Homily Reflections today tended to speak of the Family Roots or Task Role of St. Joseph.
The following from St. Alphonsus resounds from the Saints.
PREFACE OF JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF MARY
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks as we honor Saint Joseph.
He is that just man,
that wise and loyal servant,
whom you placed at the head of your family. With a husband's love he cherished Mary, the virgin Mother of God.
With fatherly care he watched over Jesus Christ your Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Through Christ the choirs of angels
and all the powers of heaven
praise and worship your glory.
May our voices blend with theirs
as we join in their unending hymn: Holy holy holy . . .
MEDITATION by Alphonsus de Liguori (+ 1787, founded the Redemptorists).
Go to Joseph
Saint Bernardine of Siena used to say: 'There is no doubt about it; in heaven, Jesus Christ not only continues to show Saint Joseph every sign of the familiarity and respect which he showed him during his life on earth, as Son to father, but adds to them with fresh honors." Notice these two words: familiarity and respect. The Lord, who on earth honored Saint Joseph as a father, will certainly not refuse him anything he asks in heaven.
At this point we ought to add that Saint Joseph had on earth no authority over the humanity of Jesus Christ as a natural father would have, though he did, in a certain sense, have authority over him as husband of Mary who had authority over him as his natural Mother. Whoever has the right to a tree, also has the right to the fruit it bears. Consequently, on earth Jesus Christ used to respect Joseph and obey him as his superior, and it follows that Saint Joseph's prayers in heaven are treated as orders by Jesus Christ. This is Gerson's thought: "When a father prays to his son," he says, "his prayers truly are commands."
Now let us listen to what Saint Bernard has to say about Saint Joseph's intercessory power on behalf of his supplicants: 'There are some saints who have the power of protecting in certain specific circumstances; but Saint Joseph has been granted the power to help us in every kind of need, and to defend all who have recourse to him with pious dispositions."
That was how Saint Bernard put it; Saint Teresa confirms his opinion from her own experience and tells us: "It would seem that God has only granted the other saints power to help us in one kind of necessity; but experience shows that Saint Joseph can help in every kind of need."
There is no doubt about it: just as Jesus Christ wanted to be subject to Joseph on earth, so he does everything the saint asks of him in heaven. When Egypt was laid waste by the great famine, Pharaoh told his people, Ite ad Joseph! - Go to Joseph! So if we are in trouble, let us listen to the word of the Lord and take Pharaoh's advice; let us go to Joseph if we wish to be consoled ... Above all, I most strongly urge you to ask him for three special graces: forgiveness of sins, love of Jesus Christ, and a happy death.
It was a joy joining in the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of a friend, Fr. John Caffrey OFM. In his Homily he made an extremely moving reference to an experience from meetings of the Eucharistic Priest of Cenacolo group.
It leads me to learn something about Cenacle and this very Lent morning's Mass meditation is from Mother Elvira Petrozzi below.
Being "Prophetic" Regarding Our Life MEDITATION OF THE DAY March 16th 2009 (Magnificat Monthly)
Our life is not an invention, but rather the invention of God, who had the courage to have so much faith in us to give us this gift to put into our hands life, existence, with all the "tools" to be able to live it well. Maybe we have not yet taken into consideration this initiative of God and many times we think we are simply born because our parents wanted us or, in any case, for natural or human motives. This is confirmed by the fact that there are people who do not want to live, who stop at the exterior and never taste the fruit of life ... Overall, we must convince ourselves that God wanted to give to you, to me, to everyone the gift of life. It is a gift to discover, to receive, to protect, and to love. If we do not discover this in ourselves, we do not even know how to welcome or defend the life of others, of our children, or of those whom we say we love ...
It is a big lie to believe that life is just an accident or even that it is ours! Life is a gift from God, born from his heart, which is Love. It is a gift that we must begin to unwrap like when we receive a package and out of curiosity we desire to know what is inside. We want to know the reason for this gift that will surely make us happy. No one can enter into the heart of our life for us. It is a personal journey ... Everyone loves the life that we can see, feel, and touch, but life is not only that which belongs to us. It is Someone else. We are from Someone who takes care of us and wants us to discover the flavor of life, because he knows that only in this way we can be truly happy.
MOTHER ELVIRA PETROZZI
Mother Elvira Petrozzi is foundress of Comunita Cenacolo, welcoming the lost and desperate in forty fraternities in thirteen countries.
The celebrations of the Martyrdom of this Scottish Jesuit priest commenced with the First Vespers sung by the St. Mungo Singers.
Following the Mass at the St. Andrew Cathedral, the traditional WALK honouring St John Ogilvie takes the route to thesite at Glasgow Cross.
Martyr of Scotland
John Ogilvie (1579-1615) performed ministry in his native Scotland for only 11 months after he returned to his homeland following 22 years abroad. He is the only canonized Scottish martyr from the time of the Reformation, and was only 36 when he gave his life for Christ.
