July 2007 Archives

Monday of the Seventeenth Week of the Year I

Exodus 32:15-34
Matthew 13:31-35

Idolatry

Sins of idolatry and faithlessness are not as remote from us as they may seem. We may not fashion golden calves for ourselves, as did Aaron and the children of Israel, but we are tempted, nonetheless, to seek substitutes for God whenever we feel that He is distant, absent, or not looking.

The Practice of the Presence of God

This is why our holy father Saint Benedict and all the saints so insist on the practice of the presence of God. God is not distant from us, we are alienated from ourselves. God is not absent from our lives, we are absent from our own hearts. The eye of God is ever upon us, but we have roving eyes, ever in search of something to satisfy the cravings of the world, the flesh, and the devil. When we find something that appears to satisfy our itch for novelty, we place it on pedestal. We make it an idol.

Television

Father Benedict Joseph Groeschel has been quoted as saying that the most corrosive thing in religious life over the past forty years has been the television. I agree with him. A community’s capacity for prayer and, especially, for adoration, is directly affected by its intake of television. There are religious who have no problem spending two hours or more in front of the secular altar of television; the same religious balk at being asked to spend two hours or more in adoration before the altar where Christ is really present. Idolatry.

Theologian Romano Amerio, a theologian at the Second Vatican Council, writes:

The television that daily prints the same images in millions of brains
and returns the next day to overprint others in the same brains like a sheet of paper printed on a thousand times, is the most powerful organ of intellectual corruption in the contemporary world. Nonetheless I will not deny that from those enormous antennae that send out across the world influences more powerful than those of the stars in the celestial spheres, there may come some slight influence that may accidentally be of use to religion. But I do deny that these scraps can legitimate the habitual and uncontrolled use of such technology or become the norm by which to shape the rhythms of religious life. One cannot but be amazed! Certain communities have abandoned the centuries old custom of reciting the night office in church so as to be able to watch television programs that clashed with the keeping of their rule.

Seventeenth Sunday of the Year C

Genesis 18:20-32
Colossians 2: 12-14
Luke 11:1-13

Making Connections

In his classic commentary on the liturgy, The Church’s Year of Grace, our wise old friend, Dom Pius Parsch, taught us the importance of making connections. He showed us how to relate the antiphons of the Divine Office to the chants, readings, and prayers of the Mass. He invited us to experience the sacred liturgy as an organic whole. Each individual part can and must serve as the key to another.

Taking It In

Rarely is there but one theme in a Sunday Mass; the liturgy is too vast, too lofty for anything like that. There are, rather, multicoloured threads running through the Divine Office and Mass of any given Sunday. One can focus on one or another of these, or one can stand back, as one would from a tapestry, and take in the magnificent whole. This, of course, requires some investment of time and study on our part. More than anything else, it demands humble prayer. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26).

The Divine Office

Sunday Mass can be approached in a variety of ways. But how, I ask you, does the Church herself approach it? And how does she prolong it even through her evening sacrifice of praise? The Church approaches Sunday Mass and prepares our hearts for it through the Hours of the Divine Office, beginning with the First Vespers of Sunday on Saturday evening. Sunday Vigils (or Matins) follow and, in the day’s first light, Lauds, the morning offering of praise. The Little Hours, though brief, are steeped in the graces radiating from the Holy Sacrifice. The Second Vespers of Sunday, traditionally followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrement, constitute a solemn thanksgiving for the grace of the day’s Gospel and for the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist that fulfills it.

Looking at the Antiphons

Dom Pius Parsch would have us look very closely at the proper antiphons of the Divine Office, especially those of the Magnificat at First Vespers, of the Benedictus at Lauds, and of the Magnificat at Second Vespers. Today, I want to follow his wise counsel, and his method as well.

Magnificat I Antiphon

The Magnificat Antiphon at First Vespers placed us in the setting of today’s Mass. Here is the text given in the Liturgy of the Hours: “As Jesus was in a certain place praying, one of his disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Lk 11:1). Domine, doce nos orare. To observe Jesus in prayer to the Father: what an incomparable grace! To contemplate His Face, to read there the secrets of His Heart, to receive from His lips even a fragment of His dialogue with the Father in the Holy Spirit! Did the disciples remember at that moment the word of the Father on the holy mountain, “This is my beloved Son; hear Him” (Lk 9:35)? “One of his disciples,” moved by the Holy Spirit, “said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Lk 11:1).

It was fitting on this last Saturday of July to remember the Madonna of the Most Precious Blood. The First Lesson at Mass (Exodus 24:3-8) also suggested a Votive Mass in her honour. For more on the Mother of God of the Most Precious Blood visit Father Keyes at the Refugio San Gaspare.

Collect

Almighty and ever-living God
by whose will the Most Precious Blood of Your only-begotten Son
was formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
and poured out for the salvation of the world on the altar of the Cross;
mercifully grant, through her intercession,
that we who partake of the Chalice of the New and Eternal Covenant,
may so adore the Mystery of Faith
as to experience within ourselves the fruit of that Redeeming Blood.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week of the Year I

Exodus 24:3-8

A Mystic Outline of the Mass

We see in today’s lesson from the Book of Exodus a mystic outline of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The first verse describes what is, in essence, a liturgy of the Word: “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: ‘We will do all the words of the Lord, which He hath spoken’” (Ex 24:3).

Actuosa Participatio

What have we here if not a prefiguring of the Mass of the Catechumens, also called the Liturgy of the Word? Moses communicates the Word of God. The people listen, and then commit themselves to carry out what they have heard. Think, for a moment, of the quality of their listening to the Word, and of the density of their silence. One had to listen intently, inclining the ear of one’s heart. Actual participation at its best!

