Whoever sees me, sees the Father

Mass Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter 2010 John 12: 40-50 Introduction – Fr. Mark ‘Whoever sees me, sees the Father’ – So declares Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading. It’s not easy to believe in an Invisible Father. But Jesus’ words are; “If you believe in me, you believe the Father”. So, there must be a new way of knowing the Father. When we see what Jesus does and says in the Gospels in some way we known and experience the Father. By uniting ourselves to Jesus as we meet him in the Gospels and our daily lives we are in some mysterious manner touching the hem of the Father’s garment. 1. God the Father, in you reveal yourself to us, Lord have mercy … 2. You show us your care and love in the words and actions of your Son, Christ have mercy … 3. You give us eternal life that we may be with you for ever, Lord have mercy … Night Office Second Reading - Saint Ambrose from a commentary on psalm 118 by (Sermo 7, 6-7: CSEL 62, 130-131) Christians, Ambrose teaches, are sustained in time of affliction by hope based upon the word of God God's word gives life to our souls and guides us in all we do. In time of affliction my comfort lies in this, that your word gives me life. Here is the hope that your promise arouses in me. It brings me comfort, enabling me to bear the misfortunes of these present times and to face the future with confidence. See how God's word reassures us! We read in the Letter to the Romans: What can come between us and the love of Christ? Can trouble, or worry, or persecution, or hunger, or peril; or the sword? It is written: For your sake we are being massacred daily, and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. Then Saint Paul goes on to explain how it is possible to endure such trials with patience. In all these things, he says, we triumph by the power of him who loved us. So then, if anyone is determined to overcome adversity, whether persecution or peril or death, whether his body is wasted by disease or whether burglars break into his house or his property is confiscated, or whether he suffers anything else that the world considers a disaster, he will succeed without effort if he is buoyed up by hope. Even if these calamities should overtake him, they will not weigh heavily upon him as long as he can say: I reckon the sufferings of this life are not worth comparing with the glory that is to come. Slight afflictions can never crush anyone who lives in the hope of receiving something far better. In time of affliction, then, our comfort lies in hope, a hope that does not disappoint us. It seems to me that the time of affliction is the time when we are tempted. It is indeed an affliction for a soul to be handed over to the tempter to be tested by harsh trials, and to experience the assaults of a hostile power. But as we wrestle with temptations God's promises put new life into us. His word is in fact the very lifeblood of our souls, nourishing, sustaining, and guiding us; there is no other source of life for our spiritual nature. Just as God's word grows in our souls according to the measure in which we receive and understand it and are able to assimilate its meaning, so too the life of our souls expands. Similarly, if our souls cease to find consolation in the promises of God, they begin to lose what life they had And as the organic union of our body and soul is established, nurtured, and maintained by the breath of life, so too our soul is endowed with life by the word of God and the breath of his grace. Let all other affairs take second place, therefore, and let us strive by every means in our power to make God's consoling promises our treasure. If we store them up in our minds and hearts, if we allow them to influence all our concerns and govern all our thoughts and undertakings, then all our actions will be in tune with the words of Scripture and our lives will not be at variance with the teaching of the sacred writers. In this way we too shall be able to testify: Your word gives us life. Responsory Psalm 118:49.50.105 Remember your word to your servant, by which you gave me hope. _ In time of trouble this is my comfort: that your promise give me life, alleluia. Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path. - In time of ...

Vocation – Saint Rafael

Vocation – Saint Rafael.

St. Rafael Arnaiz Baron ocso. La Trappe, Abadia San Isidro

The Introduction of the Mass this morning gave us an insight to the particular calling to the community of San Isidro.

When we say a "special vocation", it expresses not something divisive but the calling to God, God Alone, as Rafael was fond to name it.

From the conclusion of the book,, God Alone, Dom Gonzalo, sometime Abbot of Abadia San Isidro, clarifies that “His was an exceptional vocation” against all the odds – the time of the Spanish Civil War, illness and final diabetic coma, at 27 years.

Gonzalo, acquaintance encountered in the Cistercian Order, makes the happy connection with St. John of the Cross’s mystical understanding. ("Saint John of the Cross says that people who have reached intimate union with God do not leave this life because of illness or old age (even if they die of illness or of old age), but by the force of their love").

It is the wonderful pattern of CALLING or VOCATION seen in the saints known and unknown.

