Glencairn Abbey - RTE player

Cistercians,

A year in the life of the inhabitants of St Mary's Abbey, Glencairn, Co Waterford, which is Ireland's only women's Cistercian Monastery.

http://www.rte.ie/player/gb/show/10275320/ 

 

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Would You Believe? Special: ... 

Fw: St. Mary's Abbey Glencairn News         

On Saturday, 12 April 2014, 

Andy ...> wrote:

Hi Donald,...

I presume that you get a copy of this newsletter sent to you - but in case you don't I thought I should copy it to you.

I have managed to download the RTE in player and will be able to view this programme. 

 Hope you can.

God bless

Andy

On Friday, 11 April 2014, 

St Mary's Abbey Glencairn - News <www.frequency.ie@gmail.com> wrote:

St Mary's Abbey Glencairn News

Would You Believe? Documentary Special on Glencairn Abbey Posted: 10 Apr 2014 07:12 AM PDT This Easter Sunday RTÉ’s Would You Believe? School of Love goes behind the scenes into Ireland’s only women’s Cistercian Monastery.  For the past year, RTE’s Would You Believe? team have been given special access to monastic life at Glencairn in order to produce this one hour special documentary to be broadcast on Easter Sunday.  With unique footage of the early steps and special moments in the monastic journey of Dublin woman Angela Finegan and other members, together with interviews with some of the professed sisters of the community against the backdrop of the seasonal changes of the Abbey’s beautiful natural surroundings, School of Love gives unprecedented television coverage of contemporary Cistercian life for women at St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn. We hope that viewers will enjoy this opportunity to gain insights into a life that brings us such joy and challenge, as we Cistercians endeavour to learn, in this School of Love, the paths of the Lord together as a monastic community.  RTE Press Release: On Easter Sunday, in School of Love, RTÉ’s Would You Believe? spends a year behind the scenes in Ireland’s only women’s Cistercian Monastery. Nestled in the lush valley of the Blackwater, in Co Waterford, the nuns of St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, dedicate themselves to a way of life first laid down by St Benedict in the 6th Century. It is a life of silence, solitude and prayer. Each day of their monastic life, they rise at 3.45am and gather to sing the Lord’s praises and to keep vigil with all those who wake during the night in fear, or sadness or pain. It is the first of seven prayer ceremonies which end after sunset and Sr Fiachra, a former horticulturalist, says of the early start, ‘it is in the darkest hour of the night, at 4am, that people wake and worry about their troubles. So, that’s why I’m on my feet praying for all the people that are suffering, whatever it is that they are suffering, so that they will feel God s presence and comfort in that trauma.’ Sr Sarah, Director of Vocations, is in charge of promoting vocations. She also runs the Abbey’s website and organises regular ‘Monastic Experience Weekends.’ They are well attended and have led to a number of new postulants. One Dublin woman, Angela, an IT specialist with qualifications in science and social work, came for a weekend, stayed and is now thinking of taking her vows and joining the order. The film follows her journey throughout the year as she faces a life-changing decision. It would be a unique television experience to witness a postulant receiving the veil in a ‘Monastic Initiation Ceremony,’ but that is the choice that Angela will make during the course of the documentary. St Mary’s Abbey is a busy and happy place. The nuns work as a community, surviving by their own labour and running a number of businesses: Communion host production, greetings card printing, farming and cleaning, maintaining and restoring their large and demanding collection of buildings. They possess a wide range of skills and are hugely self-sufficient. Most of all, though, they are a happy and caring community. They live a monastic life in a monastery which, in St Bernard’s phrase, is a ‘school of love’. The women, who include a former Central Banker, an IT specialist, a radio producer, a farmer and a midwife, are committed to a way of life that is counter-cultural in the contemporary world. And yet, they believe their chosen life is the best contribution they can make to that world. Join us for a unique insight into their challenging, but uplifting, way of life. You can watch this programme on RTE 1 on Easter Sunday, 20th April 2014 at 10:30pm.  You can also watch Would You Believe?  School of Love online at: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/ Photo: RTE’s Would You Believe? Camera-woman Úna Farrelly filming the sisters in choir

============

 RTE News 

Fw: from Anne Marie    

On Monday, 21 April 2014, 8

Anne Marie ...> wrote:

This is the link to the programme about Glencairn.

http://www.rte.ie/player/gb/live/7/

We were able to watch this on the IPad with an app for watching the Irish television.
I presume someone would have recorded it for you but if you know someone nearby with an IPad asked them to come and visit so that you can watch it.
They need to download the RTE app they would find it on the App Store or just google it.
and they would find it.
Without the App you cannot see it.
It is a lovely programme.

