Wednesday 8 April 2015

Dom Donald's Blog: Emmaus Easter Week

 
Patriarch_Fouad_Twal_Latin_Patriarch_of_Jerusalem_Credit_Latin_Patriarchate_of_J
   This morning, Easter Wednesday 2015, the very name of Cleopas  reminded me of Sabbatical at Latroun Abbey, Emmaus, and reinforced by the time hour by Luke, "It is early evening," they said, "and the day is almost over".


As on the occasion in 2004, and traditionally the Patriarch from Jerusalem celebrates the Mass......

      

Dom Donald's Blog: Emmaus Easter Monday:       Website: Latroun perso.wanadoo.fr/augustin.tavardon/ + + + Emmaus (Nikopolis)  http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/emmaus.htm ...     

     



Wednesday, 11 April 2012


Emmaus Easter Monday

 

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Emmaus (Nikopolis)

 http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/emmaus.htm                 

Supper at Emmaus (Bassono J.)

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Wednesday in the Octave of  Easter



Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
  
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:13-35.

Dear William,
Thank for the greeting from your Paschal Tide break in Parma, at the Cistercian Abbey (under1560) at FONTEVIVO.
This morning, in the Intersessions we prayed for:
"The Monks of Latroun Abbey, Israel, remembering Cleopas and his companion meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Latronus, the Good Thief."
And at the Gospel today, I am awakened all the experiences of the Holy Land Sabbatical which surges to the surface.
Below, the account of Emmaus from the Chronicle.

Yours ...
Donald



 (Email of May 2004)
Latroon Abbey

DEAR LIAM,
- - -
Of interest is the collection of pictures which seems to use help memory.

I hope you are all enjoying Venice.
Best Paschal Tide wishes.
 ...
My time is getting short in the Holy Land  - deadline 29th May.
I should be winding down but the opposite is more the case
I could use all my days here with so much interest, and making up for 33 missed years of Biblical study.
   
News from an Email correspondent tells me that six priests in Scotland have had threats on their lives.
IT IS MUCH SAFER TO LIVE IN ISRAEL!

God Bless.


Emmaus Easter Monday 2004
On the strength of the Night Office Reading on Easter Monday, I thought this must be the special day of Latroun, the day of Latronus, the Good Thief. (“The Cross opens to us today the locked paradise. For today God introduces there, the thief. So that He achieves two great wonders; He opens paradise and he brings in the robber. He gives to him His own heritage, He leads him in to the city of his Father. “Today, he says, you will be with me in paradise” John Chrysostom).
Br. Benoit had fuller information on the situation for me. This is also Emmaus Day, recalling the Resurrection meeting of the two disciples with Jesus. What is in a name? Historically there is a whole string of ancient interpretations of the name ending with the decision of a British Cartographer fixing on Latroun. Br. Benoit looks back further than even his 86 years. In the Hebrew the ancient name signified a ‘look out’, a spot from which one could keep guard over a wide vista. The Romans had a fortress here-abouts long before the Crusaders’ Templar Toron (Tower). And before the Jordanians and Israelis were locked together in disputing the same location, evidently, the British made their mark. Maybe that Cartographer who specified Latroun on his Map was a Welsh Methodist from the Rhonda Valley. It is said that, “Lloyd-George’s political advisers were unable to train his mind on the map of Palestine during negotiations prior to the Treaty of Versailles, due to his training by fundamentalist Christian parents and churches on the geography of ancient Israel. Lloyd-George admitted that he was far more familiar with the cities and regions of Biblical Israel than with the geography of his native Wales, or of England itself” (from an essay on the British and Christian Zionism).
Emmaus
      
So bridging the gap between the Biblical origins and modern history is the Christian tradition in which Latroun is well established. Br. Benoit went on to explain that the Good Thief was named Dismas and lived nearby. His wife was Egyptian and she and the family received the faith as a result of the death of Dismas beside Jesus on the Cross. And complete this setting of the scene, the Church of Latroun is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, the transept on one side is dedicated to St. Dismas, the Good Thief, and the other transept is dedicated toSt. Cleophas and his friend, the disciples who joined Jesus at Emmaus, (Lk. 24:18, Jn. 19:25). Since the altars are stripped in good post Vatican II style, it would be nice to replace them with a good icon designed for each transept. The subjects would be very relevant even if the geography and other details may not be all that Canonical. Who is going to quibble about such problems? Certainly not His Beatitude Michel, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He is coming the this afternoon on his Easter Monday round of the three places commemorating Emmaus, i.e. Emmaus (Latroun), Emmaus Qubeibah (OFM), and Emmaus Abu Gosh (OSB). Cleophas, according to tradition, was martyred for his faith and is also buried here. So I am quite happy with Emmaus-Nikopolus (Latroun), knowing full well that the other locations were only heard of at the time when the Crusaders first brought their own latest Exegetes from Europe.
I heard the French Gospel this morning and it mentioned a 2 hour walk from Jerusalem and that would fit perfectly - not that I intend to test it by walking. (TOB, Ecumenical Bible used in Liturgy  “Ephata – Missal of the Christian Life”, “towards a village called Emmaus, a two hour walk from Jerusalem. Lk. 24:13”. Sadly this favoured version cannot be accepted by the textual critics. )

