The Stations of the Cross, Cloister, Sancta Maria Abbey Nunraw

Hi, Kieran,
Thank you.
You were very busy at Retreat in monastery.
Well done, adds to 'the presence'.
Yours.
Donald 


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Kieran ... @hotmail.com>
To: Donald Nunraw .... @yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 0:16
Subject: The Passion of Christ. A reflection from Sancta Maria Abbey Nunraw

Dear Father Donald,

I hope you are all well. 
I hope you like this YouTube video. Maybe a bit early for the Lenten season. 

Gods love
Kieran  

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdIaPhE9w48&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Kieran

Compared Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with St Ignatius Loyola and Pope Pius XI

Jesuit editor compares Steve Jobs with St Ignatius, Pius XI

Posted: Monday, October 10, 2011 6:06 pm

Steve Jobs  The new editor of the influential Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica has compared Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with St Ignatius Loyola and Pope Pius XI.  Speaking on Vatican Radio, Father Antonio Spadaro SJ said that Jobs, like Pius XI, who founded Vatican Radio and built the Vatican train station, recognized the importance of expanding communication. According to Fr Spadaro, Jobs, who died at the age of 56 on October 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, made technology part of the lives of millions and millions of people, not just technicians. "Steve Jobs had something in common with Pius XI and that is that he understood that communication is the greatest value we have at our disposal today and we must make it bear fruit," the Jesuit told Vatican Radio, adding that Jobs had a "great ability to believe in dreams, to see life not only in terms of little daily things, but to have a vision in front of him.  Basically, Steve Jobs' most important message was this, 'Stay hungry, stay foolish' - in other words, maintain the ability to see life in new ways." The 'stay hungry' quote was from a commencement address Jobs gave at California's Stanford University in 2005. Follow the link below to listen to what he said. Some of the points he made echoed what the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola, preached.  In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius wrote that one way of making an important choice is to examine how one would go about making that decision if he knew he were about to die.  Jobs told the new graduates in 2005: 'Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.' Father Spadaro wrote in his blog: "In the cases of Ignatius and Steve, death isn't a bogeyman,' but is present as a reminder that in the face of death, the only thing that remains is what is truly important for each person.  Acknowledging that he did not know whether the founder of Apple was a believer, he wrote that in the Stanford speech, Jobs was 'speaking simply about the interior disposition one must have when making important decisions in life, focusing on what counts.  No one, believer or non-believer, can make choices in life if he thinks he's immortal." Under the headline 'The talented Mr Apple,' the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano put news of Jobs' death on its front page. "Steve Jobs was one of the protagonists and symbols of the Silicon Valley revolution,' which brought changes not only in technology, (but) also a 'revolution of customs, mentality and culture,' it said.  Jobs was 'a visionary who united technology and art,' the paper said.  He was a man of 'talent, pure talent." Source: Jesuit Communications

Mt 22:1-14 the wedding feast - Lectio Divina?

'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?", Mt 22:12."

Parable of Marriage Supper

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald ...
To: William J ....
Sent: Sunday, 9 October 2011, 19:19
Subject: Re: Mt 22:1-14 the wedding feast - Lectio Divina?

Dear William,

Congratulations as you lean back in your chair.

Another pasture of Parable.

Minted for the Blog.
Thank you.

Meanwhile I have been busy putting the episodes of the General Chapter in Order.

I wonder if we can illustrate them also?

Yours,

DonaldPS. My "thoughts flow free" also, as I listened to the Abbot's Homily, contrary thoughts, "'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?", v. 12."

---

From: William J ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Sunday, 9 October 2011, 14:01
Subject: Mt 22:1-14 the wedding feast - Lectio Divina?

Dear Father Donald,

 

The hidden basis of this parable is expounded with great sublety by Joachim Jeremias in his 'The Parables of Jesus' (p 176) of which Pope Benedict XVI makes approval in his own writings 'Jesus of Nazareth'.  It would seem [again] that the allegorical features of the parable in Matthew's Gospel come from the re-telling, rather than from the origin [recorded in the ancient text of the Gospel of Thomas]. Apparently Jesus uses a story of common knowledge at that time of a fabled tax-gatherer achieving great wealth who puts on a sumptuous banquet for the great and the good to finally win their acceptance but has all of his invitations spurned; and in a rage, throws the party open to all the poor of the city in order to snub those very nobles! [Jeremias] "That the man's motive was just as selfish and ignoble as that of the judge who yielded to the importunate widow simply in order to be left in peace, has not in any way disturbed Jesus, but has rather induced him to choose just these persons as examples... to illustrate both the wrath and the mercy of God".

