... do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Mt. 7:3. Sermon on the Mount

Domenico_Fetti_-_The_Parable_
of_the_Mote_and_the_Beam

 COMMENT:

The Gospel of the Mass of Monday was ringing the verse from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, especially Mt. 7:3.  

  

RSV

Matthew 7:1-5

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Judging Others

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:3 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_7:3
A c. 1619 painting byDomenico Fetti entitled The Parable of the Mote and the Beam.

Matthew 7:3 is the third verse of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse continues the discussion of judgmentalism.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,

but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye,

but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 7:3

The meaning of this verse is fairly clear, it is an attack on the hypocrites who attack others for their small flaws, while ignoring their own massive ones. Those who judge others, but do not evaluate themselves. It has a dual meaning, first attacking the hypocrisy of those who criticize others while ignoring their own much larger flaws, and since the flaw is in the eye it is a metaphor for how such flaws can blind one.

The metaphor is a rather extreme one. The word translated as mote or speck can refer to a tiny splinter or piece of sawdust, or colloquially to any minute object. The word translated as beam refers to a log or a rafter such as would hold up the roof of a house. A rafter is a difficult thing to get in one's eye, but it functions as a humorous and hyperbolic metaphor for an extreme flaw. The metaphor comes from woodworking, and is often seen as rooted in Jesus' traditional employment as a carpenter.

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - 55th anniversary of priest

Tuesday 24th. The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

William sends greeting for the 55th anniversary of Ordination of Priesthood.

His gift is the beautiful message and the amazing illuminated painting;

“Here, on a special day for you, is one of life’s strange antiquarian encounters, to illuminate with the brightness and joy of inquiry, Blog reflections as you celebrate the occasion of your 55^th anniversary of your Ordination” ...

It is a lovely gift, and exciting to view the aspects of the painting. See below..

Thank you.

      

THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS (Lk. 16,19-31)

St Luke's parable is in its choice of word and in its vividness a challenge to the artist to take up his brush and depict the scene - Luke the painter! This illumination is indeed worthy of the precious and beautifully illustrated Gospel-book from which it is taken. A deep-set yet elegant Romanesque doorway is used as a frame. Lightly fluted, slender columns on fragile bases, crowned with Corinthian double-capitals bear the weight of the arch, which resembles more a garland of flowers than a work in stone. To the left and right of the arch there shine two red-gold medallions with human faces, held in position by gracefully twining tendrils. Inside the ornamental arch with its pillars one can see the simpler parts of the portal: first a broad border in blue, followed by a thin green one, then a white one. These are intended as a contrast to the gold which then appears and which symbolizes eternity. On this gold field the artist has placed three scenes which one should read beginning with the lowest. There are two circles, like magic globes, between them an elongated ellipse and they represent three kingdoms, Earth, Hell and Heaven.  

Lazarus Lk 16:19-31

  The first circle shows the rich man's festive table, rather in the manner of an early Christian Eucharistic celebration, where, however, the words of St. Paul in 1 Cor. 11,21 are not heeded: "Each corner hastens to eat the supper he has brought for himself, so that one man goes hungry, while another drinks deep". Lazarus, sick and poor, can be seen to the left excluded from the gold-green circle, where the feast is in progress. Three dogs bound in from the other side and run towards him in order to lick his sores.

The three scenes here depicted relate what happened in order of time. In the dark oval- the abyss, the pit, the underworld we perceive the rich man who has meanwhile died and is now suffering the agonies of thirst. From here he cries out for pity to Abraham in the upper region, seated upon a golden throne in a golden circle. Lazarus is now in Abraham's bosom, where the angels have carried him, a reference to late Jewish representations of Paradise and its joys.  

       Abraham's rejection of the rich man's pleadings is clearly seen in the gesture of his right hand and in his stern unpitying eyes. We can almost hear the words: "There is a great gulf fixed between us", and, "if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will be unbelieving still, though one should rise from the dead".

Abraham's words are not painted here, but they are in our ears, and make this picture into a cryptic Easter message, in which the admonition to love one's neighbour is irrevocably bound with the hope of rising to everlasting life.   

