Saint Bruno Grande Charteuse monastery

Theologians Mission through Silence and Contemplation by Pope Benedict XVI 2006  

At the beginning of the Liturgy, Cardinal William J. Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, greeted the Holy Father, who responded:

Thank you, Your Eminence, for your deeply cordial words. Thank you for your work and for your prayers. In the joy of our common faith, let us now begin the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  I have not prepared a real Homily, only a few ideas for meditation.

As clearly appears, the mission of St Bruno, today's saint, is, we might say, interpreted in the prayer for this day, which reminds us, despite being somewhat different in the Italian text, that his mission was silence and contemplation.

But silence and contemplation have a purpose: they serve, in the distractions of daily life, to preserve permanent union with God. This is their purpose: that union with God may always be present in our souls and may transform our entire being.

Parkminster
www the hermeneutic of continuity blogspot com

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Parkminster Charterhouse
2011 Ordination of priest Fr Gtregory Carling.

Silence and contemplation, characteristic of St Bruno, help us find this profound, continuous union with God in the distractions of every day. Silence and contemplation: speaking is the beautiful vocation of the theologian. This is his mission: in the loquacity of our day and of other times, in the plethora of words, to make the essential words heard. Through words, it means making present the Word, the Word who comes from God, the Word who is God.

Yet, since we are part of this world with all its words, how can we make the Word present in words other than through a process of purification of our thoughts, which in addition must be above all a process of purification of our words?

How can we open the world, and first of all ourselves, to the Word without entering into the silence of God from which his Word proceeds? For the purification of our words, hence, also for the purification of the words of the world, we need that silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God's silence and brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born.

St Thomas Aquinas, with a long tradition, says that in theology God is not the object of which we speak. This is our own normal conception.

God, in reality, is not the object but the subject of theology. The one who speaks through theology, the speaking subject, must be God himself. And our speech and thoughts must always serve to ensure that what God says, the Word of God, is listened to and finds room in the world.

Thus, once again we find ourselves invited to this process of forfeiting our own words, this process of purification so that our words may be nothing but the instrument through which God can speak, and hence, that he may truly be the subject and not the object of theology.

In this context, a beautiful phrase from the First Letter of St Peter springs to my mind. It is from verse 22 of the first chapter. The Latin goes like this: "Castificantes animas nostras in oboedentia veritatis". Obedience to the truth must "purify" our souls and thus guide us to upright speech and upright action.

In other words, speaking in the hope of being applauded, governed by what people want to hear out of obedience to the dictatorship of current opinion, is considered to be a sort of prostitution: of words and of the soul.

The "purity" to which the Apostle Peter is referring means not submitting to these standards, not seeking applause, but rather, seeking obedience to the truth.

And I think that this is the fundamental virtue for the theologian, this discipline of obedience to the truth, which makes us, although it may be hard, collaborators of the truth, mouthpieces of truth, for it is not we who speak in today's river of words, but it is the truth which speaks in us, who are really purified and made chaste by obedience to the truth. So it is that we can truly be harbingers of the truth.

This reminds me of St Ignatius of Antioch and something beautiful he said: "Those who have understood the Lord's words understand his silence, for the Lord should be recognized in his silence". The analysis of Jesus' words reaches a certain point but lives on in our thoughts.

Only when we attain that silence of the Lord, his being with the Father from which words come, can we truly begin to grasp the depth of these words.

Jesus' words are born in his silence on the Mountain, as Scripture tells us, in his being with the Father.

Words are born from this silence of communion with the Father, from being immersed in the Father, and only on reaching this point, on starting from this point, do we arrive at the real depth of the Word and can ourselves be authentic interpreters of the Word. The Lord invites us verbally to climb the Mountain with him and thus, in his silence, to learn anew the true meaning of words.

In saying this, we have arrived at today's two Readings. Job had cried out to God and had even argued with God in the face of the glaring injustice with which God was treating him. He is now confronted with God's greatness. And he understands that before the true greatness of God all our speech is nothing but poverty and we come nowhere near the greatness of his being; so he says: "I have spoken... twice, but I will proceed no further" [Jb 40: 5].

We are silent before the grandeur of God, for it dwarfs our words. This makes me think of the last weeks of St Thomas' life. In these last weeks, he no longer wrote, he no longer spoke. His friends asked him: "Teacher, why are you no longer speaking? Why are you not writing?". And he said: "Before what I have seen now all my words appear to me as straw".

