Monday, 17 September 2012

Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT


Hi, William,
It is great with so much revolving or reflecting of illustrating
The only snack is with the PDF and, in fact, I photo the diagram, the picture.

We have the COMMENTS in tandem below,
and move the date line up.

You keep the wheels well soilfor us.
Thank you.
Yours ....
Donald.  
PS. Text as from the graphic;
    
 THE LENSE OF THE EYE OF GOD
Treasure is not in the eye of the beholder but in the vision of God.
HEAVENLY
RICHES
ARROGANCE OF
RICHES
PROFESSION OF
POVERTY
For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also [Matt 6:21]
INCIDENTAL
INHERENT
WEALTH
POVERTY
Wealth is incidental (occurring by chance in connection with certain life situations):-
Its possession creates a mystique of treasure in worldly minds, and an obsession created can take
possession of the human spirit. There are those who can balance this with opportunities for charity,
although it is a challenging crossbeam to navigate as the semblance of riches draws man to aspire to
the arrogance of riches. This can lead to greed for those who cannot attain it, like the unrepentant thief.
Poverty is inherent (existing in man as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute):-
It requires a knowing acceptance [else there will be rejection] if it is to open the way to receptivity
and become a professed proverty of charity for the love of God. It is only realized when it embraces
dependence upon the love of God, in true acknowledgement of its helplessness, for its treasure lies
in abandonment to the will of God, in a sense of its own unworthiness, like the good thief.


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William - - -
To: Donald - - -
Sent: Sunday, 16 September 2012, 14:43
Subject: Poverty -v- riches: a diagram
Dear Father Donald,
Humbly I submit a diagram to illustrate the drama in the life of man as he seeks to attain to the substance of true riches.
The kind comments given by Fr.R, and those added by yourself, have assisted me in trying to determine the direction of aspiration: the human spirit can find - through the grace of God - the way to its soul's fulfilment through poverty or riches, the realisation of its heavenly treasure. However, it can be found only by those who know their need of God, for it has everything do with faith in the Lord Jesus, for His Cross is the frame of the endeavour.
It would need a forum of greater minds than mine to adequately plot the chart of man's endeavour. Indeed, Our God alone is the architect of so great a design!

With my love in Our Lord,
William

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald - - -
To: William - - -
Cc: Raymond Jaconelli <nunraw.raymond2@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Saturday, 15 September 2012, 13:00
Subject: Fw: [Teresa Avila] Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT

Where Your Heart Is, Your Treasure Is Also
William,
PS from Fr Raymond
At the end of the Mass this morning he said quote e of "Where you treasure is, your heart is" would illustrate could be from Theresa of Avila.
See ATTACHMENT
Broadband has been on and off.
Donald

God addresses money frequently because He knows it’s what we treasure. How you treat your money says everything about your heart. Your heart follows your cash. Matthew 6:21 tells us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”


Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/where-your-treasure-is-your-heart-is-also-57291/#sHU227Si7fZbB6to.99 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr Donald <domdonald@sacmus.org>
To: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2012, 21:53
Subject: [Dom Donald's Blog] Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT

Dear William,
Thank you for the well expressed,  " Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias", spiraling mind on different point of focus.   
 Very exciting and here my addled brain is trying to sort out paradoxes or reverse.- mirror reflections. Is it possible to illustrate with a diagram?

Meanwhile , Fr. R. offers,
re . Escatological reversal of far times:
Ecclesiastics 20:9-10
"There may be good fortune for a person in adversity,
   but a windfall may result in a loss. 
There is the gift that profits you nothing,
   and the gift to be paid back double". 
Another "quote" which I cannot trace;
"There are those who are poor - yet possess all things
and those who think themselves rich - yet are destitute."

Looking forward.
Danielou also features for today's Feast of Exaltation of the Cross.
Dali sketch 

Donald

--
Posted By Fr Donald to Dom Donald's Blog on 9/14/2012 09:53:00 PM



 COMMENT:
Dear William,
Thank you for the well expressed,  " Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias", spiraling mind on different point of focus.   
 Very exciting and here my addled brain is trying to sort out paradoxes or reverse.- mirror reflections. Is it possible to illustrate with a diagram?

 Meanwhile , Fr. R. offers,
re . Escatological reversal of far times:
Ecclesiastics 20:9-10
"There may be good fortune for a person in adversity,
   but a windfall may result in a loss. 
There is the gift that profits you nothing,
   and the gift to be paid back double". 
 Another "quote" which I cannot trace;
"There are those who are poor - yet possess all things
and those who think themselves rich - yet are destitute."

