St Benedict 11 July 2015 Chapter Sermon - Br. Philip.- Notes: Benedict vision of the whole world

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Solemnity of Saint Benedict.
Sermon in the Community Chapter by Br. Philip

Chapter Sermon - Solemnity of St Benedict 2015.    Br. Philip

A young monk said to a senior "What is a monk?" The senior replied "A monk is one who asks everyday - what is a monk?" The question must indeed be put every day, and the answer can only come from living.

The paths leading to the monastery are diverse. But one day they will all converge and form a single way, converging on Him who said "I am the way". The Christian who becomes a monk seeks no other way than this. As St Benedict put it in the Prologue of the Rule, "Let us set out on this way, as the gospel for our guide". In saying this St Benedict is saying no more than St John who said "We must live the same kind of life that Christ lived".

About two centuries after St Anthony, at the end of the first great period of monastic history, St Benedict of Nursia appears. He was born in the year 480 and died about the year 547.

While still young, Benedict was sent to Rome to complete his education. Finding life in the city little to his taste, he left and went to live in solitude near to Subiaco. When circumstance forced him to leave the place, he went south and founded a monastery at Cassino. There he lived for the rest of his life and there he wrote his Rule for monks.

Benedict had no pretensions about being a founder. He merely wrote a way of life for the little community which depended on him. He did not set out to write an original work. He was inspired in large measure by a recent work which is now known as The Rule of the Master, so called because we do not know who wrote it. Where the Master id long winded, Benedict is concise. He has softened a rigidity in the Master's work. But, above all, he has centered the life of the monk on the person of Christ. He speaks of the love which the monk owes Christ. The love of Christ which must become before all else. St Benedict found the phrase in The Rule of the Master, but he gives it and the idea it embodied, a centrality and importance that the Master does not.

Benedict is wide ranging in his use of sources and likes to refer to the whole monastic tradition. He recommended his monks to read the works of St Basil. He ordered everyday that some parts of the writings of John Cassian be read in public in the community, or something from the sayings of the Desert Fathers.

Benedict produced the most powerful and influential document of the monastic tradition in the Western Church. His rule carries that imprint of that grace which was personal to himself.

In addition, special attention must be given to the virtue of discretion which permeates the whole Rule. This is neither caution nor prudent moderation, but a kind of insight which enables the Abbot to adjust the demands of the monastic life to the grace which is given to the community as a whole and to the individual monk. St Benedict calls this the mother of all virtues and urges it on the abbot.

He is deeply convinced that everyone has his own gift from God. He wishes that we should neither anticipate the action of grace, nor try to go beyond where it would lead us. Grace is not at the disposal of anyone, even the Abbot.

In speaking of the action of grace and the advance of the monk in the spiritual life, St Benedict uses the phrase "our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love"! Such love is a sure sign of the action of the Holy Spirit. 

The Rule of St Benedict was not immediately adopted by all monks, but eventually only St Benedict's survived for monks and that of St Augustine's for Clerics.

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The Supreme Personality of Godhead:

The God appears to us as a Light !!!   

  http://www.thegodmanscience.com/r18.html

Saint Benedict: How he saw the whole world represented before his eyes. 

{Bengali} When it was time to go to rest, the venerable Father Benedict retired to the top of a tower, at the foot of which Servandus the Deacon was lodged. One pair of stairs went to them both. Before the tower there was a large room in which both their disciples lay.
The man of God, Benedict, being diligent in watching, rose early before the time of matins (his monks being yet at rest) and came to the window of his chamber where he offered up his prayers to almighty God. Standing there, all of a sudden in the dead of the night, as he looked forth, he saw a light that banished away the darkness of the night and glittered with such brightness that the light which shone in the midst of darkness was far more clear than the light of the day.
During this vision a marvelously strange thing followed, for, as he himself afterward reported, the whole world, gathered together, as it were, under one beam of the sun, was presented before his eyes. While the venerable father stood attentively beholding the brightness of that glittering light, he saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, in a fiery globe, carried up by Angels into heaven.
Then, desiring to have some witness of this notable miracle, he called Servandus the Deacon with a very loud voice two or three times by his name. Servandus, troubled at such an unusual crying out by the man of God, went up in all haste.  Looking out the window he saw nothing else but a little remnant of the light, but he wondered at so great a miracle.
The man of God told him all that he had seen in due order. In the the town of Cassino, he commanded the religious man, Theoprobus, to dispatch someone that night to the city of Capua, to learn what had become of Germanus their Bishop. This being done, the messenger learned that the reverent prelate had departed this life. Enquiring curiously the time, the messenger discovered that he died at the very instant in which the man of God beheld him ascending up to heaven.

