Paul's Caesarea prison cell identified

COMMENT. See Post 16 May 2010

Jerusalem Post Article:
Paul's Caesarea prison cell identified

Article date: May 20, 1998

Author: HAIM SHAPIRO

Archeologists at Caesarea have identified the prison room in which Paul of Tarsus, one of the most important figures of early Christianity, was held.

Paul, known as the Apostle to Christians, was born a Jew named Saul. According to …

Ascension Thursday

Thursday, 13 May 2010

The Ascension of the Lord – Solemnity

Morning Chapter Sermon – Br.Barry

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:46-53.

ASCENSION 2010.

• A remarkable thing about the Ascension is that there is an eye-witness account of it – a description of the indescribable. All the same the first effect of the Ascension was to once again render God invisible to physical sight. What are the disciples to do now with their faculty of sight?
• Vision is the most important of the senses. Indeed, the traditional name for the greatest happiness humans are capable of is borrowed from the power of seeing – the beatific vision, defined as ‘ the seeing that confers bliss’ and the famous Jesuit scientist Teilhard de Chardin wrote that the aim of evolution is ‘ the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes’. A Peruvian woman coming to the U.K. to work said that the first thing that struck her on arriving in this country was the large number of people wearing glasses. An odd confirmation, perhaps, of Teilhard’s idea.
• The spiritual sight which is faith looks around for suitable objects for its physical counterpart and many fitting things have been developed. In no particular order – there is the monstrance and Eucharistic devotion; there is the catacomb art of the early Church in Rome; there are statues and holy pictures; there are icons and crucifixes, of which St. Aelred suggests that the highest use we can make of our sight is to gaze on a crucifix or cross; there are church buildings, their exterior and interior; for monks, there is the whole monastery building; the practise of lectio divina is principally about the use of sight, as far as the five senses are concerned.
• St. Paul has another one. ‘God’s everlasting power and deity are there for the mind to see in the things he has made’, he wrote to the Romans. In this one verse he has combined the faculty of physical sight (‘the things he has made’ ) with spiritual sight ( ‘his deity is there for the mind to see’ ).
• This word ‘deity’ that St. Paul uses is a rare one in the New Testament. It occurs in only two other places, (as far as I can make out), both associated with St. Paul . One is in the Acts of the Apostles in his speech in the Areopagus to the men of Athens ‘that all nations ought to seek the DEITY and by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him’. As in Romans, it is God as Creator that St. Paul is indicating here. The third instance occurs in the second chapter of Colossians, in the verse translated in the Jerusalem Bible ‘ in his ( Christ’s ) body lives the fullness of DIVINITY’.
• Put all these three references together and you have - Christ there for the mind to see in creation. This is only the teaching of the canticle in Colossians: ‘in him were created all things in heaven and on earth’.
• All that is for those who look with faith. For a society in which only scientific truths are regarded as real, an invisible God is a serious problem. If you cannot see it on a screen or measure it with a machine then it cannot be real seems to be the attitude. It is no coincidence that such a society has come to be dominated by the entertainment industry, an industry totally geared to attracting the eyes. Such a society has no place for religion and sure enough we are all familiar with the moves that have been made to banish religion from public life. We can be certain that it won’t stop there.
• If it has a problem with an invisible God and with religion then it will have a problem with the Church. There are two sides to this: on one side of the coin they will fail to see what ‘Lumen Gentium’ calls ‘the divine institution of the Church’. It says: ‘the Church exists in Christ’; ‘the Spirit has its dwelling in the Church’; the Church is ‘the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery’; it is ‘ the setting in which the communication of Christ’s life to believers takes place’; ‘ Christ presents himself to us in his body which is the Church’.
• The other side of the coin is that this society will only be capable of seeing the visible structure of the Church, its outward appearance. In other words it will see flawed human beings.
• Does the Church say about itself that its members are not flawed individuals? Of course not. Again from Lumen Gentium: ‘the Church is marked on earth by a genuine if imperfect holiness’ and ‘the Church is at once holy and in need of constant cleansing’.
• The doctrine of the divine institution of the Church is the one that is particularly undermined today and it is a doctrine that will need its martyrs too.
• The Ascension, then, might be said to celebrate the invisibility of God but like all festivals it is celebrated by a feast for the senses.
  
  (Ref: Joseph Pieper 'In Tune With The World')

UK Coalition Government.