 Looking forward.
Danielou also features for today's Feast of Exaltation of the Cross.

 Donald
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HE AND i, GB. 1940 November 4 Nantes Recreation time.

 One paragraph from "HE AND i" is more than enough for days, as in the frame


HE AND i, GB. 1940  November 4  Nantes Recreation time.


November 4 -  Nantes. Recreation time.
 "Do you at last believe with all your heart that I created you in order to make you eternally happy? It was out of pure love that I made you - not for My own interest but for yours: to give you infinite bliss.

O thank Me for your creation. Turn your life toward Me. Never cease to look at My love enfolding you; and feeling loved, love Me.

You know how much more intensely one loves when one feels loved. It's like an animated conversation. Only in this one there is no need of any words. We love; that's all. And I am so much yours that you don't even feel that I come down or that you rise up, but it seems quite simple to you that we talk to each other on the same level, share as equals, even exchange our two hearts, since for Bridegroom and bride everything is in common, and although you give yourself utterly, you keep your personality and only enhance it the more.”


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ALL LINKS ON NET PRAYER



Apostolic Journey to Lebanon
(14-16 September 2012)
on the occasion of the signing and publication
of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation 
of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops
Lebanon 2012
Live broadcasting by CTV
(Vatican Television Center) 
Vatican Player

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Sep. 17 - Feast of the Stigmata of our holy father Francis

Greetings to Sr. Noreen FMM
for DIAMOND JUBILEE
Happy celebration of your Jubilee.
FIAT in the glory of today and for ever.
God love. 
from Brothers at Nunraw
www.franciscan-sfo.org/p1/stigmata.htm

Sep. 17 - Feast of the Stigmata of our holy father Francis

The StigmataFrancis imitated Christ so perfectly that towards the end of his life our Lord wished to point him out to the world as the faithful imitator of the Crucified, by imprinting His five wounds upon his body.
Two years before his death, when, according to his custom, Francis had repaired to Mt. La Verna to spend the 40 days preceding the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in prayer and fasting, this wonderful event took place. St. Bonaventure gives the following account of it:
"Francis was raised to God in the ardor of his seraphic love, wholly transformed by sweet compassion into Him, who, of His exceeding charity, was pleased to be crucified for us. On the morning of the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as he was praying in a secret and solitary place on the mountain, Francis beheld a seraph with six wings all afire, descending to him from the heights of heaven. As the seraph flew with great swiftness towards the man of God, there appeared amid the wings the form of one crucified, with his hands and feet stretched out and fixed to the cross. Two wings rose above the head, two were stretched forth in flight, and two veiled the whole body.
"Francis wondered greatly at the appearance of so novel and marvelous a vision. But knowing that the weakness of suffering could nowise be reconciled with the immortality of the seraphic spirit, he understood the vision as a revelation of the Lord and that it was being presented to his eyes by Divine Providence so that the friend of Christ might be transformed into Christ crucified, not through martyrdom of the flesh, but through a spiritual holocaust.
"The vision, disappearing, left behind it a marvelous fire in the heart of Francis, and no less wonderful token impressed on his flesh. For there began immediately to appear in his hands and in his feet something like nails as he had just seen them in the vision of the Crucified. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and black, and the points were somewhat long and bent, as if they had been turned back. On the right side, as if it had been pierced by a lance, was the mark of a red wound, from which blood often flowed and stained his tunic."
Thus far the account of St. Bonaventure. Although St. Francis strove in every way to conceal the marvelous marks which until then no man had seen, he was not able to keep them a complete secret from the brethren. After his death they were carefully examined, and they were attested by an ecclesiastical decree. To commemorate the importance of the five wounds, Pope Benedict XI instituted a special feast which is celebrated on September 17th, not only by all branches of the Franciscan Order, but also in the Roman missal and breviary.
ON LOOKING UP TO THE CROSS
1. With the example of our holy Father St. Francis in mind, consider what effect a glance at the cross should have on us. It led Francis from the service of the world to the service of God and to penance. A look at the crucifix should remove from our hearts all delight in the world and fill us with sorrow for the sins we have committed in the service of the world, and of our evil passions. For what other reason was Christ nailed to the cross, and his whole body bruised? The Prophet tells us: "He was wounded for our iniquities. He was bruised for our sins" (Is 53:5). Meditation on the sufferings of our Savior caused St. Francis to shed so many tears that his eyes became inflamed. -- Do you also kneel before the crucifix and bewail the sins through which you nailed your Savior to the Cross?
2. Consider that a look at the cross is also a consolation for the sinner. Our crucified Lord assured St. Francis of the complete remission of his sins. The Prophet also tells us: "By His bruises we are healed" (Is 53.5). Moses gave us a picture of our Savior on the Cross when he raised a brazen serpent on high in the desert, so that those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpent in punishment for their murmuring might be healed by looking up to this sign of our redemption. On the crucifix you behold our Savior Himself. "Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29). -- Look up to Him with sincere contrition and lively confidence; He will also take away your sins.
3. Consider how the contemplation of the Crucified finally pierced St. Francis through and through with the fire of love, so that our Lord made him even externally like Himself. A look at the crucifix should also awaken ardent charity in us. St. Augustine points this out to us when he says: "Behold the head that is bent to kiss you, the heart that is opened to receive you, the arms stretched out to embrace you." Do not look at the image of your crucified Savior in the cold and indifferent way that one looks at a work of art, to marvel at the painful expression there represented. Let it speak to your heart and let your heart speak to it. Serve Him faithfully so that you may one day be united with Him in eternity.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
O Lord Jesus Christ, who when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred wounds of Thy sufferings in the body of our holy Father St. Francis in order to inflame out hearts with the fire of Thy divine love, mercifully grant that by his merits and intercession we may cheerfully carry our cross and bring forth worthy fruits of penance. Who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen.
from THE FRANCISCAN BOOK OF SAINTS edited by Marion Habig, ofm
Copyright 1959  Franciscan Herald Press   (used  with written permission from the publisher /NAFRA)
Image: Watercolor done by P. Subercaseaux Errazuriz, O.S.B. 1880-1956; circa 1920. For additional images from the life of Saint Francis, click here.  
 
