| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Forum Statistics |
» Members: 297
» Latest member: Mathew
» Forum threads: 6,927
» Forum posts: 12,893
Full Statistics
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 269 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 267 Guest(s)
Bing, Google
|
|
|
| Solange Hertz: The Crack in the Board |
|
Posted by: Stone - 01-30-2021, 07:10 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
- No Replies
|
 |
The Crack in the Board
Written by Solange Hertz
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-CYp...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-CYplT5bEZYY%2FUYJxM69oPDI%2FAAAAAAAAXi8%2FLrQgGZZSkWc%2Fs640%2Fbedtimestory.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Remnant Archives | July 1972
"Any parent tempted to think his home is his idea, to do with as he pleases, heads a house of slavery." - Solange Hertz
Many years ago, squarely facing our ignorant brood and the inescapable fact that somebody had to teach them the truths of the Faith, I began looking around for tools. Among my youthful wild oats was a degree in Education which led me to believe I would need, at the very least, a blackboard.
As luck would have it, I heard genuine slate ones were to be had from a dismantled school a mere 30 miles away. Deo gratias! It was, believe it or not, the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, so I crudely credited her with this windfall. Fetching the thing would provide a most suitable pilgrimage in her honor. Off we went.
I’ll come to the point quickly, as I think our Lady did: when we got home with the monster carefully packed in the trunk of the car, it was split. It was so split that not one portion of it was usable. We didn’t return for another. In the first sickening sight of cracked slate, a luminous message had been communicated, wordless but efficacious. No room in our house was ever converted into a classroom. We never dared.
Transmitting the Faith live and kicking from parent to child does seem to depend a lot on what you don’t do. Like the Ten Commandments, most of the directives prove to be negative. “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no gods except Me!”
Any parent tempted to think his home is his idea, to do with as he pleases, heads a house of slavery. He doesn’t know the first thing about religion and couldn’t even teach it in CCD. Before creating His Church, God laid it out in natural form in the human family. Each in its own way follows the same divine pattern used in the beginning in Eden, and each is subject to divine laws which may not be broken without mortal penalties.
A Christian home is furthermore a cell of the Mystical Body of Christ, a whole church in miniature, an ecclesiola, as St. John Chrysostom so goldenly put it. By its very nature it partakes of the promises Christ made to the greater Ecclesia. Whatever the world says, the home is here to stay. Founded on the same rock as the Church, it too shall withstand the gates of hell as long as it remains in union with Peter. And like her it will teach its children, and through them the world.
As a true communion of saints, the home has many more members than those immediately visible. Generations of its deceased relatives may be dependent on its prayer and good works to hasten their entry into the Beatific Vision. In return, although no longer able to merit for themselves, these ancestors may and do offer efficacious supplication for their descendants on earth in the Church Militant. God’s gifts are without repentance. Once a parent, always a parent, not only in the Church Suffering, but even more so in the Church triumphant. The ancestors intercede for their families before the throne of God along with our patron saints, not to mention the angelic spirits assigned by God to the members on earth. All have a vested interest in what instruction the children are receiving!
As in the Church, the members of any given family are predestined. They are created and chosen by God, not man, to occupy a certain place in this particular family and not in that one, with these brothers and sisters and not those, and with these selected two appointed parents. No one has the slightest control over the personnel of his family, least of all the parents, who must get acquainted with their children as they would anyone else as they arrive on the scene. Please God, all were at least permitted to be born!
There are house rules we must follow, and these weren’t laid down by us either. We are commanded to honor father and mother as God’s representatives, and to welcome each child as we would the Son of God. We must, furthermore, all love one another as He loved us. The Sacred Heart has told us He wished to rule as the invisible but real head of every household. In any program for teaching the Faith in the home these facts must be kept in mind.
Because the family is a divinely created organism existing in its own right, obeying its own inner laws, it cannot be subjected to organizations serving other gods without incurring the wrath of its Creator. Any attempt to manipulate its membership artificially by legislation, birth control, genetics, euthanasia, indoctrination or other human engineering is an attempt to displace God as Creator and Lord of the home. It is doomed to ultimate failure by destroying the society supporting such practices.
It’s to weep the way the home has permitted itself to be invaded and dictated to by self-appointed experts. Mothers deprived of the technical assistance whereby they might nurse their sick at home meekly allow themselves to be ordered out of hospital rooms where their nearest and dearest are relegated. Schools have literally torn children away from their parents, setting themselves up as despots decreeing even what time they may spend together, let alone imposing curricula in no way subject to parental control. Private industry—and some government overseas agencies—assume without question that hiring the husband and father automatically entitles them to the extra-curricular services of wife and children, even dictating their social contacts.
In every case the organization, which originally sprang from the home and was designed to fill its needs and implement its apostolate in the world, has in fact turned upon it and is preparing to displace it entirely in pursuit of its own mindless ends. Generations of fathers have been encouraged to put careers ahead of family duties, relegating the bulk of parental responsibility to their wives. Now even these are joining them in the ranks of the enemy, swelling the work force of the world while even their newborns are left to the tender mercies of daycare centers and experimental social projects. That many such travesties are church-supported proclaims the depth of the disorder.
Sins against the gentle inspirations of grace are long behind us. Sins against the Commandments are being taken in stride. All that remains to fill up our measure of iniquity are sins against nature itself, now being committed in the name of science and progress. When we refuse to accept even the way we are made, we pronounce the final non serviam against the Creator.
With this state of affairs, transmitting the Faith becomes mainly a matter of reaffirming the obvious. Only the home can do it, because the home is about the only place left where the obvious can still be seen and recognized with the naked eye.
The last Council urged us to regain our footing by a radical return to the charisms of founders, so let’s begin with mother, the very personification of the home. The whole family begins in her. Mothers are designed not only to bear life, but also to nourish and sustain it after it leaves the womb. “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you” was spoken under inspiration in praise of the Mother of the Church herself. Like all great truth, it celebrates the obvious.
Due proportion kept, it applies equally to the mother of the humblest ecclesiola, who is, like her exemplar, both mater and magistra. The first doctrinal milk must flow from her, from her very being, as it does from the Church. It’s hardly coincidence that the decline in home teaching has kept pace with the disappearance of breast-feeding. Both are symptoms of the same irresponsible motherhood, rooted in a denial of nature. Even animals know they must feed and teach their young, but as prepared formulas and plastic bottles substitute for mother’s breast, so classrooms and audio-visual aids are expected to substitute for the living teaching of the home.
There is nothing so intimate as transmitting the Faith. It can be done only person to person, in an atmosphere of supernatural love. Where this is missing, it degenerates into just so much information to be conveyed—into teaching religion. Luckily secular schools don’t concern themselves with teaching the Catholic Faith; but with the breakdown of Church schools, Catholic parents will be forced to teach it themselves or watch the world bring their children up pagans. Those who do take up the obligation soon realize, as many have already, that not only are they capable of it, but that they are indeed specially endowed for the task by nature and grace.
I don’t know why it is, but almost everyone talks down to parents, especially to mothers. As single girls they may have excelled as Madison Avenue executives or Sanskrit scholars, but just let them settle down to devote themselves exclusively to their families, and it’s immediately assumed they know nothing and are out of touch with everything. This is very odd, inasmuch as the housewife produces every professional in the world, lays the groundwork for every science, and plies every trade at grassroots level. Being out of touch with the world doesn’t mean being out of touch with reality. Quite the contrary! Calling the housewife an ignoramus would do little harm, if only she didn’t believe it.
“This place was made by God, a priceless mystery; it is without reproof,” runs the ancient Mass for the dedication of a church. Unabashedly applying it to the ecclesiola, we can continue, “O God, from living and chosen stones you prepare an everlasting place for your majesty. Hear the prayers of the people who call upon you!”
God hears parents. If the Faith can’t be taught in the home, it isn’t Catholicism, and can’t be taught anywhere. That’s where it started in the beginning. It’s not God, or his Church, but pedagogical bureaucrats who have made it so complicated—or abstruse, as the case may be—that only trained technicians can handle it.
The same self-appointed experts who have helped demolish CCD and parochial schools are now turning their sights on our living rooms. Catechetical congresses have already discovered a brand new apostolate in “Home Religious Education.” Canned lessons are being prepared for benighted parents to dole out to their children, on the just barely implicit premise that mothers (and fathers) are incompetent teachers of their own children. Soon whole batteries of tapes, records, filmstrips and other audio-visual paraphernalia will be cluttering every room in the house.
Not that technology shouldn’t benefit the home. Already it would be feasible to transfer the bulk of schooling to the fireside via TV, tapes and microfilm, thereby effecting a significant reintegration of home life. The Faith, however, isn’t a school subject, and can never be successfully taught like one. Like sex education, it’s altogether special, and has already suffered cruelly from being crammed into secular molds by those who should know better. The fruits to this approach are woefully apparent.
Outside services could in fact be very helpful in teaching religion at home; above all, parents need orthodox doctrine aimed directly at them. This they have a right to demand from the appointed teachers of the Church, for parents in the home share fully in the pastoral office under the Magisterium as teachers of the children in their care, and in the ecclesiola as in the Ecclesia, governing power and teaching power are indissolubly one. They must not be divided by pedagogues who have experienced home life only as children in it and never as parents in charge.
Nothing can be brought into the home that isn’t there already, at least potentially. Every successful pedagogical technique was first taken from the home and artificially adapted to the classroom, never the other way around. The genius of Maria Montessori lay precisely in grasping this truth, rendering classroom instruction more fluid and less artificial. As far as it went, hers was an inspired return to origins.
Any home can outdo Montessori if it will. There in natural state are found all the elements of the best classroom, painstakingly transferred from the home over the years. What is modern coeducation, for instance, but a clumsy approximation of home atmosphere where both sexes have always lived and learned together? But schools are hopelessly far behind. At home, it’s still possible to address many different ages at once, and let them address one another as God intended. Is there a practice sillier than incarcerating 30 or so children all the same age in one room to teach them something?
See where rationalism has led us. The modern school is an artificial environment found nowhere in nature and prepares students for nothing but more artificiality. It prepares them, for instance, for suburbia, where people of one income level are herded together, or for other forms of totalitarian regimentation like the concentration camp. It hardly prepares them for real life.
In the natural God-grown community, the outlines of the Ecclesia can always be discerned. All ages and both sexes mingle, and each individual shows forth some particular gift in his relation to the others. Varying levels of development are evident, with no segregation based on I.Q., size and weight, income or other arbitrary norms. There is, in other words, true unity based on true distinctions, as in the triune God-head in whose image we are created. Because the home is so constructed, each one is unique.
