Ambrose 2. Psalm 118:151. Mark 10:46-52.BLIND beggar .

COMMENT: 
Mark 10:46-52. Blind beggar ....

Thomas Merton

Psalms Are Our Prayer

Above all, Psalm 1I8, the longest of them all, is a litany of praises extolling the peace that is found in the will of God. This Psalm, which might at first seem dull and "juridical" -since it praises the Torah from beginning to end-turns out, on long acquaintance, to be one of the most contemplative of them all. St. Ambrose, indeed, commented on it in terms appropriate to the Canticle of Canticles. It is a song of the soul that rejoices in perfect self-surrender to God.

Pointing out that in this Psalm 1I8, as well as in the various sapiential books, moral and mystical meanings are mingled together, St. Ambrose describes how the

Church welcomes the coming of Christ In this Psalm:-

Holy Church, who in the beginning of the world was espoused to God in paradise, who was prefigured in the deluge, announced by the Law, called by the prophets, has long awaited the redemption of men and the beauty of the Gospel. She now runs, impatient of delay, to kiss the Spouse, exclaiming: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth."

In Psalmum CXVlII. MPL 15 :1.201.

Chanting the numerous verses of this long hymn to the will of God, we learn to recognize, in God's will for us, the fulfilment of the Mystery of Christ in our own lives, and we hasten to co-operate with the action of the Holy Spirit, who, in all that He does, strives to unite the sons of the Church more closely in the unity of the Mystical Christ.

When we are fully and whole-heartedly united with the will of God and striving to bear one another's burdens and build the mystical City of God on this earth, we find our peace-filled hearts spontaneously overflowing with that praise of God which is the joy of the poor whom He has deigned to call to the riches of divine sonship. Rectos decet colladatio! (Praise is fitting in those who are sincere with God.)

Sunday, 25 October 2015

25/10/2015 Ambrose Ps. 118:151

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose

Monastic Office of Vigils.   

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St. Ambrose Ps. 118

....... He penetrates the soul, then, and illuminates it as with the brightness of eternal light. But although his virtue is poured out among all and into all and over all, since he was born of the Virgin for the sake of all, both good and bad, just as he commands his sun to rise over good and bad, nevertheless he warms only those who come near to him. For just as people shut out the sun's brightness when they close the windows of their houses and choose to live in darkness, so those who turn their backs on the Sun of Righteousness cannot see its splendor. They walk in darkness, and it is plain to everyone that they them­selves are the cause of their blindness. Open your windows, then, so that your whole house shines with the brightness of the true Sun; open your eyes so that you can see the Sun of Righteousness rising for you.

25/10/2015 Ambrose Ps. 118:151

 

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose

Monastic Office of Vigils.   

Psalm 118: 151 by Saint Ambrose

Monastic Office of Vigils.  

THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  SUNDAY

First Reading

Jeremiah 23:9-17.21-29

Responsory   Lam 2:14; Jer 23:21

The visions your prophets saw for you were false and deceptive.

+They did not expose your sin, so as to reverse your fortunes.

V. I did not send these prophets; I did not speak to them. +They did not ...

Second Reading

From a commentary on Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose Expositio in Psalmum 118, 19, 36-39: CSEL 62, 440-442

You are near, Lord, and all your commandments are true. The Lord is near to all of us, because he is everywhere. We cannot escape him if we offend him, nor deceive him if we sin, nor lose him if we worship him. God watches everything, he sees every­thing. He is close to each one of us; as he says: I am a God who is close at hand. How can God fail to be everywhere, when you read of the Spirit of God that the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world? For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the Lord God. I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. Where then can he fail to be who fills everything? Or how can we all share in his fullness unless he is near all of us?