The Altar

After the proclamation of the Word of the Lord and the people’s promise of obedience to it, Moses builds an altar. “And rising in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel” (Ex 24:4). One builds an altar for one thing alone: for sacrifice. The altar is surrounded by twelve pillars: a delineation of sacred space and a representation of the communion of the twelve tribes in a single sacrifice.

I was happy to discover that today's "Moment with Mary" was a text of Blessed Charles of Jesus on Our Mother of Perpetual Help. (If you are not familiar with the daily "Moment with Mary" and the International Centre of Mary of Nazareth that offers it as a free service to subscribers, do visit the Centre's beautiful site.)

Last week, at the beginning of the retreat I preached to the Bridgettines in Connecticut, I blessed a magnificent reproduction of the original icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Gazing out at us from her icon, Our Mother of Perpetual Help graced the retreat with her presence from beginning to end.

Blessed Charles of Jesus (Charles de Foucauld) was greatly devoted to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. His favourite place to pray in Rome was the Church of Sant'Alfonso, the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. There he renewed his consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed Charles painted two images of Our Mother of Perpetual Help: one while he was living in Jerusalem, and the other while living in Nazareth.

Blessed Charles of Jesus wrote:

In a time of great sorrow, not knowing where to take refuge, fearing to be misled by the devil, I remembered the heart of the Mother of Perpetual Help, and I placed myself between her hands, like her child, like her property. I begged her, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to carry me, as she carried Jesus when He was a child, and to make me become, not what I would like to become, but what she herself would like for the greatest glory of her Son, according to His will, according to what she read in His heart. Since that time, I consider myself as yours, O Mother of Perpetual Help!

Friday of the Sixteenth Week of the Year I

Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 18:8, 9, 10, 11
Matthew 13:18-23

The Law Through Moses

In today’s lesson from the Book of Exodus, God speaks to Moses, giving him The Ten Commandments. Saint John, in his Prologue, says: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17). The Ten Commandments reveal the desire of God that we should be happy and holy. God forbids only the things that will make us unhappy; he commands only the things that make for our happiness and peace.

Holiness and Beatitude

Obedience to the commandments is the path of return to God. Saint Benedict says that, “through the toil of obedience, we return to Him from Whom we have separated by the sloth of disobedience” (RB Pro:1). Returning to God by obedience, we live in communion with Him — in His grace — and that is the beginning of eternal beatitude.

Benefits of the Law

The Responsorial Psalm chants the praises of the Law in a kind of litany. What does the Law do for those who obey it? It refreshes the soul. It gives wisdom to the simple. It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eye. What does sin do for those who persist in it? It wearies the soul. It makes one foolish. It makes one’s heart heavy with sadness. It dims the eye of the soul. Look at the world dominated by the flesh and the devil. What do you see? People who are weary, bored, burnt out, foolish to the point of being stupid, depressed, angry, and dim.

Christ the Sower

In the parable of the Gospel, Our Lord Himself is the Sower. He scatters abroad the seeds of holiness and of happiness, the seeds of the Kingdom. He gives three examples of how not to receive the Word of the Kingdom.

O Lord Jesus Christ present in this wonderful sacrament,
I desire at this hour to make reparation to Thy Eucharistic Heart
and to open myself to Thy Love
for the sake of those who refuse or ignore it.

Increase Thou my faith,
that I may believe firmly in the truths and mysteries Thou hast revealed to Thy Church,
for the sake of those who do not believe.

By my attention to Thy Eucharistic Heart, I desire to make up for indifference to Thy Love,
for coldness, and for irreverence in Thy sacramental presence.

By my gratitude to Thy Eucharistic Heart, I desire to make up for ingratitude toward Thee
Who remainest hidden and forgotten in the tabernacles of so many locked churches.

By my trust in Thy Eucharistic Heart, I desire to make up for those who do not trust Thee,
for those are afraid to trust Thee, and for those whose trust in Thy Love
has been weakened by sins of scandal, by the weight of life’s hardships, or by painful loss.

By my hope in Thy Eucharistic Heart, I desire to help those tempted to despair of Thy Mercy.
Allow me, I beseech Thee, to hope for those who have no hope
and, because Thou didst pour out Thy Blood for them, let not one of them be lost.

In spite of my weakness and inconstancy, I desire, by this humble act of reparation
to obtain for all who yearn for Thy friendship,
a share in the unspeakable sweetness experienced by Thy beloved disciple Saint John
when he rested his head upon Thy Heart
on the night before Thy Sacred Side was opened by the soldier’s lance.

Let my desire to be open to the Love of Thy Eucharistic Heart
serve to repair the brokenness of the most wounded and fragile members of Thy Mystical Body.

By the mysterious workings of Thy Holy Spirit and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
let the reparation and adoration Thou hast inspired me to offer in Thy presence
bring reconciliation to those alienated from Thy Church,
healing to souls in need of Thy mercy,
and choice graces to Thy priests. Amen.

From Zenit, July 26, 2007

Archbishop Angelo Amato invited readers to delve into Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth," and there discover the wonder of the Face of Christ revealed by the Gospels.

The secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said this Tuesday when speaking about the book at a summer course on the thought of the Pope, organized by the King Juan Carlos University Foundation.

The Salesian archbishop said the Holy Father presents "a living picture of Jesus" in a world where Christ's image is "often so distorted by thousands of different hypotheses that it becomes unrecognizable."

"Delve into the book and read it attentively and discover the wonder of the Face of Christ revealed in the Gospel," the archbishop urged.