In such an atmosphere “methods” mean little, for what works in one home will be completely foreign to the spirit of another. Parents must realize the wealth of obnoxious pedagogical overhead they are privileged to do without. Divesting themselves of the hardened preconceptions acquired from their own artificial schooling may prove difficult at first. Those who allowed themselves to be soughed out of their homes to teach other people’s children in classrooms will certainly fare the worst. How few of us have known the joy of studying Scripture at home, where all ages take part, where the younger share insights with the still younger, and the dumbest may amaze us all!
The house itself bespeaks the home as magistra. The very plumbing illustrates the mysteries of grace. Holy images and pictures on the wall reveal its visible ecclesiola, house of God, holy and awesome. The Eucharist is shadowed at every meal, the Sunday roast as victim proclaiming both supper and sacrifice. How could a child instructed at home look at the meat immolated on his plate and believe the Mass is merely a banquet? The Cross is embedded in the very bones of the house, in rooftree and window mullions; the youngest dweller can be shown from a thousand props that the whole world around him is fashioned on the lines of Calvary.
How is it possible not to teach the Faith of the Apostles at home? That so many of us are unable to, certainly isn’t for lack of teaching aids. Could it be we’re trying to teach a different faith? One not rooted in nature, but in the disciplines of a corrupted world? Where there are so many gods, the teaching would necessarily become very unwieldy!
Religious instruction for children apart from the home is a modern phenomenon rendered necessary only by the rise of rationalism and scientism, the breakdown of natural community, and last but not least, the Protestant revolt. If parents would resume their proper role in today’s structural wreckage, they have only one job to do, really: they must restore their home to its true character as a center of contemplation in the world. Such was the home in the beginning when God walked there in the cool of the day, and where He walks, everything necessary comes with Him.
Nothing less than a deep interior renewal can reinstate parents as teachers. Catechesis is after all only a means to contemplation, or its agent. Let’s not get unduly wrapped up in the mechanics. Before shopping for texts and tapes, let’s enlist the help of the family angels whose duty it is to enlighten those confided to them. Patron saints, ancestors, parents and children must all join them in what is truly an ecclesial family affair. No matter how educated we get, we can never get around the Lord’s dictum that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Every tree is known by its fruit.
God’s house, he told us, is the house of prayer for all nations. It’s designed to produce and nourish the life of God Himself, as the home in Nazareth did, and as the Church continues to do. With the progressive neglect of the liturgy, prayer and pedagogy have gone sadly separate ways. They must be reunited in the home as in the Church, for their goal is the same. The patriarch Job found it good to offer a holocaust for each of his children, saying, “Perhaps my sons have sinned in their hearts and affronted God.” He was at grips with the fundamentals of parenthood.
We have the divine promise that the Spirit of truth will teach us all the truth, but unless the sins of the family are forgiven and expiated, how can we expect the divine Educator to teach in its very bosom? He is the only religion teacher.
|
|
|
| Solange Hertz: The Real World |
|
Posted by: Stone - 01-30-2021, 07:03 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
- No Replies
|
|
The Real World
Written by Solange Hertz
"Appearances often come to us second or third hand, filtered through ever proliferating communications media,
so that the so-called real world recedes farther from us every day." - Solange Hertz
The Remnant Editor's Note: The following first appeared in The Remnant on February 28, 2002. In the fast-paced world of blogging and tweeting and texting, this article is entirely too long, too boring, too hard to read, too demanding, too challenging, and definitely too whatever to be taken seriously. But I'm confident a few holdout dinosaurs still ambling about the real world will appreciate its unconventional and politically incorrect message. It was written by an excellent thinker, a saintly academic, and something of a prophet. She didn't blog, never sent a single tweet, and, while her face was usually in a book, Facebook meant nothing to her. And yet even despite such crippling handicaps, she had something to say. She also had the kind of courage rarely seen here in this brave new world of ours---the courage to be different and to question the modern world's most sacred narratives (what she called “fairytales for adults”) about who we are and what we're doing here on this earth. I’m confident there are still readers out there who’ve been insufficiently brainwashed to read and appreciate the words and wisdom of the late, great Solange Hertz. Especially if you're younger than 35, I dare you to give it a try -- and let the blindfold be damned.
Sooner or later, anyone found actually trying to apply the maxims of the Gospels to daily life can expect to be told to “get real!” as if living a spiritual life involved entering a largely imaginary world that existed mostly in the mind. Parents of home schoolers, for instance, are sometimes asked, or even ask themselves, “What will happen to these children educated outside the mainstream according to Catholic principles, when they leave home and plunge into the real world?
By the “real” world is ordinarily meant the visible, material one we contact every day through our senses, the tangible here and now in which we commit sins and practice virtues in the normal flow of human activity. Ordinarily, “getting real” means “getting in touch with our feelings,” which are rooted in our bodies, so as to make closer contact with a world which in fact is not only the least real of all by comparison with what lies beyond it, but which can be grasped by us only imperfectly to begin with. Our senses cannot know the innermost substances of what they perceive, having contact at best only with outward phenomena or appearances. Our bodily eyes may see a chair, but strain as they will, they will never behold “chairness.” Only by intellectual abstraction and inference can we come to an approximation of the essence of the reality conveyed to us by the senses. When it comes to knowing people, our contact with them yields at best a few superficial surmises regarding the unknown continents which lie hidden within them.
St. Francis de Sales in his famous Treatise on the Love of God gives the standard Catholic explanation for this as developed by scholastic philosophy. Written in the seventeenth century, it might be considered outmoded, but the truth is that modern science has come up with no better explanation of what actually happens in our situation than where he says,
Quote:“When we look on anything, though it is present to us, it is not itself united to our eyes, but only sends out to them a certain representation or picture of itself, which is called its sensible species, by means of which we see. So also when we contemplate or understand anything, that which we understand is not united to our understanding otherwise than by another representation and most delicate spiritual image, which is called intelligible species. But further, these species, by how many windings and changes do they get to the understanding! They arrive at the exterior senses, thence pass to the interior, then to the imagination, then to the active understanding, and come at last to the passive understanding, to the end that passing through so many strainers and under so many files they may be purified, subtilized and perfected, and of sensible become intelligible.”[1]
To make matters worse, in modern times these appearances often come to us second or third hand, filtered through ever proliferating communications media, so that the so-called real world recedes farther from us every day. Beginning with the wireless and the telephone, we have become accustomed to communicating with our fellow humans by increasingly indirect contact, to the point of forming friendships with them electronically through cyberspace without ever seeing them in the flesh or even holding a letter actually written by them in our hands. Worldwide buying and selling, in fact the entire work of the world, can be carried on with minimal direct contact between the participants. By the same token our hatreds and animosities can now be indulged via impersonal push-button warfare where the combatants never come close enough to their targets to see them, let alone look at the whites of their eyes.
As we have seen, modern science began ushering us into false “virtual reality” when Galileo persuaded us, without advancing a shred of actual proof, that our earth is not the center of the universe as Scripture says it is, but whirls around the sun as merely one of several other planets. Still without proof, Newtonian physics then concocted the now generally accepted myth that matter moves itself by its own natural attractions, thus obliterating the whole angelic management of the heavens and the earth.
Finally, following Darwin, science leaped to the conclusion that matter generates life itself by a purely natural process called “evolution,” whereby the inanimate becomes animate over millions of years, changing itself into increasingly complex living forms, and “progress” toward ever greater perfection is automatic. That educated people have been brought to believe such absurdities provides a measure of the degree of unreality reached thus far, for the exact opposite is true. All human cultures record a degeneration into simpler forms from a previous “golden age” of some kind rather than any upward progress to greater complexity.
Didn’t St. Paul predict to the young bishop St. Timothy that
Quote:“there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will turn away indeed their hearing from the truth but will be turned to fables?”(2 Tim. 4:3-4)
That time is here. Materialist science now assumes that mysteries are only apparent, and that credible explanations for them can be found by sufficient human effort. The truth is, however, mysteries are an inherent part of reality, and the more we delve into them, the deeper they get.
One of Pius XII’s favorite theologians, Fr. Matthias Scheeben, had this to say in the first chapter of his Mysteries of Christianity:
Quote:”If by mystery we mean nothing more than an object which is not entirely conceivable in its innermost essence, we need not seek very far to find mysteries. Such mysteries are found not only above us, but all around us, in us, under us. The real essence of all things is concealed from our eyes. The physicist will never fully plumb the laws of forces in the physico-chemical world and perfectly comprehend their effects; and the same is true of the physiologist with regard to the laws of organic nature, of the psychologist with regard to the soul, of the metaphysician with regard to the ultimate basis of being. Christianity is not alone in exhibiting mysteries in the above-mentioned sense. If its truths are inconceivable and unfathomable, so in greater part are the truths of reason.”
Creation in all its aspects – material, spiritual and supernatural – remains a mystery and will continue to unfold its secrets throughout eternity. By disregarding on principle any evidence which cannot be seen, heard, touched or measured, the new scientific man consigns to oblivion what is in fact the greater reality encompassing and activating matter, for what we can see is meant to direct us toward what we cannot see. St. Paul speaks of “those men that detain the truth of God in injustice. Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it to them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: his eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks: but became vain in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened: for professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Drunk with freedom and indulging in the orgy of independent self-government brought on by the Age of Democracy, post-Christian man is therefore taking ever more giant strides from created reality into an artificial world patterned on his own imaginings, where whatever happens is ascribed to purely material causes. Not content with distorting the perception of his environment, he is fabricating an entirely new view of himself. Whereas human nature is fundamentally social and hierarchical, being patterned on the image of God who is a society of three hierarchically ordered Persons, he now bases government on the individual, who is postulated as having been “created equal” with all others, to the point that today even their body parts have become interchangeable. Where the sexes as well are now regarded as equal, and no longer complementary, homosexuality becomes a normal option. The family, the basic cell of society and the greater family of nations, is thus wrenched from its organic, trinitarian roots and redefined as any association of individuals who decide to share everyday life in common.
It should come as no surprise that St. Paul pinpoints homosexuality as the direct consequence of this willful flight from reality, for it is the ultimate sin against human nature, now so symptomatic of our diseased modern society that it enjoys the protection of civil law. This happens, says St. Paul, when those who refuse to look beyond their senses are abandoned
Quote:“to the desires of their heart, to uncleanness: to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And in like manner the men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
This accounts not only for the current invasion of women into men’s activities, paralleled by men’s growing effeminacy, but a whole roster of further consequences. St. Paul says that those who “liked not to have God in their knowledge“ find themselves handed over
Quote:“to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things are worthy of death: and not only those who do them, but they also who consent to them that do them” (Rom. 1:18 ff.)