God Alone It seems right to conclude this point by stating that Rafael returned repeatedly to the monastery in answer to God's particular call to him; a special call, outside the usual norms. He was not meant to live the life of his La Trappe; he was meant to live in his La Trappe, and, it may be added, to suffer and die in his La Trappe. His was an exceptional vocation, but it was acknowledged and accepted by those responsible in the monastery, even if it meant nonconformity with the normal life prescribed by the Rule. And it was accepted above all by Rafael himself, who answered it, fully aware that by going to the monastery he was shortening a life already impaired by illness, which is why it seems right to regard him as a "martyr to his vocation." And doubtless, a martyr to his love, the love that killed him, just as he himself had desired and declared over and over again. Saint John of the Cross says that people who have reached intimate union with God do not leave this life because of illness or old age (even if they die of illness or of old age), but by the force of their love. ( The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 1,30). So, although the death certificate signed by the Abbot states that "a diabetic coma" was what snatched Rafael's life away so soon, all those in the know were quite sure that it was more the fire of his charity and of his great love for God than his illness that did it. And thus the parchment that was kept in the casket containing Rafael's remains after their exhumation and removal in 1965 stated, "He breathed his last consumed by love for God." It would seem that Rafael at the end of his days could have made his own those lines from Saint John of the Cross that he was undoubtedly aware of and that reflect so well the high altitude of his spiritual flight: In a wonderful way I flew A thousand flights in one, For by heaven-sent hope is won Whatever is expected and true; I gambled on this one chance, And my hope did not belie, Since I went so high, so high, That I up to the prey did advance" In view of what his life was like it seems right to apply to him these words of the Book of Wisdom: "With him early achievement counted for long apprenticeship; so well did the Lord love him that from a corrupt world he granted him swift release" (Wis 4:13-14). Yes, Rafael was a man pleasing to God, one whose purpose was to love God as fully as possible, God alone, as expressed in his oft-repeated cry: GOD ALONE! Like all the saints Rafael was a "friend of God," which was acknowledged by the Church at his recent (… canonisation in October 2009). Gonzalo Fernandez, ocso. pp.119-120. God Alone, Monastic Wisdom Series, Cistercian Publications 2008.

Saint Rafael Cistercian

Tuesday, 27 April 2010.

This morning we celebrated the Memorial of Saint Rafael of Abadia San Isidro, Spain.

The details are included in the Saints; “Saints.SQPN*, Star Quest Production Network, (Notes about your extended family in heaven”).

Saint Rafael Arnáiz Barón
Also known as

María Rafael

Memorial

27 April

Profile

Oblate friar of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappist).

Born

9 April 1911 in Burgos, Spain

Died

26 April 1938 in Dueñas, Palencia, Spain

Venerated

7 September 1989 by Pope John Paul II (decree on heroic virtues)

Beatified

27 September 1992 by Pope John Paul II

Canonized

11 October 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI

Additional Information

Saints.SQPN.com

Abadia Cisterciense de S. Isidro de Dueñas

Hagiography Circle

Category: Beatified by Pope John Paul II, Beatified in 1992, Born in 1911, Born in Spain, Canonized by Pope Benedict XVI, Canonized in 2009, Died in 1938, Died in Spain, Saints Beati and Venerables, Saints who were Cistercians, Saints who were Monks, Saints who were Trappists, Venerated in 1989

See other Posts: http://nunraw.blogspot.com/

Rafael Arnaiz Baron

12, 14, 18 Oct 2009

John 6 - COMMENTS

Many thanks, William,

Holy Week, Easter and Eastertide, open up such vistas from the Liturgy.

I also feel as you say, “I will never feel I have mastered John 6.!”

And then openings like the link, The Catholic Treasure Chest, lead us on.

No wonder the Holy Father is urging on, “Pope Asks Catholics to Give a Soul to the Internet

Warns Against Divisive Aspect of Digital World

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 25, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is urging Catholics in equip themselves with faith as well as technology so as to add soul to Internet communications and networks.

The Pope stated this Saturday in an audience in Paul VI Hall with participants in a national conference on "Digital Witnesses: Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age," an initiative promoted by the Italian bishops' conference.

"Without fear we want to set out upon the digital sea embracing the unrestricted navigation with the same passion that for 2,000 years has steered the barque of the Church," he said.

Amen, Alleluia.

