Lent 4th Week, From the writings of Henri de Lubac, SJ

Vigil Lectionary Readings, 

Lent II Fourth Week Thursday.

Thursday

First Reading        Numbers 3:1-13: 8:5-11.

Responsory          Heb 10:22-23; Mk 16:16

With our hearts cleansed and freed from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water, let us stand firm in the profession of our hope, + for he who made the promise is faithful.

V Everyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. +For he who ...

         

Alternative Reading

From the writings of Henri de Lubac, SJ (Catholicisme, 206-207)

The thoughts of a Christian way follow various attractions, but they are always drawn back, as by the force of gravity, to the contemplation of the cross. The whole mystery of Christ is at once a mystery of resurrection and a mystery of death. Neither is complete without the other, and one word express­es both: the paschal mystery, that is to say, the Passover. It is the transmutation of the whole being implying a total separa­tion from self which no one can hope to escape. The individ­ual must renounce all natural values insofar as they are pure­ly natural, even those which have made it possible to rise above one's personal limitations.

However authentic and pure the vision of unity that inspires and directs a person's activity, before it can become a reality it must be eclipsed. The mighty shadow of the cross must envelop it. Humanity must cease to regard itself as its own final end if it is to become one, for God is essentially a God who admits of no sharing, a God who must be loved without rival or not at all.

Nor is it possible to pass effortlessly from a natural to a supernatural love. To lose oneself is the condition for finding oneself. The rigor of this spiritual logic applies to humanity as a whole as well as to the individual, to my love of the human family and of particular people as well as to my self-love. The law of exodus is the law of ecstasy. We cannot avoid being part of the human race, but the human race as a whole must die to itself in everyone of its members, so as to live trans­formed in God. The only perfect fellowship is a fellowship united in a common adoration. "The glory of God is a human being fully alive," but only by giving all the glory to God can the individual have access to life in total solidarity with others; in no other way can society be complete. Such is the uni­versal Passover which lays the foundations of the city of God.

Christ sustains the whole of humanity in his own person.

Through his death on the cross that humanity renounces self­love and dies. But the mystery is deeper yet. He who bore all within himself was abandoned by all; the universal Man died alone. Such was the climax of the kenosis and the completion of the sacrifice. This abandonment, even to apparent deser­tion by the Father, was necessary to effect reunion, Here we have the mystery of loneliness, of rending apart, becoming the one efficacious sign of gathering together into unity; a sacred sword reaching to the separation of soul and spirit only so that universal life may flow in.

“O you who are alone among the lonely, you who are all in all!”

To conclude in the words of Saint Irenaeus: "Through the wood of the cross the work of God's Word has become manifest to all; his arms are there extended to gather the whole human race together – two hands outstretched, since there are two peoples scattered over the whole earth. And because there is one only God above all and through all and in all, we see in the centre of the cross one single head."

Responsory          Jn 4:23-24

Those who worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth. + The Father seeks such worshipers as these.

v. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. + The Father seeks ...

Comment: Benediction photograsph

In Choir

 

Fw: Benediction photograph. 

On Wednesday, 2 April 2014,  Bob ...> wrote:

Dear Father Donald,

 

I have just logged on to your blog.

May I say the picture of Father Nivard is beautiful! 

Another one for my Nunraw collection. 

O how I wish a web cam was installed in the Church. 

I follow the Benedictines in County Down on their web cam Divine Office and Mass. It works well.

I hope you received my card. 

Please pray for me and I for you keep up the great work.

God Bless. 

 Robert.

Lent Mass, Fr. Nivard

 Fw: The Father's witness to Jesus

 

On Wednesday, 2 April 2014,    > wrote: 

Daily Read & Med Don Schwager © 2014 Servants of the Word

4 Thur April  Adapted  Jn 5 31_47

The Father's witness to Jesus

God reveals himself to the lowly of heart.
   Scripture tells us that God reveals himself to the lowly, to those who trust not in themselves, but who place their faith in God.

   The lowly of heart listen to God's word with an eagerness to learn and to obey. The Lord Jesus reveals to us the very mind and heart of God.

   Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, he opens our ears so that we may hear his voice. He fills our hearts and minds with the love and knowledge of God.     

  

Do you believe that God's word has power to set you free from sin and ignorance and to transform you to be like him?

  

Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may listen to your word and obey it with joy, through Christ our Lord.

