The parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) - Art Essay

MAGNIFICAT com February 2013

  

I believe in the forgiveness of sins   

1. The parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) is often read as evoking the destiny of Israel (the elder son, faithful) and of the pagan nations (the prodigal son, pardoned). This theme was one of Guercino’s favorite subjects. In this version, however, which is intent on communicating the teaching of the recent Council of Trent about the sacrament of confession, the painter does not hesitate to take some liberty with the Gospel text. Here Guercino depicts a prodigal son, a serious sinner certainly, but the image of a good Catholic who goes to confession with sincere contrition, weeping over his sin in the arms of divine mercy. At first his tears are those of remorse, but soon they become tears of happiness at being reconciled with God and at regaining his place as an active member of the Church.
2. On the literal level, this parable presents us rather with the figure of a hardened sinner, even including the motives for his returning home: the prodigal son decides to return not because he finally renounces his dissolute life, but because he lacks the means to sustain it any longer. He does not experience contrition, but rather a trivial attrition, for his firm resolution is not so much to convert as to keep from starving to death. Nonetheless, during the course of his pilgrimage back to his paternal homeland, we can imagine the stirrings of a true conversion at work in his soul. In any event, not only does his father run forth and tenderly embrace him, not only does he re-establish his dignity as son and heir, but he goes so far as to mobilize his whole Kingdom for a feast in his honour! The supreme love of the Father is ever on the lookout for his wayward children, eager to welcome them back home. Now, let us consider our own cruelty when we force his infinite tenderness to spend an eternity, so to speak, watching and waiting for us to return from the land of sin…
3. In this Year of Faith, when we profess, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins and in life everlasting,” let us be guided by this parable, toward a keener understanding of what the forgiveness of sins means in the Father’s plan of divine mercy.
     Pierre-Marie Dumont.

 The Return of the Prodigal Son (detail), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (1591-1666), Diocesan Museum, Wloclawek, Poland.

© Alinari / The Bridgeman Art Library.

Laetare Sunday Fourth Sunday of Lent St. John Ogilvie

Laetare Sunday 

Vested in rose-coloured chasuble for Laetare Sunday.
Lent: March 10th

Fourth Sunday of Lent

"Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts." This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday and is a Sunday of joy. Lent is half over, and Easter is enticingly near.

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The Station at Rome is in the basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, one of the seven principal churches of the holy city. It was built in the fourth century, by the emperor Constantine. The emperor's mother, St. Helen, enriched it with most precious relics, and wished to make it the Jerusalem of Rome.

St. John Ogilvie

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Jesuit priest and martyr. St John was born at Drum na Keith in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1580 and brought up as a Calvinist. His parents sent him to France for his education and at the age of 16 he decided to become a Catholic. He was received into the church at Louvaine and joined the Society of Jesus in 1599.

For ten years he worked in Austria, He was then assigned to the French province and ordained in Paris in 1610. He longed to return to his native Scotland but had to wait until 1613 until he was granted permission.

Because of the penal laws at the time he had to hide the fact that he was a Catholic and a priest. Arriving in Scotland he found most families had become Protestant at least officially, and were unwilling to help him. Eventually he was taken in by William Sinclair, an advocate who employed him to tutor his son. John also ministered, preached, reconciled and counselled Catholics in Glasgow and Renfrewshire.

He was arrested and tortured in Glasgow for many days but refused to name any fellow Catholics. Eventually he was taken to Edinburgh where he was charged with high treason. At his trial he declared his loyalty to the King and obedience in all temporal matters. But, he said he could not 'in matters of spiritual jurisdiction unjustly seized'. He was offered both his freedom and a rich benefice if he would give up his religion but refused and was executed by hanging.

Read more about the life of Bl. John Ogilvie.

http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Saints/Saints_017.htm

Marmion, The anchor of hope, Hebrews 6:9-20

Bible Search

http://bibleencyclopedia.com/nasbslides/hebrews/6-19.htm.

Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and ...    

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. ... That hope we have as an anchor of the soul--an anchor that can neither break nor drag. .

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The Station is in the church of St. Susanna, virgin and martyr of Rome. The first Christian place of worship was built here in the 4th century. It was probably the titulus of Pope Caius (283-296). Caius was St. Susanna's uncle, and tradition claims that the church stands on the site of her martyrdom.

