisdom, overlooking spiritual knowledge, depriving herself of the taste for true wisdom; she was then led to the mountain of contemplation where she cast off her former self to be reclothed in the new. "From a grammarian she became a theologian, with the unflagging and attentive reading of all the sacred books that she could lay her hands on or contrive to obtain. She filled her heart with the most useful and sweet sayings of Sacred Scripture. Thus she was always ready with some inspired and edifying word to satisfy those who came to consult her while having at her fingertips the most suitable scriptural texts to refute any erroneous opinion and silence her opponents" (ibid., I, 1, p. 25).
• Gertrude transformed all this into an apostolate: she devoted herself to writing and popularizing the truth of faith with clarity and simplicity, with grace and persuasion, serving the Church faithfully and lovingly so as to be helpful to and appreciated by theologians and devout people.
• Little of her intense activity has come down to us, partly because of the events that led to the destruction of the Monastery of Helfta. In addition to The Herald of Divine Love and The Revelations, we still have her Spiritual Exercises, a rare jewel of mystical spiritual literature.
• In religious observance our Saint was "a firm pillar... a very powerful champion of justice and truth" (ibid., I, 1, p. 26), her biographer says. By her words and example she kindled great fervour in other people. She added to the prayers and penances of the monastic rule others with such devotion and such trusting abandonment in God that she inspired in those who met her an awareness of being in the Lord's presence. In fact, God made her understand that he had called her to be an instrument of his grace. Gertrude herself felt unworthy of this immense divine treasure, and confesses that she had not safeguarded it or made enough of it. She exclaimed: "Alas! If you had given me to remember you, unworthy as I am, by even only a straw, I would have viewed it with greater respect and reverence that I have had for all your gifts!" (ibid., II, 5, p. 100). Yet, in recognizing her poverty and worthlessness she adhered to God's will, "because", she said, "I have so little profited from your graces that I cannot resolve to believe that they were lavished upon me solely for my own use, since no one can thwart your eternal wisdom. Therefore, O Giver of every good thing who has freely lavished upon me gifts so undeserved, in order that, in reading this, the heart of at least one of your friends may be moved at the thought that zeal for souls has induced you to leave such a priceless gem for so long in the abominable mud of my heart" (ibid., II, 5, p. 100f.).
• Two favours in particular were dearer to her than any other, as Gertrude herself writes: "The stigmata of your salvation-bearing wounds which you impressed upon me, as it were, like a valuable necklaces, in my heart, and the profound and salutary wound of love with which you marked it. 
  "You flooded me with your gifts, of such beatitude that even were I to live for 1,000 years with no consolation neither interior nor exterior the memory of them would suffice to comfort me, to enlighten me, to fill me with gratitude. Further, you wished to introduce me into the inestimable intimacy of your friendship by opening to me in various ways that most noble sacrarium of your Divine Being which is your Divine Heart.... To this accumulation of benefits you added that of giving me as Advocate the Most Holy Virgin Mary, your Mother, and often recommended me to her affection, just as the most faithful of bridegrooms would recommend his beloved bride to his own mother" (ibid., II, 23, p. 145).
• Looking forward to never-ending communion, she ended her earthly life on 17 November 1301 or 1302, at the age of about 46. In the seventh Exercise, that of preparation for death, St Gertrude wrote: "O Jesus, you who are immensely dear to me, be with me always, so that my heart may stay with you and that your love may endure with me with no possibility of division; and bless my passing, so that my spirit, freed from the bonds of the flesh, may immediately find rest in you. Amen" (Spiritual Exercises, Milan 2006, p. 148).
• It seems obvious to me that these are not only things of the past, of history; rather St Gertrude's life lives on as a lesson of Christian life, of an upright path, and shows us that the heart of a happy life, of a true life, is friendship with the Lord Jesus. And this friendship is learned in love for Sacred Scripture, in love for the Liturgy, in profound faith, in love for Mary, so as to be ever more truly acquainted with God himself and hence with true happiness, which is the goal of our life. Many thanks.
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  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy4jmkCGcVM 

Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great

The Holy Souls Will Repay Us A Thousand Times Over Now who can be in more urgent need of our charity than the souls in Purgatory? What hunger, or thirst, or dire sufferings on Earth can compare to their dreadful torments? Neither the poor, nor the sick, nor the suffering, we see around us, have such an urgent need of our help. Yet we find many good-hearted people who interest themselves in every other type of suffering, but alas! scarcely one who works for the Holy Souls. Who can have more claim on us? Among them too, there may be our mothers and fathers, our friends and near of kin. When they are finally released from their pains and enjoy the beatitude of Heaven, far from forgetting their friends on earth, their gratitude knows no bounds. Prostrate before the Throne of God, they never cease to pray for those who helped them. By their prayers they shield their friends from many dangers and protect them from the evils that threaten them. To promote charity toward the poor souls order and distribute large quantities of these cards.  To have a better understanding of Purgatory and the terrible sufferings of the poor souls, order Purgatory Explained, an excellent book of 427 pages.

Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said. "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen." St. Gertrude's life was the mystic life of the Cloister – a Benedictine nun. She meditated on the Passion of Christ, which many times brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She did many penances and Our Lord appeared to her many times. She had a tender love for the Blessed Virgin and was very devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. She died in 1334. Her feast day is November 16th. Approval and recommendation (sgd.) M. Cardinal Pahiarca at Lisbon, Portugal, on March 4, 1936.

www.olrl.org/pray/

Our Lady of the Rosary Library

Saint Margaret +1093

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

St. Margaret of Scotland (c. 1046-1093)   

Foundress of Abbeys

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard . . . . . 
Subject: Margaret of Scotland

                          Saint Margaret of Scotland

Today we celebrate the feast of St Margaret, Patron Saint of Scotland. She was most assiduous in prayer and alms-giving. She would sometimes rise at night to recite the Divine Office. She would attend Mass each day in Advent and Lent. During these seasons she and Malcolm personally served a meal to hundreds of poor people in their own hall. She personally cared for nine orphans and maintained 24 poor men.

   

Turgot, her confessor considered her good works more impressive than miracles. It is these good works that make the holiness which the signs reveal.

Let us pray.

   Lord, you gave St Margaret of Scotland a special love for the poor. Let her example and prayers help us to become a living sign of your goodness.

   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, save us from look-warmness. Set our hearts on fire for love of you and our brothers and sisters as you did to St Margaret.

   Through Christ our Lord.

 Prayer after Communion,

 Let us pray.

     Lord, may we who are renewed by these mysteries follow the example of St Margaret who worshipped you with love and served your people with generosity. We ask this through Christ our Lord.                                              

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Remembrance Sunday 14/11/2010

Fr Luke OCSO 1921-2010

COMMENT previous

THE NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY gives an interesting spiritual columns side by side Luke and Mark on the Jericho encounter of Jesus and the Blind Man.

Mark 10:46-52   The Blind Man of Jericho    46-52.  "Hearing the commotion the crowd was making, the blind man asks, `What is happening?' They told him, `It is Jesus of Nazareth.' At this his soul was so fired with faith in Christ that he cried out, `Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' "Don't you feel the same urge to cry out? You who are also waiting at the side of the way, of this highway of life that is so very short? You who need more light, you who need more grace to make up your mind to seek holiness? Don't you feel an urgent need to cry out, `Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me'? What a beautiful aspiration for you to repeat again and again!... "`Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.' As people have done to you, when you sensed that Jesus was passing your way. Your heart beat faster and you too began to cry out, prompted by an intimate longing. Then your friends, the need to do the done thing, the easy life, your surroundings, all conspired to tell you: `Keep quiet, don't cry out. Who are you to be calling Jesus? Don't bother Him.' "But poor Bartimaeus would not listen to them. He cried out all the more: `Son of David, have mercy on me.' Our Lord, who had heard him right from the beginning, let him persevere in his prayer. He does the same with you. Jesus hears our cries from the very first, but he waits. He wants us to be convinced that we need Him. He wants us to beseech Him, to persist, like the blind man waiting by the road from Jericho. `Let us imitate him. Even if God does not immediately give us what we ask, even if many people try to put us off our prayers, let us still go on praying' (St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. Matthew", 66). "  And Jesus stopped, and told them to call Him.' Some of the better people in the crowd turned to the blind man and said, `Take heart; rise, He is calling you.' Here you have the Christian vocation! But God does not call only once. Bear in mind that our Lord is seeking us at every moment: get up, He tells us, put aside your indolence, your easy life, your petty selfishness, your silly little problems. Get up from the ground, where you are lying prostrate and shapeless. Acquire height, weight and volume, and a supernatural outlook. "And throwing off his mantle the man sprang up and came to Jesus. He threw off his mantle! I don't know if you have ever lived through a war, but many years ago I had occasion to visit a battlefield shortly after an engagement. There strewn all over the ground, were greatcoats, water bottles, haversacks stuffed with family souvenirs, letters, photographs of loved ones...which belonged, moreover, not to the vanquished but to the victors! All these items had become superfluous in the bid to race forward and leap over the enemy defenses. Just as happened to Bartimaeus, as he raced towards Christ. "Never forget that Christ cannot be reached without sacrifice. We have to get rid of everything that gets in the way--greatcoat, haversack, water bottle. You have to do the same in this battle for the glory of God, in this struggle of love and peace by which we are trying to spread Christ's Kingdom. In order to serve the Church, the Pope and all souls, you must be ready to give up everything superfluous.... "And now begins a dialogue with God, a marvelous dialogue that moves us and sets our hearts on fire, for you and I are now Bartimaeus. Christ, who is God, begins to speak and asks, `Quid tibi vis faciam?' `What do you want Me to do for you?' The blind man answers. `Lord, that I may see.' How utterly logical! How about yourself, can you really see? Haven't you too experienced at times what happened to the blind man of Jericho? I can never forget how, when meditating on this passage many years back, and realizing that Jesus was expecting something of me, though I myself did not know what it was, I made up my own aspirations: `Lord, what is it You want! What are You asking of me'? I had a feeling that He wanted me to take on something new and the cry, `Rabboni, ut videam', `Master, that I may see,' moved me to beseech Christ again and again, `Lord, whatever it is that You wish, let it be done.' "Pray with me now to our Lord: `doce me facere voluntatem tuam, quia Deus meus es tu" ( Psa_142:10 ) (`teach me to do Thy will, for You art my God'). In short, our lips should express a true desire on our part to correspond effectively to our Creator's promptings, striving to follow out His plans with unshakeable faith, being fully convinced that He cannot fail us.... "But let us go back to the scene outside Jericho. It is now to you that Christ is speaking. He asks you, `What do you want Me to do for you?' `Master, let me receive my sight.' Then Jesus answers, `Go your way. Your faith has made you well.' And immediately he received his sight and followed Him on His way." Following Jesus on His way. You have understood what our Lord was asking to from you and you have decided to accompany Him on His way. You are trying to walk in His footsteps, to clothe yourself in Christ's clothing, to be Christ Himself: well, your faith, your faith in the light our Lord is giving you, must be both operative and full of sacrifice. Don't fool yourself. Don't think you are going to find new ways. The faith He demands of us is as I have said. We must keep in step with Him, working generously and at the same time uprooting and getting rid of everything that gets in the way" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 195-198).