Lent 4th Week Wednesday. Origen, In Lev. 16:1-3

Patristic Reading, 

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Lent Year II

Reading from the Homilies on Leviticus byOrigen

The omnipotent God, who lays down for men the contest of observing his Law in this world, lists what ought to be done and not done, announces suitably at the end of the book of Leviticus where each individual observance is established, what reward he who fulfils them bears and what punishment he who does not observe them undergoes.

But if the Law, according to what the Jews maintain, is not spiritual but carnal, there is no doubt that he grants carnally observed blessings also to those who observe them carnally. But if, as it seems to the Apostle Paul, the Law is spiritual then it must be observed spiritually and there is a spiritual reward of the blessings for which they hope. For it is by a perfect logic that the spiritual Law gives spiritual blessings and by a no less perfect logic that the curses and condemnations of the spiritual Law are not physical. So that what we say may not be doubted, let us hear the voice of the Apostle Paul himself writing about spiritual blessings to the Ephesians: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven.

 And you will eat your bread in abundance. I do not take that to be a physical blessing, as if he who keeps the Law of God obtains this ordinary bread in abundance. Why? Do not the impious and wicked eat bread not only in abundance but even in delight? Therefore, if we turn our attention more to him who said, I am the living bread which descended from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever, and if we consider that he who said this was the Word by which souls are nourished, then we will understand about which bread it was said, And you will eat your bread in abundance. In Proverbs, Solomon also proclaims similar things about the just man when he says, When the just man eats, he will fill his soul; but the souls of the impious will be in extreme poverty. If you take it according to the literal sense, it appears false. For the souls of the impious take food with eagerness and strive after satiety; but the just meanwhile are hungry. Paul was just and he said, Up to this hour we are hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and we are beaten with fists. But if you consider how the just man always and without interruption eats from the living bread and fills his soul with the heavenly food which is the Word of God and his Wisdom, you will find how the just man eats his bread in abundance from the blessing of God.

And you will dwell secure upon your land. The unjust man is never secure but is always moved and wavers and is carried about by every wind of doctrine. But the just man who keeps the Law of God dwells secure upon his land. For his understanding is made firm by saying to God, Confirm me, O Lord, in your words. Therefore, he lives upon his land grounded in the faith because his building is not placed upon sand, and his root is not ‘upon a rock’, but indeed his house was founded upon the earth, but his plant took root in the depth of the earth, that is, in the interior of his soul. Therefore, it is rightly said to a soul of this kind in the blessings, You will dwell secure upon your land; and I will give peace upon your land.

Origen, In Lev. 16:1-3, 4-5; Fathers of the Church 83 (1990) tr. G.W. Buckley

Comment; Lent Laetare

Fw: [Dom Donald's Blog] Lent Laetare Sunday ...

On Sunday, 30 March 2014, 

Anne Marie ...> wrote:

The pictures are lovely today.  Very good

Start to the clocks going forward.  

Happy Lent

Sent from my iPhone  

Mid-Lent Laetare Sunday - Spring walks

Lent 4th Week Tuesday. Leo's concern here is with the positive aspect of Lenten observance... help the poor

Patristic Reading, Night Office,

   

FIRST READING
From the book of Leviticus
19:1-18, 31-37
Right conduct toward one’s neighbors
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Revere your mother and father, and keep my sabbaths. I, the Lord, am your God.
“Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I, the Lord, am your God.
............

RESPONSORY
Galatians 5:14, 13; John 13:34
All God’s commands are summed up in one:
love your neighbor as yourself.
– Love one another as I have loved you.
I give you a new commandment:
– Love one another as I have loved you.

SECOND READING

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
(Sermo 10 in Quadragesima, 3-5: PL 54, 299-301)

The virtue of charity

In the gospel of John the Lord says: In this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other. In a letter of the same apostle we read:Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God; he who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

The faithful should therefore enter into themselves and make a true judgment on their attitudes of mind and heart. If they find some store of love’s fruit in their hearts, they must not doubt God’s presence within them. If they would increase their capacity to receive so great a guest, they should practice greater generosity in doing good, with persevering charity.

If God is love, charity should know no limit, for God cannot be confined.

Any time is the right time for works of charity, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace, for charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.

As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ did away with our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings of works of mercy. In this way we shall give to those who have sinned against us what God in his goodness has already given us.

