Hilton, Walter - Perfection and 'The Cenacle'

Homework, William,
Apparently, as Raymond homilized, the Disciples did not have their Knox Gospel Harmony."This would surely make a time scale of the apparitions impossible. Any attempt to set a chronological order to these events would be doomed to failure. It isn’t surprising then to read, in today’s Gospel, about the bewilderment of the Apostles."  
IT SEEMS that it was 'The Cenacle Sunday Evening 9 April'. Knox Gospel Story p.416.
At this point I have not yet checked the other exegeses.
Enuf for today - with draft.
Donald
PS.Blogger has memerized me into a BLOGGER-HAS A NEW LOOK

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Third Sunday of Easter - Year B

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:35-48. (Mk 16:14*, Jn:20:19-230.
Jesus comes to the Apostolic Cenacle.

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."   
.... Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. 

. . .

Hilton, Walter - Perfection

Hilton, Walter (Father)  From The Scale of Perfection, Dom Gerard Sitwell, O.S.B . Tr. 1953, The Newman Press, 'Westminster, MD.

The Enlightenment of Emmaus

The soul of one who loves and desires God sees him in proportion to the degree in which it is made humble by the infusion of grace and the opening of the spiritual eyes, and insofar as it understands that it is nothing of itself but is entirely dependent on the mercy and goodness of God, and that it is upheld only by his favour. It sees the truth of the Scriptures wonderfully revealed to it in a way that it could not do by study and its own natural intelligence, and this is a kind of experience or perception of God, for God is the source of wisdom, and by imparting a little of his wisdom to a pure soul he can enable it to understand the whole of Scripture. He does not impart this knowledge all at once in a single act of enlightenment, but through his grace the soul receives a new habitual ability to understand the texts which come to its mind.

This light and clearness in the intelligence is produced by the presence of God. The Gospel tells us that as two of the disciples were going to Emmaus, speaking of Jesus and on fire with love, he appeared to them in the likeness of a pilgrim and instructed them in the prophecies concerning himself. He gave them intelli­gence to understand Holy Scripture. In the same way the indwelling of God illumines the intelligence of those who love and ardently desire him, and brings to their minds by the ministry of angels the words and the texts of Scripture without their searching for them or thinking about them, and it makes their meaning clear, however difficult or obscure they may be in themselves. The more difficult they are and the less able to be understood by the ordinary light of reason, the more delightful is their exposition when it comes from God ... The lover of God is his friend, not because he has deserved to be, but because God in his merciful goodness has made him so by a very real pact. And so it is that he shows him his secrets as to a true friend who serves him through love and not through fear.

FATHER WALTER HILTON
Father Hilton (+ 1396) was a Canon of the Augustinian Priory of Thurgarton, England

Raymond Homily (Novice picture)

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

From: Raymond  . . .
To: ...Donald  
Sent: Sunday, 22 April 2012, 12:05
Subject: Peace be with you


Sun 3 Easter 2012


When you read today’s Gospel and then read the other accounts of the Lord’s appearances after his resurrection it’s very hard to know in what sequence these appearances took place. Perhaps this is due to the fact that, on this first Easter morning, time and eternity were getting mixed up. The Risen Lord was stepping in and out of the one to the other: from time into eternity; from eternity back into time. This would surely make a time scale of the apparitions impossible. Any attempt to set a chronological order to these events would be doomed to failure. It isn’t surprising then to read, in today’s Gospel, about the bewilderment of the Apostles. They hear about Jesus appearing at the tomb to Mary Magdalen; then they hear about an appearance to Peter; then, while their minds are still reeling as they try to take all this in, Jesus appears to them all together there and then in the room while they were still listening to the two disciples who had just met Him on their way to Emmaeus. In spite of Jesus’ reassuring greeting: “Peace be with you!”, they are, as the Evangelist tells us, “alarmed and frightened”. “They thought they were seeing a ghost”.


We can well imagine too what other thoughts might have been in the background of their minds when it began to dawn on them that this really was the Master. After all hadn’t they all abandoned him to his fate that night in Gethsemani? Hadn’t they all fled for their own lives and left him to be captured by the soldiers; to be dragged away by the rabble. The events of that night must have been still very vividly in their minds. As for Peter, how did he feel? Peter who had denied him three times, Peter who had cursed and swore that he didn’t even know him. No wonder Jesus had to say to them “Why are you so agitated?”


