Wednesday 29 October 2014

Jerusalem - Dominus Flevit Thursday 30th Oct 2014

Thursday  30th Oct 2014 Facebook
 https://www.facebook.com/goodnewsofjesuschrist/timeline?filter 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13:31-35.
...
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! 
Behold, your house will be abandoned. (But) I tell you, you will not see me until (the time comes when) you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Commentary of the day : 

Saint John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005 
Apostolic Letter “Redemptionis anno”, April 1984 

“Jerusalem…
How often have I wanted to gather your children together”

In addition to its renowned and magnificent monuments, Jerusalem has living communities of believing Christians, Jews and Muslims, whose presence is a pledge and a source of hope for the nations, which in all parts of the world look towards the Holy City as towards a spiritual patrimony and a sign of peace and of concord. Yes, as the homeland of the heart of all the spiritual descendants of Abraham who have a deep love for it, and as a place where, for the eyes of faith, God’s infinite transcendence and created things meet, Jerusalem is a symbol of gathering, of union and of peace for the whole human family. The Holy City thus includes a firm call for peace to all of humankind and in particular to all who adore the one great God, the merciful Father of all peoples. Alas! We have to admit that Jerusalem continues to be a reason for rivalry, violence and territorial claims.

This situation and these thoughts bring to our lips the words of the prophet: “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet. Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.” (Isa 62:1) We think of the day, and we await it with impatience, when we shall all truly be “taught by God” (Jn 6:45), so that we might hear his message of reconciliation and peace. We think of the day when Jews, Christians, and Muslims will be able to share with one another in Jerusalem the greeting of peace, which Jesus addressed to his disciples after his resurrection: “Peace be with you.” (Jn 20:19)

Quick Information

The chapel was built by the Italian Antonio Barluzzi in 1955, recalls weeping of Jesus over the city of Jerusalem.

Detailed Information

Before Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, he looked up from the Mount of Olives to the city. He wept over it, because he foresaw the disaster that would make the Jewish people, because it would not recognize him as the Messiah (Lk 19.41 to 44).
19,37ff Luke 37 And when he was already close to the slope of the Mount of Olives, began the whole multitude of the disciples, with joy to praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, Blessed is he who comes, the king, in the name of the Lord! Peace be in heaven and glory in the highest! 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him: Teacher, but thy disciples rightly! 40 He answered and said, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem 41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city andwept over it , 42 saying: If you, even you knew at that time, which make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.43 For the time will come upon you when your enemies are around you a Wall pose, surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and you raze and thy children in thee, and no stone on the other, can be in you, because you did not recognize the time in which you were afflicted. 



The "Dominus Flevit Church" recalls today that event. Since the 16th century, this place is set with the grief of Jesus about the fate of Jerusalem in connection.
1881 acquired the Franciscans of this site, which was on a procession from the Mount of Olives to the Holy Sepulchre . Establishing this church came when the Franciscans at this point unearthed an old cemetery and it came across the remains of a monastery and a church dating from the 5th century. Built in 1955 by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi the new chapel, the original mosaics there were left where they had found it. The roof was the shape of a teardrop. Instead eastward, as required by the rule, the church is oriented to the west. The Dominus Flevit Church is primarily known for their interior shots: Through a window behind the altar has a unique view of the Old City and the Temple Mount. 

Monday 27 October 2014

Saint Jude in Dublin - for the Hopeless

COMMENT:
On occasion in Dublin, in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes I found the the special statute of St. Jude
This is the obvious devotion to Saint Jude "the Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired"
The body of St Jude was taken to Rome. Statue of St. Jude Thadeus in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran by Lorenzo Ottoni..

I look again to search for the photograph taken  in Dublin. 




St. Jude, statue in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Sean Macdermot Street Lower, Dublin.
Below; the Last Supper (Leonardo), 
Apostles Thadeus and Simon 28 October 2014
Youtube 

  Discovering our Saints - Sts. Simon and Jude




He is the patron
of the Chicago Police Department


Tradition has it that Jude the Apostle, patron saint of lost causes, preached in Judea and Samaria and later Syria, Iraq and Libya, before being martyred in Beirut. According to legend King Abgar of the small Aramaic kingdom of Edessa wrote to Christ during-His lifetime offering Him sanctuary, to which Jesus replied with an image of himself, and after His death St Thomas sent Jude to the king, who was cured of his ailment (historically Edessa did have a Christian presence in the first century).