All the while exhorting his bedazzled colleagues to “get real!” and confront the real world, modern man thus plunges ever more deeply into error and illusion. If permitted he would bring the world to dissolution, for having been created by God from absolutely nothing, he and the whole universe are subject to an ineradicable, innate tendency to return to the void whence they sprang. This tendency underlies every sin, which in the final analysis is nothing but an attempt to turn away from the real to the non - existent lying outside God’s law. Lucifer gave in to it in heaven when he chose to do his own will rather than God’s, and Adam and Eve did the same in Eden when they followed his suggestion to eat the forbidden fruit. Shorn of the preternatural gifts originally bestowed on them to shield them from concupiscence, suffering and death, they and all their descendants were left to cope at ground level with the primordial urge to unreality and annihilation which grows stronger with every sin committed. “The just man lives by faith,” as St. Paul says, if he is to live at all (Rom. 1:17).
Only faith can tell us exactly where reality is to be found. The Apostle tells us that “the things which are seen are temporal,” whereas “the things which are not seen are eternal,” and will never cease to be (2 Cor. 4:18). The decisions made in this life pass away with it, but their consequences are eternal.
Immoral acts lead to hell, which is not only a place for the souls and resurrected bodies of the damned, but like heaven, it too is eternal. Hell and heaven begin in time, but for them to have an end, their inhabitants would have to be re-inserted into time, which cannot be. Scripture tells us that after the blowing of the Sixth Trumpet in the Apocalypse, the Angel seen “standing upon the sea and upon the land” by St. John “lifted his hand to heaven : And he swore by him that liveth for ever and ever . . . that time shall be no longer” (Apo. 10: 5-6). Whatever passes into eternity becomes eternal and cannot end.
This led St. John Chrysostom to lament that
Quote:“there are those so foolish and dull that they long only for the things of the present, saying such senseless things as, ‘Let me enjoy now what I have; later I shall think about what is not certain.’. . . They who say such things, in what way do they differ from goats and swine. . . who speak of such things as uncertain which are clearer than what the eye sees. . . . But you will say: who has ever come from hell and told us these things? Who has ever come from heaven and told us there is a God who has made all things? That we have a soul: whence was that made known to us? For if you only believe the things you see, you may then doubt about God and the angels, and about the mind and the soul, and in that way all teaching will be emptied of its truth. If you believe what you take in by your senses, then all the more should you believe in the invisible world rather than in the visible. And if what I say seems contradictory, it is nevertheless true and may without question be accepted by intelligent men. For our eyes are often deceived, not with regard to invisible things, for as to these they cannot judge, but in the things that men seem to see, their accuracy being disturbed by distance, by distractions, by anger, by care and countless other things. But the reflections of the soul, especially if it has received the light of the divine Scriptures, will arrive at a more accurate and certain judgment of things.” [2]
The most the material world can do is to point us in the direction of the greater reality. Far from being unreal, the supernatural is actually a super-reality,
Quote:“added to nature,” says Fr. Scheeben, “as a new, higher reality, a reality that is neither included in nature, nor developed from it, nor in any way postulated by it. As God exhibits two kingdoms for us to contemplate, one plainly visible and one full of mystery, so, too, in the creature we discern two distinct kingdoms, as it were two worlds, which are erected one on top of the other, one visible and one invisible, one natural and the other supernatural. The profounder reaches of even the first of these worlds is unfathomable for purely natural reason; the second is unattainable and unsearchable in every respect, and is therefore mysterious in the absolute sense of the word.” [3]
The unseen world is far more real than anything our senses can apprehend because it is closer to God, who as the only self-subsistent being, is Reality itself. He is, in fact, the only reality, for as He told St. Catherine of Siena, “I am He who is; you are she who is not.” To “get real” in the true sense of the word can therefore only mean to come closer to Him, who is pure spirit, by becoming more spiritual. This does not mean, however, that matter can be despised or ignored. Under no circumstances can it be by-passed, as Buddhism and Hinduism and other false doctrines would have us believe, for, far from being an obstacle, matter is indispensable to our salvation.
Not only is matter destined to take part in the final transfiguration at the end of time, but it actually opens the way to it, being part and parcel of the economy of grace. Our one and only means to God is through the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ our Lord, who as Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate for the express purpose of providing us with the necessary material link to His divinity. Inviting us to share in His own eternal life through the Sacraments, outward tangible signs conveying grace to our souls, He became flesh in order to tell us face to face, “No man cometh to the Father but by me. . . . I am the door “(John 14:6; 10:7).
In this mortal life even matters of faith can be seen and understood only from what is relayed to us by our senses. As St. Paul insists, “Faith comes by hearing.” How can men believe in Christ “of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ” (Rom. 10:17,14). The holy Bishop of Geneva explained,
Quote:“As the mirror contains not the thing we see in it but only the representation and species of it (which representation, stayed by the mirror, produces another in the beholding eye), so the word of faith does not contain the things which it announces, but only represents them, and this representation of divine things which is in the word of faith produces another representation of them, which our understanding, helped by God’s grace, accepts and receives as a representation of holy truth, and our will takes delight in it and embraces it as an honorable, profitable, lovely and excellent truth. Thus the truths signified in God’s word are by it represented to the understanding as things expressed in the mirror represented to the eye.” [4]
As long as reason rests exclusively on sense perception without following where that perception is designed to lead, it cannot rise to the full truth about anything. Where only material explanations for life’s mysteries are considered valid, man is content to view his own immaterial, immortal soul as a “psyche” which is simply a part of his body, and his conscience as a “super-ego” conditioned by his environment. His most spiritual acts of thinking, loving and remembering, by which the image of God in which he was created is specifically projected, thus become merely higher bodily functions and God no more than a universal “life force” identified as often as not with matter itself.
Needless to say, the Incarnation of the Son of God, which constitutes the core event upon which all history turns, must be systematically disregarded by the materialist as irrelevant fancy, for this singular occurrence brought the supernatural world definitively into the natural one once and for all. Not only was explosive testimony to the existence of the supernatural provided by the Resurrection of the Sacred Humanity from the dead, but that same Sacred Humanity remained among us under the appearances of bread and wine as a hidden Presence which is specifically characterized as Real, and instituted so that both body and soul may be fed on the ultimate divine Reality even in this life.
Presented to the senses under material species are nothing less than the Body and Blood of God, which sight, touch and taste are powerless to reveal. “Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,“ as St. Thomas says in Adoro Te devote, his famous eucharistic hymn, “sed auditu solo tuto creditur,” only hearing being a sure guide for our faith, because “I believe everything the Son of God has said.” In the words of the hymn, “Only the Godhead was hidden on the Cross, but here the Humanity is hidden as well, yet I believe and acknowledge them both.” It closes with the prayer Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, “Jesus, as I look on Thy veiled presence, I pray that what I long for so ardently may come about, and that I may see Thy face unveiled and be happy in the vision of Thy glory.”
This is what St. Paul was talking about when he told his Corinthian congregation that in this life, “We see now through a glass in an obscure manner,” for only in eternity shall we see “face to face”(1 Cor. 13:12).
Quote:“In heaven – oh, my God, what a favor! ” exclaims St. Francis de Sales, “the Divinity will unite itself to our understanding without the mediation of any species or representation at all, but it will apply itself to our understanding, making itself in such sort present unto it, that the inward presence shall be instead of a representation or species.” [5]
Only in heaven will we experience creation and all it contains as it really is, for only there will we enjoy immediate contact with God, seeking reality no longer through the senses, but directly in God’s Word, who in this life reveals how things really are only insofar as we are equipped to understand them through faith.
In this sense the contemplative shut off from the world in his cell alone at prayer is closer to reality than the busiest captain of industry or media mogul immersed in the business of the world, let alone the astronaut in the farthest reaches of space. Through faith, loving contemplation provides the closest contact with reality possible in this life, with what the mystics could only express by means of mysterious contradictions. St. Denis the Areopagite called it “a ray of darkness;” St John of the Cross spoke of “silent music” and “sounding solitude.” Union with God brings us into the great invisible spiritual world in which we are at all times unconsciously immersed and on which we and the entire material universe depend for sustenance and our very existence.
Our Lord granted a glimpse of this real world on Mount Tabor to His apostles Peter, James and John, fulfilling the promise He made to His disciples about a week previously that “there are some standing here that shall not taste death, till they see the kingdom of God.” Appearing transfigured before them, He allowed them to behold, as the Byzantine liturgy puts it, “as much of His glory as they could hold,” for what took place was not so much a miracle as the momentary suspension of the continuing miracle which ordinarily veiled our Lord’s true aspect from weak mortal eyes while He was on earth. The synoptic Evangelists tell us that while our Lord was at prayer not only “the appearance of his countenance was altered,“ so that “his face did shine as the sun,” but likewise “his raiment became white and glittering. . . His garments became white as snow,” they “became shining and exceedingly white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can make them white” (Matt. 17:1-2; Mk. 9:1-2; Luke 9:27-29). In other words, in this preview of the kingdom of God, not only the Sacred Humanity, but matter itself shares in heavenly glory.
The Eastern Office celebrates the fact that God on this occasion, “As witnesses to this grace and partakers of this joy . . . raised up Moses and Elias, the forerunners of the glorious and saving Resurrection made possible by the Cross of Christ.” Moses from among the dead and Elias still alive in his own body, as representatives of both categories of the redeemed, thus testify to the ongoing Communion between the saints in heaven and those on earth. Shown not only “appearing in majesty,” but taking an active interest in current history, Moses and Elias were heard speaking with our Lord about His coming Passion “which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem”(Luke 9:30-31). Materialists, for whom the immortal soul is pious fiction, would of course assume that these two great figures had long ago been dissolved into the great “all,” never to re-appear as the same individuals, their substance recycled according to the dictates of chance into other evolving forms.
Until the end comes, when the Son of God “will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory” (Phil. 3:21), the man without faith lives out his life deaf, dumb and blind, totally unaware of the higher realities both human and angelic which not only surround him at all times, but take a personal interest in his problems. Even though possessing faith, the average Catholic adverts as rarely to the ever present holy guardian angels laboring to keep him on the sure path to salvation as to the malevolent demons plotting his destruction – not to mention the souls in Purgatory and the host of sainted relatives, forbears, friends and acquaintances who have now entered, or are about to enter fully into their eternal vocations, which they began pursuing in time only in order to bring them to fruition in eternity.