Anne Marie

Easter Tuesday Saint John 20:11-18. Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb...

COMMENT:  

Easter Tuesday 2014. 

The ‘Daily Gospel’, for this day, happens to introduce again with St. Gregory Palamas.

This Reference is also very useful.

A question remains about the Apocryphal Gospel of Gamaliel ... ?

Saint John 20:11-18.

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb...

Commentary of the day : 

Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), monk, Bishop and theologian 

Homily 20, on the eight morning gospels according to Saint John ; PG 151, 265 

"Go to my brothers"

Outside darkness still reigned; it was not yet day; yet that cave was full of the light of the resurrection. Mary saw this light through God's grace: her love for Christ had been quickened and she had the strength to see the angels... Then they said to her: “Woman, why are you weeping? What you are seeing in this cave is heaven, or rather a heavenly temple in place of a tomb dug out to be a prison... Why are you weeping?”... 

Outside, day is still unclear and the Lord does not make that divine brightness appear which would have made him known at the heart of suffering. So Mary did not recognize him... When he spoke and allowed himself to be recognized..., even then, as she saw him alive, she had no idea of his divine greatness but addressed him as a mere man of God... In the upsurge of her heart she now wants to throw her arms round his knees, to touch his feet. But he said to her: “Do not touch me... for the body with which I am now clothed is lighter and more mobile than fire; it is able to rise up to heaven and even to my Father's side in the heights of heaven. I have not yet risen to my Father because I have not as yet shown myself to my disciples. Go and find them; they are my brothers for we are all children of one Father” (cf. Gal 3,26)... 

The church in which we stand is the symbol of that cave. Indeed, it is more than a symbol: it is, as it were, another Sepulchre. It is there we find the place where the Lord's body has been laid, the holy table. So whoever runs with all their heart towards this divine tomb, God's true dwelling... will there learn the words of the inspired writings that will instruct him, like the angels, about the divinity and humanity of the Word of God incarnate. And thus he will see the Lord himself, without any possibility of error... For whoever looks with faith on the mystic table and the bread of life laid on it will see in its reality the Word of God who was made flesh for us and made his dwelling amongst us (Jn 1,14). And if he proves himself worthy of receiving it, he will not only see but will share in its being; he will take it into himself that he may remain there.

Easter Monday. Office Sext 11.45 a.m.

COMMENTS: 

Sr. Mary, 
in Poland, is talking of the MEDITATION of St. Gregory Palamas 
from her copy of the MAGNIFICAT.com.

Fw: from Anne Marie    

On Monday, 21 April 2014, 

Anne Marie ...> wrote:

Happy Easter.  

The photos are great.  

You are building up a great photographic record of the life of the Abbey.

Anne Marie.
sent by iPad

++++++++++++

Fw: [Blog The Easter Proclamation.

On Monday, 21 April 2014, William ...> wrote:

Dear Father Donald,

What a delight to share across the miles in your Easter Proclamation, wonderfully atmospheric photographs, so symbolic, bringing the Light of Life into the dead of night.

How perfect the cloisters for the candlelit procession!

Thank you Father.

... in the Risen Lord,

William

Easter Monday. Chapel of the Apparition of Jesus to his Mother

COMMENT:

... the Mother of God was the first person to receive from the Lord the Good News of the Resurrection, and she saw him risen and had the joy of his divine words before anyone else. She not only beheld him with her eyes and heard him with her ears, but was the first and only person to touch with her hands his most pure feet. If the Evangelists do not say all this openly it is because they do not want to put for­ward his Mother as a witness, lest they give unbelievers grounds for suspicion. (Saint Gregory Palamas). 

