Wednesday 12 August 2015

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, 'the martyrdom of love'


  

iBreviary 12 August 2015 Night Office, previously 11 December.

For the Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal:

SECOND READING


From The Memoirs by the secretary of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
(Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy, Memories sur la vie et les vertus de Sainte J.-F. De Chantal, III, 3: 3e edit., Paris, 1853, pp. 306-307)

Love is as strong as death


One day Saint Jane spoke the following eloquent words, which listeners took down exactly as spoken:

“My dear daughters, many of our holy fathers in the faith, men who were pillars of the Church, did not die martyrs. Why do you think this was?” Each one present offered an answer; then their mother continued. “Well, I myself think it was because there is another martyrdom: the martyrdom of love. Here God keeps his servants and handmaids in this present life so that they may labor for him, and he makes of them both martyrs and confessors. I know,” she added, “that the Daughters of the Visitation are meant to be martyrs of this kind, and that, by the favor of God, some of them, more fortunate than others in that their desire has been granted, will actually suffer such a martyrdom.”

One sister asked what form this martyrdom took. The saint answered: “Yield yourself fully to God, and you will find out! Divine love takes its sword to the hidden recesses of our inmost soul and divides us from ourselves. I know one person whom love cut off from all that was dearest to her, just as completely and effectively as if a tyrant’s blade had severed spirit from body.”

We realized that she was speaking of herself. When another sister asked how long the martyrdom would continue, the Saint replied: “From the moment when we commit ourselves unreservedly to God, until our last breath. I am speaking, of course, of great-souled individuals who keep nothing back for themselves, but instead are faithful in love. Our Lord does not intend this martyrdom for those who are weak in love and perseverance. Such people he lets continue on their mediocre way, so that they will not be lost to him; he never does violence to our free will.”

Finally, the saint was asked whether this martyrdom of love could be put on the same level as martyrdom of the body. She answered: “We should not worry about equality. I do think, however, that the martyrdom of love cannot be relegated to a second place, for love is as strong as death. For the martyrs of love suffer infinitely more in remaining in this life so as to serve God, than if they died a thousand times over in testimony to their faith and love and fidelity.”

RESPONSORY
See Philippians 4:8-9


There are many things that are true, honorable and just,
many that are pure, worthy of love and deserving of praise:
these you must do.
 And the God of peace will be with you.

If there is anything virtuous, anything worthy of admiration,
think of these things above all else.
 And the God of peace will be with you.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Lord,
you chose Saint Jane Frances to serve you
both in marriage and in religious life.
By her prayers
help us to be faithful in our vocation
and always to be the light of the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
 Amen.

Or:

O God, who made Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
radiant with outstanding merits in different walks of life,
grant us, through her intercession,
that, walking faithfully in our vocation,
we may constantly be examples of shining light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
 Amen.

Monday 10 August 2015

Ronald Knox NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME SUNDAY


Night Office - Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office, 

 NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SUNDAY 2015
First Reading
2 Kings 4:38-44; 6:1-7
Responsorq     Sir 48:12-14
Throughout his life no ruler could make Elisha tremble, no one could lord it over him. t No task was too hard for him, and even in death his body prophesied.
V. In life he worked miracles; in death his deeds were marvelous. t No task ...

Second Reading
From A Retreat for Priests by Ronald Knox

Elisha asks for, and eventually obtains, a double portion of his master's spirit. It is in the power of that spirit that he returns to the sons of the prophets, clad with the mantle of Elijah, and is at once accepted by them as the successor of their master and his. Now, what made him ask for this double portion, for a higher measure of spiritual privileges than even Elijah himself had enjoyed? Surely because, in some way, he saw in front of him still more difficult work, a work which would need a higher degree of divine assistance if it was to be carried through successfully.

I think the difference you notice immediately between Elijah and Elisha, as you read their biographies one after the other in the books of Kings, is that Elijah is a free lance, a wandering prophet, appearing at one moment and disappearing the next, making his influence felt by sudden violent demonstrations; whereas Elisha lives a settled life, always at the disposal of anybody who wants to consult him, the habitual counselor of kings. In Elisha's time, the position of prophet seems to have become a fixed thing, an institution, a recognized feature of the national life. Elijah, when he is not being fed by ravens in the desert, is lodging with a poor widow at Sarepta, whereas Elisha lives in his own house, and sends his servant down to interview visitors at the door, instead of dealing with them himself. And when he goes on his travels, to Shunem, he is entertained by "a great woman" there, who persuades her husband to keep a guest room permanently at the prophet's disposal.