July 11 (and 21 March)

Norcia (Perugia), ca. 480 - Monte Cassino (Frosinone), March 21 543/560 It is the patriarch of Western monasticism. After a period of solitude at the Sacred Cave of Subiaco, he passed to form coenobitic first at Subiaco, then at Monte Cassino. His Rule, which sums up the Eastern monastic tradition, adapting it with wisdom and discretion to the Latin world, opens a new path to European civilization after the decline of the Roman one. In this school of the Lord's service have a key role the meditative reading of the word of God and liturgical praise, alternating with the pace of the work in an intense climate of fraternal love and mutual service. In the wake of San Benedetto they sprang up on the European continent and in the islands prayer centers, of culture, of human promotion, of hospitality for the poor and pilgrims. Two centuries after his death, will be more than a thousand monasteries guided by his Rule. Paul VI proclaimed him patron of Europe (24 October 1964). (Avvenire) Patronage: Europe, Monks, Cavers, Architects, Engineers Etymology: = Benedict hopes that the good, from the Latin Emblem: Stick pastoral Cup, Raven Martyrology: Memory of St. Benedict, abbot, who was born in Norcia in Umbria and educated in Rome, he began to lead the life of a hermit in the region of Subiaco, gathering around him many disciples; He spostatosi then Cassino, where he founded the famous monastery and wrote the rule, so that it spread to every lugo meritargli the title of Patriarch of monks in the West. It is believed to have died on 21 March. (March 21: A Montecassino, the anniversary of the death of Saint Benedict, abbot, whose memory is  celebrated on 11 July).           http://www.ibreviary.com/m/breviario.php?s=ufficio_delle_letture   SECOND READING From the Rule of Saint Benedict, abbot (Prologus, 4-22; cap,72, 1-12; CSEL 75, 2-5, 162-163) Put Christ before everything Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection;

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 http://spirituality.ucanews.com/2015/07/10/the-rule-of-st-benedict-2/    

The Rule of St Benedict

Jane Michele McClure OSB

The entire document is less than a hundred pages. The author, with characteristic self-effacement, called it “a little rule for beginners.” Written in the sixth century for a collection of serfs, scholars, shepherds, and wealthy scions of nobility-a motley group of would-be monastics, the Rule of St Benedict survives today as a masterpiece of spiritual wisdom….

In the Rule’s prologue, Benedict said he intended to prescribe “nothing harsh, nothing burdensome” for his followers. His approach to seeking God was both sensible and humane. For Benedict, a spiritual pathway was not one to be littered with weird and unusual practices; rather, all that is needed is to be faithful to finding God in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. How to prepare oneself for this simple-but not necessarily easy-way of life is the substance of the Rule.

Benedict envisioned a balanced life of prayer and work as the ideal. Monastics would spend time in prayer so as to discover why they’re working, and would spend time in work so that good order and harmony would prevail in the monastery. Benedictines should not be consumed by work, nor should they spend so much time in prayer that responsibilities are neglected. According to Benedict, all things – eating, drinking, sleeping, reading, working, and praying – should be done in moderation….

Benedict stressed the importance of work as the great equalizer. Everyone from the youngest to the oldest, from the least educated to the most educated, was to engage in manual labor – a revolutionary idea for sixth-century Roman culture. Prayer, in a Benedictine monastery, was to consist of the opus Dei (the work of God – Psalms recited in common) and lectio (the reflective reading of Scripture whereby God’s word becomes the center of the monastic’s life). Prayer was marked by regularity and fidelity, not mood or convenience. In Benedict’s supremely realistic way, the spiritual life was something to be worked at, not merely hoped for.