The Communion of the Saints

We live in the company of the saints. We are in communion with them, and communion implies communication. There is, at every moment, a mysterious exchange taking place between us and the saints who surround us. The Letter to the Hebrews says that we are “watched from above by such a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1).

Naming Your Baby

The names of saints are more and more rarely being given to Catholic babies. While there is a part of ignorance here — today’s parents were the victims of the disastrous lack of catechesis that followed the Second Vatican Council — there is something more. The pressure to secularize every area of life is picking up momentum. Change what people say, and you will change what they think. The modification of vocabulary — and in this case the suppression of the glorious heritage of Catholic saints’ names — will lead to a modification of values and, ultimately, of morality.

Living With the Saints

Monasteries have the splendid custom of attributing a saint’s name or a biblical name to every room and place — from the cells to the workrooms to the storage rooms. The significance of this age-old custom is as beautiful as it is profound: the monastery is inhabited not only by the visible people who live within its walls, but also by its invisible residents, the angels and the saints. The naming of a room for a saint is a confession of faith; it flies in the face of secularist ideologies that would have us believe that reality stops with what is visible.

Recovery of the Sacred

The movement to secularize every thing and every place is as pernicious as it is aggressive. It is part of the “smoke of Satan” that Pope Paul VI saw penetrating the Church to foment confusion. It is important that we respond to the crisis with courage and with conviction. The invasion of the secular must be countered by a concerted recovery of the sacred, and by re–claiming all things for Christ under the patronage of his saints and his mysteries: our cities, our towns, our homes, our institutions, our rooms, and, yes, our children.

The Motu Proprio and the Saints

Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Letter, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum has generated some very helpful comparative studies of the Rite of Blessed John XXIII (the Mass actually celebrated during the Second Vatican Council) and the 1970 Rite of Pope Paul VI. One of the observations made is that the newer rite, in a misguided attempt to render the Mass less offensive to Protestant sensibilities, removed several key allusions to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the saints, and to their intercession. In no way was this manipulation of the texts authorized by the Conciliar Fathers. It grieved and alienated the venerable Orthodox Churches, who interpreted it as a rejection of the patrimony of the undivided Church.

Ireland

Reflecting on my recent pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Lady of Knock in County Mayo, Ireland, I understand that the grace given me there had to with thanksgiving more than anything else. The priest who heard my confession at Knock exhorted me to give thanks for everything. A few days later, the saintly abbess of the Drumshanbo Monastery of Perpetual Adoration in County Leitrim repeated the same message, saying quite simply that it was the Lord's word to me: give thanks for all things, be grateful. As a result of these two counsels given me in Ireland, I have found myself praying very often in thanksgiving for all that God has permitted or ordained in my life, from the moment of my conception right up to the present.

A Monastery of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving prolongs the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and goes hand in hand with adoration and reparation. Convinced of this, a correspondent of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, named Virginie Danion, was inspired in 1869 to establish a Monastery of Thanksgiving in the Morbihan in Brittany. Miss Danion saw that, while many souls were drawn to adoration and reparation before the Blessed Sacrament, few were drawn to thanksgiving. The words of Jesus to the leper made clean pierced her heart: "Were not ten made clean? and where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger" (Lk 17:17-18).

Encouraged by Saint Peter Julian, Mademoiselle Danion and a few companions consecrated themselves to a life of uninterrupted thanksgiving before the Blessed Sacrament. Several years ago the remnant of the Community of Thanksgiving was amalgamated with the Congregation of the Filles de Jésus of Kermaria. Has its distinctive charism of thanksgiving disappeared? I would love to know what has become of the monastery.

I Thank You for Everything

Preaching a retreat last week to the Bridgettines in Connecticut, I invited them to do the same: to give thanks always, everywhere, and for all things. Their foundress, Blessed Mary Elisabeth Hesselblad prayed:

O my God, I thank You for everything You have given me,
I thank You for everything You refuse me,
and for everything You take away from me.

Grace Bestowed in Abundance

I write this brief note today because the last line of the Epistle at today's Mass (2 Corinthians 4:7-15) is this: "Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God."

General Intercessions

That the Holy Catholic Church, founded on the faith of the apostles,
may hold fast to the knowledge of the glory of God
that is given her in the Face of Christ
and in the Chalice of His Precious Blood,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That the shepherds of the Church
may receive in abundance
that spirit of self-denying service by which alone
they hold true authority among the disciples of Christ,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That the leaders of nations
may protect the rights of all to worship in peace
and actively seek a secure and lasting peace
for Lebanon and the Holy Land,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That the afflicted may not be crushed,
the perplexed, not driven to despair,
the persecuted, not forsaken,
and the struck down, not destroyed,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That priests who are dejected
and discouraged in their ministry
may experience the nearness of the Mother of God
and, under her protection, lean upon the pillar of faith,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That we who are invited to drink of the chalice of the Blood of Christ,
may accept our share in His Passion
for the sake of His Body, the Church,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

Collect at the General Intercessions

Merciful God,
whose holy apostle James,
was obedient to the calling of your Son and followed Him even to death:
grant that we, like him,
may fix our gaze upon the Face of your Christ
and drink of the chalice of his Blood
so as to carry within ourselves, as in earthen vessels,
the surpassing knowledge of Your glory,
and the hope of eternal life.
Through the same Christ our Lord.

or

Almighty and eternal God,
who gave the Blessed Virgin Mary,
glorious Mother of Your Son,
as a pillar to all who call upon her aid,
grant through her intercession
that like the Apostle Saint James
we may be strong in faith,
unwavering in hope,
and steadfast in charity.
Through Christ our Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Psalm 125: 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6
Matthew 20:20-28

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). Another translation puts it this way: “We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power.” The contrast is striking: treasure held in earthen vessels. But what is the treasure? In verse 6, Saint Paul says, “It is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). The treasure, then, is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the Face of Christ.