The Meditation from St. Gregory Palamas vividly reminded me in visits to the Franciscan Church in the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem. It waked me to find the photos and the details. Terra Santa obliges us to the amazing Website, below.

Search 4c. the Apocryphal Gospel of Gamiliel.

Mary at the Fourth Station, the Pieta at the Thirteenth Station, the Mother of God ...of the Resurrection, ...

+ + +

1.     The Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre

www.holysepulchre.custodia.org › History › Historical Periods‎

Since that time the Franciscan friars have occupied the Chapel of the Apparition of the risen Jesus to his Mother. Fra Niccolò da Poggibonsi, who visited the Holy ...

http://www.holysepulchre.custodia.org/default.asp?id=4116

Chapel of the Apparition of Jesus to his Mother

“Then Jesus said to Mary: ‘You have shed enough tears. He who was crucified is alive and speaks to you and consoles you, it is he whom you are seeking, it is he who is wearing the heavenly purple. He whose tomb you seek is the one who has shattered the bronze doors and liberated the prisoners from Hell.’” (Apocryphal Gospel of Gamiliel)

Chapel of the Apparition

Known as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament or the Chapel of the Apparition of Jesus to his Mother, it commemorates an event narrated in the apocryphal “Book of the Resurrection of Christ by Bartholomew the Apostle”.

The chapel has existed since the 11th century restoration of Constantine Monomachus, and was restored during the 1980s by the Franciscans. It is adorned with a modern bronze statue of the Stations of the Cross by Father Andrea Martini.

To the right of the altar is the Column of the Flagellation, a piece of the red porphyry column, venerated for centuries by the Latin faithful in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, brought to this location in 1553 by Father Custos Boniface of Ragusa.

Appearances After the Resurrection

 

Chapel of the Apparition

· 

4. Jesus meets hid mother

13. Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross. The Pieta

http://www.holysepulchre.custodia.org/default.asp?id=4116&ricerca=apparition#b264  

Octave of Easter 24 April 2014

Monday within the Octave of Easter 

MEDITATION     OF THE      DAY from Magnificat com

SAINT GREGORY PALAMAS

Easter Monday

The Resurrection of the Lord is the renewal of human nature, and the renewal, re-creation, and return to im­mortality of the first Adam who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed. In the beginning nobody saw Adam being made and brought to life, for no one existed yet at that time. However, once he had received the breath of life breathed into him by God (Gn 2:7), a woman was the first to see him, for Eve was the first human being after him. In the same way, no one saw the second Adam, that is the Lord, rising from the dead, since none of his disciples were present and the soldiers keeping the tomb had been shaken with fear and became like dead men. But after the Resurrection it was a woman who saw him first of all ....

There is something which the Evangelists tell us in a veiled way, but which I shall reveal to your charity. As was right and just, the Mother of God was the first person to receive from the Lord the Good News of the Resurrection, and she saw him risen and had the joy of his divine words before anyone else. She not only beheld him with her eyes and heard him with her ears, but was the first and only person to touch with her hands his most pure feet. If the Evangelists do not say all this openly it is because they do not want to put for­ward his Mother as a witness, lest they give unbelievers grounds for suspicion.

Saint Gregory Palamas (+1359) was a monk and Archbishop of Thessalonica.

Grcgory Palamas (Saint) From The Homilies, Christopher Veniamln, Ed. and Tr. The Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, Essex, UK. Published by Mount Thabor Publishing, 2009. www.thaborian.corn. Used with pemission.

The Easter Proclamation

During the Service of Light, we stand, holding our lighting candles.

           Abbot sets to Paschal fire alight.

Paschal Candle leads the procession in the Cloister

Procession from the Cloister to the Church entrance

The Deacon carries the Paschal Candle in the sanctuary.

Holy Saturday 'I was trying to be one with Him in His agony.' Vigil of the Resurrection

Holy Saturday.  Vespers Song of Mary, Crucifixion Fra Angelico

 Holy Saturday 2014 afforded the hours for reflection prayer and heartfelt presence of the Lord in agony

HE AND i  1942  (Gabrielle Bossis)

 November - 14  –  Holy Hour.  –

I was trying to be one with Him in His agony.

