"Privileges of Mary". - talk of Fr. Raymond.

COMMENT:

It so happened to be the Feast of Our Lady of Aberdeen.  

What better about life of monks than life of

"Privileges of Mary".  - talk of Fr. Raymond.

     Pending Solemnity of St. Benedict - Chapter Sermon, Br. Philip......

Fw: Wednesday Community Talk about monastic life 

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Sent: Friday, 10 July 2015, 15:41     

Subject: Wednesday Community Talk about monastic life

Sent from my iPad.  

    

PRIVILEGES OF MARY by Fr. Raymond

“Who is this that comes up from the desert flowing with delights?” “Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising?” Who is this?  Who is she?  By these poetic questions the Holy Spirit seeks to inspire in us a holy curiosity about Mary, a desire to know the purpose he had in so favouring her and placing her in the centre of his plan of Grace for the salvation of mankind.

Pope John XXIII gives is a clue to the answer when he says that: “Devotion to Mary is the way par excellence of reaching an understanding of the  teaching of the Divine Master.  It is the best way of learning how to conform our lives to the vocation by which we are called the children of God.  In effect, all of what we call Mary’s Privileges are essentially connected with the personal relationship of each individual one of us with our God.  Her privileges are not just great favours bestowed on her alone to raise her above us, rather they are in fact great divine pledges deposited in her as our representative to reveal the nature of God’s promises to mankind as a whole.  She is the perfect prototype or model, as it were, whose diverse graces of union with him are the ideal and perfect fulfilment of all that each of us may hope for.  The heart of the matter is that his dealings with her and his dealings with each individual soul are in a way, essentially the same; they differ only in manner and degree.  As Mary, for example was conceived immaculate in her beginning that she might be worthy to receive her God incarnate in her womb, so also shall we, in our end, will be  brought immaculate, without spot or wrinkle, into union with the same Lord.  So Mary’s privileges raise her above us only that we, her children may reach up to be where she is and to live ourselves on that same plane.  There were some in Our Lord’s own day who tried to distinguish between Mary’s relationship to him and our own:  “ Your Mother wants to speak to you”, they said.  But he answered in that  wonderful phrase: “It is all  of you who are mother and brother and sister to me.”

If we consider the privilege which all the other privileges were either a preparation for or a consequence of, namely her Divine Motherhood; even this, which is seemingly the most inaccessible of them all, is the one which affects us the most fundamentally.  Apart from inspiring us to enter into the spirit of that Fiat by  which she embraced the Incarnation, there is also the fact that from our very infancy we have grown up knowing this lady, this woman, this simple human creature like ourselves, and calling her Mother of God.  Thus, without realising it, we have instilled into our hearts that gracious and heavenly atmosphere off family relationship between God and man.  And thus the Holy Spirit finds our hearts perfectly dis “Abba, Father”.

Indeed as the Sun shines in the skies and calls forth life from nature by the very presence of its warmth, so does Mary shine in the spiritual atmosphere, calling forth the love of God from men just by what she is.

Thus Mary’s glories and privileges are  really revelations to us of God’s attitude towards us all.  We call her the Ark of the Covenant because she is the shrine in which he has placed the manna of heaven, the pledge of the eucharist; she is the Mirror of Holiness in which is reflected the fullness of the graces destined for all mankind.  Is it any wonder that we call her our sweetness and our hope?

For example, Mary’s, bodily assumption into heaven is a pledge and guarantee that the souls of all of God’s children will be reunited again with their bodies in eternity life, the same body, yet renewed and spiritualised, as St Paul tells us.

We might say that Mary is God’s second Word.  The first Word is his expression of himself as he is in himself and issues in the living Person of his Son, who became incarnate.  The second is his expression of himself as he is reflected in us and issues in the living person of Mary, full of grace.  Again, dare we say that Jesus cannot show us, in himself, the perfect relationship he desires us to have towards himself – relationship is a two-way thing – the One to the Other.  Mary is that perfect Other whom we must strive to imitate.  Jesus is the Song that the God of love sings to us, and Mary is the perfect personification of the Song that we should strive to sing back to God.    