Whether aware of it or not, the living collaborate with them, for the Mystical Body of Christ is one body, whose members, both living and dead, were created to work together both here and hereafter in perfect harmony according to the mind of Christ their head. “For as in one body we have many members, “ says St. Paul, “all the members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another, and having gifts different according to the grace that is given” (Rom. 12:4-6). And again, “God hath tempered the body together . . . that there might be no schism in the body, but the members might be mutually careful for one another” (1 Cor. 12:24-25).
In view of this, how is it possible to ignore the greater part of that Body, merely because it is unseen? Far from severing the spiritual ties between heaven and earth, death only draws them closer. Didn’t the little Ste. Therese look forward to spending her heaven doing good on earth? How many ideas enter our heads which are presumed to be self-generated but are actually inspired, for good or ill, by the holy (or the malevolent) inhabitants of the vast intangible world lying just out of sight? How many successes and failures are due to the participation of any number of unknown participants in our efforts? Truly, “Our conversation,” if it is to be real conversation, can only be, as St. Paul says, “in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).
The liturgy of the Eastern Rite says that Christ at His Transfiguration also revealed “through His Person that human nature is re-established in its original splendor.” This is fraught with practical consequences for the believing Catholic, for our father Adam possessed not only bodily powers, but angelic ones. He was created with an aptitude for purely spiritual communication by virtue of his immaterial soul, which with the body forms an integral part of human nature. According to Anne Catherine Emmerich this constitutes “a mystery of a nature very difficult for fallen man to comprehend, one by which the pure in soul and body are brought into intimate and mysterious communication with one another.” Sr. Emmerich’s biographer Fr. Schmöger explains,
Quote:“The undimmed splendor of baptismal grace is then according to her the first, the chief condition for the reception of the light of prophecy, for the developing of a faculty in man obscured by Adam’s fall: viz., capability of communicating with the world of spirit without interrupting the harmonies and natural relation of body and soul. Every man possesses this capability; but, if we may so speak, it is hidden in his soul; he cannot of himself overleap the barrier which separates the regions of sense from those beyond. God alone by the infusion of superior light can remove this barrier from the path of His elect; but seldom is such light granted, for few there are who rigorously fulfill the conditions exacted.”[6]
The thinking soul, being the form of the body as defined by the Council of Vienne in 1311, contains the body as a higher form contains a lower one, much as a polygon contains the square, the triangle and the pentagon. Resting on the authority of St. Thomas, the Trappist theologian Dom Alois Wiesinger explains that this means that “the human soul is not wholly submerged in the body nor completely enclosed by it, a thing which because of its higher degree of perfection is inconceivable, and that in consequence there is nothing to prevent it from reaching out beyond the body in its effective power, despite the fact that with its substance it remains essentially in the body.” Although it is true that “insofar as it is united with the body, the soul can form no thought except with the aid of the mental pictures created by the imagination . . . the soul is not a form of the body which can be completely submerged in matter, and that because of its perfection. There is therefore nothing that stands in the way of certain of its faculties not being acts of the body. . . .People have forgotten that the soul is a spirit and that it does not cease to be a spirit when it is united to the body, and that it requires no material connecting links for its activities.”
This semi-freedom of the soul from the body was present in Adam as a normal condition, which permitted him to hear “the voice of God walking in Paradise at the afternoon air” (Gen. 3:8) and to name the animals, not only by abstraction from sensual perception, but “cognizing things intuitively by the light that God had infused into him at the time of his creation.” It was presumably through the same kind of direct communication without the mediation of images, which is like that of the angels, that God counseled Adam and Eve. Scripture tells us,
Quote:“He created in them the science of the spirit, he filled their heart with wisdom and showed them both good and evil. . . Moreover he gave them instructions and the law of life for an inheritance. . . And their eye saw the majesty of his glory and their ears heard his glorious voice, and he said to them: Beware of all iniquity!” (Ecclus. 17:5-11).
Unfortunately, they did not, and their fall from grace caused their souls to be weighed down by their bodies, depriving them and all their descendants of their original powers of intuition. This happened gradually, for even after his sin, Cain was still able to communicate directly with God, but since the Flood, the faculty became nearly extinct, existing only in exceptional souls. St. Bernard says,
Quote:“It was only through sin that reason was thus imprisoned in the senses; once man also had a spiritual eye that did not need the senses in order to know God, but this has now been clouded and darkened by sin and can only be cleansed for contemplation by asceticism.”
Vestiges of man’s primordial gift for spiritual communication nonetheless does survive to a greater or lesser degree in individuals, for as Dom Wiesinger notes,
Quote:“There remained to man his soul as such, with all its powers and faculties, though it was now constrained within the physical bounds of his body.” Believing that “the scholastic doctrine concerning the soul is the only one that provides a satisfactory solution for the problems of modern psychology and parapsychology,” he maintains that even now “the spirit soul can in certain circumstances partially withdraw itself and its body-bound part from the life of the senses and allow its activity to reach out beyond the body. From this there result phenomena such as we encounter in occultism and to some extent in the mystic life.” [7]
The Benedictine spiritual master Dom John Chapman, Abbot of Downside, was firmly persuaded that the supernatural contemplative prayer which goes by the name of “mysticism” is based on this natural human faculty, given that God always works in us according to our nature. As he put it,
Quote:“The door to the unseen is connatural to integral nature as possessed by Adam, but filled up with lumber by original sin. But, in some souls there is a little light shining through, and if they blow out or shade their terrene candles and lamps [which is the work of Christian mortification], they begin to perceive this light. Once they use it, God can increase it and communicate with them in this new and higher way. Thus the door is a part of the perfection of human nature; the blocking of it is from the imperfection of our nature; the light through the door is supernatural, and all communication through it is from God – therefore a grace, a gift, and from the Holy Ghost.” [8]
Another Benedictine, the German Fr. Mager in Theosophie und Christentum, concluded that all baptized persons should therefore be thought of as mystics, inasmuch as “Christianity is in its innermost being essentially mystical, for it proceeds from the fact that there is a direct connection between spirit-soul and God. The activity of the soul as a pure spirit is mystical, an activity that goes hand in hand with the elimination of the corporal-sensual and of the functions of the corporal soul.”
He goes on to explain, however, that “this so called mystical contemplation is not the same as the contemplation of the blessed in heaven. It is the same kind of knowledge as, according to Catholic doctrine, is possessed by the departed soul in Purgatory, when it is not yet healed of all the wounds incurred during its association with the body. As long as the soul in its mode of being is still imprisoned in the body, the apprehensions of the spirit-soul cannot be direct, but only partially so.”
Fr. Mager insists that “the mystical life does not imply anything unusual or exceptional that is reserved for specially privileged people.” It begins with ordinary vocal prayer, which can continue for a lifetime, and is rather “a part of that great transformation that must take place in man as he approaches his final perfection. It begins at that point where the soul, still bound to the body, begins to function as a pure spirit, that is to say, independently of the body. It means therefore the spiritualization of man, a withdrawal within himself, the attainment of independence by his purely spiritual part, the re-establishment of the spirit in its original sovereignty over the body” once naturally enjoyed by Adam. [9]
The entry into the invisible, real world is therefore not far to seek. Didn’t our Lord tell us plainly, “Lo, the kingdom of God is within you?” (Luke 17:21) This is not pious metaphor, but a revelation of the very core of reality, to be found at the very center of our being. In our present earthly condition, this is as real as it gets. Not to believe it is to be hopelessly out of touch with what is actually going on in the world, a misfortune which led St. John of the Cross to exclaim in his Spiritual Canticle, “O souls created for these grandeurs and called thereto! What are you doing? Wherein do you occupy yourselves?”
[1] Bk. III, Ch. 11
[2] PG 57 hom.13
[3] The Mysteries of Christianity, B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1948, p. 202.
[4] Op. cit., p. 155
[5] Ibid.
[6] Vol. 2, Ch. 1.
[7] Dom Alois Wiesinger, OCSO, Occult Phenomena, Roman Catholic Books, Fort Collins CO 80522, passim pp. 55-81, 268.
[8] The Spiritual Letters of Dom John Chapman, O.S.B. Sheed and Ward, London, 1954, p.71.
[9] Quoted by Dom Wiesinger, pp.271-282.
|
|
|
|
| We're being lied to at every turn and the reasons why |
|
Posted by: SAguide - 01-29-2021, 02:54 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- No Replies
|
 |
Dr. Lee Merrit explains why non-vax treatments are left out of the discussion for treating or preventing Covid-19 - be they natural or pharmaceutical drug remedies which are well known and being used by plenty of doctors. It seems to me good medical professionals should start with preventions of which she touches on also in this video. Wouldn't any sane person agree with that?
The interview has already been shut down on some youtube channels, therefore included in this post is a vimeo link HERE
|
|
|
|
| Pregnant or under 18? Don’t get Moderna’s COVID vaccine, WHO says |
|
Posted by: Stone - 01-29-2021, 08:26 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- No Replies
|
|
Pregnant or under 18? Don’t get Moderna’s COVID vaccine, WHO says
Citing insufficient data, the World Health Organization’s latest guidance on Moderna’s COVID vaccine recommends most pregnant women, and anyone under age 18, not get the vaccine.
January 28, 2021 (Children’s Health Defense) — Pregnant women (unless they are at high risk of exposure to the COVID virus) and people under age 18 should not get Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine until further studies are completed, according to new guidance issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In its interim recommendations for the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine in people 18 years and older, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) said:
“While pregnancy puts women at a higher risk of severe COVID-19, the use of this vaccine in pregnant women is currently not recommended, unless they are at risk of high exposure (e.g. health workers).”
In an online briefing, as Reuters reported, WHO director of immunisation Kate O’Brien said, “There is no reason to think there could be a problem in pregnancy, we are just acknowledging the data is not there at the moment.”
Earlier this month, the WHO similarly recommended against administering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine to pregnant women, also citing insufficient data.
WHO continues to recommend that “health workers at high risk of exposure and older people should be prioritized for vaccination.”
However, today’s recommendations also included this list of people who should not get the Moderna vaccine:
“Individuals with a history of severe allergic reaction to any component of the vaccine should not take this or any other mRNA vaccine.
“While vaccination is recommended for older persons due to the high risk of severe COVID-19 and death, very frail older persons with an anticipated life expectancy of less than 3 months should be individually assessed.
“The vaccine should not be administered to persons younger than 18 years of age pending the results of further studies.”
Last week, The Defender reported that allergic reactions had caused California health officials to hit pause on a large batch of Moderna vaccines. A few days later, Moderna said it was okay to resume using that batch.
