Showing posts with label Night Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Night Office. Show all posts

Friday 6 November 2015

Bl. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:127-8; Word in Season VI

 Night Office, Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office, 

THIRTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
06/11/2015
FRIDAY
First Reading
Jeremiah 42:1-16; 43:4-7
Responsory     Ps 146:5-7; 118:8-9
Happy are those who are helped by Jacob' s God, whose hope is in the Lord their God. + It is he who keeps faith forever, and is just to those who are oppressed.
V. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in human help; better to take refuge in the Lord than to rely on princes. + It is he who ...

Friday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time Year I

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE
BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

No Prophet commenced his labours with greater encouragement than Jeremiah. A King had succeeded to the throne who was bringing back the times of the man after God’s own heart. There had not been a son of David so zealous as Josiah since David himself. The King, too, was young, at most twenty years of age, in the beginning of his reformation. What might not be effected in a course of years, however corrupt and degraded was the existing state of his people?
Whether or not, however, such hope of success encouraged Jeremiah’s first exertions, very soon, in his case, this cheerful prospect was overcast, and he was left to labour in the dark. His trials were very great, even in Josiah’s reign; but when that pious King’s countenance was withdrawn on his early death, he was exposed to persecution from every class of people. When Jerusalem had been taken by the enemy, Jeremiah was forcibly carried down to Egypt by people who at first pretended to reverence and consult him, and there he came to his end – it is believed, a violent end. 
All of us live in a world which promises well, but does not fulfil; it is in our nature to begin life thoughtlessly and joyously; to seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to come; to love the world, and to believe its promises, and seek satisfaction and happiness from it. And, as it is our nature to hope, so it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. That disappointment in some shape or other is the lot of man (that is, looking at our prospects apart from the next world) is plain from the mere fact, if nothing else could be said, that we begin life with health and end it with sickness; or in other words, that it comes to an end, for an end is a failure. 

Here then it is that God himself offers us his aid by his Word, and in his Church. Left to ourselves, we seek good from the world, but cannot find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is well we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to provide for the evil day. Seek we great things? We must seek them where they really are to be found, and in the way in which they are to be found; we must seek them as he has set them before us, who came into the world to enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present hope for future enjoyment, this world for the unseen. Let us prepare for suffering and disappointment, which befit us as sinners, and which are necessary for us as saints. Let us not turn away from trial when God brings it on us, or play the coward in the fight of faith. Watch, stand fast in the faith, acquit yourselves like men, be strong; such is Saint Paul’s exhortation. When affliction over­takes you, remember to accept it as a means of improving your hearts, and pray God for his grace that it may do so. Look disappointment in the face. Take ... the prophets ... for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy who endure.

Bl. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:127-8; Word in Season VI.

Monday 2 November 2015

All Soul' Day. The Spirit of Catholicism by Karl Adam (edition 1938 Sheed & Ward, Guest Guest House 1960s).

The Commemoration of all Faithful Departed 
Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office, 
Night Office 2 November 2015 
  https://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/SPIRCATH.HTM   
  The Spirit of Catholicism by Karl Adam (1876-1966)
(edition  1938 Sheed & Ward, Guest Guest House 1960s).
Chapter IX: The Catholicity of the Church

I became all things to all men, that I might save all (1 Cor. ix, 22).

The Church Suffering and the Church Militant constitute in their relations a second circle of most vital activities.  
(pages 140-142) Having entered into the night "wherein no man can work," the Suffering Church cannot ripen to its final blessedness by any efforts of its own, but only through the help of others—through the intercessory prayers and sacrifices (suffragia) of those living members of the Body of Christ who being still in this world are able in the grace of Christ to perform expiatory works. The Church has from the earliest times faithfully guarded the words of Scripture (2 Macch. xii, 43 ff.) that "it is a holy and a wholesome thing to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." The suppliant cry of her liturgy: "Eternal rest give to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them," can be heard already in the Acts of the martyrdom of SS Perpetua and Felicitas (A.D. 203) and is represented in numerous sepulchral inscriptions of the most ancient period, while theologians and Fathers of the Church, beginning with Tertullian, have supplied its substantial proof. The theology of the schismatical Greek Church agrees with Latin theology in its belief in the efficacy of prayers for the dead. So fundamental indeed and so natural to man's hope and desire and love is this belief, that historians of religion have discovered it among almost all non-Christian civilized peoples: a striking illustration of Tertullian's saying that the human soul is naturally Christian.

The Catholic, therefore, is jealous to expiate and suffer for the "poor souls," especially by offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice, wherein Christ's infinite expiation on the Cross is sacramentally re-presented, and stimulating and joining itself with the expiatory works of the faithful, passes to the Church Suffering according to the measure determined by God's wisdom and mercy. So the saying of St. Paul that the members of the Body of Christ "are mutually careful one for another" (1 Cor. xii, 25) is nowhere more comprehensively and luminously fulfilled than in the Church's suffrages for her dead children. When, in the Memento of the Mass, in the presence of the sacred Oblation and under the gaze so to speak of the Church Triumphant, she cries to heaven: "Be mindful also, O Lord, of thy servants and handmaids .... who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace," then truly heaven and earth greet each other, the Church Triumphant, Suffering and Militant meet in a "holy kiss," and the "whole" Christ with all His members celebrates a blessed love-feast (agape), a memorial of their communion in love and joy and pain. 
+ + + 

Karl Adam - EWTN.com

   https://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/SPIRCATH.HTM   
·         

Karl Adam has brilliantly succeeded in achieving his purpose and "The Spirit of Catholicism" now stands as one of the finest introductions to the Catholic faith  ...


Wednesday 21 October 2015

Denis the Carthusian (1408-1471) And I will watch, ...what God will command me in the scriptures

Patristic Lectionary, Night Office, 

Habakkuk 1:1-2:4 - Bible Gateway

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Habakkuk%201:1-2:4
The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. Habakkuk'sComplaint - How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to.
 
fire, flame
  Here is my heart, dear Lord;
please set it ablaze with the fire of your love!

TWENTY-NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
WEDNESDAY

First Reading
Habakkuk 1:1 - 2:4
Responsory     Rom 1:16-17; 5:1
I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God saving all who have faith, Jews first, but also Greeks. + As scripture says: The righteous find life through faith.
V. Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. + As scripture ...

Second Reading
From a commentary by Denis the Carthusian (1408-1471)

Whoever is truly Christian has to say: I will stand on my guard, that is, I will stand guard over my heart with my mind fully alert, so as to keep it pure and offer it as a worthy dwelling-place for God, following the example of him who says: I said, "l will keep watch over my ways." Solomon says: Guard your heart with great vigilance, for it is the source of all life; and Ecclesiasticus: Unless you keep yourself constantly in the fear of the Lord, your house will soon be overthrown. Moses therefore urges in Deuteronomy:

Keep a careful watch over yourself so as not to forget the words of the Lord your God, or let them pass out of your mind all the days of your life. For purity of heart, which is nothing but unmixed contemplative delight or delightful and innocent contemplation of God, is the aim of all our asceticism: it is for this that we curb our outward senses, our tongues, and our appetites. We ought therefore to be continually intent on obtaining, preserving and perfecting our purity of heart, mindful of the Saviour’s words:

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Remembrance of the presence of God undoubtedly contributes more than anything else toward this watchfulness; hence the Psalmist says: I have kept your commandments and your precepts, for my whole life lies open before you. Let us, then, follow in his footsteps and do as the Apostle taught the Philippians: Work for your salvation with fear and trembling.

And I will station myself, that is, I will control the motions or impulses of my heart, and stand firmly on the ramparts, that is, the fortifications, strengthening the defenses of my soul, always making sure that it is armed, so that it may never be conquered by the enemies of its salvation, never overcome by sin or passion. Accordingly, the Apostle warns the Ephesians to put on the whole armour of God, so as to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil.

And I will watch, that is, concentrate my mind, in order to see, which means to understand, what he will say to me, that is, what God will command me in the scriptures, what encouragement he will give me, what counsel, and also what his deputies, such as prelates and doctors, will order and preach. I will also listen to what the Lord God says in my heart with his own voice, or through the angelic spirit. Thus it is said in Proverbs: Listen to instruction, my son; for by listening the wise will grow wiser, and the intelligent receive guidance.

Responsory     Ps 119:97.105.135; 19:11

Lord, how I love your law! Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path. t Let your face shine on your servant and teach me your decrees.
V. By them your servant is instructed; in keeping them there is great reward. t Let your face ...


    
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day 
Denis the Carthusian (1402 - 1471), monk 
Commentary on St Luke's Gospel; Opera omnia 12, 72 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14,27)
Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? In other words: “Do not imagine that I have come to offer people a sensual, worldly, and unruly peace that will enable them to be united in their vices and achieve earthly prosperity. No, I tell you, I have not come to offer that kind of peace, but rather division - a good, healthy kind of division, physical as well as spiritual. Love for God and desire for inner peace will set those who believe in me at odds with wicked men and women, and make them part company with those who would turn them from their course of spiritual progress and from the purity of divine love, or who attempt to hinder them.”

Good, interior, spiritual peace consists in the repose of the mind in God, and in a rightly ordered harmony. To bestow this peace was the chief reason for Christ's coming. This inner peace flows from love. It is an unassailable joy of the mind in God, and it is called peace of heart. It is the beginning and a kind of foretaste of the peace of the saints in heaven - the peace of eternity.
  http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=commentary&localdate=20151022&id=1410 

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Mother of Salvation by Aemiliana Lohr

Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours.
Augustinian Press 1995
Night Office.

 
Mother of Salvation


TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
WEDNESDAY

First Reading
WEDNESDAY
Ephesians      5:21-33

Responsory        Sg 2:10-12; Rv 19:9
My Beloved speaks and says to me Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for see, t the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear in the countryside.
V. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb. t The winter is past ...


Second Reading
From Mother of Salvation by Aemiliana Lohr

It would be wrong to think of God only as masculine and father. He who created man in his own image created him male and female. Both then, the female as well as the male, must have their prototype in him. "For in his ineffable being he is Father, but in his compassion for us he became a mother. It was through love that the Father became feminine, and the clearest proof of this is the Son begotten of him. The fruit of love is love." It sounds like a natural conclusion from these profound thoughts of Clement of Alexandria, when a Christmas trope praises Mary as "Mother of fatherly love."

Therefore, if the love of God, his maternal and womanly aspect, has become visible for us precisely in the Son who became man, it is certainly because even Christ himself - the faithful reflection of the Father - appeared as male and female like Adam when first created; he had the Church at his side, after all, hidden at first, but revealed by the cross; better still, he was enveloped by her as by his spiritual body. In his passion he suffered, endured and conquered as man, as God's servant and as Lord; and he has placed the distribution of the hard won treasure of salvation, in the form of a sacrament, in the womanly and maternal hands of his Church, who as his body and his spouse is nothing other than himself, Christus totus, the whole, the one Christ, the only Son of the Father, the one love of God who became man.

It is she, therefore, the Church, manifest image of what is motherly in God, that the author of the Apocalypse portrays for us in the great sign of the woman in labour. Yet, it must be admitted, it is Paul rather than John who proclaims this mystery, explaining in words what John presents in image. Paul is aware of the virginal marriage-bond between Christ and the Church, the great mystery from which all earthly marriage receives its meaning and consecration; he is aware of the Lord as head and saviour of his body; and he is aware of the Jerusalem above, the free woman, who is our mother. He who no longer knows Christ in a merely human way, but only as the glorified Lord, does not speak of Mary either, the earthly mother of Jesus, but only of the mother of his spiritual body, the Church. She, like Christ, is Paul's great and only love. For he is aware of the mystery: that the Church is Christ, and Christ is the Church; that they are both the same, one body and one spirit; she his body and he her head; he her Saviour and she the fullness of his being. It is only as both together that they are the whole man whom God desired, to whom he had already given, as it were, preliminary shape in Adam and his wife, but who has only now been brought to maturity in Christ, the new Adam, and the Church, his body and his spouse. In them we really see the true eternal ideal of man which was planned from the very beginning, the perfect and indissoluble unity of man and woman.

Responsory    Rv 19:7-8
Let us rejoice and exult and give glory to God, for the wedding-day
of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. t She has been given fine linen, bright and clean, to wear.
V. The fine linen is the good deeds of the saints. + She has been ...


MARY'S ROLE IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
Monday, January 13, 2014
26. MARY'S ROLE IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
    Mary,s acceptance....  

Continuation from: 23. Mary - The Mother Of God

To understand the title "Mother of God," we must first clearly understand Mary's role as mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
 

As Catholics, we firmly believe in the incarnation of Our Lord: Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 2Luke 1:26-38 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, [27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin' s name was Mary. [28] And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. [29] Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. [30] And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. [31] Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. [33] And of his kingdom there shall be no end. [34] And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? [35] And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36] And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: [37] Because no word shall be impossible with God. [38]And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. and we can also refer to Matthew 1:18-25

Through her, Jesus Christ — second person of the Holy Trinity, one-in-being (consubstantial) with the Father, and true God from true God — entered this world taking on human flesh and a human soul. Jesus is true God and true man. In His divine person are united both a divine nature and a human nature. 

Mary did not create the divine person of Jesus, who existed with the Father and Holy Spirit from all eternity: "In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly 'Mother of God' (Theotokos)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 495). As St. John wrote,
 "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory: The glory of an only Son coming from the Father filled with enduring love" John 1:14. Here Jesus was the Word from the beginning of time who is God and became flesh.


Mary Adoring 
Her Son Jesus
Mary - Model of Purity and Goodness.

So who is Mary according to the Scripture?
In the Bible, based on the gospel texts, we may have erroneously formed an incomplete picture of Mary.
 
We probably imagined Mary as a
·                  young (to face the reality and hardship of life), 
·                  innocent (in ways of the world) and 
·                  timid (silly, incompetent, spineless) 
but Mary proved otherwise and she was far from all these,

Mary was a Picture of
·                  Beauty in and out - she was made pure and immaculate from the beginning of time in the sight of God. (Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed:she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.) Even from the time of Adam and Eve, Mary the Mother of Jesus is already pre-destined to crush the head of the evil.
·                  Humility with singleness of purpose (Luke 1:38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.And the angel departed from her.)
·                  Initiative and Patience (John 2:3 And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. [4] And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. [5] His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. 
[4]
 What is that to me: These words of our Saviour, spoken to his mother, have been understood by some commentators as harsh, they not considering the next following verse: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye, which plainly shews that his mother knew of the miracle that he was to perform, and that it was at her request he wrought it; besides the manner of speaking the words as to the tone, and the countenance shewn at the same time, which could only be known to those who were present, or from what had followed: for words indicating anger in one tone of voice, would be understood quite the reverse in another.)
·                  Faith (in God's plan) & Obedience (to the will of God) Luke 1:38
·                  Willingness (to give up her own Son to be crucified) & Strength (to withstand the pain)
·                  Forgiveness (for those who crucified Jesus) & Love (for all mankind)

And Mary was all these