'I have come down from heaven'?" John 6:41

PREAMBLE:  

One phrase of Jesus in the Gospel in John’s Eucharistic Chapter may well be sufficient for lasting thought, as today’s Reading, “I have come down from heaven.” , re-echoing the Jews and missing the mark.

After pausing and silent, the dramatic expressions from the DAY BY DAY reflection, ”That eating human flesh is the deepest, darkest, most unmentionable of taboos. ...” - enters more deeply as below.

Sunday, 12 August 2012

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Saint John 6:41-51.

The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," ...

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

May the communion in your Sacrament

that we have consumed, save us, 0 Lord,

and confirm us in the light of your truth.

Through Christ our Lord.

Magnificat

DAY BY DAY

Heather King

From Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity,  and the Peace That Passes All Understanding. 2008, Viking Publishing, Penguin Group, Inc .• New York, NY.

"I am the living bread"

The mystery of the Eucharist alone - that Christ left his Body and Blood for us to eat and drink - I could ponder forever and not fully plumb its depths. That it's his actual (real) Body and Blood - not "virtually real", not a symbol. That he literally becomes part of us and we become part of him. That by leaving us "food" eat and drink, he acknowledges and appeases our ravenous spiritual hunger. That eating human flesh is the deepest, darkest, most unmentionable of taboos. The very worst thing a human being could do - butcher a man, torture to death a person who's completely innocent, and eat him - Christ says, I'm going to let you do it: I'm going to offer myself up. I'm in solidarity not only with your humanity, your brokenness, your sins; I'm in solidarity with your pathologies. And in offering up my very flesh, I am going to transform the consciousness of all humanity, for all time. I'm going to descend to the depths and ascend to the heights of the human spirit and, to all who want to avail themselves, open up the possibility of becoming truly awake and alive to reality.

While I could never plumb the depths of the Eucharist - yet a simple fisherman would understand all that needs to and probably can be understood about it: it's a gift, and it's holy. Someone sacrificed himself and left his very Body and Blood to us as a gift, an offering, the answer to our deepest prayer: Oh, please let there be something beyond me and my sadly, pathetically limited powers. Let there still be something holy in the world, let there be something we haven't wrecked with our greed, our fear, our lust. Let the terrible, terrible suffering of me and every other human being on earth have meaning. The Mass is a celebration and re-enactment of the sacrifice: the consecration of the Host, the bridging of the gap between life and death, light and dark, heaven and earth, the material and spiritual. The Eucharist is the eternal coming-into-being of the power that on the one hand has the ability to shake the foundations of the universe, and on the other, perpetually, gently assures us that we are known, seen, cherished; that God hungers for us, thirsts for us.

HEATHER KING

Heather King is a convert to Catholicism and a writer from California. 

You remember My seamless robe? - HE AND i Gabrielle Bossis

Tuesday, 7 August 2012 Older Post

You aren't a little church all by yourself. You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit

    Catmint herbal in Atlas Grove        

"You remember My seamless robe", these briefest phrases follow the beauty of sense of presence of "He".

Below, it is worth editing this paragraph poem style...

August 3 - After communion (absentminded)   

“I'm here." (In a tone of gentle reproach)

This passing phrase of Gabrielle was sufficient for several days - simply the Lord, “I'm here." 

And in turn a fuller passage is alive, giving voice to the seeds already growing, "You aren't a little church all by yourself. You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit."

YOU AND i by Gabriel Bossis.

1949 August· 4 - Holy hour.

''When you are at My feet praying or meditating, why not be one in spirit with all the pure in heart who are praying and meditating? 

You aren't a little church all by yourself. 

You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit. 

And in isolating yourself you would break the chain. 

So be linked together with-other fervent people and aware of My desire for you all .to be one. 

You remember My seamless robe?

A grove of prayer

St Bernard 9th centenary 20 Aug 2012 to 20 Aug 2013 Vocations

Inside of the Citeaux abbey, Burgundy (French region)

Inside of the Citeaux abbey, Burgundy (French region)

General News

    

The ninth centenary of St Bernard’s entry into the Abbey of Cîteaux  

Monday, 06 August 2012

On the occasion of the ninth centenary of St Bernard’s entry into the Abbey of Cîteaux, Dom Olivier, abbot of Cîteaux, has asked us to pass on the following invitation to all the members of the Order:

Our community is going to celebrate the ninth centenary of St Bernard’s entering Cîteaux (1112 or 1113?).  To mark the event, we are setting up a campaign of prayer for vocations, from  20^th August 2012 to 20^th August 2013.  We invite you to join us with this prayer:

PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

Most gracious Father,

in setting up the New Monastery

our fathers followed the poor Christ into the desert.

Thus they lived the Gospel

by rediscovering the Rule of Saint Benedict in its purity.

You gave Bernard of Fontaine

the ability to make this new life attractive and appealing to others,

in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Grant that we today, after their example,

may live our charism deeply

in a spirit of peace, unity, humility,

and above all, in the charity which surpasses all other gifts.