Saturday, 09 March 2013 Bl. Columba Marmion O.S.B.  Night Office

Third Week of Lent    Year I   SATURDAY First Reading        Hebrews 6:9-20                                                           Responsory        Heb 6:19-20; 7:24-25 Jesus, our forerunner, has passed beyond the veil on our behalf; he has become a high priest for ever, of the order of Melchizedek. + For all eternity he lives and intercedes for us. V. Because he can never lose his priesthood, there is no limit to his power to save all who come to God through him. + For all eternity ... Second Reading From the writings of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B. (Le Christ dans ses mysteres, 440-442) The anchor of hope Christ, the supreme high priest of the human race, having conferred on us a legal title, bears us up with him in hope to heaven. We must never forget that it is only through him that we can gain entrance there. No human being can penetrate the holy of holies except with him; no creature can enjoy eternal happiness except in the wake of Jesus; it is his precious merits that win us infinite bliss. For all eternity we shall say to him, "Because of you, Jesus Christ, because of the blood you shed for us, we stand before God's face. It is your sacrifice, your immolation, that wins our every moment of glory and happiness. To you, the Lamb that was slain, be all honor and praise and thanks­giving!" In this interval of time until Christ comes to fetch us as he promised, he is preparing a place for us, and above all he is sup­porting us by his prayer. Indeed, what is our high priest doing in heaven? The Letter to the Hebrews gives the answer: he has entered heaven in order to stand now in God's presence on our behalf. His priesthood is eternal, and therefore eternal too is his work as mediator. How infinitely powerful is his influence! There he stands before his Father, unceasingly offering him that sacrifice recalled by the marks of the wounds he has voluntarily retained; there he stands, alive for ever, ever interceding for us. As high priest he is unfailingly heard, and for our sake he speaks again the priestly prayer of the last supper: Father, it is for them that I pray they are in the world ... guard those whom you have given me I pray for them, that they may have in themselves the fullness of joy ... Father, I will that they may be with me where I am. How could these sublime truths of our faith fail to inspire us with unwavering confidence? People of scanty faith though we are, what have we to fear? And what may we not hope for? Jesus is praying for us, and praying always. Let us then trust absolutely in the sacrifice, the merits and the prayer of our high priest. He is the beloved Son in whom the Father delights; how could he be refused a hearing, after showing his Father such love? Father, look upon your Son. Through him and in him grant us to be one day where he is, so that through him and with him and in him we may also render to you all honour and glory. Responsory Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come. Not with the blood of goats or calves, but with his own blood + he entered the holy place once for all, and won our eternal salvation. V. He did not enter a holy place fashioned by man: he entered heaven itself. + He entered the ...

Conclave Set to Start

Donate Shop Our eBooks Shop Amazon Conclave Set to Start Dear Donald, The Cardinals have announced that the conclave to elect the next pope will convene on Tuesday. Naturally, attention will now focus the most important priorities for the Church, and who might lead the Church in the optimum direction. Phil Lawler has a particularly arresting viewpoint: The key issue for the coming conclave is transparency. Phil also continues to point out excellent columns by others: Perceptive commentary: Magister, Royal. CatholicCulture.org has begun to publish occasional editorial cartoons, done by our affiliated artist, Chris Pelicano. Here are two of them, which portray media coverage of events in Rome: The role of the press? Vatican cardinals cancel press conference We'll be interested in how our users respond. I suspect it is important not to get so bound up in the news from Rome that we let Lent slip by without spiritual growth. It seems like we are always working on “secondary” things. I offer a personal lament with, hopefully, a spiritual twist: For Lent: Our Inability to Focus on What We Love. Another profitable way to use this period between popes is to reflect more seriously on the nature of the Church. For me, in a very deep sense, the Church is Christ. I hope you'll find some inspiration in my latest In Depth Analysis: The Church: Like Us in All Things, But Without Sin. Jeff Mirus President Trinity Communications To unsubscribe from this list or all lists, click Adjust Email Newsletter Settings. www.CatholicCulture.org - Email: contact@catholicculture.org To learn more or make a tax-deductible contribution, visithttp://www.catholicculture.org/about/donor_information_center/ today. Trinity Communications - P.O. Box 582, Manassas, VA 20108, USA [Sent to nunrawdonald@yahoo.com]

“Love has its own nail and its own sword”. Ambrose of Milan

                      http://bibleencyclopedia.com/nasbslides/songs/8-6.htm

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy as relentless as the grave.  