    Seamus Aros pseudonym of artist James Stenhouse donated to Nunraw. Title "The Divine Descent."  The explanation was given by Bishop Neil at Roslyn Community. The picture is of the vision of the Seraphic St. Francis ,  On the morning of the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as he was praying in a secret and solitary place on the mountain, Francis beheld a seraph with six wings all afire. The sufferings of Jesus on the Cross are imaged on the multiple figures.
        
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Saturday, 15 September 2012

Exaltation of the Holy Cross 14 Sep - Salvador Dali


Exaltation of the Holy Cross 14 Sep - Salvador Dali




BBC - Scotland - Scotland's favourite painting: Dali's Christ of St ...

www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/.../scotlands_favourite_painting_dalis_christ...
23 Jun 2011 – Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums). Salvador Dali's masterpiece, Christ of St John of the Cross, was first displayed in the Kelvingrove Art ...  



Dali's surrealist peers were critical of his interest in religion. He took his inspiration for the painting from a drawing of the Crucifixion made by St John of the Cross, a 16th Century Spanish saint who had a vision in which he saw himself looking down on Christ on the cross from above.
Dali had a similar dream in which he saw Christ on the cross above the landscape of his home, in Port Lligat in Catalonia, northern Spain. After a second dream, he was inspired to paint his Christ without nails through his hands or a crown of thorns on his head. He wanted him to be beautiful.

He presented Honeyman with a sketch of his portrayal of Christ with the inscription, 'For my friend Honeyman with much affection, Salvador Dali.' © Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí
Edwin Morgan captures Dali's desire in his ode to the painting, 'Salvador Dali: Christ of St John of the Cross.'
The model for Dali's Christ was Hollywood stuntman,Russell Saunders. He strapped Saunders (who was Gene Kelly's body double in Singin' in the Rain') to a gantry so he could see the effect of the pull of gravity on his body.
Using mathematical theories to work out the proportions for the painting, Dali saw himself as the first artist to paint pictures that could combine science with religious belief and called this Nuclear Mysticism.
In 1993, the painting was transferred to the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art and came back to Kelvingrove for the reopening after restoration in July 2006.
When it was suggested that it should be hung in a church, not in a museum, Honeyman's reply was ' … carried to the conclusion of that logic, Rembrandt's The Slaughterhouse should be hung in a cattle market.' (T J Honeyman, Art and Audacity, Collins, 1971).

+ + + 


"Between the Heathen and the Threefol God there is only one link the CROSS." (Jean Danielou).  
The sense of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is strikingly articulated by Jean Danielou from his book, 'The Lord of History'.  
It so happens that Benedict XVI opens even more of the mystery of the Cross in a section from his book, INtroduction to Christianity, He says, "There is an important passage on this subject by Jean Danielou. It really forms part of   inquiry but it might well help to elucidate the idea we are striving to understand. 