The importance of community life is another great theme of Benedict’s Rule. Prior to Benedict, religious life was the life of the hermit, who went to the desert and lived alone in order to seek God. Benedict’s genius was to understand that each person’s rough edges – all the defenses and pretensions and blind spots that keep the monastic from growing spiritually – are best confronted by living side by side with other flawed human beings whose faults and failings are only too obvious. St Benedict teaches that growth comes from accepting people as they are, not as we would like them to be. His references to the stubborn and the dull, the undisciplined and the restless, the careless and the scatterbrained have the ring of reality. Though Benedict was no idealist with respect to human nature, he understood that the key to spiritual progress lies in constantly making the effort to see Christ in each person – no matter how irritating or tiresome….

Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, 
and may he bring us all together to everlasting life. 
Rule of Benedict 72:11-12

  From www.e-benedictine.com   

How Benedict saw the whole world represented before his eyes.

       St. Benedict, founder of Western Monasticism and also the Patron of my pontificate. I begin with words of St. Gregory the Great, who writes of St. Benedict: "The man of God who shone on this earth with so many miracles was just as brilliant for the eloquence with which he exposed his doctrine" (Dial. II, 36 ). The great Pope wrote these words in the year 592; monaco saint had died barely 50 years earlier and was still alive in people's memories and especially in the flourishing religious Order he founded. St. Benedict of Norcia, with his life and his work has a fundamental influence on the development of civilization and European culture. The most important source on the life of him is the second book of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great. It is not a biography in the classical sense.According to the ideas of his time, he wants to illustrate with the example of a real man - St Benedict - the ascent to the peak of contemplation which can be achieved by those who abandon themselves to God. So it gives us a model of life as human ascent to the summit of perfection. St. Gregory the Great also tells in this book of the Dialogues of many miracles worked by the Saint, and here does not simply tell something strange, but to show how God, admonishing, helping and even punishing, intervenes in the concrete situations of life of 'man. She wants to show that God is not a distant hypothesis placed at the origin of the world, but is present in the life of man, of every man. This perspective of the "biographer" is also explained in the light of the general context of his time: a horse between the fifth and sixth centuries the world was upset by a tremendous crisis of values ​​and institutions caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the invasion of new peoples and the decay of morals. By presenting St. Benedict as a "luminous star", Gregory wished to indicate in this terrible situation, here in this city of Rome, the way out of the "dark night of history" (cf. John Paul II, Teachings, II / 1, 1979, p. 1158). In fact, the work of the Saint and, especially, his Rule were to prove heralds of an authentic spiritual ferment, that changed over the centuries, far beyond the borders of his country and of his time, the face of 'Europe, arousing after the fall of the political unity created by the Roman Empire a new spiritual and cultural unity, that of the Christian faith shared by the peoples of the continent. E 'born how the reality we call "Europe." The birth of St. Benedict is dated around the year 480. thus says St. Gregory, "former province Nursiae" - from the province of Norcia. Her wealthy parents sent him for his education in studies in Rome. But he did not stop long in the Eternal City. As a fully plausible explanation, Gregory mentions that the young Benedict was disgusted by the lifestyle of many of his classmates, who lived in a dissolute and did not want to make the same mistakes. He wanted to please God alone; "Soli Deo placere desiderans" (II Dial., Prol 1). Thus, even before the conclusion of his studies, Benedict left Rome and withdrew to the solitude of the mountains east of Rome. After an initial stay in the village of Enfide (today, Affile), where for a time he lived with a "religious community" of monks, he became a hermit in the neighboring locality of Subiaco. He lived there for three years completely alone in a cave, from the early Middle Ages, is the "heart" of a Benedictine monastery called "Sacro Speco". The period in Subiaco, a time of solitude with God, was a time of maturation for Benedict. Here he had to endure and overcome the three fundamental temptations of every human being: the temptation of self-affirmation and the desire to put himself at the center, the temptation of sensuality and, lastly, the temptation of anger and revenge. In fact, Benedict was convinced that only after overcoming these temptations would he be able to tell others a useful word for their situations of need. And so, having tranquilized his soul, he was able to fully control the impulses of the ego, so to be a creator of peace around him. Only then did he decide to found his first monasteries in the Valley of the Anio, near Subiaco. In the year 529, Benedict left Subiaco and settled in Monte Cassino. Some have explained this move as an escape from the intrigues of an envious local cleric. But this attempt at an explanation hardly proved convincing since the latter's sudden death did not induce Benedict to return (II Dial. 8). In reality, this decision was called for because he had entered a new phase of his inner maturity and monastic experience. According to Gregory the Great, the exodus from the remote Valley of the Anio to Monte Cassio - a hill, dominating the vast surrounding plain, visible from afar - has a symbolic character: a hidden monastic life has its raison d ' be, but a monastery also has its public purpose in the life of the Church and society, it must give visibility to the faith as a force of life. In fact, when on 21 March 547, Benedict concluded his earthly life, he left with his Rule and the Benedictine family he founded a heritage that led in past centuries and still bears fruit all over the world. For the full Second Book of the Dialogues, Gregory shows us how the life of St. Benedict was immersed in an atmosphere of prayer, the foundation of its existence. Without prayer there is no experience of God. But Benedict's spirituality was not an interiority removed from reality. In the anxiety and confusion of his time, he lived under the gaze of God, and hence never lost sight of the duties of daily life and the man