Pope Francis at US Congress and mentions (5) from Fr. Thomas Merton

COMMENT:
Extensive Address by the Pope - copies ....
Most surprising is the limelight, in a sense, the excerpts on THOMAS MERTON, FR, LOUIS. ocso.

Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress in the House Chamber

Pope Francis makes historic address to US Congress

Thursday, September 24,.

Pope Francis on Thursday (24 September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats to the family from within and without. During his speech he also mentioned four great Americans from the past, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, saying that each of them helped build a better future for the people of the US.

Pope Francis on Thursday (24 September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats to the family from within and without. During his speech he also mentioned four great Americans from the past, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, saying that each of them helped build a better future for the people of the US. ..... The full text of Pope Francis' address to the Joint Session of the United States  Congress: Mr Vice-President, Mr Speaker, Honorable Members of Congress, Dear Friends, I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in "the land of the free and the home of the brave". I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility. I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that "this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom". Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity........... A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a "pointless slaughter", another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: "I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers". Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions. .....From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue - a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons - new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223). ........ Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade. Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God. Four representatives of the American people. ........I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life. ...... In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family. A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to "dream" of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.   In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream. God bless America!

Padre Pio Stigmata and Luisa Piccarreta Mystic

COMMENT:   
Thoughts -comparative mystics.
 Luisa's writings at the insistence of Jesus described the experiences of  of learning the Creation, the Redemption and Sanctification at the Divine Will of the Saviour.
Padre Pio's is a very different mystic in the dramatizing the stigmata and the letters limited,
........

Padre Pio, Luisa Piccarreta, and the Divine Will Part 1  www.divinewill.cc/padrepio_luisa.htm  

“He knew and loved Luisa and her Writings”—an interview with Adriana Palotti.

Adriana Pallotti is a wonderful lady who lives in San Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia, Italy),where she founded the “House of Prayer for the Kingdom of the Divine Will.” She is originally from Modena (Northern Italy), but she moved to San Giovanni Rotondo many years ago, “...to live close to Padre Pio...”, as she says. Padre Pio, then, became her Confessor and Spiritual Director.

In San Giovanni Rotondo, she attended the Cenacles of Federico Abresch on the Divine Will, when Luisa was still alive. During the 40's , Federico Abresch became a close friend and disciple of Luisa. He used to visit her house and learn, directly from her and from her manuscripts, of the Sublime Truths of Living in the Divine Will. He exchanged frequent correspondence with Luisa.

In the following interview, made in 1994, on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the passage into Heaven of Luisa Piccarreta, Miss Adriana Pallotti gives clear testimony on the fact that Padre Pio knew and loved Luisa and her Writings. She also gives wonderful testimony on the conversion of Federico Abresch through Padre Pio, on the First “Divine Will” Cenacle in the San Giovanni Rotondo, and on direct and specific comments of Padre Pio regarding the spreading of the writings of Luisa.

I was surprised upon seeing that the lunch of Luisa consisted of just 4 or 5 orecchiette 

[pasta with the shape of “little ears", typical food from Puglia] and a few grapes, which I myself had brought an hour before. Everything was placed on a little plate. After my aunt put grated cheese on it, she told me: “Take it to Luisa.”

Surprised by this strange meal, I brought the food to the little room of Luisa. She welcomed me with a smile, placed the plate on the appropriate bed table, made the sign of the cross, and began to eat. Feeling my state of amazement, Luisa smiled at me again, then took a grape and offered it to me. When Luisa finished her lunch (so to speak), she rang a little bell, and soon my aunt appeared,

Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta

Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta

carrying a little tray in her hands. Here began the scene, which I will never be able to forget: Luisa brought up everything in a strange way; I say this, because I felt no repugnance; on the contrary, a strange fragrance diffused throughout the room. Then, removing the little bed table, my aunt closed the shutters and said:“Come Peppino, let’s go eat, for Luisa has to sleep.” My aunt brought to the table the food brought up by Luisa, and there it remained

during our lunch. I counted the orecchiette – they were six, and all the grapes, whole and bright – precisely eleven.

+

MYSTICS
      www.ewtn.com/padrepio/mystic/stigmata.htm
 

Stigmata On the morning of the 20th September 1918, after having celebrated Holy Mass, the priest Padre Pio retired to the choir stalls for his usual thanksgiving. The place was S. Giovanni Rotondo and the church, Our Lady of Grace. Outside in the small piazza the morning was similar to most other mornings on the Gargano. The friary, lying at the foot of the mountain, high above the village, seemed isolated and remote, altogether cut off from the world. Peace and quiet hung heavy in the mountain air filling the huge spaces with indescribable serenity and calm. Chirpings of birds, muted and subdued, coming as if from far off and the monotonous drone of myriad flying insects were sounds to accentuate the silence of the place. They adorned but did not disturb it. Already the clear lines of morning were fading and merging into the heat of midday. High up, a blazing sun seared the massive garganic granite, sending all creatures hurrying to the cool oasis of shuttered rooms. Only a few old folk long accustomed to this midday furnace moved slowly about, entering the small church to say their devotions, then emerging and making their way across to the ancient yew-tree dominating the middle of the piazza to rest silently in its shadow. A day like other September days with little hint that it could be any different from those which had preceded it or from those which must assuredly follow it. For the young priest, however, just then kneeling in the chapel of the church, this morning was to be very different, a fateful morning like no other, containing within it a destiny, a summons whose imperious and exalted demands he would attempt to fulfill to the end. Here inside the church the silence was very great. Not a sound penetrated the thick walls from outside as P. Pio, oblivious to everything except the memory of his recent Mass, slowly prostrated in loving adoration before the outspread, bloodied figure on the crucifix. With that marvelous facility possessed by the mystics by which all external objects are abandoned he withdrew into himself, his spirit yielding to the peacefulness which invaded his whole being, a peacefulness, he later wrote, "similar to a sweet sleep". In this absolute silence he prayed, mind and heart totally wrapped in the burning love which consumed him like some incurable fever. A sweet calm heralding the forthcoming storm. What happened next can best be told in the simple, unadorned words of P. Pio writing to P. Benedetto little more than a month afterwards: "It all happened in a flash. While all this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious Person, similar to the one I had seen on August 5th, differing only because His hands, feet and side were dripping blood. The sight of Him frightened me: what I felt at that moment is indescribable. 'I thought I would die, and would have died if the Lord hadn't intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. The Person disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were pierced and were dripping with blood" (Ep., V. 1, no. 5 10, p. 1094). P. Pio had just received the visible stigmata. There was nobody about. Silence settled once more round the brown robed figure now lying huddled on the floor. A long Calvary had just begun and with it the answer to a prayer: the prayer of his profound desire to identify with Christ crucified not only by participation in the priestly apostolate but in some mysterious way in that supreme immolation of Our Lord on Calvary (cf. Le Stimmate di P. Pio, G. Cruchon, SJ, Colana "Spiritualità", No. 1, p. 102). He had not desired this physical conformity and when he had recovered somewhat from the immediate experience his embarrassment was extreme: "I am dying of pain because of the wound and because of the resulting embarrassment which I feel deep within my soul. . . Will Jesus who is so good grant me this grace ? Will he at least relieve me of the embarrassment which these outward signs cause me" (Ep., V. 1, p. 1904). Not the wound, not the pain did he wish removed but only the visible signs which at the time he considered to be an indescribable and almost unbearable humiliation. Later, much later, however, he would come to love and cherish these divine marks of predilection, drawing from them that rich source of superhuman energy which from then on marked his apostolate of love and suffering. With Catherine of Siena he could truly say: "My wounds not only do not afflict my body, but they sustain and fortify it. I feel that what formerly depressed me, now invigorates me." His wounds, hitherto invisible but now manifested exteriorly, mark a definitive stage of his soul's transformation into the object loved, namely, the Lord who suffered and was crucified. For the next fifty years they would confound impartial science; their continuous and profuse effusion of blood, accompanied often by the sweetest fragrance, came to be regarded as a prolonged miracle, because, as the experts correctly state, blood for its production requires nourishment while this friar's extraordinary frugality was such as hardly to maintain the life of a small child. The remarkable nature of this miraculous gift becomes more apparent when it is considered how such loss of blood was simply inconsonant with and disproportionate to the stamina and energy with which P. Pio with ever greater activity and zeal conducted his life in all matters relating to the service of God. Such are the bald facts of P. Pio's stigmata. From his correspondence it is clear that very early in his priestly life there were, at least, indications of what eventually came to pass. Writing to P. Benedetto as early as 1911, only a year after ordination, P. Pio described a phenomenon which he had been experiencing for almost a year: "Then last night something happened which I can neither explain nor understand. In the middle of the palms of my hands a red mark appeared, about the size of a penny, accompanied by acute pain in the middle of the red marks. The pain was more pronounced in the middle of the left hand, so much so that I can still feet it. Also under my feet I can feel some pain" (Ep., V. 1, p. 234). This is his first mention of the phenomenon to his spiritual father because, as he says, he was overwhelmed with shame. He simply did not want to talk about it, hoping no doubt that it was a passing thing which would soon clear up and then be forgotten. Four years later, in 1915, his beloved P. Agostino demands certain information in the name of Jesus: When did Jesus first favour him with celestial visions ? Has Jesus made him a gift of his stigmata even though invisible? How often does he feel the crown of thorns and the scourging? P. Agostino asks these questions not out of curiosity but for the glory of God and the salvation of souls (Ep., V. 1, p. 659). In his reply to this letter P. Pio recognizes the express will of God and willingly answers all three questions. To the first he replies that Jesus began to favour "his poor creature" not very long after his novitiate (Jan. 1903 to Jan. 1904); to the second, whether Jesus made him a gift of the stigmata, the reply is affirmative and we learn that from the start the wounds were visible, especially in one hand, but that P. Pio was so terrified in the face of this phenomenon that he begged the Lord to withdraw them. From then on they did not appear again until September 1918 although their pain remained and were felt more acutely under certain circumstances and on determined days. The final question he also answers affirmatively. He experiences the pain of the crown of thorns and the scourging. How often he cannot say except that at the time of writing he has been suffering from them almost once a week for some years (cf. Ep., V. 1, p. 669). The rest is history. News of the event spread like wildfire and by the following year there began that afflux of pilgrims to the tiny friary which has not ceased since. At first in a tiny stream they came, later in the tens of thousands, flocking to glimpse this priest with the wounds of Christ, to assist at his Mass, to kiss those mittened hands and for those who could speak Italian the privilege of confessing to him. In all this, of course, there were dangers. The danger of a "personality cult"; of the possibility of self-induced wounds produced by a morbid, impressionable, temperament; the danger of fraud and deception, deliberate or otherwise, with the intent of leading a credulous faithful astray; that the stigmata was nothing more than an effect of natural causes rather than a supernatural gift; and finally, there was the dangerous possibility of preternatural and diabolic activity. In the light of this, and in retrospect, it is understandable why the Church authorities took a course of action that at the time seemed harsh and cruel but which today can be seen, at least in part, as the anvil on which P. Pio's sanctity was hammered out, put to the test and purified to become the luminous and diaphanous veil through which men glimpsed God.   [From: The Spirituality of Padre Pio, Augustine Mc Gregor, O.C.S.O., edited by Fr. Alessio Parente, OFM Cap. (San Giovanni Rotondo: Edizioni "Padre Pio of Pietrelcina" of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, 71013 San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy, 1974). Used with permission of: The National Center for Padre Pio, 2213 Old Route 100, Barto, PA 19504, through which a subscription may be obtained.]