"The last evening of My life among you  -  how sweet and solemn it was. . . I gave Myself not only to the Twelve, but to everyone of you right to the end of the world.

My child, I was already in your hearts by My yearning for you. I had so great a desire that everyone, everyone, might receive the sacrament of My love, since I came to invent it for you. And I saw all the benefits that you would find in it. But in My agony, I also saw desecrations and sacrileges; I saw what I had done with such love become an object of hatred and loss. What an exchange for the infinite delicacy of My love! And I was alone in My suffering. "

(. . . ) "You who have the joy of receiving Me every day, ask that this same grace be given to others. Say to Me, 'Choose them  -  you who know all the secrets of souls  -  and apply my prayer to them. '

And if you are the means of bringing one or many into frequent fellowship with Me, do you think that I could fail to be grateful, not only for the glory gained by it, but above all for the joy it brings to My heart. I' ll let you feel this joy reflected upon you. "

 

Crucifixion-Fra_Angelico_Capitular Hall, Convent San Marco, Florence, Italy

Easter Vigil Exultet The Light of Christ (Lumen Christi)

Nunraw Abbey Liturgy

Saturday, 19 April 2014 Holy Saturday - Easter Vigil, solemnity - Year A
Holy Saturday The women saw  how his body was laid; and they prepared spices and ointments;  and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.  Luke 23:55,56         Holy Saturday (in Latin, Sabbatum Sanctum ), the 'day of the entombed Christ,' is the Lord's day of rest, for on that day Christ's body lay in His tomb.           We recall the Apostle's Creed which says "He descended unto the dead."   It is a day of suspense between two worlds, that of darkness, sin and death, and that of the Resurrection and the restoration of the Light of the World.   For this reason no divine services are held until the Easter Vigil at night.           This day between Good Friday and Easter Day makes present to us the end of one world and the complete newness of the era of salvation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ. ************ The Easter Vigil Very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had preparedand they found not the body of the Lord Jesus.  Luke 24:1,3         The night vigil of Easter signifies Christ's passage from the dead to the living by the the liturgy which begins in darkness (sin, death) and is enlightened by the fire and the candle representing Lumen Christi the Light of Christ just as the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the community of believers, is led from spiritual darkness to the light of His truth.         Christ's baptism, which our own baptism imitates, is represented during the liturgy by the blessing of the water of baptism by immersing (`burying') the candle representing His Body into the font.           During the liturgy we recall God's sparing of the Hebrews whose doors were marked with the blood of the lamb; we are sprinkled with the blessed water by which we were cleansed from original sin through Christ's sacrifice, and we repeat our baptismal vows, renouncing Satan and all his works. We rejoice at Christ's bodily resurrection from the darkness of the tomb; and we pray for our passage from death into eternal life, from sin into grace, from the weariness and infirmity of old age to the freshness and vigor of youth, from the anguish of the Cross to peace and unity with God, and from this sinful world unto the Father in heaven.   The Water         The Easter Vigil includes a blessing of water. The water is a sign of purification and of baptism. Holy water, that is, water that has been ceremonially blessed is a sacramental. Sacramentals are "sacred signs which bear a resemblace to the sacraments[by which the faithful are] given access to the stream of divine grace which flows from the paschal mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christthe fountain from which all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power."    [Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 60. Second Vatican Council Documents]         Some other common sacramentals are blessed palm (and the ashes used on Ash Wednesday made from them), candles, medals, priestly blessings and other prayers.  Water blessed during the Easter Vigil is used for baptisms and other blessings. This water does not last the whole year, so there is a special blessing for holy water used at other times of the year, also. Traditionally the blessing of holy water includes an exorcism, or protection against evil, and the addition of salt, a spiritual symbol of wisdom which preserves our faith.         Catholic churches have basins or `fonts' containing holy water near the entrance so that believers can dip their fingers in it before making the sign of the cross as they enter the House of God as a symbol of purification. This simple gesture reminds believers of their consecration to Christ in baptism, and visibly indicates their acceptance of the Catholic faith. The Light of Christ (Lumen Christi)         The Paschal candle represents Christ, the Light of the World: "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me walketh not in darkness" [John 8:12]. The pure beeswax of which the candle is made represents the sinless Christ who was formed in the womb of his Mother. The wick signifies his humanity, the flame, his divine nature, both soul and body. Five grains of incense inserted into the candle in the form of a cross recall the aromatic spices with which his Sacred Body was prepared for the tomb, and of the five wounds in his hands, feet, and side.          During the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night the priest or deacon carries the candle in procession into the dark church. A new fire, symbolizing our eternal life in Christ, is kindled which lights the candle. The candle, representing Christ himself, is blessed by the priest who then inscribes in it a cross, the first letters and last of the Greek alphabet, (Alpha and Omega `the beginning and the end') and the current year, as he chants the prayer below; then affixes the five grains of incense.  The Easter candle is the largest and most beautiful in the Church. It is a reminder of the Risen Redeemer "who shining in light left the tomb." It is lighted each day during Mass throughout the Paschal season until Ascension Thursday.   Christ yesterday and today,  the Beginning and the End,  the Alpha and Omega.  His are the times and ages:  To Him be glory and dominion  Through all ages of eternity. Amen http://dailygospel.org