Third Week of Lent Friday Year I [1982 Word in Season]

First Reading

From the letter to the Hebrews (5:11- 6:8)

Responsory:    Psalm 95:8; Hebrews 3:12

Today if you hear his voice, - harden not your hearts.

Be careful that no one among you has an evil, unbelieving heart. causing you to fall away from the living God.

- Harden not your hearts.

Second Reading

From a commentary on psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose (Sermo 15, 37-40: PL 15, 1497-1498)

As a member of the body of Christ, the Christian shares in the sufferings and death of Christ, and thus contributes to the Church's growth to full maturity and to its final glorification with Christ

Those who love the decrees of the Lord crucify their lower nature. They know that once their former self has been nailed with Christ to the cross they have overcome the immoderate demands of the flesh. Crucify the impulses of corrupt nature, then, and you will cut off sin at its source.

There is a spiritual nail by which our lower nature can be fastened to the Lord's cross. This nail is the fear of God and of his , judgments. Drive it home, and you will bring the desires of the flesh into subjection. If your lower nature rejects the nails of

holy fear, God will surely say: My Spirit shall not remain in these men and women, since they are mere flesh. No, the Spirit of God will not remain in us, unless for fear of him we nail our unregenerate selves to the cross.

We are pierced through by these nails when we die with Christ in order to rise with him, when we bear the death of our Lord Jesus Christ in our own body, when we become worthy to hear Jesus saying to us: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy as relentless as the grave.

Fasten this sign of the Crucified upon your breast and your heart, fasten it upon your arm, so that in all your actions you may be dead to sin. Do not be dismayed by the hardness of the nails, it is no more than the severity of love. Do not complain of their unbreakable firmness; love also is strong as death. It is love that puts to death all our sins and failings, love that deals their death blow. In a word, by loving the Lord's commandments we die to sin and to deeds of shame. God is love; his word is love, that word which is all-powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to the point where soul is divided from spirit or joints from marrow. Our soul and our flesh must be transfixed by the nails of love, and then we ourselves can say: I am wounded by love. Love has its own nail and its own sword with which to pierce the human soul; happy are they who are wounded by them.

Let us willingly expose ourselves to these wounds; if we succumb to them, we shall not taste everlasting death. Let us take up our Lord's cross, the cross on which our unregenerate selves must be crucified and sin destroyed. Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me, says the Lord, is not worthy of me. Only those are worthy of Christ who, out of reverence for him, crucify their sinful nature. There is a fear that pierces our flesh, the reverent fear that is followed by love, a love that accompanies Christ to the tomb, unwilling to be parted from him. It keeps him company in death, it is buried with him in the tomb, and it rises with him from the dead.

Aside: 

http://oxfordpatristics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/finbarr-clancy-eucharist-in-st-ambroses.html

Finbarr Clancy - The Eucharist in St Ambrose's Commentaries on the Psalms

St Ambrose’s teaching on the Eucharist is largely found in his De Sacramentis and his De Mysteriis, but occasional references to his Eucharistic theology also occur in his other works.  This Short Communication will explore his comments on the Eucharist as found in his twenty-two homilies on Psalm 118 and his Commentary on Twelve Psalms.  The Scriptural support and orchestration used in his synthesis on the Eucharist in these Psalm commentaries will be noted, as will be his identification of Old Testament prefigurements of the Eucharist.  The manner in which Ambrose identifies specific fruits or effect of the Eucharist in the lives of its recipients will be explored.  Finally his many references to the poculum inebrians will be examined with reference to their complementary application both to the Eucharist itself and to the Scriptures in the life of the faithful.       

Fri, March 8, 2013 Friday of the Third Week of Lent

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Lent: March 8th

The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Sisto Vecchio. It was built in the 4th century, and was one of the first parish churches in Rome and was known as the Titulus Crescentianae. Tradition claims that it was founded by Pope Anastasius I. 

'The Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love him.'

Mark 12:28-34. http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030813.cfmMass Readings

Reflection

 Friday (March 8): "Which commandment is the first of all?"

