Saint Waldef Abbot of Melrose. (Waltheof or Waldeve) (c. 1095–1159)

Melrose Abbey  

Saint of the day: 3rd August Saint Waldef  Abbot of Melrose Roe Deer, antlers, from Refectory window   Of noble birth, St Waldef was born in 1100 and grew up in the Scottish court. He could have become a court cleric, but chose the monastic life, becoming an Austin canon at Nostell in Yorkshire.  In 1134, he became prior of Kirkham. In 1140 he was a favourite to become Archbishop of York but King Stephen prevented this because he felt he would be too sympathetic to Scotland. St Waldef wanted to bring the Cistercians at Rievaulx and the Austins at Kirkham together, but the canons objected strongly. In 1149 he became abbot of Melrose, taking over from someone who had a notorious temper. St Waldef developed a reputation for great kindness, gentleness and humility.  He went on to found monasteries at Cultram and Kinross. In 1159 he was asked to be bishop of St Andrews but he refused as he knew death was near. St Waldef was never formally canonised but a popular cult grew around him until the Reformation. During his life, many wonders were said to have taken place including visions at Christmas and Easter and miracles of multiplying food.

Monthly Memorial 2nd August 2013

Friday, 2 August 20113 It is seven month's memorial of Fr. Stephen. R.I.P.

Gospel Mat 11:27 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Fr. Stephen 6 Feb 2013 + 

Mass Intro: Today we celebrate the Monthly Mass for our dead;

Our brothers and sisters in the Order among our relatives and friends and benefactors have all gone before us. We pray for them and that we may in our turn and that we may in our turn join them in the joy of heaven.

Lord have mercy ...

---

Prayer of the Faitgful ...

Concel: God our Father, we thank you for the gift of life.

May all who have died find its fulfiment in heave.

We ask this through O Lord ..

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

Morning East Sky ablaze 2 Aug 2013

 
From: Donald ....
Sent: Friday, 2 August 2013, 13:20
Subject: Navarre commentary Mt 11: 25-30

     2^nd August 2013 Monthly Memorial

     Matthew 11:25-30 (NJB)

Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.

Mat 11:26 Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

Mat 11:27 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Mat 11:28 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.

Mat 11:29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Mat 11:30 Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

Mat 11:25-30 -  

Navarre Commentary

 Matthew 11:25-30   

     Jesus Thanks His Father      

   25-26.  The wise and understanding of this world, that is, those who rely on their own judgment, cannot accept the revelation which Christ has brought us. Supernatural outlook is always connected with humility. A humble person, who gives himself little importance, sees; a person who is full of self-esteem fails to perceive supernatural things.   

   27.  Here Jesus formally reveals His divinity. Our knowledge of a person shows our intimacy with Him, according to the principle given by St. Paul: "For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him?" ( 1Co_2:11  ). The Son knows the Father by the same knowledge as that by which the Father knows the Son. This identity of knowledge implies oneness of nature; that is to say, Jesus is God just as the Father is God.

 28-30.  Our Lord calls everyone to come to Him. We all find things difficult in one way or another. The history of souls bears out the truth of these words of Jesus. Only the Gospel can fully satisfy the thirst for truth and justice which sincere people feel. Only our Lord, our Master--and those to whom He passes on His power--can soothe the sinner by telling him, "Your sins are forgiven" ( Mat_9:2  ). In this connection Pope Paul VI teaches: "Jesus says now and always, `Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' His attitude towards us is one of invitation, knowledge and compassion; indeed, it is one of offering, promise, friendship, goodness, remedy of our ailments; He is our comforter; indeed, our nourishment, our bread, giving us energy and life" ("Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June 1974). "Come to Me": the Master is addressing the crowds who are following Him, "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" ( Mat_9:36  ). The Pharisees weighed them down with an endless series of petty regulations (cf. Act_15:10  ), yet they brought no peace to their souls. Jesus tells these people, and us, about the kind of burden He imposes: "Any other burden oppresses and crushes you, but Christ's actually takes weight off you. Any other burden weighs down, but Christ's gives you wings. If you take a bird's wings away, you might seem to be taking weight off it, but the more weight you take off, the more you tie it down to the earth. There it is on the ground, and you wanted to relieve it of a weight; give it back the weight of its wings and you will see how it flies" (St. Augustine, "Sermon" 126). "All you who go about tormented, afflicted and burdened with the burden of your cares and desires, go forth from them, come to Me and I will refresh you and you shall find for your souls the rest which your desires take from you" (St. John of the Cross, "Ascent of Mount Carmel", Book 1, Chapter 7, 4).

Santiago El Grande (1957) Dali's Jasmine flower

COMMENT: We appreciate the outstanding Art  Essay from the month of Magnificat.net.

Santiago El Grande (1957)

Salvador Dali (1904-1989),

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery,

Gift of the Sir James Dunn Foundation,

 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

IN 1941 the artist Salvador Dali made an announcement that was as confounding to the art world as Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus had been to ancient Judaism. Dali called it his "last scandal", and it was a formal declaration that henceforth he would engage in "classical painting". The world-famous Surrealist had long been noted for his provocative evocations of an irrational dream world, and, like Saul, Dali had been an approving cloak bearer for a movement that had taken great delight in ridiculing the Church. But now as he struggled with the prospect of returning to the faith of his Spanish childhood and grounding his work in the traditional iconography of Catholicism, this enfant terrible of the counter-culture was willing to be seen as an outcast and a traitor to the movement he had helped form.

While the style of his art remained basically the same, its content changed radically. In the next twenty years many of his noted masterpieces were works that reverently extolled Christ and the Virgin Mary, saints, sacraments and the Second Vatican Council. His detractors dismissed this turn of events as just another opportunity for the self-promoting artist to gain fame and fortune. But in an address to students at the Sorbonne in Paris, Dai declared that since modern artists had come to believe in nothing, then their art basically amounted to nothing. In essence, art had lost its soul!

Santiago El Grande of 1957 is one of Deli's post-war religious masterpieces. It represents the Apostle James the Greater astride a white charger triumphantly holding aloft a crucifix that is an artistic reference to another masterpiece he created six years earlier, Christ of Saint John of the Cross. In order to interpret the painting, one must know the legendary details of this patron saint of Spain and understand the exalted place he holds in Spanish myth and history.

While James the Greater was the brother of John the Apostle and is mentioned fre­quently in the Gospels, the story of his life after Christ's Ascension is rooted in legend and lore. According to the Spaniards, Saint James (Santiago in Spanish) was having great difficulty preaching the Gospel in the Iberian Peninsula. On 2nd January in the year 40 AD he knelt and prayed for guidance on the shore of the Ebro River. Our Lady ap­peared to him seated atop a pillar. To aid his mission she ordered that a church be built on the site. To this day many venerate it as the oldest church dedicated to Mary in all of Christendom. Returning to Jerusalem, James suffered martyrdom and was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD. His remains were taken back to Spain and buried, but were lost when Muslim forces invaded the Iberian Peninsula and kept its Christian population in subjugation for centuries. As the Spaniards periodically rose up to battle their conquerors, there were visions of the saint on a white horse ready to lead them to victory. In this guise he became known as "Santiago Matamoro", or Saint James the Moor-Slayer, brandishing a sword and carrying a white banner on which was emblazoned a red cross. By the ninth century Santiago's remains were recovered and venerated at Compostela in northern Spain. The fervour surrounding his cult gave rise to a network of important pilgrimage routes across Western Europe that elevated Compostela to the level of Jerusalem and Rome as a destination for the faithful.

Dali's painting portrays a mystical vision. Santiago is perched atop a rampant white steed with a network of rib vaults fanning outward from a single column lodged at the horse's hind legs. The column recalls the pillar on which the Virgin appeared to Saint James and encouraged his mission. The rib vaulting represents the pilgrimage routes splayed across Europe, with Compostela as their terminus point. This architectural canopy is derived from the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse, one of the many stopping points on the road to Compostela. Designed by the Dominicans in 1230, it bears the nickname given to them in France, the 'Jacobins" due to the fact that their major house in Paris was located on the rue Saint Jacques, a starting point for French pilgrims making their way to the shrine in Spain.

Instead of a banner or sword, Dali's Apostle holds aloft the corpus of Christ whose radiant pose approximates the shape of the sword-like cross of Saint James, the emblem of Spain's highest military order. In fact "Santiago" became a battle cry for Spaniards who retook their homeland from the invaders. A halo of eleven cockle shells surrounds the saint at the intersections of the ribbing, with a twelfth shell strapped to the horse's chest, This shell became an attribute for Saint James as it is a useful tool for pilgrims.