with his practical needs. Seeing God, he understood the reality of man and his mission. In his Rule he describes monastic life as "a school of the Lord's service" (Prol. 45) and asks his monks "Work of God [that is, the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours] let nothing be preferred" (43.3). Stresses, however, that prayer is primarily an act of listening (Prol. 9-11), which must then be expressed in action. "The Lord expects us to respond daily with deeds to his holy teachings", he says (Prol. 35). So the life of Monaco becomes a fruitful symbiosis between action and contemplation, "so that in everything God may be glorified" (57.9). In contrast with a facile and egocentric, today often exalted, the first and indispensable commitment of a disciple of St Benedict is the sincere search for God (58.7) along the path laid by the humble and obedient Christ (5,13), all 'love of what he does not have to precede anything (4.21; 72.11) and hence, in the service of the other, becomes a man of service and peace. In the exercise of obedience practiced by faith inspired by love (5,2), the humility monaco conquest (5.1), to which the Rule dedicates an entire chapter (7). In this way, man conforms ever more to Christ and attains true self-fulfillment as a creature in the image and likeness of God. The obedience of the disciple must correspond with the wisdom of the Abbot, who in the monastery holds "the place of Christ" ( 2,2; 63,13). His figure, described above all in the second chapter of the Rule with a profile of spiritual beauty and demanding commitment, can be considered as a self-portrait of Benedict, since - as Gregory the Great writes - "the holy man could not teach otherwise than how he lived "(Dial. II, 36). The Abbot must be both a loving father and a strict teacher (2,24), a true educator. Inflexible against vices, it is nevertheless called above all to imitate the tenderness of the Good Shepherd (27,8), to "assist rather than dominate" (64,8), to "emphasize more with deeds than with words everything It is good and holy "and" illustrate the divine precepts by his example "(2:12). To be able to decide responsibly, the Abbot must also be someone who listens to "the advice of the brothers" (3,2), because "the Lord often reveals to the youngest what is best" (3.3). This provision makes a surprisingly modern Rule written almost fifteen centuries ago! A man with public responsibility, and even in small circles must always be a man who can listen and learn from what he hears. Benedict describes the Rule as "minimal, just the beginning" (73.8); in reality, however, it offers useful not only to monks, but also to all who seek guidance on their journey toward God. For its size, its humanity and its sober discernment between the essential and the secondary in spiritual life , it was able to maintain its illuminating power up to today. Paul VI was proclaimed October 24, 1964 St. Benedict Patron of Europe, designed to recognize the marvelous work carried out by the Ghost by the Rule for the formation of civilization and European culture. Europe today - just out for a century profoundly wounded by two World Wars and the collapse of the great ideologies, now revealed as tragic utopias - is searching for its identity. To create a new and lasting, are certainly important the political, economic and legal, but we must also arouse ethical and spiritual renewal which draws on the Christian roots of the Continent, otherwise you can not rebuild Europe. Without this vital sap, man is exposed to the danger of succumbing to the ancient temptation of seeking to redeem himself by himself - a utopia which, in different ways, in the Europe of the twentieth century has caused, as noted by the Pope John Paul II, "a unprecedented regression in the tormented history of humanity "(Teachings, XIII / 1, 1990, p. 58). Looking for the true progress, we listen today to the Rule of St. Benedict as a light for our path. The great monaco is a true master in whose school we can learn the art of living true humanism. Author: Pope Benedict XVI (General Audience 04.09.2008)    
His aristocratic family sent him to Rome to study, that he never complete. It attracts the monastic life, but his initial plans fail. For some people it is a saint, but some people do not understand it and fight it. Some scoundrels robed abbot and then they want to try to poison him. In Italy the Byzantines tear to the Goths, with years of war, a land ravaged by hunger, disease and terror.Moreover, in Gaul succession to the throne they are resolved in the family with the murder.
"We should ask ourselves to what excesses he would push the people of the Middle Ages, if he had not raised this voice big and sweet." He says in the twentieth century historian Jacques Le Goff. And the voice of Benedict begins to be felt from Montecassino to the 529. It has created a monastery with men in harmony with him, that refer liveable those lands. Year after year, that's fields, orchards, vegetable gardens, the laboratory ... Here we begin to renew the world: here become equal and brothers "Latin" and "barbarians", former pagans and former Arians, former slaves and former masters of slaves. Now all are one, the same law, the same rights, the same respect. Here ends the antiquity, at the hands of Benedict. His monasticism does not flee the world. Serving God and the world in prayer and work.
It radiates examples all around with its legal system founded on three points: stability, so in his monasteries entering to stay there; compliance time (prayer, work, rest), with whom Benedict reassesses the time as an asset to not squander ever. The spirit of brotherhood, finally, encourages and cheers obedience: there is the authority of the abbot, but Benedict, with his deep knowledge of man, taught to exercise it "with great vocals and sweet".
The founder given to new times what they vaguely expected. There were already so many monasteries in Europe before him. But with him the monastic refuge become monasticism-action. His rule is not Italian: it is now the European Union, because it adapts to all. 
Two centuries after his death, will be more than a thousand monasteries guided by his Rule (but we do not know for sure if he will be the first author. As we continue to be uncertain on the year of his death at Monte Cassino). Pope Gregory the Great has dedicated a book of his Dialogues, but only to edification, neglecting many important details.
In the book, however, there is an expression recurring: visitors Benedict - kings, monks, farmers - often find it " intent to read. " Even the monks study and learn. The monastery is not a simple association of scholars for the recovery of the classics: the study is running dell'evangelizzare. But this work also makes it a haven of culture in the time of the big blind.