Meditation: 

    What is the right and sure way to peace, happiness, and abundant life? The prophet Hosea addressed this question with his religious community - the people of Israel. Hosea's people lived in a time of economic anxiety and fear among the nations. They were tempted to put their security in their own possessions and in their political alliances with other nations rather than in God.  Hosea called his people to return to God to receive pardon, healing, and restoration. He reminded them that God would "heal their faithlessness and love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). God's ways are right and his wisdom brings strength and blessing to those who obey him.

How does love and obedience to God’s law go together? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose. What does God require of us? Simply that we love as he loves! God is love and everything he does flows from his love for us. God loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness towards us. The love of God comes first and the love of neighbor is firmly grounded in the love of God. The more we know of God's love and truth the more we love what he loves and reject what is hateful and contrary to his will.

What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthen us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves (Galatians 5:13). Do you allow anything to keep you from the love of God and the joy of serving others with a generous heart? Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Do you know the love which conquers all?

"We love you, O our God; and we desire to love you more and more. Grant to us that we may love you as much as we desire, and as much as we ought. O dearest friend, who has so loved and saved us, the thought of whom is so sweet and always growing sweeter, come with Christ and dwell in our hearts; that you keep a watch over our lips, our steps, our deeds, and we shall not need to be anxious either for our souls or our bodies. Give us love, sweetest of all gifts, which knows no enemy. Give us in our hearts pure love, born of your love to us, that we may love others as you love us. O most loving Father of Jesus Christ, from whom flows all love, let our hearts, frozen in sin, cold to you and cold to others, be warmed by this divine fire. So help and bless us in your Son." (Prayer of Anselm, 12th century)

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This reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager, whose website is located at: http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth

Aside:

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The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Sisto Vecchio. It was built in the 4th century, and was one of the first parish churches in Rome and was known as the Titulus Crescentianae. Tradition claims that it was founded by Pope Anastasius I.

Night Office (A Word in Season)  
1. Third Week of Lent Wednesday

   

   First Reading Hebrews 4: ...12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

   
   

   Second Reading From the writings of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth ill: PG 68, 269-292)

   Christ became a holocaust and a peace offering

   
   

   When Christ saw the human race being destroyed by death he became our advocate with the Father. He offered himself for us and of his own free will submitted to death, confounding the destroyer by saying the sin was his. This does not mean that he himself had committed it, but that as the Scriptures say: He bore our sins and suffered for our sake, and he was taken for a criminal. He was innocent, but for our sake he became accursed. David said the shepherd ought to suffer rather than the sheep, and Christ like a good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

   In obedience to God's command blessed David set up an altar in the place where he had seen the angel of destruction stop, and he offered God holocausts and peace offerings. By this place, which was a threshing floor, you must understand the Church, for it is there that death was halted and overcome, there that the destroyer stayed his once terrible and devastating hand. For the Church is the dwelling place of him who is life by his very nature - that is, of Christ.

   By way of simile or comparison we call the Church a threshing floor, because there are gathered, like sheaves of wheat, those cut off from the life of this world by the word of holy reapers, that is, of the apostles and evangelists. Then, when all useless and unnecessary thoughts and actions, which may be thought of as chaff, have been removed, they are to be carried up like winnowed grain into the courts above in the heavenly Jerusalem, into what we may call the granary of the Lord.

   Christ asked his holy apostles: Do you not say: "In four months it will be harvest time"? But look, I tell you, look at the fields: they are already white and ready for harvesting. Already the reaper is receiving his wages, he is gathering in a harvest for eternal life. On another occasion he said: The harvest is plentiful, but the la borers are few. You must therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send people out to reap it.

   Now as I understand it, the harvest Christ spoke of is a spiritual one, namely, the great multitude of those who would one day believe in him. The holy reapers are those who have in their minds and on their tongues the word of God, which is living and active, and cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword, piercing to the meeting place of soul and spirit, to the innermost recesses of our being.

   Christ purchased the spiritual threshing floor which is the Church for fifty shekels: in other words, he paid for it dearly. He gave himself for the Church, he set up an altar within it, and since he was both the priest and the sacrifice, he offered himself as though he were the beast that treads out the grain, and he became a holocaust and a peace offering.

   
   

   
   

   

   Saint Cyril of Alexandria

   
   

   Mariology

   Cyril of Alexandria became noted in Church history because of his spirited fight for the title "Theotokos" during the First Council of Ephesus (431).