 

Joachim Jeremias' analysis of the parable ends with this remark:"This parable... is not fully understood until attention is paid to the note of joy which rings through the summons: 'everything is ready' (v.17). [As St Paul says] 'Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation' (2 Cor 6:2). God fulfils his promises and comes forward out of his hiddenness. But if the 'children of the kingdom', the theologians and the pious circles, pay no heed to his call, the despised and ungodly will take their place."

 

So it would seem that "the parable of the Great Supper has been so drastically edited by Matthew that it has been transformed into nothing less than an allegory of the plan of salvation". BUT - I wonder! - is not one of the joys of discovering the text of the original story as told by Jesus that of enabling us to appreciate all the more Matthew's own inspired interpretation of Jesus' words, his apostolic Lectio Divina that brings us so beautiful an iillumination of the parable in his Gospel!

 

Leaning back in my chair, words fall short and thoughts flow free!

 

... in Our Lord,

William

COMMENT: Google: See the Dead Sea Scroll - Like it's never been seen online.

Shrine of the Book - Jerusalem

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: WILLIAM ....
Sent: Saturday, 8 October 2011, 13:08
Subject: Re: Dead sea scrolls

Dear Father Donald,

 

Goodness me, what an amazing achievement!

This is the link I chose which has quite absorbed me...

 

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#1:18 -  "the version you see here is the authoritative version of the biblical Book of Isaiah, as rendered by the Jewish Publication Society in 1917 and published by the American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise".

 

Words fail me, completely.

 

Thank you!

 

...  in Our Lord,

William

 

 

From: Donald Nunraw ...
To: William J ...
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011, 21:51
Subject: Fw: Dead sea scrolls

A Friend

sends this thrilling Google gift.

With thanks

Donald. 

PS. 

http://chuck.hubpages.com/hub/Digital-Dead-Sea-Scrolls  
The Dead Sea Scrolls are now online; a project of The Israel Museum,   
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rYj_0foJYA&feature=player_embedded    

    

Dead Sea Scrolls on display  inside the Shrine of the Book

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Enis ...
To: 'Donald Nunraw' ...
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011, 20:05
Subject: Dead sea scrolls

            Dear Fr. Donald

                                      I was wondering if you knew that the Dead Sea Scroll were on the internet. If you are interested you can key in on  GOOGLE   The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls  that will bring up the site.

 

Hope you are all keeping well and not missing Br. Aidan too much.

 

God bless

                            Enis              

                       

Israel Museum and Google put Dead Sea Scrolls online

Happy is the Womb

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Nivard , , .
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011, 20:02
Subject: Daily Reading & Meditation

Saturday (October 8): "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it"

Scripture: Luke 11:27-28

27 As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" 28 But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

Meditation: Who do you seek to favour and bless? When an admirer wished to compliment Jesus by praising his mother, Jesus did not deny the truth of the blessing she pronounced. Her beatitude (which means "blessedness" or "happiness") recalls Mary's canticle: All generations will call me blessed (Luke 1:48). Jesus adds to her words by pointing to the source of all true blessedness or happiness – union with God in heart, mind, and will. Mary humbly submitted herself to the miraculous plan of God for the incarnation of his only begotten Son – the Word of God made flesh in her womb, by declaring: I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). Mary heard the word spoken to her by the angel and she believed it.

On another occasion Jesus remarked that whoever does the will of God is a friend of God and a member of his family – his sons and daughters who have been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ. (Luke 8:21). They are truly blessed because they know their God personally and they find joy in hearing and obeying his word.

Our goal in life, the very reason we were created in the first place, is for union with God. We were made for God and our hearts are restless until they rest in him. An early martyr once said that "a Christian's only relatives are the saints." Those who follow Jesus Christ and who seek the will of God enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and his kingdom. Do you hunger for God and for his word?

Father, our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Help us to live in your presence and in the knowledge of your great love for each one of us, through Christ our Lord.

