Search This Blog

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Advent John Baptist


Wednesday, 24 June 2015


Birthday of St. John the Baptist. | National Gallery, Saint John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading |

     COMMUNITY CHAPTER SERMON - Fr. Raymond
below.      

Preview | Saint John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading | National Gallery, London

   
2,470
Published on 24 Jun 2014
John the Baptist has been painted by some of the most famous artists in the National Gallery from Piero della Francesca and Leonardo to Caravaggio and Puvis de Chavannes. But who was he and why has he been so important to artists and patrons over the centuries?

Over a series of 10 films the art historian Jennifer Sliwka and theologian Ben Quash share the highlights of their collaborative MA course between the National Gallery and King's College London, to explore the life of one of the greatest figures in Biblical history and one of the most represented saints in art.


       
Youtube Video

COMMENT:
12th Week Ord Time
Wednesday 24th  
On the Solemnity of the Birthday of St. John the Baptist, it is the 56th anniversary of Ordination of Priesthood. The 1959 souvenir cards long gone. The motto words of Psalm 26(27):4, remain at heart.
There is one thing I ask of the Lord
for this I long,
to live in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my life,
in the savour of the sweetness of the Lord,
to behold his temple. [Ps. 26:4, Grail 1963]



http://www.athanasius.com/psalms/psalms1.html#27 

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



The most interesting subject for the Birthday of St. John of the Baptist in the Leonardo Charcoal Cartoon for the Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John (Burlington House, London).



COLORPLATE 33
Painted 1499-1501
BURLINGTON HOUSE CARTOON (VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. ANNE), detail
Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper
National Gallery, London

The face of the Virgin in the Burlington House Cartoon accords with the type Leonardo had established seventeen years before in the Virgin of the Madonna of the Rocks in the Louvre (colour plate 18), yet it betrays the deep changes these long years had wrought in his art and that the other Madonna of the Rocks, the London version, first began to reveal. Something of that sweet harmony and well-being have survived, but now the face is that of a mature woman and is suffused with feelings and compassion that arc the direct result of an emotional and human concern with the actions of the children. Realistic behaviour has replaced elusive ethereality. The Virgin's head is voluminous and its structure more systematically defined than in Leonardo's earlier work. Moreover, the slight incline of the head is no longer a convention, as it was in the Madonna of the Rocks, but the result of a conscious movement. However, she still has the force of an idealized and universal presence.

The contrast between St. Anne's strange face and the pleasantly candid one of the Virgin could not be more striking. The older woman's narrow, deep set eyes, her deliberately compressed lips, and her curious mannered smile give the face an animation and a seer-like wisdom befitting one who attempts to communicate to a contented Virgin the dreadful knowledge of her son's future sacrifice. Leonardo's persistent search into the realm of the inner mind has given him access to emotions and psychological states that have now a mystical substance, which acts to expand upon and enrich the mere human condition.
Professor Wasserman
Leonardo



 COMMUNITY CHAPTER SERMON - Fr. Raymond

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr. Raymond ....
To: Donald ....
Sent: Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 10:47
Subject: ST JOHN BAPTIST


ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

When we call St John the Baptist the Precursor of the Lord we immediately think of the way he prepared the way for the Lord’s coming.  We think of: The example of his ascetic life; and we think of his fearless preaching; a preaching that was to cost him his life.  But there is another way, and perhaps a much more important way in which he prepared for the Lord’s coming.  This was not so much by what he did, or by what he said, great as these things were,  but it was also by the very fact of just who he was, and by what he represented in  God’s great plan for the accomplishment of the world’s salvation;  God’s great plan for the preparation of his people; to enable them recognise and accept the Messiah when he came.

Jesus hints at this when he says of John: “Of men born of women there has risen none greater than John the Baptist”.  In these words Jesus proclaims to all the world that the Person of John was the climax of all that the Old Testament was meant to be. John was its ultimate and perfect fulfilment.  Sanctified in the womb, he stands in the Old Testament in something the same kind of way as Mary, sanctified at her conception, does in the New.  As Mary is the ultimate fulfilment of the New Testament children of God, so John is the ultimate fulfilment of the Old Testament children of God.  God’s plans were never frustrated by man’s infidelities in the Old Testament.  The Old Testament was not a failure.  John the Baptist brought it to its perfect fulfilment.  -  “look!  There is the Lamb of God!” He cried.  At that moment the thousands of years of Old Testament History were shown to be fulfilled.