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)     

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OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN FEAST 9th July 2015

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Homily for the Feast of our Lady of Aberdeen

BISHOP HUGH'S

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN

 RCDA

 15/07/2014

In the Lady Chapel of the church of Notre Dame du Finistère in Brussels stands a statue of our Lady holding the infant Jesus. It’s made of wood, oak, and the figure of Jesus of beech. It’s just over 4 feet 4 inches high, 134 centimetres. And the statue is venerated under the title of Our Lady of Good Success.

We know the story. The statue has been dated to the 15th c. It may have begun life in the Cathedral of St Machar in Aberdeen. At the Reformation, it was protected from destruction, and in the 17th c. shipped to the Low Countries for safe-keeping. For many years it was venerated in an Augustinian monastery in Brussels. Then came the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and more destruction. Again the statue was hidden till in 1814 it found its present site in Notre Dame du Finistère.

And this, of course, is the statue known to us as Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of Aberdeen. We have never been able to retrieve the original, but since the late 19th c. many copies have been made. The oldest, I think, is the one in the entrance hall of Bishop’s House. It has been there since 1895 and came by courtesy of the Sacred Heart sisters. There are other copies here: in St Peter’s down the road, Our Lady of Aberdeen, Kincorth, St Mary’s, Blairs, St John’s, Fetternear, St Nathalan’s in Ballater and St Peter’s, Buckie. There is also an icon written by Br Aidan Hart and reproduced on today’s leaflet. Tomorrow the statue from St Peter’s will be carried through the streets of St Andrews for a Mass in the ruins of the Cathedral there. New Dawn Scotland have adopted Our Lady of Aberdeen as their patroness.

We don’t worship statues. We venerate them because of who they represent. They are signs, pointers, reminders, icons, windows on heaven. They express our devotion and stimulate it. By way of this statue we venerate the mother of Jesus. We venerate her here as Our Lady of Aberdeen or Our Lady of Good Success. She is now the principal patron of the city and diocese. Her feast day is today, and has recently become a feast for all Scotland.

That we venerate this statue, tell this story, keep this feast means something. It’s a sign, first, of the rebirth of the Catholic faith in this part of the world since the 19th c.  Late medieval Aberdeen was a place deeply devoted to our Lady. The cathedral in Old Aberdeen was then dedicated to St Mary as well as St Machar. What we know now as King’s College began as St Mary’s College, and the present King’s College Chapel was (and is) dedicated to our Lady in her Nativity. Bishop William Elphinstone, who died 500 years ago this year, had what’s called the Snowkirk built as the parish church of Old Aberdeen. The remains now enclose a cemetery. It was called the Snowkirk because dedicated to our Lady of the Snows, after the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. That church had captured the bishop’s heart during a visit and he wanted Aberdeen to have a smaller edition of it. Then there’s the Bridge over the River Dee, the Brig O’Dee, first built by Bishop Gavin Dunbar, Bishop Elphinstone’s successor. It’s Aberdeen’s link with the south. Again and again, attempts to bridge the Dee had failed. But Bishop Dunbar chose the right spot, as history has proved. He is said to have attributed this to Mary’s guidance. That is why there was a chapel to our Lady down by the river. And why when the church in Kincorth was built about fifty years ago, it was dedicated to our Lady of Aberdeen. Then, if you visit Provost Skene’s house and go up to the top of it, to what’s called the Painted Gallery, you will discover a series of paintings from the 17th c. which seem to represent the mysteries of the Rosary. Our Lady is prominent. And this from a time when Aberdeen was supposedly Protestant!

How deep run the currents of history and how surprisingly they can resurface! The ‘old faith’ has returned and, please God, like our ancestors we know that Christianity without Mary is somehow chilly and diminished. And this awareness has taken the form of devotion to Our Lady of Aberdeen. ‘Having entered deeply into the history of salvation,’ said Vatican II, ‘Mary, in a way, unites in her person and re-echoes the most important doctrines of the faith; and when she is the subject of preaching and honour she prompts the faithful to come to her Son, to his sacrifice and to the love of the Father’ (LG 65). She doesn’t distract us from the essential; she keeps us focussed.