Author: Domenico Agasso

Source:

Numerous references of St. Benedict of Norcia by LibreriadelSanto.it

• Benedict (san), Rule , St. Paul Editions, 2015 to 112 pages
• John McKenzie, The Life of Saint Benedict ,, 2014-50 pages
• Gregorio Magno (san), Life of St. Benedict. , Monastic Writings, 2014 to 183 pages
• Dom Guillaume Jedrzejczak, , Lindau editions, 2013 - 552 pages
• San Gregorio Magno, Life of St. Benedict. Commented by ... , Bologna Dehoniane Edizioni, 2009 - 240 pages
• Claude Martin, Practice of the Rule of St. Benedict , Glossa Edizioni, 2009 - CX-226 pages
• Benedict (san), Rule , St. Paul Editions, 2009 to 128 pages
• Flaminia Morandi, San Benedetto , Pauline Editions, 2009 - 192 pages
• Flowers Myriam, , Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 2009 - 192 pages
• Salvatorelli Luigi, San Benedetto and Italy of his time , Laterza, 2007 - 186 pages
• Johanna Domek, a year with San Benedetto , Gribaudi, 2007 - 272 pages
• , Benedict of Norcia , Queriniana Edizioni, 2006 - 168 pages
• Pamparana Andrea, Benedict. Father of many nations , Anchor, 2006 - 272 pages
• Ceserani G. Paolo, Paolo Ventura, San Benedetto , Jaca Book, 2006-32 pages
• , Benedict of Norcia. The Rule for man ... , San Paolo Edizioni, 2006 - 112 pages

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• Chapter Thirty-five: how he saw the whole world represented before his eyes: and also the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, ascending to heaven.

Chapter Thirty-five: how he saw the whole world represented before his eyes: and also the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, ascending to heaven.