This link between the Old Testament and the New is seen dramatically proved and  portrayed for us in the strikingly parallel stories of the Annunciation and the Birth, the Passion and the Death, of John and of Jesus, side by side in the Gospel stories.

So when Jesus tells us that there has risen no man greater than John he is not saying necessarily that John is greater than Abraham or Moses, let alone his Blessed Mother.  He is rather saying that John’s greatness is not so much a personal one as one of his role and office in the history of salvation.  Jesus then goes on to speak of you and me, the children of the New Testament.  We are all greater than John, he says, and this in so far as it is a greater destiny to know just who and what the Messiah is and to be a part of his kingdom than it is to be the greatest of the prophets who could only look forward to some dim distant future coming.

This greatness of John, then, as the personification of the ultimate fulfilment of the Old Testament means that the whole of the Old Testament is one great preparation for the coming of Christ.  All its wonderful stories, all its great characters are meant to illustrate, in one way or another the person and mission of Christ.  If we stick to the New Testament only then we cannot fathom the full depth of the mystery of Christ;  We will miss so much of the meaning to be drawn from the beautiful and powerful imagery of the Old Testament as it gradually infolds for us the heights and the depths of the riches of Christ.

Therefore when St Jerome gave us his famous saying that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” he was not referring to the Gospels only but also to the whole of the Old Testament as well, right from the Book of Genesis through to the Baptist himself who straddles both Testament like a great Colossus.
Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)     

Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

Tuesday, 23 June 2015


Luisa, prayer is one single point. Chrysostom, prayer was very short

COMMENTS:

"Christ and Paul com­manded us to make our prayers short, and to say them frequently, at brief intervals". (Sr. John Chrysostom).

"Prayer is a Single Point such that in Praying for Oneself, One Prays for All".    (Luisa Piccarreta).

TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME, YEAR I

READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL

(Hannah’s barrenness and her prayer: 1 Samuel 1:1-19)


There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.....    
Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Year I 

READING FROM THE HOMILIES
ON HANNAH BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

As Hannah continued praying in the presence of the Lord, says Scripture, Eli watched her mouth. The writer bears witness here to ­two virtues in the woman: her perseverance in prayer and her attentiveness. He refers to the first by saying, She continued, and to the second by adding, in the presence of the Lord; for we all pray, but not all of us pray in the presence of the Lord. Though our bodies may be in an attitude of  prayer and our mouths babbling some pious formula, can we really claim to be praying in the presence of God when our minds are wandering hither and thither in home and market-place? Those people pray in the presence of the Lord who pray with complete recollection; who, having no worldly attachments, have removed from earth to heaven and banished all human preoccupations, just as this woman did then. Recollecting herself completely and concentrating her mind, she called upon ­God in her deep distress.
But why does Scripture say she continued praying when actually her prayer  was very short? She made no long speeches, she did not spin out her plea to great length, but spoke few and simple words. What then could the writer have meant by saying, She continuedSurely he meant that she said the same thing over and over again; she spent a long time ceaselessly repeating the same words. That ­indeed is how Christ also commanded us to pray in the Gospels. When he told his disciples not to pray like the Gentiles and not to use empty repetitions, he also taught them the right way to pray, showing them that it is not a multiplicity of words but mental ­alertness that wins us a hearing.

Why then, you may ask, if  prayer should be brief, did Christ tell them a parable to show that it should be continuous? There was a widow, he said, who by her persistent requests, by her going to him again and again, overcame a cruel and inhuman judge who neither feared God nor regarded other people. And why does Paul also urge us to keep praying, to pray without ceasing? Is it a contra­diction to tell us not to make long speeches, and yet to pray continually?
No; there is no contradiction – God forbid! The two commands are in complete agreement. Christ and Paul com­manded us to make our prayers short, and to say them frequently, at brief intervals. For if you spin out your words to any length you are often inattentive, and so give the devil freedom to approach and trip you up and divert your mind from what you are saying. But if you pray continuously and frequently, repeating your prayer at brief intervals, you can easily remain recollected and fully alert as you pray. That indeed is just what this woman did, not making long speeches but drawing near to God frequently, at brief inter­vals. That is true prayer, when its cries come from the depths of one’s being.


St John Chrysostom, De Anna, Sermon 2.2; (Bareille 8:419-21); Word in Season +++++++++++++++++++.
    