But then came the great transition for them from bewilderment and fear to a joy that they could hardly believe. Jesus showed them the wounds in his hands and feet; he proved that he was no mere ghostly apparition: he asked them for something to eat and he ate it before their very eyes. But most of all their hearts were calmed as they realized that he was greeting them, not with words of disappointment; words of recrimination, he was greeting them with that word of “Peace”; that word that was so unexpected and so very healing, and so very typical of the Master they knew. Finally, before he leaves them again, Jesus sums up for them in a few words his whole mission on earth:


“You see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and, on the third day, rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. The disciples were now ready for the great Pentecost event that would banish their last vestiges of fear and send them out to the world.

Furness Abbey

furness abbey crozier

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Trevor ...
To: Dom Donald . . .
Sent: Sunday, 22 April 2012, 8:25
Subject: furness abbey crozier

thought this might be of interst. it had wide media coverage in the northwest.

trevor

Furness Abbey - Wiki images

 A team of archaologists  working on the ruins of Furness Abbey in Cumbria, have discovered the grave of a medieval Cistercian abbot. Channel Four News this evening reported that this is the first time under modern conditions that an abbot burial has been discovered.

English Heritage curator Susan Harrison said the grave includes the abbot's crozier, ring and fragments of material. She said he was about 40 - 50 years old, around 5' 7" tall,  and had worn knee joints which could indicate that he spent much of his time kneeling.

Carbon 14 dating tests are now being carried out to determine when he died. Experts believe the grave could date back as early as the 12th century. 

The grave was discovered by archaologists working on the site to stabilise the abbey ruins. English Heritage is putting the abbot's crosier and ring on display at Furness Abbey over the May Bank Holiday. 

For more information see: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/furness-abbey/

2 Responses welcomed.

Thank you.

Donald. 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Anne Marie . . .
To: Fr Donald . . . .
Sent: Saturday, 21 April 2012, 8:38
Subject: Changed landscape

The picture of the cutting of the first sod clearly shows quite a different landscape.  I pondered upon that fact and I think it is very symbolic that the community have not only changed the physical landscape but have changed the land, direction and horizon for themselves and so many people by their witness and fidelity to God.  Laud Deo Semper.

Anne Marie
... from my iPad

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William W. . . .
To: Donald . . .>
Sent: Saturday, 21 April 2012, 16:29
Subject: Re: Nunraw New Abbey Album

Dear Father Donald,

I am overawed by the feat of the creation of the Abbey that you have opened up through this amazing archive. I have never so considered, nor ever could have conceived of the immensity of the task had you not given this opportunity to re-live it with you in this way. And how you will be re-living it as you collate these photographs!

I have studied every photo, and have delved into Thomas Merton's journals to read those of his daily jottings that describe life at his abbey during the period of expansion there, to imagine and enter more personally into the experience of these years of the creation of the New Abbey. The pulse of life in the Community will have been tremendous, the vitality with all uniting their skills and labouring together with mission, driving forward the most outstanding project... to 'build our own monastery'! The organisation, the practical aspects alone, must have been daunting! It does make me feel how inadequate would have been any contribution of my own... I stand in awe of you all.

I also gained an insight into the extent of the self-sufficiency of Nunraw in those times - the crops, the sheep, the cattle - even the chicks! Butter making and book binding (what wonderful psalters!), the sawmill and the welding, all the skills for the general upkeep. In creating the monastery, you created a unique expression of the love of God and by doing so, brought a truly vocational experience into the life of all who participated.

  

How fortunate the lay people who were able to join you, and how blessed the opportunity for the volunteers to share in the undertaking, living and working so closely with you all, with such camaraderie amongst them - their own camp, even to their own chapel. How this must have had its effect on their lives 

Every photograph tells its own story, as does every hewn stone... I am fascinated, and truly overawed. 

Thank you for this opportunity to enter more deeply into the life of Nunraw.

With my love in Our Risen Lord,

William

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr Donald . . .
To: . . . . . . . . .
Sent: Friday, 20 April 2012, 20:45
Subject: Nunraw New Abbey history of construction 126 from an Album

Nunraw - An Album

Archiving the 'pictures' awakens vivid awareness the sense of daunting in the task of the so called  DIY of the New Abbey. The 'Do It Yourselves' monastery lived the joy of monks and countless helpers in kind and work and, support and enthusiasm.
Monastic prayer primed the spark for every next activity.
The living spirit filled our hearts in the amazing grace of collaborations in building a 'house of God'..
And here, the old story is proof that each 'gem' of picture is worth a million words! 

