Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ...

COMMENT:
Just begun our Annual Retreat.
The first Lecture was moving on "the compassion of God".
The Audio is great.
So far we do not learn how to use the Video.
Below is the example of both Audio and Video from
Daily Readings - Audio - From The New American Bible  

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings-audio.cfm 

July 6, 2014  Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 100

Daily Reflections Video

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm  

2014-07-06 Reflection (A-100)

Looking forward to learning more of the benefit of the internet digital revolution.

.....Donald

Sunday, 06 July 2014

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

On Saturday, 5 July 2014, 
 DGO   wrote:
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11:25-30.

At that time Jesus exclaimed, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. 
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." 

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Commentary of the day : 

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), monk and Bishop 
Catechetical Discourse 23-26 ; SC 453 

"Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike"

The fact that the all-powerful God has been able to humble himself even to the humility of the human condition constitutes a greater proof than the impact and supernatural character of miracles. Indeed, when divine power effects something of great sublimity this is, after a fashion, in conformity with and appropriate to God’s nature… On the other hand, that God descended even to our lowliness is, in a certain way, the expression of an overwhelming power that is not in the least restrained by what is contrary to its nature… 

Neither the expanse of the heavens, the brightness of the stars, the governing of the universe, nor the harmony of created things reveal the splendid power of God so much as his indulgence, which leads him to lower himself to the weakness of our nature… God’s goodness, wisdom, justice and power are revealed in his plans on our behalf: goodness in his will to “save that which was lost” (Lk 19,10); wisdom and justice in his manner of saving us; power in the fact that Christ became “in the likeness of men” (Phil 2,7-8) and made himself conformable to the humility of our nature. 

Nunraw News 3 July 2014 Reception services

Nunraw News

Saturday, 31 May 2014

July: The Pope's Intention: That sports may always be occasions of human fraternity and growth.

We are sad but relieved to announce that the sale of Nunraw House, our original home, has now been completed. There are some wonderful photographs of the House, which is so full of memories for all of us, on the estate agents' site HERE. In Abbot Mark's newsletter,which can be read in full HERE, he says this: Nunraw Tower, our former home and guesthouse has now been sold. These past six months have been trying ones for the community. The old Guesthouse had formed strong emotional ties for those who lived there before moving up to the present abbey building at the end of 1969, and to a lesser extent the younger members of the community who entered after that date. 

 On the 9 June, feast of St Columba, our novice Br Séamus, happily made his first profession. We appreciate your continuing interest in the community here at Nunraw and in the recent changes we have had to make. As we move forward with our plans, we ask you to keep us in your prayers. We keep you all in ours. 

The New Abbey Shop is open for business on the first floor, above the reception room. It is open every day from 2-4.30 p.m. Brother Philip looks forward to your custom!

The Abbey Reception room has now been fitted out to receive coach-parties: Father Raymond looks forward to welcoming all the old parish groups, and new ones, back to Nunraw.

We are unable at the moment to receive resident guests: if you wish a residential retreat, we are happy to recommend St Mary's Monastery, Kinnoull. 
http://www.redemptorists.co.uk/images/pdf_documents/Kinnoull%202014.pdf  

********** WELCOME **********

NUNRAW Sancta Maria Abbey
Reception Room: ground level, Tearoom, upper level, Shop.

Tearoom. Fr. Raymond, wall hanging

Upstairs.......Bookshop

Br. Philip - Shop keeper 

Small ICONS

Custom in Abbey Shop

Books in the New Abbey Shop

Assistance in the Abbey Shop

Abbey Shop Information included on the Side-Bar,

and a FaceBook entry.

Apostle Thomas by Caravaggio. The Culture Entusiast

iBreviary - Biography, picture, trans Ital.

