Barnard, Last of the Fathers

• Description:
  Encyclical of Pope Pius XII Doctor Mellifluus (On St. Bernard Of Clairvaux, The Last Of The Fathers) promulgated on May 24, 1953.
•  http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4967   

Doctor Mellifluus (On St. Bernard Of Clairvaux, The Last Of The Fathers)

by Pope Pius XII

To Our Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops and other Local Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Health and Apostolic Benediction.

The "Doctor Mellifluus," "the last of the Fathers, but certainly not inferior to the earlier ones,"[1] was remarkable for such qualities of nature and of mind, and so enriched by God with heavenly gifts, that in the changing and often stormy times in which he lived, he seemed to dominate by his holiness, wisdom, and most prudent counsel. Wherefore, he has been highly praised, not only by the sovereign Pontiffs and writers of the Catholic Church, but also, and not infrequently, by heretics. Thus, when in the midst of universal jubilation, Our predecessor, Alexander III, of happy memory, inscribed him among the canonized saints, he paid reverent tribute when he wrote: "We have passed in review the holy and venerable life of this same blessed man, not only in himself a shining example of holiness and religion, but also shone forth in the whole Church of God because of his faith and of his fruitful influence in the house of God by word and example; since he taught the precepts of our holy religion even to foreign and barbarian nations, and so recalled a countless multitude of sinners . . . to the right path of the spiritual life."[2] "He was," as Cardinal Baronius writes, "a truly apostolic man, nay, a genuine apostle sent by God, mighty in work and word, everywhere and in all things adding luster to his apostolate through the signs that followed, so that he was in nothing inferior to the great apostles, . . . and should be called . . . at one and the same time an adornment and a mainstay of the Catholic Church."[3]

2. To these encomiums of highest praise, to which almost countless others could be added, We turn Our thoughts at the end of this eighth century when the restorer and promoter of the holy Cistercian Order piously left this mortal life, which he had adorned with such great brilliance of doctrine and splendor of holiness.

Association of Victim Souls, Bl. Joseph-Marie Cassant, Beatified 2004

An embroidery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Saint Nicholas Church Ghent Belgium

           Dom Donald's Blog: Joseph-Marie Cassant, Beatified 2004: The beatification was celebrated on October 3, 2004, Saint Peter's Square,  Rome . (Fr. Raymond)  Prayer Beatification,...

Quote: A Victim–Priest   

It is significant that Father Marie–Joseph belonged to the “

Association of Victim Souls,” a movement of identification with the oblation of the Heart of Jesus, Priest and Victim. Saint Pius X (1835–1914), Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916), Blessed Columba Marmion (1858–1923), Blessed Jacob Kern (1897–1924), and Blessed Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster (1880–1954), were all members of the same Association. It was established by the Filles du Coeur de Jésus (Daughters of the Heart of Jesus) following the wishes of their foundress, Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil–Martiny, after her death. As a member of the Association of Victim Souls, Father Marie–Joseph prayed, and signed, an Act of Oblation that the rest of his life was to illustrate and consummate.

St. Lutgarde Mass & Nignt Office Reading from Thomas Merton..

   Dom Donald's Blog:      
Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres 

   http://nunraw.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/saint-lutgard.html       





Dom Donald's Blog: St. Lutgarde Mass & Nignt Office Reading from Pref...: (NAB) For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. ...

  Thursday, 16 June 2011

St. Lutgarde 

Mass & Nignt Office 

Reading from Preface of Merton

(NAB) For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (2Co 11:2).

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard ….
Sent: Thu, 16 June, 2011 11:40:17
Subject: Lutgarde Addenda

St Lutgarde, 11^th wk.  The ‘Our Father’.

Paul says in the First Reading, ‘I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ This fits in well as we commemorate the Virgin, Lutgarde. The story of Lutgarde, with her exchange of hearts with Jesus, underlines the message of today’s Gospel. The message is that God wants to have an intimate relationship with each and every human being.