Also last week, China health experts called for the suspension of Moderna’s and Pfizer’s COVID vaccines after reports that Norway and Germany were investigating the deaths of at least 43 elderly people (33 in Norway, 10 in Germany) who had received the COVID vaccine.
In the U.S., as of Jan. 15, 181 deaths had been reported to the U.S. government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System as possibly being related to COVID vaccines. A 2010 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that “fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries” are reported to VAERS and experts say the government’s reporting system is “broken.” Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, never before used in vaccines. In the U.S., both are approved for emergency use only, which by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition, means that they are experimental.
|
|
|
|
| March 10th - The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste |
|
Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-28-2021, 11:46 PM - Forum: March
- Replies (1)
|
 |
The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
(† 320)
The Forty Martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste in Armenia, about the year 320. When their legion was ordered to offer sacrifice to idols, they refused to betray the faith of their baptism, and replied to all persuasive efforts, We are Christians! When neither cajolings or threats could change them, after several days of imprisonment they were chained together and taken to the site of execution. It was a cruel winter, and they were condemned to lie without clothing on the icy surface of a pond in the open air until they froze to death.
The forty, not merely undismayed but filled with joy at the prospect of suffering for Jesus Christ, said: No doubt it is difficult to support so acute a cold, but it will be agreeable to go to paradise by this route; the torment is of short duration, and the glory will be eternal. This cruel night will win for us an eternity of delights. Lord, forty of us are entering combat; grant that we may be forty to receive the crown!
There were warm baths close by, ready for any among them who would deny Christ. One of the confessors lost heart, renounced his faith, and went to cast himself into the basin of warm water prepared for that intention. But the sudden change in temperature suffocated him and he expired, losing at once both temporal and eternal life. The still living martyrs were fortified in their resolution, beholding this scene.
Then the ice was suddenly flooded with a bright light; one of the soldiers guarding the men, nearly blinded by the light, raised his eyes and saw Angels descend with forty crowns which they held in the air over the martyrs' heads; but the fortieth one remained without a destination. The sentry was inspired to confess Christ, saying: That crown will be for me! Abandoning his coat and clothing, he went to replace the unfortunate apostate on the ice, crying out: I am a Christian! And the number of forty was again complete. They remained steadfast while their limbs grew stiff and frozen, and died one by one.
Among the forty there was a young soldier named Meliton who held out longest against the cold, and when the officers came to cart away the dead bodies they found him still breathing. They were moved with pity, and wanted to leave him alive, hoping he would still change his mind. But his mother stood by, and this valiant woman could not bear to see her son separated from the band of martyrs. She exhorted him to persevere, and lifted his frozen body into the cart. He was just able to make a sign of recognition, and was borne away, to be thrown into the flames with the dead bodies of his brethren. Their bones were cast into the river, but they floated and were gathered up by the faithful.
|
|
|
|
| March 9th - St. Frances of Rome |
|
Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-28-2021, 11:43 PM - Forum: March
- Replies (2)
|
|
Saint Frances of Rome
Widow
(1384-1440)
Frances was born in Rome in 1384. Her parents, of high rank, overruled her desire to become a nun, and when she reached the age of twelve, married her to Lorenzo Ponziano, a Roman noble. During the forty years of their married life they never had a disagreement. While spending her days in retirement and prayer, Saint Frances attended promptly to every household duty, saying, A married woman must leave God at the altar to find Him in her domestic cares. She once found the verse of a psalm, at which she had been four times thus interrupted, completed for her in letters of gold. Her ordinary food was dry bread, and secretly she would exchange with beggars good food for their hard crusts.
Two of her children died young. Her son was nine years old when he foretold his father's death wound and his own coming departure for heaven; and then he returned a year later with an Angel whom she saw clearly. He said he had come for his little five year-old sister, that she might be placed among the Angels with him. He left the Angel with her in exchange, to remain always.
During the invasion of Rome in 1413, Lorenzo was banished, his estates confiscated, his house destroyed, and his eldest son taken as a hostage. Frances saw in these losses only the hand of God, and blessed His holy Name. When peace was restored Ponziano recovered his estates, and after her husband's death, Saint Frances founded a Community of Benedictine Oblate nuns. At the age of forty-three, barefoot and with a cord about her neck she asked admission to the community, and was soon elected Superior.
She lived at all times in the presence of God, and among many visions was given constant sight of her Angel, who shed such a brightness around him that the Saint could read her midnight Office by this light alone. He shielded her in time of temptation, and directed her in every good act. But when she fell into some fault, he faded from her sight, and whenever any unsuitable words were spoken before her, he covered his face in shame. Saint Frances died on the day she foretold, March 9, 1440.
|
|
|
|
| March 8th - St. John of God |
|
Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-28-2021, 11:41 PM - Forum: March
- Replies (1)
|
|
Saint John of God
Founder
(1495-1550)
Nothing in the early life of John Ciudad, born of a poor couple in a town of Portugal, foreshadowed his future sanctity. Following a traveler whose description of Madrid had captivated his imagination, this only son of his parents ran away from his home. Soon regret and misery overtook him, but he was ashamed to return to his abandoned parents. In effect his mother, struck with a fever, but advised by an Angel that John would have to undergo long trials which would strengthen his virtue, departed this life only a few days after his adventure began.
For several years the renegade was engaged in tending sheep and cattle in Spain; his employer eventually offered him his only daughter in marriage and thereby a rich heritage, but John was interiorly advised that such was not his vocation. He left in secret the next day, joined the army of Spain against the French, later against the Turks. When he was about forty years of age, feeling profound remorse for his life which lacked order and purpose, he returned to his home village, only to learn of the death of both his parents. I am not worthy to see the light of day! exclaimed the grief-stricken voyager. He visited the cemetery, suffocated by his sobs, and cried out, Pardon, pardon! O mother! Eternal penance!
He resolved to devote himself to the ransom of Christian slaves in Africa, and on his way served the sick in a hospital. Meeting an aged nobleman at Gibralter, unjustly exiled and on his way to Africa, John offered to go there as his servant, to remain with him and his family and support them by his labor. Count DaSilva fell ill in the new climate and soon died, thanking John for his unfailing aid, and predicting he would some day be one of Spain's greatest apostles. His family received amnesty and returned to Spain.
John, too, returned there by the advice of his confessor, and sought to do good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices. Finally the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one insane. For a time he acted this role purposely, in order to be whipped daily as a remedial measure. His confessor was John of Avila, who when he learned of this told him to cease his pretense and do something useful. Thereafter he employed himself in ministering to the sick.
He began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by begging. One night Saint John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he knelt to kiss them, but was awestruck: the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails shone with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes, and heard the words, John, it is to Me that you do all that you do for the poor in My name. It is I who reach forth My hand for the alms you give; you clothe Me; Mine are the feet that you wash. And then the gracious vision disappeared, leaving Saint John filled at once with confusion and consolation.
The bishop became the Saint's patron and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amid the flames until he had rescued all his poor. After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed when he plunged into a river to save a drowning boy, and died in 1550 of an illness brought on by the attempt. He was fifty-five years old.
|
|
|
|
| Blessed Mother Marie Leonie |
|
Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-28-2021, 10:32 PM - Forum: The Saints
- No Replies
|
 |
![[Image: 0504-24.jpg]](https://stevenwood.com/reflections/franciscan/images/0504-24.jpg)
May 12th, 1840 - May 3rd, 1912
Few might know the name Élodie Paradis, but many know the name Mother Marie-Léonie. She was a Marianite Sister of Holy Cross and founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family and today is her feast day.
Elodie was born May 12 1840 in L’Acadie, Lower Canada, the only daughter among the six children of Joseph Paradis and Émilie Grégoire.
In the mid 1840s Élodie Paradis’s father moved to the concession of La Tortue, near the village of Saint-Philippe-de-Laprairie, in order to support his family. There he rented a disused mill in which he sawed lumber, ground grain, and carded wool. When Élodie was nine years old, her mother sent her to a boarding-school run by the Congregation of Notre-Dame in La Prairie while her father was working in California. Her studies with the congregation of Notre Dame were interrupted when the family lived temporarily in Napierville. She returned to the school in La Prairie in 1850. Having heard from her youthful neighbour, the Holy Cross priest Camille Lefebvre that there was a community of nuns within the Holy Cross family, Élodie presented herself at the noviciate of the Marianite Sisters of Holy Cross in Saint-Laurent, near Montreal, on Feb. 21 1854. She was not yet 14. When her father came back from California, he tried to bring her home, without success.
Under the name of Sister Marie-de-Sainte-Léonie she was accepted as a novice. In 1856 she taught at Sainte-Scholastique (Mirabel) and on 22 Aug. 1857 she made her vows. She would then be a teacher, monitor, and secretary to the mother superior at Varennes, Saint-Laurent, and Saint-Martin (Laval). In 1862 she was sent to New York, where the Marianites operated an orphanage, a workroom, and a school for poor children in the parish of St Vincent de Paul. Eight years later she joined the American branch of the order and went to Indiana to teach French and needlework to the nuns who were slated to become teachers.
After a short stay in Michigan, in 1874 Sister Marie-Léonie was chosen to direct a group of novices and postulants at the College of Saint Joseph in Memramcook, N.B. This college, which had been founded in 1864 by her compatriot Camille Lefebvre, needed recruits for “housekeeping tasks and maintenance of the culinary department.” There Élodie Paradis could heed what she considered her calling at that moment: to be an auxiliary and assistant to the Holy Cross Fathers in the mission of educating young Acadians. Several factors strengthened her resolve: the precarious situation of the college in the absence of support personnel essential to its smooth operation; the Acadians’ low level of education; and the lack of institutions for young women eager to enter the religious life. Fourteen Acadian girls taken into the workroom that she directed began wearing their own unique habit on 26 Aug. 1877. In 1880 the general chapter of the Holy Cross Fathers accepted the idea of a new foundation for the needs of the colleges, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. Alfred-Valère Roy, who succeeded Lefebvre, thought the actions taken by his predecessor and Sister Marie-Léonie helped “to save the Acadian nationality, threatened and doomed to anglification” as much by Irish Roman Catholics as by Protestants.
Appointed superior of the new community, Mother Marie-Léonie tried on many occasions to persuade Bishop John Sweeny of Saint John, N.B., to give his approval to her religious family, but in vain. In 1895 she met Bishop Paul Laroque of Sherbrooke, who was looking for domestic staff for his seminary. He agreed to receive the mother house and the novitiate of the Little Sisters into his diocese and to give them his approval. On 5 Oct. 1895, after 21 years in Acadia, Mother Marie-Léonie returned to Quebec. She and her community moved to 10 Rue Peel in Sherbrooke, and on 26 Jan. 1896 Larocque granted canonical approval, official church recognition.