Donald

----- Forwarded Message ----

From: William

Sent: Sun, 25 April, 2010 14:16:45

Subject: Re: The Catholic Treasure Chest - John 6

Dear Donald,

Thank you for the link to The Catholic Treasure Chest (where do you find all these resources!) The truth of the Eucharist is powerfully reasoned, with arguments securing the christoIogical 'unity', "denying the "True Presence" denies the incarnation and humanity of Jesus Christ". I confess to struggling with this argumentative style (perhaps it is that I like to understand it for myself), but there needs to be someone doing this: it certainly reinforces my understanding and belief... I will never feel that I have mastered John 6!

(The Holy Spirit draws us) ever deeper into these mysteries!
In Our Risen Lord,
William

----- Original Message -----

From: Donald

To: William

Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 5:23 AM

Subject: Re: The Eucharist is the Key to all mysteries

Dear William,

Thank you.
Your help keeps me to focus even within the abundance on offer.

For the moment not yet grappled with this treasure "John Chapter Six"

http://www.thecatholictreasurechest.com/john.htm
In Dno,

Donald

---

From: William J Wardle

To: Dom Donald Nunraw <nunrawdonald@yahoo.com>

Sent: Sat, 24 April, 2010 19:48:26

Subject: The Eucharist is the Key to all mysteries

Dear Father Donald,

IT WOULD SEEM impossible, did we not know it to be true, that ...His love should choose to give us the unity of His birth and death and resurrection, always taking place at the heart of the world, from sunrise to sunset, and all life, and all love, always radiating from it.

I have received so much delight in the reflection by Caryll Houselander, and especially the 'unity' described in the second sentence which sheds a wonderfully bright light for me! All through this last week, as the Gospel readings have taken us step by step through Jesus' discourse, I have been looking for the clearest explanation of the discourse as a whole, typing up my 'research' so that I can enjoy it all the more. This little amalgam comes from a commentary written by Dom R R Russell OSB Downside Abbey and it rests on the 'unity' so central to Caryll Houselander's wonderful reflection!

The Incarnation, ‘the Word made flesh’, finds completion in the redemptive gift of the Eucharist (‘my flesh for the life of the world… eat my flesh’). At the same time, it is only in faith in Christ, the living bread come down from heaven to give life to the world, that the Eucharist makes sense. The whole mystery will be revealed at the Ascension of the Son of man, when he enters into the fullness of the Spirit even in his body, which becomes the overflowing source of risen life for the world. Such is the heavenly food and drink. The Ascension, making a heavenly reality of Jesus’ presence, is essential for the Christian understanding of the Eucharist, which contains the three great mysteries of the Son of Man: Incarnation, Redemption, Ascension.

How blessed we are to be able to enter upon such mystery... the Eucharist is the key to all the mysteries!

With my love in Our Risen Lord,

William

Amen Alleluia

Monday of 4th. Week of Easter
Having the Introduction to the Mass this morning, the axiom "Amen, Alleluia" from the words from the Mother Foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified seemed to resound in my mind and, in turn, we listened to words echoing in this Eastertide.

After some searching we found book: Joy Out of Sorrow, by Mother Marie des Douleurs, The Sisters of Jesus Crucified, St. John’s Priory, Castle Cary, Somerset, 1965.

(Now moved to USA, see Website - benedictinesjc.org)

In the Introductory Note, Mother marie writes,

“Profound and grand is the life which develops the Sisters and make them live in vivid and full reality their axiom:”Amen, Alleluia!”.

Simplicity, joy and courage are theirs – never better seen than at the moment of death.” (Dec 7, 1957).

Thursday, March 25, 2010 The Annunciation MOTHER MARIE DES DOULEURS Luke 1:37 Nothing is impossible to God." The Angel said: "Nothing is impossible to God." She knew it because she lived it. She was surprised at nothing, prepared for everything. She lived in a state of continual wonder at the all-loving power of God. It was precisely because she dared to believe that she dared to give up everything, or rather that it never occurred to her to let herself be bound by anything. Mary was ready for anything because she had given all. She had established herself resolutely in those serene regions where love victorious reigns. With a daring greater than that of all the conquerors put together, she had fixed her gaze on the summit of the heavens, and all her life she was illumined by the light of certainty. She became Mother of the Word Incarnate, and her Son would be called the Son of the Most High, and he would reign on the throne of David and of his kingdom there would be no end. She put herself wholly into this perspective of final, absolute triumph, and we see her always in a golden light. She believed, not with a timid faith in tune with the weaknesses and vicissitudes of our present life, but with a faith in harmony with the awesome ardors of the Infinite. She had seen the reign of the Spirit of her Son, and in her serenity she was in no need of patience while waiting till the sparks led at last to the blaze of glory. (From Our Lady of the Annunciation. Published privately) Mother Marie des Douleurs (+ 1983) Foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified. Bibliography: Our Lady of the Annunciation, London, 1960.