An Eye-Witness of the Transfiguration

When one considers that James was an eye–witness of the Transfiguration, the deeper meaning of today’s First Reading comes into focus. While James looked on, together with Peter and with his brother John, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2). The splendour of Jesus’ Face burned itself indelibly into the heart of James. Contemplating the Face of the transfigured Jesus, James was filled with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). This is the treasure that Saint James carried in a shell of fragile earthenware: his own human weakness.

Gethsemani

The Transfiguration reveals the treasure; the agony in the garden of Gethsemani reveals to us the fragility of the earthen vessels. To Peter, James, and John, Jesus said, “Remain here and watch with me” (Mt 26:38), but after His prayer to the Father, he found them sleeping. Again, a second time, He asked these, his intimate companions, to watch and pray, warning them of the weakness of the flesh, and again He came and “found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy” (Mt 26:43). And so it happened a third time but, by then, the hour of Jesus’ betrayal was already at hand (Mt 26:45). The radiant memory of Jesus transfigured, “the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6), was held in earthen vessels: in the hearts of men who could not watch even one hour with their Master in his agony.

Collect

O God who called your priest, Saint Sharbel
to the singular combat of the desert
and imbued him with every manner of piety,
grant us, we beseech you,
that by striving to be imitators of the Passion of the Lord
we may be found worthy of becoming sharers in his kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

General Intercessions

That the Church in East and West
and, in particular the Maronite Church of Lebanon,
may be graced in our own day with men and women of the desert,
lovers of silence and of ceaseless prayer,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That world leaders may forsake violence
and, by the intercession of Saint Sharbel, a son of the Middle East,
choose instead the way of forgiveness that leads to peace,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That the sick, the dying,
and the victims of violence in the Middle East
may experience today the healing love of Christ
and the comfort of the Holy Spirit,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That young people everywhere
may hear the voice that summoned the young Sharbel into the desert,
and so allow the seed of priestly, monastic, and religious vocations
to bring forth grain for the harvest,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That we who celebrate these Holy Mysteries
may do so with something of the faith and burning love of Saint Sharbel,
and so find therein an unfailing source of healing and of peace,
to the Lord we pray: Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

Collect at the General Intercessions

Prayer of the Maronite Church

O Merciful Father,
through the Holy Spirit, You chose Saint Sharbel as a voice crying in the wilderness.
In the Scriptures he discovered Your Holiness as Word Made Flesh,
and darkness gave way to light.
In the Eucharist he encountered Your Divinity as Bread of Life,
and the poverty of this world gave way to the treasures of Your Kingdom.
In prayer he experienced Your Silence as Mystery Present,
and loneliness gave way to communion.
Through the Virgin Mother he embraced Your Son as Lover of Mankind,
and hostility gave way to hospitality.
We beseech You, through his intercession,
to change our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh,
that with him we may give praise to You,
to Your Only Begotten Son, and to Your Holy Spirit,
now and always, and forever and ever.

Ex Oriente Lux

Saint Sharbel of Lebanon is one of those in whom the Holy Spirit fashioned a heart of flesh, a heart exquisitely sensitive to the mystery of Divine Love. The hermit priest Sharbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI on December 5, 1965, at the close of the Second Vatican Council. It was as if Paul VI wanted the Council to end with Rome gazing Eastward.

Another Saint Anthony of the Desert

Just before the beatification, a prelate at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome said to Bishop Francis Zayek, the shepherd of Maronite Catholics in the United States, “Reading about the holy hermits of the desert, we used to consider many reported facts as mere fables. In the life of Blessed Sharbel, however, we notice that these facts are authentic and true. Blessed Sharbel is another Saint Anthony of the Desert, or Saint Pachomius, or Saint Paul the Anchorite. It is marvelous to observe how you, Maronites, have preserved the same spirituality of the fathers of the desert throughout the centuries, and at the end of the nineteenth century, 1500 years later, produced a Sharbel for the Church.”

A New Turning

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a Trappist monk was emerging from a long period of spiritual depression. Thomas Merton had been in the Abbey of Gethsemani for nine years. He wrote in his journal, “Sharbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon — he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body was discovered incorrupt and in short time he worked over 600 miracles. He is my new companion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for 9 years — and before that I was dead.” Sharbel, the 19th century hermit of Lebanon, pulled America’s most famous 20th century monk out of a spiritual crisis. That is the communion of the saints!

Like a Lebanon Cedar

On October 9, 1977, Pope Paul VI canonized Sharbel, citing the psalm, “The just will flourish like the psalm tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar” (Ps 91:13). The New York Times gave extensive coverage to the canonization in Rome and to the corresponding festivities in Lebanon, days of celebration that brought Orthodox and Catholic Christians together with Muslims.

Holiness in Clusters

Saint Sharbel’s influence continues to grow. In Russia he has an immense following of Orthodox Christians. Muslims continue to seek his intercession, going in pilgrimage to his tomb. In Lebanon and in the Lebanese diaspora he continues to teach the way of silence, the way of the Cross, the way of humble love. On May 10th, 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified Saint Sharbel’s professor, the monk, Father Nimutallah al-Hardini. Holiness grows in clusters.

A Eucharistic Death

Saint Sharbel suffered a stroke on December 16th, 1898 while celebrating the Holy Liturgy. He was reciting the prayer, “Father of Truth, behold your Son, a sacrifice pleasing to you. Accept this offering of Him who died for me.” He fell to the floor holding the Holy Eucharist in his hands. He died on December 24th. Sharbel had lived twenty-three years in solitude. A lifetime of saying “Yes” to Love prepared him for a fully Eucharistic death and an abiding mission in the Church, one that, even today, is prophetic.

