Balthasar ‘I am the vine; it is I who achieve’ COMMENTS

Note:
There has to be a Link: "Vine and Wine" by Benedict xvi, 'Jesus of Nazareth 1, pp.248-263.

The gates of heaven are wide open. 'Heaven is Myself. And it is I who am in you. Do you thoroughly grasp this? (HE AND i)

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald ...
To: William J ...m>
Sent: Friday, 16 November 2012, 16:56
Subject: Happy home after great monastery safari

Hi, William,

In this loving morning, you must have thoroughly relished the moments by train and the whole journey.
Thank you for your visit with us...

Reading:- I took the book from you last evening and took the first random of ‘The Father’s Vineyard, Heart of the World,’ over and over ...

The one paragraph , pp.76/77,was more than enough and I am still pondering.

The key, ‘I am the vine; it is I who achieve’,  gives me the bearings BUT from on the inter twining are not easily unthreaded.

Is your tutorial of clarifying possible?

Always a presence joy.

Donald

Paragraph  BY SENTENCE:

Why do you rush on to deed and achievement?

I am the vine; it is I who achieve.

What is your deed if it is not to ripen?

Let my sap rise up within you that you may hang heavy and golden.

Then will the chaotic dream of deeds dreamt by the shoots in the springtime, then will the leaves' proud summer craze, then will all earth's work become ripe within your little taut spheres.

You can bear in yourselves the meaning of the earth, but only through me.

And . when in the bowers of heaven this wine is served up at the Lamb's marriage-feast, then the whole world will be borne within it-as spirit.

Then one will be able to taste on which hillside and in what year of salvation it grew, will be able to savor in it the whole landscape of its origin, and not the least of your joys will be lost.

But everything about it has invisibly turned within, and the dividing borderlines being and being are dissolved in the unifying tide, and all bubbling eagerness has ceased fermenting, and all sadness has resurrected into brightness.   

---

From: William ..
To: Donald ...
Sent: Saturday, 17 November 2012, 16:51
Subject: Happy home after great monastery safari

Dear Father Donald,

Thank you... I did so enjoy our evening discussions, ...  and delighted in immersion in Balthasar's glorious meditation on the Heart of the World! ...

 ...

  

You are setting me a very great challenge to comment 'outwardly' (as opposed interiorily) upon the subtly moving waters of the mind of Balthasar... imagine a river hidden in an estuary: it is below the surface that the hidden course of the river runs, but its course can only known by the movement of the waters or glimpsed at low tide, swallowed up as it is as the tide swells the estuary....

In the passage you define, I believe his initial thought is of our receptivity to grace: to savour, to cherish the life-giving sap rising within us, as fruit thusenabled to respond to the warmth of sunlight. Only through this life-giving sap's confluence with our own life-desire will the 'taut' buds of potentiality be enlivened. How tender are the buds and blossoms of our springtime that express the 'meaning of earth's' potency - individually, but not independently of the sap that brings them to life; and each bud, in its growing perfection will one day be combined to fill the 'bowers' of heaven with the wine, 'as spirit', each grape being known and valued, taking regard for its origin (its life circumstance) - its region, its 'hillside', its 'year', describing within itself where planted and with what oppportunity for growth, each flavour unique. No flavour will be lost in this admixture, indeed the very combination of the varying grapes of 'the whole world' together, in fermentation 'dissolving' all sadness at the degree of ripening, difference of growth potential and opportunity, will be 'resurrected'  into the most perfect wine for the 'Lamb's marriage feast'. His final thought, for me, is of the salvation of all who respond regardless of their different 'landscape of origin' to that sunlight that invites receptivity. So great a harvest has he conceived! how greatly to be celebrated!

I will next delight in ordering the book - and the further one you showed me (I need, hunger for that deep confluence of thoughts). Then I shall put Google through its paces in the hunt for the 'Imitation' in such an edition as your own gem!

Thank you, most truly, for everything that you have given and shared with me through your kindness and your friendship. It was wonderful for me to be with you again!

With my love in Our Lord,

William

BY SENTENCE:

Why do you rush on to deed and achievement?

I am the vine; it is I who achieve.

What is your deed if it is not to ripen? ....

Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT

Hi, William,

It is great with so much revolving or reflecting of illustrating

The only snack is with the PDF and, in fact, I photo the diagram, the picture.

We have the COMMENTS in tandem below,

and move the date line up.

You keep the wheels well soilfor us.

Thank you.

Yours ....

Donald.  