And, above all, these sons of the prophets whom we have already mentioned are continually recurring in Elisha's biogra­phy. Their houses, for they lived in community, seem to have been centers or seminaries of prophetic inspiration scattered up and down the country; and although they existed before his time, it is clear that Elisha was constantly in touch with them, a sort of Father Provincial whom they must forever be consulting. At one place they want to extend their premises; they ask Elisha about it; one of them drops an axe into the water - ask Elisha; there is net enough food to go round - ask Elisha; or if the food is suspected of being poisoned - ask Elisha. And I believe it is generally thought by scholars that we owe to these prophetic schools the transmission, in great part, of the sacred records which have come down to us. Prophecy, instead of being an occasional phenomenon of the desert, has become the occupa­tion of a caste and the center of a kind of community life; in a word, the thing has become an institution.

And I sometimes wonder whether Elisha did not ask for a double portion of the grace which had rested upon Elijah pre­cisely for that reason; precisely because he saw that it is a harder work, really, keeping an institution alive once it is founded, than providing the inspiration which originates it. The founders of the great religious orders have been, in the main, people who kept things going by the inspiration of a personal influence during their lifetime, and left to somebody else, when they were gone, the difficult task of preserving their tradition and organ­izing the institution to which they had given birth. And even where the great founders have been great legislators as well, it is inevitable that fresh situations should arise, that the tradition should need to be interpreted afresh, the rule accommodated to contemporary needs. Something of its rugged simplicity will disappear in the process. And it is then that every institute must pray for a double portion of its founder's spirit.

Responsory     2 Kgs 2:15; Eph 2:20
The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho said: The spirit of Elijah has come to rest on Elisha. t And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him.

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Saturday 8 August 2015

Dominican Friars - Province of England 8 August 2015


  Saint Dominic.





Dominican Friars - Province of England

 
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Uploaded on 11 Jun 2011
New vocations video made in 2011 for the English Dominican Province.

The Order of Friars Preachers is an international religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. The Order was founded in 1216 by St Dominic, with a mission for 'preaching and the salvation of souls'. The friars live together in communities called priories, bound together by vow and observing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Members of the Order are known around the world as 'Dominicans' after their founder. In Great Britain, Dominican friars became known in mediæval times as 'black friars' because of the black cappa or cloak which they wear over their white habits.

The Province of England comprises seven houses in England and Scotland, and two in the Caribbean.
  • Music

    • "Salve Regina" by Dominican Friars of the Province of France (iTunes)
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Thursday 6 August 2015

Transfiguration Gospel (Year B) Mark (9:2-10)


 COMMENT:


6 August
The Transfiguration of the Lord
Feast

          THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD         131
Third Reading

Gospel (Year B)
From the gospel of Mark (9:2-10)
From a homily by Saint John of Damascus (Horn. in transfigurationem Domini, 17- 18: PG 96, 572-573)

A bright cloud overshadowed them, and seeing within it Jesus the Saviour with Moses and Elijah, the disciples were filled with great fear.
Of old when Moses saw God he experienced the divine darkness, indicating the symbolic nature of the law; for as Paul has written, the law contained only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality itself. In the past Israel could not look at the transient glory on the face of Moses; but we, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, are being transformed from one degree of glory to another by the Lord who is the Spirit. The cloud, therefore, that overshadowed the disciples was not one of threatening darkness but of light; for the mystery hidden from past ages has been revealed to show us perpetual and eternal glory. Moses and

Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, stood by the Saviour because he whom the law and the prophets proclaimed was present in Jesus, the giver of life.
And a voice from the cloud said: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. The voice of the Father came from the cloud of the Spirit: This is my beloved Son. He who is seen in human form, who became man only yesterday, who lives humbly in the midst of us, and whose face is now shining, is he who is. This is my beloved Son, the eternal, the only begotten of the only God, he who proceeds timelessly and eternally from me, his Father; who did not begin to exist after me, but is from me and with me and in me from all eternity.
It was by the Father's good pleasure that his only begotten Son and Word became incarnate; it was by the Father's good pleasure that the salvation of the world was achieved through his only begotten Son; it was the Father's good pleasure which brought about the union of the whole universe in his only begotten Son. For humanity is a microcosm linking in itself all visible and invisible being, sharing as it does in the nature of both, and so it must surely have pleased the Lord, the creator and ruler of the universe, for divinity and humanity and thus all creation to be united in his only begotten and consubstantial Son, so that God might be all in all.
This is my Son, the radiance of my glory, who bears the stamp of my own nature, through whom I created the angels, through whom the vault of heaven was made firm and the earth established. He upholds the universe by his powerful word, and by the Spirit which proceeds from his mouth, that is the life-giving and guiding Spirit. Listen to him. Whoever receives him, receives me who sent him by the authority not of a stern master but of a father. As a man he is sent, but as God he abides in me and I in him. Whoever refuses to honour my only begotten Son refuses to honor me, his Father who sent him. Listen to him, for he has the words of eternal life.
Responsory

