Letter of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant to his parents

Joseph Cassant ocso

Thursday, June 17, 2011 Memorial
Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant ocso
Fr. Hugh introduced the Mass. 

Fr. Hugh He commented on the long period of Cistercians not being canonised. Most recently four Beatifications took place. Three of them were young, in their twenties. They had in common that they suffered illness of tuberculosis.
They are distinguished by holiness in the two marks of youth and illness.
See:
http://www.ocso.org/index.

Bienheureux Cyprien Michaël Iwene Tansi ( 3 Files )Bienheureuse Maria Gabriella Sagheddu ( 3 Files )S. Raphaël Arnáiz Barón ( 3 Files )Bienheureux Marie-Joseph Cassant ( 3 Files )

  

Letter of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant to his parents

23 December 1902 / 24 May 1903).

Everything for the Heart of Jesus!

My dear Parents,

Christmas is here, like dawn of the new year; let us not let it pass without examining our thoughts. First, it must be said that this year has been a year of graces for the whole family: on 22 February the diaconate opened the door to the priesthood and on 12 October we saw the fulfillment of all our longings.We would be most ungrateful if we didn't see in all this the special protection of the Heart of Jesus.

For such a long time we hoped against hope to be able to have the whole family together after my ordination so as to share the joy of being present and receiving communion together at my first Mass. The good Lord heard our deepest wishes. It now remains to us to thank him and to enter more and more deeply into the greatness of the priesthood. Let us never dare to equate the Sacrifice of the Mass with earthly things.

So I wish you all a good, happy and holy New Year, in every way. No more worries! You all know that I am a priest now and will never forget you.

Let us be resolved to take advantage of the time given us in this life, which can be compared to water which flows away, to a puff of smoke which the smallest breath scatters, or to a flash of lightning which splits the clouds and then vanishes. Nevertheless, this brief time on earth must be well spent. To this purpose, we must do all out of love, being one with the Heart of Jesus, and rejecting any useless worries.

The best thing I can hope for is that you ever abide as one in the Heart of Jesus. Thank you for your letter, written by your very heart!

I have just received the beautiful photos, and I thank you. They will make a fine family memento. May the Heart of Jesus be praised in all this. I want you always to revere this Heart, which is enshrined in your house. Let us be one in the Heart of Jesus as we beg his protection.

As for my health, it is always problematic. I am very well cared for. I am not going to any of the community exercises, but still, with the heat, my breathing is somewhat difficult. I also have a cold which is making me cough. All for the Heart of Jesus!

I end with the wish that we always be one in the Heart of Jesus, on earth as in Heaven. 

Desert Abbey Cross

Website

abbayedudesert.com

St. Lutgarde Mass & Nignt Office Reading from Preface of Merton

(NAB) For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (2Co 11:2).

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard …. 
Sent: Thu, 16 June, 2011 11:40:17
Subject: Lutgarde Addenda

St Lutgarde, 11^th wk.  The ‘Our Father’.

Paul says in the First Reading, ‘I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ This fits in well as we commemorate the Virgin, Lutgarde. The story of Lutgarde, with her exchange of hearts with Jesus, underlines the message of today’s Gospel. The message is that God wants to have an intimate relationship with each and every human being.

It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can know God personally and call God “Abba, Father”, “Daddy, my daddy”, (Romans 8:15). We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace and favour and mercy. He loves generously and forgives mercifully. When he gives, he gives more than we need, so we will have something to share with others in their need. St. Lutgard loved the Father especially for his gift to us of the Sacred Heart of his divine Son.

St Lutgarde - 16 June

St Lutgarde was born in 1182 in the Flemish town of Tongres. She joined the community of nuns who educated her but later transferred to the monastery of Cistercian nuns at Aywieres. near Brussels. She was afflicted  with total blindness for the last eleven years of her life. She died in 1246.