18 May 2015

Book of Heaven, Luisa Piccarreta, Vol. 7. 
May 30, 1907. 
Effectiveness of prayer. Prayer is a Single Point such that in Praying for Oneself, One Prays for All. As I was in my usual state, I saw blessed Jesus for a short time, and I ...

      “My daughter, prayer is one single point, and while it is one point, it can grasp all other points together.  So, whether the soul prays for herself alone or for others, she can obtain by supplication just as much.  Its effectiveness is one.”

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)
Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

Doneword: July Month of Precious Blood Dom Donald's Blog:

   Picture from iPad Blessed Sacrament.

Doneword: July Month of Precious Blood Dom Donald's Blog:: COMMENT: Early eve of 'July Month Precious Blood' Google prompted us massive; Search Results About 486,000 results   C Andwelc...


















Dom Donald's Blog: Sunday 25th. Saint Aelred – his writings combine m...

Dom Donald's Blog: Sunday 25th. Saint Aelred – his writings combine m...: Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office,  See St. Aelred Night Office .      Night Office by Aelred of Rievaulx S U NDAY  TWE...

BY Daniel Harkins | September 18 | comments icon 0

BY Daniel
Harkins | May 22 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS     
OL-OF-PAISLEY-ICON.jpg print
6-OL-OF-PAISLEY-ICON
Our Lady of Paisley icon on tour
Event
part of preparations for Easter 2016 diocesan synod
An icon
of Our Lady of Paisley will travel to every parish in the diocese over the next
year in preparation for the Easter 2016 diocesan synod on laity and
evangelisation.
Beginning
its journey during the month of Devotion to Our Lady, the icon (right) has
spent a week each in St Paul’s and St Peter’s churches in Paisley, and moved to
St Cadoc’s in Newton Mearns on Thursday. The icon will finish its journey in St
Mirin’s Cathedral on Holy Thursday 2016.
The
life-sized icon features Mary standing on a carpet of Paisley pattern and
holding the baby Jesus in front of Paisley Abbey and St Mirin’s Cathedral.
Above Our Lady are the Greek letter abbreviations for Jesus Christ and The
Mother of God and this, along with the halo, are what make the painting a holy
icon rather than a work of art.
The icon
began life five years ago when artist Bernadette Reilly and Denis Murphy, who
would later become a deacon in the diocese, discussed the idea for an icon of
Our Lady of Paisley that would tour parishes.
Once Fr
John Keenan was appointed Bishop of Paisley, some new ideas were incorporated
into the work, including a Latin phrase ‘Hac ne vade via nisi dixeris, Ave
Maria,’ which was once written on the walls of Paisley Abbey and translates to
‘Go not this way unless you have said Ave Maria.’
The Canon
law that guides diocesan synods requires a preparatory period of catechesis,
consultation and prayer, and the pilgrimage of the Our Lady of Paisley icon
will form part of that for the diocese. The icon will be welcomed with a Mass
as it arrives in each parish and will be sent off at the end of the week with a
short parish devotion.
Bishop
John Keenan said he believes the icon pilgrimage is the most important part of
the upcoming diocesan synod.
“Synod is
a great word which means ‘travelling together,’” he said. “So this journey is
one that the whole diocese has embarked upon…
“Pope
Francis says in Evangelium Vitae that it was Mary’s presence that made possible
the Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. So we consecrated
the synod and the whole diocese of Paisley to Our Lady for the bringing in [of]
the certainty that She would make possible a new outpouring of the spirit of
evangelisation on the whole diocese, clergy and people.”
“Our
devotion to Our Lady is under the patronage of Our Lady of Paisley,” the bishop
added. “This was a pre-Reformation devotion that arose from the Paisley Abbey,
dedicated to Our Lady from the 14th century, that reached to the whole diocesan
area.”
—daniel@sconews.co.uk
—This
story ran in full in the May 22 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes
