  

St. John of Damascene on Holy Images (Followed by Three ...

www.ccel.org/ccel/damascus/icons.html
St. John of Damascus was an Arab Christian monk and priest who lived from late 600 to late 700 C.E. He was a man of many talents, and did work in the fields of ...   

Transfiguration of Our Lord. Jesus (Mt 16, 28)



Transfiguration of Our Lord
August 6 - iBreviary

The Roman liturgy was reading the Gospel passage refers to the episode of the transfiguration of Ember Saturdays of Lent, putting it in connection with this mystery of the passion. The same Evangelist Matthew begins the story with the words: "And after six days" (that is, after the solemn Peter's confession and the first announcement of the Passion), "Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. " In this episode is a sharp contrast to the agony of the garden of Gethsemane. The Transfiguration, which is part of the mystery of salvation, is well worthy of a liturgical celebration that the Church, both in the West as in the East, it has celebrated in various ways and on different dates, until Pope Callistus III elevated grade party, extending it to the universal Church. (Avvenire)
Martyrology: Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in which Jesus Christ, the only Son, the beloved of the Father, before the holy Apostles Peter, James and John, having as witnesses the law and the prophets, and manifested his glory, to reveal that our humble servants had been taken by him through grace and gloriously redeemed to proclaim to the ends of the earth that God's image, according to which man was created, although corrupted in Adam, He had been recreated in Christ.
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On August 6, the Church remembers the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Jesus chose to take with him the first pope and "the sons of thunder" ("Boanerges", Mk 3, 17) to climb Mount Tabor to pray. Six days before he had said to his disciples: "There are some here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Mt 16, 28) and here Peter, James and John were chosen to attend ineffable: Christ appeared in his glorious body.
In fact, as he prayed, "his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white" (Lk 9, 29) and two men, also appeared in glory, spoke with him the fulfillment of his sacrifice in Jerusalem they were Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets.
St. Augustine says, in the Sermon 78, that his clothes are his Church. "If the clothes are not kept tight by the wearer, they would fall. What's wrong if the dress very white is symbolized by the Church, since they hear to the prophet Isaiah: Though your sins be as scarlet, there'll be white as snow (Isaiah 1: 18)? ". So even if the sins committed by men of the Church were colored scarlet, his spouse would still have a white dress and bright thanks to the Sun, Christ.
In this vision of Peter expresses feelings only human, not supernatural thoughts, "Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, "and at this point, the Evangelist Luke explains:" He does not know what to say "; Peter, the rock on which Christ would build his Church, even at the beauty of the majesty of the Savior, using fees character grounds. St. Augustine explains: "It's good for us, O Lord - say - stay here. He was bothered by the crowd, he found the solitude on the mountain; there had Christ as food for the soul.
Why would he go down to return to the labors and pains while there was full of feelings of holy love for God and that therefore a holy gl'ispiravano conduct? He wanted to feel good. " Faced with glorious Christ Peter had found happiness and would not want to move from that place. The answer came while he yet spake, there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and from it came a voice: "This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him, "the same voice that was heard when John the Baptist had baptized Jesus at the Jordan:" You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased "(Mk 1,9-11).
And when the voice had spoken Jesus was left alone. The Bishop of Tagaste says Peter tried three tents, but the answer came from Heaven showed instead that "we do have one, while the human mentality wanted to divide it. Christ is the Word of God, the Word of God in the law, the Word of God in the Prophets. Why, Peter, try to divide it? You must rather that you remain united to him.You try three tents have to understand who is one. " Always true, timeless words of this Father of the Church, the Pope is called to not divide Christ: "Come down, Peter; You wanted to rest on the mountain: come down preaching God's word, be urgent in season and out; reprove, exhort, give encouragement using all your patience and your ability to teach.
Work, spend yourself, accept even sufferings and torments that, through the brightness and beauty of good works, you may possess in charity what is symbolized in the white garments of the Lord.Because in praise of charity, read the letter of the Apostle, we heard: Do not look for its own interests (1 Cor 13: 5). Do not look for its own interests because it gives what he has. "
On that mountain the Father manifested itself in the voice, the Son in his flesh transfigured, the Holy Spirit in the luminous cloud. Peter wanted to make a tent for the king that he would not even have a stone on which to lay his head? The Savior did not come to make temporary homes in the logic of the world, but to prepare a beautiful and everlasting dwelling in His Kingdom, where the grain will wave in the Triune God.

