Ilustration:
The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1471),
Benozzo Gozzoli (v. 1420-1497), Louvre
Missalette:
MAGNIFICAT January 2010
Fr. Michael Morris, O.P
Ilustration:
The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1471),
Benozzo Gozzoli (v. 1420-1497), Louvre
Missalette:
MAGNIFICAT January 2010
Fr. Michael Morris, O.P
Harmony of the Gospels - R. Knox Translation | ||
PUBLIC LIFE FIRST PERIOD (SERMON ON THE MOUNT | PUBLIC LIFE FIRST PERIOD (TEACHING IN PARABLES) | |
THE GOLDEN RULE | MEASURE FOR MEASURE | |
MATTHEW | LUKE | MARK |
MATTHEW 7: 1-6,12 2 As you have judged, so you will be judged; by the same rule; award shall be made you as you have made award, in the same measure. | LUKE 6: 36-42 38 Give, and gifts will be yours; good measure pressed down and shaken up and running over, will be poured you’re your lap; the measure you award to others is the measure that will be awarded to you. | MARK 4: 1-25 24 And he said to them, Look well what it is that you hear. The measure in which you give is the measure in which you will be repaid, and |
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
The “Catena Aurea”, Thomas Aquinas’ Golden Chain, is an encouraging dip into his mountain of writings.
As we celebrate the Eucharist on his Feast Day it is a wish to see a Catena Aurea, on specific passages on the Eucharistic
There is a reference, “Instructions for the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ” (Saint Thomas Aquinas). It is not easily found. . . .
The Founders Equipollent Canonization Cistercian Founders Day This morning we celebrated the Mass of the Founders: Robert, Alberic and Stephen. What does 'Founder' mean?
When we dip into the Saints and the Hagiographies we come across this funny word, ‘Equipollent Canonization’. It is a very simple translation, ‘equivalent canonisation’.
Saint Robert was the kind of popular, head hunted personality for communities, and with his Vita (Life) guaranteed his soon canonisation.
Alberic and Stephen, the equivalent canonised Saints, are the ones who did ground work of the Cistercian Order. Robert had thirteen months as Abbot in Citeaux. Alberic was Abbot for 10 years and set firm base, Stephen Harding succeeded the next 20 years, and their lives had more or less had declined away before the surge of St. Bernard and his followers. The only sense of it all is really the movement of the Holy Spirit. + + +
We are mindful of new FOUNDERS today, the building of the new community in It is the first Foundation of Citeaux Abbey since the 15th century. It is the same Holy Spirit who leads us all in the offering of the Eucharistic celebration this morning. |
An outline of the history and the processes of beatification and canonization.
Published by the Incorporated Catholic Truth Society,
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--COMMENT--
--- Forwarded Message ----
From: William
Sent: Tue, January 26, 2010 6:44:24 PM
Subject: Striking words
Let us put ourselves in the hands of the Lord of Life.
Solemnity of the Founders of Cistercian Order Saints Robert, Alberic & Stephen
Today we are celebrating the feast of our three founders, Robert, Alberic and Stephen. Actually there were possibly 21 founders, but we mention only the first three abbots of the new foundation. The Rule of St. Benedict gives a lot of power to the abbot and one of the reasons the twenty-one monks left the Benedictine monastery of Molesme to settle in a place called Citeaux in Burgundy, was because they wanted a stricter interpretation of the Rule of St. Benedict. But it takes more than an abbot to make a monastery. In fact I can think of nothing worse than a monastery full of abbots bossing each other around! Daily life in a monastery is a complex interchange between authority and obedience and often times it is difficult to know who has which - no matter what the official documents say. Take for instance the job of cantor. Who has more power than the cantor? Who could put a note on the board on a Saturday stating, "The Mass readings for Sunday have been changed from the ones given in our Mass reading booklet!" So, what if the abbot had a homily prepared based on the old readings! So the homily you are about to hear, is based on six scripture readings! It will be twice as long too! Really, all the Mass readings are concerned with one theme, the call of God. Our founders, all twenty-one of them, left one monastery to found another based on certain ideals they had about how the monastic life should be lived. It was not a smooth transition. The first abbot, Robert, was ordered back to his original monastery. No one joined the new group for years. They were on the verge of giving up when St. Bernard arrived with a large group and joined. After a lot of trouble they were eventually able to live out their dream. Pastoral Now almost a thousand years later, we are celebrating their memory. It is a good occasion to look at our own calling, our own dream. The scripture reading chosen for this celebration gives us a way of evaluating how we are doing. The first reading, Gen 12:1-4a, is the call of Abraham. The call to leave his country, his relationship with his father's house. Each of us is free to interpret what that means for us. The early desert monks called it the three great renunciations or detachments.