The Lord of History, Jean Danielou, pp. 339-340.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104743356/Danielou-The-Lord-of-History 

The cross of Christ is the only means of communication between the heathen world and the blessed Trinity: so we cannot be surprised to find that when we deliberately establish ourselves in the midst of these two, and try to bring them together, this is not possible without the Cross. 
We must be conformed to that Cross,  and  carry it,  ‘carry about continually in our bodies the dying state of Jesus',1/  as St Paul said of the true missionary: for this dichotomy we suffer, this strain in our hearts between the love of the most holy Trinity and the love of a world that is alien to the most holy Trinity, is nothing but our share which the only begotten Son invites us to take in his Passion
He bore in himself that duality of opposition and conflict, and brought it to an end in himself, but he only ended it because he had first borne it. He reaches from one extreme to the other. Remaining eternally in the Triune Godhead, he yet descends to the uttermost borne of human want, and fills up all the intervening distance. This boundless range of Christ's action, symbolized in the four cardinal points of the cross, is itself the hidden meaning and the formal principle of the missionary's fragmentation.
It is then the very vocation of the apostle to unite, however paradoxically, the love of the Trinity and the love of the heathen, to belong to both, and to feel the separation between them. The whole spiritual life of a real missionary wears this  double aspect: every feature of it is marked with the missionary character. His prayer is apostolic, for he takes up in it the peoples whom he has spiritually made his own, offering explicitly to the Father through the Son everything about them that is capable of consecration. His poverty is apostolic, for it consists in accepting the deprivation of all that he has – his time, his affections, his substance - by and for the sake of his brethren. He is made over to them, he is their prey: 'henceforward, we do not think of anybody in a merely human fashion'.2/ We are destitute of human wealth; but we hold our single treasure in the inaccessible secret heart of hearts, the tabernacle where dwells the blessed Trinity.  1/  Cor. 4:10. 2/ 2 Cor. 5:16
http://htmlimg4.scribdassets.com/5iyu59hq2o1sezab/images/212-1068240058.jpg
*  J. Danielou, Essai sur le mystere de l'histoire (Paris, 1953).


 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinge,
Introduction into Christianity, 1669, pp. 290-293

In the last analysis pain is the product and expression of Jesus Christ s being stretched out from being in God right down to the hell of "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Anyone who has stretched his existence so wide that he is simultaneously immersed in God and in the depths of the God-forsaken creature is bound to be torn asunder, as it were' such a one. is. truly "crucified". But this process of being torn apart IS identical with love; it is its realization to the extreme (Jn I3:I) and the concrete expression of the breadth It creates.
From this standpoint it should be possible to bring out clearly the true basis of meaningful devotion to the Passion; it should also become evident how devotion to the Passion and apostolic spirituality overlap. It should become evident that the apostolic element-service to man and in the world-is permeated with the very essence of Christian mysticism and of Christian devotion to the Cross. The two do not impede each other; at the deepest level, each lives on the other. Thus it should now also be plain that with the Cross it is not a matter of an accumulation of physical pain, as if its redemptive value consisted in its involving the largest possible amount of physical torture. Why should God take pleasure in the suffering of his creature, indeed his own Son, or even see in it the currency with which reconciliation has to be purchased from him? The Bible and right Christian belief are far removed from such ideas. It is not pain as such that counts but the breadth of the love that spans existence so completely that it unites the distant and the near, bringing God-forsaken man into relation with God. It alone gives the pain an aim and a meaning. Were it otherwise, then the executioners around the Cross would have been the real priests; they, who had caused the pain, would have offered the sacrifice. But this was not the point; the point was that inner centre that bears and fulfils the pain, and therefore the exe­cutioners were not the priests; the priest was Jesus, who reunited the two separated ends of the world in his love (Eph 2:I3f.).
Basically this also answers the question with which we started, whether it is not an unworthy concept of God to imagine for oneself a God who demands the slaughter of his Son to pacify his wrath. To such a question one can only reply, indeed, God must not be thought of in this way. But in any case such a concept of God has nothing to do with the idea of God to be found in the New Testament. The New Testament is the story of the God who of his own accord wished to become, in Christ, the Omega-the last letter-in the alphabet of creation. It is the story of the God who is himself the act of love, the pure "for", and who therefore necessarily puts on the disguise of the smallest worm (Ps 22:6 [2I:7]). It is the story of the God who identifies himself with his creature and in this contineri a minimo, in being grasped and overpowered by the least of his creatures, displays that "excess" that identifies him as God.  
Read more »
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Friday, 14 September 2012

Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias

----- Forwarded Message -----

To: Nivard - - -
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2012, 9:50
Subject: Fw: Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias Nivard

