Jn. 12:1-11 Bl. John-Paul II "A liter of costly perfumed oil" - Blogspot

Bethany 

Blessed John-Paul II   "A liter of costly perfumed oil"  - Blogspot

An interest inquiry into  

MaryWhoAnointsJesus?

JESUS’ ANOINTING IN BETHANY

                                               GOSPEL ACCOUNTS 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: DGO ...
Sent: Sunday, 24 March 2013.
Subject: The Daily Gospel

John 12:3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive ...

bible.cc/john/12-3.htm

Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of ...Then Mary took three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from .... The other six days before his last passover, at Bethany; the account of whom is ...

 

Blessed John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005 
Apostolic Exhortation « Vita Consecrata », § 104 (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)                                        
                                                                                       "A liter of costly perfumed oil"

Many people today are puzzled and ask: What is the point of the consecrated life? Why embrace this kind of life, when there are so many urgent needs... to which one can respond even without assuming the particular commitments of the consecrated life? Is the consecrated life not a kind of "waste" of human energies which might be used more efficiently for a greater good, for the benefit of humanity and the Church?... But such questions have always existed, as is eloquently demonstrated by the Gospel episode of the anointing at Bethany: "Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment". When Judas, using the needs of the poor as an excuse, complained about such waste, Jesus replied: "Let her alone!"

This is the perennially valid response to the question which many people, even in good faith, are asking about the relevance of the consecrated life... "Let her alone!" Those who have been given the priceless gift of following the Lord Jesus more closely consider it obvious that he can and must be loved with an undivided heart, that one can devote to him one's whole life, and not merely certain actions or occasional moments or activities. The precious ointment poured out as a pure act of love, and thus transcending all "utilitarian" considerations, is a sign of unbounded generosity, as expressed in a life spent in loving and serving the Lord, in order to devote oneself to his person and his Mystical Body. From such a life "poured out" without reserve there spreads a fragrance which fills the whole house. The house of God, the Church, today no less than in the past, is adorned and enriched by the presence of the consecrated life... The consecrated life is important precisely in its being unbounded generosity and love, and this all the more so in a world which risks being suffocated in the whirlpool of the ephemeral.
   

   

Messiah Communications

http://messiahcommunications.blogspot.co.uk/p/mary-of-bethany-vs-mary-magdalene.html

MaryWhoAnointsJesus?

By Alan John Meister

                                    JESUS’ ANOINTING IN BETHANY
                                               GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

                                                  COMMENTARY

 Although each of the Gospels relate this event and its circumstances a little differently, when all the Gospels are taken together, we get a composite picture of the account. Moreover, when we examine the inclusions or omissions of each Gospel, we get a good picture of the thematic approach of each Gospel writer. So lets begin by looking at some of the major variations.

First, the timing of the scene. The Johannine Gospel indicates this scene took place six days before Passover, "Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany (John 12:1)." This places it on the Monday (six days from the Passover) before the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew and Mark seems to indicate it took place only two days before the Passover, "You know that in two days' time it will be Passover (Matt. 26:2)," or "The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to take place in two days' time (Mark 14:1)."  But, the literary style of Matthean and Markan Gospels appears to reflecting on a prior event (they are in the past tense). Consequently, the Matthean and Markan texts reflect on the event “after” its occurrence, i..e, having previously occurred in the order of the gospel events. Furthermore these gospels moved the account in order to stress the event as an anointing to prepare Jesus for his death and burial.

Monday of Holy Week 2013 A Word in Season 2001

Exercise: Navigate through Newman's PPS, Parochial and Plain Sermons

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume7/sermon10.html

Newman Reader - Parochial & Plain Sermons 7 - Sermon 10

www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/.../sermon10.html

7. {133} ST. PETER makes it almost a description of a Christian, that he loves Him whom he has not seen; speaking of Christ, he says, "whom having not seen, ...