May men and women of our time

be newly called to follow the Gospel in monastic life,

in the service of the Church’s mission,

and in a world forgetful of You.

Remember Lord, Cîteaux,

where Bernard arrived with his companions.

May the brothers there

continue to live in the enthusiastic and generative spirit of the founders.

Remember all who live the Cistercian charism.

Remember all Cistercian communities,

those which are aging and those newly-born,

in all parts of the world, north and south, east and west.

Let them not lose courage in times of trial,

but turn to her whom Bernard called the Star of the Sea.

Holy Father,

from whom we have already received so much,

grant us again your blessing

that our communities may grow in numbers,

but above all in grace and in wisdom,

to your glory,

who are blessed for ever and ever.

Amen.

COMMENT: Transfiguration Aug 6

COMMENT: Remembering feast of the Transfiguration   

FOUND LINK OF THE BOOK FOR ONLINE

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98805520/He-and-i-Gabrielle-Bossis

HE AND i Gabrielle Bossis 

-

1948  August 6

The Transfiguration.

 "Do you remember when you were little you said to Me, 'Be transfigured, be transfigured before my eyes, Lord.' You trusted Me. Off you went to the mountain of solitude and you heard My voice. You saw Me then in another way. It was also love that transfigured Me before My apostles. Always see love at the source of everything that comes from God. There is love and there is hate - nothing else. Two roots: God and the devil. Man with his free will takes his choice of the fruit. 

Be on the watch for the motive of your actions and remember that I am stretching out a helping hand. And keep watch on your lower nature, the part that runs down your neighbour made in My image. Give the kind of affection that comforts. You know what I mean - the word, the glance. I am in all ways of loving, just as Satan is in all ways of wounding. You see the source? You see the fruit? Choose, and always be ready to choose Me. This is what it is to be always in love. It's the direct route to Me. It passes through death and leads you into My arms."

You aren't a little church all by yourself. You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit

  

August 3 - After communion (absentminded)
“I'm here." (In a tone of gentle reproach)

This passing phrase of Gabrielle was sufficient for several days - simply the Lord, “I'm here." 

And in turn a fuller passage is alive, giving voice to the seeds already growing, "You aren't a little church all by yourself. You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit."

YOU AND i by Gabriel Bossis.

1949 August· 4 - Holy hour.

''When you are at My feet praying or meditating, why not be one in spirit with all the pure in heart who are praying and meditating? You aren't a little church all by yourself. You are part of the great activity of Christ in the breath of the Spirit. And in isolating yourself you would break the chain. So be linked together with-other fervent people and aware of My desire for you all .to be one. You remember My seamless robe?

Become humble enough to lose yourself in everyone else and eager enough for merits to seek to benefit by the merits of your brothers, since I permit this. I am the Father who has found a way to help His children get rich quickly. And having explained this to them, I wait for them to profit by it, for I suffer more than they do from their poverty. My little girl, you don't see how poor you are. If your eyes were opened, how careful you would be to cover your dress with someone else's garment in order to be pleasing in My sight.

Do you want to think more often of this daily union with all My Christians in the world at this moment? The suffering ones, the persecuted, the abandoned, those in exile and in prison, those who are martyred for My Name's sake, the souls in ruined bodies who continue to bless Me, to serve Me and to call Me with all their love right to their very last breath? Unite with them so that you may lose nothing of all this. Try to grasp the fact that these new treasures bring you ever nearer to Me. This is your goal: to reach Me. And I am so eager to have you that I stoop down, stretching out My two hands to you. Don't turn away. It's the proud who refuse a free gift. How I long for you to do Me the favour of accepting My help. I'll be even tempted to say, 'Thank you!' "

Moschus, John (c.550-619), Pratum Spirituale, Spiritual Meadow

Why Doesn't Anyone Seem To Know that
John Moschus Lived at Mar Saba

       Moschus, John (c.550-619 or 634), retired to the monastery of St. Theodosius, near Jerusalem in 575. He later traveled extensively with friend Sophronius and visited numerous monasteries in Egypt, Mount Sinai, Antioch, Cyprus, and Rome. His personal experience of the monastic life along with his travels abroad brought about his well-known Pratum Spirituale. Spiritual Meadow.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

TUESDAY 07/08/2012

NIGHT OFFICE

Second Reading

From the sayings of the desert fathers as related by

John Moschus and others (Patericon 196: csea, Scriptores Aethiopici 54,118-121)

Repent and return to the Lord

Repent and return to the fear of the Lord your God; hold firmly to fasting and prayer, to supplication and contrite tears. Give me the occasion to praise you: I long to lift your good works in sacrifice to God with the sweet fragrance of your fasting, almsgiving, prayer, and compassion for the poor. Then, in union with my brethren the angels, I shall be joyful of countenance; then will the Holy Spirit come down upon you, and you will forthwith be counted among the righteous and holy people who are to hear a joyful verdict on the day of judgment.