+ + +

http://cacina.wordpress.com/2009/10/page/3/

Carry the gospel with you    

Posted in christian, Christianity, inspirational, religion, scripture by Fr. Mike on October 10, 2009

Gospel reading of the day:

Luke 11:27-28

While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

Reflection on the gospel reading: A woman in today’s gospel comes to Jesus and marvels at who she perceives Jesus to be. She likely did not know who Jesus’ mother was, but in an expression that was appropriate within her cultural context, she praised Jesus by praising the mother who nurtured such a son. When Jesus gently contradicts her, there is some humility in it. He essentially is saying, don’t praise me, but marvel at the wonderful things God does when God moves hearts in a way that lives in conformity to God’s will.

COMMENT Portiuncula

 Communio 

http://jesusdivinemercy.com/Main/2010/08/02/%E2%80%9Cpardon-of-assisi%E2%80%9D/

Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ZeeAz5x8E&feature=related 

The little church was called St Mary of the Angels

Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula 

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula, the Virgin under whose mantle Saint Francis of Assisi was wrapped; Mary's maternal protection made it possible for blessed Francis to experience an intentse Presence of the Lord and to receive his vocation to rebuild the Church. The Portiuncula is also the place where Francis knew first hand the experience of being sustained by the Angels. Likewise his intimate devotion to the Blessed Mother, under whose protection did he place himself to do the Lord's work did this place become holy for the members of the Franciscan family and for the Church universal. As a place of pilgrimage, the holy Portiuncula is a poignant reminder of how important the encounter with Christ was for Saint Francis and how much the encounter ought to be pivotal for us today. Without meeting Christ, little makes sense. Saint Bonaventure had this to say about this devotion:

The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned. Francis had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ. This is also the place where St Clare took her vows and where Saint Francis died.

Consider the words of an early biographer of Saint Francis of Assisi:

From there he moved to another place, which is called the "Portiuncula," where there stood a church of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God built in ancient times.  At that time it was deserted and no one was taking care of it.  When the holy man of God saw it so ruined, he was moved by piety because he had a warm devotion to the Mother of all good and he began to stay there continually. The restoration of that church took place in the third year of his conversion. At this time he wore a sort of hermit's habit with a leather belt. He carried a staff in his hand and wore shoes. One day the gospel was being read in that church about how the Lord sent out his disciples to preach. The holy man of God, who was attending there, in order to understand better the words of the gospel, humbly begged the priest after celebrating the solemnities of the Mass to explain the gospel to him. The priest explained it all to him thoroughly line by line.  When he heard that Christ's disciples should not possess gold or silver or money, or carry on their journey a wallet or a sack, nor bread nor a staff, not to have shoes nor two tunics, but that they should preach the kingdom of God and penance, the holy man, Francis immediately exulted in the spirit of God. "This is what I want," he said, "this is what I seek, this is what I desire with all my heart." The holy father, overflowing with joy, hastened to implement the words of salvation, and did not delay before he devoutly began to put into effect what he heard. (From The Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano)

"Spectacular Procession, Assisi" Our Lady of the Rosary 7th October. Assisi Saturdays Rosary Procession. Cistercian occasion

Saturdy, 17 September 2011

O.C.S.O. GENERAL CHAPTER (TRAPPIST) - 2011 Assisi Sept 17 

"Spectacular Procession, Basilica"

On Saturday nights in Assisi there is a huge gathering in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels for praying of the Rosary – with spectacular procession over the piazza in front of the Church. And there is even a lift in the joy that carries the MGM and the relationships in our big family.

Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula http://communio.stblogs.org/  Friday, 07 October 2011 Our Lady of the Rosary - Memorial OUR LADY of the ROSARY (Memorial)

It was the time when the impious heresy of the Albigensians was spreading throughout the district of Toulouse, striking its roots more deeply day by day. Saint Dominic, who had but recently laid the foundations of the Order of Preachers, threw all his strength into the task of extirpating the wicked error.         To make his victory the more certain, he sought constantly and in earnest prayer the aid of the most blessed Virgin Mary, whose dignity had been most shamefully attacked by the heretics. It is given to her to destroy all heresies throughout the world.         Dominic was admonished by her - as everyone will recall - to preach devotion to the Rosary as a special weapon against heresy and vice. It is astounding with what happy results he carried out this assignment... from the time of the Albigensian heresy onwards, this holy method of prayer began to be marvelously propagated and promoted by Saint Dominic. The sovereign pontiffs, themselves, in encyclical letters have from time to time, confirmed the fact that Dominic was the founder and author of the rosary. ******************************         From this holy devotion countless benefits have been showered the length and the breadth of Christendom.         Among these most certainly can be reckoned that famous victory which the Christian princes, aroused by the plea of Pope St. Pius V, won over the Turks at Lepanto. As this victory was won on the very day on which the confraternities of the most holy Rosary throughout the world were offering up their rosaries, as they had been asked to do, there can be no doubt that this victory was an answer to their prayers.         So convinced of this was Gregory XIII that he proclaimed that for so singular a blessing there should be offered everywhere on earth perpetual thanks to the blessed Virgin, under the title of the Rosary. He decreed also that in every church where an altar of the Rosary had been erected, its office should be celebrated in perpetuity under the rite of a double major.         Other pontiffs, also have granted almost innumerable indulgences to the recitation of the Rosary and to the Rosary Confraternities.