John Henry Newman «Enlarging the Heart Enlarging the Heart

enlargingtheheart.wordpress.com/.../john-henry-newman/

Jan 11, 2013 – John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890): Sermons on Subjects of the Day, ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890): Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. 5, Sermon 4: Shrinking from Christ's Coming. .... John Henry Newman: The Cross of Christ So Wounds As to Heal Also Saturday, Apr 7 2012 ...

[2nd Reading, A Word in Season Lectern, 'Remember me, Lord', title and  selection as back coloured, thus],  

Sermon 10. The Crucifixion 

"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." Isaiah liii. 7.

{133} ST. PETER makes it almost a description of a Christian, that he loves Him whom he has not seen; speaking of Christ, he says, "whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Again he speaks of "tasting that the Lord is gracious." [1 Pet. i. 8; ii. 3.] Unless we have a true love of Christ, we are not His true disciples; and we cannot love Him unless we have heartfelt gratitude to Him; and we cannot duly feel gratitude, unless we feel keenly what He suffered for us. I say it seems to us impossible, under the circumstances of the case, that any one can have attained to the love of Christ, who feels no distress, no misery, at the thought of His bitter pains, and no self-reproach at {134} having through his own sins had a share in causing them.

I know quite well, and wish you, my brethren, never to forget, that feeling is not enough; that it is not enough merely to feel and nothing more; that to feel grief for Christ's sufferings, and yet not to go on to obey him, is not true love, but a mockery. True love both feels right, and acts right; but at the same time as warm feelings without religious conduct are a kind of hypocrisy, so, on the other hand, right conduct, when unattended with deep feelings, is at best a very imperfect sort of religion. And at this time of year [Note 1] especially are we called upon to raise our hearts to Christ, and to have keen feelings and piercing thoughts of sorrow and shame, of compunction and of gratitude, of love and tender affection and horror and anguish, at the review of those awful sufferings whereby our salvation has been purchased.

Let us pray God to give us all graces; and while, in the first place, we pray that He would make us holy, really holy, let us also pray Him to give us the beauty of holiness, which consists in tender and eager affection towards our Lord and Saviour: which is, in the case of the Christian, what beauty of person is to the outward man, so that through God's mercy our souls may have, not strength and health only, but a sort of bloom and comeliness; and that as we grow older in body, we may, year by year, grow more youthful in spirit. {135}

You will ask, how are we to learn to feel pain and anguish at the thought of Christ's sufferings? I answer, by thinking of them, that is, by dwelling on the thought. This, through God's mercy, is in the power of every one. No one who will but solemnly think over the history of those sufferings, as drawn out for us in the Gospels, but will gradually gain, through God's grace, a sense of them, will in a measure realize them, will in a measure be as if he saw them, will feel towards them as being not merely a tale written in a book, but as a true history, as a series of events which took place. It is indeed a great mercy that this duty which I speak of, though so high, is notwithstanding so level with the powers of all classes of persons, learned and unlearned, if they wish to perform it.

Events of Holy Week unfold 2013

Dear William,

Thank you for the mail that came on Saturday an the eve of Palm Sunday.

 for Holy Week is gloriously enfolding the whole Paschal Mystery.

As the postman, alias sacristan, I was happy to bring your greeting card to each of monks.

We share 'as the events of the Holy Week unfold.

And in the love of the Risen Lord.

fr. Donald

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William W ...
To:  . . .
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2013, 16:40
Subject: Palm Sunday and Holy Week

Dear Fathers,

I have posted my greeting cards to arrive in time to unite with you on Palm Sunday. Not a traditional Easter celebration card, it is in fact a Holy Week greeting, that I may unite with you in the journey of Our Lord across those last days.

In case the post goes awry, I attach to this email images of the card with my seasonal reflection printed on the back.