I learned from the OCSO Order Necrology that Fr. Chrysogonus died at Gethsemani Abbey November 23, 2OO8 :
Community Note: Our beloved Fr Chrysogonus Waddell entered into the joy of the Lord on this solemnity of Christ the King. Blessed with many talents and an exuberant spirit, Fr Chrysogonus returned the gifts generously and tirelessly. His musical compositions are known and played throughout the world.
His scholarly contributions are highly renowned and acclaimed. Humble and faithful, humorous and devout, he sought the face of the Lord with zeal and tenacity. May his song in heaven be jubilant and eternal!
The memory of Fr. Chrysogonus is very moving to me from when I first got to know him at the time we shared some study days at Monte Cistello 1960s.
Two days ago I was dusting bottom library shelves in the books on Our Lady and I came upon a print-off from LITURGY, the quarterly periodical produced by Fr. Chrysogonus. He published the article, THE BLESSED VIRGIN COMPARED TO THE AIR WE BREATHE by Gerard Manley Hopkins with Conference Notes of Thomas Merton. (LITURGY Vol. 25:1 3-19, 1991).
The Blessed Virgin poem above forms an apt Memorial for the thanksgiving and prayer of the life of Chrysogonus we cherish.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN COMPARED To THE AIR WE BREATHE
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
(Stonyhurst, May 1883)
With Conference Notes of
Thomas Merton
Getsemani 1954
Wild air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
The fleeciest, frailest-flixed
Snowflake; that 's fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing's life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;
This air, which, by life's law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God's infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess's
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God's glory through,
God's glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name.
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms' self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.
If I have understood,
She holds high motherhood
Towards all our ghostly good
And plays in grace her part
About man's beating heart,
Laying, like air's fine flood,
The deathdance in his blood;
Yet no part but what will
Be Christ our Saviour still.
Of her flesh he took flesh:
He does take fresh and fresh,
Though much the mystery how,
Not flesh but spirit now
And makes, O marvellous!
New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve;
New Bethlems, and he born
There, evening, noon, and morn—
Bethlem or Nazareth,
Men here may draw like breath
More Christ and baffle death;
Who, born so, comes to be
New self and nobler me
In each one and each one
More makes, when all is done,
Both God's and Mary's Son.
Again, look overhead
How air is azurèd;
O how! nay do but stand
Where you can lift your hand
Skywards: rich, rich it laps
Round the four fingergaps.
Yet such a sapphire-shot,
Charged, steepèd sky will not
Stain light. Yea, mark you this:
It does no prejudice.
The glass-blue days are those
When every colour glows,
Each shape and shadow shows.
Blue be it: this blue heaven
The seven or seven times seven
Hued sunbeam will transmit
Perfect, not alter it.
Or if there does some soft,
On things aloof, aloft,
Bloom breathe, that one breath more
Earth is the fairer for.
Whereas did air not make
This bath of blue and slake
His fire, the sun would shake,
A blear and blinding ball
With blackness bound, and all
The thick stars round him roll
Flashing like flecks of coal,
Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt,
In grimy vasty vault.
So God was god of old:
A mother came to mould
Those limbs like ours which are
What must make our daystar
Much dearer to mankind;
Whose glory bare would blind
Or less would win man's mind.
Through her we may see him
Made sweeter, not made dim,
And her hand leaves his light
Sifted to suit our sight.
Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world, wherein
To wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round me lie
Fronting my froward eye
With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God's love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.
Conference Notes of THOMAS MERTON
The theme of the poem: the Universal Mediation of the Blessed Mother.
The poem develops in the form of an argument to prove that Mary's influence is as ever present, as necessary, as perfectly efficacious in producing spiritual life and keeping it in existence, as the air we breathe is necessary for preserving bodily life.
1.The all-pervading presence of air - the presence of Mary everywhere. Air is everywhere; it surrounds all things, it penetrates them all. "World mothering" air. Things are "nestled" in the air as children in the arrns of another. "Nestling Ire everywhere."
The smallest, frailest things - "frailest flixed snowf'Lake " - are "fairly riddled " with air. It is a
Needful, never spent
And nursing elerrent.
We are "nursed" by the air - it is our "meal at every wink" .
Hence the surrounding air is a Mother that protects and nourishes her child. This makes him at once think of Mary, and her presence.
She is Mother first of all to "God's infinity - dwindled to infancy". But also she "Mothers each new grace - that does new reach our race."
Hence the great power of Mary, a power that was never attributed to any goddess although she is a mere woman.
Her whole mission, her "vocation" is to be the medium which "lets all God's glory through" as the sky filters the light of the sun and pours it through on to the world .
. . . . ... . . . .. who
This one work has to do—
let all God's glory through,
God's glory, which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
2.Here he takes up the same idea and deepens it, makes it more concrete and precise. To be surrounded by her influence is to be surrounded by ''mercy''. Mary is present not only as a remote influence, not only in the gifts she brings to us. She is herself the mercy that surrounds us, so that we live in her. (Like a spirit she is present where she acts.)
I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name,
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe . . .
Nay, more than almoner
The sweet alms' self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.
Mary is the life of our life. We breathe Mary. We live entirely by her.
As children within their mother's womb.
In other words, she is Mediatrix of all grace.