Mother Marie-Léonie then applied herself to the tasks of giving her institution a rule of life and helping the nuns develop a spirit of cheerful simplicity and sisterly generosity. Their generosity was even extended to other countries and was symbolized by their adoption of a little girl from Kabylia. “She was all heart,” Bishop Larocque would say of Mother Marie-Léonie. After providing for the education of the sisters who were illiterate, she pursued their human and spiritual formation in her correspondence with them after they left Sherbrooke for other provinces and the United States.
Mother Marie-Léonie died on 3 May 1912, just before her 72nd birthday. In the course of her life she had overseen 38 establishments in Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, and the United States, most of them in colleges and a few in episcopal households. At the time of her death, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family had some 635 members. Élodie Paradis was beatified in Montreal on 11 Sept. 1984, during Pope John Paul II’s visit. The church thereby recognized an “avant-garde woman” who had met the needs of her time by founding the first institute to help priests in their educational work. Without this assistance, some colleges would have been unable to survive, since they did not have the means to hire lay personnel.
|
|
|
|
| Sister Marie Rose Durocher |
|
Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-28-2021, 10:27 PM - Forum: The Saints
- No Replies
|
|
I am posting the story of this sister, since I was a child my parents had a picture of this Sister on the wall beside their crucifix. My mother always said there were promises that if you have this picture in your home it will not burn down. Cleaning out my holy cards, finding this picture I researched her and found out why?
Sister Marie Rose Durocher
Born 6 October 1811, Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Lower Canada, British Empire - Died 6 October 1849 (aged 38)
Longueuil, Province of Canada, British Empire (is now known in the Province of Quebec)
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
(Canada and the United States)
Beatified 23 May 1982, Rome, Italy by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine Chapelle Marie-Rose
Co-cathedral of St. Anthony of Padua in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
Feast October 6
Marie-Rose Durocher (6 October 1811 – 6 October 1849) was a Canadian Roman Catholic religious sister, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. She was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1982.
Contents
Early life
She was born Eulalie Mélanie Durocher in the village of Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, on 6 October 1811. She was the tenth of eleven children born to Olivier and Geneviève Durocher, a prosperous farming family. Three of her siblings died in infancy. Her brothers Flavien, Théophile, and Eusèbe entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, and her sister Séraphine joined the Congregation of Notre Dame.[1]
Durocher was home-schooled by her paternal grandfather Olivier Durocher until the age of 10. Upon his death in 1821, she became a boarding pupil at a convent run by the Congregation of Notre Dame in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu until 1823, where she made her First Communion aged 12. After leaving the convent she returned home to be privately tutored by Jean-Marie-Ignace Archambault, a teacher at the Collège de Saint-Hyacinthe.[1] During this time she owned a horse named Caesar and became a competent equestrian.[2]
In 1827, aged 16, Durocher entered the boarding school of the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal in 1827, where she intended to enter the novitiate as her sister Séraphine had earlier done. However, her health proved too poor to allow her to complete her education there and after two years she returned home.[1] A contemporary of Durocher's from her time at boarding school later wrote:
"[Durocher] was wonderful; she alone was unaware of her own worth, attributing all to God that was found favourable in her, and asserting that of herself she was only weakness and misery. She possessed charming modesty, was gentle and amiable; attentive always to the voice of her teachers, she was still more so to the voice of God, who spoke to her heart."[3]
In 1830, Durocher's mother Geneviève died, and Durocher assumed her mother's role as homemaker. In 1831, Durocher's brother Theophile, who at that time was curate of Saint-Mathieu Parish in Belœil, persuaded his father and Durocher to move from the family farm to the presbytery of his parish.[1] At the presbytery, Durocher worked as housekeeper and secretary to Theophile between 1831 and 1843.[1] During the course of this work she was made aware of the severe shortage of schools and teachers in the surrounding countryside (in 1835 Quebec was home to only 15 schools)[3] and discussed with her family and acquaintances the need for a religious community specifically dedicated to the education of children both rich and poor.[1]
Foundress: Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary
In 1841, Louis-Moïse Brassard, parish priest of Longueuil, entered discussions with Charles-Joseph-Eugène de Mazenod, Bishop of Marseilles, France, for the establishment of a mission to Quebec by a French religious congregation known as the Sœurs des Saints-Noms de Jésus et de Marie. Durocher learned of the proposed mission through Brassard. Along with her friend Mélodie Dufresne, Durocher applied in advance to join the novitiate of the new congregation upon its arrival in Canada.[3] However, the mission ultimately did not go ahead, and Mazenod instead advised Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, whom Mazenod had met during Bourget's European visit of that year, to establish a similar congregation in Canada, based upon the two women who had been eager to be part of the French group.[1]
On 2 December 1841, a mission of the Oblate Fathers arrived in Montreal,[4] and in August 1842 opened a church at Longueuil.[3] Among the Oblates was a Father Pierre-Adrien Telmon, who travelled to Belœil to conduct popular missions, where he met Durocher and became her spiritual director.[1] On 6 October 1843, Durocher traveled to Longueuil to witness her brother Eusèbe profess his religious vows, and there she met Bishop Bourget.[3] Together, Bourget and Telmon petitioned Durocher to take a leading role in the foundation of a new religious congregation dedicated to the Christian education of youth. Durocher agreed to this request, and on 28 October 1843, Durocher began her postulancy at Saint-Antoine Church in Longueuil under the direction of Father Jean-Marie François Allard, a member of the Oblates.[1] Two companions entered training alongside her: Durocher's friend Mélodie Dufresne, and Henriette Céré, a schoolteacher of Longueuil at whose school building Durocher and Dufresne roomed during their postulancy.[3]
On 28 February 1844, in a ceremony conducted by Bishop Bourget, the three postulants began their novitiate, assumed the religious habit and received their religious names. Durocher took the name Sister Marie-Rose, Dufresne became Sister Marie-Agnes and Céré became known as Sister Marie-Madeleine. Bishop Bourget gave the newly founded community diocesan approval[5] and named it the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, after the French community Durocher had hoped to join.[1] The sisters adopted the rule and constitutions of their French namesakes, as well as a modified version of their habit. On 8 December 1844, Durocher, Dufresne, and Céré professed religious vows in the church at Longueuil. Bourget named Durocher as mother superior, mistress of novices, and depositary of the new congregation.[1]
The new congregation began teaching out of Henriette Céré's schoolhouse, but demand for their services was extraordinary and on 4 August 1844 they were forced to move to larger premises.[3] The number of prospective pupils continued to rise over the following years, with the result that between February 1844 and October 1849 the sisters established four convents (in Longueuil, Belœil, Saint-Lin and Saint Timothée) employing 30 teachers and enrolling (as of 6 October 1849) 448 pupils.[1] The sisters developed a course of study that provided equally for English and French pupils. Originally the sisters had planned to teach only girls but their missionary requirements eventually forced them to teach boys in some provinces.[5]
On 17 March 1845, the sisters were incorporated by an act of the Canadian Parliament.[5] During 1846, Durocher clashed with Charles Chiniquy, an outspoken priest who would eventually leave the Roman Catholic Church and become a Protestant. Chiniquy wished to take control of teaching in the sisters' schools, and when he was blocked in this aim by Durocher, he publicly disparaged the sisters.[1]
Death and beatification
Durocher, troubled throughout her life by ill health, died of a "wasting illness"[6] on 6 October 1849, aged 38. Her funeral was held the same day in the church of Longueuil, with Bishop Ignace Bourget presiding. Since 1 May 2004, Durocher's remains have been interred in the Chapelle Marie-Rose in the right transept of the Co-cathedral of St. Anthony of Padua in Longueuil.[1]
In a statement made in 1880, Bishop Ignace Bourget called for Durocher's canonization, saying: "I invoke her aid as a saint for myself, and I hope that the Lord will glorify her before men by having the church award her the honours of the altar."[1] On 9 November 1927, Alphonse-Emmanuel Deschamps, Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal, appointed an ecclesiastical tribunal to enquire into the possible canonisation of Durocher.[6] The tribunal was empowered by ecclesiastical mandate to collect anything written by Durocher, and called upon Roman Catholics of Montreal to produce any privately held documents in accordance with that mandate.[6] The evidence gathered by the tribunal was collected in a positio, which was then taken to Rome for presentation to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
On 2 October 1972 the cause for her beatification was officially introduced by Pope Paul VI, bestowing upon Durocher the title of "Servant of God". On 13 July 1979 a declaration was made with respect to Durocher's heroic virtues, resulting in Durocher receiving the title "Venerable". On 23 May 1982 she was beatified by decree of Pope John Paul II.[7][8] The decree was made before a crowd in St Peter’s Square in Rome.[1] Beatification is the third of four steps on the path to Roman Catholic sainthood, and bestows the title of "Blessed" upon Durocher. Durocher's feast day is celebrated on 6 October.
Several alleged miracles have been posthumously connected with Durocher. In 1946, a Detroit man, Benjamin Modzell, was crushed against a wall by a truck and pronounced dead. He was reported to recover after prayers were made invoking Durocher. This incident was the primary miracle upon which Durocher's beatification was based.[9]
In 1973, sisters at their Spokane, Washington, convent claimed to have a stopped a fire at a chapel in Fort Wright College by invoking Durocher through prayer. The fire, which started in Spokane River gorge, was approaching the campus when the sisters tacked Durocher's picture to trees and prayed to her for help.[9] Flames were reportedly within 15 feet of the chapel, with smoke filling the interior, when the fire changed direction.[10] Similarly, in 1979, Frank Carr, the owner of a lake resort in Tonasket, Washington, observed an uncontrolled wildfire change direction after he tossed a picture of Durocher into the flames. Said Carr, "All I know is that we threw in the picture and the wind changed. There's no question the fire would have taken the orchard, some farm houses and the resort if it hadn't turned."[10]
Durocher is commemorated in a stained glass window in Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal, where she is depicted alongside Frances Xavier Cabrini and Andre Bessette. The College Durocher St Lambert, Quebec, is named after Durocher,[11] as is the Eulalie Durocher High School in Montreal. Durocher Hall at Holy Names University Oakland, California, is one building named in her honor, as is Durocher Pavilion on the grounds of St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco.
|
|
|
|
| Healthcare worker dies 4 days after second Pfizer vaccine, death under investigation |
|
Posted by: Stone - 01-28-2021, 02:50 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- No Replies
|
|
Healthcare worker dies 4 days after second Pfizer vaccine, death under investigation
The wife of Tim Zook, a 60-year-old x-ray technician who became seriously ill hours after getting his second Pfizer vaccine and died four days later, says 'we need to know the cause.'