The following Reading is taken from a book by Thomas Merton

• Some four hundred years before St Margaret Mary Labcured , prayed and suffered for the institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart, St Lutgarde had .entered upon the mystical life with a vision of the pierced side of the Saviour. But there are other facts besides which make Lutgarde of interest to the theologian, the Church historian, and to the general Christian. She was a contemporary of St Francis of Assisi, the first recorded stigmatic, and she too received a mystical wound in her heart which historians have not hesitated to class as a stigma. The life of St Lutgarde introduces us to a mysticism that is definitely extraordinary, yet her mysticism springs from the purest Benedictine sources. Lutgarde's mystical contemplation, like that of St Gertrude and St Mechtilde, is nourished almost entirely by the liturgy. Above all it centres upon the sacrifice of Calvary and upon the Mass which continues that sacrifice among us every day.
  
• The charm of St Lutgarde is heightened by a certain earthly simplicity which has been preserved for us unspoiled in the pages of her medieval biography. She was a great penitent but she was anything but a fragile wraith of a person. Lutgarde, for all her ardent and ethereal mysticism, remained always a living human being of flesh and bone. As a young girl she seems to have been particularly attractive; no doubt we could see some resemblance of her beauty in the well-proportioned Flemish faces which we find in the great paintings of her countrymen in later ages.  
  
• The love of God, penance and reparation, intercession for mankind, were very much present in Lutgarde's life. But it cannot be too much stressed that in St Lutgarde, as in all the early Cistercians, the love that embraces penance and hardship for the sake of Christ is never merely negative, never descends to mere rigid formalism, never concentrates on mere exterior observance of fasts and other penitential rigours.
• The fire of love that consumed the heart of Lutgarde was something vital and positive, and its flames burned not only to destroy but to rejuvenate and transform.

(What are these Wounds? (Clonmore and Reynolds) 1948, pp. IX, X, XII.)

+ + +

Vultus Christi 

http://vultus.stblogs.org/2010/06/draw-me-to-thy-pierced-side-1.html

Draw Me to Thy Piercèd Side

By Father Mark    on June 16, 2010 

The feast of Saint Lutgarde, a Cistercian, and one of the first mystics of the Sacred Heart, occurs on June 16th. Some years ago I was given a piece of her wooden choirstall: one of my most treasured relics ...

Community Monthly Memorial of the Dead

Office of the Dead

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Month Memorial.

Fr. T. introduced the Mass for the Memorial of the recent deceased brethren, relatives and benefactors.

Night Office Reading from
Thomas Merton
Fr. Louis Speaks to us about
SILENCE, Poverty and Death

• IF, at the moment of our death, death comes to us as an unwelcome stranger, it will be because Christ also has always been to us an unwelcome stranger. For when death comes, Christ comes also, bringing us the everlasting life which He has bought for us by His own death. Those who love true life, 'therefore, frequently think about their death. Their life is full of a silence that is an anticipated victory over death. Silence, indeed, makes death our servant and even our friend. Thoughts and prayers that grow up out of the silent thought of death are like trees growing where there is water. They are strong thoughts that overcome the fear of misfortune because they have overcome passion and desire. They turn the face of our soul, in constant desire,' toward the face of Christ
• A whole lifetime of silence is ordered to a final utterance; by this I do not mean that we must all contrive to die with pious speeches on our lips. It is not necessary that our fast words should have some· special or dramatic significance worthy of being written down. Every good faith, every death that hands us over from the uncertainties of this world to the unfailing peace and silence of the love of Christ, is itself an utterance and a conclusion. It says, either in words or without them, that it Is good for life to come to its appointed end, for the body to return to dust and for the spirit to ascend to the Father, through the mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ
• A silent death may speak with more eloquent peace than a death punctuated by vivid expressions. A lonely death, a tragic death, may yet have more to say of the peace and mercy of Christ than many another comfortable death.
• For the eloquence of death is the eloquence of human poverty coming face to face with the riches of divine mercy. The more we are aware that our poverty is supremely grea.t, the greater will be the meaning of our death: and the greater its poverty. For the saints are those who wanted to be poorest in life, and who, above all else, exulted in the supreme poverty of death

Solemnity Pentecost 2011 Chapter Sermon

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard
Sent: Sun, 12 June, 2011 15:06:13
Subject: Pentecost 2011

Three insights of St Augustine re. working of the Holy Spirit.

Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney, World Youth Day, 2008

Pentecost 2011 Chapter Sermon

 

The Holy Spirit "has been in some ways the neglected person of the Blessed Trinity. A clear understanding of the Spirit almost seems beyond our reach."

Benedict XVI recalled that as a young boy he learned of the Holy Spirit, but never quite understood the third person of the Trinity until he was a priest and began to study St. Augustine's writings.

Augustine had "three particular insights about the Holy Spirit as the bond of unity within the blessed Trinity: unity as communion, unity as abiding love, and unity as giving and gift."

These three insights are not just theoretical. They help explain how the Spirit works.

"In a world where both individuals and communities often suffer from an absence of unity or cohesion, these insights help us remain attuned to the Spirit and to extend and clarify the scope of our witness."

Unity:  Augustine's first insight came from reflecting on the words "Holy" and "Spirit," which "refer to what is divine about God, what is shared by the Father and the Son -- their communion."

"So, if the distinguishing characteristic of the Holy Spirit is to be what is shared by the Father and the Son, Augustine concluded that the Spirit’s particular quality is unity. It is a unity of lived communion: a unity of persons in a relationship of constant giving, the Father and the Son giving themselves to each other."

"We begin to glimpse, how illuminating is this understanding of the Holy Spirit as unity, as communion. True unity could never be founded upon relationships which deny the equal dignity of other persons.

"In fact, only in the life of communion is unity sustained and human identity fulfilled: We recognize the common need for God, we respond to the unifying presence of the Holy Spirit, and we give ourselves to one another in service."

Love: Augustine’s second insight was "the Holy Spirit as abiding love."

 John says "God is love." Augustine suggests that while these words refer to the Trinity as a whole, they express a particular characteristic of the Holy Spirit.

"The Holy Spirit makes us remain in God and God in us; yet it is love that effects this. The Spirit therefore is God as love!"

Love is the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit! Ideas or voices which lack love -- even if they seem sophisticated or knowledgeable -- cannot be 'of the Spirit.'

"Furthermore, love has a particular trait: Far from being indulgent or fickle, it has a task or purpose to fulfil: to abide. By its nature love is enduring."

"Again, we catch a further glimpse of how much the Holy Spirit offers our world: love which dispels uncertainty; love which overcomes the fear of betrayal; love which carries eternity within; the true love which draws us into a unity that abides!"

Gift:  Augustine's third insight -- the Holy Spirit as gift -- was derived from the Gospel account of Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Here Jesus reveals himself as the giver of the living water, which later is explained as the Holy Spirit.

"The Spirit is 'God’s gift' -- the internal spring, which truly satisfies our deepest thirst and leads us to the Father."

"Augustine concludes that God sharing himself with us as gift is the Holy Spirit."

Again we catch a glimpse of the Trinity at work: the Holy Spirit is God eternally giving himself; like a never-ending spring he pours forth nothing less than himself.

"In view of this ceaseless gift, we come to see the limitations of all that perishes, the folly of the consumerist mindset. We begin to understand why the quest for novelty leaves us unsatisfied and wanting.

"Are we not looking for an eternal gift? The spring that will never run dry? With the Samaritan woman, let us exclaim: give me this water that I may thirst no more!"

"We have seen that it is the Holy Spirit who brings about the wonderful communion of believers in Jesus Christ. True to his nature as giver and gift alike, he is even now working through us. Inspired by the insights of St. Augustine: Let unifying love be our measure; abiding love our challenge; self-giving love our mission!"

Reality:  "There are times [...] when we might be tempted to seek a certain fulfilment apart from God," and asked the question Christ himself asked of the Twelve Apostles: "Do you also wish to go away?"

"Such drifting away perhaps offers the illusion of freedom. But where does it lead? To whom would we go? For in our hearts we know that it is the Lord who has 'the words of eternal life.'" "To turn away from him is only a futile attempt to escape from ourselves."