+ + +

COMMENT DGO gem. 7 Responses to WDTPRS

Hi, William,
How is your DGO crossword?
At the moment I am labouring to scan pictures a Nunraw-An Album History Lecture.
Meanwhile a quick check with WDTPRS
  . . . as below.
Donald

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William Wardle
To: Dom Donald.Nunraw
Sent: Sunday, 15 April 2012, 9:10
Subject: DGO gem

Dear Father Donald,

There is a true gem on the Daily Gospel Org today, the commentary from St. Basil of Seleucia on the reaction of Thomas to the news of Christ's resurrection: "The Lord appeared again and dispelled both the sadness and the doubt of his disciple. What am I saying? He did not dispel his doubts, he fulfilled his expectation. He entered, all the doors being shut."

Some people I know spend the best part of a day puzzling over a clue in the crossword. I shall spend the day pondering upon this thought, wondering if I will truly appreciate its meaning for myself by nightfall! 

With my love in Our Lord,

William

+ + +

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/04/wdtprs-low-sunday-quasimodo-sunday-sunday-in-albis/    

WDTPRS “Low” Sunday, “Quasimodo” Sunday, Sunday “in albis”

Posted on 14 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This Sunday has many nicknames.  In the post-Conciliar calendar it is the “Second Sunday of Easter (or of Divine Mercy)”.  It is also called “Thomas Sunday” (because of the Gospel reading about the doubting Apostle), and “Quasimodo Sunday” (from the first word of the Introit), and “Low Sunday”.

This is also the conclusion of the Octave of Easter, during which we halted our liturgical clocks and contemplated the mysteries we celebrated from different points of view.

Since ancient times this Sunday has been called “Dominica in albis” or “in albis depositis”, the Sunday of the “white robes having been taken off.”  1 Peter 2:2-3 says:

“Like (Quasimodo – from a Latin Scripture translation that pre-dated the Vulgate by St Jerome) newborn babes (infantes), long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Holy Mass on “Low Sunday” begins with an exhortation of the newly baptized, who were called infantes.  The infantes wore their white baptismal robes for the “octave” period following Easter during which they received special instruction from the bishop about the sacred mysteries and about the Christian life.  Today they put off their robes and, in some places, left them in the cathedral treasury as a perpetual witness to their baptismal vows.

Today’s Collect, based on a prayer in the Missale Gothicum, begins by calling God merciful:

Deus misericordiae sempiternae, qui in ipso paschalis festi recursu fidem sacratae tibi plebis accendis, auge gratiam quam dedisti, ut digna omnes intellegentia comprehendant, quo lavacro abluti, quo spiritu regenerati, quo sanguine sunt redempti.

Those clauses with quo, having no conjunctions (a trope called asyndeton) gives this prayer a forceful feeling, as do those abluti…regenerati…redempti with the single sunt.

Accendo means “to kindle anything above so that it burns downward” and also “to illuminate, to inflame a person or thing”.  It recalls the fiery liturgical imagery of the Vigil.  Comprehendo, a vast verb, is “to lay hold of something on all sides.” Think of “comprehensive”. It concerns grasping something with the mind in a thorough way (on all sides).  A lavacrum is “a bath”.  In Titus 3:5 we read, “He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy (misericordiam), by the washing of regeneration (lavacrum regenerationis)…”.  Abluo, “to wash off, wash away, cleanse, purify”, is used by Cicero (d 43 BC) to describe a calming of the passions through a religious rite of washing away sin (Tusc 4, 28, 60) and also by the poet philosopher Lucretius (d AD 55) to describe the removal of darkness by the bringing in of light (De rerum natura 4, 378).  Early Latin speaking Christians adapted and “baptized” existing religious vocabulary to express their faith as it grew over time with new theological insights.  Abluo was ready made to be adapted to describe the effects of baptism.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):
God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed.

The priest prays that, by the recurring sacred mysteries we veteran Christians and neophytes, together as a people, will be always renewed and that our grasp of how we have been redeemed and our comprehension of the effects of that redemption will continually deepen.

We who were once set on fire with the indwelling of the Spirit, should each day ask God to rekindle us, burn us up again from above.  We should pray daily for an increase of a faith that seeks to grasp, comprehend, understand ever more fully who Our Lord is and who we have become in Him.  Grace and faith precede and prepare our fuller comprehension.  On our own we can grasp only so much.  Faith brings to completion what reason begins to explore. As the ancient adage goes: “Nisi credideritis non intellegetis… Unless you will have first believed, you will not understand.”