   
   

   His writings include the homily given in Ephesus and several other sermons.^[22] Some of his alleged homilies are in dispute as to his authorship. In several writings, Cyril focuses on the love of Jesus to his mother. On the Cross, he overcomes his pain and thinks of his mother. At the wedding in Cana, he bows to her wishes. Cyril is credited with^{[by whom?]} creating a basis for all other mariological developments through his teaching of the blessed Virgin Mary, as theMother of God.^{[citation needed]} St. Cyril received an important recognition of his preachingss by the Second Council of Constantinople (553 d.C.) which declared;

   "St. Cyril who announced the right faith of Christians" (Anathematism XIV, Denzinger et Schoenmetzer 437).

   This explains why he is considered a saint by so many Churches. [Wikipedia]

A Calendar of Scottish Saints; COMMENT

A Calendar of Scottish Saints

The following is from A Calendar of Scottish Saints by Dom Michael Barrett, O.S.B. 

see: St. Baldred of Bass, St Adrian of Isle of May

http://www.scotsites.co.uk/eBooks/scottishsaints3.htm

4--St. Adrian and Companions, A.D. 875

An old legend, which was long regarded as authentic, relates that this saint was of royal birth and was a native of Hungary, and that he came to Scotland with several companions to preach the Faith. Modern historians identify him with the Irish St. Odhran, who was driven from his country by the Danes and took refuge in Scotland. He preached the Gospel to the people of Fifeshire and the eastern counties. Eventually he founded a monastery on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. Here he suffered martyrdom, together with a great number of his disciples, in an incursion of the Danes. A Priory was built on the island by David I, and placed under the Benedictine Abbey of Reading. Later on it was given over to the Canons Regular of St. Andrews. The Isle of May became a famous place of pilgrimage on account of the connection with it of other saints besides St. Adrian and his companions. James IV visited it several times, having evidently a great affection for the holy place. In 1503 he took the "clerkis of the Kingis chapell to Maii to sing the Mes thair." Other records occur in his treasurer's accounts, such as the following: "To the preistis to say thre trentals of Messis thair"; for "the Kingis offerand in his tua candillis in Maii."

6--St. Baldred, Hermit, A.D. 608

This saint, according to a popular tradition, was a disciple of the great St. Kentigern. He has often been styled the Apostle of East Lothian. After his master's death St. Baldred took up his residence upon the Bass Rock, near North Berwick, and there he devoted himself to penance and prayer, his favourite subject of meditation being the Passion of Christ Our Lord. From time to time he would pay missionary visits to the mainland. He died at Aldhame in Haddington, a village which has now disappeared; St. Baldred's Cave is on the sea-shore near its former site. Tyningham Church, in the same county, and also that of Prestonkirk, were dedicated to him. The former was burnt by the Danes in 941. The old parishes of Aldhame and Tyningham are now united under the designation of Whitekirk. At Prestonkirk there is a well which bears the saint's name, whose water, as a Protestant writer notes, is excellent for making tea! An eddy in the Tyne is called St. Baldred's Whirl. A century ago Prestonkirk churchyard possessed an ancient statue of St. Baldred. The ruins of a chapel dedicated to the saint are still discernible on the Bass Rock.

Saint Baldred, Patron Saint of East Lothian

St Baldred's Church, Scotland

The ruins of St Baldred's Church in the grounds
of Tyninghame House, East Lothian, Scotland.

Saint of the day: 5th March

                       We celebrate Saints Baldred and Bilfrith
Hermits. St Baldred lived during the 6th century in Northumberland, as a hermit, first at Tyningham and then on the Bass Rock.

According to legend, it was thanks to his prayers that a dangerous reef was removed between the rock and the mainland. All that is left of it is St Baldred's Rock.

The saint's supposed relics were discovered with those of St Bilfrith in the 11th century and removed to Durham.

St Bilfrith was also a hermit and a goldsmith. He lived during the 8th century and spent many years decorating the Lindisfarne Gospels with gold, silver and gems on the binding. The book survives but the binding was lost

  

St Baldred's Well

St Baldred's Well, Preston
©2011 Gazetteer for Scotland

A little spring on the banks of the River Tyne at Preston, on the northeast edge of East Linton in East Lothian, St. Baldred's Well lies close to Preston Kirk, which was founded by the saint. The well supplied the Red Friars who had a monastery close by in the 13th century and remained a source of water for the residents of Preston into the 20th century.