COMMENT: HE AND I - biographical sketch

Hi, Mary,
Thank for your love of the passages of
YOU AND i by Gabrielle Bossis.

It is a pity that the book is only available in RARE books.

You tried opening Online Link and I see there is a problem downloading.

Following the quotation, "Each soul is my favourite...", belongs to the Biography and I will send it.

Give me the time and we can send the corrected Online version of the text.

See below ............

Thank you for the greetings for the Solemnity of Saint Bernard. It is the Abbot of Citeaux who has 

very aptly sponsored the 900th anniversary year of Prayer for Vocations.

  The ninth centenary of St Bernard’s entry into the Abbey of Cîteaux  
Attached the Prayer on the Blogspot sidebar in place.  

Yours.... 

Donald

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: mary t. ...
To: Donald
Sent: Monday, 20 August 2012, 5:00
Subject: Skype

Donald,
It was really great having a chat with you and N... recently on Skype. 

A very Happy and blessed  Feast Day of St. Bernard to you and all the dear monks at Sancta Maria Abbey and may he intercede with Mary to whom he was so devoted for more Cistercian vocations. He well knows how Jesus cannot refuse His Mother anything.

I tried opening the link for Gabrielle Bossis's  'Jesus and i "but got the message"cannot open because the script is too long!! 

So now Donald, I would be grateful if you can just send me a page or message now and again. 

I find it really a beautiful work full of teaching and love.
So gentle, so gracioius, so challenging, so humble so simple, so revealing of the heart of God. 

I could go on but I will just say it really touches my heart.

..........

Yours,

Mary.

COMMENT: HE AND i

from Biographical Sketch of Gabrielle Bossis  

  

He and i - Gabrielle Bossis

"Each soul is my favourite" says the Voice, "I choose some only to reach the others."

"Take care in setting down My words," says the Voice, "so that what springs from My heart may belight and joy easy to capture..." Having done this, I can only hope and trust that the reader may find what I have found in these pages - what the Voice describes as "a never-ending beginning again of the joy of hearing Me". 

                                                                                           from Preface. E.M.B.

Biographical Sketch of

GABRIELLE BOSSIS

 The youngest child of a family of four children, Gabrielle Bossis was born in Nantes in 1874. From an extremely shy, fearful and tearful little girl, more often found by herself in corners than playing with other children, she grew up into a graceful, gay, high-spirited young girl, very sociably inclined, though then, as from her childhood, possessed of a secret yearning for God and the things of the spirit which led to frequent contemplation.

As her father belonged to the wealthy middle class, there was no need for Gabrielle to earn her living. Her early years passed peacefully in her home at Nantes or at their summer residence in Fresne on the Loire River. Yet she was always very active. She obtained a degree for nursing, helped out in various parish projects, embroidered church ornaments for missions and practiced the fine arts of the day - music, painting, illuminating and sculpture, while still finding time for her favourite sports, horse riding, dancing and many social activities.

When the hidden treasure of her unusual inner life came to the notice of the Franciscan priest who was directing her, he felt convinced that she had a vocation for the convent and brought pressure to bear to induce her to become a nun. But Gabrielle resisted his suggestion with great determination,feeling led by an interior guidance more impelling than this, to remain in the world. No doubt it wasthis same guidance and the supreme attraction of a love surpassing all human loves that led to her refusal of the many proposals of marriage that came to her.

Quite late in life she discovered that she had another talent - that of writing the kind of entertainingand thoroughly moral comedies so much in demand by church clubs, a task "not so easy as oneimagines," as Daniel Rops commented. Her first play, written for a club in Anjou, in which sheacted the principal part, was such a success that before long her name became known throughoutFrance and even in far distant countries. From this time on, right up until within two years beforeher death, she travelled extensively, producing her own plays and continuing to act the principal