Sixth Easter Week WEDNESDAY 12^th May

Introducing the Mass this morning, the thoughts and prayers are in our minds about the events of the country in attaining to a UK Coalition Government.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”.

For days the discussions and talks have been non-stop. On the one-track subject, 1.8 million watched the TV. And even from the bite-sounds, it appears that in it all there is never a mention of God.

In spite of the impression of Godlessness, the minds and hearts are quietly searching.

The Gospel here suggests that Jesus was sympathy with his own disciples in the same way we feel. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”.
Jesus is opening the whole prospects and promise of the Holy Spirit. So it was the disciples are to learn – just in the same way heard to St. Paul as we read it in the Reading of Blessed Guerric of Igny. (below).

Offering this Mass we pray for the new leaders, the joint Prime Ministry, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and the people of this country.

John 16 DRB	NRSV	GNT	Vulgate
12 I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now.	12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.	12 ῎Ετι πολλὰ ἔχω λέγειν ὑμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειν ἄρτι·	12 adhuc multa habeo vobis dicere sed non potestis portare modo
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to come, he shall shew you.	13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.	13 ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν· οὐ γὰρ λαλήσει ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὅσα ἂν ἀκούσει λαλήσει, καὶ τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν.	13 cum autem venerit ille Spiritus veritatis docebit vos in omnem veritatem non enim loquetur a semet ipso sed quaecumque audiet loquetur et quae ventura sunt adnuntiabit vobis

MEDITATION OF BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY The Spirit of Truth Words had no effect on the apostles until they received the gifts. For when Jesus himself came and stood before them, he convinced them not so much by showing them his body as by breathing on them his Gift. You know that when he came to them the doors were locked and he stood among them, but they were startled and frightened and supposed they saw a spirit. But when he breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and when later he sent from heaven the same Spirit with another gift, these gifts were indeed undeniable proofs and testimonies of resurrection and life. It is the Spirit who bears witness in the hearts and on the lips of the saints that Christ is the truth, the true resurrection, and the life. Thus the apostles who had previously doubted even after seeing his living body, after tasting his life-giving Spirit with great power gave testimony to his resurrection. So it is much more important to receive Jesus in our hearts than to see him with our eyes or hear him with our ears. The Spirit makes a much deeper impression on the interior man than material things make on the exterior senses. What room is left for doubt when he who bears witness and he who is the object of that witness are the one Spirit? If the Spirit is one there must be a complete understanding, everything fits together. Blessed Guerric of Igny (+ 1157) was an abbot and a close friend of Saint Bernard. Cistercian Fathers 32, Trs. 1971.

Comment on Holy Spirit

Many thanks, William,
Pondering on the Blog Posting as we are asking for the Holy Spirit’s
first of the fruits of love and joy.

You remember well us, the Atlas Martyrs' anniversary, always fresh in our Spring time.
The recent issue of the "Sacred Heart Messenger" (May 2010) features an article on the Brothers, and Fr. Christian with a new picture.

Happy Ascension Thursday.

Donald

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: William J ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Tue, 11 May, 2010 16:59:41
Subject: Re: [Blog] the Holy Spirit

Dear Donald,

The copy of your Blog posting arrived late last evening and I have been pondering it. Our life has to become an invocation of the Holy Spirit if evangelization is to proceed, "allow[ing] [ourselves] to be possessed and led by Him".

In the book you lent me last summer, Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, “Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People”, he wrote of the “sacrament of encounter”, being much more demanding of the missionary, as the quality of his own life becomes the key to the proclamation of the Gospel. The effectiveness of this sacrament depends on the transparency of Christ’s presence and love in the individual Christian and in his community".

This is evangelization, the very presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But if the disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, I have the feeling that out in the world today there are voices that ask Jesus to show them the Holy Spirit. We can 'picture' Jesus, and often do so, either in our meditations on the Gospel scenes or in images, icons in our churches. But with regard to the Holy Spirit we are blind in our imagining, for the Holy Spirit is of the nature of the wind caressing our face, of the love we give, the smile we receive.
To know the Holy Spirit, we have first to interiorize the love of Jesus and learn to 'sense' His spiritual presence. That is why the Holy Spirit is so little known or, dare I say, appreciated, in our world, where all is given over to the 'material' in sight and sound.