The doctrine of Mary' s Mediation of all grace:
God, who could have given us . all without Mary, freely decreed and positively ordained that grace should not be given to us without her intercession. " ... from her flowoff, and no way but so." (see above)
The mediation of Mary is clearly subordinated to God. "Since God has let her dispense - her prayers his providence." She is "more than almoner," she is the "sweet alms' self", because all His gifts cane to us not only through her but as it were in her.
It is secondaryto the mediation of Christ. She received all from and in Him. But it is universal.
a)In time - she has been since the Assumption the administrator of all grace for all people.
b)She is the administrator of omes et singulaegratiae [each and every grace] .
- sanctifying grace and the annexed gifts.
- actual graces - together with temporal goods and preservation fram evil.
- the graces of the sacraments - in so far as she merited de congruo the institution of the sacraments, and in so far as her intercession disposes us for a proper reception of the sacraments and obtains for us opportunities so to receive them.
This is summarized by Gerard Manley Hopkins as follows e
If I have understood,
She holds high motherhood
Towards all our ghostly good
And plays in grace her part
About man' s beating heart,
Laying, like air's fine flood
The deathdance in his blood;
Yet no part but what will
Be Christ our Saviour still.
Note the "action" of the imagery:
a)Mystery - is simply evoked. "If I have understood", and the word "ghostly" - ancient English word for "spiritual" - but sane resonance from modern usage of the word,
b)Action - ''man's beating heart" - "the deathdance in his blood." Rapid pulsing movements as of a thing precariously alive - fragile, palpitating life of the heart, and the inseparable presence of death within man I s very life (through original sin), since every heart beat is a renewal of life but a closer step towards death. But "like air's fine flood" - a smooth sweeping, uniform, silent action (suggesting efficacy, irresistible power') , Mary "allays", quiets, soothes, silences the "deathdance" - the agitation of man's sinful heart.
Apply this to contemplation of Mary - how close we are to hesychasm, although Gerard Manley Hopkins arrived at it purely spontaneously. Every breath, Mary invades our whole being, silencing, pacifying, smoothing out our life. Taste the sweetness of the air and feel its silence pour into you when you meditate. Mary. Quickly comes to constant sense of her presence. (cf. Yoga)
3.The life that is nourished and grows in us each moment is the life of CHRIST. At each breath of grace in our soul, Christ takes flesh, or rather "takes spirit" in us new:
And makes, O marvellous
New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve ...
Men here may draw like breath
More Christ and baffle death;
Who, born so, canes to be
New self and nobler me
In each one and each one
More makes, when all is done,
Both God I S and Mary' s Son.
So by the fact that we live in her, Christ is mothered in us. It is the doctrine of Bl. Guerric on the soul as the "mother of Christ" - but simplified by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Tomake Christ live in us, we need only to "breathe" Mary. Christ thus born in us is our true self "New self and nobler ne." And this takes place in all - his horizons widen out and embrace the whole Mystical Body, person by person: "in each one and each one."
4.As the purity of air filters the light of the sun without diminishing it, spreads it out, evenly and distributes it in the many colours of all things, so Mary’s purity does not "stain" the light of God, but brings it to us perfect.
Yet such a sapphire-shot,
Charged, steeped sky will not
Stain light. Yea, mark you this
It does no prejudice.
The glass-blue days are those
When every colour glows ,
Each shape and shadow shows ,
Blue be it: this blue heaven
The seven or seven times seven
Hued sunbeam will transmit
Perfect, not alter it.
5.Nevertheless, the air softens the harsh light of the sun.
And Mary' s mediation also brings us the light of God in a way that is bearable to our weak sight, without changing it. He comes to us "made sweeter, not made dim."
There are sane lines that remind us of Blake - a sudden picture of the sun without the protecting atmosphere of the earth –
Whereas did air not make
This bath of blue and slake
His fire, the sun would shake,
A blear and blinding ball
With blackness bound, and all
The thick stars round himroll
Flashing like specks of coal,
Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt,
In grimy, vasty vault.
These are some of the most marvellous lines in the poem. Brings out the feeling of a "hostile" heaven full of fires to which we are not tempered, whose sight hurts and frightens us - fires set in a vast emptiness in which we are likely to blow away.
This is the picture of the Old Testament God: "So God was god of old."
But the Incarnation has made "our daystar much dearer to mankind" .
Whose glory bare would blind
Or less would win man I s mind.
Through her we may see him
Made sweeter, not made dim,
And her hand leaves his light
Sifted to suit our light.
6.The closing lines are a beautiful prayer to Mary Mediatrix of grace.
Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world,
wherein to wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round ne lie
Fronting my froward eye
With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God I S love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.
The final lines take up the first words of the poem and show all their meaning in a summary of the poem: our life consists in being clasped to our Mother’s breast, as we are "isled" and "mothered", that is to say, surrounded by the air.
Mary is all around us. We need to be aware of her to be "isled" in her, folded in her arms. This awareness is something she must give us, it being one of the great graces she procures for us. Thus we ask her to "fast fold" us, her children, in her arms.