                               Roman Breviary - Benziger Brothers - 1964

Saint Bruno Grande Charteuse monastery

Theologians Mission through Silence and Contemplation by Pope Benedict XVI 2006  

At the beginning of the Liturgy, Cardinal William J. Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, greeted the Holy Father, who responded:

Thank you, Your Eminence, for your deeply cordial words. Thank you for your work and for your prayers. In the joy of our common faith, let us now begin the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  I have not prepared a real Homily, only a few ideas for meditation.

As clearly appears, the mission of St Bruno, today's saint, is, we might say, interpreted in the prayer for this day, which reminds us, despite being somewhat different in the Italian text, that his mission was silence and contemplation.

But silence and contemplation have a purpose: they serve, in the distractions of daily life, to preserve permanent union with God. This is their purpose: that union with God may always be present in our souls and may transform our entire being.

Parkminster
www the hermeneutic of continuity blogspot com

Add caption

Parkminster Charterhouse
2011 Ordination of priest Fr Gtregory Carling.

Silence and contemplation, characteristic of St Bruno, help us find this profound, continuous union with God in the distractions of every day. Silence and contemplation: speaking is the beautiful vocation of the theologian. This is his mission: in the loquacity of our day and of other times, in the plethora of words, to make the essential words heard. Through words, it means making present the Word, the Word who comes from God, the Word who is God.

Yet, since we are part of this world with all its words, how can we make the Word present in words other than through a process of purification of our thoughts, which in addition must be above all a process of purification of our words?

How can we open the world, and first of all ourselves, to the Word without entering into the silence of God from which his Word proceeds? For the purification of our words, hence, also for the purification of the words of the world, we need that silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God's silence and brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born.

St Thomas Aquinas, with a long tradition, says that in theology God is not the object of which we speak. This is our own normal conception.

God, in reality, is not the object but the subject of theology. The one who speaks through theology, the speaking subject, must be God himself. And our speech and thoughts must always serve to ensure that what God says, the Word of God, is listened to and finds room in the world.

Thus, once again we find ourselves invited to this process of forfeiting our own words, this process of purification so that our words may be nothing but the instrument through which God can speak, and hence, that he may truly be the subject and not the object of theology.

In this context, a beautiful phrase from the First Letter of St Peter springs to my mind. It is from verse 22 of the first chapter. The Latin goes like this: "Castificantes animas nostras in oboedentia veritatis". Obedience to the truth must "purify" our souls and thus guide us to upright speech and upright action.

In other words, speaking in the hope of being applauded, governed by what people want to hear out of obedience to the dictatorship of current opinion, is considered to be a sort of prostitution: of words and of the soul.

The "purity" to which the Apostle Peter is referring means not submitting to these standards, not seeking applause, but rather, seeking obedience to the truth.

And I think that this is the fundamental virtue for the theologian, this discipline of obedience to the truth, which makes us, although it may be hard, collaborators of the truth, mouthpieces of truth, for it is not we who speak in today's river of words, but it is the truth which speaks in us, who are really purified and made chaste by obedience to the truth. So it is that we can truly be harbingers of the truth.

This reminds me of St Ignatius of Antioch and something beautiful he said: "Those who have understood the Lord's words understand his silence, for the Lord should be recognized in his silence". The analysis of Jesus' words reaches a certain point but lives on in our thoughts.

Only when we attain that silence of the Lord, his being with the Father from which words come, can we truly begin to grasp the depth of these words.

Jesus' words are born in his silence on the Mountain, as Scripture tells us, in his being with the Father.

Words are born from this silence of communion with the Father, from being immersed in the Father, and only on reaching this point, on starting from this point, do we arrive at the real depth of the Word and can ourselves be authentic interpreters of the Word. The Lord invites us verbally to climb the Mountain with him and thus, in his silence, to learn anew the true meaning of words.