. . . Having completed His sacrifice, and giving up His spirit, the side of Christ is pierced and out flowed blood and water. It is as if this heart of Christ, having spent itself totally in compassion for sinful man, has one last treasure to give in death. This is the final act, the completion of Christ’s total gift to us and to the Father.

Be sure to visit Rationabile Obsequium, the splendid new blog of a recently ordained priest whom I am privileged to count among my friends. Don't miss the homily of Father B's First Mass of Thanksgiving on the mystery of the pierced Heart of Christ. Bravo, dear Father!

This medieval image is not directly related to today's reflection on the lesson from the Book of Exodus read at Mass. It depicts Saint Birgitta in conversation with the wounded Christ. One who walks in the path traced by the saints — trust, thanksgiving, submission to the Will of God, and adoration — will necessarily grow closer to Christ in His bitter Passion. The Passion of Christ is the fulfillment and completion of the mystery prefigured in Israel's Exodus. Does not Our Lord appear to be saying to Saint Birgitta, "Fear not, stand firm, and you will see the salvation of the Lord" (Ex 14:13)?

Exodus 14:5-18

The Sins That Misshape Us

Already, in this exciting fourteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus, the characteristic sins of the people of Israel begin to emerge. Characteristic sins? Each of us has them. A characteristic sin is a fault that, by dint of being repeated, shapes, or rather misshapes, one’s personality. A characteristic sin is the root of many other sins that both derive from it and feed it.

Four Sins of the Exodus

One can easily identify four characteristic sins of the people of Israel: 1) lack of trust in God; 2) murmuring against God and against the leaders set over them; 3) rebellion and disobedience; 4) and, finally, idolatry. Note the sequence of these sins. At the origin of them all is a lack of trust in God; this lack of trust manifests itself in fear. Lack of trust leads directly to murmuring against God Himself and against those who represent Him. Murmuring sets the stage for rebelliousness: a willful and malevolent expression of pride and disobedience. Rebelliousness opens the way to idolatry. Once one has rebelled against God and the authority constituted by Him, one is driven to erect idols in their place.

Be Still

In today’s lesson from Exodus, we see the first two sins clearly. The people lack trust in God their Saviour. They murmur against Moses, the leader and liberator given them by God. Moses replies in words that we all do well to heed: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today . . . . The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still” (Ex 14:13-14). “You have only to be still” — this is Moses’ way of saying, “Allow God to be God; allow the mighty Saviour to save you; allow the merciful One to liberate you.”

Entrance Antiphon

Let us all rejoice in the Lord,
as we celebrate a festival in honour of Saint Birgitta,
at whose solemnity the angels rejoice
and sing praise to the Son of God.

Collect

O God who led Saint Birgitta
along various paths of life,
and wondrously taught her the wisdom of the Cross
in the contemplation of the Passion of your Son,
grant that we, by walking according to your call,
may be able to seek you in all things.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Genesis 18:1–10a

The Most Holy Trinity

The episode recounted in today’s passage from Genesis — the hospitality of Abraham — is the subject of Saint Andrew Roublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity. What the reading delivered in words the icon delivers in form and line and color. The tradition speaks not of “painting” an icon, but of “writing” one. The icon invites, in its own way, to a kind of lectio divina.

Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio

Seeing the icon, one begins to read it: lectio. Its message enters not through the ears but through the eyes. By searching out the icon, by looking at it again and again with perseverance and openness, one discovers its secrets: meditatio. Then one begins to pray before the icon, reflecting the image itself back to God as the expression of the heart’s desire, contrition, adoration, and thanksgiving: oratio. When the icon becomes something interior, when the soul receives a gentle impression of the image that draws it to adoration, one can begin to speak of contemplatio.

Visual Fasting

People pulled in many directions at once or solicited by multiple desires find it difficult to enter into the mode of expression proper to the icon. Contemplation of the icon requires visual fasting: a willingness to forego the satisfaction of a thousand glances in order to gaze in singleheartedness upon “the one thing necessary” (Lk 10:42). This is what is meant perhaps by the traditional monastic practice of “custody of the eyes.” By it one learns to keep one’s eyes for one thing only: the “glory of God shining on the face of Christ” (cf. 2 Cor 4:6). A wise old monk once commented that the interior focus of a community could be discerned in its outward practice of custody of the eyes. By this he meant that one who truly seeks God has eyes for God alone and is willing to fast visually in preparation for seeing what lies hidden, “even within the veil” (Heb 6:19).

Cultural Conversion

Certain cultural prejudices make it hard for us to adjust to icons. Insofar as we are children of this age we are shallow. We prefer what holds a more immediate appeal to the senses. A worldly sensibility looks for something more naturalistic, something more romantic or sentimental. Dom Gregory Collins of Glenstal Abbey in Ireland says that, “Living the kind of spiritual life demanded to . . . contemplate the icon, means re-educating one’s sense of sight. It entails purification from superficial seeing, a move away from a mode of perception that stops short of the hidden depth of things or which remains captivated only by their surface glitter.”

Plainchant

Dom Gregory suggests too that there is an analogy between plainchant and the icon. The icon is to the eyes what plainchant is to the ears. In a monastery one expects to find — what shall I call it? — the ear purified and refined through a kind of fasting so as to hear the “still, small voice” that Elijah recognized on Horeb. “And when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with a mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave” (3 K 19:13). The austerity of the traditional chant of the Church — its poverty, its chastity, its uncompromising obedience to the Word — makes it increasingly foreign to our culture and, paradoxically, increasingly attractive to young people challenged by the radicality of life for God alone.