Der reiche Prasser und arme Lazarus – Evangeliar Otto III, Aachen.

 Beuroner Kunstkalender Fur Jahr 1983

http://www.erzabtei-beuron.de/fix/pano/

Virtual Tour of Beuron Abbey

Nunraw Abbey Shop - new

Nunraw Abbey Shop

COMMENT:
Dear Sr. Mary,
You are up to date with, 'Nunraw Abbey Shop & Corpus Christi in Poland'. 
Today, Sunday, we had our Corpus Christi cloister procession Hour of Adoration and later Vespers Benediction. We are put in the shade by the 2 hour Procession and 2 Stations 'not counting the Parish Church' in Poland.
We look forward when you talk viva voce your experiences.
Yours ...   Donald________________________

Email:

Abbey Shop & Corpus Christi in Poland

On Sunday, 22 June 2014, 

Sr. Mary wrote:

Dear..ones,  

Thanks very much for all the recent blogs - reg. Monica Jamieson, Myrtle park, the food of love and the new Abbey Shop and so on.

I hope to catch you on Skype one of these days for a chat.

On  Thursday, we celebrated Corpus Christi and joined the Parish Procession honouring the blessed Blessed Sacrament. It lasted over 2 hours and had three stations, not counting the Parish Church.  More about this when we talk.  

...

Blessings galore. 

Lots of love and prayers, 

Your ....... , 

Mary 

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

Nunraw Abbey Shop

Open Daily 2pm to 4.30pm and after Mass on Sundays.

 It is situated directly above the Reception room.

Reception

From Reception to the Church

Liam has helped with the 'setting up'  of the ABBEY SHOP notice in a Page-Template in the Blog.

Visited 20 June 2014
Then inserted Pictures as below.

Br. Philip - Shop keeper 

Small ICONS

Custom in Abbey Shop

Books in the New Abbey Shop

Assistance in the Abbey Shop

Abbey Shop Information included on the Side-Bar,

and a FaceBook entry.

CORPUS CHRISTI 'The food of love' John Tauler

Night Office Readings

22/06/2014 Year II

CORPUS CHRISTI
(Body and Blood of Christ)

First Reading

Exodus 24:1-11

Responsory   Jn 6:48-52

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, and they died. + This is the bread that comes down from heaven: anyone who eats this bread will never die.

V. I am the living bread come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. + This is the ...

Second Reading

From the writings of John Tauler
(La vie spiriiuelle 105 (1961), 634-634)

The food of love

It is impossible for us to describe in words the ineffable dignity of the soul, and we cannot in any way comprehend it. If we had here with us a human being in his primal nobility, pure as Adam in paradise, in his natural state apart from grace, his simple nature unadorned - that person would be so luminous and pure, so ravishing and richly favoured by God that no one would be able to comprehend his purity, nor with his reason conceive of it. How then can reason possibly grasp that immensity beyond all being where the precious food of the Eucharist is, in some marvellous way, made one with us, drawing us wholly to itself and changing us into itself? It is a union more intimate than any that the human mind can conceive, totally unlike any other change; a union more complete than that of a tiny drop of water losing itself in the wine-vat and becoming one with the wine, or that of the rays of the sun made one with the sun's splendour; or the soul with the body, the two together making but one person, one being. In this union the soul is lifted above the infirmity of its natural state, its own insufficiency, and there it is purified, transfigured, and raised above its own powers, its human operations, and its very self. Both being and activities are penetrated through and through by God; formed and transformed interiorly in a divine manner, the soul's new birth is accomplished in truth, and the spirit, losing all its native incompatibility, flows into divine union.

It is something like fire working on wood; the heat draws out all the moisture, the greenness, and the heaviness. It grows warm, begins to glow, becomes more like the fire itself. As the wood slowly attains the likeness of fire, the dissimilarity between the two grows less until finally, in a rapid movement, the fire takes from the wood its own substance; the wood becomes fire and loses at the same time its separateness and inequality, since it has become fire. No longer merely like fire, it has be­come one substance with the fire. Likeness is lost in union.