It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can know God personally and call God “Abba, Father”, “Daddy, my daddy”, (Romans 8:15). We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace and favour and mercy. He loves generously and forgives mercifully. When he gives, he gives more than we need, so we will have something to share with others in their need. St. Lutgard loved the Father especially for his gift to us of the Sacred Heart of his divine Son.

St Lutgarde - 16 June

St Lutgarde was born in 1182 in the Flemish town of Tongres. She joined the community of nuns who educated her but later transferred to the monastery of Cistercian nuns at Aywieres. near Brussels. She was afflicted  with total blindness for the last eleven years of her life. She died in 1246.

The following Reading is taken from a book by Thomas Merton

• Some four hundred years before St Margaret Mary Labcured , prayed and suffered for the institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart, St Lutgarde had .entered upon the mystical life with a vision of the pierced side of the Saviour. But there are other facts besides which make Lutgarde of interest to the theologian, the Church historian, and to the general Christian. She was a contemporary of St Francis of Assisi, the first recorded stigmatic, and she too received a mystical wound in her heart which historians have not hesitated to class as a stigma. The life of St Lutgarde introduces us to a mysticism that is definitely extraordinary, yet her mysticism springs from the purest Benedictine sources. Lutgarde's mystical contemplation, like that of St Gertrude and St Mechtilde, is nourished almost entirely by the liturgy. Above all it centres upon the sacrifice of Calvary and upon the Mass which continues that sacrifice among us every day. 
• The charm of St Lutgarde is heightened by a certain earthly simplicity which has been preserved for us unspoiled in the pages of her medieval biography. She was a great penitent but she was anything but a fragile wraith of a person. Lutgarde, for all her ardent and ethereal mysticism, remained always a living human being of flesh and bone. As a young girl she seems to have been particularly attractive; no doubt we could see some resemblance of her beauty in the well-proportioned Flemish faces which we find in the great paintings of her countrymen in later ages.  
• The love of God, penance and reparation, intercession for mankind, were very much present in Lutgarde's life. But it cannot be too much stressed that in St Lutgarde, as in all the early Cistercians, the love that embraces penance and hardship for the sake of Christ is never merely negative, never descends to mere rigid formalism, never concentrates on mere exterior observance of fasts and other penitential rigours.
• The fire of love that consumed the heart of Lutgarde was something vital and positive, and its flames burned not only to destroy but to rejuvenate and transform.

(What are these Wounds? (Clonmore and Reynolds) 1948, pp. IX, X, XII.)

+ + +

Vultus Christi 

http://vultus.stblogs.org/2010/06/draw-me-to-thy-pierced-side-1.html

Draw Me to Thy Piercèd Side

By Father Mark    on June 16, 2010 

The feast of Saint Lutgarde, a Cistercian, and one of the first mystics of the Sacred Heart, occurs on June 16th. Some years ago I was given a piece of her wooden choirstall: one of my most treasured relics ...

SAINT RAPHAEL 243 Around the Tabernacle all the activity of the Cistercian monastery turns.

COMMENT:  

      

Fr. Raymond, among the Abbots, was at Rome for the canonisation of Saint Raphael. He remembers the feast at the large outside celebration and shared with by the group from Spain. In the company the friends rejoiced for their own new saint. 

At the community Maas, Fr. Raymond asked if us monks might be included in the Saints.

I love to add a couple of pages from St. Rafael.  especially, the focus on, "Tabernacles; In La 'Trapa, the thing which is accounted of least regard is La Trapa and the Trappists. The first, the only thing, is a Tabernacle in which is concealed the greatness and the immensity of God."   

243 Around the Tabernacle all the activity of the Cistercian monastery turns. 

 

78      TO KNOW HOW TO WAIT THE EUCHARISTIC LIFE     79

... I suffer I cease to do so in realizing that He wants it is thus.

234 Ah, Lord Jesus, how I love You! Were I to have a thousand lives, a thousand I would give You. With Your divine grace and the help of Mary I can do it all.   May You be blest. .

235 True humiliation is our inability to receive God elsewhere; it has to be here, within our wretchedness, in our soul which is subject to matter, to this matter which drags us clown when the eyelids heavy with sleep wan t to close.

236 Jesus is in the Tabernacle, there He receives His friends, consoles, heals and forgives them. How great is the intimacy of .Jesus with those who sorrow!

237 Everywhere on earth there is strife, but there is this difference among the combatants; the triumphs of those who while fighting are united with the Tabernacle, will only be seen in Heaven.

238 In La 'Trapa, the thing which is accounted of least regard is La Trapa and the Trappists. The first, the only thing, is a Tabernacle in which is concealed the greatness and the immensity of God.

239 Let us hide ourselves with Jesus in the Mystery of the Sacrament; may we live with our hearts united with the Tabernacle ..

240 May your life be a continued act of love for Jesus.

   

 

241 There arc a multitude of Tabernacles all round the world, bur only one God; who is Jesus in the most holy Sacrament, Jesus the true comforter, who unites the monk in his choir, the missionary in pagan lands, the layman in his parish, regardless of distance, age. At the foot of the Tabernacle we are all united by God, let us ask Him through the mediation of Mary that one day, there in Heaven, we may gaze upon that God who for love of man, conceals Himself under the species of bread and wine.

I would like to make reparation for the forsaken Tabernacle.

242 If this God who veils Himself in a little piece of bread weren't so forsaken, men would be happier, but they don't want that.

243 Around the Tabernacle all the activity of the Cistercian monastery turns.

244 The sorrows and the tears which overwhelm me for Him, have turned into peace and calm, for I have the Lord; let me live united with His Tabernacle, pick...

Sunday, 26 April 2015 St. Raphael Arnáiz Barón, monk (1911-1938)
Other saints of the day
SAINT RAPHAEL ARNÁIZ BARÓN Monk (1911-1938)         Raphael Arnáiz Barón was born in Burgos (Spain) April 9, 1911, into a prominent, deeply Christian family. He was baptised and confirmed in Burgos and began his schooling at the Jesuit college in the same city where, in 1919, he was admitted to first Communion.         It was at this time that he had his first experience of illness: persistent fevers due to colibacillosis forced him to interrupt his studies. To mark his recovery, which he attributed to a special intervention of the Virgin Mary, his father took him to Zaragoza and consecrated him to the Virgin of Pilar. This experience, which took place in the late summer of 1921, profoundly marked Raphael.         When the family moved to Oviedo, he continued his secondary schooling with the Jesuits there, obtaining a diploma in science. He then enrolled in the School of Architecture in Madrid, where he succeeded in balancing his studies with a life of fervent piety.         Possessing a brilliant and eclectic mind, Raphael also stood out because of his deep sense of friendship and his fine features. Blessed with a happy and jovial nature he was also athletic, had a gift for drawing and painting as well a love for music and the theatre. But as he matured, his spiritual experience of the Christian life deepened.         Although the study of architecture required a great deal of hard work and discipline, at that time he began the practice of making a long daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of "Caballero de Gracia". He even joined the Nocturnal Adoration Association, and faithfully took his turn before the Blessed Sacrament.         In this way his heart became well disposed to listening, and he perceived an invitation from God to lead the contemplative life.         Raphael had already been in contact with the Trappist monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas, and he felt strongly drawn to this place, responding to his deepest desires. In December of 1933 he suddenly broke off his professional studies and on January 16, 1934 entered the monastery of San Isidro.         After the first months of the noviciate and his first Lent, which he lived with great enthusiasm, embracing all the austerities of Trappist life, God mysteriously chose to test him with a sudden and painful infirmity: a serious form of diabetes mellitus which forced him to leave the monastery immediately and return to his family in order to receive the proper care.         Barely recovered, he returned to the monastery, but his illness forced him to leave the monastery for treatment again and again. But whenever he was absent he wanted to return, responding faithfully and generously to what he understood to be a call from God.         Sanctified by his joyful and heroic fidelity to his vocation, in his loving acceptance of the Divine will and the mystery of the Cross, in his impassioned search for the Face of God, fascinated by his contemplation of the Absolute, in his tender and filial devotion to the Virgin Mary-"the Lady", as he liked to call her-his life came to an end on April 26, 1938. He was barely 27 years old. He was buried in the monastery cemetery, and later in the Abbey church.         The fame of his sanctity rapidly spread beyond the walls of the monastery. The example of his life together with his many spiritual writings continue to spread and greatly profit those who get to know him. He has been described as one of the great mystics of the twentieth century.         On August 19, 1989, the Holy Father John Paul II, on World Youth Day at Santiago de Compostella, proposed him as a model for young people today, and beatified him on September 27, 1992.         Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on October 11, 2009 and presented him as a friend and intercessor for all the faithful, especially for the young. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SAINT AELRED January 12th. Patronal Feast of Nunraw Abbey - Independent Catholic News

This painting of St. Aelred reminds me of the former late Abbot of Pluscarden, Dom Alfred Spencer OSB(Subiaco)...

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12 January - Saint Ailred of Rievaulx - Independent Catholic News 

12 January - Saint Ailred of Rievaulx

Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2015 12:24 am

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Abbot and writer. St Ailred was the son of a priest, born in Hexham in 1110. After being educated at Durham he joined the household of David I, king of Scotland as a steward. In 1134 he joined the newly-founded abbey at Rievaulx. In spite of delicate health, he followed the austere Cistercian regime and became so respected in the community that he was sent to Rome as an envoy in 1142, over the disputed election of William of York. Later he became master of novices and in 1143 he became abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire. Four years later he was recalled to be abbot of Rievaulx. He was much loved as an abbot and under his rule the community thrived, with 500 lay brothers and 150 choir monks, making it the largest in England. Ailred was known for his sensitivity and gentle holiness, with a strong emphasis on charity. It was said that he humanised the strict Cistercian monasticism. He had many friends and became a figure of national importance through his writing and preaching. Among his work is a treatise on friendship, lives of the saints of Hexham and sermons on Isaiah. He died at Rievaulx in 1067 and, though never formally canonised, has been revered ever since. The Cistercians approved of his cult in 1476.   ************** Saturday, 12 January 2008 SAINT AELRED Nunraw Patron SAINT AELRED January 12th. Patronal Feast of Nunraw Abbey SAINT AELRED (The more familiar form of the name Aelred is Alfred. We are in changed days from the time St. Aelred had 500 monks at HIS MONASTERY OF Rievaulx - DAYS FOR PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS TO THIS SMALL COMMUNITY OF NUNRAW UNDER AELRED'S PATRONAGE). This painting of St. Aelred reminds me of the former late Abbot of Pluscarden, Dom Alfred Spencer OSB(Subiaco). He had this picture in the windowsill of his room when I was visiting him during his last illness. He recalled that as a Novice in Prinknash Abbey he wished to take the name of Aelred. Another monk already had that name so his Abbot suggested he take the name of Alfred as a substitute. Before parting Dom Alfred kindly gave me this picture which is now with Fr. Aelred at Nunraw. Saint Aelred was born at Hexham in 1110. After studies at Hexham, Durham and perhaps Roxburgh, and further sound education at the Scottish Court where he was the steward and the confidant of King David, he entered the newly founded abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. Aelred became novicemaster and afterwards abbot of Revesby, a daughter house of Rievaulx. He was then thirty-three years old, a normal age at which to become abbot in this fresh and flourishing period of a new order. About 1147 Aelred was chosen abbot of Rievaulx. He died there on the twelfth of January 1167. Walter Daniel, Aelred's enthusiastic biographer, various friends together with Aelred's own writings bear witness that he was a good father, always setting a good example and a source of peace. He could see beneath men's foolish or thoughtless actions, he never seemed to have a grievance against anyone. Aelred used to say: 'It is the singular and supreme glory of the house of Rievaulx that above all else it teaches tolerance of the infirm and compassion with others in their necessities. All