 3 July 2014

Apostle Thomas by Caravaggio

The Incredulity of St Thomas, whose feast is celebrated on Thursday, July 3

St. Thomas the Apostle July 3

Palestine - southern India (?), The first century of the Christian era Called by Jesus among the Twelve. It appears in chapter 11 of John when the Master decides to return to Judea to go to Bethany, where his friend Lazarus died. The disciples fear the risks, but Jesus decided: you go. And here you hear the voice of Thomas, obedient and pessimistic: "Let us also go to die with him," decided not to abandon Jesus do wrong to Thomas remembering only his famous moment of disbelief. He is much more than a lukewarm follower. But believing is not easy, and not to pretend that it is. He says his difficulties, he shows how, like us, help us. After the death of the Lord, he heard about the resurrection "only to them," demands to be touched. But when, eight days later, Jesus comes and invites him to check exclaim, "My Lord and my God!", As no one had ever done so far. In the middle of the sixth century, an Egyptian merchant wrote that he had found in southern unexpected groups of Christians and he knew that the gospel was brought to their ancestors by Thomas the Apostle. (Future) Patronage: Architects Etymology: Thomas = twin, Hebrew Emblem: Lancia Martyrology: Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, who did not believe the other disciples who proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus, but when he showed him the pierced side, exclaimed, "My Lord and my God."And with this faith is believed to have brought the word of the Gospel among the peoples of India.

The Culture Enthusiast

http://thecultureenthusiast.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/incredulity-of-saint-thomas-by.html

Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio

Source

A little bit of history
Date: 1601 - 1602
Located in Sanssouci's Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany
After the Resurrection, Christ appeared among His apostles, but Saint Thomas was absent on this occasion. He doubts that Christ really appeared among them and challenges the Apostles with a skeptical answer: "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

Later on, Jesus appears once more in the middle of the Apostles and this time Saint Thomas is present. Christ tells him to touch His side as he said he would. Embarassed, Saint Thomas refused. Jesus then takes Thomas' hand and puts in His side. In the end, Jesus says "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Saint Thomas answers: "My Lord and my God!"

A little bit of technique

  

Caravaggio might have had an infamous reputation as a bar brawler, but he sure knew his Bible. Notice Christ's expression. He is not angry or impatient. He looks compassionately at Thomas. 

Saint Thomas, on the other hand, has an expression of utter surprise and shock. I absolutely love this interpretation: "It could also be surprise at the realization that he, too, is also pierced. Indeed, St. Thomas appears to clutch his side as if he becomes aware of a wound at his side as well. And we who wince at this gritty depiction feel a wound at our side as well."1 

All the Apostles head's form a circle, giving movement to the painting: we look at one, then to the other, until we reach Christ's wounded chest.

   

Isn't the presence and expression of the other Apostles amazing? I mean, they had already seen Christ Ressurected, but it's like they took this opportunity to observe more. Human beings are naturally curious and the Apostles were facing Jesus - the one whose actions, if written down, could fill the whole world with books.2

A little bit of enthusiasm

I always felt sorry for Saint Thomas in this episode. At the same time, I feared I might have done the same thing if I were in his situation. Isn't his attitude even praised nowadays? 

   

But through Caravaggio's painting, we are reminded that Christ loves and cares about Thomas despite his incredulity. He even came back and made another apparition for his sake and for the sake of all doubting Thomas out there. 

Sources: 

1 Art in the Christian Tradition

2 John 21:25

Matt Talbot 6 July 2014

The Venerable Matt Talbot

 1856-1925

Prayer for Beatification

Diarmuid Martin Archbishop of Dublin

Nicholas Cabasilas - There is no other name by which we must be saved.

2nd July 2014

Patristic Lectionary, Night Office Readings.

Nicholas Cabasilas: Asking for God’s MercyFriday, Jul 6 2012 

EASTERN ORTHODOX and Nicholas Cabasilas charity, Christ, forgiveness, God,interior life, love, mercy, name of Christ, prayer, redemption, repentance, sin,thoughts Mark Armitage 10:27 am

There is no other name by which we must be saved.

That we may be able always to pay attention to Christ, and be zealous in this at all times, let us call on him who is the subject of our thoughts at every moment.

And of course those who call upon him need no special preparation or special place for prayer, nor a loud voice.

For he is present everywhere, and is always with us; he is even nearer to those who seek him than their very heart.