In the same way this food of love draws the soul above dis­tinction or difference, beyond resemblance, to divine unity. This is what happens to the transfigured spirit. When the divine heat of love has drawn out all moisture, heaviness, unfit­ness, then this holy food plunges such a one into the life of God. As our Lord himself said to Saint Augustine: "I am the food of the strong; believe and feast on me. You will not change me into yourself; rather you will be changed into me."

Responsory

See in this bread Christ's body that hung on the cross, see in this cup the blood that flowed from his side. Then take and eat the body of Christ: take and drink his blood, + and you will become his members.

V. Eat the food that unites you to Christ so that you may never be separated from him. Drink the blood that is the price of your redemption, so that you may never count yourselves worthless, + and you will ...

Christ Mandylion Novgorod 1500

COMMENT:
Christ Mandylion Novgorod 1500. Icon rescued from rubbish tip. The icon may have from an outside Market. The image was scarred and evident the the candle wax was used in front of prayer. The effort is to restore the lovely Mandylion.   

TWO YEAR PATRISTIC VIGILS LECTIONARY

Ordinary Time Year 2 Weeks 1 – 17  

 

Friday 11 Zec. 1:1-2:4 St Gregory the Great, Hom. 2 in Ez. 1.5 W. S. 7

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Year 2

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL

BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

It is precisely because the vision of inward peace is made up of a community of saints as its citizens that the heavenly Jerusalem is built as a city. Even while, in this earthly life, its citizens are lashed by whips and subjected to oppression, its stones are being quarried every day.

It is also the city, namely, the holy Church, which is to reign in heaven but is still toiling on earth. It is to its citizens that Peter says: And you are being built up like living stones. Paul also says: You are God’s land, God’s building. Clearly the city already has its great building here on earth in the lives of the saints. In a building, of course, one stone supports another, since they are placed one on top of another, and one supporting another is itself supported by another. So in the same way, in the holy Church, every member both supports and is supported by the other. For neighbours give each other mutual support, so that the building of love may rise through them. Hence too Paul’s instruction to us: Bear each other’s burdens, and in that way you will fulfil the law of Christ; and he claims the virtue of this law, saying: It is love which fulfils the law.

For if I neglect to support you in the way you live, and you pay little attention to supporting me in mine, how will the building of love rise among us? He alone who supports the whole fabric of the holy Church supports us in our good ways and our faults as well. But in a building, as we have said, the supporting stone is itself supported. For just as I already support the ways of those whose behaviour in the matter of good works is still unformed, so I too am supported by those who have surpassed me in the fear of the Lord, and yet have supported me, so that I myself should learn to support through being supported. But they have also been supported by their predecessors.

However the stones placed at the top of the building to finish it off, though supported of course by others, have no one to support in turn. For those, too, who are born at the Church’s end, that is, at the end of the world, will certainly be supported by their prede­cessors, to dispose them to behave in a way that leads to good works; but when they have none to follow them who could profit by them, they have no more stones to support for the building of the faithful above them. So for the time being they are supported by us, and we are supported by others. However it is the founda­tion that carries the entire weight of the building, because our Redeemer alone supports the lives of all of us together. As Paul says of him: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. The foundation supports the stones and is not supported by the stones, because our Redeemer supports us in all our troubles, but in himself there was no evil demanding support.

St Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ez., 2.1.5 (CCL 142:210-212); Word in Season VII.

 

The Holy Mandylion (Napkin) of Christ (Not-made-by-hands)

St Romuald Mass Thursday 11th Week Ord Time

Night Office Saints,

  http://www.monasterodicamaldoli.it/  

St Romuald       June 19.

Portrait St. Romuald (FaceBook)

Christ is a gentle leader, but he calls us to total holiness. Now and then men and women are raised up to challenge us by the absoluteness of their dedication, the vigour of their spirit, the depths of their conversion. The fact that we cannot duplicate their lives does not change the call to us to be totally open to God in our own particular circumstances. St Romuald was such a person. He became an important figure among those eleventh­century monks who sought to reform contemporary monasticism in the direction of greater solitude. The semi-eremitical monastery at Camaldoli became, after his death, the head

of an organized group of houses; these hermit monks sti II exist as a small independent order of Benedictines. St Romuald died in 1027.

A Reading from Thomas Merton.