I created this card using a photograph of a particular pastel drawing of Our Lord (my printer failing to reproduce it satisfactorily), which I have carried in my pocket file-book for thirty years! There are similar pastel drawings on the internet by the same artist, but I have never been able to find exactly the same haunting image. I came across an identical print in a little copy of the ‘Imitation of Christ’ just before Christmas when browsing in the second hand book shop, and I bought the book in order to have a new (more respectable!) copy of the pastel so that I could photograph it to share it with you for Easter! As to my reflection, 'Newness of Life', it tells of a fascination that has arisen in my mind and heart, of a deepening awareness that everything in our life connects with the life of Jesus - as uniquely in so many 'parallel' occurrences in his life, his very experience of creation. Thus have my thoughts wandered.

  

Very few Easter daffodils flowering here in the surrounding parkland! I watch on the weather forecast as the snow clouds settle over East Lothian, and imagine the snow all around you, blanketing you with its stillness. I pray that you haven't been cut off, isolated from supplies and support, but that you are feeling the benefit of the new windows, and ? new boiler. I felt such prayerful concern for you all when that awful bout of flu laid so many low, and pray that all may be well for you all to be together for the start of Holy Week.

An early summer retreat whispers its way into conversations . . . 

With my greetings

and my love in Our Lord,

William

ECCE HOMO !

From the pastel hung in the Corsini Palace, Rome

By GUIDO RENI (1575-1642)

Guido Reni produced such sermons in art as have profoundly moved the generations of men throughout the world ever since his time. Here is one of the most poignant pictures ever conceived and produced showing the "Man of Sorrows" in one of the acutest phases of His suffering:

Then Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him. The soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and put on him a purple robe. Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and purple robe, and Pilate said to them,

'Behold the man”. (John19:1-6)

Guido painted innumerable pictures which are to be seen in all principal European galleries. He studied under Calvaert and Ludovico Caracci, and went to Rome in 1599 and again in 1605. Here he worked for the Church, and one can imagine that the prelates welcomed him as a painter who could move souls and stir the imaginations of their congregations. He left the Eternal City and migrated to Bologna, where he died in 1642.

   My kingdom is not from this world. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.

(John 18:36ff)

Easter Greetings

                (Colossians 1:15ff Amplified Bible – extracts)

“He is the exact likeness and the visible representation of the unseen God, the Firstborn of all creation, for all things were created and exist through him: and he is the Firstborn from among the dead, so that he alone in every respect might be preeminent: for it has pleased the Father that all the divine fullness, the total of the divine perfection, should permanently dwell in him, and God purposed that through his Son’s intervention, all things should be completely reconciled back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through him the Father made peace by means of the blood of his cross.”                                               

Uniting with you as we approach

the Joy of the Easter Celebration

in the love of Our Lord

Newness of Life

Parallels to the life of Jesus in the life of one who believes in His divinity have significance far beyond that of shared human experience: His incarnation gives true meaning to our earthly existence; His baptism and temptation, His ministry, His death and resurrection, all offer vocational interpretation for our faith. As each event in His life links one with another, the Spirit presents different aspects that draw us to Him in newness of life.

It  was essential that He be made like His brethren in every respect, in order that He might become a merciful sympathetic and faithful High Priest in the things related to God, to make atonement and propitiation for the people’s sins.[Heb 2:17 - AMP]

 I love to stand in the shadows of the garden and watch with Our Lady

As lovingly she sheds her soulful tears over Your lifeless body,

And listen as the grinding stone is rolled across the entrance to the tomb

Concealing the meaning of Your life shrouded in the mystery of death

Wrapped in grave clothes and placed in a lonely rock-hewn tomb

Where no one has ever been lain, life-giving Saviour rejected as before

When You were wrapped in swaddling clothes and lain in a manger

Where no room was to be found in man’s heart, God most abject of all

First born of all creation, You came to reveal the human side of God

Exposed to the experience of the whole of man’s earthly existence,

Curator of the eternal promises to bring healing and redemption

By Your death and glorious resurrection, first born from the dead

And so I ran to the upper room to bury my face in my chrisom-cloth*

But it was gone – I saw it wrapped around Your head in the tomb

There to be rolled up in a place by itself as You arose from the dead,

By baptism bound to You in death, unbound to live in newness of life

* chrisom-cloth - a white robe put on a child at baptism, used as its shroud if it died

We were buried with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so we too might habitually live in newness of life  [Rom 6:4 – AMP].