role. Those who remember her still remark on her extraordinary youth of mind and body, the goldenhair that resisted the touch of time well on into her later years, the infectious laughter and her unfailing charm. On very rare occasions in her early life, Gabrielle had been surprised by a mysterious voice whichshe felt with awe, though sometimes with anxious questionings, to be the voice of Christ. It wasonly at the age of 62, however, while travelling to Canada on the 'Ile de France', that this touchingdialogue with the inner Voice began in earnest, continuing until two weeks before her death on June9, 1950. The journal that she kept of her tour through Canada right to the Rocky Mountains is an extraordinary revelation of the double role she was called upon to play on life's stage - that of acontemplative and an exceptionally active woman exposed to all the hurly burly of life in the world. For the most part this document might be the travelogue of any gay, charming woman, muchyounger than she, possessed of a keen sense of humour, very much alive to every aspect of lifearound her and delicately sensitive to beauty. It is all the more astonishing for the reader to comeacross those sudden interruptions when the Voice recalls her to His ever-present Presence in wordsthat touch the very depths and heights of mystical experience, words so simple yet so august as torecall those lines from the Song of Moses: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distilas the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. "At the instigation of the Voice the travelogue ends with the Canadian tour. From there on, however,we can still trace her wandering footsteps by the colourful place names recorded with the sayings:Carthage, Tunis, Algiers, Constantine and numerous names in France, Italy and other parts of Europe. Most of the time the only retreat she had for contemplation was the inner temple of her soul, for it was on airplanes, trains, buses, in the 'metro' during the rush hour in Paris, on the busystreets of great cities, even on the stage in the midst of a performance that the Voice spoke to her. From the Word within her Gabrielle learned of her mission: to record and publish what she heard sothat people might know that the life of intimacy with Christ was not reserved for those in cloisters but for every man, woman and child no matter what his state in life might be. As the first volume of the carefully recorded sayings of 

 Lui et mo http://www. scribd. com/doc/98805520/He-and-i-Gabrielle-Bossisi PAGE Head

was published anonymously in 1948, she lived to see its phenomenal distribution. No one guessed at the authorship and when, subsequent to her death and atthe ever-increasing demand for more of her notes, a second volume prefaced by Daniel Ropsrevealed her identity, so well had she hidden her secret that her friends were utterly astonished. Three more volumes followed at the request of grateful and enthusiastic readers: then a sixthvolume giving her biography, and at still further request, a seventh with more of the dialogue. "Thislittle book will go to the ends of the earth," said the Voice. And in recent years, more than ever weare seeing the fulfilment of these words as translation after translation is being published anddistributed far beyond the boundaries of Europe. Thomas a Kempis once said that those who travel a great deal rarely become holy, and Our LordHimself, that it was easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter intothe kingdom of heaven. Yet Gabrielle travelled widely and was very wealthy. The Voice had aremedy for both situations: "Don't talk about your travels any more; they are for Me," It said. Andwhen she thought of giving some embroidered cloths for the altar: "Don't buy them; make them withyour own hands. "Until the illness that carried her off, Gabrielle's health was impeccable. Yet when death came, shewelcomed it as she had welcomed life - with the same high-hearted love and joy. "My heart isgetting weaker every day," she wrote on May 9, 1950. "I have taken neither food nor liquid for threedays. So I shall be leaving soon. Rejoice with me. Magnificat. . . and there will be no more partings. "When the moment of the "great Meeting" drew near on June 9, at the beginning of the octave of Corpus Christi, was she able, I wonder, to remember those prophetic words spoken to her by theVoice on Corpus Christi just one year previously: "The last altar of repose, you know, is in heaven"?As her testament she left us "the peaceable record of heaven". Heaven - from the Greek word not for tomorrow in some far off Elysian field, but an eternal now, here as hereafter, by our at-onement with Him in the Christ-consciousness. Gabrielle Bossis name will never go down in history for anything she accomplished, but what was accomplished in her flows and will go on flowing to us when history has been lost in eternity. She was no one and she was everyone, for in her self-effacement and receptivity she became the little wind instrument through whom the Voice speaks to each one of the readers of HE AND I. For we feel not so much that we are reading as that we are being read, watched, followed.

"Each soul is My favourite," 

says the Voice. . . "I choose some only to reach the others. "E. M. B. 

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Anniversary of the laying of the foundation-stone of Nunraw Abbey

Nunraw placed under the patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Monday 22nd August

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Anniversary of the laying of the foundation-stone of Nunraw Abbey

1500 people attended the foundation of the new abbey of Nunraw 22 Aug 1954.
Drenched by the showers on the open site, the concourse was not damped in the spirits of the faithful..
It may be possible to find the archive picture of the crowd - we search.
Previous Post
    http://nunraw.blogspot.com/2009/08/stone-of-foundation.html   