One of the most venerable and ancient shoots of the primitive Benedictine stock is the Order of Camaldoli. This Order explicitly takes upon itself the task of providing a refuge for the pure contemplative life, in solitude. Born of the intense revival of monastic fervour that swept Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Camaldoli was founded in a high valley of the Apennines, beyond Arezzo, by St Romuald in 1012. Entirely unique in Western monasticism of the present day, the Camaldoli hermitage presents the aspect of an ancient laura-a village of detached cells, clustered around the church. Unlike the typical Charterhouse, whose cells are all next to one another and open out 0!l a common cloister, Camaldoli jealousy insists on the fact that the cells must be separate from one another at least by a distance of twenty or thirty feet. The hermits live, read, work, eat, sleep and meditate in their cells, but gather for the canonical hours in the church. Silence and solitude, essential to the true life of contemplation, are here not a question of "spirit" and of "ideal" but also belong to the letter of the rule. For Camaldoli, like the Chartreuse, realizes that "interior silence" and "interior solitude" do not suffice, by themselves, to guarantee a purely contemplative life. Interior silence may well be the refuge of the monk engaged in a more or less active life, who seeks God in moments of recollection. But the best way to foster interior silence is to preserve exterior silence, and the best way to have interior solitude is not to be alone in a crowd but to be simply and purely alone. The purpose of this solitude is to enable the monk to l ive alone with God in an atmosphere which is most propitious for deep interior prayer. Corporate and liturgical prayer are important in the life of the Church and of the monk but they do not of themselves satisfy the deep need for intimate contact with God in solitary prayer, a need which constitutes the peculiar vocation of the contemplative soul. Liturgical prayer remotely disposes for the grace of contemplation. And this gift

of God, like all his other gifts, is granted to souls as an outpouring of the infinite riches he gives us, in Christ, and in the Mass. But the true fruition of this special gift is not usually possible unless our Eucharistic Communion is somehow prolonged in silent adoration. The hermit's whole life is a life of silent adoration.

_________________________

Adapted from Saint of the Day by Leonard Foley, OFM, 197L~, p l39;. Penguin Dictionary of the Saints by D. Attwater; – The Silent Life by T. Merton (B & O, London, 1957) pp112-3.

   http://www.abbazie.com/camaldoli/visita_it.html  

Time passes and eternity approaches

View in Camaldoli

The Hermitage

What to see in the hermitage? Surely the old cell of St. Romuald, now incorporated in the building of the library.

In the oratory of the hermitage you can see the altarpiece "Madonna and Child with Saints", a masterpiece in terracotta by Andrea della Robbia. 

Fascinating is totally frescoed the vault.

Joseph-Marie Cassant, Beatified 2004

The beatification was celebrated on October 3, 2004, Saint Peter's Square, Rome.
(Fr. Raymond) 

Prayer Beatification,   

O Lord. Glory of the lowly,

who inspired a burning love

for the Eucharist in Blessed Joseph Mary,

and led him into the desert

through the Heart of Jesus;

grant, we beseech you,

that by his intercession and example

we may prefer nothing to Christ,

that he may bring us to life everlasting.

Who lives and reigns...
 

COMMENT: Fr. Raymond introduced   the Memorial Mass of Bl. Joesph-Marie Cassant. He said it was a poignant occasion that he and Abbot Kevin (Roscrea) were at the beatification October 2004, St. Peter's Square, Rome. They were attending the General Chapter and all the members had been given the first class Relic of the Cistcercian Monk from the monastery of Desert Abbey.

Today, I will be placing the Relic on the altar, praying with Bl. Joseph_Marie for voccations.      

         

Friday, 17 June 2011

Letter of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant to his parents

Letter of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant to his parents

23 December 1902 / 24 May 1903).

Everything for the Heart of Jesus!

My dear Parents,

Christmas is here, like dawn of the new year; let us not let it pass without examining our thoughts. First, it must be said that this year has been a year of graces for the whole family: on 22 February the diaconate opened the door to the priesthood and on 12 October we saw the fulfillment of all our longings.We would be most ungrateful if we didn't see in all this the special protection of the Heart of Jesus.