Fr Jean-Pierre Torrel, the great expert on St Thomas, tells us not to misconstrue these words. Straw is not nothing. Straw bears grains of wheat and this is the great value of straw. It bears the ear of wheat. And even the straw of words continues to be worthwhile since it produces wheat.

For us, however, I would say that this is a relativization of our work; yet, at the same time, it is an appreciation of our work. It is also an indication in order that our way of working, our straw, may truly bear the wheat of God's Word.

The Gospel ends with the words: "He who hears you, hears me". What an admonition! What an examination of conscience those words are! Is it true that those who hear me are really listening to the Lord? Let us work and pray so that it may be ever more true that those who hear us hear Christ. Amen!

© Copyright 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

This item 7246 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

Grande Chatreuse
1997 my visit with Abbot of Tamie

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/im-film-review-into-great-silence

COMMENT Luke 11:1-4 'give us each day our daily bread' v.3

ourladyoftheangelsofportiuncula

Dear William,

Many thanks for filling up the gaps of the Scholars Version of Luke 11;3-4. 

Your textual coverage backs up with the Mysticism of Tauler and the Biblical Theolgy of Benedict XVI.  

Story upon story mounts in a high rise edifice growing in our interest.

For the moment, Amazon has not yet produced the the COMPLETE GOSPELS.

Yours 

Donald. 

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: William J ...
To: Donald ....
Sent: Wednesday, 5 October 2011, 7:33
Subject: Luke 11 verses 3 & 4 non-canonical reflections

Dear Father Donald,

I am 'away over hill and moorland' following the footpath map drawn by Joachim Jeremias on his journey through the other 'sayings' of Jesus, and today there are two vistas.

Scholars Version: 11:3 "Provide us with the bread we need day by day".

Footnote: The meaning of the Greek word epiousios is disputed. Possible translations are 'daily', 'for sustenance', and 'for the future'. Its only certain occurrence in the Greek language is in the Lord's Prayer.

Margin: parallel passage - the Gospel of the Nazoreans [3], a narrative gospel closely related to the Gospel of Matthew, which like the other Jewish-Christian gosples, is preserved only in a few quotations and citations in the writings of early Christian authors.

Quote - reported by St. Jerome in his commentary of Matthew 6:11: "In the so-called Gospel of the Hebrews, instead of "the bread we need for the day", I found "mahar" , which means "for tomorrow", so the sense is "Provide us today with the bread we need for tomorrow" - that is, for the future".

Scholars Version: 11:4 "Forgive our sins, since we too forgive everyone in debt to us. And please don't subject us to test after test."

Margin: compare - the Secret Book of James [4:2], which manuscript relates that 550 days after Jesus' resurrection and immediately prior to his ascension, Jesus imparted a private revelation to James and Peter. The account of this revelation is a "secret book", which James introduces in the framework of a letter. It makes use of various sayings traditions, some of which appear in the New Testament gospels, while others are preserved only in 'Secret James'.

Text [4] "And I responded, "Lord, we can obey you if you wish, for we have forsaken our fathers and our mothers and our villages and have followed you. Give us the means, [then], not to be tempted by the evil devil". The Lord replied, "If you do the Father's will, what credit is that to you - unless he gives you, as part of his gift, your being tempted by Satan? But if you are oppressed by Satan, and are persecuted, and you do his will, I [say] that he will love you, and make you equal with me, and will regard [you] as having become [beloved] through his providence according to your own choice,"

Footnote: "providence....choice" - refers to the tension between predestination and the exercise of one's free will.

What reflections over the horizon - if not lights themselves - these passages provide!

