Ascension Day, dying of Gabrielle Bossis

YOU AND i -Ascension Day, dying of Gabrielle Bossis

'cleft of the rock' Ex.33:22 Ascension Thursday

"and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. (Exodus  33:22 NASB) 

The Tabernacle is in a hole of the wall. 

It is like 'the cleft of the rock' where Moses had asked to see the face of the glory of the Holy One. 

Last evening the sunshine illuminated the Oratory behind the Choir.

“YOU AND i” Gabrielle Bossis p. 384 1950

Her death on June 9, 1950.

ASCENSION THURSDAY May 18, 1950 – other dates in context.

May - "Lord, is this my last holy hour on earth?"

"May all your hours be holy hours now. There are so few before the last.

You are white as snow through the Anointing and its graces. ( ... ) My love has washed away every stain. ( ... ) If I love you at all times, I am even more moved in this great moment when the last visitor comes. May she do all she should for you. But rest in My arms while you wait for the final moment when the very last veil will be rent.

Now, My friend, here is your work: Regret, regret, regret your sins. And love, love, love ever more and more the One whose name is Love."

"Lord, take my little flame in Your fire."

May 13 - Weaker.

"Yes, I take your body like the wheat to be ground.

It is for your brothers:'

"For my brothers - with You."

May 15 - Weaker.

"Most tender Lord, give me Your arms. I am returning to our home with the tiny steps of a small child."

May 18, 1950 - Ascension Day.

"Don't love's preparations already bring joy to the heart of love? ( ... ) What are you going to say to Me on arriving? What am I going to say to you? Oh, this moment of the Meeting! Put your whole soul into it. Believe in the infinite tenderness. You realize that you are too timid. Then venture out on My love. Hope. Come, My beloved, come and tell Me everything you have not dared to say."

May 23 - Communion of the Sick.

"Poor little soul, you've waited to the very last minute of your life to believe in My boundless compassion, in the final forgiveness. Have no more fear of anything. It would wound Me if you were afraid. Surrender your whole being to love, my beloved:'

May 24 - "No more strength. I can scarcely see. I'm scarcely

                                                      able to love You."    _

"Take My eyes. Take My voice. Take My love."

May 25 - "Have I come to the end of my life? Is this the moment when I celebraie my first and last Mass? Where are You, loving Presence? ... And afterward, what will it be?"

"It will be 1. It will be 1.

Forevermore :'     

'cleft of the rock' Ex.33:22 Ascension Thursday

"and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. (Exodus  33:22 NASB)

The Tabernacle is in a hole of the wall. 

It is like 'the cleft of the rock' where Moses had asked to see the face of the glory of the Holy One. 

Last evening the sunshine illuminated the Oratory behind the Choir.

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk  
Blogspot :http://www.domdonald.org.uk/

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald Nunraw 
To: domdonald 
Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 20:52
Subject: Fw: CTS Via Lucis. clift of the rock

Thursday, 17 May 2012

The Ascension of the Lord - Solemnity - Year B

Feast of the Church : Ascension of Jesus Christ, solemnity
Saint(s) of the day : St. Paschal Baylon 

Ascension

Revised Ronald Knox Bible (‘you’ version).

RE-CREATING THE KNOX-COX TEXT OF “THE GOSPEL STORY”, compiled / combining extracts from: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

The Ascension of Our Lord

The first book which I wrote, Theophilus, was concerned with all that Jesus set out to do and teach, until the day came when he was taken up into heaven. 

He then laid a charge, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on the apostles whom he had chosen. 

He had shown them  by many proofs that he was still alive, after his passion; throughout the course of forty days he had been appearing to them, and telling them about the kingdom of God; and now he gave them orders, as he shared a meal with them, not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the fulfilment of the Father's promise:
 Behold, I am sending down upon you the gift which was promised by my Father; you must wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. 

John's baptism was with water, but there is a baptism with the Holy Spirit which you are to receive, not many days from this. 

And as he led them out as far as Bethany, his companions asked him, Lord, do you mean to restore the dominion to Israel here and now? But he told them, It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. Enough for you, that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will receive strength from him; you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and throughout Judaea, in Samaria, yes, and to the ends of the earth. 

And so the Lord Jesus, When he had said this, lifted up his hands and blessed them; and even as he blessed them he parted from them; they saw him lifted up, and a cloud caught him away from their sight. 

And as they strained their eyes towards heaven, to watch his journey, all at once two men in white garments were standing at their side. 

Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking heavenwards? He who has been taken from you into heaven, this same Jesus, will come back in the same fashion, just as you have watched him going into heaven. And they bowed down to worship him who is seated now at the right hand of God. 

Then, from the mountain which is called Olivet, went back full of joy to Jerusalem ; the distance from Jerusalem is not great, a sabbath day's journey. Coming in, they went up into the upper room where they dwelt, Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. 

All these, with one mind, gave themselves up to prayer, together with Mary the mother of Jesus, and the rest of the women and his brethren.  Matthias was added to their number as a witness of Jesus resurrection and took rank with the eleven apostles.  

They spent their time continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

Resurrection texts from the Knox translation

compiled by William J. W.