At another time, Servandus, the Deacon, and Abbot of that monastery, which in times past was founded by the noble man Liberius ⁴³ in the country of Campania, used ordinarily to come and visit the man of God: and the reason why he came so often was, because himself also was a man full of heavenly doctrine: and so they two had often together spiritual conference, to the end that, albeit they could not perfectly feed upon the celestial food of heaven, yet, by means of such sweet discourses, they might at least, with longing and fervent desire, taste of those joys and divine delights. When it was time to go to rest, the venerable Father Benedict reposed himself in the top of a tower, at the foot whereof Servandus the Deacon was lodged, so that one pair of stairs went to them both: before the tower there was a certain large room in which both their disciples did lie.

The man of God, Benedict, |97 being diligent in watching, rose early up before the time of matins (his monks being yet at rest) and came to the window of his chamber, where he offered up his prayers to almighty God. Standing there, all on a sudden in the dead of the night, as he looked forth, he saw a light, which banished away the darkness of the night, and glittered with such brightness, that the light which did shine in the midst of darkness was far more clear than the light of the day. Upon this sight a marvellous strange thing followed, for, as himself did afterward report, the whole world, gathered as it were together under one beam of the sun, was presented before his eyes, and whiles the venerable father stood attentively beholding the brightness of that glittering light, he saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, in a fiery globe to be carried up by Angels into heaven.⁴⁴

Then, desirous to have some witness of this so notable a miracle, he called with a very loud voice Servandus the Deacon twice or thrice by his name, who, troubled at such an unusual crying out of the man of God, went up in all haste, and looking forth saw not anything else, but a little remnant of the light, but wondering at so great a miracle, the man of God told him all in order what he had seen, and sending by and by to the town of Cassino, he commanded the religious man Theoprobus to dispatch one that night to the city of Capua, to learn what was become of Germanus their Bishop: which being done, the messenger found that reverent Prelate departed this life, and enquiring curiously the time, he understood that he died at that very instant, in which the man of God beheld him ascending up to heaven.

PETER. A strange thing and very much to be admired. But whereas you say that the whole world, as it were under one sunbeam, was presented before his eyes, as I must needs confess that in myself I never had experience of any such thing, so neither can I conceive |98 by what means the whole world can be seen of any one man.

GREGORY. Assure yourself, Peter, of that which I speak: to wit, that all creatures be as it were nothing to that soul which beholdeth the Creator: for though it see but a glimpse of that light which is in the Creator, yet very small do all things seem that be created: for by means of that supernatural light, the capacity of the inward soul is enlarged, and is in God so extended, that it is far above the world: yea and the soul of him that seeth in this manner, is also above itself; for being rapt up in the light of God, it is inwardly in itself enlarged above itself, and when it is so exalted and looketh downward, then doth it comprehend how little all that is, which before in former baseness it could not comprehend. The man of God, therefore, who saw the fiery globe, and the Angels returning to heaven, out of all doubt could not see those things but in the light of God: what marvel, then, is it, if he saw the world gathered together before him, who, rapt up in the light of his soul, was at that time out of the world? But albeit we say that the world was gathered together before his eyes, yet were not heaven and earth drawn into any lesser room than they be of themselves, but the soul of the beholder was more enlarged, which, rapt in God, might without difficulty see that which is under God, and therefore in that light which appeared to his outward eyes, the inward light which was in his soul ravished the mind of the beholder to supernal things, and shewed him how small all earthly things were.

PETER. I perceive now that it was to my more profit that I understood you not before: seeing, by reason of my slow capacity, you have delivered so notable an exposition. But now, because you have made me thrughly to understand these things, I beseech you to continue on your former narration.|99

44. Ibid. pp. 97, 98. This vision of the whole world, and St. Gregory's explanation, deeply impressed the mediaeval mind. It was imitated by Marcus, the Irish Benedictine who wrote the Vision of Tundal (Visio Tnugdali, ed. Wagner, p. 52), and by Dante (Par. xxii. 133-153). St. Thomas Aquinas discusses it with a view to showing that St. Gregory's words do not imply that St. Benedict, still living in the present life, saw God in that vision per essentiam, in His Essence. (Summa Theologica, II. ii. Q. 108, A. 5 ad 3.)

  http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_02_dialogues_book2.htm#C22   

"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 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald 

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.    

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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