These are radical renunciations just as are the ones in today's Gospel, Mt 19:27-29, and even more so the ones Paul speaks of: 1 Cor 1:26-31, leave our own wisdom and justice, even our own holiness. What does all this mean? All this renunciation and detachment? I think it means that each of us is called to go out of ourselves, to go beyond ourselves. Take the journey to a new place, an unknown place. In the letter to the Hebrews we read that our ancestors set out on the journey not knowing where they were going. They were living on a promise and they died before the promise was fulfilled. We too live on a promise. We can demand nothing. Monks have been accused of being Pelagians, making things happen by our own effort. If we fast or get up at 3:00 am, we will become spiritual men. Life is not like that. Life is a great teacher of detachment. We don't set our program and then watch it being fulfilled. We live our life and then come to understand it in the light of scripture. Life is a call to move out of ourselves. As youth gives way to middle age we are challenged to detach from perceived ideals. As middle age gives way to old age we are forced to give up false ambition and pretenses. As old age progresses, we are made to detach from physical health itself, our body. The world we wanted to create is slowly taken from us and something unfamiliar and new replaces it. It slowly dawns on us that God is calling us and leading us on-no matter how dark it seems or how unfamiliar the road. The new self made in this image of Christ is replacing the old self. We leave ourselves to find ourselves again. Are we good monks? Are we following our Founder? Are we good Christians? Who are we to judge? Life is teaching us.
Fr Brendan ocso (New Melleray)
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Gospel according to Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21 . . . "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing' The readings of the entire Pentateuch were covered in a three year cycle, much like our Christian lectionary today. Any well instructed male member of the assembly could be called upon to read and interpret the scriptures. On one occasion, Jesus was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah to read (Is 61:1-2). The passage spoke of the restoration of Fulfilled in Your Hearing “Truth halts at the intelligence, beauty penetrates even to the heart”. Lacordaire Hearing the word of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, seeing his actions ... under the relief of Scripture, it is not possible for reason alone to recognize God there. Reason does not go beyond ideas, and although ideas lead it even to God, they only reveal his existence and his attributes, without revealing to it his person. There must be another light superadded to reason, in order that both together, inseparable, and convergent, may raise man to the vision of the divine personality, and prepare man one day to behold him in the impenetrable light of the uncreated essence; grace ... is that higher light which perfects reason by becoming united to it, and Jesus Christ... is the object of grace ... Truth is not however that which first strikes us, nor is it that which most powerfully attracts to it the observation of the mind. Truth has a vesture, a halo, something which touches our inmost feeling, and against which we cannot shield ourselves save by a supreme effort of virtue; it is beauty. While truth alone leaves us masters of ourselves, beauty moves us; it attracts and enraptures us, it subjugates us even to leaving to our liberty only that which God, by his omnipotence, maintains there against all seduction. Truth halts at the intelligence, beauty penetrates even to the heart ... While truth arrests us within ourselves to consider it, beauty bears us out of ourselves towards the being in which it shines. It is, in a word and what a word! - the principle of love ... Beauty is the creator of love ... God has sown beauty around us with a profusion that astounds and enraptures our thought ... As no beauty appears in the world without raising up a new love, Christ, the Man-God, had, as the first effect of his epiphany amongst us, the reward of a love before unknown to man, or, at least, of which he had lost all traces, in losing, with his innocence, the vision of his first days ... Grace acts within to enlighten us. Christ appears without as the object of the light which penetrates within us; grace moves within the hidden springs of our liberty, Christ calls us without as the object of that inner emotion. And no one, however far away he may be, is sheltered from seeing and hearing him. We meet Jesus Christ here below as we meet another man. Fr. Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (+ 1861) Dominican |
Bishop Peter Moran pays tribute to the late Fr Ronnie Walls By Bishop Peter Moran, WITH the death of Fr Ronnie Walls in Ronald James Walls (right) was born on June 23 1920 in Edinburgh, son of Thomas John Walls, optician, and Jane Ross Walls (nee Kernp). His paternal grandfather was from Orkney, and that link made Father Walls specially pleased to return in December 2006 to Ronnie Walls grew up in a practising Presbyterian family in Corstorphine, Edinburgh. He attended George Heriot's School in the city from 1928 to 1937. Even in those early years, religious discussion interested him and was encouraged. He also looked back ‘to the German class as the foundation of much of my true education. Not only did we learn the language thoroughly, but through the language we were introduced to Indeed during his He married Helen in the final months of theological studies at Following years of self-searching and intellectual enquiry he resigned his charge. He and his wife were received as members of the Catholic Church at Nunraw Abbey near Haddington in 1948. He then found employment as Scottish organiser of the Converts' Aid Society and also devoted himself to writing. In 1974 he and his wife were seriously injured in a road accident: he survived but sadly Helen died two weeks later. Some months passed before he applied for training for ordination as a Catholic priest for Aberdeen Diocese. He enrolled from 1975 to 1977 at the He served in Banchory and Aboyne (1977-82), in Wick and Thurso (1982-89) and at St Josepli's, Woodside, Fr Ronnie Walls was appreciated within and outwith the Catholic communities wherever he lived, and will be remembered for his clarity of mind, his affable personality, his readable articles and books, his pawky humour and numerous anecdotes, and above all for his singleness of purpose in communicating his staunch Faith. With his passing, an era has ended. To his sons David and Christopher, his sister Margaret, and other members of his family we offer our sympathy and our thanks for this splendid and long-lived colleague. May he rest in peace. • A Mass, led by Bishop Peter Moran of • Fr Ronald Walls inspiring autobiography, “Love Strong as Death”, and two volumes of daily meditations on the Gospel readings at Mass, Stairway to the Upper Room, are published by Gracewing. • Additional material from Father Donald at Nunraw Abbey Scottish Catholic Observer Jan 15. 2010 |
This morning Mass Gospel is is a periscope of two sentences of Mark.