. . . in Our Lord,

William

The Lord's Prayer Luke 11:1-4

27th Week  Night Office Reading From a conference of John TAULER Christ Teaching How to Pray Mass Intro The Gospel is the shorter version of the ‘Our Father’, St. Luke 11:1-4 The Matthew (Mt. 6:9-13) ‘Our Father’ is the one we ‘know by heart’. That is how we say it familiarly, but in fact it can be the mechanical habit of a prayer. The Dominican, Tauler, in the Night Office Reading, used the brief prayer, ASK, SEEK, KNOCK. Even the briefest can be mechanical. Tauler reminds; “we must use whatever methods of prayer come to us, whether they are directed to God's divinity or to the Holy Trinity or to the passion or the sacred wounds of our Lord.” It can be misleading to learning a prayer ‘by heart’ as it can be just as mechanical. The truth is to pray ‘by heart of heart, of heart, of heart’, we must bring our hearts home Tauler provides the choice of words. From a conference by John Tauler God is ready to give if we will only ask him properly; and he has been at pains to tell us and urge us and teach us how to ask him properly. All the same, his gifts are only given to those who beg and pray and keep on praying, never to idlers and loungers. We should observe what we must ask for, and how. If we want to be wholehearted in our prayer, above everything else we must bring our hearts home, call them back from their wanderings among created things, from their distractions, and then with deep humility we must prostrate ourselves at God's feet and ask him to be merciful and generous to us. We must knock at the Father's heart and beg for bread. This bread is God's love. If we have no bread, then we have no appetite for any other food, however rich it may be; we cannot enjoy it, it does not nourish us. God's love is like that; it is the one thing we really need. So we must ask God to give to us, and ask him to teach us in our prayer and in our spiritual exercises, how to ask him in the way most pleasing to him and most profitable to us. Then we must use whatever methods of prayer come to us, whether they are directed to God's divinity or to the Holy Trinity or to the passion or the sacred wounds of our Lord. So "ask" means ask the Lord for something. It is not given to everyone to use purely mental prayer; some people have to use words. If you need to do this, speak to our dear Lord lovingly and tenderly with all the most loving words you can think of. This will raise up your love and your heart. Ask the heavenly Father to give you a foretaste of himself through his only Son in whatever way is most pleasing to him; and when you have found the form of prayer that suits you best, even if it is the remembrance of your sins and your faults, persevere in it and make it your own. "Seek" means seek out whatever is most pleasing to God and most profitable to you. And "knock" means apply yourself with zeal and persistence; because the prize is given to the person who persists to the end. Response:  Mt. 7:7. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find; + knock and the door will be opened to you. …

MEDITATION    OF THE DAY www.magnificant.com

Praying "Our Father" 

from Jesus of Nazarene (Pope 1966)   

We must therefore let Jesus teach us what father really means. In Jesus' discourses, the Father appears as the source of all good, as the measure of the recti­tude (perfection) of man ... The love that endures "to the end" (In 13: 1), which the Lord fulfilled on the cross in praying for his enemies, shows us the essence of the Father. He is this love. Because Jesus brings it to completion, he is entirely "Son", and he invites us to become "sons" according to this criterion ...

The Lord reminds us that fathers do not give their children stones when they ask for bread. He then goes on to say: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Mt 7: 9ff.). Luke specifies the "good gifts" that the Father gives; he says, "how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13).

This means that the gift of God is God himself. The "good things" that he gives us are himself. This reveals in a surprising way what prayer is really all about: it is not about this or that, but about God's desire to offer us the gift of himself - that is the gift of all gifts, the "one thing necessary". Prayer is a way of gradually purifying and correcting our wishes and of slowly coming to realise what we really need: God and his Spirit.

Benedict XVI  elected to Pope 2005. 

Saint Francis ONLINE

At the Community Mass this morning, Thomas, referred to Paul Sabatier.
The Strasburg Calvin Pastor wrote the Life of Saint Francis 1893.
Sabatier' book gave great stimulus to  the modern world interest in Saint  Francis.

Life of St. Francis by Paul Sabatier
ONLINE Kindle (Amazon)

Tuesday, October 04, 2011
St. Francis of Assisi
(1182-1226)  

      Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a sense of self-importance.

Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi's youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: "Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy."
From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, "Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down." Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.
He must have suspected a deeper meaning to "build up my house." But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor "nothing" man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up all his possessions, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis' "gifts" to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, "Our Father in heaven." He was, for a time, considered to be a religious fanatic, begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, evokng sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.

+ + +

A modern Tranlation

Saint Francis
Jon Sweeney, Paraclete Press

"The Secret Paradise of Sancta Maria Abbey." YouTube

Dear, Kieran,
Amazing YouTube of in-environment in this heaven.
Thank you,
Donald
  ----- Forwarded Message -----
From: YouTube Service
To: nunrawdonald. . .
Sent: Thursday, 1 January 1970, 0:00
Subject: kieran sent you a video: "The Secret Paradise of Sancta Maria Abbey."