To appreciate the ways of the Holy Spirit, particularly in evangelization, we need to maintain an attitude of listening, for we can hardly speak the words given to us by the Holy Spirit unless first we listen. Our life has to become an invocation of the Holy Spirit. "The Holy Spirit ... is He who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of His mystery". I look forward very much to seeing your selection of texts over the remaining days leading up to Pentecost!

I am preparing a 'card' in loving commemoration for the anniversary of the deaths of the Atlas Martyrs using extracts from Fr Martin McGee's book which I took down before I returned the book to you, to send with Seven Red Roses next week, with an advance e-copy to you should you find it to purpose for your Blog.

... In Our Risen Lord,

William

Benedictine Cluny anniversry

(On Tuesday May 11th. we celebrated the Community Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of Cluny. The Blog posting includes additions regarding Cluny)

Today is the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.

On the day of our Memorial of the Holy Abbots of CLUNY, the Internet offers up-to-date information and history.

The following LINK is very impressive and we appreciate the article and illustrations.

Holy Abbots of Cluny Website Posted by John Whitehead : http://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/holy-abbots-of-cluny.html

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

The Holy Abbots of Cluny

Today is the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.

My own interest in Cluny arises in part from the fact that there was from 1090 until 1539 a Cluniac priory in my home town of Pontefract, and it was my interest in such local facts that began to expand my historical imagination. As the years have gone by I see that in not a few ways I am drawn to the Cluniac vision of worship and prayer alongside the world, and the pursuit of the beauty of holiness in all its forms. It is a topic upon which I have given a few lectures over the years, and one to which I hope to return.

This year is the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of the abbey in 910, and is being marked by a series of events in and around the remains of the abbey. The French mint has even produced a 10 Euro coin to commemorate the anniversary. The Pope has spoken in one of his weekly catecheses about the contribution of Cluny to the life of the whole Church - a point he has referred to in other addresses in recent years.

Cluny gave to the Church a model of a renewed Benedictine monastic life, that helped generate other, complementary, congregations, an ordered tradition of worship, the promotion of the arts in the service of religion, the encouragement of pilgrimage, the promotion of devotion to Our Lady, support for the emerging Papal monarchy and a centralised administrative structure. It attracted the patronage and support of contemporary rulers such as Alfonso VI of Castile and Henry I of England. In one sense it was arguably the first, and one of the most successful, of multi-nationals. Its legacy stretches far beyond the cloister.

A key factor in the development of Cluny was the independence from secular authority granted by its founder, Duke William of Aquitaine. By his foundation charter he placed it under the immediate authority of the Holy See. The text of that charter can be read here. The abbey grew in size and influence as a result, and so did the direct influence of the Papacy. This was a form of practical utramontanism, implemented with local outlets wherever Cluny acquired or founded dependencies.

To see an excellent account of the history of Cluny's first, and probably most important English foundation look at Lewes Priory, and Friends of Reading Abbey gives something about a foundation inspired by Cluny, although not regarded as part of the Cluniac Order as such.

I suspect that too many historians these days tend to concentrate, due to the nature of the surviving evidence, on Cluniac administration and economics at the expense of understanding what it was that drove forward the Cluniac system, and that was the religious impulse.

That also underlay the famous exchange of letters and pamphlets with St Bernard of Clairvaux about the expression of monastic life. Often seen as a clash between two entirely different models I think it should rather be seen as an internal debate within what was still, in many ways, a single, undifferentiated Benedictine tradition, and not untypical of clerical discussion or debate. What heightended it was the calibre of Bernard and Peter the Venerable, and the scale of their two monastic projects. Bernard may have had the more cutting comments, but it was Cluny that influenced the wider Church beyond the walls of monastic communities.

Pope Urban II wrote of Cluny that it
"shines as another sun over the earth, so that it is more fitting to apply to it the words of Our Lord 'You are the Light of the World' "

and St Hugh spoke of how
"Ever since we founded this monastery, prepared and helped by the divine clemency, we have very clearly experienced in this place the presence of the compassion of Almighty God and the gaze of His fatherly devotedness."

The dedication of the High Altar of Cluny III by Pope Urban II in 1095 in the presence of St Hugh and the community - from an early thirteenth century MS.

The Holy Abbots of Cluny are a group comprised of four saints - the great founding and establishing abbots - Odo, Maiolus, Odilo and Hugh, who successively ruled it from 910 until 1109, the centuries of growth and its zenith - and Bl Peter the Venerable who restored its fortunes after the disastrous career of Abbot Pons in the early twelfth century and whose abbacy marked the end of the era of Cluniac dominance. After Peter's time - 1122-56 - the abbey and its enormous family passed, relatively, into not so much decline, as being left behind by the newer developments in the life of the Church.

I have taken from Vultus Christi's post for this day last year the specific antiphon for the four sainted abbots for Lauds, the Little Hours and Vespers:

Odo arose full of the Holy Spirit,
and renewed the beauty of the monastic Order
throughout the world, alleluia.

Maiolus, overflowing with charity and with grace,
and emulating the holiness of the angels,
was lifted high above men in virtue, alleluia.

Odilo showed wondrously what was the charity of his heart,
who, while pitying sufferings of the faithful departed,
yearly decreased them by a sweet refreshment, alleluia.

When blessed Hugh was about to expire
on the day of the sacred rites of the great Sabbath [Holy Saturday],
he greeted the new light of the Paschal Candle,
earnestly praying with sighs that he might happily reach the promised land, alleluia.

Christ in Majesty from St Hugh's chapel at his retreat at Berze - an example of Cluniac painting, and of a central theme in Cluniac spirituality and art.

It was St Hugh, abbot from 1049 until 1109, who commenced and oversaw much of the rebuilding of the third abbey church, the building known to historians as Cluny III. Designed by one of the monks, Gunzo, and begun in 1088 it was the largest church in Christendom, and only exceeded in size in the sixteenth century with the building of St Peter's in Rome.

Pevsner wrote of Cluny in his An Outline of European Architecture
"Here was architecture so complex, so polyphonous, as earlier centuries in the West
could not have conceived, and the Greeks would have detested, but the ideal expression no doubt of that proud moment in medieval Christianity, when the Reform had conquered the throne of the popes, asserted the superiority of the papal tiara over the imperial crown, and called up the knights of Europe to defend the Holy Land in the first Crusade."

A model reconstruction of Cluny III

Amongst the enormities of destruction perpetrated by the French revolution few, if any, rival the destruction of the church at Cluny. Following the closure of the abbey in 1790 it was soon sold off to three speculators from Macon who proceeded to demolish it for its stone. The remaining buildings became a barracks, and it was only in the 1920s that Kenneth Conant began to study and excavate the remains. Today the south transept and foundations are virtually all that survives of one of the wonders of its, or any other, age.

For some pictures of the remains today look here.

Collects for the feast:

O God, refuge and surpassing reward
of those who walk blamelessly in Thy presence,
perfect in us, we beseech Thee, the love of holy religion,
that by the example and intercession of the blessed Abbots of Cluny
we may run with dilated hearts along the way of charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen

O God, by whose grace thy servants the Holy Abbots of
Cluny, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became
burning and shining lights in thy Church: Grant that we
also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,
and may ever walk before thee as children of light;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Posted by John Whitehead at 11:43

Cluniac 11^th Centenary

Celebrating Scotland ’s place in Europe ’s Cluniac heritage on the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey of Cluny, Burgundy.

The Programme

14th - 16th May, 2010

Craft Fair, Medieval Fair,

Children’s bowling competition,

Concerts, Coach tours, Exhibitions,

Conference, Historic re-enactments

Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey was founded in 1163 by Walter FitzAlan, an Anglo-Breton who brought monks to establish the community around the shrine to a local saint, St. Mirin. (St. Mirren – Scottish Football League).

For more information…

Saturday 15th May: Concert with organ and choir The glorious interior of Paisley Abbey will be the backdrop for a concert with a strong French theme.

Sunday 16th May: Service

Morning Service for Ascensiontide celebrating Cluny 2010

Guest Preacher
The Right Reverend Philip Tartaglia Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley

Choral Music to include:
Te Deum (Howells – Collegium Regale)
God is gone up Finzi

Crossraguel

Historical Background

In 909 or 910, William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, founded a Benedictine abbey at Cluny in Burgundy . Two hundred and fifty years later the abbey was at the head of some 1,400 Cluniac establishments in France , Italy , Germany , Switzerland , Spain , Portugal , Belgium , England and Scotland .

For anyone interested in the history of Europe , the work of the Cluniacs cannot be overlooked. Their values remain relevant today: actions to promote peace, caring for the socially deprived and excluded, a sense of beauty. Varied architecture, a distinctive musical form, sculptures and paintings all form part of the fabulous heritage handed down to us by the monks.

La Fédération des Sites Clunisiens (Federation of Cluniac Sites) was founded in 1994 with a threefold objective: to forge close links between sites, enhance their Cluniac heritage and support their initiatives through action in the fields of education, culture and tourism. Several hundred people – elected representatives and private owners, cultural and tourism associations – are actively involved in the pursuit of these objectives. The Federation gives its backing to all their activities with the help of an international patronage committee bringing together researchers, archaeologists and historians. The Cluniac sites belonging to the Federation have now been organised into trans-regional and transnational itineraries.

As a result, a new European cultural and tourist network is growing, following in the footsteps of the monks of Cluny . Scotland ’s two sites, Paisley , founded in 1163 and Crossraguel in Ayrshire, founded c.1250, will be the focus of Scottish celebrations.

Today, Paisley Abbey is a living Christian community in the cherishing care of the Church of Scotland.

Crossraguel Abbey which was the last monastery to survive the Reformation of 1560 (the last monk died in 1601), is in the scrupulous care of Historic Scotland.

________________________________________________

On Tuesday we celebrated the Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.
It is the eleventh centenary of the foundation and this year is marked by plentiful historical studies, Internet Links, and memorial events, not only of Cluny itself in Burguny, but of Cluniac sites over Europe.
In Scotland, Paisley Abbey is the main centre of celebrations.

May 11th.

THE HOLY ABBOTS OF CLUNY.
Night Office Reading

Abbot Berno, together with the Duke of Aquitaine, founded Cluny on

• 11th September 909. Within several decades it was in a flourishing condition. It was a monastery where monastic ideals were held in esteem and where the observance was good; a solitude where a monk could seek God and find God in prayer, penance and study. Such a house was rare indeed in the decadent years of the 'early tenth century, when monastic discipline had all but disappeared.
• 
  
• An important factor in the growth of Cluny was that it was ruled during its first two centuries by a succession of great abbots. These men were both saints and administrators; they shaped the destiny of their house with wisdom and prudence. Five of them stand out in bold relief: Odo, Mayeul, Odilo, Hugh and Peter the Venerable. Odo gave the house its spiritual character, his dynamic personality established the course it was to take. Before he died he appointed an abbot-coadjutor to help him in his duties; this was Aynard, who was duly elected abbot after Odo'sdeath. There was precedent for this, for Odo himself had been appointed by Berno a little before he died. Aynard in his turn appointed Mayeul to be coadjutor and his successor with the approval of the community. Mayeul nominated Odilo to succeed him. Odilo died without appointing a successor and Hugh, his prior for some years, was elected by the community, thus bringing to an end a practice which, although directly counter to the Rule of St. Benedict, gave Cluny a succession of outstanding spiritual leaders. Hugh was to rule for sixty years. After a lapse of thirteen years, during which Pons was abbot followed by Hugh II, the community elected Peter the Venerable, who was a worthy successor of Hugh I. He united both the spiritual leadership and the outstanding human qualities of his predecessors. He ruled as abbot from 1122-1156.
• 
  
• Cluny was still a flourishing community after the time of Peter the Venerable in the second half of the twelfth century. To the abiding value of its monastic ideal and its way of life at that time we could scarcely find a more impartial or more appreciative witness than the Carthusian monk-Bishop, St.Hugh of Lincoln . His biographer Adam tells us that, after the Carthusians, the monks of Cluny were the dearest to him because they cultivated the silent life of the cloister and turned their busy leisure to spiritual profit.
  When in old age he visited Cluny in 1200, he was struck by the good Order that reigned there in the choir, in the cloister and in the refectory. He was admitted to share their life in community for three days, to celebrate Mass and before he left he said to the Abbot: ‘Truly, if I had seen this place before I fell in love with the Carthusians, I should have become a monk of Cluny .

Consolation of the Holy Spirit

10 May 2010 Monday of the Sixth week of Easter

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:26-27.16:1-4. Paul VI, Pope from 1963-1978 Evangelii nuntiandi, ch. 7, §75 “When the Advocate comes, the Spirit of truth, he will testify on my behalf” It is in the "consolation of the Holy Spirit" that the Church increases. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is He who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of His mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the kingdom being proclaimed. Techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the most convincing dialectic has no power over the heart of man. Without Him the most highly developed schemas resting on a sociological or psychological basis are quickly seen to be quite valueless. We live in the Church at a privileged moment of the Spirit. Everywhere people are trying to know Him better, as the Scripture reveals Him. They are happy to place themselves under His inspiration. They are gathering about Him; they want to let themselves be led by Him. Now if the Spirit of God has a preeminent place in the whole life of the Church, it is in her evangelizing mission that He is most active. It is not by chance that the great inauguration of evangelization took place on the morning of Pentecost, under the inspiration of the Spirit. It must be said that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is He who in the depths of consciences causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood. But it can equally be said that He is the goal of evangelization: He alone stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which evangelization is to be the result, with that unity in variety which evangelization wishes to achieve within the Christian community. Through the Holy Spirit the Gospel penetrates to the heart of the world, for it is He who causes people to discern the signs of the times — signs willed by God — which evangelization reveals and puts to use within history.

Holy Spirit's first fruits Love and Joy

FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER Saturday Mass Introduction. This week we are immersed in the Media of the National Elections. The talk is of the hung Parliament, the swings of balances, and the whole aim for the solution to the deficit in the crisis of finances. Political disarray and uncertainties worry. The Scriptures say, “Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number”. (Acts 16: 1-10). As we prepare to off the Holy Mass worthily, we pray for the Country in the presence of God. In our sense of the state of the political disarray we pray: Heavenly, Father hear us, and grant the Holy Spirit’s first of the fruits of love and joy. Through Christ, Our Lord. The reading speaks of, “The fruits of the Spirit says Scripture, are love and joy”. Second Reading From The Life in Christ by Nicholas Cabasilas (Lib. 2: PG 150, 561) In this reading Cabasilas meditates on two of the fruits of the Spirit, love and joy, and explains why we can never be fully satisfied by the good things of this life. God wishes to be the sole object of our love and source of our joy. The soul's resting place is Christ, for he alone is goodness and truth and all that is lovable. Therefore nothing prevents those who rest in him from loving with all the love which he placed in their souls in the beginning, or from rejoicing to the full extent of their natural capacity, which is increased by virtue and the waters of rebirth. We cannot love or rejoice in the good things of this life, which are falsely so-called, for if anything does seem good it is only a poor image of what is genuinely good. But in Christ nothing prevents us from showing a love wonderful beyond description, and a joy no words can express. This is because God has ordained that each of these emotions should be directed toward himself, so that we should love and rejoice in him alone. And it follows from this, I think, that because the object of these emotions is the infinite Good, our love and joy are proportionate to that infinity and commensurate with it Let us consider the greatness of this love and the proof of its excellence. In return for all his goodness to us God requires only our love. If he receives this from us he cancels our debt If the divine Judge regards love as balancing innumerable blessings, what doubt can there be of its surpassing excellence? But it is clear that the plenitude of love is fully matched by the plenitude of joy. Joy corresponds in every way to love, and the fullness of the one follows from the fullness of the other. It can be seen, then, that the human soul has a great and wonderful capacity for love and joy, and that this is experienced most fully in the presence of the beloved who is the true beauty. This is the joy the Savior calls perfect. And so when the Spirit comes to dwell in us, bringing his fruits, the first to appear are love and joy. The fruits of the Spirit says Scripture, are love and joy. This is because the first thing God does when he comes to us is to make us aware of his presence, and anyone aware of the presence of the supreme Good cannot fail to love and rejoice. Responsory Matthew 22:37; Galatians 5:22 This is the first and the greatest commandment: - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. with all your soul, and with all your mind, alleluia. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control - You shall love ...

Circle of Love

Many thanks, William.
Abbot Dorotheus of Gaza is very interesting - "His writings were greatly admired by Abbot de Rance.
On the previous day I found "The Life in Christ " by Nicholas Cabasilas.
And the theme See tomorrow.
Donald

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: William J ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Fri, 7 May, 2010 8:49:00
Subject: "Circle of Love"

Dear Father Donald,

There is a fabulous commentary on the theme in the Gospel on the website you gave us, http://www.dailygospel.org/

It is of a circle of love. I can condense this on a human level as I think of the Scottish reels, a wide circle of dancers drawing closer together as they come towards the centre. I can expand this on a spiritual level as Christians are drawn together in the Eucharist. The expansion and contraction of love are like the breathing of the living body of the Church. I shall be caught up in this all day!

With my love in Our Risen Lord,

William

Dorotheus of Gaza (c.500-?), monk in Palestine
Instructions, VI, 76-78 (SC 92, p. 281-287)

Love of God and neighbor

The more we are united to our neighbor, the more we are united to God. So that you can understand the meaning of this saying I'm going to give you an image taken from the Fathers: imagine a circle drawn on the ground, that is to say a line drawn into a round shape with a compass, having a centre. We refer to the middle of the circle as being the exact centre. Now give your attention to what I am saying. Imagine that this circle is the world, its centre is God and each radius represents different ways or kinds of lifestyle. When the saints, desiring to draw near to God, move towards the middle of the circle, then to the degree to which they penetrate further into its interior they draw closer to each other even as they draw closer to God. The closer they draw to God, the closer they draw to each other; and the closer they draw to each other, the closer they draw to God.

From this you will understand that the same thing applies conversely when we turn away from God to withdraw outside the circle: then it becomes obvious that, the more we withdraw from God, the more we withdraw from each other, and the more we withdraw from each other, the more we also withdraw from God..

Such is the nature of charity. To the extent that we stand outside and do not love God, to the same extent each one of us stands apart with regard to their neighbor. But if we love God, then insofar as we come closer to God through our love for him, we also participate in love of neighbor to the same extent. And insofar as we are united to our neighbor we are equally so to God.

Holy Spirit - Acts 19: 2, 6.

FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER Thursday Year II At the Night Office the Readings brought the highlights and spotlights on the HOLY SPIRIT. NJB Act 19:2 When he asked, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?' they answered, 'No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.' Act 19:6 and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them, and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy. First Reading From the Acts of the Apostles (19:1-20) Acts 15:8-9; 11:18 Responsory God who can read the hearts of all gave his Spirit to the Gentiles, just as he did to us. - He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts by faith, alleluia. To the Gentiles as well God granted the repentance that brings life. - He made no ... Second Reading From The Life in Christ by Nicholas Cabasilas (Lib. 3: PG 150, 574-575) The sacrament referred to in this reading by the Eastern name of "chrismation" is known in the West as confirmation Cabasilas stresses the importance of this sacrament through which Christians share in the power of the Holy Spirit and receive the virtues needed for spiritual maturity. The purpose of chrismation is to enable us to share in the power of the Holy Spirit. This anointing brings the Lord Jesus himself to dwell in us, our only salvation and hope. Through him we are made sharers in the Holy Spirit and are led to the Father. Unfailingly it procures for Christians those gifts that are needed in every age, gifts such as faith, reverence for God, prayer, love, and purity. It does so even though many are unaware of having received such gifts. Many do not know the power of this sacrament or even that there is a Holy Spirit, as it says in the Book of Acts, because they were anointed before reaching the age of reason and afterward they blinded their souls by sin Nevertheless, the Spirit does in truth give the newly initiated his gifts, distributing them to each one as he wills; and our Lord, who promised to be with us always, never ceases to shower blessings on us. Chrismation cannot be superfluous. We obtain the remission of our sins in baptism and we receive the body of Christ at the altar. These sacraments will remain until the un veiled appear­ance of their author. It cannot be doubted, then, that Christians also enjoy the benefits that belong to this holy anointing and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit How could some sacraments be fruitful and this one without effect? How can we believe that Saint Paul's words: He who promised is faithfut apply to some sacraments but not to this one? If we discount the value of any sacrament we must discount the value of all, since it is the same power that acts in each of them, it is the immolation of the same Lamb, it is the same death and the same blood that gives each of them its efficacy. The Holy Spirit is given to some, as Saint Paul says, to enable them to do good to others and to edify the Church by prophesying, teaching revealed truth, or healing the sick by a mere word. The Spirit is given to others for their own sanctifi­cation, imparting to them a shining faith and reverence for God, or making them outstanding in purity, charity, or humility. Responsory- Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinihians 1:21-22 You have believed the Good News and have been sealed with the Holy Spirit who was promised. He is the pledge of our inheritance, - the assurance of freedom for those God has won for himself, for the praise of his glory, alleluia. God has anointed us and sealed us as his own; and as a pledge of what is to come he has given us the Spirit that dwells in our hearts. - The assurance of ...

Cabasilas, Nicolas (14th century) was a native of Thessalonica. … The period (1354 c.) of his greatest literary output, his two principal works being The Life in Christ and A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, both of which were written for lay people. The kernel of Cabasilas' teaching, which was praised by the Council of Trent and by Bossuet, is the Christian's deification by means of the sacraments. Cabasilas died some time after the capture of Thessalonica by the Turks in 1387.