Henceforth I live to and for God. I have been crucified with Christ - in Him I have shared His crucifixion; it is no longer I who live, but Christ the Messiah who lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith and complete trust in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. [Gal 2:19b-20 – AMP] 

Hosanna ! Blessed is the Kingdom that is to come ! » (Mk 11,9-10)

Hi, William,
We are snowed deep, almost impossible for parking for the congregarion if they can come to for the Palm Procession, Passion and Mass.

Thank you for the E-mail on the Palm Sunday COMMMENT. 

Addding on the DGO (We)Blog.

Blessings for Holy Week.

 fr. Donald

Palm Procession ready
lectern and Holy Water

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William W...
To: Donald. ....
Sent: Sunday, 24 March 2013, 9:33
Subject: DGO - Palm Sunday commentary - remarkable words

Dear Father Donald,

 

I am thrilling at the words on DGO of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444), Bishop, Doctor of the Church (trans. breviary 05/08)  Homily 13 ; PG 77, 1049 
« Hosanna ! Blessed is the Kingdom that is to come ! » (Mk 11,9-10)

 

He is not coming accompanied by the invisible powers of heaven and legions of angels; nor is he seated on a throne lifted high and raised up, overshadowed by the wings of seraphim, with a chariot of fire and beings with numerous eyes, making everything shake with terrifying displays and the sound of trumpets. He comes concealed in human nature. It is a coming of goodness, not justice; of pardon, not reprisal. He appears, not in his Father's glory but in his mother's humility.

 

Such a thought as will hasten me through this day to run to the gates of the city!

 

With my love in Our Lord,

 

William

  

Commentary of the day : 

Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444), Bishop, Doctor of the Church (trans. breviary 05/08) 
Homily 13 ; PG 77, 1049 

« Hosanna ! Blessed is the Kingdom that is to come ! » (Mk 11,9-10)

Brethren, let us celebrate today the coming of our King, let us go before him since he is also our God... Let us lift up our hearts to God and not quench our spirits, let us light our lamps with joy and change the clothing of our souls. Let us take palms in our hands like victors and, like the common people, acclaim him with the crowd. With the children let us sing with a childlike heart: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”... On this very day he enters Jerusalem; the cross is made ready once more, Adam's bond is obliterated; once more paradise is opened and the thief is taken in; once more the Church makes festival...

He is not coming accompanied by the invisible powers of heaven and legions of angels; nor is he seated on a throne lifted high and raised up, overshadowed by the wings of seraphim, with a chariot of fire and beings with numerous eyes, making everything shake with terrifying displays and the sound of trumpets. He comes concealed in human nature. It is a coming of goodness, not justice; of pardon, not reprisal. He appears, not in his Father's glory but in his mother's humility. Zechariah, the prophet, foretold this coming in former times; he summoned all creation to rejoice...: “Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion!” It was the very word the Archangel Gabriel had declared to the Virgin: “Rejoice!...”, the same message, too, that our Savior announced to the holy women after his resurrection: “Rejoice”...

“Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king is coming to you; a just savior is he, meek and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass”... What does that mean? He does not come in splendor like every other king. He comes in the condition of a servant, of a loving bridegroom, a most gentle lamb, a dewdrop on the fleece, a sheep led to the slaughter, an innocent lamb taken to sacrifice... Today the children of the Hebrews run before him, offering their olive branches to him who is merciful and, with joy, welcoming death's conqueror with palms. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

(Biblical references : 1Th 5,19; Mt 25,7; Mt 21,15; Col 2,14; Lk 23,43; Ez 1,4f.; Ex 19, 16s; Zec 9,9; Lk 1,28; Mt 28,9 Gk; Ph 2,7; Jn 1,29; Jg 6,37; Jr 11,19; Is 53,7) 

Fifth Week of Lent Stanislaus Lyonnet, S.J. (Writings) Once you were darkness, now you are light

Sin Redemption and Sacrifice:
A Biblical and Patristic Study by
Stanislas Lyonnet (Jun 1971)

Night Office.   