	help center | e-mail options | report spam
kieranthepriest has shared a video with you on YouTube: The Secret Paradise of Sancta Maria Abbey. The Cistercian Abbey of Sancta Maria and historical Nunraw Abbey Guest house, are located in the Lammermuir Hills of East Lothian, Scotland. The community of Monks live a contemplative life of prayer, simple manual labour and works of charity. living harmoniously with one another, as Mahatma Gandhi wrote. (* "The rose transmits its scent without a movement. I have a definite feeling that if you want us to experience the aroma of Christianity you must copy the rose. It irresistibly draws people to itself and the scent remains with them. A rose does not preach ... it simply spreads its fragrance. ) Sancta Maria is the rose in the garden of Eden. for more information on Sancta Maria Abbey see www.nunraw.com.uk * According to the Monastic Tradition" Page 1 Introduction. by Columban Heaney, ocso. Nunraw Abbey Publications   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuYYPh78Pwk&feature=email
© 2011 YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066

Blessed Columba Marmion OSB Collect 3 October. Pluscarden Blessing of Abbot

Abbot Anselm Atkinson

Abbot Mark, Nunraw, set off early this morning for the drive north to Elgin, for the historic event. 

PLUSCARDEN ABBEY  

Today, 3rd of October 2011,is the occasion of the Abbatial Blessing of Abbot Anselm Atkinson, O.S.B. 

Abbot Anselm has chosen the very fitting  Liturgical feast, that of the Blessed Columba Marmion.

Blessed Columba Marmion  

Collect. We had to Browse the Wed to find  the Prayer for the Mass offered this Link.

  http://communio.stblogs.org/2008/10/blessed-columba-marmion.html 
The unusual head gear of Dom Columba Marmion also gave some merriment.

     

Bl. Columba Marmion

Collect:

O God, almighty Father, 

who called the blessed abbot Columba to the monastic way of life 

and opened to him the secrets of the mysteries of Christ, 

mercifully grant that, strengthened by his intercession, in the spirit of your adoption as sons, 

we may become a dwelling place worthy of your Wisdom. 

Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.    

Bl. COLUMBA MARMION  Bl. Columba Marmion was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 1 April 1858 to an Irish father (William Marmion) and a French mother (Herminie Cordier). Given the name Joseph Aloysius at birth, he entered the Dublin diocesan seminary in 1874 and completed his theological studies at the College of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome. He was ordained a priest at St Agatha of the Goths on 16 June 1881. He dreamed of becoming a missionary monk in Australia, but was won over by the liturgical atmosphere of the newly founded Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium, which he visited on his return to Ireland in 1881. His Bishop asked him to wait and appointed him curate in Dundrum, then professor at the major seminary in Clonliffe (1882-86). As the chaplain at a convent of Redemptorist nuns and at a women's prison, he learned to guide souls, to hear confessions, to counsel and to help the dying. In 1886 he received his Bishop's permission to become a monk. He voluntarily renounced a promising ecclesiastical career and was welcomed at Maredsous by Abbot Placidus Wolter. His novitiate, under the iron rule of Dom Benoît D'Hondt and among a group of young novices (when he was almost 30), proved all the more difficult because he had to change habits, culture and language. But saying that he had entered the monastery to learn obedience, he let himself be moulded by monastic discipline, community life and choral prayer until his solemn profession on 10 February 1891. He received his first "obedience" or mission when he was assigned to the small group of monks sent to found the Abbey of Mont César in Louvain. Although it distressed him, he gave his all to it for the sake of obedience. There he was entrusted with the task of Prior beside Abbot de Kerchove, and served as spiritual director and professor to all the young monks studying philosophy or theology in Louvain. He started to devote more time to preaching retreats in Belgium and in the United Kingdom, and gave spiritual direction to many communities, particularly those of Carmelite nuns. He become the confessor of Mons. Joseph Mercier, the future Cardinal, and the two formed a lasting friendship. During this period, Maredsous Abbey was governed by Dom Hildebrand de Hemptinne, its second Abbot, who in 1893 would become, at the request of Leo XIII, the first Primate of the Benedictine Confederation. His frequent stays in Rome required that he be replaced as Abbot of Maredsous, and it is Dom Columba Marmion who was elected the third Abbot of Maredsous on 28 September 1909, receiving the abbatial blessing on 3 October. He was placed at the head of a community of more than 100 monks, with a humanities college, a trade school and a farm to run. He also had to maintain a well-established reputation for research on the sources of the faith and to continue editing various publications, including the Revue Bénédictine. His ongoing care of the community did not stop Dom Marmion from preaching retreats or giving regular spiritual direction. He was asked to help the Anglican monks of Caldey when they wished to convert to Catholicism. His greatest ordeal was the First World War. His decision to send the young monks to Ireland so that they could complete their education in peace led to additional work, dangerous trips and many anxieties. It also caused misunderstandings and conflicts between the two generations within this community shaken by the war. German lay brothers, who had been present since the monastery's foundation by Beuron Abbey, had to be sent home (despite the Benedictine vow of stability) at the outbreak of hostilities. After the war was over, a small group of monks was urgently dispatched to the Monastery of the Dormition in Jerusalem to replace the German monks expelled by the British authorities. Finally, the Belgian monasteries were separated from the Beuron Congregation, and in 1920 the Belgian Congregation of the Annunciation was set up with Maredsous, Mont César and St André of Zevenkerken. His sole comfort during this period was preaching and giving spiritual direction. His secretary, Dom Raymond Thibaut, prepared his spiritual conferences for publication: Christ the Life of the Soul (1917), Christ in His Mysteries (1919) and Christ the Ideal of the Monk (1922). He was already considered an outstanding Abbot (Queen Elisabeth of Belgium consulted with him at length) and a great spiritual author. He died during a flu epidemic on 30 January 1923. Homily of the Holy Father [English, French, Italian] From L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English 6 September 2000