Luke 18:35-43     The Cure of the Blind Man of Jericho    35-43.  The blind man of Jericho is quick to use the opportunity presented by Christ's presence. We should not neglect the Lord's graces, for we do not know whether He will offer us them again. St. Augustine described very succinctly the urgency with which we should respond to God's gift, to His passing us on the road: "`Timeo Jesum praetereuntem et non redeuntem': I fear Jesus may pass by and not come back." For, at least on some occasion, in some way, Jesus passes close to everyone. The blind man of Jericho acclaims Jesus as the Messiah--he gives Him the messianic title of Son of David--and asks Him to meet his need, to make him see. His is an active faith; he shouts out, he persists, despite the people getting in his way. And he manages to get Jesus to hear him and call him. God wanted this episode to be recorded in the Gospel, to teach us how we should believe and how we should pray--with conviction, with urgency, with constancy, in spite of the obstacles, with simplicity, until we manage to get Jesus to listen to us. "Lord, let me receive my sight": this simple ejaculatory prayer should be often on our lips, flowing from the depths of our heart. It is a very good prayer to use in moments of doubt and vacillation, when we cannot understand the reason behind God's plans, when the horizon of our commitment becomes clouded. It is even a good prayer for people who are sincerely trying to find God but who do not yet have the great gift of faith.

Lord, help me recognize my own blind spots

15 November 2010

Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

Mass.

Intro: Fr. S . . .

LUKE 18:35-43
(Revelation 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Psalm 1)

In the Gospel, we have the beautiful story of the blind man near Jericho.
The blind man had an intense desire to be healed. When he heard Jesus was passing that way. He shouted, “Jesus, son of David have pity on me.” People scolded him to be quiet.
They thought that the blind man was asking for alms. But his need was deeper. He refused to be silent and restrained.
It was the desperate need and longing attracted the power of Jesus. It was a cry and tears of a very poor human heart which finds a response in the heart of Jesus.
It was the blind man’s faith which opened the power of Jesus.

Seeing his faith, Jesus said to the blind man, “Have sight, your faith has saved you.”  Immediately his sight was restored.

We too are blind spiritually.
Let us acknowledge the blind spots that we have in our relationship with God and others and our need of healing.
Like the blind man in the Gospel, we bring our blind spots to Jesus for healing in faith in his power.

 + + + 

I should have remembered that the Jericho blind man is named "Bartimaeus" in Mark 10:46. The harmony of the Gospels fills the frame. 

Blind Bartimaeus

Harmony of Gospels. Blind Bartimaeus and his companion healed
Mat 20:29-34	Mar 10:46-52	Luk 18:35-43
29  And as they were going out of Jericho, a great throng accompanied Him. 30  And behold, two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have pity and mercy on us, [You] Son of David!	46  Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, a son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now]!	35  As He came near to Jericho, it occurred that a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36  And hearing a crowd going by, he asked what it meant. 37  They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. 38  And he shouted, saying, Jesus, Son of David, take pity and have mercy on me!