Good Shepherd Sunday

On Good Shepherd Sunday

Mass 4^th Sunday of Easter (C) Fr. Aelred.

The New restatement offers us many images of Jesus, each one bringing out a different facet of his Person. Surely on of the most beautiful and reassuring image is that of Jesus as the Shepherd of the Father’s Flock. It is an image Jesus used of himself and his mission.

Jesus is no hireling. The hireling doesn’t own the sheep, and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf approaching. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The sheep belong to him, and he is ready to die for them.

Jesus made very wonderful promises to those who belong to him. He says that none of them would ever be lost. No one would succeed in snatching from his care the sheep the Father has entrusted to him. The sheep that belong to him will be safe with him because the Father’s power is in him. (He and the Father are one). And he will lead them to the pastures of eternal life.

We need essentially three things to belong to Jesus’ flock. The first and basic requirement is to believe in him. We enter the flock by becoming believers. The second requirement is to listen to his voice. To listen to his voice is to heed his teachings. And the third requirement is to follow him. To follow him is to do his word.

Obviously the relationship has to be a two-way thing. The sheep have to choose belong. Jesus won’t or can’t save people against their will.
But if we sincerely want and try to belong to him (following him and doing what he says), then he will take care of us in life and death.

It doesn’t mean belonging to Jesus will guarantee us an easy life here on earth. Those who belong to him are likely to be persecuted, but those who remain faithful through their trials will share in his glory in heaven. This is vividly portrayed in today’s second reading from the Apocalypse which describes John’s vision of the great crowd of the saved from all nations.

We can’t belong to Jesus without belonging also to his flock. The flock is an image of community. Even on a human level we have a deep need for community. Jesus knew this. That’s why he wanted his followers to live as a community. In community we find mutual support, encouragement and companionship.

The privilege of belonging to Jesus flock is not something that is offered to a chosen few, but to everyone, Jews and Gentiles. We are familiar with the idea of a global Church that is can come as a surprise to remember that this was such a radical idea. We saw something of the price St Paul paid for his radical idea in the Second Reading. Over and over again he was repeatedly ejected from places where he preached, was imprisoned multiple times and was finally executed.
He willingly imitated Jesus the Good Shepherd in laying down his life for his flock.