The Second Reading from Stanislaus Lyonnet SJ is from A WORD IN SEASON Readings for the Liturgy of New Edition  AUGUSTINIAN PRESS 2001 

SATURDAY Year I

First Reading Hebrews 13:1-25

Responsory                                  Heb 13:13-14; 1 Chr 29:15

Let us go to Jesus outside the camp and share the insult that was heaped on him. + Here we have no permanent city, but we seek the city that is to come.

V. We are pilgrims in your sight, O Lord; our life on earth is like a shadow. + Here we have ...

Alternative Reading

From the writings of Stanislaus Lyonnet, S.J. (Writings)

Once you were darkness, now you are light

• The mystery of the cross is a mystery of obedience and of love, of which the glorious resurrection is the outcome rather than the recompense. A theme of the entire New Testament is that the death of Christ is an expression of love. It is the life given as a ransom for the lives of many. Paul tells us: Order your lives in charity, upon the model of that charity which Christ showed to us, when he gave himself up on our behalf.
• As the victim of the holocaust, changed into the immateri­al smoke, rose toward God, so Christ, by this act of love and obedience in his voluntary death, returns effectively to his Father. For Paul, then, the redemptive mystery is truly a sacrifice. But the sacrifice of Christ is unique in that he offers himself. His sacrifice is identical with his return to the Father, and in him we all return to the Father. He gave himself less in place of humanity than on our behalf, for our sakes; he performed the greatest act of love that a human being can accomplish  not to dispense us from loving, but to permit us to love. Saint Paul's whole doctrine of the redemption can be summed up by saying that he united the idea of Christ's giving himself to free us from sin to that of our reunion with God.
• Christ's return to God and humanity's return in Christ cannot be conceived apart from his glorification, which includes both his resurrection and his ascension. It is because Jesus was raised from the dead that he has delivered us from the wrath to come. If Christ has not risen, vain is your faith, for you are still in your sins. It is through the resurrection that Christ has become "the life-giving spirit," giving life to humanity.
• Christ communicates this new life to all who participate in his act of obedience and love through faith and baptism. Through baptism, the configuration to the death and resurrection of Christ, we attain a state of justice. Since it is the work of Christ, that state is final in itself. In it we are united to Christ in his death and in his risen life. If we do not fall again into the grips of sin, we will someday attain life in all its fullness.
• 
  

Poems by Fr. Edward O.P. Iceland

Seagull on Sistine Chapel chimney
flies to fame as
Papal Conclave goes on

P.S----- Forwarded Message -----

From: edward .....
To: Donald .
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2013, 14:01
Subject: Re: Fw: Some 'soul-quakes' on Pope Franciscus

Dear Father Donald,

Thank you for two letters. You were generous to publish so much of me, but you have permission to use whatever comes from me, or not to use it.

Two later poems are attached. One for the 25th Anniversary of Our Sisters, the other about Pope Francis's inauguration sermon, which was excellent.

Blessings in Domino,

fr Edward O.P.

                                                                  

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: edward booth ...
To: Donald Nunraw ...
Sent: Saturday, 16 March 2013, 22:45
Subject: Some lines on Pope Franciscus

Dear Father Donald,

I must say that my first reactions to the election of Pope Franciscus
were of non-comprehension.
But I persevered and I see in him the taking on of the Papal charism,
as I had seen it in Pope Benedict.
I quote a poem I wrote in 2009*[Earthquakes], which I think as a poem was much
better and came from a period when my poems were greater adventures
(each of them) than the more recent ones.
The Scottish Jesuit quoted was Father James Quinn, who did a lot of
translating work. He was the spiritual at the Beda when I was teaching
there. I remember other parts of his patter: "Never say that there is
light at the end of the tunnel: it might be an approaching train!"