But there’s something more. This statue / story / feast are a sign of God’s care for us. Through them, Christ is saying to us what he said to the beloved disciple in today’s Gospel: ‘behold your mother’. It’s so full of pathos and has such depths that scene! Jesus, certainly, is providing for his mother. He’s being a dutiful son. He’s keeping the 4th commandment, Honour your father and mother. The family was the only social security in those days. Now clearly, Joseph was dead by this time. And here is Mary’s only child dying before her eyes. No man to provide for her, then. So Jesus gives her his beloved disciple. He’s given the task of looking after Jesus’ mother. And in turn he takes her to his own home. But in the very same act Christ is providing for the disciple too. ‘Behold your mother’. This means he will be cared for too. He’s a disciple and if a disciple liable to suffer hostility for being such. He’s a disciple who’ll become a public witness, an apostle – no easy task. And so he’s given the companionship and tenderness and wisdom and holiness of the mother of Jesus. This is the disciple Jesus loved. And this gift of his mother is a sign of that love. And so it is for us. Our Lady of Aberdeen, of Good Success – this statue / story / feast – can be read as a sign Christ is looking at and loving us. He’s doing now what he did then. He’s entrusting us to one another. He’s seeing us as disciples, as witnesses and apostles. There’s a mission for us, here and now, and Mary will be beside us as we look for it and live it. ‘He took her to his own home’ – and into his heart and life. Let’s do the same: we can only be enriched and comforted and strengthened if we do.

Community Monthly Memorial of the Dead

7th July 2015, Monthly Memorial, 
Night Office

Second Reading

07/07/2015
Previously Sept.'97  

A Heading about Eternity, by Ernesto Cardenal

Death now no longer exists for us. Death for us was baptism, through which He shared in the death of Christ we died with Christ. Christ died for and instead of us, and now we need not die. Physical death is merely the beginning of eternal life, 'the condition of resurrection', as Athanasius says. He who has been baptised has passed through death. The other ‘death’ is not death, but meeting Christ.

Christ is 'the first-born of the dead', as St Paul says. This means Christ was the first (the first-born) to rise again, the first who passed from the womb of death out to the new life, and all those who follow Mm are like other children, brothers and sisters from the same mother’s womb, who follow the first-born down the same birth canal.

Death no longer exists for the monk. He has already overcome it. He who lives in union with God fears nothing, knows that nothing can hurt him now,

Whereas the world’s chief concern is the shortness of life, the shortness of time and the speed of days passing is our chief joy. We see time pass like an express train to a longed for destination, a happy meeting. Time is the train speeding to its destination, a train taking us to meet God.

It is not true that life is short. Our life is not short, it is eternal. He do not have death before us , but eternity. Were not born to die, but to live, to live eternally. We do not grieve that time passes so quickly, because life does not pass, only time passes (time which does not exist, the constant passing of the future into the past, and that which is not yet into that which no longer is) and eternity is coming, the ever-present present, without future or past, without end, life in an eternal present, eternal life. We do not fear death because we do not die, we only pass on to a more prefect life, more real, more living, more alive.

Like the caterpillar that falls asleep in its chrysalis and is changed into a butterfly.

From "love" by E Cardenal (Search Press, 1974), pp. 117- 118.

Ernesto Cardenal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernesto Cardenal at La Chascona (Santiago).

Ernesto Cardenal Martínez (born January 20, 1925) is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet and politician. He is a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years (1965–1977). A member of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left, he was Nicaragua's minister of culture from 1979 to 1987.

Ernesto Cardenal at San Diego State University, 2001

Sunday July 2015 Homily by Fr. Raymond

Jesus, Hometown rejected, Mark 6:1

 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Homily by Fr. Raymond 

“A Prophet has no honour among his own.”  (Mark 6: 1-6a)

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr. Raymond

To: Donald ...

Sent: Monday, 6 July 2015, 9:54
Subject: Prophets

14^th  Sunday  Ord.

When Jesus was wandering round the towns and villages preaching, one wonders whether he always had something different to say in his discourses, or whether, in fact, he often repeated himself.  Certainly he did repeat his teaching about the Eucharist at least once.   There was the symbolic feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves and the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves. And then, especially, there was the explicit teaching at the Last Supper about the bread of life. That certainly underlines for us the importance of his teaching about the eucharist,  but what about other things he taught?  Did he develop a stock list of important parables and go on repeating them wherever he went? His time among us was to be very  short and he had a great many things to teach us.  