Let us now extend to the poor and those afflicted in different ways a more open-handed generosity, so that God may be thanked through many voices and the relief of the needy supported by our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor. Where he finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.

In these acts of giving do not fear a lack of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth. There can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. In all this activity there is present the hand of him who multiplies the bread by breaking it, and increasing it by giving it away.

The giver of alms should be free from anxiety and full of joy. His gain will be greatest when he keeps back least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will also provide bread for eating; he will provide you with more seed, and will increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

COMMENT: April

Fw: [Blog] Blessed Sacrament

On Tuesday, 1 April 2014,  William J....> wrote:

Fathers,

A picture of Adoration and Devotion, in body, mind, and spirit.

A photograph I will treasure. 

Thank you.

William

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after Vespers

Month Dedicated April to the Blessed Sacrament

Lent: April 1st

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after Vespers

 Month Dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament 

POPE FRANCIS' PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR JANUARY 2014

visnews-en.blogspot.com/.../pope-francis-prayer-intentions-for_30.html‎

30 Dec 2013 - POPE FRANCIS' PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR JANUARY 2014. Vatican City, 30 ... 2014 (300). ▻ March (97) .... April (99). ▻ 30 Apr (4).  

PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR APRIL




Vatican City, 31 March 2014 (VIS) – Pope Francis' universal prayer intention for April is: “That governments may foster the protection of creation and the just distribution of natural resources”.




His intention for evangelisation is: “That the Risen Lord may fill with hope the hearts of those who are being tested by pain and sickness”.

Lent 4th Week Monday. Blessed Columba Marmion, 'We are the sacrifice'

Night Office Readings, 

 I was interested in the yellow bush outside the Church. Fr. M. was able to identify the FORSTHIA, picture.

[Forsythia Bushes - Colourful Shrubs for Border Plantings].  

FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

MONDAY  Year II

First Reading Leviticus 16:1-28

Responsory                  Heb 9:11.12.24

Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come. Not  with the blood of goats or calves, but with his own blood t he entered the holy place once for all, and won our eternal salvation.

Y. He did not enter a holy place fashioned by man: he entered heav­en itself. + He entered the ...

Second Reading 

 From the writings of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S. B. (Le Christ, vie de l'ame, 337-339)

We are the sacrifice

We are called to be united with Christ in his sacrifice, and with him to offer ourselves. If we are willing, he takes us with him, immolates us with himself and lifts us into the Father's presence as an oblation of fragrant sweetness. It is our very selves that we must offer with Jesus. If the faithful share through baptism in Christ's priesthood, Saint Peter tells us, it is in order that they may offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So true is this that in a prayer between the offertory and consecration the Church refers explicitly to the union between our sacrifice and that of the bridegroom: Lord our God, make these gifts holy, and through them make us a perfect offering to you. 

If we are to be thus accepted by God, we must make our self-offering one with the oblation that Christ made of himself on the cross and renews on the altar. Our Lord substituted himself for us in his sacrifice; he took the place of us all. That is why the blow that fell on him has morally slain us too: If one died for all, then all have died. We shall, however, effectively die with him only by uniting ourselves to his eucharistic sacrifice; and how can we be identified with him in his character as vic­tim? By handing ourselves over, as he did, in unreserved obe­dience to God's good pleasure. 

The victim offered to God must be fully at God's disposal. We must, therefore, live in this basic attitude of giving every­thing, absolutely everything, to God. Out of love, for him we must carry out our acts of renunciation and self-denial, and accept daily sufferings, trials and pain, to such a point that we can say, as Jesus said at the hour of his passion: I act like this so that the world may realize that I love the Father. This is what self­offering with Jesus implies. We give God the most acceptable homage he can receive from us when we offer the divine Son to his eternal Father, and when we offer ourselves with this holy and perfect sacrifice in the same dispositions that filled the sacred heart of Christ on the cross: an intense love for the Father and for our brothers and sisters, a burning desire for

the salvation of all, and a total abandonment to the divine will in all things, especially when it goes against the grain and is hard for us. We find in this the surest means of transformation into Christ, particularly if we unite ourselves to him in communion, which is the most fruitful way of sharing in the sacrifice of the altar. When Christ finds us thus united with him he immolates us with himself, makes us pleasing to his Father and transforms us more and more into his own likeness. 