John Chapter Six

Saturday 3rd Week Easter Week 2010 - Fr. Mark The open of prayer of today’s Mass has the words, “May we … remain true to (the) gift of life.” And in today’s gospel reading … we see the reactions of some of those who would not accept Jesus’ reply is that, “it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh – human nature - has nothing to offer". "The words I have spoken,” he says, “are spirit and they are life.” In other words, his teaching about receiving his body and love in the Eucharist are true. Those who turned away from Jesus were not to know that it was his resurrected body and blood he was speaking about. We don’t know if our faith would have held firm if we had been in the crowd. So in humility but with thankfulness let us celebrate this mystery of Christ’s real and risen body and blood. Reflection – Caryll Houselander "I am the living bread" IT WOULD SEEM impossible, did we not know it to be true, that God could abide with us always, in littleness and humility even more extreme than infancy. Or that His love should choose to give us the unity of His birth and death and resurrection, always taking place at the heart of the world, from sunrise to sunset, and all life, and all love, always radiating from it. Yet this is so. Every day, every hour, Christ is born on the altar in the hands of the priest. Christ is lifted up and sacrificed; Christ is buried in the tomb of the human heart and Christ rises from the tomb to be the life of the world through His Communion with men. This is the Host-life. Everything that has been said in this book could be said again of the Host. Everything relates to the Host. If we live the Host-life in Christ, we shall bring to life the contemplation of the Passion of the Infant Christ and live it in our own lives. The Host is the Bread of Life. It is the good seed that the Sower sowed in His field; it is the Harvest ready for the reaping. It is the seed that is sown by the Spirit in every public way and every secret place on earth. It is the seed which, whenever it is buried, springs up from the grave, to Sower with Everlasting Life. It is the mystery of the Snowflake. The Inscape of Thabor and of the Passion of the Infant. It is the whiteness, the roundness, the littleness, which at once conceals and reveals the plan of Eternal Love. It is the littleness, the dependence, the trust in human creatures of the Divine Infancy. It is the silence of the Child in the womb: the constriction of the swaddling bands. It is the Bread which is broken and yet is our wholeness. The wholeness of all that is. It is the breaking of the Bread which is the Communion of all men in Christ, in which the multiple lives of the world are one Christ-life, the fragmentary sorrows of the world are one Christ-Passion: the broken loves of the world are one Christ-love. The Host seems to be divided among us; but in reality we, who were divided, are made one in the Host. It is the obedience of childhood. The simplicity which is the singleness of childhood's love. It is the newness in which Heaven and earth are made new. It is the birth of Christ in the nations; the restoring of the Christ-Child to the world; of childhood to the children. With the dawning of this turbulent twentieth century came the children's Pope, Pius X, to give Holy Communion to the little ones. In the hearts of the little children, Christ went out to meet Herod all over the world. The Mass is the Birth and Death and Resurrection of Christ: in it is the complete surrender of those who love God. The Miracle of Cana takes place. The water of humanity is mixed into the wine and is lost in it. The wine is changed into the Blood of Christ. In the offering of the bread and wine we give material things, as Our Lady gave her humanity, to be changed into Christ. At the words of Consecration the bread and wine are not there any more; they simply are not any more but, instead, Christ is there. In that which looks and tastes and feels like unleavened bread, Christ comes closer to us even than the infant could come, even than the child in the womb. He is our food, our life. We give ourselves up to Him. He gives Himself up to us. He is lifted up in the priest's hands, sacrificed. God accepts the sacrifice and gives Christ back to us. He is lowered onto the altar; He who was taken down from the Cross is given to us in Communion; buried, laid to rest in our hearts. It is His will to rise from the dead in our lives and to come back to the world in His risen Host-life. In His risen life on earth Christ often made Himself recog­nized only by the characteristic of His unmistakable love; by showing His wounds, by His infinite courtesy, by the breaking of Bread. He would not allow the sensible beauty and dearness of His human personality, His familiar appearance, to hide the essential Self that He had come back to give. Wholly consistent with this is Christ's return to us in the Host. We know that in It He is wholly present, Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity. But all this is hidden, even His human appearance is hidden. He insists, because this is the way of absolute love, on coming to us stripped of everything but Himself. For this Self-giving Christ in the Host is poor, poorer than He was when, stripped of everything, He was naked on the Cross. He has given up even the appearance of His body, the sound of His voice, His power of mobility. He has divested Himself of colour and weight and taste. He has made Himself as close to nothing as He could be, while still being accessible to us. In the Host He is the endless "Consurnmaturn est" of the Passion of the Infant Christ. In the Host He is our Life on earth today. There is no necessity for me to describe the average life. Too many know it. Countless millions have to make the way of the Cross and the way to Heaven through the same few streets, among the same tiny circle of people; through the same returning monotony; while many, many others have even less variety in their lives, less outward interest and less chance of active mercy or apostleship-e-those who are incurably ill or in prison, or very old, confined not only to one town or village, but to one room, to one bed in a ward, to one narrow cell. Everyone wants to take part in the healing and comforting of the world, but most people are dogged by the sense of their own futility. Even the power of genius and exceptional opportunity dwindles, measured against the suffering of our times. It is then hardly to be wondered at if the average person whose life is limited by narrow circumstances and personal limita­tions feels discouragement that is almost despair. Living the Christ-life means that we are given the power of Christ's love. We are not only trustees of God's love for man, entrusted to give it out second-hand, but miraculously, our love IS His love! "I have bestowed my love upon you, just as my father has bestowed his love upon me; live on, then, in my love." (John xv. 9.) The Host-life is an intense concentration of this power of love. The Host-life is not something new or different from the Christ-life that we know already. It is the very core of it, and it was given to us at the Last Supper when Christ gave Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament. The Host-life is the life which Christ Himself is living in the world now. It is His choice of how to live His life among us today. At first sight it is baffling that it should be so. About the author: Caryll Houselander (1901-1954) became a Catholic at the age of six, hence the autobiographical "A Rocking Horse Catholic". Her writing was original and powerful. Mgr. R. Knox suggested that she open a school for spiritual writers. He said she seemed to find, ''not merely the right word but the telling word that left you gasping." Her own works, published by Sheed & Ward, became best sellers. They include ''The Comforting of Christ", "The Reed of God" and "Guilt". This booklet, "Christ Within Us", published by crs 1957, was adapted from the book, "The Passion of the Infant Christ"(1949).