January 28, 2021 (Children’s Health Defense) — Officials in Orange County, California, are investigating the death of a 60-year-old healthcare worker who died four days after receiving his second injection of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine.
Tim Zook, an x-ray technologist at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, was hospitalized on Jan. 5, several hours after being vaccinated. Zook’s wife, Rochelle Zook, told the Orange County Register that her husband’s health rapidly deteriorated over the next few days. He died Jan. 9.
Rochelle Zook said her husband believed in vaccines, and that she didn’t blame “any pharmaceutical company” for his death. She also said:
“But when someone gets symptoms 2 1/2 hours after a vaccine, that’s a reaction. What else could have happened? We would like the public to know what happened to Tim, so he didn’t die in vain. Severe reactions are rare. In reality, COVID is a much more deadly force than reactions from the potential vaccine itself.
“The message is, be safe, take the vaccine — but the officials need to do more research. We need to know the cause. The vaccines need to be as safe as possible. Every life matters.”
Tim Zook was “quite healthy” his wife said, though he took medication for high blood pressure and was slightly overweight. “He had never been hospitalized. He’d get a cold and be over it two days later. The flu, and be over it three days later.”
According to news reports, Zook told his wife he wasn’t afraid to get the vaccine. He even photographed himself on Jan. 5 before he became ill, with a Band-Aid on his arm and holding a picture of his vaccination card.
In an email to the Orange County Register, Pfizer said it was aware of Zook’s death:
“We closely monitor all such events and collect relevant information to share with global regulatory authorities. Based on ongoing safety reviews performed by Pfizer, BioNTech and health authorities, (the vaccine) retains a positive benefit-risk profile for the prevention of COVID-19 infections. Serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine, are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.”
Zook’s death is the latest in a string of reports about deaths and/or allergic reactions to both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines.
As The Defender reported earlier this week, multiple state and federal officials are investigating the Jan. 21 death of a Placer County, California, man several hours after receiving a COVID vaccine. According to news reports, the man had tested positive for COVID in December. The cause of death and specific vaccine he received have not been released.
Last week, The Defender reported on the death of baseball legend Hank Aaron, 18 days after he received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. Aaron’s death was initially reported as undisclosed, but according to USA Today, Aaron died of a massive stroke.
Earlier this month, a Johns Hopkins scientist told the New York Times it was a “medical certainty” that Pfizer’s vaccine caused the Jan. 3 death of a 56-year-old Florida doctor. Dr. Gregory Michael, whose wife described him as “perfectly healthy,” died of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare autoimmune disease, about two weeks after getting the first Pfizer vaccine. Florida health officials are investigating his death.
More than 40 deaths following vaccinations among elderly people in Norway and Germany prompted China health officials last week to call for a pause on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, especially among the frail elderly.
As of Jan. 15, 181 deaths have been reported to the U.S.government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) as possibly being related to COVID vaccines. A 2010 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that “fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries” are reported to VAERS and experts say the government’s reporting system is “broken.”
Oddly, for the second day in a row, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s VAERS WONDER System is “temporarily down.” Though you can’t see any of the data on adverse events that have been reported, you can still submit a report on any reactions to vaccines.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been linked to severe allergic reactions. Last week, The Defender reported that allergic reactions had caused California health officials to hit pause on a large batch of Moderna vaccines. A few days later, Moderna said it was okay to resume using that batch.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating severe allergic reactions to Pfizer’s vaccine “in multiple states.” Those reactions were reported by healthcare workers after receiving their first injection, and were believed to have resulted from an allergy to polyethylene glycol, or PEG, a compound used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines.
So far, in the U.S. only the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, both of which use mRNA technology, have received emergency use authorization. By the FDA’s own definition, the vaccines are considered experimental.
|
|
|
|
| Candlemas Candles Blessing - February 2nd |
|
Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-28-2021, 12:49 PM - Forum: Christmas
- Replies (2)
|
|
The 5 prayers for the blessing show us how powerful these candles are.
The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Double of the First Second Class
Vestments: violet at the Blessing and Procession, white at Mass
This feast celebrates the ceremony of purification of Our Lady on the fortieth day after the birth of our Lord, and of the presentation of offering of our Lord to the Eternal Father in the Temple, as also prescribed in the Law of Moses for first-born male children. The ceremonies of today consist of four parts: the blessing of candles, their distribution, the procession with lighted candles, and the Mass which follows. The whole ceremony that precedes the Mass, and especially the lighted candles, refers to our Lord as the Light of the world according to the words of holy Simeon, who on the day of the Presentation took the divine Infant in his arms and said of Him: "A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel." (C.M.)
The feast of the Purification is one of the oldest feasts of the Virgin. At Rome in the seventh century it ranked after the Assumption. it is the last one in the Cycle that shows any connection with Christmas: Mary, wishing to obey the Mosaic law, had to go to Jerusalem forty days after the birth of Jesus (December 25-February 2) to offer the prescribed sacrifice. mothers were to offer a lamb, or if their means did not allow, "two doves or two young pigeons."
The Blessed Virgin took the Infant Jesus with her to Jerusalem. The Candlemas procession recalls the journey of Mary and Joseph going up to the temple to present "The Angel of the Covenant" (Epistle, Introit) as Malachy had prophesied, or "the light to the revelation of the Gentiles" (Gospel).
"The wax of the candles signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant," says St. Anselm, "the wick figures His soul and the flame His divinity."
The Purification to which the mother of the Saviour was not obliged to conform, as her motherhood was beyond ordinary laws, is not placed in the foreground by the liturgy and the Presentation of Jesus it he principle object of this feast. (The Church has instituted for Christian mothers the fine ceremony of Churching, the meaning of which is neither a purification of the mother nor a presentation of the child, but a thanksgiving for the birth and a blessing of the mother.)
The first and fourth prayer of the blessing of candles explain the symbolism of the sanctuary lamp and the candles blessed on this day, and teach the right use to be made of them by the bed of the drying, during storms and periods of "body and soul, on land and on the waters."
If the feast of the Purification falls on a privileged Sunday (Septuagesima, Sexagesimal, or Quinquagesima), it is transferred to the Monday Febr. 3; nevertheless the blessing of the candles takes place before the Mass on Sunday 2.
Prayer:
I. The Blessing of the Candles
The priest vested in a purple cope enters the sanctuary and blesses the candles as follows:
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And With your spirit.
1st Prayer: O holy Lord Father almighty, eternal God, who didst create all things out of nothing, and by Thy command didst cause this liquid to come by the labor of bees to the perfection of wax; and on this day didst fulfill the petition of the just man Simeon, we humbly beseech Thee, that by the invocation of Thy most holy name, and by the intercession of blessed Mary ever virgin, whose festival is this day devoutly celebrated, and by the prayers of all Thy saints, Thou wouldst vouchsafed to bless + and sanctify + these candles for the use of men, and the health of bodies and souls whether upon the earth, or on the waters; and wouldst hear from Thy holy heaven, and from the seat of Thy majesty, the voices of this Thy people, who desire to bear them with honor in their hands, and to praise Thee with hymnals, whom Thou has redeemed with the precious blood of Thy Son; who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen.
2nd Prayer: O almighty and everlasting God, who didst this day present Thy only-begotten Son to be received in the arms of holy Simeon in Thy holy temple; we humbly implore Thy clemency, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to bless +, sanctify +, and kindle with the light of heavenly benediction these candles, which we Thy servants receiving desire to carry lighted to magnify Thy name; that by offering them to Thee, the Lord our God, being worthily inflamed with the holy fire of Thy most sweet charity, we may deserve to be presented in the holy temple of Thy glory. Though the same our Lord...
R. Amen.
3rd Prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, the true light, who enlightenest every man coming into this world, pour forth Thy blessing + upon these candles, and sanctify + them with the light of Thy grace; and mercifully grant, that as these lights enkindled with visible fire dispel the darkness of night, so our hearts illumined by invisible fire, that is, the brightness of the Holy Spirit, may be free from the blindness of every sin; that the eye of our minds being purified, we may be able to discern what is pleasing to Thee and conducive to our salvation; so that after the perilous darkness of this life we may deserve to arrive at never-failing light. Through Thee, Christ Jesus, Saviour of the world, who in perfect Trinity livest and reignest God, world without end.
R. Amen.
4th Prayer: O almighty, everlasting God, who didst command the purest oil to be prepared by Thy servant Moses to keep lamps continually before Thee; graciously pour forth the grace of Thy blessing + upon these candles; they may so afford external light, that by Thy gift the light of Thy Spirit may not fail interiorly in our minds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ...in the unity of the same Holy Spirit....
R. Amen.
5th Prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, who appearing this day among men in the substance of our flesh, and wast presented by Thy parents in the temple; whom the venerable and aged Simeon, enlightened by the light of Thy Spirit, recognized, received, and blessed: mercifully grant, that enlightened and taught by the grace of the same Holy Spirit, we may truly acknowledge Thee, and faithfully love Thee; who with God the Father in the unity of the same Holy Spirit livest and reignest God, world without end.
R. Amen.
Here the priest sprinkles the candles three times with holy water saying the Antiphon without chant nor psalm, and he incenses the candles three times.
Antiphon: Asperges me Domine, Ps. 50: Thou shalt sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
II. Distribution of Candles
The priest receives or takes a candle, and then distributes them to the rest of the clergy in turn and to the laity, who kiss first the candle, then the priest's hand.
When the distribution begins, the choir sings as follows:
Antiphon: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.
Antiphona: Luc. 2, 32. Lumen ad revelation em gentium: et Gloria's plebis tuae Israel.
This Antiphons is repeated after each verse of the following Canticle:
Canticle: Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2, 29-32)
V. Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace.
Ant. A light, etc.
V. Because my eyes have seen Thy salvation.
Ant. A light, etc.
V. Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples.
Ant. A light, etc.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost.
Ant. A light, etc.
V. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Ant. A light, etc.
After the distribution the following Antiphon is sung:
Antiphon. Arise, O Lord, help us, and deliver us, for Thy name's sake.
Ps. We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have declared to us.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Antiphon. Arise, O Lord, help us, and deliver us, for Thy name's sake.