So, knowing that God is everywhere, and fills the sky, the earth, and the sea, David says: Where can I escape from your Spirit, where flee from your face? If I go up to heaven you are there; if I go down to Sheol you are there; if I take flight before dawn to dwell at the sea's furthest end, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand hold me fast. In what few words he has shown that God is everywhere, and that wherever the Spirit of God is, there is God, and where God is there is his Spirit! The union of the indivisible Trinity is portrayed here, since it is the Son of God who pro­nounced these words through the mouth of the prophet. He spoke in his human nature, for he descended to earth in the incarnation, ascended to heaven in the resurrection, and through his bodily death went down to the underworld to free the prisoners. Or if you prefer to ascribe these words to the

prophet, you notice it is clearly shown that wherever God the Father and God's Holy Spirit are, Christ is near as the hand, and the right hand of God.

Since we know that the sun shines everywhere, can we doubt that the splendor of God's glory and the image of his being shines everywhere? What could the Word of God, the eternal splendor, not penetrate, when he illuminates even the hidden mind, which the sun itself cannot penetrate?

He penetrates the soul, then, and illuminates it as with the brightness of eternal light. But although his virtue is poured out among all and into all and over all, since he was born of the Virgin for the sake of all, both good and bad, just as he com­mands his sun to rise over good and bad, nevertheless he warms only those who come near to him. For just as people shut out the sun's brightness when they close the windows of their houses and choose to live in darkness, so those who turn their backs on the Sun of Righteousness cannot see its splendor. They walk in darkness, and it is plain to everyone that they them­selves are the cause of their blindness. Open your windows, then, so that your whole house shines with the brightness of the true Sun; open your eyes so that you can see the Sun of Righteousness rising for you.

Responsory   Jer 23:23-24; Ps 139:7

Am I a God when near at hand, and not a God when far away? Can anyone hide in a dark corner without my seeing him? + Do I not fill heaven and earth?

V. Where can I escape from your Spirit? Where flee from your face? + Do I not fill ...

The Hound of Heaven, Gelineau Ps 138. The Soul's Desire (Anon. 11c.)

Gelineau Psalm 138 (139)

The Hound of Heaven

1 O Lord, you search me and you know me,

2 you know my resting and my rising,

you discern my purpose from afar .

3 You mark when I walk or lie down,

all my ways lie open to you.

4 Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.

3 Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.
6 Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.

7 O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?

8 If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave, you are there.

9 If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea's furthest end,

10 even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

11 If I say: "Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night,"

12 even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.

13 For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
15 my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;
every one of my days was decreed
before one of them came into being.

17 To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!

I8 If I count them, they are more than the sand; 
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ballykanill Harbour, Connermara  

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The Soul's Desire

www.rc.net/wcc/ireland/early12.htm‎

 It were my soul's desire. To see the face of God; It were my soul's desire. 

To rest in His abode. It were my soul's desire. To study zealously; This, too, my soul's  ...

The Soul's Desire 

Anonymous verse from the 11th century (translated by Eleanor Hull)    

It were my soul's desire To see the face of God; It were my soul's desire To rest in His abode. It were my soul's desire To study zealously; This, too, my soul's desire, A clear rule set for me. It were my soul's desire A spirit free from gloom; It were my soul's desire New life beyond the Doom. It were my soul's desire To shun the chills of Hell; Yet more my soul's desire Within His house to dwell. It were my soul's desire To imitate my King, It were my soul's desire His ceaseless praise to sing. It were my soul's desire When heaven's gate is won To find my soul's desire Clear shining like the sun. Grant, Lord, my soul's desire, Deep waves of cleansing sighs; Grant, Lord, my soul's desire From earthly cares to rise. This still my soul's desire Whatever life afford -- To gain my soul's desire And see Thy face, O Lord.

First Sunday of Lent. St. Augustine

There are so many Patristic Homilies of the Synoptic Gospels on Jesus' Temptation but St Augustine is exceptional in the context of the discourses on the Psalms.
Information on Psalm 60 commentary of Augustine for the First Sunday of Lent is best depended on the Online Breviary for the accurate reference, (Ps. 60, 2-3: CCL 39, 766).
Saint Augustine's 444 words, as in similar Readings, challenge close reading. In fact, a preamble summarizing leads to opening to the door of Augustine's clarity and simpleness of language.
A blessing discovery.
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What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of the earth. What does it cry?   Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

  If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. 