Tuesday 22 September 2015

St. Pio da Pietrelcina, Capuchin Priest (1887-1968) - Memorial


Wednesday, 23 September 2015

St. Pio da Pietrelcina, Capuchin Priest (1887-1968) - Memorial

image Other saints of the day


PADRE PIO DA PIETRELCINA
Capuchin priest
(1887-1968)
"Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6:14).
        Like the Apostle Paul, Padre Pio da Pietrelcina placed at the centre of his life and apostolic work the Cross of his Lord as his strength, his wisdom and his glory. Inflamed by love of Jesus Christ, he became like him in the sacrifice of himself for the salvation of the world. In his following and imitation of the Crucified Christ he was so generous and perfect that he could have said: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). And the treasures of grace which God had granted him so lavishly and unceasingly he passed on through his ministry, serving the men and women who came to him in ever greater numbers, and bringing to birth an immense host of spiritual sons and daughters.
        This worthy follower of Saint Francis of Assisi was born on 25 May 1887 at Pietrelcina in the Archdiocese of Benevento, the son of Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio. He was baptized the next day and given the name Francesco. At the age of twelve he received the Sacrament of Confirmation and made his First Holy Communion.
        On 6 January 1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where on 22 January he took the Franciscan habit and the name Brother Pio. At the end of his novitiate year he took simple vows, and on 27 January 1907 made his solemn profession.
        After he was ordained priest on 10 August 1910 at Benevento, he stayed at home with his family until 1916 for health reasons. In September of that year he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo and remained there until his death.
        Filled with love of God and love of neighbour, Padre Pio lived to the full his vocation to work for the redemption of man, in accordance with the special mission which marked his entire life and which he exercised through the spiritual direction of the faithful: the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the celebration of the Eucharist. The pinnacle of his apostolic activity was the celebration of Holy Mass. The faithful who took part witnessed the summit and fullness of his spirituality.
        On the level of social charity, he committed himself to relieving the pain and suffering of many families, chiefly through the foundation of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (House for the Relief of Suffering), opened on 5 May 1956.
        For Padre Pio, faith was life: he willed everything and did everything in the light of faith. He was assiduously devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part of the night in conversation with God. He would say: "In books we seek God, in prayer we find him. Prayer is the key which opens God's heart". Faith led him always to accept God's mysterious will.
        He was always immersed in supernatural realities. Not only was he himself a man of hope and total trust in God, but by word and example he communicated these virtues to all who approached him.
        The love of God filled him, and satisfied his every desire; charity was the chief inspiration of his day: to love God and to help others to love him. His special concern was to grow in charity and to lead others to do so.
        He demonstrated to the full his love of neighbour by welcoming, for more than fifty years, countless people who had recourse to his ministry and his confessional, his counsel and his consolation. He was almost besieged: they sought him in church, in the sacristy, in the friary. And he gave himself to everyone, rekindling faith, dispensing grace, bringing light. But especially in the poor, the suffering and the sick he saw the image of Christ, and he gave himself particularly to them.
        He exercised to an exemplary degree the virtue of prudence, acting and counselling in the light of God.
        His concern was the glory of God and the good of souls. He treated everyone with justice, frankness and great respect.
        The virtue of fortitude shone in him. He understood very early in life that his would be the way of the Cross, and he accepted it at once with courage and out of love. For many years, he experienced spiritual sufferings. For years he endured the pains of his wounds with admirable serenity. 
        When he had to submit to investigations and restrictions in his priestly ministry, he accepted everything with profound humility and resignation. In the face of unjust accusations and calumnies he remained silent, trusting always in the judgement of God, of his immediate superiors and of his own conscience.
        He habitually practised mortification in order to gain the virtue of temperance, in keeping with the Franciscan style. He was temperate in his attitude and in his way of life.
        Conscious of the commitments which he had undertaken when he entered the consecrated life, he observed with generosity the vows he had professed. He was obedient in all things to the commands of his Superiors, even when they were burdensome. His obedience was supernatural in intention, universal in its scope and complete in its execution. He lived the spirit of poverty with total detachment from self, from earthly goods, from his own comfort and from honours. He always had a great love for the virtue of chastity. His behaviour was modest in all situations and with all people.
        He sincerely thought of himself as useless, unworthy of God's gifts, full of weakness and infirmity, and at the same time blessed with divine favours. Amid so much admiration around him, he would say: "I only want to be a poor friar who prays". 
        From his youth, his health was not very robust, and especially in the last years of his life it declined rapidly. Sister Death took him well-prepared and serene on 23 September 1968 at the age of eighty-one. An extraordinary gathering of people attended his funeral. 
        On 20 February 1971, barely three years after the death of Padre Pio, Pope Paul VI, speaking to the Superiors of the Capuchin Order, said of him: "Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was - it is not easy to say it - one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering".
        Even during his lifetime, he enjoyed a vast reputation for sanctity, because of his virtues, his spirit of prayer, sacrifice and total dedication to the good of souls.
        In the years following his death, his reputation for sanctity and miracles grew steadily, and became established in the Church, all over the world and among all kinds of people. (...)       
        On 2 May 1999, in the course of a solemn concelebrated Mass in St Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II by his apostolic authority beatified the Venerable Servant of God Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, naming 23 September as the date of his liturgical feast. (...)
        On 20 December, in the presence of John Paul II, the Decree on the miracle was promulgated. Finally, on 28 February 2002 the Decree of Canonization was promulgated. 

