Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad

Pope condemns Baghdad church attack

Posted: Monday, November 1, 2010 10:29 pm

Pope Benedict during yesterday's Angelus Politicians and church leaders around the world have expressed their shock at  the siege at the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad on Sunday, which ended with at least 39 people being killed and dozens injured. On All Saints Day, Pope Benedict told pilgrims in St Peter's Square: "I pray for the victims of this absurd violence, all the more ferocious in that it struck defenceless people united in the house of God, which is a place of love and reconciliation." The pontiff said he wanted to renew his call for peace in the Middle East. "Confronted with atrocious episodes of violence which continues to tear apart the populations of the Middle East, I want to renew my call for peace," he said. Armed militants wearing explosives stormed the church on Sunday while at least 100 parishioners were celebrating evening Mass, news reports said. The terrorists first set off a car bomb across the street in front of the Baghdad Stock Exchange, which left at least two people dead. Then they stormed the church, killing another two people, according to reports. Associated Press reported today that at least 39 people were killed, including hostages, Iraqi security forces and suspected militants. Other agencies have said 52 people dead and 56 people wounded. One report said Iraqi church sources included three young priests among those dead. The Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was in Canada when the attack happened. In a statement, he criticized the lack of security for Christian places of worship and called on "Iraqi parties to overcome their personal and confessional interests and look for the good of the Iraqi people who have elected them."

All Souls

Mass Intro: Fr. S… .

May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace

Book of Wisdom 3:1-9.
Letter to the Romans 6:3-9.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6:37-40.

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

2^nd Nov 2010

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of all saints. Some of them are extraordinary and famous and others are ordinary including our loved ones who lived their Christian life according to the ideals which Christ set before us in the beatitudes and have entered the glory of heaven.

                 Today, the Church commemorates all the faithful departed focussing mainly on the souls in purgatory still awaiting the fullness of life they will enjoy in heaven when purified of all their sins. They suffer in purgatory as they cannot see the vision of God. We can help them by our prayers, offering sacrifice of the Mass and almsgiving so that thus purified from their sins they may attain the beatific vision of God.

                  Today, we rejoice in our own salvation which has been achieved by Jesus’ passion and death. The Lord has risen from dead and thus he conquered sin and death. Now we have the opportunity   to share with the risen life of Christ and look forward to life after death with him in heaven. This is our Christian hope.             

All Saints Solemnity

Community Sermon after Lauds by Br. Barry

ALL SAINTS 2010.

‘Give us a place among your saints in glory that will never end’.

While we are on this earth we are always in a place, a location. The words just quoted from the Te Deum tell us that in the next life too there are places, places occupied by the saints. On the surface of the earth, there are many spots where the two places, a place on earth and a place in heaven, correspond. These are the places of pilgrimage, holy places.

Firstly, the place of a saint’s mortal remains will become a holy place, Assisi for St. Francis and St. Clare, for example. If there are no mortal remains, anywhere associated with a saint suffices: the place of his or her birth or somewhere to do with their life’s work: Whithorn for St. Ninian, Monte Cassino or Subiaco or Norcia for St. Benedict.Then there is the spot where a martyr was killed or a place of apparition maybe.

 A place may also be linked to a saint not so much as a place of pilgrimage but as falling under a saint’s protection and this applies of course to whole countries and even whole continents. A clear illustration, on a slightly smaller scale than continents, can be found not far away from here.

The small Borders town of Innerleithen, population two and a half thousand, lies six miles east of Peebles. In the town and surrounding area there are street names, landmarks, a school, a silver band and an hotel all named after St. Ronan, a Celtic saint who died in the eighth century. The badge of the local football team depicts St. Ronan sailing in his coracle, crook or crozier in his hand. The nature of the link between the Saint and the district in the local tradition is quite simple, he protects the town from the devil.

Saint Ronan

Now, it is perfectly true that the connection between the town and the saint was formalised or firmed up by the novel of Sir Walter Scott entitled ‘St. Ronan’s Well’. But the tradition was already there in his childhood towards the end of the eighteenth century and this, remember, over two hundred years after the Reformation. Such is the strength of the bonds forged between saints and places.

 For many people, a monastery can be one of those places of pilgrimage or at least a holy place or a special place. Yet, you will not necessarily find saints in a monastery. All the same, a monastery of any duration whatever will have built up a momentum of prayer through the years so as to make an atmosphere of prayer. All the monastery’s prayer is prayer seeking its place in heaven and if the monastery is one of those places especially open to grace then this must be due in part to the influence of its own saints – its patrons, the founder of its Order maybe, the author of its Rule.