It is fitting, then, that we should firmly believe that our prayers will be answered.

We should never hesitate on account of our evil ways, but take courage because he on whom we call is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

In fact he is so far from ignoring the entreaties of the servants who have offended him, that before they had called on him or even thought of him, he had already called them himself by his coming to earth – for he said “I came to call sinners”.

Then if that was the way he sought those who did not even want him, how will he treat those who call on him?

And if he loved us when we hated him, how will he reject us when we love him?

It is just this that Paul’s words make clear: “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, when we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life”.

Again, let us think about the kind of supplication we make.

We do not pray for the things that friends are likely to ask for and receive, but rather for such things as are specifically prescribed for…servants who have offended their master.

For we do not call upon the Lord in order that he may reward us, or grant us any other favour of that kind, but that he may have mercy on us.

Who, then, are likely to ask for mercy, forgive­ness, remission of sins and things of that sort from God who loves humanity, and not go away empty-handed?

Those who are called to account, if indeed those who are well have no need of a physician.

For if human beings are at all in the habit of calling upon God for mercy, it is those who are worthy of mercy, in other words sinners.

So let us call on God with our voice and in mind and thought, so that we may apply the only saving remedy to everything through which we sin, for in the words of Peter: “there is no other name by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Nicholas Cabasilas (1319/1323–after 1391): The Life in Christ, 6, 13(PG 150, 681-683), in A Word in Season, Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours, Augustinian Press 1999; @ Dom Donald’s Blog.

Prayer in Letter of St James. Fr. Raymond

  Email from Fr. Raymond           

Fr. Raymond. Wall hanging of
Madonna image
from family 1950, Rome.

On Monday, 30 June 2014,  Raymond ...wrote:

PRAYER IN THE LETTER OF JAMES

“If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in Faith, without doubting,  for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, that is driven and tossed  by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.”

The key to the understanding of these verses lies perhaps in the object proposed for our prayer.  It is: “The Wisdom that that is asked for in Faith”:  the wisdom that knows to call God Father and knows how to live by his life.  It is, in other words, the living grasp of Revelation; the ultimate object of all deprecatory prayer:  Holiness, Union with God.

But first we read in the Latin text: “si quis indiget sapientia” and surely “indigent” expresses more than a mere lack of something.  It means rather the lack of, or want of, something which is vital to us.  And so this phrase sets the perfect atmosphere of prayer.  It not only draws from us the humble  ac-knowledgement of our complete indigence in the supernatural life, but also it shows us the most fitting manner in which to gain the necessities and, even the riches, of this life.  No man is indigent if he can earn his living.  Only a  beggar is indigent!  “Come and buy bread”, Isaiah cries, but “without any money!”.  “Ask, only ask!” says St James.  We all stand before God poor and naked, having nothing we can offer for that for which we ask.  Even the coin of our merit is a token which has its value only from the decree of Him who accepts it.  The saints insist that they do not reach God by their merits.  Merit is a merciful path opened by God to the mediocre; a pious stratagem by which God finds a way to give himself to those who have not learned the nature of love; who have not learned of their own helplessness before the unattainable heights to which they are called.  Love gives itself because it wants to, not because it has been paid for.

Therefore the perfect approach to love is simply to ask for it.  The theology of merit only enhances the gratuity of Grace, and when we learn the secret of our own impotence we will with unspeakable joy learn to fly with Divine swiftness along this truest way to God; the way of the Saints; the way of Asking; the way of Desire.  Not that the saints don’t outshine us all in merits, but the understanding of what merit is only increases in them the confidence that they have found the true way to God.  “Ask, only ask!” says St James.  The Divine Life is so inaccessible that the only approach is humbly to knock and ask.

But when we realise just what it is that we are asking for we do indeed need the assurance James gives us that God “will not upbraid us” for our temerity and presumption, “it will be given us” he says.  So too says Our Lord Himself: “How ready is the Father to give the Good Spirit to those who ask” and St Paul says: “Let us go with confidence to the Throne of grace” and “This is the will of God: your sanctification.”