Nivard,
Maybe you can clarify William's COMMENT on the 'gem' from Joachim Jeremiah.
For the moment I'm diverted on visit to RIE hospital.
Don
 + + + 
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William Wardle <williamwardle2bp@btinternet.com>
To: Dom Donald.Nunraw <nunrawdonald@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 12 September 2012, 22:29
Subject: Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias

Dear Father Donald,
 
I was reading Joachim Jeremias' 'New Testament Theology' last evening, closing the book at page 223 with a gasp - for he addressed the issues in today's Gospel and spiralled my mind quite off-centre to an entirely different point of focus. Today's Gospel confronts the worldly perspective with a (reverse) mirror image: "Blessed are you who are poor.... but woe to you who are rich" (Lk 6:20f.).
 
Joachim Jeremias considers the renunciation of all belongings, and the 'eschatological reversal of fortunes'. He then (his openness and frankness are so refreshing) considers 'what is there in possessions that leads to sin?" and examines prevalent attitudes in the period of Jesus' lifetime: he then adds this gem, increasing the contrast and revealing the spiritual significance of Jesus' words by leading us (his skill) into another parallel reference: 
 
"Jesus' intention for those of his disciples who renounce their possessions is that they are to give them to the poor. Anyone who does this places all he has in God's hands; he lays up a treasure for himself in heaven (Matt.6:20): here the stress is not on the two different kinds of treasure, but on the two different places in which they are kept."
 
Still wondering how he steered me, all day today I have been thinking: yes, it is where the treasure is kept that defines wealth or poverty.
 
With my love in Our Lord,
William
 
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Thursday, 13 September 2012

Playing politics with the global war on Christians


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Christina - - -
To: Donald - - -
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2012, 3:05
Subject: Fw: CathNews--National curriculum at risk/Asian gender selection/Abbott's low-key Catholicism  

Dear Don, 
Greetings from Down Under where we are at present welcoming lovely Spring weather.
Many thanks for all your inspiring emails.
I am forwarding this Cath News bulletin as it has an interesting article about the attack on Latroun and the general situation for minority groups in Israel.
. . . Chris.

--- On Wed, 12/9/12, Church Resources <database@churchresources.com.au> wrote:


  http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=33152
CathNews website - CathNews is a service of Church Resources. It is a daily news service with prayer, meditation and Catholic website reviews. It is the most visited Catholic website in Australia, providing a mix of news, opinions, features and prayer updated daily. The newsletter is available free of charge by email. As of September 2010, there were more than 157,000 email subscribers and almost 160,000 unique visits to the site every month. 

Playing politics with the global war on Christians
Published: September 11, 2012

Most people, most of the time, are fundamentally decent. Hence if they knew that there's a minority facing an epidemic of persecution - a staggering total of 150,000 martyrs every year, meaning 17 deaths every hour - there would almost certainly be a groundswell of moral and political outrage, writes John Allen in NCR Online.
There is such a minority in the world today, and it's Christianity. The fact that there isn't yet a broad-based movement to fight anti-Christian persecution suggests something is missing in public understanding.
In part, of course, the problem is that unquestionable acts of persecution, such as murder and imprisonment, are sometimes confused with a perceived cultural and legal "war on religion" in the West, a less clear-cut proposition. In part, too, it's because of the antique prejudice that holds that Christianity is always the oppressor, never the oppressed.
Yet as with most things, politics also has a distorting effect, and a story out of Israel last week makes the point.
On Tuesday, the doors of a Trappist monastery in Latrun, near Jerusalem, were set ablaze, with provocative phrases in Hebrew spray-painted on the exteriors walls, such as "Jesus is a monkey." The assault was attributed to extremist Jews unhappy with the recent dismantling of two settlements on nearby Palestinian land.
Founded in 1890 by French Trappists, the Latrun monastery is famed for its strict religious observance. Israelis call it minzar ha'shatkanim, meaning "the monastery of those who don't speak." Ironically, it's known for fostering dialogue with Judaism, and welcomes hundreds of Jewish visitors every week.
Tuesday's attack was not an isolated incident. In 2009, a Franciscan church near the Cenacle on Mount Zion, regarded by tradition as the site of Christ's Last Supper, was defaced with a spray-painted Star of David and slogans such as "Christians Out!" and "We Killed Jesus!" According to reports, the vandals also urinated on the door and left a trail of urine leading to the church.
Last February, the Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land wrote to Israeli authorities to appeal for better protection after another wave of vandalism struck a Baptist church, a Christian cemetery and a Greek Orthodox monastery. That time, slogans included "Death to Christianity," "We will crucify you!" and "Mary is a whore."


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