Yesterday I returned from preaching a retreat to the Bridgettine Sisters (Order of the Most Holy Saviour) at the Convent of Saint Birgitta, Vikingsborg, in Darien, Connecticut. Saint Birgitta's overlooks a charming inlet of the Long Island Sound. I was without an internet connection all week!

I delivered my conferences without extensive written notes, having only my Bible in hand, and the Constitutions of the Order. The grace of "holy preaching" comes easily when the hearts of one's hearers are open and eager to receive the Word. What were the subjects addressed?

Compunction, Conversion, and Reparation
Gratitude
Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience
Eucharistic Adoration
The Sacred Wounds of Christ
The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Bridgettines in Darien — three Indians, three Mexicans, and one Italian — are admirable in their fervour, their simplicity, and their joy. The chant of the Hours imparts a characteristically monastic rhythm to their day. In addition to the Divine Office, the Bridgettines devote a significant amount of time each day to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed. The Sisters' work of ecumenical hospitality has been somewhat curtailed since the fire that ravaged their guesthouse last July 11th. Restoration of the lovely old house is still in progress.

I began each retreat conference with a prayer of Saint Birgitta of Sweden. It is a prayer that I cherish. Pray it, and you will know why:

O Lord, make haste and illumine the night.
Say to my soul
that nothing happens without Your permitting it,
and that nothing of what You permit is without comfort.
O Jesus, Son of God,
You Who were silent in the presence of Your accusers,
restrain my tongue
until I find what should say and how to say it.
Show me the way and make me ready to follow it.
It is dangerous to delay, yet perilous to go forward.
Answer my petition and show me the way.
I come to You as the wounded go to the doctor in search of aid.
Give peace, O Lord, to my heart.

Fifteenth Sunday of the Year C

Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Psalm 68: 14 and 17, 30-31, 36ab and 37 (R. cf. 33)
Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 10:25–37

A Hidden Meaning

Today’s Gospel, the parable of the Good Samaritan, is familiar to us. It is, perhaps, too familiar. That is often our problem. We assume that we have grasped the message of a Gospel because we have heard it so many times when, in fact, its message may not yet have grasped our hearts. The Fathers of the Church discerned a mystery — a hidden meaning — in the story of the Good Samaritan: the mystery of the healing mercy of God revealed in Christ.

The Divine Pity

The Good Samaritan is none other than Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Christian art through the centuries, the figure of the Good Samaritan is often depicted as the merciful Jesus. In the days of His flesh, as He journeyed in this world, Christ came to where we were (cf, Lk 10:33). And when He saw all of us, sinners, stripped, and beaten, and left for dead in a ditch, He had compassion (cf. Lk 10:33). The human Heart of God, the Sacred Heart, was moved. God, looking upon us through the eyes of His Christ, was moved to pity at the sight of our suffering.

Your servant, Saint Simon of the Tree Stock, was shown to be another Melodist in praising you and invoking your motherly Protection as the Sovereign Lady of Mount Carmel. Having won your favour, he rejoiced to have his prayers answered by you, his only hope after God. Bowing our heads in praying with him, we too hymn:

Rejoice, Childbearing yet maiden, with none who equals you!
Rejoice, Mother so tender, bestowing your favors on Carmel's children!
Rejoice, O strong Stem of Jesse, Star of the Sea!
Rejoice, Who bore the Bright Flower!
Rejoice, Purest of Lilies that flowers among thorns!
Rejoice, bringing help to the heart that in weakness turns to you!
Rejoice, Strongest of armor with might invincible!
Rejoice, calling to thee from under your Mantle!
Rejoice, Unfailing counsel to those who trust in you!
Rejoice, O Gentle Mother who in Carmel reigns!
Rejoice, Sharing with your servants the gladness that you gained!
Rejoice, Gate of Heaven, who with glory is now crowned!
Rejoice, O Most Beautiful Flower of Carmel, Splendor of Heaven and Fruitful Vine richly laden with Blossoms Divine!

Living for the Unseen Bridegroom

Moved by the Holy Spirit, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha consecrated her virginity to Christ. The strangeness of this new way of life — fidelity to an unseen Bridegroom — flew in the face of her native culture. The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary was always in Kateri's hand. She spent long hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

Kateri sought solitude with the Bridegroom Christ in the forest she loved and knew well. She fashioned small crosses of wood and set them up in the woods, making little shrines to the saving Cross of her Beloved Jesus. Like the desert mothers of old, graced with compunction, she wept bitterly over her sins and over the sins of her people.

Transfiguring Grace

It was by the transfiguring grace of Christ that Kateri, disfigured by smallpox and nearly blind, became beautiful and fragrant. Saint Paul speaks of being “the aroma of Christ to God” (2 Cor 2:15). Kateri was the pure fragrance of holiness in the midst of her own people. In death, Kateri’s scarred face became beautiful, causing her spiritual father to cry out in astonishment. Christ is faithful to his promises and the saints are witnesses to that fidelity.

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week of the Year I

Genesis 49:29-32; 50:15-24

Jacob's Repose

The death of Jacob the Patriarch plunges his sons into grief. Joseph, in particular, is affected by his father’s death. “Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him” (Gen 50:1). Jacob’s death becomes an occasion of national mourning. “And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days” (Gen 50:3).

Do Not Fear

Joseph’s brothers become unsettled and anxious. They fear that now with their father dead, Joseph will take retribution on them. They send Joseph a message asking for forgiveness. Joseph, whom we have seen weeping before, weeps again. The words that he speaks are among the most beautiful of the Pentateuch: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones” (Gen 50:21).