The 14th Station (The risen Lord sends the Holy Spirit) in wood by Giovanni Dragoni at the Colle Don Bosco (where St. John Bosco was born on August 16, 1815).

Catholic Truth Society

Illustrates the sculptures in shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pompei, Italy

Do you give joy to everyone you approach as the angel Gabriel did?

-COMMENT: 'YOU AND i'  book found.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Robert --------
To: Donald ------
Sent: Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 9:47
Subject: he and i

Dear Father Donald,

 

I have managed to obtain a copy of the above book and i look with excitement to read it,i read the extract from your blog this morning how wonderful is our dear lord so gentle and kind to his children,i hope you and all the brothers are well.

 

God Bless 

Robert.

  

Gabriel and Gabrielle

In the “YOU AND i” book, this morning, the page opened at the words of Gabrielle Bossis about her patron saint, Archangel Gabriel. “Do you give joy to everyone you approach as the angel Gabriel did?

In tune with her happy constitution, she links JOY with Gabriel and Gabrielle.

She had been at her Holy Hour – seems the best time leading to’ hearing’ the Lord

Yesterday we received anonymously from the door a bouquet of a select by Interflora. And it is placed at the ‘golden’ Tabernacle.

  

March 24 - Holy hour. The angel Gabriel's feastday.

"Do you remember this prayer, 'Pray for me so that, like You, ‘I may serve God on earth'?

Is that the way you feet too? Take a good look within yourself. Do you give joy to everyone you approach as the angel Gabriel did? He consoled Daniel, the three children in the fiery furnace, and Zacharias. He filled the heart of the Virgin with divine happiness when he announced the coming of the Saviour.

Have you offered material or moral help to others?

Do you weigh the word you should speak and the one you should withhold? Are you quick to do a favour? Are you full of loving enthusiasm for the glory of God? Do you keep yourself constantly before His face? Singing in your mind, 'Holy, holy, holy'? Ask the Archangel to teach you to sing, to serve, to scatter joy - the joy that is God-Power. But ask often. What keeps you from persisting if you believe? He is like a father. Be thankful. Isn't to believe the greatest happiness of all?

Oh, My little children, what a grace faith is! Could you ever compare yourselves with those who have lost it? You who are rich, give to the poor. Give them all your power to pray and to love; and your longing to love more.

'How can one love more?' you asked the missionary. And he replied, 'By living only to please God: Mirror this often within your heart. Do I live to please God or to please myself? All the distance between heaven

and earth is there, all the distance between Allness and nothingness.”

+ + +

March 28 - After Communion.

"When He shall come to judge the living and the dead ... That will be the day of the great judgment. But now is the time of great mercy, and I come to love. Above all, live this present moment:' (My mind was going back to the past or on into the future).

March 30 - In my bedroom.

"My child, ponder more often on the value of the present moment, the danger of going back over the past and the uselessness of gazing into the future. Just live the little moment that you hold in your hands. Simply and lovingly.”

March 30 - Holy hour.

"Take note of your thoughts. Don't you see that they occupy the greatest part of your existence. They belong to an interior realm that you must learn to rule since from them comes what is worthy and unworthy in your days. Keep them constantly in the climate of God, of His glory, His will, His mercy and all the qualities that make Him what He is. Live with these qualities and you will get to know Him better and attach less importance to yourself. You remember ... 'When shall I be perfectly one with You, Lord, and so lost in You that I shall no longer be aware of myself?' It is with thoughts of our oneness that you will discover your duty to give happiness to those I have placed around you. Don't believe in chance, but learn to see the hand of your Father, your Friend – the One who never leaves you – in everything that happens.

. . .

'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'—St Pachomius the Great

Icon of St. Pachomius (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.com used with permission)

St. Pachomius the Great - Commemorated on May 15 (text taken from:http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=101384)

"St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in Egypt.

Logismoi

http://logismoitouaaron.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/around-him-monks-swarmst-pachomius.html

28 MAY 2009

'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'—St Pachomius the Great

Today, 15 May on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of our Holy Father Pachomius the Great (292-346), founder of Egyptian coenobitism. According to William Harmless, ‘His Coptic name, “Pachom” [Παϧωμ], means “king’s falcon”’ (Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism [Oxford: Oxford U, 2004], p. 118). Born to pagan parents, the stories of his youth make it clear that he was feared by the demons even before he became a Christian. St Pachomius explained this to his disciples later, saying (Armand Veilleux, trans., Pachomian Koinonia, Vol. I: The Life of St Pachomius and His Disciples [Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1996], p. 26):

Armand Veilleux, trans. 

Do not think that the demons, who do not know the good, had me driven out of that place because they knew beforehand that I was later going to receive mercy by the true faith. Rather they saw that I hated evil even then—for God made man upright. And it was for this reason that they moved their servants to chase me out of that place. Just as anyone will say about a field that has been cleared, ‘Probably the field that has been cleared of all darnel is going to be sown with good seed.’