Homily at the canonization of St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (16 June 2002)
 
1. "For my yoke is easy and my burden light" (Mt 11: 30).
        Jesus' words to his disciples, which we just heard, help us to understand the most important message of this solemn celebration. Indeed, in a certain sense, we can consider them as a magnificent summary of the whole life of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, today proclaimed a saint.
        The evangelical image of the "yoke" recalls the many trials that the humble Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo had to face. Today we contemplate in him how gentle the "yoke" of Christ is, and how truly light is his burden when it is borne with faithful love. The life and mission of Padre Pio prove that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted out of love, are transformed into a privileged way of holiness, which opens onto the horizons of a greater good, known only to the Lord.

2. "But may I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6,14). 
        Is it not, precisely, the "glory of the Cross" that shines above all in Padre Pio? How timely is the spirituality of the Cross lived by the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina. Our time needs to rediscover the value of the Cross in order to open the heart to hope.
        Throughout his life, he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross.
        In God's plan, the Cross constitutes the true instrument of salvation for the whole of humanity and the way clearly offered by the Lord to those who wish to follow him (cf. Mk 16,24). The Holy Franciscan of the Gargano understood this well, when on the Feast of the Assumption in 1914, he wrote: "In order to succeed in reaching our ultimate end we must follow the divine Head, who does not wish to lead the chosen soul on any way other than the one he followed; by that, I say, of abnegation and the Cross" (Epistolario II, p. 155).

3. "I am the Lord who acts with mercy" (Jer 9,23). 
        Padre Pio was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making himself available to all by welcoming them, by spiritual direction and, especially, by the administration of the sacrament of Penance. I also had the privilege, during my young years, of benefitting from his availability for penitents. The ministry of the confessional, which is one of the distinctive traits of his apostolate, attracted great crowds of the faithful to the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. Even when that unusual confessor treated pilgrims with apparent severity, the latter, becoming conscious of the gravity of sins and sincerely repentant, almost always came back for the peaceful embrace of sacramental forgiveness. May his example encourage priests to carry out with joy and zeal this ministry which is so important today (...).

4. "You, Lord, are my only good". 
        This is what we sang in the responsorial psalm. Through these words, the new Saint invites us to place God above everything, to consider him our sole and highest good.
        In fact, the ultimate reason for the apostolic effectiveness of Padre Pio, the profound root of so much spiritual fruitfulness can be found in that intimate and constant union with God, attested to by his long hours spent in prayer and in the confessional. He loved to repeat, "I am a poor Franciscan who prays" convinced that "prayer is the best weapon we have, a key that opens the heart of God".
        This fundamental characteristic of his spirituality continues in the "Prayer Groups" that he founded, which offer to the Church and to society the wonderful contribution of incessant and confident prayer. To prayer, Padre Pio joined an intense charitable activity, of which the "Home for the Relief of Suffering" is an extraordinary expression. Prayer and charity, this is the most concrete synthesis of Padre Pio's teaching, which today is offered to everyone.
 5. "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because ... these things ... you have revealed to little ones" (Mt 11,25).
        How appropriate are these words of Jesus, when we think of them as applied to you, humble and beloved Padre Pio.
        Teach us, we ask you, humility of heart so we may be counted among the little ones of the Gospel, to whom the Father promised to reveal the mysteries of his Kingdom.
        Help us to pray without ceasing, certain that God knows what we need even before we ask him.
        Obtain for us the eyes of faith that will be able to recognize right away in the poor and suffering the face of Jesus.
        Sustain us in the hour of the combat and of the trial and, if we fall, make us experience the joy of the sacrament of forgiveness.
        Grant us your tender devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother.
        Accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage toward the blessed homeland, where we hope to arrive in order to contemplate forever the glory of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.                                   


- Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana