Community Chronicle:
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Fr. Raymond Jaconelli, his brother Louis
with son Raymond and grandson Sergio. |
The community and guests joined in the Diamond Celebration of Fr. Raymond's monastic first profession.
Recently, Raymond, Abbot Emeritus, attended another celebration marking the important event of the Church, the Ordination of the new Archbishop, Leo Cushley.
All these 60 years, Raymond has continues to be counted on with the Organ.
On the 19th. November, St. Mechtild reminded of
the “Nightingale of Helfta”', gifted with a beautiful voice, also possessed a special talent for rendering the solemn and sacred music over which she presided as domna cantrix.
Today, 22nd. November, Saint Cecilia, and the echoes of St. Augustine resound in the Church's life of music, 'Sing to God in Jubilation'. http://universalis.com/readings.htm
COMMENT:
St. Mechtilde - Musical and spiritual gifts
She was famous for her musical talents and was called the “Nightingale of Helfta”.[3] Gifted with a beautiful voice, Mechtilde also possessed a special talent for rendering the solemn and sacred music over which she presided as domna cantrix. All her life she held this office and trained the choir with indefatigable zeal. Indeed, divine praise was the keynote of her life as it is of her book; in this she never tired, despite her continual and severe physical sufferings, so that in His revelations Christ was wont to call her His "nightingale". Souls thirsting for consolation or groping for light sought her advice; learned Dominicans consulted her on spiritual matters. At the beginning of her own mystic life it may have been from St. Mechtilde that St. Gertrude the Great learnt that the marvellous gifts lavished upon her were from God.[1]
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Mechthilde and Gertrude of Helfta, became ardent devotees and promoters of Jesus’ heart after it was the subject of many of their visions. The idea of hearing the heartbeat of God was very important to medieval saints who nurtured devotion to the Sacred Heart. Women such as Saint Mechtilde and Saint Gertrude (d. 1302) perceived Jesus’ heart as the breast of a mother. Just as a mother gives milk to nourish her child, so Jesus in the Eucharist gives us his life blood.[7]
Devotion of the Three Hail Marys
Mechtilde was distressed over her eternal salvation and prayed that the Most Holy Virgin would assist her at the hour of death. The Blessed Virgin appeared to her and reassured her, saying: "Yes, I will! But I wish, for your part, that you recite three Hail Marys every day, remembering in the first the power received from the Eternal Father, in the second the wisdom received from the Son, with the third one the love that has filled the Holy Spirit". The Blessed Virgin taught her to pray and to understand especially how the Three Hail Marys honour the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.
Paragraphs from Wikipedia
Univeralis Office of Readings.
Second Reading |
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| A commentary of St Augustine on Psalm 32 |
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| Sing to God in jubilation |
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Praise the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song. Rid yourself of what is old and worn out, for you know a new song. A new man, a new covenant; a new song. This new song does not belong to the old man. Only the new man learns it: the man restored from his fallen condition through the grace of God, and now sharing in the new covenant, that is, the kingdom of heaven. To it all our love now aspires and sings a new song. Let us sing a new song not with our lips but with our lives.
Sing to him a new song, sing to him with joyful melody. Every one of us tries to discover how to sing to God. You must sing to him, but you must sing well. He does not want your voice to come harshly to his ears, so sing well, brothers!
If you were asked, “Sing to please this musician,” you would not like to do so without having taken some instruction in music, because you would not like to offend an expert in the art. An untrained listener does not notice the faults a musician would point out to you. Who, then, will offer to sing well for God, the great artist whose discrimination is faultless, whose attention is on the minutest detail, whose ear nothing escapes? When will you be able to offer him a perfect performance that you will in no way displease such a supremely discerning listener?
See how he himself provides you with a way of singing. Do not search for words, as if you could find a lyric which would give God pleasure. Sing to him “with songs of joy.” This is singing well to God, just singing with songs of joy.
But how is this done? You must first understand that words cannot express the things that are sung by the heart. Take the case of people singing while harvesting in the fields or in the vineyards or when any other strenuous work is in progress. Although they begin by giving expression to their happiness in sung words, yet shortly there is a change. As if so happy that words can no longer express what they feel, they discard the restricting syllables. They burst out into a simple sound of joy, of jubilation. Such a cry of joy is a sound signifying that the heart is bringing to birth what it cannot utter in words.
Now, who is more worthy of such a cry of jubilation than God himself, whom all words fail to describe? If words will not serve, and yet you must not remain silent, what else can you do but cry out for joy? Your heart must rejoice beyond words, soaring into an immensity of gladness, unrestrained by syllabic bonds. Sing to him with jubilation.
My lips speak your praise, your glory all the day long. When I sing to you, my lips shall rejoice.
I will rejoice in you and be glad, and sing psalms to your name, O Most High. When I sing to you, my lips shall rejoice.
Let us pray.
Lord God, in your mercy listen to our prayers,
which we offer you under the patronage of Saint Cecilia.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Monastic Office of Vigils
St. Mechtild of Hackeborn - 19th November.
St Mechtild of Hackeborn was born about the year 1240. She entered the cloister school of the same monastery where her sister, Gertrude of Hackeborn, was already a member of the community. It was her sister who supervised Mechtild's education. Mechtild had an amiable character, she was highly gifted in mind and body, and possessed of an excellent voice. The monastery of Helfta, under the influence of Mechtild's sister who had become abbess, grew to be a centre of learning, culture and profound spirituality. Mechtild joined the community, following in the footsteps of her elder sister, and she was put in charge of the cloister school.
It fell to Mechtild to teach the other Gertrude – Gertrude the Great –who was fifteen years her junior. They became close friends and it was Mechtild who was to direct the younger Gertrude in the ways of the Spirit when the latter eventually entered the monastery. Gertrude was 1ater to write of Mechtild: "There has never before been anyone like her in our monastery and, I fear, there never will be again."
It is through Gertrude the Great and another nun in the monastery that we have a record of Mechtild's spiritual teaching and mystical experiences. Gertrude had, unknown to Mechtild, been writing down assiduously all that Mechtild told her about her experiences in prayer. Mechtild was alarmed when she discovered this. But she was reassured by our Lord that all this had happened by his will and inspiration. Later Mechtild herself corrected the manuscript. These notes came to be known as the "Book of Special Grace.”The book is centred on the Church's year. It is firmly liturgical, Trinitarian and Christocentric. Its style is warmly affective and joyful, and it shows Mechtild's sound education. In it she urges the use of all the senses in the praise of God, and she stresses devotion to the heart of Christ. Her book was widely read largely due to the influence of the Dominican friars who were in close contact with the monastery.
Mechtild of Hackeborn is often confused with Mechtild of Magdeburg, a contemporary and another mystic, who also lived in the same monastery of Helfta for the last twelve years of her life. [The Ear,l father, had two Earldoms, the daughter Mechtild, the one person. The solution?]
St Mechtild of Hackeborn died on the nineteenth of November around the year 1298.
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Adapted from the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, 1967, and The Penguin
Dictionary of the Saints, D. Attwater.