Vatican 'Exultet' English, new  = 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyEAsiDjFP4

 

Veneration of the Cross. Friday of the Passion of the Lord

  

Holy Triduum, 
Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Part two is the Veneration of the Cross. A cross, either veiled or unveiled, is processed through the Church, and then venerated by the congregation. We joyfully venerate and kiss the wooden cross "on which hung the Savior of the world." During this time the "Reproaches" are usually sung or recited.

 The Adoration of the Holy Cross

Part three, Holy Communion, concludes the Celebration of the Lord's Passion. The altar is covered with a cloth and the ciboriums containing the Blessed Sacrament are brought to the altar from the place of reposition. The Our Father and the Ecce Agnus Dei ("This is the Lamb of God") are recited. The congregation receives Holy Communion, there is a "Prayer After Communion," and then a "Prayer Over the People," and everyone departs in silence.

Holy Thursday 4. The Altar of Repose

The Altar of Repose 
When the Eucharist is processed to the altar of repose after the Mass of the Lord's Supper, we should

remain in quiet prayer and adoration, keeping Christ company. There is a tradition, particularly in big cities with many parishes, to try and visit seven churches and their altar of repose during this evening.

Popular piety is particularly sensitive to the adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the wake of the Mass of the Lord's supper. Because of a long historical process, whose origins are not entirely clear, the place of repose has traditionally been referred to as "a holy sepulchre". The faithful go there to venerate Jesus who was placed in a tomb following the crucifixion and in which he remained for some forty hours.

It is necessary to instruct the faithful on the meaning of the reposition: it is an austere solemn conservation of the Body of Christ for the community of the faithful which takes part in the liturgy of Good Friday and for the viaticum of the infirmed. It is an invitation to silent and prolonged adoration of the wondrous sacrament instituted by Jesus on this day.

In reference to the altar of repose, therefore, the term "sepulchre" should be avoided, and its decoration should not have any suggestion of a tomb. The tabernacle on this altar should not be in the form of a tomb or funerary urn. The Blessed Sacrament should be conserved in a closed tabernacle and should not be exposed in a monstrance.

After mid-night on Holy Thursday, the adoration should conclude without solemnity, since the day of the Lord's Passion has already begun.

— Directory on Popular Piety

Holy Triduum. Newman 'You have died that I might live'.

Night Office Readings, 

Holy  Week Good Friday

FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK, YEAR II

 A READING FROM THE PROPHET JEREMIAH

(The loneliness of the Prophet: Jeremiah 16:1-15)

The word of the LORD came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, ...

Second Reading (Alternative):

From a sermon by Cardinal Henry Newman

Works of John Henry Newman

Discourse 14. The Mystery of Divine Condescension

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse14.ht ml

You have died that I might live.