Author: 
Cristina Siccardi

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Saturday 1 August 2015

Luisa Piccerreta. The Divine Firmness excerpt Vol. 21, ans FM Rega OFS


Product Details

 COMMENT Book of Heaven:
Text, quotation from Luisa Piccarreta from Vol. 21 before.
Frank M. Regan OFS has 3 books of abridgment from Luisa, and in ways beautifully clear in sense. http://www.frankrega.com/luisaimportant.htm  
Example parallel below.

Life of the Mystic Luisa Piccarreta: Journeys in the Divine Will - The Middle Years - Part-B

2 Oct 2014
by Frank Rega

Divine Will Volume Twenty-one
VOLUME 21
J.M.J.
Fiat!

March 5, 1927
How firmness in good is only of God, for once He has done an act, it never ceases. Effects of firmness. How the Humanity of Our Lord was the bond of times, the remedy and the model. How God wants the rights of the Divine Will to be secured.

I felt myself in a slumber of affliction because of the privation of my sweet Jesus, and in my interior I said to Him: ‘My Love and my life, how is it? You have departed from me without saying good-bye, without teaching me where to direct my steps, or the way I must follow in order to find You. Even more, it seems to me that You Yourself have burned away the paths through which You may be found. And as much as I wander around and call You, You do not listen to me – the paths are closed; and exhausted with tiredness, I am forced to stop, longing for the One whom I wish to find at any cost, but I don’t. Ah! Jesus! Jesus! Come back - come to the one who cannot live without You.’
But while I was pouring out my pain, He just barely moved in my interior; and as I felt Him move, I said to Him: ‘My Jesus, my life, how is it? You make me wait for so long, to the point that I cannot take anymore; and if You make Yourself seen, You just flash by, and You don’t say anything to me. So it becomes darker than before, and I remain fidgety and delirious with pain; I search for You; I call You – but I wait for You in vain.’

   
The Divine Firmness
And Jesus, compassionating me, told me: “My daughter, do not fear, I am here with you. What I want is that you never go out of my Will, and that you continue your acts - always, without ever moving from the boundaries of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat. This will give you the firmness which will make you be like your Creator – once He has done an act, that act has the virtue of continuing, without ever ceasing. An act which is always continuous, is only of God, who suffers no interruption in His acts. This is why Our firmness is unshakable, and extending everywhere with Our immensity, it renders Our acts uninterrupted. Wherever We lean, We find Our firmness, which gives Us the greatest honor – it makes Us known as the Supreme Being, Creator of all, and renders Our Being and Our acts inexorable. In fact, whatever place We want to lean on, We find Our firmness, which sustains everything.

My daughter, firmness is of divine nature, and a divine endowment; and so it is right that We give this participation and endowment of divine nature to one who must be daughter of Our Divine Fiat, and who must live in Our Kingdom. So, the fact that you continue your acts in It, without ever interrupting them, reveals that you already are in possession of the endowment of Our firmness. How many things firmness says. It says that the souls moves only for God; it says that she moves with reason and out of pure love – not with passion and out of self-interest. It says that she knows the good she does, and therefore she is firm in it, without ever interrupting it. Firmness says, with indelible characters: “Here, there is the finger of God”. Therefore, be firm in your acts, and you will have Our divine firmness within your works.”

Afterwards, I was continuing my acts in the Supreme Volition, and as I arrived at the point of following the acts of Jesus, from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Immaculate Queen, up to His death on the Cross, my adorable Jesus, making Himself felt again in my interior, told me: “My daughter, my Humanity came upon earth as though in the midst of times, in order to reunite the past, when, in creation, the fullness of my Will reigned in man. Everything belonged to It; everywhere It had Its kingdom – Its operative and divine life. And I enclosed this fullness of my Divine Will in Me, and binding those in the present, first I became the model to form the remedies which were needed, the helps and the teachings which were necessary to heal them; and then I bound the posterity to the fullness of that Divine Will which reigned in the first times of creation.