Responsory Gal 2:19-20

With Christ I have been nailed to the cross, t and I live now no longer my own life, but the life of Christ who lives in me.

V. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave up his life for me. + And I live ... +

Lent Laetare Sunday Homily by Fr. Raymond

Mid-Lent Laetare Sunday - Spring walks

Lent Sun 4a, Homily by F. Raymond 

St Paul gives us a very consoling teaching when he tells us that all things work together unto good for those who love the Lord. Whatever happens to us in life works for our good in the end, no matter how tragic it may seem to us at the time. But the acceptance of that truth demands a great deal of courage as well as a great deal of faith from us.

In today's Gospel story about the man born blind Jesus gives us the very same teaching. When his disciples asked him whether it was his own sins or the sins of his parents that caused the man to be born blind He answered that it was neither his own sins nor the sins of his parents that caused him to be born blind, it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. This seems to be a very hard teaching to accept. And so it is indeed. But if we can't accept it then what explanation have we left for it. Are we just to accept things as though they were from a blind, senseless Fate? Or, worse, are we to accept them as the work of the devil himself?

Hard as it seems, there is no other explanation possible to those who believe in God's all pervading Providence; a Providence that is omnipotent, all powerful, and at the same time loving and caring and working for our good; A Providence that "Reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things wisely and sweetly" as the Scriptures so beautifully put it.

In the event-, Jesus-does in-fact he I this man. But, of course, he doesn't heal every blind man, and of course the heart of the lesson of this Gospel is not for those who may be healed by him but for the thousands, for the millions, who won't be healed by him. In the plans of God's loving Providence there may be no healing for any particular one of our bodily ailments, but in those same plans there is, every time, a loving plan and purpose for the healing and the strengthening of our souls; for the building of us up into the perfect Body of Christ.

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mothering Sunday, sometimes known as Mother's Day, is held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday and usually falls in the second half of March or the beginning of April.

Traditionally, people visited the church where they were baptized. Mothering Sunday is now a celebration of motherhood. People visit and take gifts to their mothers and grandmothers.

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/mothering-sunday

Lent Laetare Sunday. Cyril, theme emphasizing that Christ is both priest and sacrifice, and ... of the whole world.

Patristic Reading, Night Office.  Picture, through a window in the Church 

 

Monastic Lectionary for the Divine Office

Edited by

Friends of Henry Ashworth

Exordium Books 1982

Sunday of the Fourth Week in Lent Year II

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS

(Consecration of the priests: Leviticus 8:1-17; 9:22-24)

The LORD said to Moses, “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, ...

A reading from THE commentary on
St john’s Gospel by St Cyril of Alexandria

The commentary was written before the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 429. The author of Hebrews contrasts the mediation of Moses with that of Christ. Cyril enlarges on this theme emphasizing that Christ is both priest and sacrifice, and that his sacrifice was offered for the sins of the whole world.

As a man the Mediator between God and man intercedes on our behalf, and because he is our very great and most holy High Priest who offers himself as a sacrifice for us, his prayers appease the anger of his Father. Christ is himself both sacrifice and priest, mediator and victim without blemish, the true lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

The mediation of Moses in ancient times was a clear type and symbol of the mediation of Christ as manifested in the last days, and the high priest of the Law was a figure of the High Priest who is above the Law. Indeed, all that relates to the Law is a fore­shadowing of the truth. The saintly Moses, and with him the celebrated Aaron, always stood between God and the people of Israel. They placated God’s anger at the people’s sins, calling on heaven to be merciful to their weakness; they invoked blessings on them and offered the sacrifice and gifts ordained by the Law for sins, or as thank-offerings for the blessings God had given them.

But Christ, who appeared in the last days to supersede the types and symbols of the Law, is both High Priest and Mediator. As a man he intercedes for us, but as God he is one with God the Father in bestowing blessings upon those who are worthy of them. Paul’s saying, Grace and peace be with you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, teaches us this quite clearly. Christ prays for us as a man, but as God he also gives. For being a High Priest who is holy, innocent, and undefiled, he did not offer himself in sacrifice for his own frailty as did those to whom it fell to offer sacrifice according to the Law. No, it was for the salvation of our souls and on account of our sin that he made this offering, and made it once for all. He undertook to plead on our behalf and he is himself the sacrifice for our sins, and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world, for the sins of every nation and race that is called to attain righteousness and holiness through faith.