St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Luke 10; 17-24

Assisi view by Mark

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: WILLIAM . . .
To: Donald . . .
Sent: Sunday, 2 October 2011, 10:21
Subject: Re: Luke 10:21 on the face of a child

Dear Father Donald,

 

This is fascinating!

 

The "Complete Gospels", which also provides the text of the non-canonical gospels, uses its own translation known as the Scholar's Version (which is described a being "free of eccelesiastical and religious control"). Verse 21 is translated as follows: "hiidden these things from the wise and the learned but revealed them to the untutored".

 

Against this verse, in the margin, there is a direct reference to the Q source, and a note to compare a 'logion' (Chambers dictionary: a saying from an early collection of sayings attributed to Christ) in The Gospel of Thomas.

 

I think I was a little disappointed when I turned to the Q source, for the text given is "a hypothetical construct" as "no independent copy of it exists". It takes the form of a collation of texts found in Luke (primarily) and Matthew that are considered to be derived from this common source, matching lines from both Gospels where possible. It does, however, on later reflection, fulfil its purpose; to present, after scholarly investigation, those passages that later inspired the writers of the two Gospels.

 

The reference to The Gospel of Thomas, whilst only given to 'compare', ie not a 'proven' source parallel for this particular passage, is tantalizing!

Logion 4:1 : "Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live".

Brilliant! the innocence on the face of a child, totally trusting without any forced, or indeed, conscious awareness of that faith in those who love it.

 

On the face of a child - that captures the meaning of the moment for me!

 

With delight,

 . . .   in Our Lord,

William

 + + + 

Patroness of the Missions, Doctor of the Church.

Saint Theses - statue at the back porch

"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." These are the words of Therese of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun called the "Little Flower,"    (L. Foley OFM)

Comment: The Mass Gospel is of Luke 10:17-24, as in the current liturgical series, proves appropriate for St. Therese.
The Amplified Bible, Verse 21, "and learned, and revealed them to babes - the childish, unskilled and untaught."
Adding to the interest is the HARMONY with the Gospel of Matthew:11:25, both drawing from Q. (Knox, Harmony *53 'The Seventy-Two Disciples.')
Pending, Sacra Pagina provides Interpretation from Matthew.

Parallel Versions:

LUKE 10

Vulgate	RSV	NRSV	KJV+
21  in ipsa hora exultavit Spiritu Sancto et dixit confiteor tibi Pater Domine caeli et terrae quod abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus et revelasti ea parvulis etiam Pater quia sic placuit ante te	21  In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.	21 At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.	21  In1722 that846 hour5610 Jesus2424 rejoiced21 in spirit,4151 and2532 said,2036 I thank1843 thee,4671 O Father,3962 Lord2962 of heaven3772 and2532 earth,1093 that3754 thou hast hid613 these things5023 from575 the wise4680 and2532 prudent,4908 and2532 hast revealed601 them846 unto babes:3516 even so,3483 Father;3962 for3754 so3779 it seemed1096 good2107 in thy sight.1715, 4675