As a result, Jude is traditionally shown holding an image of Jesus by his heart. Alternatively, he is shown with a flame over his head, signifying his presence at Pentecost as one of the 70 who received the Holy Spirit. For obvious reasons his life story is somewhat patchy - as is his very identity. Jude the Apostle is sometime identified as Thaddeus, and is twice called Jude of James in the New Testament, and he may be the same as the "Jude , brother of Jesus", the traditional author of the Epistle of Jude.

One biography, although stemming from the 14th century and so of questionable veracity, states that Jude was born into a Jewish family in Galilee and was
the bridegroom at the wedding of Cana, and that his wife was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. (This is possible: it's likely that among Jesus's closest followers would have been relatives).

Jude, along with Bartholomew, is traditionally seen as bringing Christi­anity to Armenia, the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion. St Thaddeus Monastery in what is now northern Iran still stands today, on the grounds of a church that dates back to AD68, and Dominicans visitors to Armenia in the 13th century found a substantial devotion to
the saint.

He was martyred in AD65 along with Simon the Zealot. Sometime later his body was brought to Rome and placed in St Peter's Basilica, and he remains there with Simon. Along with many of the early relics, traditions abound about where they have remained down the years, including a lake in Kyrgyzstan.

Before that, though, it is said that pilgrims went to his grave and that he acquired the title "the Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired". He is also, due to the influence of the Dominicans and Claretians in the American Midwest, the patron saint of the Chicago Police Department.





COMMENTS on: Sunday, October 26, 2014. William.Pope Francis

Senor de los Milagros – the Lord of Miracles
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From William -
Fw: Comment: Mass Homily by Fr. Raymond

On Monday, 27 October 2014, 16:42, William Wardle <williamwardle2bp@btinternet.com> wrote:

Comment (if I may)
Dear Fathers,
Attending Church services and functions over the years, I have sensed in certain stalwarts an expression of confidence in their lives of devotion. They love the Lord their God by their attention to the decrees passed down over the centuries. Their devotion to the Sabbath, for example, produced at one meeting a stunning statement from one that they would never have taken a job that entailed their working on a Sunday (yet in an emergency, would they find the hospital closed? I remained silent).
Rather, I sense that Jesus was not delimiting the love of God to human observance but expanding it so far beyond human limitations as to reveal the full extent of God's love for us! God the Father embraces us, and asks each one of us to respond to His all embracing love.
The commandment is about our response to God's love, not as justified by our own structures of religion, to justify our inadequacy in the face of such overpowering love. We are not left to fall back on our own inadequacy and its justification: Jesus gave us His Spirit which cries out to us and for us.
The ocean of God's love stretches out before us as far as the eye can see. We cannot swim its entire length to reach those distant far shores of devotion and saintliness, but we can delight in the water of life that supports us in our endeavour. Sometimes, I think there is even greater joy in discovering that we are able to float freely upon such waters! Such is the love of God.
Yet dreaming of those far distant shores,
With my love in Our Lord,
William  
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Pope Francis: Love of God and neighbour are inseparable

Pope Francis: Love of God and neighbour are inseparable | Pope Francis, Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict, Angelus,
El Senor de los Milagros
“Today's Gospel reminds us that the whole law of God is summed up in love for God and neighbour,” said Pope Francis,  during his address to pilgrims before the Angelus in St Peter's Square on Sunday. In his reflections on the day's Gospel readings,  the Holy Father said:  “You cannot love God without loving your neighbour and you cannot love your neighbour without loving God.”
 
The “novelty” of Christ’s teaching consists in the union of the two commandments, he said.  Pope Francis also recommended the reflection of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. on the teaching, which is found in paragraphs 16-18 of his first Encyclical letter, Deus caritas est. See below*
Pope Francis went on to say:  “Jesus completes the law of the covenant, which He unites in himself, in his flesh, divinity and humanity, in a single mystery of love,” and, “In the light of the word of Jesus, love is the measure of faith, and faith is the soul of love: we cannot separate the religious life – the life of piety – from that of service to our brothers and sisters – to those flesh-and-blood brothers and sisters we actually meet.”
Following the Angelus, Pope Francis recalled the beatification, on Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, of Mother Assunta Marchetti: the Italian-born co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of St Charles Borromeo, known as “Scalabrinians” after the late 19th century bishop of Piacenza, Giuseppe Scalabrini, who helped found the missionary congregation originally dedicated to maintaining Catholic faith and practice among emigres to the New World, which now focuses its missionary work on migrants, refugees and displaced persons.
“Blessed Assunta Marchetti saw Jesus present in the poor, in orphans, in the sick, in migrants, said Pope Francis. “We thank the Lord for this woman,” he continued, “a model of tireless missionary spirit and courageous dedication to the service of charity,” who serves as an example and a confirmation of the truth that we can and must seek the face of God in the brother and sister in need.”
Pope Francis also had greetings for pilgrims from all over Italy and from around the world, especially those of the Schoenstatt movement, with whom he met on Saturday, and for the Peruvian community in Rome, which came to the Angelus in procession with an image of El Senor de los Milagros – the Lord of Miracles – an image of Christ crucified that was painted by an anonymous freed slave in the 17th century in Lima, and that has become a focus of deep veneration and intense devotion, especially among Peruvians.
Source: Vatican Radio
*From Pope benedict's Deus caritas est

Sunday 26 October 2014

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A 26 Oct 2014

News: put one hour back
Alarm clock

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Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A 26 Oct 2014
Mass Homily by Fr. Raymond
 
October, falling leaves  

Saint Matthew 22:34-40. 
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees  ...

The Gospel scene opens with a collusion between the Scribes and the Pharisees to get the better of Jesus.  As far as they were concerned he was just a young upstart of a wandering preacher who was stealing the respect of the crowds away from themselves who were, in their own eyes, the true guardians of  Israel’s law.  Normally these two groups hated each other and would have nothing to do with each other.  They both had different theological viewpoints, especially about the resurrection of the body.  The wily St Paul used this difference to his own advantage when they both accused him at his trial before the Romans of being a trouble maker.
However, Jesus it seems,  doesn’t take this matter any further because the question they asked of him was such an important one and he didn’t want to confuse the issue of a basic answer to a basic question, even though the question wasn’t asked in good faith.  They were only trying to set a trap for him. They knew very well what was the greatest commandment: the commandment that came from the Book of Deuteronomy: “ Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength”.

This basic commandment, even though it is pre-christian, seems at first sight to be impossible of fulfilment even in the Christian era!  Who could ever aspire to love the lord God with all his heart and all his soul and all his strength?  Jesus immaculate Mother herself would seem to be the only one who could aspire to such heights.  But God doesn’t ask the impossible of us.  At the same time as giving us this commandment he gives us an inner power, not only to fulfil it but even to surpass it.  He gives us the gift of his divine spirit poured into our hearts so that we now have his own divine power within us with which to love.  By the gift of this Spirit we are caught up into the very ambit of the Divine life of Love itself.

Friday 24 October 2014

.."We’re together, you and I."

COMMENT: 
Too many irons in the forge; I save from the briefest paragraph, speaking of  'HE AND i', is relief from too much verbiage of the 'lectio' of froth on the surfs of addled brain.
Another octogenarian in the community celebrated Fr. Leonard 80th. birthday. Leonard has his afternoon constitutional walking 
hills and braes.
Festive music rejoiced us  in the "Te Deum" and other Chuch Music by John Rutter, conductor,  Cambridge Singers ...


“We’re together, you and I."

“you and I”, Gabrielle Bossis.
1942
     
        
June 30 -  After Communion.
   "Why not decide for the highest perfection? No need to make any vow; it might be a source of anxiety to you. Just make up your mind not merely to do things well, but as perfectly as you can. It would add to My glory. Sinners too would have their share of the benefit. Don't be afraid; be daring. We’re together, you and I."