 St Cyril of Alexandria, On John 11.8 (PG 74:505-508); from Word in Season II, 1^st ed.

Lent 3rd Week, St. Cyril, 'The ark, a symbol of Jesus'

Patristic Reading, Night Office,  

Saturday 3^rd Week LENT

A Word in Season

Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours

Lent- Easter Triduum

Augustine Press 2001

SATURDAY   Year 1I

First Reading     Exodus 40:16-38

Responsory      1 Cor 10:1-2; Ex 40:34

Our ancestors were all under the cloud and all of them passed through the sea.+ All were baptized into Moses in the cloud.

V.The cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the Lord filled

the tabernacle.+ All were baptized ...

Alternative Reading   

From a commentary by Saint Cyril of Alexandria
(In Joh. IV, 4: PG 73, 620.621.62S)

The ark, a symbol of Jesus

Emmanuel, God-with-us, is presented in figure and image when scripture says: And you will place the ark of the testimony in the tabernacle and cover it with the veil. For in the preceding account the Word was described to us as in the whole taberna­cle; for it was the house in which God dwelt, namely, the holy body of Christ. But despite that, the ark gives us the same mean­ing in detail. For it was made of acacia wood, for you to perceive his incorruptibility. It was entirely overlaid with pure gold, as it is written, both inside and outside. For everything in him, both divine and human, is precious and splendid; and in everything he is preeminent, as Paul says. Gold, then, stands for honour and pre-eminence in general. So the ark was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, and had the divine law put into it as a symbol of the indwelling Word of God united to a holy body. For the Word of God was also the law, even, if not in human form, as the Son is. But it is covered with the veil.

It was much the same with God the Word made man, the covering of his own body obscured to the many. He, too, was hidden by his holy flesh as by a veil. Some of the Jews, therefore, failing to recognize his divine majesty, sometimes tried to stone him to death, accusing him of claiming to be God, when he was a man. Others again did not hesitate to say: Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How, then, can he say: "I have come down from heaven." So the laying of a veil on the ark tells us symbolically that Jesus would not be recognized by the many. Then even the ark itself was a symbol of him. So it was even he who went before the Israelites in the desert, taking the place of God at that time; for it was he who led the people. The psalmist is also a witness to this, saying: When you went before your people, 0 God, when you crossed the desert, the earth shook and the heavens, too, poured down rain. For the ark being always in front clearly means that God leads the way.

For Christ is one in us, and is understood in many and vari­ous ways: he is the tabernacle, because of the veil of flesh; the ark, containing the divine law, is the Word of God the Father. Again he is the table, as life and nourishment; the lampstand, as intellectual and spiritual light; and the altar of sacrifice, as the fragrant odour in sanctity; and the altar of offerings, as an offering for the life of the world. Thus all things in life are sanctified, for Christ is entirely holy, in whatever way he is understood.

Responsory      Jn 1:17; 3:5

The law was given through Moses;+ grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

V. Without being born of water and the Spirit, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. + Grace and truth ...

Cyril of Alexandria, Scholia on the incarnation of the Only-Begotten ...

www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_scholia_incarnation_01_text.htm‎

Therefore very many before Him were saints but no one of them was called Emmanuel .... But that the ark is taken as a type of Christ one may be assured of through .... the dead: for thus defined the holy and great Synod the Symbol of the Faith;. 


Cyril of Alexandria, Scholia on the incarnation of the Only-Begotten.  LFC 47, Oxford (1881) pp.185-236.  A library of fathers of the holy Catholic church: anterior to the division of the East and West, vol. 47.

THE BIRTH OF MOSES AND THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST by St. Cyril  

   Created on Wednesday, 01 January 2014 17:06

 http://www.stmaryscopticorthodox.ca/index.php/english/abouna-s-blog/97-the-birth-of-moses-and-the-mystery-of-christ-by-st-cyril  

Published on Wednesday, 01 January 2014 17:06

When at some point famine was afflicting (the children of Israel) ... they descended from the land of Canaan to Egypt; about seventy five souls, as it is written. And as the time crept, their race multiplied. For it has been written: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” (Ex 1:7) And because the one who happened to be the ruler of the land of the Egyptians was not unaware of the growth of the Jews, he plotted against them and appointed for them overseers of the labours so that they maltreat them at work.