"God is with us in the reality of life, not the fantasy. It is embrace, not escape, that we seek! So the Holy Spirit gently but surely steers us back to what is real, what is lasting, what is true. It is the Spirit who leads us back into the communion of the Blessed Trinity!"

 

St Barnabas Apostle 11th June

Act 13:1 In the church at Antioch the following were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

  

San Barnabas Altarpiece - detail (Madonna Enthroned with Saints)
Saint Barnabas with the Virgin and Child
Sandro Botticelli 1490
Tempera on wood, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Mass Intro:
Saint Barnabas, Apostle, is Memorial. I am surprised it is not a Feast.
Benedict XVI gives us two interesting points.
One, that Barnabas was the leader of the Apostle's First Missionary Journey.
Second, that it is not improbable that Barnabas wrote the Letter of Hebrews.
Both tell us, and so much from the NT, how large the stature of Barnabas among the Apostles.

His name is included in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I).

• The Church of Antioch sent Barnabas on a mission with Paul, which became known as the Apostle's first missionary journey. In fact, it was Barnabas' missionary voyage since it was he who was really in charge of it and Paul had joined him as a collaborator, visiting the regions of Cyprus and Central and Southern Anatolia in present-day Turkey, with the cities of Attalia, Perga, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (cf. Acts 13-14). 
   
• Tertullian attributes to him the Letter to the Hebrews. This is not improbable. Since he belonged to the tribe of Levi, Barnabas may have been interested in the topic of the priesthood; and the Letter to the Hebrews interprets Jesus' priesthood for us in an extraordinary way.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070131_en.html  

St Barnabas - Apostle

 BENEDICT XVI audience 31 Jan 2007

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Wednesday, 31 January 2007

Barnabas, Silas (also called Silvanus), and Apollos

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing our journey among the protagonists who were the first to spread Christianity, today let us turn our attention to some of St Paul's other collaborators. We must recognize that the Apostle is an eloquent example of a man open to collaboration: he did not want to do everything in the Church on his own but availed himself of many and very different colleagues.
We cannot reflect on all these precious assistants because they were numerous. It suffices to recall among the others, Epaphras (cf. Col 1: 7; 4: 12; Phlm 23); Epaphroditus (cf. Phil 2: 25; 4: 18), Tychicus (cf. Acts 20: 4; Eph 6: 21; Col 4: 7; II Tm 4: 12; Ti 3: 12), Urbanus (cf. Rm 16: 9), Gaius and Aristarchus (cf. Acts 19: 29; 20: 4; 27: 2; Col 4: 10). And women such as Phoebe, (Rom 16: 1), Tryphaena and Tryphosa (cf. Rom 16: 12), Persis, the mother of Rufus, whom Paul called "his mother and mine" (cf. Rom 16: 12-13), not to mention married couples such as Prisca and Aquila (cf. Rom 16: 3; I Cor 16: 19; II Tm 4: 19).
Among this great array of St Paul's male and female collaborators, let us focus today on three of these people who played a particularly significant role in the initial evangelization: Barnabas, Silas, and Apollos.
Barnabas means "son of encouragement" (Acts 4: 36) or "son of consolation". He was a Levite Jew, a native of Cyprus, and this was his nickname. Having settled in Jerusalem, he was one of the first to embrace Christianity after the Lord's Resurrection. With immense generosity, he sold a field which belonged to him, and gave the money to the Apostles for the Church's needs (Acts 4: 37).  
It was he who vouched for the sincerity of Saul's conversion before the Jerusalem community that still feared its former persecutor (cf. Acts 9: 27).
Sent to Antioch in Syria, he went to meet Paul in Tarsus, where he had withdrawn, and spent a whole year with him there, dedicated to the evangelization of that important city in whose Church Barnabas was known as a prophet and teacher (cf. Acts 13: 1).
At the time of the first conversions of the Gentiles, therefore, Barnabas realized that Saul's hour had come. As Paul had retired to his native town of Tarsus, he went there to look for him. Thus, at that important moment, Barnabas, as it were, restored Paul to the Church; in this sense he gave back to her the Apostle to the Gentiles.
The Church of Antioch sent Barnabas on a mission with Paul, which became known as the Apostle's first missionary journey. In fact, it was Barnabas' missionary voyage since it was he who was really in charge of it and Paul had joined him as a collaborator, visiting the regions of Cyprus and Central and Southern Anatolia in present-day Turkey, with the cities of Attalia, Perga, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (cf. Acts 13-14).  