Such would be the conjecture of man, at fault when he speculated on the height of God, and now again at fault when he tries to sound the depth. He thinks that a royal glory is the note of His presence upon earth; lift up your eyes, my brethren, and answer whether he has guessed aright. Oh, incomprehensible in eternity and in time! solitary in heaven, and solitary upon earth! "Who is this, that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozra? Why is Thy apparel red, and Thy garments like theirs that tread in the wine press?" It is because the Maker of man, the Wisdom of God, has come, not in strength, but in weakness. He has come, not to assert a claim, but to pay a debt. Instead of wealth, He has come poor; instead of honour, He has come in ignominy; instead of blessedness, He has come to suffer. He has been delivered over from His birth to pain and contempt; His delicate frame is worn down by cold and heat, by hunger and sleeplessness; His hands are rough and bruised with {302} a mechanic's toil; His eyes are dimmed with weeping; His Name is cast out as evil. He is flung amid the throng of men; He wanders from place to place; He is the companion of sinners. He is followed by a mixed multitude, who care more for meat and drink than for His teaching, or by a city's populace which deserts Him in the day of trial. And at length "the Brightness of God's Glory and the Image of His Substance" is fettered, haled to and fro, buffeted, spit upon, mocked, cursed, scourged, and tortured. "He hath no beauty nor comeliness; He is despised and the most abject of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity;" nay, He is a "leper, and smitten of God, and afflicted". And so His clothes are torn off, and He is lifted up upon the bitter Cross, and there He hangs, a spectacle for profane, impure, and savage eyes, and a mockery for the evil spirit whom He had cast down into hell.

 

Oh, wayward man! discontented first that thy God is far from thee, discontented again when He has drawn near,—complaining first that He is high, complaining next that He is low!—unhumbled being, when wilt thou cease to make thyself thine own centre, and learn that God is infinite in all He does, infinite when He reigns in heaven, infinite when He serves on earth, exacting our homage in the midst of His Angels, and winning homage from us in the midst of sinners? Adorable He is in His eternal rest, adorable in the glory of His court, adorable in the beauty of His works, most adorable of all, most royal, most persuasive in His deformity.

Think you {303} not, my brethren, that to Mary, when she held Him in her maternal arms, when she gazed on the pale countenance and the dislocated limbs of her God, when she traced the wandering lines of blood, when she counted the weals, the bruises, and the wounds, which dishonoured that virginal flesh, think you not that to her eyes it was more beautiful than when she first worshipped it, pure, radiant, and fragrant, on the night of His nativity? Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus, as the Church sings; "My beloved is white and ruddy; His whole form doth breathe of love, and doth provoke to love in turn; His drooping head, His open palms, and His breast all bare. My beloved is white and ruddy, choice out of thousands; His head is of the finest gold; His locks are branches of palm-trees, black as a raven. His eyes as doves upon brooks of waters, which are washed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams. His cheeks are as beds of aromatical spices set by the perfumers; His lips are lilies dropping choice myrrh. His hands are turned and golden, full of jacinths; His throat is most sweet, and He is all lovely. Such is my beloved, and He is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem."

So is it, O dear and gracious Lord, "the day of death is better than the day of birth, and better is the house of mourning than the house of feasting". Better for me that Thou shouldst come thus abject and dishonourable, than hadst Thou put on a body fair as Adam's when he came out of Thy Hand. Thy glory sullied, Thy beauty marred, those five wounds welling out blood, those temples torn and raw, that {304} broken heart, that crushed and livid frame, they teach me more, than wert Thou Solomon "in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his heart's joy". The gentle and tender expression of that Countenance is no new beauty, or created grace; it is but the manifestation, in a human form, of Attributes which have been from everlasting. Thou canst not change, O Jesus; and, as Thou art still Mystery, so wast Thou always Love. I cannot comprehend Thee more than I did, before I saw Thee on the Cross; but I have gained my lesson. I have before me the proof that in spite of Thy awful nature, and the clouds and darkness which surround it, Thou canst think of me with a personal affection. Thou hast died, that I might live. "Let us love God," says Thy Apostle, "because He first hath loved us." I can love Thee now from first to last, though from first to last I cannot understand Thee. As I adore Thee, O Lover of souls, in Thy humiliation, so will I admire Thee and embrace Thee in Thy infinite and everlasting power.