The Two Josephs

The Patriarch Joseph emerges from this last page of the Bible’s first book as an icon of the unfailing and merciful providence of God. “Do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones” (Gen 50:21). The Joseph of the Old Testament represents the same mystery as the Joseph of the New Testament. Those graced with a strong devotion to Saint Joseph know that he is a good provider, fulfilling in wonderful ways the promise of the first Joseph in Egypt.

Go to Joseph

Return for a moment to Chapter 41 of Genesis. “When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do” (Gen 41:55). A marvelous eighth mode antiphon for the liturgy of March 19th takes this very text and applies to the Joseph of the New Testament: Clamavit populus ad regem alimenta petens, quibus ille respondit: Ite ad Ioseph. You will find it in the Processionale Monasticum(page 148).

I Will Provide For You

Both Josephs are images of the Fatherhood of God, the Giver of our daily supersubstantial bread. Both Josephs send us to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the living Bread come down from heaven" (Jn 6:51). The words of the Patriarch Joseph become for us the words of the heavenly Father: “Do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones” (Gen 50:21). The last page of Genesis sends us to the Most Holy Eucharist.

Your Son immediately felt His Healing Power go out of him and asked who it was that touched him, even though there were many crowds pressing Him on all sides. Approaching with fear, the woman fell in humility before Him to receive His words of consolation that her faith had restored her health. Joining with her in thanking our Lord, we sing:

Rejoice, for your Mantle of Protection heals with Grace all who touch it with faith!
Rejoice, for the Lord Jesus has wrought many miracles by it to this day!
Rejoice, for by it you strengthen our faith!
Rejoice, for you clothe us with a powerful sign!
Rejoice, for we reach out to your Mantle in hope!
Rejoice, for you never leave us without your help!
Rejoice, for your Mantle resounds in the four corners of the earth!
Rejoice, for its four corners signify the Gospels of your Son!
Rejoice, for its fringes symbolize the dripping Oil of Gladness!
Rejoice, for the Oil of Compunction has bedewed us to the very edges of the garment!
Rejoice, for it is like the dew of Hermon!
Rejoice, for it descends upon the Mountains of Zion where the Lord commanded the
blessing - life forevermore.
Rejoice, O Most Beautiful Flower of Carmel, Splendor of Heaven and Fruitful Vine
richly laden with Blossoms Divine!

Rembrandt shows Jacob on his deathbed in Egypt, blessing the sons of Joseph. God was faithful to His promise. Joseph closed his father's eyes.

Friday of the Fourteenth Week of the Year I

Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30
Psalm 36, 3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Matthew 10:16-23

God With Us in Change

In today’s lesson from Genesis God reassures Jacob, who is about to make an enormous change in his life. Who among us is not resistant to change? We cling to our little securities. We are possessive and territorial: quick to say “my” and “mine” where the saints were quick to say “thy” and “thine.” We require change of others but bristle when asked to change ourselves.

Salutary Change

Uprootings and detachments are never easy, but they are salutary. People who emigrate are obliged to leave many things behind. They are compelled to learn new ways of being, of relating, and of doing. More often than not they are obliged to learn a new language. God knows that for us change can be a frightening thing. This is why He intervened, calling Jacob by name “in visions of the night.” (Gen 46:2).

Night

In Sacred Scripture, the night evokes a number of things. It is the obscurity in which faith is put to the test. It is the darkness in which one learns to hope for the dawn. God speaks, more often than not, during the hours of the night. He covers His most luminous works with night’s darkling veil: the Exodus, the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, and the resurrection. “If I say, ‘Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to Thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with Thee” (Ps 138:11-12).

God Hides and Speaks

The saints and mystics of every age learned, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to cherish the night. We see this in Saint Gregory Nazianzen, and in the author of The Cloud of Unknowing; we see it in Saint John of the Cross, in Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and in the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. The same God who hides himself in the dark night of faith, visits us by night to comfort us and to speak His secrets to our hearts.

While Keeping Vigil

Benedictine Oblates living and working in the world have two holy patrons: Saint Francesca of Rome whom we celebrated in March, and today’s Saint Henry. One of the things related about Saint Henry is that, on arriving in any town, he would spend his entire first night there in a vigil of prayer in a church dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. When he arrived in Rome in 1014, he spent the night in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome’s Bethlehem. While keeping vigil, he saw the “Sovereign and Eternal Priest–Child Jesus” enter to celebrate the Holy Mysteries. Saints Lawrence and Vincent assisted Our Lord as deacons. A throng of saints filled the basilica; Angels chanted in choir. It is noteworthy that in Henry’s vision Christ the Priest is a Child. One wonders if he was not keeping vigil before the altar of the Crib of the Infant Jesus in Saint Mary Major, a place of grace for countess souls through the ages.

Touched by the Book of the Gospels

Henry’s vision is very much like those of Saint Gertrude the Great: a pulling back of the veil, a glimpse of “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Cor 2:9). After the Gospel, an Angel bearing the book of the Gospels was sent to Henry by the Mother of God. Normally, one kisses the book of the Gospels. Instead the Angel touched Saint Henry’s thigh with it, saying, “Accept this sign of God’s love for your chastity and justice.” From that moment on, Henry limped like Jacob after his night vigil spent wrestling with the angel (cf. Gn 32:24–25). How fascinating — and how consistent with God’s dealings with men — that a mark of weakness should be the sign of a special grace!