When he was twenty, St Pachomius was conscripted and taken down the Nile. He was detained in a prison at Luxor, according to Derwas Chitty, ‘somewhere, we may suppose, in the legionary camp which enveloped a large portion of the ancient Egyptian temple’ (The Desert a City: An Introduction to the Study of Eygptian and Palestinian Monasticism under the Christian Empire [Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary, 1995], p. 7). There, we are told:

In the evening some merciful Christians, hearing about them, brought them something to eat and rink and other necessities, because they were in distress. When the young man asked about this, he was told that Christians were merciful to everyone, including strangers. Again he asked what a Christian was. They told him, ‘They are men who bear the name of Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and they do good to everyone, putting their hope in Him who made heaven and earth and us men.’

Hearing of this great grace, his heart was set on fire with the fear of God and with joy. Withdrawing alone in the prison, he raised his hands to heaven in prayer and said, ‘O God, maker of heaven and earth, if you will look upon me in my lowliness, because I do not know you, the only true God, and if you will deliver me from this affliction, I will serve your will all the days of my life and, loving all men, I will be their servant according to your command.’ (Veilleux, p. 300)

Thus, as soon as the young man was discharged, he went to a church in the Upper Thebaid and received catechesis and holy Baptism.

I was admiring the clouds in the form of gigantic animal heads

You and I by Gabrielle Bossis  

p 304/5 Words 363 Sept 30 1948

September 30 - Coming back from a magnificent autumn walk, I was admiring the clouds in the form of gigantic animal heads. “Lord, they are as beautiful as if they were Your first Creation.”

"But each day is a first creation. Not one is like another. I never stop creating. And it is all for all of you. If I didn't hold you up, you would cease to exist. Will you love Me enough to thank Me for it?

This continuous creation of your body and your power of thinking comes from My everlasting love. So sing praises to Me. Sing with your body and your mind, as though you had begun this song at your birth and meant to continue it right to the moment of your death, only to take it up again for all eternity.

You saw the expression of that father's face as he listened to the song composed for him by his child. He was smiling at the little one, longing to put his arms around her. That was only a human father; he hadn't given his child her soul. Your Father in heaven is the life of your soul. He is your soul. You are My breath. I give it to you with every second that passes. And My breath is My love. Breathe Me with great eagerness to this one end: that you may live only to love Me.

Pray for those who receive My gifts without wanting to know Me, to love Me, and to serve Me. They too would cease to exist were I not holding them up. So I wait for them. Pray that they may seize every opportunity of returning to Me. I am always thirsty for them. Let them come to Me and like little children say, 'Forgive. I won't do it again: All will be forgotten. And immediately there will be great rejoicing in heaven. If they only knew. .. ! The Feast of My heart will be even greater. Ah! the tenderness of a God!

I am at the bottom of the stairs of your life and I'm listening. Will your feet approach or will they go away forever?" 

John 15:9-17 Homily - Fr. Raymond

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year B

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:9-17.

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Raymond - - -
Sent: Sunday, 13 May 2012, 9:53
Subject: As the Father has loved me

AS  THE FATHER HAS LOVED ME........

“As the Father has loved me, so do I love you.”  Jesus compares his Father’s love for himself with his own love for us.  Who can fathom the depths of meaning in these words: “As the Father has loved me, so do I love you.”  Our growth in our belief in these words and our understanding of them is almost a definition of our growth in our Catholic Faith.  “As the Father has loved me, so do I love you.”   These words don’t just give us a wonderful insight into the love that the Son has for us, they also provide us with a wonderful inspiration to respond to that love.

The Gospels give us many beautiful examples of the love Jesus has for us.  His very coming among us as man and his laying down his life for us proclaims it most of all of course.  But every one of his miraculous healings speaks about it; and when he calls the rich young man to leave everything and follow him we read that he “looks on him and loves him”.  We are told that He loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and when Lazarus was sick his Sisters sent word to Jesus that “He whom you love is sick”.  And when Lazarus died and Jesus wept for him the crowds were so struck by the sincerity of it that they said “see how he loved him!.”  John too is described for us as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  Jesus’ love for others was obviously then something that was more than just deep in his heart; it was a thing that shone for all to see.  It was like that “City set on a hill” that he spoke about when he told us that our charity too should be evident to everyone.  The pagans used to say about the early Christians “See how they loveone another”.

St Paul in his letters too, waxes eloquent about Jesus love for us.  He tells us that neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus for us.  And in the great Book of the Apocalypse the Risen and glorified Christ, “Lord of Lords and King of kings” is described as “He who loves us”.

 But all these descriptions of Jesus’ love for us pale into insignificance when we come back again to consider these words of Jesus himself comparing his love for us with his Father’s love for himself.  “As the Father has loved me, so do I love you.”  My love for you is just like my Father’s love for me.

This saying of Jesus takes us way above all the human images; all the human descriptions; all the other natural examples that even the gospels give us  of Jesus’ love for us. “As the Father has loved me, so do I love you.”  This takes us into the very depth of the life of the Blessed Trinity itself.  This guarantees for us that when Paul says: “we will be made participators in the divine nature” itself, he is not just using a figure of speech but is telling us of a real elevation of our human nature to a quality of life that is beyond words.

Truly “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to consider what God has prepared for those who love him”.  And truly indeed, “The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to come”.