He even once said to his apostles, when he was leaving this world for good, that he still had many things to say to them, but they weren’t able to grasp them yet until he would send his Holy Spirit to teach them.

However, there is one lesson he taught that was so tied to the time and place where it was taught that it could hardly have been taught in any other context.  This is the scene that’s put before us in today’s Gospel.  The setting is Jesus very own town of Nazareth where he had lived with Mary his Mother and Joseph; where he had settled after his return from Egypt; where he had grown up and where all his relatives and friends were; where he had worked among them as a carpenter.  These people knew him just as one of themselves.  

They knew he hadn’t had any special education or training as a Rabbi.  Yet here he was, just a young upstart, posing to be better than them and claiming to be able to teach even his elders.  Certainly there were these amazing gifts of healing he had, but that should go hand in hand with a due understanding of his humble place among them.

These were the sentiments that drew from Jesus that phrase that has become so proverbial in our culture: “A Prophet has no honour among his own.”  (Mark 6: 1-6a)

There is a lesson in this teaching that should play a large part in our every-day lives.  We must have the ability to appreciate the gifts and talents and qualities of those whom we associate with most closely every day.  

Above all this is true of the other members of our own family and household.  We can often take them so much for granted. 

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)    
Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

6th July - Saint Maria Goretti - Independent Catholic News and iBreviary Saints

  Blog Link
    6th July - Saint Maria Goretti - Independent Catholic News 

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Below iBreviary 'Saints'....

Santa Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr July 6 - Optional Memory

Corinaldo (Ancona), October 16, 1890 - Neptune, Rome, July 6, 1902 He was born in Corinaldo (Ancona) October 16, 1890, daughter of peasants Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini, Maria was the second of six children. The Goretti moved early in the Pontine Marshes. In 1900 his father died, his mother had to start working and left to Mary commissioned to look after the house and to his brothers. At age eleven, Maria made ​​her First Communion and matured the intention of dying before committing sins. Alessandro Serenelli, a young man of 18, s' in love with Maria. On 5 July 1902 the assaulted and attempted to rape her. Its resistance killed accoltellandola.Maria died after an operation the next day, and before expiring forgave Serenelli. The murderess was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He repented and converted only after dreaming that Mary told him would reach Paradise. When he was released from prison after 27 years asked forgiveness from the mother of Mary. Maria Goretti was proclaimed a saint in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. (Avvenire) Etymology: Maria = loved by God, from the Egyptian; lady, Hebrew Emblem: Palma Martyrology: Santa Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr, who spent a difficult childhood, helping her mother with the housework; assiduous in prayer, twelve years, to defend her chastity by the attacker, was killed with a dagger near Nettuno in Lazio.  Listen to Vatican Radio:      Listen to Radio Rai:      Listen to RadioMaria:

After the large number of virgin martyrs of the distant time of persecution against Christians, which in addition to rejecting the worship of idols, refused the offers and above all the sexual desires of their torturers, such as s. Lucia, s. Agate, s. Cecilia, s. Agnese, etc. There was a long time when the Church did not appear sensational figures of martyrs for purity. But in our time the Church has placed on the altars exemplary figures of young women and adolescents, and in defense of the virtue of purity, now so ignored, lost their lives in a violent manner, thus becoming martyrs. This is the case of the Blessed Pierina Morosini († 1957) of Fiobbio (Bergamo); the Blessed Carolina Kozka († 1914) in Poland; the Blessed Antonia Mesina († 1935) Orgosolo (Nuoro); the Servant of God Concetta Lombardo († 1948) of Staletti (Catanzaro), etc., before them there was a twelve year old Maria Goretti, the subject of this card, beatified in 1947 and canonised in 1950 by Pope Pius XII during that year Holy. Perhaps in our day to talk about the defense of extreme purity, does a little 'smile, given the prevailing laxity, the licentiousness of morals, free sex among many young people; but until a few years ago it was a good purity and virtue, to which especially all the girls kept as natural gift to be defended and preserved for a more complete love and blessed by the sacrament of marriage, or as a gift to offer to God a consecrated life. With the official recognition of the Church of this form of martyrdom, what until then could be considered, in the language of today, such as rape ended tragically for the resistance of the victim, took on a new light of martyrdom, since the staff spirituality of the victim, the concept of defense of purity as God's gift, the rebel consciously to death; s like to recall here. Domenico Savio which in its pure adolescence, said: "Death rather than sin." In this light should be seen the earthly life of Maria Goretti, born in Corinaldo (Ancona) October 16, 1890 and baptized the same day, was later cresimata, according to the custom of the times in small age, October 4, 1896 when Bishop Giulio Boschi, came on a pastoral visit in the village. In 1897, her parents Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini who had over the eldest daughter Mary, four other children, being agricultural laborers and stentando in daily living with his large family, they decided to find work elsewhere; while many villagers tried the adventure of emigration to the Americas, they chose to move in the Pontine Marshes in Lazio, that being infested by malaria, very few chose to move there. They came first in the estate of Senator Scelsi in Paliano, as sharecroppers along with another family already resident the Serenelli, of pure and Marche, composed only of father and son, being the mother long dead. Then the relations with the owner broke down, and Serenelli and Goretti had to leave Paliano and fortunately found, always as sharecroppers, another place in the estate of Count Lorenzo Mazzoleni to Ferriere di Conca in the Pontine Marshes; area before rehabilitation started in 1925 and completed only in 1939, it served as a natural breakwater between the northern part and the immense marsh south; it was certainly not a healthy place, because summer was invaded by mosquitoes and malaria; quinine only effective drug, was primarily used for therapeutic purposes, but it was not for the purpose quote. While parents were using the backbreaking work in the fields, Maria took care of the household chores, keeping order in the farmhouse and minding younger siblings . After a few years, May 6, 1900, his father did not return home, died of malaria on the edge of the marsh, Maria was then 10 years; He began to comfort the mother was alone with his family and a job to do beyond his strength; although the crop was good this year the family was in debt with the Count Mazzoleni rights sharecropping, of up to 15 liras. The owner after inviting her mother to leave that job and home, because it was impossible maintain the employment relationship tied to a demanding market and to secure a good harvest; but behind the desperate request that Assunta to stay, because with five children had nowhere to go, the count agreed to remain as long as you would associate with Serenelli, who lived in the same farmhouse and other cultivated land. The solution seemed ideal, the father and Serenelli son cultivated fields and Assunta took care of the children and the two houses, in addition to the work on the threshing floor; while Maria was dedicated to the sale of eggs and doves in distant Neptune, to transport water that was not at home as it is today, to prepare breakfast for the workers in the fields, the mending of clothes. He had not been able to go to school , who already attended sporadically; It was defined by the people of the neighborhood "an angel of my child"; reciting the rosary, he was very religious as indeed the whole family. He had insisted to make her First Communion in less than eleven years instead of twelve as they used then; with great sacrifices could attend catechism, and so in May of 1902 was able to receive Holy Communion. Until then, his was a life of hardship, hard work, sacrifice, few Masses which assisted in the church of the neighboring Conca, today Borgo Montello, but he closed from June to September, when the accounts Mazzoleni were leaving to escape the malaria and mosquitoes that proliferated in the heat.Then sacrificing hours of sleep, he went to Mass at Campomorto several km away. Meanwhile, the relationship between the father and Serenelli Assunta Goretti were showing their cracks, as he did being a widower soon understand that if you wanted to eat her and her family, she had to submit its demands not just honest. Because Assunta was not willing to give in, the Serenelli began to control everything, even the eggs in the henhouse and pass foods sparingly. Mary meanwhile come to twelve years, was beginning to develop physically, becoming good-looking, but his mind was simple and pure and had not had time to dream for the future, all taken to help in the work, support and encourage Mom, look after their little brothers. Serenelli's son, Alexander, had meanwhile reached 18 years of robust physique was the pride of his father, not only because he knew to work hard in the fields, but is rare in those days among the peasants, He could read and write; when he went to town, always returned with some disreputable magazine, which brought in house, he provoked the protests of the Assumption, but justified it by saying that his father had to practice reading. Alessandro Maria now looking through different eyes for a few years before and was beginning to try to have approaches that were not good, insidiandola several times, always rejected by the girl; one day he openly sinful and the rejection of the proposals of Maria, fearing that they speak at home, he threatened her with death if she did. Maria not to aggravate the already strained relations between the two families, was silent, being amazed by the situation He did not understand, because he had always regarded as a brother Alessandro. July 5, 1902 Serenelli and Goretti were intent on sbaccellatura of dried beans and Maria sitting on the landing watching the threshing floor, mended a shirt of the young Alexander. At some point, this one left the job and started with a pretext to home ; arrived on the landing invited Maria to come in, but she did not move, then took her by the arm and with some force dragged her into the kitchen which was the first room where one entered. The story is the same Alessandro Serenelli, done the Ecclesiastical Court; Maria Goretti understood his intentions and began to tell him: "No, no, God does not want, if you do this you go to hell." Again rejected, the young man went on a rampage and took a punch he had with him, he began to hit her;Maria rebuked him and wriggled and he now blind in his fury, he began to hit her violently on her stomach and she still said: "What do Alessandro? So you go to hell ... ", when he saw the bloodstains on his clothes, left her, but knew I hurt her mortally. The girl shouts barely heard from others, they rush to his mother, who found her in a pool blood, was transported to the hospital Orsenico Neptune, where as a result of the copious blood loss and you became peritonitis caused by 14 wounds Awl, doctors were unable to save her. Still alive and conscious, forgave his murderess, saying all'affranta mother who assisted her: "For the love of Jesus for forgiveness; I want to be with me in Paradise "; was entered on his deathbed the Daughters of Mary, he received the last sacraments and died peacefully the next day, July 6, 1902. Alexander arrested and sentenced to prison, already in 1910 had repented and had dreamed of "Marietta", as it was called in Paradise which collected flowers and gave them to him with his unmistakable smile. When he came out of prison in 1928, he went to ask her mother Assunta in forgiveness and in a sign of reconciliation approached both to Communion on Christmas Eve of that year. The May 31, 1935 in the Diocese of Albano opened the first process for his beatification, which took place as mentioned, April 27, 1947 by Pope Pius XII, the pope canonized June 24, 1950, in front of a huge crowd, after He congratulated the mother, who ill and sitting in a wheelchair, witnessed the ceremony from a window of the Vatican. His body of novel modern martyr, rests in the chapel dedicated to her, in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace in Neptune, guarded by Passionist Father and the destination of countless pilgrims from all over the Catholic world; his feast is celebrated on July 6. Author: Antonio Borrelli