I thought I had sent this, but just found it unsent (1045 p.m.
Saturday). I have changed the name of the priest to the correct one,
something I had asked Heather  to pass on to you verbally)


Blessings in Domino,

fr Edward O.P.

-- 
Father Edward Booth O.P.
Stykkishólmur,
Iceland.

                                                                                                                                                          

Newly elected Pope Francis (C) bows his head in prayer as he appears on the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pontiff.

Poem. Fr. Edward OP

Consapevolezza nell'Ultimo Luogo – P.R. fina P.F.

My computer's memory is more finely tuned than my own.

I had watched with intensity the soul-changes evidenced in his face

which took place in Papa Ratzinger from his acceptance to his inauguration.

I saw the emergence of a charismatic other:

a boy-soul and with it a boy-face of youth and innocence:

the Lord in taking possession was re-arranging cathartically, utterly,

the long laid foundations and structures to make him other -

ultra vires proprias -

to lead, to model his humanity and so to model others.

I watched, intrigued, to see his reactions to the Cardinals

passing into the sunlit Piazza:

a delicate salute when he was saluted,

all Christ-like positivity of the highest elevation.

And now, the body and mind spent in high service

 Reposing in the Alban Hills at Castel Gondolfo. 

he's reposing in the Alban Hills at Castel Gondolfo.          

Vergelt's Gott's a wish which in such a matter rises to transcendence.

And now again, the self-same charism's deeply lodged

zygotically in the soul-womb of another.

Puzzling initially in his different great-soulness,

with billions of others I watched him,

this Italian transplanted body and soul.

Born and raised in Argentina.

The crowd erupted, the youth especially,

drizzle-washed, time mattered not.

Billowing black smoke, until the fifth essor

brought billowing white.

The observant seagull disappeared -

if he returns to a possible nest-site at the peak,

he'll find it dismantled!

But himself in white soutane and white souquetta,

without stole until the blessing and without red, fur-trimmed capa:

“Brothers and Sisters, bona sera … !”

Soft-spoken! (I asked myself “Where is the fire?”)

We prayed for him. He blessed us and the entire world,

spoken not sung in the ancient form.

The pixel-content to display the fullness of his idealism and his past

was not large enough in that short burst to say a fraction

of what's disposable. 

I thought of what lay in wait:

the well-known problems, the overall normalising

where alone it counts.

I felt protective: could that kind but seeming forceless voice

give spirit blows for each injury received?

With a chronology but not coherent;

videos seen not rightly ordered, I felt a stranger watching distantly.

Some views of him – no spectacles -  seemed not of a younger

but of another man.

Quite out of order I watched the Sistine Mass:

the homily in such an unusual style: “... camino insieme … !”

Pope Francis at Our Lady as “Salus Populi Romani”
in Saint Mary Major's

Then I saw what came in between,  

that early promised, though undefined, visit to Our Lady:

just after 8 o'clock:  

driven in a service car to a side entrance,

with flowers presented to Our Lady as

“Salus Populi Romani” in Saint Mary Major's.

I saw the emerging intensity given

in greeting to the early Mass attenders,

the Community of Dominican Confessors,

of whom an earlier Prior once sought my co-presence.

The force, the movements highly sensitized,

not from a boy-face yet younger:

truer and truest;

the transition from that first heavy face complete it seemed.

But that later Sistine Mass found him in full transit,

a charisma-Pasch, but not complete.

I watched his Mass with minor idiosyncratic deviations from the rubrical norms.

Memories arose of a Scottish Jesuit, now dead,

with a well-rehearsed patter of wide origins,

self-deprecating over Jesuit liturgical inaccuracies:

summed up as “Like a Jesuit in Holy Week”.

With the guidance of Monsignor Marini that will be covered, reorganised.

But how to describe the transformation?

I found amongst my sermons and writings, including Recollections,

innumerable references to earthquakes,

such as I heard and felt in the protracted rumblings and shakings,

and from the impatient honkings of innumerable cars

descending from the Alban Hills – perhaps as Ambrogio suggested:

“a pseudo-panic with the hope

of getting the area designated a 'disaster zone', producing tax reductions,

even subsidies.”