The frenetic design of the ribbing coupled with the nuclear cloud from which the horse springs reveals Dali's own conviction that the discovery of the atomic nature of the universe could prove the very existence of God. Dali saw himself as the first painter to combine science with religious belief. He preached a theory of "nuclear mysticism", issuing his own Mystic Manifesto in 1951. Even the tendons in the horse's neck create the shape of an angel that Dali repeats in the azure sky. yet despite the exalted ideas that underscore his painting and the nationalistic fervour it enshrines, the artist personalised the canvas by rendering a miniscule self-portrait at the bottom of the lo­calised landscape and shrouded his wife Gala in prayerful repose. The dirty bare foot of the Apostle James becomes the symbol of Everyman, representing all the millions of perambulating pilgrims who have walked the dusty road to Compostela over the past one thousand years. It was modelled on Dali's own foot. Without shame, the artist liked to point out, "I have very saintly feet!"

Father Michael Morris, O.P.

Professor, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, CA.

To view this masterpiece in greater detail visit:

www.magnificat.com

Note: the atomic cloud mass is a sweetly painted jasmine flower – a symbol of purity and harmony

COMMENT: Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe

Portiuncula Hospital - areal

Talking about Portiuncula,

Br. Seamus surprised me to learn that he and his brothers and sisters were born in Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe.

Seamus added that Ballinasloe is the largest TOWN in Ireland.

History[edit]

The Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood opened a nursing home at "Mount Pleasant" in 1943, and John Dignan, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clonfert, invited them to found a hospital, which opened on 9 April 1945.^[2] The nuns named their hospital after Portiuncula in Italy, the place where Franciscanism began.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portiuncula_Hospital 

Portiuncula. Indulgence - Pope Prayer,

Portiuncula-Chapel

August 2nd is the feast of Portiuncula. A plenary indulgence is available to anyone who will

1. Receive sacramental confession (8 days before of after)

2. Receive the Holy Eucharist at Holy Mass on August 2nd

3. Enter a parish church and, with a contrite heart, pray the Our Father, Apostles Creed, and a pray of his/her own choosing for the intentions of the Pope.

Please tell every Catholic person you know that remission of the punishment for all sins committed from the day of baptism to the reception of the indulgence is available.

May the Merciful Jesus fill your heart with His gentle peace!

Note: An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. More information can be found at Indulgences.

The Month of August is Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Traditional image of the Sacred (or Immaculate) Heart of Mary.

http://childrensrosary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-month-of-august-is-dedicated-to.html

The Month of August is Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Important Marian Dates During the Month of August:

August 5th Dedication of the Church of St. Mary Major.

August 13th Fourth Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima

August 15 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

August 21 Feast of Our Lady of Knock (Ireland)

August 22 Queenship of Mary-Octave of the Assumption

August 26 Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa (Poland)

Ways to Honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary this Month:

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Consecration Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Novena to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Litany to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Holy Father’s Prayer Intention for the Month of August:

General Intention: That prisoners may be treated with justice and respect for their human dignity 
Missionary Intention: Youth Witness to Christ. That young people, called to follow Christ, may be willing to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel to the ends of the earth. 

COMMENT: St. James' Patron Thurs 25 July 2013

‘Santiago El Grande’ Exudes Majesty, Monumentalism, Magic!

29

Apr
2011

Posted by: PaulChimera

One of the triumphant masterpieces in Salvador Dali’s remarkable career is Santiago El Grande (1957) – a painting that, for me, is so powerful, I find it hard to know just what to write about it, or where to begin.

I first saw this immense, nearly 15-foot-tall canvas in the Dali: The Late Work exhibition last summer in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. It was so overwhelming that I literally fell to my knees before it – and nearly passed out! There’s a majesty and grandeur about the work that literally grabs hold of you and can reduce grown men and women to tears. To say the work is awe-inspiring is a gross understatement.

“Santiago El Grande” is Spanish for St. James the Great, and here Dali pays spectacular tribute to the Apostle St. James, the patron saint of Spain. He’s shown astride a monumental rearing steed that rises victorious from the sea, dappled in scallop shells, as his – and the entire painting’s – upward motion signifies Christ’s, and ultimately man’s, ascension toward Heaven. The crucified Christ figure is one of the most glorious ever captured on canvas, complete with radiant bands of eternal light emanating from his perfect form – here replacing the sword often seen in statues of the same heroic theme.

St. James himself has been heralded as one of the finest human portraits ever painted by Salvador Dali, while his prominent foot – looking more three-dimensional the longer you contemplate it – is symbolic of the arduous pilgrimages Christ and his disciples made.