Adrienne von Speyr SATURDAY 4TH, July 2015

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (c. 1659–1660), Rembrandt

 COMMENT:

MAGNIFICAT July 2015

Magnificat com, the Meditation, on this occasion is appreciated.

At the same time, I am not bright enough to grasp Adrienne von Speyr’s nice logic – looking for clarity of mystic and stigmatist; help!   

SATURDAY 4TH, MASS

Alleluia, alleluia! Let your face shine on your servant, and teach me your decrees. Alleluia!

• Surely the bridegroom's attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them .•

A reading from

the holy Gospel according to Matthew          9:14-17

JOHN'S DISCIPLES CAME to Jesus and said, "Why is it that

we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?" Jesus replied, "Surely the bridegroom's attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of un shrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved."

The Gospel of the Lord.

 •

MEDITATION   OF THE     DAY

•

What is the New Wine?

by Adrienne von Speyr

No one is such a fool that he would pour new wine into old wineskins. New wine ferments: it has a power whose effect must be reckoned with, a power that lies outside the realm of the exactly predictable. It takes up more room than old wine. Old wine has already settled and lost its fermenting power; it can be poured into an old container. New wine is different. It deserves from us-if we want to keep it-a vessel that is up to the challenge. No one does this. So a Christian, or someone who is becoming a Christian, may not do it either.