whether weak or strong should find in Rievaulx a haunt of peace, and there, like the fish in the broad seas, possess the welcome, happy, spacious peace of charity.' At first sight a strange theory for an abbot who stood at the head of a severe Cistercian House. But it sheds light on Aelred's character and his affection for everyone of the brothers who lived within the cloister. No wonder that Aelred's high estimation of love and affection in an ideal spiritual friendship was not always followed or rightly interpreted; by the older and infirm monks. He himself tells of monks being zealous in their malice, whispering in corners, murmuring against their abbot and spreading false reports about him. But the saintly abbot was indifferent to the opinions of these murmurers and indulgent to the feebleness of everyone. He demanded the same attitude of mind from his monks. 'My sons, say what you will, only let no vile word, no detraction of a brother proceed from your mouth.' Aelred survived in the memory of Rievaulx's monks as the fine and prudent shepherd, as the abbot who loved peace and the salvation of the brethren and inward quiet. The Mirror of Charity The essence of St. Aelred's teaching is contained in his book The Mirror of Charity. This was written at the request or St. Bernard. Aelred was slow to comply saying that "he had not come from the schools but from the kitchens where subsisting peasant-like and, rustic amid cliffs and mountains you sweat with axe and maul for your daily bread..." The following extract from the beginning of the Mirror of Charity illustrates the main theme of the book. "Let your voice sound in my ears, good Jesus, so that my heart may learn how to love you, my mind how to know you the inmost being of my soul how to love you. Let the inmost core of my heart embrace you, my one and only true good, my dear and delightful joy. But, my God, what is love? Unless I am mistaken, love is a wonderful delight of the spirit: all the more attractive because more chaste; all the more gentle, because more guileless; and all the more enjoyable because more ample. It is the heart's palate which tastes that you are sweet, the heart's eye which sees that you are good. And it is the place capable of receiving you, great as you are. Someone who loves you grasps you. The more one loves the more one grasps, because you yourself are love, for you are charity." "Meanwhile I shall seek you, O Lord:, seek you by loving you. Someone who advances on this way of love surely seeks you, and someone who loves you perfectly, O Lord, has already found you. And what is more equitable than that your creature should love you, since it is from you it received the ability to love? Creatures without reason or without sensation cannot love you; that is not their nature. Of course they also have their own nature, their beauty and their order, not that thereby they are or can be happy by loving you, but that thereby, thanks to you, by their own qualities they may help us to love you." In his introduction St. Aelred gives us an interesting tip. He says that if the length of this book puts you off, look through the chapter headings and see which you would like to read, and which leave out. But the main thrust is easy to spot. The art of arts is the art of love. "Those who love you, rest in you. There is true rest, true tranquility , true peace, true Sabbath for the mind." ++++++++++++++++++++++ Aelred of Rievaulx   Loyola Press 1,762    960 views Uploaded on 12 Oct 2009 http://www.loyolapress.com/voices-of-... Bert Ghezzi, author of "Voices of the Saints," shares a reflection about Aelred of Rievaulx.

ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER, Cistercian

COMMENT:

Abbot Mark ocso

  
Saints Cistercian
Abbot Mark, (Nunraw Abbey), is on his way at the celebration of the St. Robert of Newminster annual pilgrimage.
 The Abbot has been invited by the Parish Priest to participate and bless the painting.
We look forward to the Diocesan Newspaper, Northern Cross, covering the happy event.

Saturday, 07 June 2014

ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER(12th century)          In 1132 Robert was a monk at Whitby, England, when news arrived that thirteen religious had been violently expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary, in York, for having proposed to restore the strict Benedictine rule. He at once set out to join them and found them on the banks of the Skeld, near Ripon, living in the midst of winter in a hut made of hurdles and roofed with turf. In the spring they affiliated themselves to St. Bernard's reform at Clairvaux, and for two years struggled on in extreme poverty. At length the fame of their sanctity brought another novice, Hugh, Dean of York, who endowed the community with all his wealth, and thus laid the foundation of Fountains Abbey. In 1137 Raynulph, Baron of Morpeth, was so edified by the example of the monks at Fountains that he built them a monastery in Northumberland, called Newminster, of which St. Robert became abbot.         The holiness of his lif e, even more than his words, guided his brethren to perfection and within the next ten years, three new communities went forth from this one house to become centers of holiness in other parts. The abstinence of St. Robert in refectory alone sufficed to maintain the mortified spirit of the community. One Easter Day, his stomach, weakened by the fast of Lent, could take no food, and he at last consented to try to eat some bread sweetened with honey. Before it was brought, he felt this relaxation would be a dangerous example for his subjects, and sent the food untouched to the poor at the gate. The plate was received by a young man of shining countenance, who straightway disappeared. At the next meal the plate descended empty, and by itself, to the abbot's place in the refectory, proving that what the Saint sacrificed for his brethren had been accepted by Christ.         At the moment of Robert's death, in 1159, St. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, saw his soul, like a globe of fire, borne up by the angels in a pathway of light; and as the gates of heaven opened before them, a voice repeated twice, "Enter now, my friends." Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Friday, 12 February - Blessed Humbeline sister of st Bernard 12 Feb.

Bl. Humbeline, 12 February

Friday, 12 February 2011

Blessed Humbeline sister of st Bernard 12 Feb.

Blessed Humbeline. February 12 Menology: Bl Humbeline St Bernard's only sister.  Married to a nobleman, Guy de Marcy, she enjoyed the life of a noble lady in the world, but a visit to her brothers at Clairvaux brought about a great change in her.  She began to lead a life of piety, and two years later entered the Benedictine convent of Jully.  In 1130 she became superior.  She died on August 21, probably 1141, in the presence of Bernard, Andrew and Nivard.  MBS, p. 52      A Reading about Blessed Humbeline. Humbeline was the only sister of St Bernard. She was born the year after him and they were always very close to each other. Like Bernard she was naturally well-endowed. When her brothers and father joined Citeaux in 1113, she came into a good part of their estates. And she married Guy de Marcy, a rich nobleman of the house of Lorraine. In the happiness of the first years of her marriage Humbeline was very popular among the nobility of Burgundy. She gave herself to the fascinating intellectual and social fashions of her century -the age of 'courtly love'; this was the clever and entertaining society in which women were beginning to play an important part. One day she decided to visit her brothers at Citeaux. At first St Bernard refused to see her, when he saw the rich splendour of her cavalcade and the vanity of her life. As she guessed what it was that had upset him, she sent word that she would do as he said if he came out to see her. After speaking with Bernard she left the monastery chastened. From then on she turned away from the pursuit of empty pleasures and sought her happiness in the things of God. She spent much time looking after the poor, the sick and the needy. After several years Humbeline began to think of the cloister. Eventually, with her husband's consent, she entered the Benedictine convent near Troyes. Humbeline's life in the convent was characterized by great generosity. And, in a Iife of unusual fasting and other physical austerities, she continued to live in the spirit of her conversion. When the abbess, who was her sister-in-law, left to found another convent near Dijon, Humbeline was appointed in her place. The convent very soon began to flourish under Humbeline's leadership and, within two or three years, twelve new foundations were made. One of these, the convent of Tart, later became the first house of Cistercian nuns. As Humbeline approached her death her brothers were called to her bedside. And as she lay dying she spoke of the love that existed between all the members of her family and which had helped to sanctify them all. We see here the fundamental sanity of the early Cistercians whose holiness consisted not in crushing and exterminating natural affection but in elevating and sublimating it. What they renounced was the selfishness in that affection. They gave their whole nature, with all of its powers and gifts, to God .and thev served him in those among whom he had placed them. It is no wonder then that Humbeline died with the words of the psalmist on her lips: 'I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord.' This recalls the words of the Canticle: 'Draw me, and we shall run after you ... '. When God takes someone to himself he never draws that one person alone. With the individuals who die God draws all those who have been bound to them with special ties of love in this world; they wi II be united with them in a particularly intimate way in the next. Adapted from Modern Biographical Sketches of Cist. Blesseds and Saints. Gethsemanl, 1954, Book IV, pp. 52-56, and Butler's Lives of the Saints, August, p 265.