 Community of the Beatitudes at Emmaus
In the evening of Easter Monday any of the community at Latroun who wished could go along the road to the site of the ancient Byzantine Basilica, to join the Community of the Beatitudes and the Pilgrims for this Easter Evening Mass.
While we waited for transport, Alex and I looked for a CAROB tree I was curious to identify. Sure enough there was one right there and plenty of these evergreen trees here and at Emmaus. And the HUSKS of last year were still to be seen to satisfy my curiosity about Luke  15:16, (And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them), to complete a detail of the “Prodigal Son”.It is also recounted of Saint Sabas, when he first came here, to Nikopolus c. 500, that he lived off the husks and leaves of the carob tree.
Baptismal fondations of the Emmaus Basilica
Titular Bishop of Emmaus. For the Mass, there was plenty of space in the ancient nave but one could only call the congregation a “little flock”. One of the two assistant Bishops, Mgr. Marcuzzo, is based in Nazareth but he is the Titular Bishop of Emmaus. His Homily was beautifully appropriate to the place and to the occasion. He looked out on the plain of Ayalon all around us and recalled the Biblical instance here in which Joshua delayed the sun in order to attain the rout of his enemies, (Jg. 1:35, Jos. 10:12). Bishop Marcuzzo had a lovely thought on,  “Rest here a while with us”, see Lk. 24:29, drawing the parallel of the “SUN” waiting until the Israelites reached their aim, and the “SON” of God in the soul warming account of the encounter with the disciples.

Tiles preserved in the Basilica
 Incidentally, St. Cleophas’s companion is not left anonymous in the Liturgy of the Holy Land, - The name of St. Simeon appears on the stage at this point in the prayers. When it is said to be apocryphal I begin to see that the word is not entirely negative. Taken in the technical sense of an Apocryphal source it can be understood among other respected traditions.   
The evening sun, 5.00 p.m., was so hot that there was a shift of seats to allow the Bishops and Concelebrants to use the shade of the ruins. I watched the Paschal Candle, in the full blaze of sun, gradually bend over in the heat and I felt urged to move it. Eventually it wilted, and fell over - at the point where it was ‘well caught, Sir’ in one hand by one of the Brothers, who had the very ornate Patriarch’s Crosier in his other hand. - This sleepy observer picks up the most peculiar things, - and forgets the impressive things like the music.
Latroon View the Crusader Fort
The Community of the Beatitudes gave us great singing. The first two Readings were in Arabic, the Gospel in French. At the conclusion all were invited to the Museum for a ‘party’ i.e., refreshments. The mini-bus brought us and the borrowed vestments and altar fittings back home to Latroun, just as the abbey Vespers ended.



Old Crusade Fort above the Abbey
 

Tuesday 7 April 2015

The Turin Shroud - a relic of the resurrection? Unbelievable? - Wednesday 23rd April 2014 02:30 am

Turin-Shroud-Evidence-main_article_image


   Youtube from http://www.premierchristianradio.com
    
    The Turin Shroud - a relic of the resurrection? Unbelievable? - Wednesday 23rd April 2014 02:30 am   

  +++++++++++++++ 
Unbelievable? Is the Turin Shroud the burial cloth
of Christ? Alan Whanger vs Hugh Farey
FavouriteShare
   http://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Is-the-Turin-Shroud-the-burial-cloth-of-Christ-Alan-Whanger-vs-Hugh-Farey?utm_source=Premier+Christian+Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5545575_IGNITE%3a+7%2f4%2f15&utm_content=turin&dm_i=16DQ,3AUZR,6S5VQ6,BTCNI,1 
Saturday 4th April 2015 - 02:30 pm
Two guests with different views on the authenticity of the Turin Shroud
join Justin to debate following his feature documentary on the Shroud.
Alan Whanger has spent decades researching the shroud and believes he
has seen images on it that link it to 1st Century Israel. Hugh Farey has spent
decades surveying shroud literature and has come to the conclusion it is
medieval in origin.
Get the MP3
For Justin's magazine feature ‘Shrouded in Mystery’:http://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2015/April-2015/Shrouded-in-mystery
For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable
Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter
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Aemiliana Lohr "The divine simplicity which is fed on the Church's milk is faith, that childlike power which makes us invincible..."

A Word in Season - Augustin Press 2001
Night Office ...
     

OCTAVE OF: EASTER
TUESDAY Year I
First Reading
1 Peter 1:22-23; 2:1-10
            Responsory      1 Pt 2:5.9
Build yourselves like living stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. + Offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, alleluia.
V. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people God has claimed as his Own. + Offer spiritual sacrifices ...
         
Second Reading          From the writings of Aemiliana Lohr
(Dns Herrenjahr Band IT, 154-157

Our youth is renewed
Easter has made Christ's resurrection a present reality for ourselves; we have risen with him. Our life in Christ that began with our baptism has been renewed. Christ our God has led us from death to life. No matter how long ago the day of our bap­tism, time and space count for nothing in the sacred mystery. It has happened now; it is now that we have put on the new being. That is the great joy of Easter: our youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The baptized are children; they remain children not in the sense of an infantile immaturity but in the sense of a divine originality and simplicity. They have put on Christ, and as he is essentially a son, their share in him has changed their nature and made them the Father's children too. Nothing of the corrupting complexity and sterile multifariousness of the world can remain in those who have been regenerated through Christ and have risen again to divine youth. Their thinking has become childlike in its Simplicity, because they stand with God above the disunity of the world in a second, eternal childhood.

Christ said: Whoever will not accept the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.
This divine childhood may, however, grow old and die unless it finds appropriate nourishment. We hear a maternal warning in the Church's call to us: Like newborn children, desire the pure milk of the spirit. There is nothing feeble about the nourishment the Church our mother offers her children. It is the he­roic blood of her crucified Bridegroom, the conqueror of death and hell, which makes us invincible too, childlike and strong at one and the same time. It makes us strong, in fact, because it makes us childlike. That is the nourishment which produces children and conquerors, the food we must long for.
We already know the nature of that divine food which is to nourish our new childhood. It is Christ, the incarnate Word of the Father, the sacrifice of the new covenant, dwelling in us through God's Holy Spirit. Christ is the milk on which the Church our mother rears her children, not to the false maturity of the world but to the abiding and everlasting childhood of the children of God. It is this holy and heavenly milk which Clement of Alexandria praises in the hymn at the end of his book Teacher:

Jesus Christ, you are the heavenly milk
flowing eagerly from the gentle breast
of your gracious bride, your wisdom;
gather your children in simplicity around you
so that in pure song, with innocent tongue,
they may call you holy,
Christ, the leader of youth.

The divine simplicity which is fed on the Church's milk is faith, that childlike power which makes us invincible and gives every Christian dominion over the world. In the dying martyr, the barren virgin, and the despised monk, faith achieves triumphs of life such as those who are sated with the world's pleasures long for in vain. The victory that conquers the world is faith.
And what is the essence of this faith? Let us listen to Saint John: Who are the conquerors of the world, if not those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Faith in the redemption of the world by the incarnate Son of God, faith in his cross and resurrection, faith in the Lord who lives on in his Church, faith in the divine life that dwells in our own hearts - in a word, the faith of Easter was and is the invincible strength of the Church and her children. The divine simplicity of that faith solves every problem, overcomes every need, and surrounds those who in the eyes of the world perish in disgrace with the glory of an eternal resurrection in God.

            Responsory      Rom 6:4.3
By our baptism we were buried with Christ, we shared in his death,
+ so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life, alleluia.
V. By being baptized into Christ Jesus, we have all shared in his death, + so that as ...

Lohr, Aemiliana (1896-1972), born in Dusseldorf, Germany, studied literature and philosophy at the University of Cologne and taught before entering the Benedictine monastery of Herstelle in Germany in 1927. For several years she was chronicler and annalist, but most of her life was given to writing. She was thoroughly familiar with the works of Ildefonse Schuster, Pius Parsch, and Odo Casei on the popular explanation of the liturgy. In her book, The Church's Year of Grace, her mind soars above his­torical and philological detail to grasp the actual reality of each Mass. She is the author also of The Great Week.

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  Saturday, April 7, 2012   

An idea, "the happiness of guilt" - Holy Saturday

The church has settled at the grave to weep. She looks where they have laid their Lord, where the woman has laid the Adam where it buried the people where it has the man overthrown by his advice (see FIG. Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 80). She sees it and cries.
She weeps at the tomb of the Lord, as the Lord at the tomb of Lazarus wept: the death of people over the grave of life, about the sin that killed the author of life. 
Jesus is laid in the grave - 
Stations of the Cross in the Church of St. Blaise, Glottertal

But her tears flow gently and quietly. It is no longer the painful lament of Sunday Septuagesima, they rocked. The death of Adam has lost its terror at the tomb of Christ. The death of obedience has deleted sin. No longer crashes the "massa damnata" from sin to sin, from death to death down, but the body of the obedient rests in hope. An idea of ​​the "happiness of guilt" that "such and so great a Redeemer was invented worth" ... makes the show end (the church and the soul) calm and hopeful.
 Aemiliana Löhr OSB: The manor year. The mystery of Christ in Ordinary of the Church . 2. Tape the fourth edition. Regensburg 1942. 63f.  (Trs. from German) 
  https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Aemiliana+L%C3%B6hr&fr=dss_yset_chr