I found some lines in an old poem of mine:

Earthquakes within dated 30^th April 2009.

I started from those from without,

then continued with lines not exactly appropriate to Ultimus Locus

but offering a mental scale:

2 days on at Sistine Chapel to the Cardinals
“The soul also has presages,
anticipations of what  
might or must come.
Crash-threats
with multiple fractures,
attritions, scree-falls.
A Scottish Jesuit's patter, "Never say that there is

light at the end of the tunnel: it might be an approaching train!"

“The soul also has presages,
anticipations of what
might or must come.
Crash-threats
with multiple fractures,
attritions, scree-falls.

May the angels keep us
in their still minds.
May the saints show their presence.
Against soul-quakes
there‘s the measure of order,
which reveals its jagging
by breadth and in depth.
Catharsis is multiple.
Such moments show what‘s

deepest in us
and how various
what the skin cannot resist.”

The scale is there, though I'm not prophet enough to know what benefits

this normalising of the highest event may bring down

from above and from around,

with elements from the old and recent past

and all the lessons from the discovery and from the recent politics

of the Argentine Republic.

But in the highest beneficial sense

it provides the hopefullest bracket of the

Christian and Catholic experience:

“sweet are the uses of adversity”.

And the finalising words on physical earthquakes made clear

an interpretation not literal, even counter-literal

of beneficent catharsis:

“Then the tension breaks
and danger lunges and stalks
so quickly.
Seconds long man‘s his plaything.
The dust rises;
the rubble rattles and grows.
After time it settles,
damped down by the rain.”

Rain dampening,

an ancientest image of

the work amongst us of the highest Wisdom,

for where the strains are replaced

by the penetrative fall of gentle rain: pacifying the spirit

and the promise of the harvesting of both

Eucharistic and non-eucharistic fine wines,

 Fr. Edward OP

Stykkishólmur 15 March 2013

Monte_Cavo_e_lago_Albano 

* Earthquakes 2009

 Earthquakes within

Between the physical and the spiritual
who can doubt the echoes and the likenesses?
Those landquakes I have known
in the Alban Hills  
were extending shudders
absorbed and transmitted
by hot liquid rock
almost on fire below.
No danger
though they caused some panic.
They left cracks in walls, floors, ceilings,
whilst doors lost their fit.
In the calcareous mountains
the unbending rock‘s pressured.
The earth‘s electricity is disturbed
troubling invisibly and deeply the air,
thence spreading unease
filled out in a silence between opposite poles;
picked up by birds, by animals,
most by men.[i]
Scaring with inarticulate fears, drying mouths,
unloosing long dormant passions,
troubling all inner sense.
Then the tension breaks
and danger lunges and stalks
so quickly.
Seconds long man‘s his plaything.
The dust rises;
the rubble rattles and grows.
After time it settles,
damped down by the rain.
 
The soul also has presages,
anticipations of what
might or must come.
Crash-threats
with multiple fractures,
attritions, scree-falls.

May the angels keep us 
in their still minds.
May the saints show their presence.
Against soul-quakes
there‘s the measure of order,
which reveals its jagging
by breadth and in depth.
Catharsis is multiple.
Such moments show what‘s

deepest in us
and how various
what the skin cannot resist.

Fr. Edward OP

Stykkishólmur

30 April 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alban_Hills

---

i.  These two lines were written from memories which were long, now untraceable. I decided I must investigate it. I found that many Japanese have worked on phenomena associated with earthquake prediction.. Japanese seismography seems to have been helped much in the nineteenth century by Scottish physicists including the pioneering Cargil Gilston Knott. There is a book by a Japanese writer on the reactions of animals (drawing on extensive folklore research) which include birds, touches on plants, and has some human reactions: Motoji Ikeya, Earthquakes and animals, from Folk Legends to Science  (Singapore 2004). Generous portions of this are to be found in Google Books. He comments on the scepticism of western thinkers and Japanese who take over their ethos.