Therefore, my coming upon earth was a bond of reunion of times; it was the remedy in order to form this bond, so that the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat might return into the midst of creatures; it was the model for all, so that, being molded, they would be tied to the bonds formed by Me. This is why, before speaking to you about my Will, I spoke to you about my coming upon earth, of what I did and suffered, in order to give you the remedies and the model of my own life; and then, I spoke to you about my Will: it was bonds that I formed in you, and in these bonds I formed the Kingdom of my Will. A sign of this is the many knowledges I manifested to you about It; Its sorrow for not reigning with all Its fullness in the midst of creatures, and the goods It promises to the children of Its Kingdom.”

Then I continued to pray, and I was almost asleep, when, all of a sudden, I heard someone speak in a loud voice within me. I paid closer attention, and I saw my beloved Jesus with His arms raised, in the act of embracing me, saying to me with powerful voice: “My daughter, I ask nothing else from you but this: that you be the daughter, the mother, the sister of my Will, and that you place in safety within you, Its rights, Its honour, Its glory.” He said this with a loud and powerful voice. Then, lowering His voice and hugging me, He added: “My daughter, the reason for which I want the rights of my Eternal Fiat to be secured, is that I want to enclose the Most Holy Trinity in the soul. My Divine Will alone can give Us the place and the glory worthy of Us. Through It, We can operate freely and place in you all the good of creation, forming even more beautiful things, because with Our Will in the soul, We can do everything, while, without It, We would lack the place in which to put Ourselves, and in which to lay Our works; so not being free, We remain in Our celestial residences.

It happens as to a king, who, loving one of his subjects with excessive love, wants to lower himself to live in his little hovel. But he wants to be free; he wants to put royal things in the little hovel; he wants to command; he wants that subject to eat of his good and delicate foods together with him. In sum, he wants to live his life of king. But the subject does not want him to put his royal things, or to command; nor does he want to adapt himself to the food of the king. The king does not feel free; so, for love of freedom, he goes back to his royal palace.

Wherever my Will does not reign, I am not free; the human will causes a continuous contrast with Mine; therefore, not having Our rights secured, We cannot reign, so We remain in Our royal palace.”

March 10, 1927
How, in Creation, God gave the rights to possess the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
 .........


Life of the Mystic Luisa Piccarreta
The Middle Years - Part B
Luisa Piccarreta
Précis (abridged)  by Frank M. Rega OFS 2014
 
www.lifeofluisa.com  

The Divine Firmness

Luisa was restless and sorrowful because of the absence of the One with Whom she could not live without. But the Lord, compassionating her, said that she should not fear, because He is with her. He told her that He never wants her to go out of His Will. She must continue her acts, without ever moving from the boundaries of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat. This  gives her a firmness [fermezza], similar to that of her Creator. Once He has done an act, it has continuous life, and never ceases. This firmness is unshakable, and it extends everywhere in the divine immensity. It gives the Divinity great honour, making God known as the Supreme Being and Creator of everything.

His firmness sustains everything. It is of a divine nature and quality, and it is right that the daughter of the Fiat who lives in the Divine Kingdom should participate in this quality. When Luisa continues her acts in His Will, without ever interrupting them, it reveals that she is in possession of the quality of the divine firmness. Such solidity indicates that the soul moves only for God, that she acts with reason and out of pure love, not from passion or self-interest. She knows the good that she does and remains firm in it, without stopping. Firmness signifies the presence of the finger of God.

After this, while Luisa was continuing to pray, she suddenly heard Jesus speaking within her in a loud and powerful voice. He told her that He wants her to be the daughter, mother, and sister of His Will, and asked that she place its rights, honor and glory in safety within herself. Then, softening His voice and embracing her, He said that the reason He wants the rights of the Eternal Fiat placed in safety is because He wants to enclose the Most Holy Trinity in the soul. Only the Divine Will can give the Divinity the place and glory worthy of It. By means of the Fiat, the Most High can operate freely and lay within her all the good of Creation, forming yet more beautiful things.
With the Fiat reigning in the soul, the Trinity can do everything, but without it, the place in which the Divinity can enclose Itself and operate freely is lacking. Wherever the Divine Will does not reign, God does not feel free, since the human will causes continuous contrast with the Divine Volition. Not being free and without His rights in safety, God remains in the celestial dwellings (03/05/1927).

Luisa is Important - Frank Rega

www.frankrega.com/luisaimportant.htm
12 Feb 2014 - ... that introduces her writings,. Life of the Mystic Luisa Piccarreta Journeys in the Divine Will - the Early Years. please visit www.lifeofluisa.com ...