For such a long time we hoped against hope to be able to have the whole family together after my ordination so as to share the joy of being present and receiving communion together at my first Mass. The good Lord heard our deepest wishes. It now remains to us to thank him and to enter more and more deeply into the greatness of the priesthood. Let us never dare to equate the Sacrifice of the Mass with earthly things.

So I wish you all a good, happy and holy New Year, in every way. No more worries! You all know that I am a priest now and will never forget you.

Let us be resolved to take advantage of the time given us in this life, which can be compared to water which flows away, to a puff of smoke which the smallest breath scatters, or to a flash of lightning which splits the clouds and then vanishes. Nevertheless, this brief time on earth must be well spent. To this purpose, we must do all out of love, being one with the Heart of Jesus, and rejecting any useless worries.

The best thing I can hope for is that you ever abide as one in the Heart of Jesus. Thank you for your letter, written by your very heart!

I have just received the beautiful photos, and I thank you. They will make a fine family memento. May the Heart of Jesus be praised in all this. I want you always to revere this Heart, which is enshrined in your house. Let us be one in the Heart of Jesus as we beg his protection.

As for my health, it is always problematic. I am very well cared for. I am not going to any of the community exercises, but still, with the heat, my breathing is somewhat difficult. I also have a cold which is making me cough. All for the Heart of Jesus!

I end with the wish that we always be one in the Heart of Jesus, on earth as in Heaven.

Website:  abbayedudesert.com

I think of the Novice Master, Fr. Andrew Hart, at Nunraw.

Andrew would lend the Novices the manuscripts of one Andre Malet’s writings.

Fr. Andrew has succeeded keeping awake after the Night Office by translating Malet’s La Vie Surnaturelle 1933. Hopefully I will find the whole of the lost copy.

P.S. In fact, we find Fr. Andrew's translation writen the Second part of 'The Spirutal Life''.

  
The first chapters indicate pages in ascetical theology.

 The teachers exercise book, including graph pages, is impressive manuscript.
At 238 Mary may bring to Mystical Theology.

Joseph-Marie Cassant (1878-1903), biography

1. www.vatican.va/news_services/.../ns_lit_doc_20041003_cassant_en.html
   

   
   

   3 Oct 2004 - Official Vatican biography of the beatified Trappist priest, with a photo and a link to Pope John Paul II's homily upon Blessed Joseph-Marie's ...

     The Cistercian Soul of
          Joseph Marie
(for after his unpublished notes) 

Author: Cheneviere, PME 

Dear William,

It gives the greatest reassurance in the Blog surfing in the sundry seas and varied visibilities. No doubt, my Pole Star is identifiable in my hemisphere-life?

Thank you for the help and joy of sharing.

Yours ...

Donald

P.S. Your Comments make irreplaceable compendium, recapitulation. The safety store looks for pursuit of explore.  .

 Fw: Much Delight in your Blog

On Saturday, 14 June 2014,
William wrote:

Dear Father Donald,

I am so pleased that the spiral-bound copy of Nouwen's book on the four icons arrived safely. I was so pleased to discover them!

I was delighted to see the photos of Br S...'s great day, for himself and for the Community. I sent him a little souvenir, a pamphlet 'He is Risen' of a meditation by Thomas Merton, who will be a good companion for him throughout his life.

I have been for several days holding a three-tier ladder ...

Your presentation of PSALM 119 is so beautiful on your Blog - how proud I am to have been able to assist in that project!  I discovered for Jim a NAVARRE commentary on the Psalms to encourage him, and he has been taking delight in the Hebrew alphabet (he can recite the Lord's prayer in Aramaic!).

Your article of your Sister Mary's connection to Mother Joanna gave me much delight - I could SO relate to the description of folk on the London bus (even on an Edinburgh bus whenever I leave Nunraw), and to her own joy that is to be found in painting. Her mural is fabulous.

The icon of the Virgin of Kazan so put me in mind of the icon of Our Lady below the heraldic shield in your Church. Mother Joanna is right, "art is part of our reflective process". Thank you for introducing me into this 'reflective' world!

Your Blog is my best companion - thank you Father!

With my love in Our Lord,

William