Among other marvelous details in this iconic religious masterwork is yet another portrait of Gala, seen in the lower right corner, her face partially shrouded by her monk-like apparel. And in the hind quarters of the stunningly lifelike horse, we see an atomic cloud burst, reflecting Dali’s interest in then-new discoveries in nuclear physics and his deepening belief that science and Christianity had more in common than had previously been thought. At the center of the atomic cloud mass is a sweetly painted jasmine flower – a symbol of purity and harmony, and a favorite of Dali, which he’d sometimes place behind his ears or upon the tips of his legendary mustache!

Hidden images were Dali’s stock in trade, and Santiago El Grande was not spared this trademark effect. Focus first on the angel seen in the sky, just beyond the horse’s gaze. Now direct your attention to the highlight on the horse’s neck: it’s the exact same angel! Oh, Salvador, how you keep us in awe!

http://www.dali.com/blog/santiago-el-grande-exudes-majesty-monumentalism-magic/

TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010

Dali Poster from High Museum Among Best Ever!

Of all the posters I've ever seen of the various and sundry Salvador Dali exhibitions over the years, this one from the current High Museum of Art Dali exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia, may be the most impressive. Oh, sure, I could be biased. After all, I've long proclaimed Santiago El Grande not only Dali's greatest painting, but possibly history's greatest painting.

http://meetingdali.blogspot.co.uk/2010_08_01_archive.html
Posted by Paul Chimera at 11:05 AM

http://meetingdali.blogspot.co.uk/2010_03_01_archive.html

Next to virtue, learning, in his view, was the greatest improver of the human mind and the support of true religion. St. Peter Chrysologus

Night Office Saints, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 St. Peter Chrysologus (406-450?) A man who vigorously pursues a goal may produce results far beyond his expectations and his intentions. Thus it was with Peter of the Golden Words, as he was called, who as a young man became bishop of Ravenna, the capital of the empire in the West. At the time there were abuses and vestiges of paganism evident in his diocese, and these he was determined to battle and overcome. His principal weapon was the short sermon, and many of them have come down to us. They do not contain great originality of thought. They are, however, full of moral applications, sound in doctrine and historically significant in that they reveal Christian life in fifth-century Ravenna. So authentic were the contents of his sermons that, some 13 centuries later, he was declared a doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII. He who had earnestly sought to teach and motivate his own flock was recognized as a teacher of the universal Church. In addition to his zeal in the exercise of his office, Peter Chrysologus was distinguished by a fierce loyalty to the Church, not only in its teaching, but in its authority as well. He looked upon learning not as a mere opportunity but as an obligation for all, both as a development of God-given faculties and as a solid support for the worship of God. Some time before his death, St. Peter returned to Imola, his birthplace, where he died around A.D. 450. COMMENT: Quite likely, it was St. Peter Chrysologus’s attitude toward learning that gave substance to his exhortations. Next to virtue, learning, in his view, was the greatest improver of the human mind and the support of true religion. Ignorance is not a virtue, nor is anti-intellectualism. Knowledge is neither more nor less a source of pride than physical, administrative or financial prowess. To be fully human is to expand our knowledge—whether sacred or secular—according to our talent and opportunity.

The following extract is taken from the sermons of St Peter Chrysologus:

Man, why do you have so low an opinion of yourself, when you are so precious to God? Why do you so dishonour yourself when you are so honoured by God? Why

do you enquire about where you were made and do not ask why you were made?

Has not the household of the whole universe which you see been made for you? For you the light is produced to dispel the surrounding darkness; for you the night

is regulated; for you the day is measured out; for you the sky shines with the varied brilliance of sun, moon and stars; for you the earth is embroidered with flowers, groves and fruit; for you is created a beautiful, well-ordered and marvellous multitude of living things, in the air, in the fields, in the water, lest a gloomy wilderness upset the joy of the new world.

Moreover he who made you devises means to increase your honour: he places his

Likeness in you so that this visible likeness may bring the invisible Creator present on earth. In earthly things he has given you the marks of his handiwork, so that you, the Lord's representative, may not be beguiled by such a generous endowment

in this world.

Adapted from Saint of the Day by L Foley, OFM,
Vol. 2,pp. 28-9, and The Divine Office, vol. III, p. 140.  