Maqam of Barnabas The Maqam of St Barnabas, Famagusta, North Cyprus The tomb of St Barnabas discovered by the Archbishop is still on site, a catacomb cut down into the rock consisting of two chambers. Walk into the modern mausoleum built over the top, and down the steps into the two small chambers, originally designed to hold six dead bodies apiece. The tomb of St Barnabas, North Cyprus is far older than Christianity itself, so like the nearby rock tombs of the Cellarga, the tomb was probably reused to house the remains of the saint. Nowadays, the faithful, from both North and south Cyprus leave offerings and candles here.

http://www.saddiqirose.com/landmarks.htm

Together with Paul, he then went to the so-called Council of Jerusalem where after a profound examination of the question, the Apostles with the Elders decided to discontinue the practice of circumcision so that it was no longer a feature of the Christian identity (cf. Acts 15: 1-35). 

St Columba 9 June 2011

See back to Blog, Post at Tuesday 9 June 2009  

http://nunraw.blogspot.com/2009/06/clare-melinsky-artist-1400th.html 

Clare Melinsky, artist, 1,400th. Commemoration Stamp, used by Royal Mail 1997.

Sancta Maria Abbey, NUNRAW, 8 June 2011

Many thanks to Stephen.
It was his first experience of a Microlight flight. 

He succeeded taking aerial view photographs of Nunraw.

John 17. The high-priestly prayer pleads for unity for his future disciples

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8


John 17:21 May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.

JESUS OF NAZARETH Part II
Pope Benedict XVI
JESUS' HIGH-PRIESTLY PRAYER pp.93-102

"That they may all be one ..”

Another major theme of the high-priestly prayer is the future unity of Jesus' disciples. Uniquely in the Gospels, Jesus' gaze now moves beyond the current community of disciples and is directed toward all those who "believe in me through their word" (Jn. 17:20). The vast horizon of the community of believers in times to come opens up across the generations: the Church of the future is included in Jesus' prayer. He pleads for unity for his future disciples.

The Lord repeats this plea four times. Twice the purpose of this unity is indicated as being that the world may believe, that it may "recognize" that Jesus has been sent by the Father: "Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one" (Jn. 17:11). "That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" Jn. (17:21). "That they may be one even as we are one ... that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me" On 17:22-23).

No discourse on ecumenism ever lacks a reference to this "testament" of Jesus—to the fact that before he went to the Cross, he pleaded with the Father for the unity of his future disciples, for the Church of all times.
[93]

should be. Yet we have to ask with all the more urgency: For what unity was Jesus praying? What is his prayer for the community of believers throughout history?

It is instructive to hear Rudolf Bultmann once again on this question. He says first of all—as we read in the Gospel—that this unity is grounded in the unity of Father and Son, and then he continues: "That means it is not founded on natural or purely historical data, nor can it be manufactured by organization, institutions or dogma; these can at best only bear witness to the real unity, as on the other hand they can also give a false impression of unity. And even if the proclamation of the word in the world requires institutions and dogmas, these cannot guarantee the unity of true proclamation. On the other hand the actual disunion of the Church, which is, in passing, precisely the result of its institutions and dogmas, does not necessarily frustrate the unity of the proclamation. The word can resound authentically, wherever the tradition is maintained. Because the authenticity of the proclamation can­not be controlled by institutions or dogmas, and because the faith that answers the word is invisible, it is also true that the authentic unity of the community is invisible ... it is invisible because it is not a worldly phenomenon at all" (The Gospel of John, pp. 513-14).