So this little corner on the face of the globe, here on the northern slopes of the Lammermuir hills, has a direct link with that place in heaven occupied by St. Mary; with St. Aelred’s place in glory, with the places of Ss. Robert, Alberic and Stephen and with that of St. Benedict.

The monk in his monastery has found his place on earth, according to his vow of stability. From there he might catch a glimpse from time to time of his place in heaven. It is not certain that he will get there but we live in hope.

That liturgical expert, Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote of today, ‘ the West celebrates at the close of the year a feast which represents the gathering of the harvest into our heavenly Father’s granary’.

 The feast of All Saints, occurring as it does at the end of the autumn season and the beginning of winter, replaced in this part of the world the ancient pagan feast of Samhain. This was a feast of fire and light to protect the people from the increasing dark and cold and the powers of death that lurked behind them. During Samhain, the veil separating this world from the Otherworld became very thin. It is this festival that lies behind the customs of Halloween, Bonfire Night and November as the month of the dead.

The light of All Hallows, however, comes from the fire of the Easter Vigil and the light of the Paschal candle. It is the light of Christ reflected by the saints. There is another link with Easter night. The Exultet describes how on Easter night ‘ heaven is wedded to earth’. On All Saints too, heaven and earth come very close, caused by the intercession of all the saints for believers and for non–believers. The connection between a particular spot on earth with a particular saint and his or her place in heaven, today becomes a meeting of the whole earth with all of heaven.

Autumn 2010 Lothians Forth & Fife

Parable or Table Manners

Luke 14:7  Now He told a parable to those who were invited, [when] He noticed how they were selecting the places of honor, saying to them, (AMP).

At the Gospel Reading of Mass of Saturday 30^th October the word PARABLE occurs, and leads into turmoil of questions.

At first gaze, ‘parable’ looks out of category. Benedict is very selective on ‘narrative parables’. It is more satisfying to learn that the preamble refers to table manners. The Luke’s word, parable’ here directs to the actual narrative, from verse 15 on.

There is more light from Joachim Jeremias below, as indicated by Ben XVI.

The Table Manners is not an aside as Jeremias brings to the fore the even more significant eschatological dimension.

 Notes.

Interactive Bible. www Bible Ca

III. Classification of Parables

A. God’s expectations for Israel

1. Big Dinner: Lk 14:16-24

IV. These Are Not Parables:

A. Instructions for actual conduct:

1. Take low seat: Lk 14:7-11

2. Feast for the poor: Lk 14:12-14.  

Sacra Pagina Luke 14.7

He began to speak parabolically: Is literally, "he began to speak a parable  (parabolë) to them"; what follows, however, is not a narrative (or at least not until 14.16) but an apparent direct discourse with a deeper level of meaning. (p. 224).

C. 7 The Message of the Parables. Pope Ben XVI p. 183, (ref to J Jeremias p12)
  “ (I) limit myself the three major parable narrative in Luke’s Gospel, - the story of the Good Samaritan, - the parable of the Prodigal Son, - and the tale of the  rich man and Lazarus.
J. Jeremias Index of Synoptic Luke 14:7-11, ‘The Choice of the Places at the Table’,   191ff.

The Parables of Jesus, J. Jeremias pp. 191-193.

That is what Jesus had in mind in the παραβολην  about the Choice of Places at the Table (Luke 14.7-11 par. Matt. 20.28 D it syc), In Aramaic this logion, transmitted in two versions, has the form of a 'rhythmic couplet' in antithetic parallelism." Both versions, exhibiting agreement in content and structure, together with completely different wording, provide a classical example of translation variants in the NT (see above, pp. 25 f.). Gamoi (Luke 14.8) corresponding to deipnhsai (Matt. 20.28 D), has the general meaning of ‘banquet’ The most important guests, who are distinguished by reason of age or social standing, usually arrive last. The humiliated guest is obliged to take the lowest place, since all the intermediate places have already been occupied. The exhortation to take the lowest place voluntarily has its Old Testament equivalent in Prov. 25.6 f.: 'Glorify not thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince'; in rabbinical literature a similar saying is attributed to R. Simeon ben Azzai (c. AD 110), its closest parallel occurs in Mark 12.39 par. Luke 20.46, where Jesus sternly rebukes the scribes for the greedy way in which they choose the most honourable places at table. Jesus therefore is actually giving a direction for table-manners, and the word parabole should be so translated.

With regard to the question of what the concluding sentence in verse 11 [Edit. Luk 14:11

(GNT)  ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται καὶ ὁ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται.

(Vulgate)  quia omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur et qui se humiliat exaltabitur

(AMP)  For everyone who exalts himseif will be humbled (ranked below others who are honored or rewarded), and he who humbles himself (keeps a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly) will be exalted (elevated in rank)].

implies, it may first of all be conjectured that we have here a secondary generalizing conclusion (see above, pp. 110 f.). But of decisive weight against this conjecture is that the rabbinic parallel just mentioned concludes with a saying of Hillel's (c. 20 BC) of quite similar content: 'My abasement is my exaltation, and my exaltation is my abasement.'
From this we may infer that v. 11 is an ancient proverb which Jesus found already in use, and which was also in rabbinical literature associated with a direction concerning table-manners. The question is only whether the concluding sentence had the same meaning for Jesus as for Hillel.
For the latter it is a piece of practical wisdom: 'Pride will have a fall; humility will be rewarded.'
Is Luke 14.11 similarly intended to be a piece of practical wisdom, a rule of social etiquette? Surely not! The comparison with 14.1 I, as well as with Luke I4.I4b, (90^note  Both Luke 14.8-11 and 12-14 are arranged in antithetic parallelism with an eschatological conclusion), with 18.14, and with Matt. 23.12 shows that Luke 14.1 I is speaking of God's eschatological activity, the humbling of the proud and the exaltation of the humble in the Last Day. Hence the direction in Luke 14.1 about the desirability of modest behaviour in a guest becomes the introduction to an 'eschatological warning', which looks forward to the heavenly banquet, and is a call to renounce self-righteous pretensions and to self-abasement before God.

Read this book online

The Parables of Jesus

by Joachim Jeremias

Pages: 248

Contributors: Joachim Jeremias

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons

Place of Publication: New York

Publication Year: 1963

Subjects: Jesus Christ--Parables

Autumn Scene

"Jesus heals the dropsy" (Lk: 14 1-6)

Cardinal, pre-dawn of Papal Visit 16th Sept

Friday, 29 October 2010

Friday of the Thirtieth week in Ordinary Time 

Letter to the Philippians 1:1-11.
...
For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14:1-6.
...
Then he said to them, "Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?" But they were unable to answer his question.  

Luke 14:2 Greek Study Bible  

καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος τις ἦν ὑδρωπικὸς ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ.

KJV with Strong's
And behold there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy

Latin: Biblia Sacra Vulgataet ecce homo quidam hydropicus erat ante illum

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Thu, 28 October, 2010 20:15:18

Pharisees & Christ

Subject: Introduction: Rescue son from cistern  

No matter how calculating, closed or downright treacherous we may become, Jesus reminds us of an absolute fact, namely, that any parent would rescue a son who had fallen into a cistern. The time or day of the week would be irrelevant. Christ wants us to recognize an inalienable ‘decency’, that precedes all our machinations. The one who began that ‘good work’ in us will continue to complete it. He will do it all the way to our complete conversion to ‘the affection of Christ Jesus’.

 

Commentary of the day :

Blessed Guerric of Igny (c.1080-1157), Cistercian abbot


Jesus at table with the Pharisees
The world's eternal and invisible Creator, preparing to save humankind, which for long ages had been hindered by its subjection to the heavy law of death, deigned «in these last days» (Heb 1,2) to become man... that in his mercy he might redeem those who in justice he condemned. And so as to show the depth of his love for us, he not only became a man but a poor and humble man so that, by drawing near to us in his poverty, he might make us sharers in his riches (2Cor 8,9). 

So poor did he become for our sake that he had nowhere to lay his head: «Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have their nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head» (Mt 8,20).

This is the reason why he agreed to go and dine wherever he was invited, not out of an excessive enjoyment in eating but so that he could teach the way of salvation and stimulate faith. There he would fill the guests with light by his miracles and the servants, who were kept busy inside and were not free to go with him, would hear the words of salvation. Indeed, he despised no one and none were considered unworthy of his love because «he has mercy on all; he hates nothing of what he has made and takes care of them all» (Wsd 11,24).

So that he might carry out this work of salvation the Lord entered the house of an eminent Pharisee on the sabbath. The scribes and Pharisees watched him with the intention of calling him to account, so that if he were to cure the man with dropsy they could accuse him of breaking the Law and, if he did not, they could accuse him of blasphemy or inability...

By the pure light of his word of truth they were to see the darkness of their deceit vanish away.