How is it with the new teaching, which is like the new wine? It needs room, for when it does not have enough, it bursts the vessel and the teaching too is lost. So we are to search for room, to clear things out, to find vessels, that do not burst, for the loss of the skins involves the loss of the wine and the teaching. In all Christian things, it is so: wherever something is lost, more is lost than we can measure. There is no calculable Christian loss .. "

Teaching that has undergone a renewal, in the Lord's time and every time, must be able to fill us as it would a new wineskin. This means that we may not understand ourselves in any other way than as vessels: vessels in the sense of pure instrumentality, vessels that are really there only to receive the new wine. And the new wine is the entirety of the teaching, the entirety of the Christian life for which we have opted, the entirely of the vows, the absolutely unconditional and incomprehensible nature of an assent. All we know about this assent is that it should be uttered in a spirit of service, so that the wine may find enough room in us and expand according to the power of its newness.

ADRIENNE VON SPEYR Adrienne von Speyr (t 1967) was a Swiss physician, a mystical writer, and a stigmatist. With Hans Urs von Balthasar, she co-founded the Community of Saint John.

Prayer for the Evening

Vigil of the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time In Christ Jesus, God speaks to us the living word: let us listen and rejoice!

JULY LECTIO DIVINA

Lectio Divine

A PRAYERFUL READING OF SACRED SCR1PTURE The Gospel for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 6:1-6a

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accomp­anied him (6:1).

Saint Peter Chrysologus: "In truth, Christ goes out and comes in not of himself, nor for himself, but in you, and on behalf of you, until he recovers you from your exile, and calls you home from your captivity." Although the disciples who accompany Jesus play no role in this account, their presence here prepares us for Mk 6:7-13, when Jesus will send them out on mission. Jesus dares to allow his disciples to witness the cynicism, the prejudice, and perhaps the envy of his own kinspeople toward him. Jesus risks his disciples developing the same petty, deprecatory attitude that his townspeople bear toward him. The disciples must judge for themselves "what kind of wisdom" has been given to Jesus ... and so must we. The way we know it is real is by the way it has changed us.

With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, "Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him?" (6:2). Astonished: see Mk 1 :22; 7:37; 10:26; 11 :18. Although God never fails to astonish us, one of the greatest marks of immorality in LIS is our resistance to this astonishment when it breaks into our life. Whenever we attempt to measure or refashion Jesus according to our own image, we diminish and delimit him who has come to reveal us to ourselves. Catena in Marcum (5^th century): 'The people look down upon Jesus on account of their familiarity. And they were astounded by

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the extraordinariness of his words and the incredible nature of his works, but they did not honour him on account of these things and they disparaged him on account of their familiarity with his earthly family. Consequently, what hap­pened to them, as the saying goes, was the common experi­ence of those who have no faith. So the Lord does not lead people like that into accurate knowledge of himself." What mighty deeds have been wrought in your life by the hands of Jesus Christ? What is it about Jesus that astonishes you and moves you to get to the source of his wisdom?

'This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of lames and Ioset and [ude and Simoni His sisters, too, are they not here with us?" And they would not accept him (6:3).

Justin Martyr: "Jesus was merely a carpenter, making ploughs and yokes, and instructing us by such symbols of righteousness to avoid an inactive live." Saint Ephrem the Syrian: 'The ordinary workmen will come to the son of Joseph singing: 'Our whole craft praises you, who are our eternal glory. Make for us a yoke that is light, even easy, for us to bear. Establish that measure in LIS in which there can be no falseness." Saint Bede: "For it is almost natural for men to envy their fellow-townsmen; for they do not consider the present works of the man, but they remember the weakness of his infancy." Symeon the New Theologian: "It is certain that anyone who now hears Christ cry out daily through the holy Gospels, and proclaim the will of his blessed Father, but does not obey him with fear and trembling and keep his commandments-it is certain that such a person would have refused to believe in him then, if he had been present, and seen him, and heard him teach. Indeed there is reason to fear that in his total incredulity he would have blasphemed by regarding Christ not as true God, but as an enemy of God." 0 Jesus, may our know/edge of you as Son of Mary be for ever our greatest claim on your mercy!   

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And Jesus said to them, '~prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house;" (6:4).