St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) preached to his infantes with the imagery of spring, and compared the newly baptized to little birds trying to fly from the nest while the parent bird (Augustine himself) flapped around them chirping noisily to encourage them (s. 376a).  Then they were then out of the nest of the bishop, as it were, on their own in living their Catholic lives.

Holy Church wants us to comprehend these mysteries in a way that makes a concrete difference.  The infantes had to get to the business of living as Catholics after they put off their white robes.  Those of us who were baptized long ago must remember always to continue wearing our baptismal garments in our hearts and to live outwardly the Catholic faith we put on within.

7 Responses to WDTPRS “Low” Sunday, “Quasimodo” Sunday, Sunday “in albis”

1.       Rellis says:

14 April 2012 at 8:57 am

And, to clear up any misconceptions which have been repeated on other blogs, the Collect for the OF has been this Collect since long before JP2 coined this “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Some are under the impression he changed the 1969 M.R. Collect in order to fit the new theme. He did not.

2.       Dr. Eric says:

14 April 2012 at 9:22 am

Perhaps if we kept some of those ancient traditions, we would have such a high rate of dropouts. The second largest “denomination” in America is former Catholics. We have a very high rate of converts who leave Holy Mother Church. Perhaps if this 8 day wearing of white robes- or shirts in today’s age- were restored, it might make more of an impression on our converts.

Whaddaya think?

3.       Geoffrey says:

14 April 2012 at 12:04 pm

This Sunday must hold the record for the most monikers of any liturgical day of the whole year!

What a beautiful collect! I am shuddering to think how my pastor will alter it to make it more “user-friendly”…

It is interesting to note that the Gospel reading for this Sunday in the Ordinary Form is the same in the Extraordinary Form, recounting both “doubting” Thomas and the institution of the Sacrament of Mercy: Penance and Reconciliation (“confession”).

4.       asperges says:

14 April 2012 at 1:46 pm

I have managed to get to Mass twice in the week: Monday (Dominican rite) and today EF. The Masses are quite striking and today’s starts that epistle of St Peter about the “geniti infantes” which is picked up in tomorrow’s introit. The collects are similar in theme also. All week, the Victimae Paschali sequence has been recited and the Credo as well as the Gloria even in weekday masses. Haec Dies gradual of Easter Sunday is repeated with different endings too all week as well as the ‘Ite .. alleluia, alleluia’ which stops today (though not in the NO). From tomorrow, double alleluias come in and continue until the end of Paschaltide. So very moving and striking, these liturgical niceties.

[BTW: Divine Mercy seems better to sit within Lent than on today - perhaps the now 'vacant' 1st Sunday of the Passion would be a better spot for it.]

5.       poohbear says:

14 April 2012 at 3:04 pm

[BTW: Divine Mercy seems better to sit within Lent than on today - perhaps the now 'vacant' 1st Sunday of the Passion would be a better spot for it.]

Jesus Himself asked St Faustina for the Divine Mercy feast to be the Sunday after Easter. I wouldn’t mess with it.

6.       Kathleen10 says:

14 April 2012 at 7:36 pm

Beautiful words, thank you.

After having intended and tried to, for multiple years, I am planning to go to Stockbridge, Massachusetts for the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration. Every year it was SOMETHING, flu, snowstorm (about five years ago) etc. Tomorrow is my pilgrimage, and I am thrilled. I am asking the Lord for a posthumous Plenary Indulgence for my Mom, who passed last August. I think this is ok, and I feel strongly the Good Lord will grant it, even if it is not technically “ok”.
I can’t wait to go!

7.       Bea says:

14 April 2012 at 8:31 pm

How beautiful.
Words that lift up the heart and fortifies our Catholicism.
A “blood transfusion” for the soul.
We hunger for words like these in our parishes.
Thank you Fr. Z

Nunraw New Abbey history of construction 126 from an Album

Nunraw - An Album

Archiving the 'pictures' awakens vivid awareness the sense of daunting in the task of the so called  DIY of the New Abbey. The 'Do It Yourselves' monastery lived the joy of monks and countless helpers in kind and work and, support and enthusiasm.
Monastic prayer primed the spark for every next activity.
The living spirit filled our hearts in the amazing grace of collaborations in building a 'house of God'..
And here, the old story is proof that each 'gem' of picture is worth a million words! 

+ + +

     

     
     

 
             An Album compiled of photographs of moving scenes of the course of building a new monastery at Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw, Scotland, 1946-2012.