Stone of Foundation - Novice today photo

D.O.M, - Per Matrem Eius Mariam in festo Immaculati Cordis Illius, 22 Augusti 1954. Today, 22 August, we celebrated the Queenship of Mary. In fact it is a special anniversary for Nunraw Abbey. It marks the historical day of the laying the foundation of the monastery on the 22nd August 1954. The calendar of the date of that day recalls a much more important celebration. As the Octave of the Assumption we celebrated the three Nocturns with 12 Lessons of Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. The Readings commented on the words "his mother kept all these things in her heart" by Bernardine of Siena, Serm. 9 of Visitation, and Bede the Ven., Hom.1st Sun. after Epiph. The evolution of the titles of Mary is very interesting, even rewarding in the significance of the outlooks in Marian understanding. The Most Pure Heart of Mary, the Immaculate heart of Mary, and today the Queenship of Mary. Most of interest and significance to us is the Feast of the 22nd August as it isengraved on the Foundation Stone dedicated, D.O.M, (Deus Optimus Maximus) Per Matrem Eius Mariam in festo Immaculati Cordis Illius, 22 Augusti 1954. The memory remains fresh for so many who came to make it the Marian Year Pilgrimage of 1.500 of the faithful. It was an open air Mass and apart from a tarpaulin over the altar we were all drenched by the heavy rains. In a recent years, one of the later elderly Knights of Columba ushers for the occasion, produced a memorable document, he had saved from the debris mud when tidying up after the 'rally'. It was the text of the Homily of Dom Columban, the First Abbot, who preached. (The text is contained in the Necrology page of the Website).

Thomas Grotrian 1973-2011

19 August 2012

THE EDINBURGH PIPE BAND CHAMPIONSHIP 

HIGHLAND DANCING COMPETITION 

ROYAL HIGHLAND CENTRE, INGLISTON, EDINBURGH .

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/edinburgh/band-prize-honour-for-tragic-piper-1-2458839

Band prize honour for tragic piper, Thomas Grotrian.

Thomas Grotrian organised the massed band parades of Pipefest

By  JOHN-PAUL HOLDEN
Published on Thursday 9 August 2012 12:00

A CAPITAL piper who was killed in a tragic accident is to be honoured at the city’s only annual piping championship.

Thomas Grotrian, 38, died last year after falling down a flight of stairs during a friend’s party in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Now his mother, Sarah, is to present a trophy in honour of her son at the second Edinburgh Pipe Band Championship later this month.

The announcement comes as the event prepares to 
accommodate nearly double the number of performers and visitors at the Royal Highland Centre, with more than 40 bands set to attend.

Mr Grotrian, who moved to Canada to take up the post of marketing manager of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, was well known as the organiser of the Pipefest massed band parades, which took place in cities such as Edinburgh, New York and Kyoto, and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for cancer charities.

Mary Michel, Mr Grotrian’s sister, who commissioned the production of the trophy by designer and silversmith Graham Stewart, described the award as something that would help her family move on from the “terrible shock” of losing him.

The 33-year-old mother-of-two said: “My mum and Thomas worked really hard together on the Pipefest event and when she told me that a similar event had been set up and that the organisers had approached her about being chieftain, there was a spark in her eye. It was a huge delight and a lovely surprise for us.

“The prize will be given annually and will be known as the Thomas Grotrian Prize for Marching and Discipline. We thought having something permanent and annual would be the best way of celebrating Thomas and remembering him.”

Mrs Michel, who is general manager of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh, added: “It’s lovely to be part of something that’s in its early stages. When Thomas was running Pipefest, it was about including more 
people and this is continuing that approach.

“When we went to his memorial service in Canada last year, lots of people there said that he always turned up to work looking immaculate with a two-piece suit when everyone else was in jeans. The prize really refers to his love of occasion and being well turned out.”

Archie Glendinning, director of the Royal Highland Centre, said: “[Thomas] was heavily involved in delivering piping events and we want to continue developing opportunities for piping in the future.

“Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital and putting piping on the map here is hugely important.”

The Vision of Saint Bernard marks Fra Bartolomeo's return to art in 1504.

Solemnity of St. Bernard of Clairvaux August 20

Bernard of Clairvaux (+ 1153) is considered the last of the Fathers of the Church and is a Doctor of the Chrurch.

  

The Vision of Saint Bernard (1504),

Fra Bartolomeo (1472-1517),

Uffizi Museum, Florence, Italy.

BEFORE FRA BARTOLOMEO (nicknamed Bacciol joined the Dominican Order, he had been an ardent disciple of the firebrand preacher Savonarola. He was spellbound by the apocalyptic warnings proclaimed from the pulpit at San Marco by the controversial friar who condemned the citizens of Florence for their decadent ways, and artists in particular for adopting pagan themes while their religious works lacked humility and reverence. Baccio participated in the "Bonfire of the Vanities" whereupon artists who had a change of heart submitted their secular and irreverent works to the flame. He even barricaded himself inside the Dominican priory of San Marco with five hundred other supporters when it was stormed by a mob opposed to the theocrat's mystical rule of the Republic. Baccio promised God he would become a friar himself if his life were spared. He survived only to see his hero tried, hanged, and burnt at the stake in 1498. He had once painted a portrait of Savonarola as a prophet. Now chastened by his vow, Baccio donned the cowl of a Dominican and withdrew from making art for a number of years.

The Vision of Saint Bernard marks Fra Bartolomeo's return to art in 1504. The friar was commissioned to paint it as an altarpiece for a nobleman's private chapel. In this work he brings to the subject matter an austerity of style that is reflective not only of Savonarola's views on sacred art, but those of Saint Bernard as well.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was the dynamo behind the Cistercian reform, a movement within the Benedictine family to return to the rigours of its primitive rule. A theologian, a judge, a diplomat, and preacher, a poet, a mystic, and an advocate of Marian devotion, Bernard left his imprint on art history by disagreeing with the sumptuousness advocated by Abbot Suger whose monastery chapel of Saint Denis on the outskirts of Paris exemplified the new dazzling effects of Gothic art and architecture. Suger believed that only the finest embellishments were worthy of sacred space, and he decorated his sanctuary with golden vessels, stained glass, carved capitals, tapestries, and lustrous vestments. Suger felt that more is better' But Bernard found such finery a distraction to the contemplative soul, stunting the imagination and making it passive before the dazzling effects of art. For Bernard, then, less was better for the soul, and he advocated a kind of artistic minimalism that could prompt, but not derail, a prayerful monk toward contemplation of things beyond the material world. In the Cistercian monasteries, clear glass was preferred over stained-glass windows, silver was substituted for gold vessels, walls and vestments were unadorned. One could go so far as to say that Bernard presaged the aesthetics of Protestantism, the Enlightenment, and Modernism, as early as the twelfth century. But one thing is clear: in their advocacy for a sobriety and noble simplicity in art, qualities that would enkindle devotion and reverence in the viewer, Savonarola and Bernard were kindred spirits. Fra Bartolomeo's painting reflects this.

When he was the prior of San Marco, Savonarola created visual images in his homilies to great effect, and he encouraged those Dominicans not gifted in oral preaching to pursue the study of the plastic arts in order that they might preach visually in ways that could distil complex theological ideas into beautiful and simple images. It was his idea that God and man ought to communicate through art, but it was art's role to be pure and chaste in this sa­cred venture, and be free of all useless artifice and ornamentation.

Bartolomeo's rendition of Saint Bernard's vision of the Virgin Mary is far less fussy than an earlier version of the subject painted by Filippino Lippi in 1485. The Dominican has anchored the right side of his painting with three saintly figures standing before a landscape: Benedict, whose ideals Bernard sought to rekindle; John the Apostle, whose custody of the Virgin Mary was mandated from the cross (a miniature scene depicting the crucifixion is included here as a painterly footnote); and the kneeling Bernard, who preferred the spiritual inspiration found in nature to that found in the dusty tomes of monastic libraries. The stigmatisation of Saint Francis of Assisi and his meeting with Saint Dominic are tiny visual quotations lost in the decorative hills behind these three figures. But the overwhelming majesty of the Madonna and child borne aloft by angels on the transcendental left-hand side of the painting accentuates the fact that Bernard's vision was the product of an intense and direct contemplation of the Mother of God, using no artifice as its springboard. In fact, the sensuality that Bernard disclaimed in the material decoration of Suger's church is ironically surpassed by the sensuality that arises in some of his own mystical visions.

For instance, a more common iconographic motif of Bernard's apparition of the Virgin is based on an ecstatic encounter that happened to him in Speyer Cathedral in 1146. In that vision, Bernard beseeched Mary to be his mother too, and it is recorded that the Virgin took her breast and expressed her milk onto his lips, fortifying the eloquence of his preaching. This imagery is known as "The Lactation of Saint Bernard", and it became more popular than the staid vision depicted here by Baccio. If such flamboyant phantasms are a by-product of monastic austerity, it was not Fra Bartolomeo's aim to imitate it. His noble restraint in this painting can be attributed squarely to Savonarola's proprietary influence on his work. Later, however, Dominicans of the more extravagant Baroque era borrowed that popular lactation motif from the Cistercians and applied it visually to their equally eloquent founder, Saint Dominic, proving that while artistic styles come and go and reforming influences wax and wane, a good story can be shared, and it lasts for ever.

• Fr. Michael Morris, O.P.

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

To view this masterpiece in greater detail, visit: www.magnificat.com

MAGNIFICAT: The Art Essay of the month. August 2012