This well-known proverb in the ancient world is quoted by all the Evangelists: Mt 13:57; Lk 4:24; Jn 4:44. The other place in the Gospel of Mark that mentions this dishonour is the parable where the tenant farmers treat the son of the owner of the vineyard shamefully: Mk 12:7-8. As Jesus enters into his Passion, some of his enemies will blindfold him, hit him, and spit on him saying, Play the prophet! (d. Mk 14:65).

And he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. (6:5).

John Cassian: "The bounty of God is actually curtailed tem­porarily according to the receptivity of our faith. If the faith of those who bring them or of the sick is lacking, it may prevent those who possess the gift of healing from exercis­ing it." Cured a few sick people: Origen: 'Thus the power in Jesus overcame even their un belief."

He was amazed at their lack of faith (6:6a).

Amazed: see Mk 5:20; 12: 17; 15:5, 44. The Evangelist Mark on lack of faith (apistia): see Mk 4:40; 9: 19, 23, 24; 11 :31; 16: 11, 13, 14, 16. Pope Benedict: "Faith is something living that demands our whole existence, understanding, our will, our feelings, our love. It requires letting go of our­selves. It is a fundamental option that affects every domain of our existence, our whole self."

Lord we implore you to give us great faith, so that we may be receptive to all that you, in your wisdom, have to teach.

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Suggested Prayer of the Faithful

(Each local community should compose its own Universal Prayer, but may find inspiration in the texts proposed here.)

Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy. Turning to the Father, we pray:

That, during this Year of Consecrated Life, God will continue to enrich the Church by calling forth sons and daughters to live lives of consecration.

That political responsibility may be lived at all levels as a high form of charity. (Holy Father's Universal Intention)

That Christians who work in education and health­care may be free to assist others without having to abandon their ethical principles.

That our parish may flourish in faith, hope, and love.

For those burdened by poverty, hardship, oppression, and persecution: that God will rescue them and lift them up.

For the grace this week to live with great confidence in the goodness of God.

Loving Father, we are content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, and persecutions. For when we are weak, then we are strong. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. _    

A Strange Adventure

Faithful friends of Magnificat are invited to read the story of Jacob’s struggle with the angel (Gn 32:23-31) as an allegory of their prayer life. Is it not similar to a battle of faith, crowned by the victory of perseverance? Yes, at times in our prayer we are like Jacob in his quest for God in the depths of the dark night, in his fight to know God’s true name and to contemplate his true face, in Jacob’s vigor and resolve to ask for God’s blessing and a new name for rebirth…

 

Outside the realm of the spiritual life, this combat proves difficult to interpret. “A strange adventure,” writes Elie Wiesel, “mysterious from beginning to end, breathtakingly beautiful, intense to the point of making one doubt one’s senses. Who has not been fascinated by it?” Moderns see it as a universal symbol of the internal struggle “against all that hinders the creative fulfillment of a being: darkness, chaos, and the forces of evil.” And, indeed, is not the victory over self the most necessary victory of all? Deeply Catholic, Baudelaire saw in this battle “a fight between natural and supernatural man, each according to his nature.” Lamartine, inspired by the struggle between the muse and her chosen one, gives a glimpse into the great mystery:

Finally, from the dark hours/ When evening battles with shadows,/ At times vanquished, at times victorious,/ Against this unknown rival/ he fought till dawn…./ And it was the spirit of the Lord!

 

Here Rembrandt chooses not to represent a particular episode in the combat, but to focus directly on the eschatological issue at stake: it is at the outcome of a decisive trial, a baptism, that one receives the grace of God. Through the strength and persistence of his faith, Jacob emerges victorious and blessed in this struggle. But contemplation of this masterpiece, particularly the placid beauty of the angel, unveils an even greater mystery: in his purple tunic, Jacob appears as the figure of the One who, conceived and begotten in the bosom of God as his eternal Wisdom, wholly deigned to be born and ever remain the son of man. Yet here, at the break of dawn, this true God, rendered handicapped—and what a handicap for a God to be mortal!—prevails over the almighty God, wresting from him, in a hand-to-hand Eucharistic battle, the perpetual blessing that revokes the original curse weighing upon humanity. 

 

 

Pierre-Marie Dumont

 

 

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (c. 1659–1660), Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669), Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany. © BPK, Berlin, Dist. RMN-GP / Jörg P. Anders.