So, St  James has wonderfully expressed the nature of prayer and indeed of all the life of grace in one short phrase – “to ask and to ask in a Faith that does not waver”.  Herein he holds up to mankind its two greatest crimes – not murder and adultery or war and oppression, but that we do not believe enough in the gift of God and we do not desire enough its consummation in us.  After all what is to ask, but to express desire and what is that but charity, the great fundamental of the spiritual life. The nature of Love is that it is mutual and is not perfected in the self giving of the one till it is fulfilled in the reaching out of the other to embrace that gift.  Love that offers itself and finds no desire to meet it is a tragedy, a deformity of truth that entered creation only with sin.  To ask, to desire is essential to love.  This explains how prayer is not, to persuade God to  give us what we want, but rather, to dispose us to receive what He so wants to give us.  
Here too is explained St James’ insistence on the unwavering nature of faith in the reality of God’s love.  Love that cannot convince its object of its sincerity is likewise a terrible tragedy; a deformity of truth.  It is like a man dying of thirst in the desert and reaching out to the oasis that is only a mirage.  It is frustrated  and unfulfilled.  It can only fall limp and helpless .  Those who respond like that mirage to the thirst of God’s love will not receive anything of Him says St James, and not because God wills it so, but because their lack of faith in his love is the very thing that frustrates it.

--------------------------------------------------------

    http://www.tldm.org/bible/new%20testament/james.htm  

THE CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES THE APOSTLE

This Epistle is called Catholic or Universal, as formerly were also the two Epistles of St. Peter, the first of St. John and that of St. Jude, because they were not written to any peculiar people or particular person, but to the faithful in general. It was written by the apostle St. James, called the Less, who was also called the brother of our Lord, being his kinsman (for cousins german with the Hebrews were called brothers). 

• 

  right of Mary
  James of Jerusalem

  He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. In this Epistle are set forth many precepts appertaining to faith and morals; particularly, that faith without good works will not save a man and that true wisdom is given only from above. In the fifth chapter he publishes the sacrament of anointing the sick. It was written a short time before his martyrdom, about twenty-eight years after our Lord’s Ascension.

 NOTE:

The African Bible, Biblical 

Text of the New American Bible. 

Paulines Publications Africa 1999

The Catholic Letters James (p.2051)

James, Faith as Active Love.

The Letter of James.

Author: ... “It was written in his name and with his authority by a well educated Hellenistic disciple who may have made use of genuine traditions that originated with James."

See previous details of the Apostles below.

Dom Donald's Blog: Pentecost illumination

29 Jun 2014

This miniature from a book of hours illustrates the conclusion of the Hours of the Holy Spirit. Painted on velum in Paris around the year 1500, the manuscript begins with the prologue: "In these present Hours is briefly ...

http://nunraw.blogspot.com/

Vocations “There was great calm” (Mt. 8:22-27) 1st July 2014

Mass Gospel introduction...  

Nunraw Sacristy tapestry, (H Shaw)

  

Introduction (Abbot Mark). Mass Vocations (Mt. 8: 22-27).

Today we offer Mass for Vocations. As we pray for more vocations to the priesthood and the Religious Life, we see in today’s Gospel, the account of Jeus in the boat with his disciples.

A sudden storm hits them and they fear for their lives.

Vocations are like that. We follow Jesus but we will be tested and only know how much we really trust and rely on him in the storms of life.

As we prepare to offer this Mass in thanksgiving for our vocations, let us remember our continuing need of God to be with us.

Penitential Rite:

Lord Jesus, Give us the confidence to keep following you in difficult and unexpected situation.
- Lord have mercy...

Lord, may we turn to you as we struggle to remain faithful to our commitment to your will.
Christ have mercy...

Lord Jesus, lift us up when we fail you.

Fill us with he the awareness of your healing presence.
Lord have mercy

Tuesday of the Thirteenth week in Ordinary Time

See commentary below or click here

Saint Augustine : "There was great calm" 

Book of Amos 3:1-8.4:11-12.