From: DGO DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Saturday, 23 January 2010 Saturday of the Second week in Ordinary Time Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3:20-21.
Commentary of the day :
Jesus gives himself wholly, even to his body and blood
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BLESSED CYPRIAN TANSI
Cyprian Tansi had three names. Iwene was the name given by his father at his birth in 1903, Michael was his baptismal name, and Cyprian his monastic name. Born into a pagan family, he was sent to a Catholic school where at the age of eight he was baptised. On completing his education he became a teacher, and in 1925 entered the seminary. As a catechist, Michael saw to it that no child died without Baptism when he was there. Pagan and Christian alike came to him to settle their disputes. In 1937 he was ordained priest. He was an admirable pastor. There were no bounds to his zeal, his self-giving, his generosity and his good humour. Sister Magdalen, an Irish Holy Rosary Sister, gave him a copy of Dom Marmion's Christ the Ideal of the Monk. This book sowed the seeds of a monastic vocation, which lead him to join Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in He died unexpectedly 20 January 1964 aged 60, and was buried at Cyprian was a man of tiny stature and so he appears in this Window, with his impish smile, dressed in his Cistercian cowl, with his beloved Iboland huts and hills in the background. A companion said of him that as a young teacher "he would talk with Our Lady as a child talks to his mother" As pastor he was deeply committed to promoting the Legion of Mary and the Children of Mary, and strongly recommended the Rosary At Mount Saint Bernard it was noted that: "his love of the Lady Chapel speaks for itself." In the bottom panel there are symbols of the three basic elements of monastic life: Opus Dei (liturgical life), Opus Manuum (manual labour), and Lectio Divina (God-centred reading). The African drum and vessels symbolise the Liturgy; for work, Cyprian at the book-sewing press; and for Lectio, the book, Christ the Ideal of the Monk. Fr. Laurence Walsh ocso
(Online Shop at www.msjroscrea.ie) |
WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY -- JANUARY 18-25 It is over 100 years since Fr. Paul Watson, founder of the Franciscan Society of the Atonement, proposed these dates in 1908, to cover the days between the feasts of St. Peter and of But I am stumped. Where is Peter? There is no sight of Peter – we will need to look it up. Each year, a scripture verse is selected to set the theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The theme for 2010 is: "You are witness of these things" (Luke 24:48). As a Holy Ghost Father said, “Only the Spirit can be the ‘Glue’ that will reassemble a fractured Body.” The It is even generally held that the 1910 World Mission Conference in To honour this important stage in the history of the ecumenical movement it was natural for the promoters of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - The Faith and Order Commission and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity - to invite the Scottish churches to prepare the 2010 Week of Prayer at the same time as they were actively involved in preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the 1910 Conference on the theme "Witnessing to Christ today". In response these churches suggested as the theme "You are witnesses of these things". (Luke 24.48) The Biblical Theme: You are Witnesses of These Things In the ecumenical movement we have often meditated on Jesus' final discourse before his death. In this final testament the importance of the unity of Christ's disciples is emphasized: "That all may be one ... so that the world may believe." (John 17.21) This year the churches of Scotland have made the original choice of inviting us to listen to Christ's final discourse before his ascension, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24.46-48). It is on these final words of Christ that we shall reflect each day. During the 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we are invited to follow the whole of chapter 24 of Luke's gospel. Whether it be the terrified women at the tomb, the two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus or the eleven disciples overtaken by doubt and fear, all who together encounter the Risen Christ are sent on mission: "You are witness of these things". This mission of the Church is given by Christ and cannot be appropriated by anyone. It is the community of those who have been reconciled with God and in God, and who can witness to the truth of the power of salvation in Jesus Christ. We sense that Mary Magdalene, Peter or the two Emmaus disciples will not witness in the same way. Yet it will be the victory of Jesus over death that all will place at the heart of their witness. The personal encounter with the risen One has radically changed their lives and in its uniqueness for each one of them one thing becomes imperative: "You are witnesses of these things." Their story will accentuate different things, sometimes dissent may arise between them about what faithfulness to Christ requires, and yet all will work to announce the Good News. |