St. James the Greater, Apostle at the Last Supper in Leonardo

Sacristy - Hanging Tapestry

Feast of Saint James, my Baptismal Patron.
From the Tapestry in the Sacristy we look at the Leonardo 'Last Supper' is the photo focused on role of James the Greater.

It is a beautiful meditation on Saint James and the reverberating flickers of glowing radiance in that one experience.
The tapestry, by a loving needle skill, succeeds containing the details; James flung up hand closest to Jesus, Christ's hand left hand with palm turned upwards and even his his lightly retraced left hand (now only visible on copies). 
A commentary on the Leonardo 'Last Supper' is an exciting narrative.
" The composition of this painting rests in many ways on a dynamic and a polar symmetry. This lends it the incomparable vitality that raises it far above both its predecessors and its successors. It is revealed even in the comparison between the groups in their relation to the strictly symmetrical background of the chamber. We see that there are three heads in front of the rear wall on the right (Thomas, lames the Great and Philip) and only one-and-a-half on the left John and the face of Peter). In front of the right side-wall three persons stand out, namely the outer group (with the body of Philip as the link). And in front of the left wall there are four-and-a-half persons, namely the outer group with the addition of Judas (with the greater part of Peter's head as the link). Similar observations can also be made regarding the distribution of heads in front of the tapestries and the spaces between them. On both sides there is a crossing over of heads in each inner group. 

Giampietrino-Last-Supper-ca-1520    

On the right three figures have jumped up, but only one on the left. On the right three apostles of the inner group are jostling close to Christ with conspicuous expressive gestures. On the left there is a striking distance between Christ and the three closest to him who are also not gesticulating so vehemently. This is emphasized by the section of wall that stands like a pillar between the central opening and the left window  In front of the section of wall between the right window (which is mostly concealed in contrast to its fully visible counterpart on the left) and the central opening (which appears to be a door) there are two hands, one pointing upwards (Thomas) and one flung upwards Oames). In addition there is Christ's left hand with the palm turned upwards and even his lightly retracted left foot (now only visible on copies). Here the upward direction is emphasized, a degree of levity in contrast to the heaviness of the pillar."

Michael Ladwein

Leonardo da Vinci 'The Last Supper',

A Cosmic Drama and an Act of Redemption.

The Group of Individuals and their Gestures

Despite all the turbulence, the artist has not depicted a chaotically agitated crowd, for he has in a way subdued the excited band by dividing it into four groups of three. This division of twelve into four times three awakens obvious cosmic associations (see p.78ff) and is only possible because Judas has been reintegrated with the other disciples. But this is not a matter of four isolated groups of three, which would anyway be incompatible with Leonardo's genius. Although all the groups have entirely differing characteristics they are formally linked by means of certain gestures. On the left James the Less reaches out with his left hand and touches Peter on the shoulder (Fig.43), while on the right Matthew stretches both his hands towards those on his right while turning his head and upper body in the opposite direction  thus establishing a link between the two groups of three (Fig.39). Above and beyond this there are numerous subtle details both in the individual figures and in the characteristic way they interrelate which only become obvious on closer inspection.

 www.ladwein-reisen.de.

Thursday, 25 July 2013 St. James the Greater, Apostle - Feast
Other saints of the day
SAINT JAMES THE GREATER Apostle Feast         Among the twelve, three were chosen as the familiar companions of our blessed Lord, and of these James was one. He alone, with Peter and John, was admitted to the house of Jairus when the dead maiden was raised to life. They alone were taken up to the high mountain apart, and saw the face of Jesus shining as the sun, and His garments white as snow; and these three alone witnessed the fearful agony in Gethsemane.         What was it that won James a place among the favorite three? Faith, burning, impetuous, and outspoken, but which needed. purifying before the "Son of Thunder" could proclaim the gospel of peace. It was James who demanded fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans, and who sought the place of honor by Christ in His Kingdom. Yet Our Lord, in rebuking his presumption, prophesied his faithfulness to death.         When St. James was brought before King Herod Agrippa, his fearless confession of Jesus crucified so moved the public prosecutor that he declared himself a Christian on the spot. Accused and accuser were hurried off together to execution, and on the road the latter begged pardon of the Saint. The apostle had long since forgiven him, but hesitated for a moment whether publicly to accept as a brother one still unbaptized. God quickly recalled to him the Church's faith that the blood of martyrdom supplies for every sacrament and, falling on his companion's neck, he embraced him, with the words, "Peace be with thee!"         Together then they knelt for the sword, and together received the crown. Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]