PS. Text as from the graphic;

    

THE LENSE OF THE EYE OF GOD
Treasure is not in the eye of the beholder but in the vision of God.
HEAVENLY
RICHES
ARROGANCE OF
RICHES
PROFESSION OF
POVERTY
For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also [Matt 6:21]	INCIDENTAL
INHERENT	WEALTH
POVERTY
Wealth is incidental (occurring by chance in connection with certain life situations):-
Its possession creates a mystique of treasure in worldly minds, and an obsession created can take
possession of the human spirit. There are those who can balance this with opportunities for charity,
although it is a challenging crossbeam to navigate as the semblance of riches draws man to aspire to
the arrogance of riches. This can lead to greed for those who cannot attain it, like the unrepentant thief.
Poverty is inherent (existing in man as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute):-
It requires a knowing acceptance [else there will be rejection] if it is to open the way to receptivity
and become a professed proverty of charity for the love of God. It is only realized when it embraces
dependence upon the love of God, in true acknowledgement of its helplessness, for its treasure lies
in abandonment to the will of God, in a sense of its own unworthiness, like the good thief.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William - - -
To: Donald - - -
Sent: Sunday, 16 September 2012, 14:43
Subject: Poverty -v- riches: a diagram

Dear Father Donald,

Humbly I submit a diagram to illustrate the drama in the life of man as he seeks to attain to the substance of true riches.

The kind comments given by Fr.R, and those added by yourself, have assisted me in trying to determine the direction of aspiration: the human spirit can find - through the grace of God - the way to its soul's fulfilment through poverty or riches, the realisation of its heavenly treasure. However, it can be found only by those who know their need of God, for it has everything do with faith in the Lord Jesus, for His Cross is the frame of the endeavour.

It would need a forum of greater minds than mine to adequately plot the chart of man's endeavour. Indeed, Our God alone is the architect of so great a design!

With my love in Our Lord,

William

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald - - -
To: William - - -
Cc: Raymond Jaconelli <nunraw.raymond2@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Saturday, 15 September 2012, 13:00
Subject: Fw: [Teresa Avila] Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT

William,

PS from Fr Raymond

At the end of the Mass this morning he said quote e of "Where you treasure is, your heart is" would illustrate could be from Theresa of Avila.

See ATTACHMENT

Broadband has been on and off.

Donald

God addresses money frequently because He knows it’s what we treasure. How you treat your money says everything about your heart. Your heart follows your cash. Matthew 6:21 tells us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/where-your-treasure-is-your-heart-is-also-57291/#sHU227Si7fZbB6to.99 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr Donald <domdonald@sacmus.org>
To: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2012, 21:53
Subject: [Dom Donald's Blog] Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias COMMENT

Dear William,
Thank you for the well expressed,  " Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias", spiraling mind on different point of focus.   
 Very exciting and here my addled brain is trying to sort out paradoxes or reverse.- mirror reflections. Is it possible to illustrate with a diagram?

Meanwhile , Fr. R. offers,
re . Escatological reversal of far times:
Ecclesiastics 20:9-10
"There may be good fortune for a person in adversity,
   but a windfall may result in a loss. 
There is the gift that profits you nothing,
   and the gift to be paid back double". 
Another "quote" which I cannot trace;
"There are those who are poor - yet possess all things
and those who think themselves rich - yet are destitute."

Looking forward.
Danielou also features for today's Feast of Exaltation of the Cross.

Dali sketch

Donald

--
Posted By Fr Donald to Dom Donald's Blog on 9/14/2012 09:53:00 PM

COMMENT:
Dear William,
Thank you for the well expressed,  " Luke 6 - Poverty -v- riches: a gem from Joachim Jeremias", spiraling mind on different point of focus.   
 Very exciting and here my addled brain is trying to sort out paradoxes or reverse.- mirror reflections. Is it possible to illustrate with a diagram?

Meanwhile , Fr. R. offers,
re . Escatological reversal of far times:
Ecclesiastics 20:9-10
"There may be good fortune for a person in adversity,
   but a windfall may result in a loss. 
There is the gift that profits you nothing,
   and the gift to be paid back double". 
Another "quote" which I cannot trace;
"There are those who are poor - yet possess all things
and those who think themselves rich - yet are destitute."

Looking forward.
Danielou also features for today's Feast of Exaltation of the Cross.

Donald

COMMENT 'the point of a needle compared to the vast extent of the sky'

COMMENT
Later Link:
http://www.archive.org/stream/bookofspirituali00bloi/bookofspirituali00bloi_djvu.txt
page 56.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William W. . .
To: Dom Raymond. . . .
Sent: Sunday, 15 July 2012, 16:43
Subject: Re: [Blog] Compassion of Jesus - Fr. Raymond. Venus in Crescent Moon

Dear Father Raymond and Father Donald,

Thank you for sight of your homily - I cannot now cease from thinking of all the occasions of Jesus' compassion - the widow of Nain ("when the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her"). I believe you have brought into focus for me as aspect of the humanity of Jesus that will influence enormously my 'study' of Christology. However learned a book, it takes just a word - "compassion" - to illumine the search!