The Oblate Emperor

Henry was crowned Emperor in Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014. Henry cherished Benedictine life, spending time in monasteries whenever he could. His greatest joy was to occupy a stall in choir and join the monks in singing the Divine Office. Henry founded monasteries throughout the Empire and endowed them liberally. He became an oblate of the Abbey of Cluny and then asked to make profession as monk at the Abbey of Saint–Vanne. The abbot received him as a monk, and then ordered him, in the name of obedience, to take his place again on the imperial throne.

It is not against human enemies that we struggle, but against sovereignties and powers
who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil, as the Apostle warns
us. Relying on God's armor, signified by your Scapular of Mount Carmel, O Mother of
the Redeemer, we sing:

Rejoice, Most Holy General, commanding us with unfailing spiritual strategy!
Rejoice, Leader in the day of battle, assisting us to hold our ground!
Rejoice, bestower of spiritual resources in our constant struggle with evil!
Rejoice, buckling truth around our waist!
Rejoice, granting us a breastplate of integrity!
Rejoice, putting on us the shoes of spiritual eagerness for the Gospel!
Rejoice, giving us the shield of faith!
Rejoice, defending us against the fiery arrows of the evil one!
Rejoice, placing on us the helmet of salvation!
Rejoice, arming us with the Sword of the Spirit!
Rejoice, empowering us with the Word of God!
Rejoice, inspiring us in the constant invocation of the Name of Jesus!
Rejoice, O Most Beautiful Flower of Carmel, Splendor of Heaven and Fruitful Vine
richly laden with Blossoms Divine!

Good for Evil and Blessings for Curses

Good rendered for evil; blessings for curses; pardon, peace, concord, and reconciliation. The Collect for the Memorial of Saint John Gualbert speaks the language of the Gospel, ageless and ever new.

Almighty and ever-living God, source of peace and lover of concord,
to know Thee is to live, to serve Thee is to reign;
establish us in Thy love,
that by the example of the blessed abbot John Gualbert,
we may render good for evil and blessings for curses,
and so obtain from Thee both pardon and peace.

Victory Over Vengeance

John Gualbert’s monastic vocation unfolded in dramatic circumstances. A medieval Florentine nobleman, he lived in an age and culture that, in spite of the Gospel, exalted vengeance as a matter of honour. When his elder brother was murdered, John felt compelled to avenge him.

On a certain Good Friday, riding through a narrow mountain pass, John came face to face with his brother’s killer. The man was alone. The place was isolated. There was no escape. John drew his sword, ready to exact a bloody vengeance. The murderer raised his arms in the form of a cross and, in the Name of Jesus Crucified, begged John’s forgiveness.

The Encounter With Jesus Crucified

Cut to the heart by the grace of the Cross, John dropped his sword, embraced his enemy, and made his way straight to a church in Florence. There, kneeling before the crucifix, John saw Jesus Crucified bow His head, acknowledging his act of forgiveness and, by the same token, forgiving him all his sins. And so, John became a monk.

A splendid stained-glass window telescopes the story into one scene. John is shown as a young nobleman. With his eyes fixed on the image of the Crucified, he is embracing his enemy, the murderer of his brother. The iconography of Saint John Gualbert makes for a fascinating study. In nearly every image the saint is represented looking at Jesus Crucified, embracing Him, or holding the Cross against his heart.

O Most Holy Mother of Carmel, having learned the truth in the Lord Jesus, the Apostle to the Gentiles calls us to give up all illusory desires and cling, instead, to the Way of God, that is goodness and holiness of truth. Taking hold of our high calling as sharers in the Royal Priesthood of Christ, we sing:

Rejoice, for your Mantle reminds us that we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ!
Rejoice, for your Grace aids us in making no provision for the flesh!
Rejoice, for we live protected under the wings of your Cloak of sure defense!
Rejoice, for you renew in us our minds in conformity with that which is in your Son!
Rejoice, O Guide in the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Rejoice, for you, the Enclosed Garden, grant us Divine flowers of grace!
Rejoice, for you make us grow strong in the Lord!
Rejoice, for you pray for us day and night!
Rejoice, for you are our constant aid!
Rejoice, O Mountain Unquarried!
Rejoice, O Rock Unhewn!
Rejoice, O Mother of the Cornerstone!
Rejoice, O Most Beautiful Flower of Carmel, Splendor of Heaven and Fruitful Vine
richly laden with Blossoms Divine!

Benedict XVI: Blessed by Name and by Grace

To shepherd His Church at the beginning of this new millennium, God has given us a Pope blessed by name — Benedictus — and by grace. Pope Benedict XVI has a Benedictine world view. The Holy Father reads life through the lens of the Rule of Saint Benedict. The wisdom of the Holy Rule permeates Pope Benedict XVI. One might say that the style of his pontificate is abbatial; he is Father, Doctor, and Pontiff. His priorities are very much those of his great Benedictine predecessor, Pope Saint Gregory the Great.

Benedictine Zeal for the Work of God

In his Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI reveals his benedictine soul, and alludes to the role of Saint Gregory the Great, and to the mission of Benedictine monks and nuns in the organic development and promotion of the sacred liturgy. He writes:

Up to our own times, it has been the constant concern of supreme pontiffs to ensure that the Church of Christ offers a worthy ritual to the Divine Majesty, 'to the praise and glory of His name,' and 'to the benefit of all His Holy Church.'

Note the three points of the Holy Father’s opening statement:

— the offering of a worthy ritual to the Divine Majesty
— the primacy of praise and doxology
— the affirmation that such worship redounds to the benefit of the whole Church of Christ

Usages Universally Accepted

Since time immemorial it has been necessary - as it is also for the future - to maintain the principle according to which 'each particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted apostolic tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church's law of prayer co