In saying this, we have arrived at today's two Readings. Job had cried out to God and had even argued with God in the face of the glaring injustice with which God was treating him. He is now confronted with God's greatness. And he understands that before the true greatness of God all our speech is nothing but poverty and we come nowhere near the greatness of his being; so he says: "I have spoken... twice, but I will proceed no further" [Jb 40: 5].

We are silent before the grandeur of God, for it dwarfs our words. This makes me think of the last weeks of St Thomas' life. In these last weeks, he no longer wrote, he no longer spoke. His friends asked him: "Teacher, why are you no longer speaking? Why are you not writing?". And he said: "Before what I have seen now all my words appear to me as straw".

Fr Jean-Pierre Torrel, the great expert on St Thomas, tells us not to misconstrue these words. Straw is not nothing. Straw bears grains of wheat and this is the great value of straw. It bears the ear of wheat. And even the straw of words continues to be worthwhile since it produces wheat.

For us, however, I would say that this is a relativization of our work; yet, at the same time, it is an appreciation of our work. It is also an indication in order that our way of working, our straw, may truly bear the wheat of God's Word.

The Gospel ends with the words: "He who hears you, hears me". What an admonition! What an examination of conscience those words are! Is it true that those who hear me are really listening to the Lord? Let us work and pray so that it may be ever more true that those who hear us hear Christ. Amen!

© Copyright 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

This item 7246 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

Grande Chatreuse
1997 my visit with Abbot of Tamie

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/im-film-review-into-great-silence

COMMENT Luke 11:1-4 'give us each day our daily bread' v.3

ourladyoftheangelsofportiuncula

Dear William,

Many thanks for filling up the gaps of the Scholars Version of Luke 11;3-4. 

Your textual coverage backs up with the Mysticism of Tauler and the Biblical Theolgy of Benedict XVI.  

Story upon story mounts in a high rise edifice growing in our interest.

For the moment, Amazon has not yet produced the the COMPLETE GOSPELS.

Yours 

Donald. 

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: William J ...
To: Donald ....
Sent: Wednesday, 5 October 2011, 7:33
Subject: Luke 11 verses 3 & 4 non-canonical reflections

Dear Father Donald,

I am 'away over hill and moorland' following the footpath map drawn by Joachim Jeremias on his journey through the other 'sayings' of Jesus, and today there are two vistas.

Scholars Version: 11:3 "Provide us with the bread we need day by day".

Footnote: The meaning of the Greek word epiousios is disputed. Possible translations are 'daily', 'for sustenance', and 'for the future'. Its only certain occurrence in the Greek language is in the Lord's Prayer.

Margin: parallel passage - the Gospel of the Nazoreans [3], a narrative gospel closely related to the Gospel of Matthew, which like the other Jewish-Christian gosples, is preserved only in a few quotations and citations in the writings of early Christian authors.

Quote - reported by St. Jerome in his commentary of Matthew 6:11: "In the so-called Gospel of the Hebrews, instead of "the bread we need for the day", I found "mahar" , which means "for tomorrow", so the sense is "Provide us today with the bread we need for tomorrow" - that is, for the future".

Scholars Version: 11:4 "Forgive our sins, since we too forgive everyone in debt to us. And please don't subject us to test after test."

Margin: compare - the Secret Book of James [4:2], which manuscript relates that 550 days after Jesus' resurrection and immediately prior to his ascension, Jesus imparted a private revelation to James and Peter. The account of this revelation is a "secret book", which James introduces in the framework of a letter. It makes use of various sayings traditions, some of which appear in the New Testament gospels, while others are preserved only in 'Secret James'.

Text [4] "And I responded, "Lord, we can obey you if you wish, for we have forsaken our fathers and our mothers and our villages and have followed you. Give us the means, [then], not to be tempted by the evil devil". The Lord replied, "If you do the Father's will, what credit is that to you - unless he gives you, as part of his gift, your being tempted by Satan? But if you are oppressed by Satan, and are persecuted, and you do his will, I [say] that he will love you, and make you equal with me, and will regard [you] as having become [beloved] through his providence according to your own choice,"

Footnote: "providence....choice" - refers to the tension between predestination and the exercise of one's free will.

What reflections over the horizon - if not lights themselves - these passages provide!

. . . in Our Lord,

William