Thank you for the thoughts that the vision of Venus in the Crescent Moon bring... I hear it said 'there is a world out there', and maybe? The best comment I have read - yesterday! - on such issues is in Blosius's "Book of Spiritual Instruction" (from 1560!): "In good truth, if the heavens, the earth and all God has created, together with all He could create - for He could, if He so pleased, create many other worlds more wonderful than this - if, I say, we were to compare all these things to God they would be found so truly nothing, that they would be less than the point of a needle compared to the vast extent of the sky."

Such thoughts you give us to guide and delight us on our spiritual journey.

With my love in Our Lord,

William

Blogspot :Crescent Moon and Venus this morning.   

Fr. Raymond alerted me, but missing camera.

See Internet - well covered.  

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Raymond
To: . . .
Sent: Saturday, 14 July 2012, 8:27
Subject: THE COMPASSION OF JESUS

THE COMPASSION OF JESUS

Compassion is a kind of hallmark of the mission of Jesus on earth.  It was the driving force of all his miracles of healing.  This can be deduced from his sometimes requesting that the person he healed should not tell anyone.    - - -

COMMENT: Nicholas Cabasilas - The Study of Spirituality

Dear William,

You are the indispensable 'Reader', as 'Readers' are full-time tutors in Ox/Bridge colleges. 

You pointed me to the very volume, on the very shelf, with the precise knowledge of the background of Nicholas Cabasilas.

- - -

Many thanks.

Yours ...
Donald.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William - - -
To: Fr Donald - - ->
Sent: Friday, 11 May 2012, 20:23
Subject: Re: Nicholas Cabasilas

Dear Father Donald,

 

I find his writing like to a crystal mountain stream: "If this sacrament [the Eucharist] is fully effective it is quite impossible for it to allow the slightest imperfection to remain in those who receive it".  There is a very helpful write up in the book "The Study of Spirituality" (sadly I don't have a scanner, but I have seen this book in your library, yellow binding). The section begins: "The links of Hesychasm with the wider culture of the day are exemplified in particular by Gregory Palamas' contemporary and friend St Nicholas Cabasilas...." p 255.

 

 Wikipedia carries a short summary of his Works and a brief Bibliography. There is, suprisingly, only a brief entry on the Orthodox version of Wikipedia:  http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nicholas_Cabasilas

 

You do discover for us ever more amazing avenues of spirituality, thank you!

 

With my love in Our Lord,

William

 

  

The Study of Spirituality SPCK 1986

The Hesychasts - KALLISTOS WARE see p. 255

Kallistos and Ignatios, like Gregory of Sinai, are writing with monks in mind. But the Hesychast teaching was never restricted to an exclusively monastic milieu. Gregoryof Sinai sent his disciples back to the city from the desert, to act as guides to laypeople, and Gregory Palamas, in a sharp dispute with a certain monk Job, insisted that Paul's injunction 'Pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5.17) is addressed to every Christian without exception. The links ofHesychasm with the wider culture of the day are exemplified in particular by Palamas' contemporary and friend St Nicolas Cabasilas (c. 1320-C. 1391). Highly educated, pursuing in his earlier years a political career, Cabasilas to the best of our knowledge was never ordained or professed amonk. Although he wrote a short tract in support of Pal am as against Gregoras, in his two main works, The Life in Christ and A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy,Cabasilas avoids all explicit reference to specifically Hesychast themes, such as theJesus Prayer, the light of Tabor, or the uncreated energies. He expounds the spiritualway simply in terms of the sacraments: 'life in Christ' is nothing else than 'life in the sacraments', and this is accessible to each one alike, whether monastic or married, whether priest, soldier, farmer or the mother of a family. Like Palamas, he sees continual prayer as the vocation of all: 'It is quite possible to practise continual meditation in one's own home without giving up any of one's possessions' (The Life in Christ, 6; ET, p. 174). Hesychasm is in principle a universal path.

 

Second Reading

From The Life in Christ by Nicholas Cabasilas 
(Lib. 3: PG 150, 574-575)

The sacrament referred to in this reading by the Eastern name of"chrismation" is known in the West as confirmation. Cabasilas stresses the importance of this sacrament. through which Christians share in the power of the Holy Spirit and receive the virtues needed for spiritual maturity.