Turn back to the Lord, Christian soul, by that repentance which is the readiest path to him and is pleasing in his sight. What is repentance? To repent is to leave your sin, to forsake your craving and abandon your former way of life. It means that you must undertake self-discipline by frequent fasting and constant prayer, and serve God in compunction, never wearying night or day. Make it your business to love the poor, for this is better in the Lord's sight than sacrifice. Retrench your bodily luxuries, satisfying your soul instead, and purify yourself of your stains, that you may know the sweetness of the Lord. Then the Lord's light will shine down on you, and you will be safe from the temptations of the enemy, for the Lord has promised to welcome those who come to him and to show them his mercy.

Now listen carefully: you must stop accumulating worldly things, and give up excessive eating and drinking here on earth, otherwise you, will forfeit what the Lord has promised to the good and righteous, So your alms deeds will even now be building you a spiritual house, and your lamp will shine in the kingdom of heaven with the oil of your kindness. You must believe that word which our-Lord spoke in the holy gospel: I am gentle and humble and my burden is light; come to me, you whose load is heavy, and I will make it lighter for you. O poor soul, your sins are many, but God's mercy is greater than the sins of all the world. Draw near to God's forgiveness and mercy, and he will send the light of his Spirit on you. Wash away your sins with tears, and it will redound to your advantage.

Look now, I have explained everything to you clearly, and given you repentance as your way of life; it will bring you near to the Lord, and will yield you the fruit of paradise to taste. Clothe the poor in your own garment to protect them from the winter's cold; fill their bellies with food as you multiply your own fasts. Repent and return to the Lord and approach his great mercy, because he has promised it to those who call upon him. Remember, Christian soul, that our Lord has warned us: No one knows when his time will come. Run swiftly, then, in pursuit of salvation, and offer your sacrifice. Labour to acquire patience, humility, a silent tongue, purity, and love of the poor. Strive to gamer righteousness. If you do all this, good things will come your way. Praise and honour be to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, forever. Amen.

See 

• From the Holy Mountain, the book by William Dalrymple

[edit]External links

• Spiritual Meadow - English translation of The Spiritual Meadow by Benedict Baker
• Spiritual Meadow - English translation of the Latin of Ambrosius Camaldulensis
• _____________________________________________________

The Transfiguration of the Lord - Feast

6 August 2012
FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD

Gospel (Year B)

From the gospel of Mark (9:2-10)

Fra Angelico
The Transfiguration shows the directness, simplicity and restrained palette typical of these frescoes. Located in a monk's cell at the Convent San' Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private devotion.

Harmony of the Gospels (Ronald Knox)

§ 49. The Transfiguration

Mat 17:1-13

Mar 9:1-12

Luke 9:28-36

Third Reading

From a homily by Saint John of Damascus

(Hom. in transfiguration Domini, 17- 18: PG 96, 572-573)

A bright cloud overshadowed them, and seeing within it Jesus the Savoir with Moses and Elijah, the disciples were filled with great fear.

Of old when Moses saw God he experienced the divine darkness, indicating the symbolic nature of the law; for as Paul has written, the law contained only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality itself. In the past Israel could not look at the transient glory on the face of Moses; but we, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, are being transformed from one degree of glory to another by the Lord who is the Spirit. The cloud, therefore, that overshadowed the disciples was not one of threatening darkness but of light; for the mystery hidden from past ages has been revealed to show us perpetual and eternal glory. Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, stood by the Saviour because he whom the law and the prophets proclaimed was present in Jesus, the giver of life.

And a voice from the cloud said: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. The voice of the Father came from the cloud of the Spirit: This is my beloved Son. He who is seen in human form, who became man only yesterday, who lives humbly in the midst of us, and whose face is now shining, is he who is. This is my beloved Son, the eternal, the only begotten of the only God, he who proceeds timelessly and eternally from me, his Father; who did not begin to exist after me, but is from me and with me and in me from all eternity.

It was by the Father's good pleasure that his only begotten Son and Word became incarnate; it was by the Father's good pleasure that the salvation of the world was achieved through his only begotten Son; it was the Father's good pleasure which brought about the union of the whole universe in his only begotten Son. For humanity is a microcosm linking in itself all visible and invisible being, sharing as it does in the nature of both, and so it must surely have pleased the Lord, the creator and ruler of the universe, for divinity and humanity and thus all creation to be united in his only begotten and consubstantial Son, so that God might be all in all.

This is my Son, the radiance of my glory, who bears the stamp of my own nature, through whom I created the angels, through whom the vault of heaven was made firm and the earth established. He upholds the universe by his powerful word, and by the Spirit which proceeds from his mouth, that is the life-giving and guiding Spirit. Listen to him. Whoever receives him, receives me who sent him by the authority not of a stern master but of a father. As a man he is sent, but as God he abides in me and I in him. Whoever refuses to honour my only begotten Son refuses to honour me, his Father who sent him. Listen to him, for he has the words of eternal life.