"In order to attract us, the Lord grants us many graces that we believe can easily obtain Heaven for us. We do not know, however, that in order to grow, we need hard bread: the cross, humiliation, trials and denials." Padre Pio His Spiritual LifePadre Pio and the Immaculate Heart Padre Pio and the Sacred Heart Mysticism in general Padre Pio's mysticism Bilocation and Odor of Sanctity Stigmata Poor Souls Guardian Angels Some Prayers and Meditations by Padre Pio The Man  -  The Franciscan  -  The Priest The Mystic  -  The Saint  -  Multimedia

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Padre Pio, an Italian monk from an obscure town,changed the lives of Catholics around the world by his prayers, his holy example, and his spiritual advice. Over 500,000 people were present in St. Peter's Square for his canonization, and people have called this simple monk the holiest man of the 20th Century. He was the first priest to recieve the Stigmata, and one of the few saints gifted with bilocation.

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23 September 2015. Isaiah "The maiden is with child, and she shall give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel".

COMMENT:
The Night Office today, First Reading, was read from Isaiah, below.
In fact the Memorial today was on Saint Padre Pio, see later.

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME TUESDAY

Second Reading        From The Infancy Narratives by Jean Danielou

Jean Danielou SJ 

 

WEDNESDAY

First Reading

Isaiah 7:1-17

Responsory     Is 7:13; 2 Sm 7:8.16

Listen, House of David: The Lord of his own accord will give you a sign: + The maiden is with child, and she shall give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.

V. Say to my servant David: Your family and your kingdom shall be established forever in my sight; your throne shall endure for all time. + The maiden ...

Second Reading

From The Infancy Narratives by Jean Danielou

One of the most characteristic preoccupations of Matthew is to show the events of Jesus' life as the fulfilment of Old Testa­ment prophecies. That is what he is doing when he quotes the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 that a virgin will conceive and bear a son, after explaining: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Now if we look at the text from Isaiah, we find that the prophecy, addressed to a king descended from David, Ahaz, begins: Hear, then, O house of David, and its purpose is to foretell the birth of a descendant of David who will be a "sign." There­fore, the prophecy essentially supports the basic statement contained in the episode, namely that Jesus is of the house of David. Indeed, that is its principal purpose. But furthermore, the prophecy contains one verse that links it extremely well with a major element in the story - the verse which says that the child to come will be the son of a woman whom the Hebrew text designates by a word that could mean "virgin," and which the Greek text deliberately translates so. That is why it is that verse that Matthew quotes. But he uses it as a reference to the prophecy as a whole. 

The text makes this quite clear in saying that it is all this, all the events in question, and therefore, first and foremost, the filiation to David, that took place to fulfill the prophecy. The connection between the almah, virgin theme and the virgin birth is only secondary. It does not base faith in the virgin birth on the fact that it is the fulfilment of a prophecy: on the contrary, it provides a Christian exegesis of the prophecy in the light of the virgin birth. This was something specially characteristic of the targumin of the Judeo-Christians, who, because of their legitimate certainty that Christ was the fulfilment of the Old Testament, felt it their right to project onto the Old Testament the affirmations of the New.

This has some very important consequences. Whereas all too many exegetes like to see the infancy narratives as myths presented in the guise of history, our analysis leads us to precisely the opposite conclusion. The essential things in our text are the historical statements, first among them the fact of Jesus' being adopted by Joseph despite the virgin birth. And it is these statements that are so rich in theological consequences, for they make it clear that Jesus is both Son of God and Son of David.

Responsory     Mt 1:20-23

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived through the Holy Spirit. + She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

V. All this happened to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord though the prophet: A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel, which means God is with us. + She wil bear ...

  

Luisa. Repeating your ‘I love You’. Water for the tree of love - Wm.

COMMENT from William:

  

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William ...
To: nunrawdonald    
Sent: Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 22:44
Subject: Re: Water for the tree of love - Luisa

Dear Father Donald,

"Nothing can be formed with one single action.  The actions must be repeated over and over again"..."water for the tree of love...water to nourish the divine and eternal tree of my Will"

Those words of Louisa capture thoughts from my walk today, to the rise overlooking the river, as I sat on my walking-aid-seat arrangement watching and listening to the water: the swallows and the martins sadly are flown, so my eyes focused upon the flow of the river before me, endless in its intention, its continuous flow alone maintaining it, for else would it not be but a parched hollow? Thus the effect of Grace constantly flowing into and through our lives that we may be a 'channel of love'. I cannot see the source, or its journey hereon, but know of its destination, and the appeal of the breadth and the depth of the ocean brings an expansive desire.  

(Perhaps my prayer is a twig throw into the current that may reach there to represent my desire!).

[Health] It is now the second week ....

Unsleeping, I wish I could walk before the dawn on the morrow (if not within your Abbey's cloisters) to sit again on the rise before the river and look through the cathedral of trees as their arches rise high into the air - my soul so earth-bound at present whereas their topmost branches catch the rising air!

Thank you Father, a message from Luisa...

With my love in Our Lord,

William

  

     

Sent: Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 20:38
Subject: Hymsandchants com

    Volume 18

October 4, 1925

“Repeating your ‘I love You’ for Me procures for you water for the tree of love.  Continual patience waters and nourishes the tree of patience.  Repeating your actions in my Will brings water to nourish the divine and eternal tree of my Will.  Nothing can be formed with one single action.  The actions must be repeated over and over again.  Only your Jesus contains the virtue of forming all the greatest things with one single act, because I contain the creative power.” 

    

Sent from my iPad

Book of Heaven.