Fw: The Daily Gospel

On Monday, 30 June 2014, 17:05, DGO <noreply@evzo.org> wrote:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 8:23-27.

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. 

Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.

They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"

He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?" 

Commentary of the day : 

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church 

Sermon 63 ; PL 38, 424 

"There was great calm"

Christ's sleep is the symbol of a mystery. The ship's passengers represent souls traversing the life of this world on the wood of the cross. In addition, the ship is the symbol of the Church. Indeed, truly... the heart of each member of the faithful is a ship sailing across the sea: it cannot sink provided the spirit engages in good thoughts. 

Has someone insulted you? It is the wind beating against you. Have you become angry? It is the swell mounting. Does temptation arise? It is the wind blowing. Is your soul troubled? It is the waves rising up... Wake up Christ and let him speak to you. “Who, then, is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Who is he? “His is the sea for he has made it”; “all things were made by him” (Ps 95[94],5; Jn 1,3). So imitate the winds and the sea: obey your Creator. The sea shows itself to be docile to Christ’s voice and do you remain deaf? The sea obeys, the winds drop, and do you continue to blow? What are we trying to say by this? Speaking, getting upset, plotting revenge: isn’t this continuing to blow and not wanting to give way before Christ’s word? When your heart is stirred up don’t allow yourself to be swamped by the waves. 

If, nevertheless, the wind blows us over – for we are only human – and if it stirs up the bad feelings in our hearts, let us not despair. Let us wake up Christ so as to continue our journey on a peaceful sea. 

THE POPE'S MONTHLY INTENTIONS - July 2014

THE POPE'S MONTHLY INTENTIONS - July 2014

• Universal Intention - Sports. That sports may always be occasions of human fraternity and growth..
• Evangelization Intention - Lay Missionaries. That the Holy Spirit may support the work of the laity who proclaim the Gospel in the poorest countries.
•  http://www.apostleshipofprayer.org/ 

Receive, Recognize, and Contemplate God in his Creation

This large canvas by Theodor Schüz († 1900) illustrates a family at prayer before a rustic repast during the harvest. A bygone era—indeed, an entire civilization—is evoked here that anyone under fifty cannot have known. It is a civilization born some ten thousand years ago on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates through the reconciliation of shepherd and farmer. It grew up in Israel, burgeoned in Greece and Rome. Later it came to full flower in the Christian West, as its countryside was cloaked in churches, chapels, and oratories as with a beaded mantle. This was a civilization in which Creation itself placed its faith in God the Creator, in which life was intrinsically based on community. Though old as time, yet it has just expired before our very eyes.

As a child not all that long ago, I was fortunate enough to live in the heart of that civilization while it was still thriving. I was that little boy standing in prayer on the right of the painting. I tied sheaves, I built haystacks. I learned what prayer is in the school of immaculately-coated Charolais cattle which, at the first tinkling of the church bells, would stop unbidden for the Angelus. And I can attest that daily communion with Creation disposes his children toward their Creator. Schooled to the rhythm of seedtime and harvest, the parables of the Lord spoke directly to my heart and shaped my understanding. Through the passage of the seasons, all the Christian feast days seemed to me like so many celebrations of a truly living reality: the convergence in our lives of the sacred and the profane. And all the hours of the day and night didn’t seem long enough to me to give thanks for the fact that the Savior had come on earth to complete the work of the Creator. Paul Claudel well grasped the vital importance of this revelation of Himself with which God imbued nature, so that it could speak to us of Him—and of our own destiny within his providential plan. For Claudel placed these words in the mouth of Joan of Arc: “It was the linden tree in front of my father’s house that, like a great white-surpliced preacher in the moonlight, explained everything to me.”

Like Joan, it was contemplation of Creation that explained everything to the child I was then. Everything? Well, everything that really counts: that which is good, that which is true, that which is beautiful. Faced in our post-modern societies with the abolition of all this—the good, the true, the beautiful—faced with the abolition of man presenting itself almost as a pious work, I too long for those moonlit lessons of great preachers in white surplices.

   www.magnificat.com