BreviarySunday, 17 February 2013  The First Sunday of Lent     

http://www.ibreviary.com/m/breviario.php?s=ufficio_delle_letture

SECOND READING

From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop
(Ps. 60, 2-3: CCL 39, 766)

In Christ we suffered temptation, and in him we overcame the devil

Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer. Who is speaking? An individual, it seems. See if it is an individual: I cried to you from the ends of the earth while my heart was in anguish. Now it is no longer one person; rather, it is one in the sense that Christ is one, and we are all his members. What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? The one who cries from the ends of the earth is none other than the Son’s inheritance. It was said to him: Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of the earth. What does it cry? What I said before: Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer; I cried out to you from the ends of the earth. That is, I made this cry to you from the ends of the earth; that is, on all sides.

Why did I make this cry? While my heart was in anguish. The speaker shows that he is present among all the nations of the earth in a condition, not of exalted glory but of severe trial.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.

He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained life for you; he suffered insults in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcame the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.

Augustine Ps 140 Week 4 Lent Hebrews 8

Night Office - the words of St. Augustine added jam commentary to the bread and butter of the steady Psalms recital. 

Second Reading: From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Augustine (In ps. 140,4-6: CCL40, 2028-2029)

This work,. finished around 416, contains homilies of an allegorical tendency. Augustine interprets Psalm 140 in terms of Christ's passion. Since Jesus and the Church form the whole Christ, head and members undergo the passion together. Through baptism the members have been crucified with Christ and have risen with him to a new life.

• I have called to you, Lord; make haste to help me! We are all in a position to make these words our own. Yet if I pronounce them, they will not be uttered by myself alone, but by the whole Christ. They are spoken in the name of his body; for while he was on earth, he prayed as one who shared our human nature, he besought the Father in the name of all his members, and during his prayer drops of blood were forced from every pore of his body. That is what Scripture tells us: Jesus prayed with such earnestness that his sweat became like drops of blood. This bleeding of his entire body surely signifies that the whole Church will bleed with the suffering of martyrs.
• I have called to you, Lord; make haste to help me! Hear my voice when I cry out to you.
• Did you imagine that crying was over when you said: I have called to you? You may have cried out, but do not suppose you are now safe from care. When anguish is at an end. then there will be no more crying. But if Christ's body, the Church. is liable to suffering until the end of time, then must we not only say: I have called to you; make haste to help me, but add with the psalmist: Hear my voice when I cry to you.
• Let my prayer rise up before you like incense; let the raising of my hands be like an evening sacrifice. Every Christian is aware that this passage is usually understood of Christ our head. As evening drew near, the Lord yielded up his soul upon the cross in the certainty of receiving it back again; it was not wrested from him against his will But we too were represented there. Christ had nothing to hang upon the cross except the body he had received from us. And it was surely not possible for God the Father to abandon his only Son, who shared with him the one godhead. Nevertheless, when Christ nailed our human weakness to the cross - that cross to which, as the Apostle says, our unregenerate nature has been fastened along with him - it was with the voice of our humanity that he exclaimed: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• That, then, is the evening sacrifice: the Lord's own passion, his cross, the offering on it of the saving victim, of that holocaust which is acceptable to God. And by his rising, Christ turned that evening sacrifice into a morning oblation.
• Similarly, the pure prayer which ascends from a faithful heart will be like incense rising from a hallowed altar. No fragrance can be more pleasing to God than that of his own Son. May all the faithful breathe out the same perfume.
• Our unregenerate nature - it is the Apostle who speaks once more - has been fastened to the cross along with him, in order that our sin-stained humanity may be renewed and cleansed, and we ourselves may no longer be slaves to sin.

Responsory                                          Galatians 2: 19-20

With Christ I have been nailed to the cross, - and I live now no longer my own life, but the life of Christ who lives in me.

I live by faith in the Son of God

who loved me and gave up his life for me. - And I live ...