The priest then says:
V. Let us pray.
If after Septuagesima, and not on a Sunday, the deacon adds:
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
Prayer. Hear Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and grant that we may obtain those things within by the light of Thy grace, which Thou permit test us outwardly to venerate in this yearly devotion. Through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
The Procession
Here the priest puts incense into the thurible and the Deacon says:
V. Let us proceed in peace
R. In the name of Christ. Amen.
All bear lighted candles in their hands; the following Antiphons from teh Greek liturgy are sung:
Antiphon: O Sion, adorn thy bridal chamber, and welcome Christ the King: embrace Mary, for she who is the very gate of heaven, brings th to Thee the glorious King of the new light. Remaining ever Virgin, in her arms she bears her Son begotten before the day-star, whom Simeon, receiving into his arms declared unto all peoples to be the Lord of life and of death and the Saviour of the world.
Antiphon 2: Luke 2, 26, 27, 28, 29. Simeon received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should. not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord; and when they brought the Child into the temple, he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now doesn't Thou dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, in peace.
V. When His parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him in his arms.
When the Procession re-entered the church, the choir sings:
Responsory: They offered for Him to the Lord a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons,
R. As it is written in the law of the Lord.
V. After the days of the purification of Mary, according to the law of Moses, were fulfilled, they carried Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.
R. As it is written in the law of the Lord.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. As it is written in the law of the Lord.
IV. The Mass (White Vestments)
Introit We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple; according to Thy name, O God, so also is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth: Thy right hand is full of justice. Ps. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praise, in the city of God, in his holy mountain. V. Glory be to the Father.
Collect O almighty and everlasting God, we humbly beseech Thy majesty; that as Thine only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, so too Thou wouldst grant us to be presented unto Thee with purified souls. Through the same Lord, etc.
Lesson. Malachy 3:1-4
Gradual. Ps. 47, 10-11, 9.
Before Septuagesima:
Alleluia. The old man carried the Child: but the Child governed the old man. Alleluia.
After Septuagesima:
Tract. Luke 2, 29-32. Now Though dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace.
V. Because my eyes have seen Thy salvation.
V. Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples.
V. A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.
The blessed candle should be held lighted in the hand during the Gospel, and also from the Sanctus to the Communion.
Gospel. Luke 2, 22-32.
Offertory. Ps. 44, 3. Grace is poured abroad in thy lips: therefore hath God blessed thee for ever and for ages and ages.
Secret. Graciously hear our prayers, O Lord; and that the gifts we offer in the sight of Thy majesty may be found worthy, extend to us the help of Thy mercy, Through our Lord.
Preface of Christmas is used.
It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, and everlasting God. Because by the mystery of the Word made flesh the light of Thy glory hath shone anew upon the eyes of our mind: that while we acknowledge Him to be God seen by men, we may be drawn by Him to the love of things unseen. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the heavenly hosts, we sing a hymn to Thy glory, saying without ceasing:
Communion. Luke 2, 26. Simeon received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, until he had see the Christ of the Lord.
Postcommunion. We beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that by the intercession of blessed Mary ever Virgin Thou wouldst make the most holy mysteries, which Thou has conferred upon us for the preservation of our spiritual life, both a present and future remedy. Through our Lord, etc. Amen.
Prayer Source: Saint Andrew Daily Missal by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, Liturgical Apostolate, 1959
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/...fm?id=1394
|
|
|
|
| St. John Damascene - Treatise |
|
Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-27-2021, 09:56 PM - Forum: Doctors of the Church
- No Replies
|
|
St. John Damascene,
Patristic Father and
One of the Thirty-three Doctors of the Church:
Doctor of Christian Art and Doctor of the Assumption
c. 676-749
Feast Day: March 27 [Trad.]
Whenever we look at traditional Catholic art we can thank St. John Damascene. We can thank him again when we look at the Crucifixes on our walls, or when in church we see the stained-glass windows, the paintings on the walls, the statues in their niches. All these have nourished Catholic our devotion.
St. John Damascene is the outstanding champion of sacred images. As such he is also the champion of that article in the Creed which says, "I believe in the Communion of Saints."
We often recite the Creed without thinking about each article: the precious summary of truths takes only a few moments to recite. Yet every article in it has been defended sometimes not just by verbal apologetics -----by pens dipped in ink-----but by swords that dripped blood. Men will always defend what they hold to be most precious.
Doctor of Christian Art
The Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III, the Isaurian [717-741], violently attacked a particular part of Catholic teaching on the Communion of Saints. In 726 A.D. he forbade all his subjects to keep any images, or icons, as the Greeks called them. He ordered the icons in the churches to be destroyed. A few years later, he threatened Pope Gregory II: "I will send an army to break your idols and to take you prisoner." Leo's son, Constantine V [741-775], continued the persecution. The monks were the strongest defenders of icons; many were Martyred and many monasteries were burned down. The large church of the Blessed Mother in Constantinople was stripped of its icons and repainted. People said it then looked like a bird cage or a fruit shop.
The periods of image-breaking or "iconoclasm" lasted 116 years, until the great triumphal procession when icons were carried through the streets of Constantinople on February 19, the First Sunday of Lent in 842 A.D.
Early in the controversy, about 729 A.D., St. John Damascene [St. John of Damascus] wrote three apologias defending the use of images. In these, he gave such a classical expression of the truths involved that nobody has ever had to improve upon it. He has supplied all the arguments from reason, from the past history of the Church, and from Sacred Scripture. If we wish to explain the use of statues, medals and holy pictures to ourselves or others, we need look no further.
St. John entered the conflict, not to win an argument, but to safeguard the truth. "Conquest is not my object," he said. "I raise a hand which is fighting for the truth -----a willing hand under Divine guidance."
He felt strongly the implied charge by the image-breakers that the Church could have been wrong in the past to allow the use of images.
It is supreme error to think that the Church does not know God as He is, that she degenerates into idolatry, for if she declines from perfection in but one aspect, it is as an enduring mark on a beautiful face, destroying by its unsightliness the beauty of the whole. A small thing is not small when it leads to something great, nor indeed is it a thing of no matter to give up the ancient tradition of the Church held by our forefathers, whose conduct we should observe and whose faith we should imitate.
St. John Damascene said that the repeated commands given to the Jews not to make an image referred to the making of an image of the invisible God, lest they sink into idolartry, which they were prone to. Besides until Christ, God was invisible in His Person. But, says St. John, "We have passed the stage of infancy and reached the perfection of manhood. We receive our habit of mind from God and know what may be imaged and what may not."
"Especially since the invisible God took on flesh," says St. John, "we may make images of Christ, Who was visible, and picture Him in all His activities, His birth, Baptism, transfigura tion, His sufferings and Resurrection." St. John also asks the pointed question why God, Who forbids the making of images to adore, would also command the making of the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim above the Ark if His previous prohibition were to be absolute. Many times St. John insists that we pay an altogether particular honor to God alone, called latria.
St. John Damascene ably demonstrates why it is good to have images:
"We proclaim Him [God] also by our senses on all sides, and we sanctify the noblest sense, which is that of sight. The image is a memorial, just what words are to a listening ear. What a book is to those who can read, that an image is to those who cannot read. The image speaks to the sight as words to the ear; it brings us understanding. Hence, God ordered the Ark to be made of imperishable wood, and to be gilded outside and in, and the tablets to be put into it, and the staff and the golden urn containing the manna, for a remembrance of the past and a type of the future. Who can say these were not images and far sounding heralds?" [1, 17]
Therefore, St. John Damascene sums up, "You see that the law and everything it ordained and all our own worship consist in the consecration of what is made by hands, leading us through matter to the invisible God." [2, 23]
Acts 6 and 7 of the seventh General Council [Nicaea II of 787 -----Source #3, p. 60] name St. John Damascene, along with St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and St. George of Cyprus as worthy of eternal memory for their defense of sacred images. The same three men had been singled out by the Council of the Iconoclasts held in 753 in the Palace of the Hieria near Constantinople, and anathematized. Constantine V further ordered St. John to be publicly cursed or anathematized once a year. It is not without good cause that St. John Damascene is called the "Doctor of Christian Art."
A river flows through Damascus which the ancients called Chrysorrhoas, or the golden-flowing. This epithet has also been given to St. John Damascene, "who is called Chrysorrhoas because of the golden and shining grace of the Spirit which flowed in both his words and his manner of life."
Not too much can be said with certainty regarding the details of St. John Damascene's life. He was born in Damascus of a good Christian family. His father, Sergius, was a tax collector for the Mohammedan Caliph of Damascus. St. John was also known by the surname of Mansur, after his grandfather, who had held a more important job under the Caliph. St. John Damascene succeeded his father as tax collector, but retired, perhaps before 715 A.D., to the Monastery of St. Sabbas, south of Jerusalem as one goes toward the Dead Sea. He was ordained a priest by John V, Patriarch of Jerusalem, before 726. His sermons on the Assumption of Our Lady indicate that he was called upon to preach for special occasions. "Suffer me now to revert again to her praises. This is in obedience to your orders, most excellent pastors, so dear to God." [Sermon 2].
But St. John was primarily the monk, praying, leading an ascetical life, studying and writing. The traditional date for his birth is 676 A.D. He died sometime between 743 and 753; the most accepted date is December 4, 749. He was buried at the Monastery of St. Sabbas, where his empty tomb can be seen today. His relics were transferred to Constantinople, very likely by the time of the 14th century.
The original Life of St. John Damascene by John V, Patriarch of Jerusalem, tells about the cutting off of his hand. By forging a letter, the Emperor Leo III convinced the Caliph that St. John was plotting against him. Leo was smarting under the Damascene's strong defense of images. The Caliph, believing the Emperor, had St. John's hand cut off as a punishment. But St. John prayed to the Blessed Virgin, reminding her, "This hand often wrote hymns and canticles in praise of thee, and many times offered the Sacred Body and Blood of thy Son in thy honor for the salvation of all sinners." He continued his prayer all night. Then Mary appeared to him and said, "Be comforted, my son, in the Lord. He can restore thy hand Who has made the whole man from nothing." Then she took the hand from where it had been hung in the monastery, and in a moment it was restored to his arm.
In Eastern Christendom, St. John of Damascus has the stature which St. Thomas Aquinas enjoys in the West. He has summed up for them philosophy, doctrine and morals. His original work on morals is not extant, but it has come down to us in two shortened sections known as the Sacred Parallels. These are a collection of sayings for guidance in moral and ascetic living, taken from Scripture and the Fathers.
His work known as the Fount of Knowledge [also called Fount of Wisdom] is, however, a truly original synthesis of philosophy and dogma. It is St. John's greatest work. Its latest English translator says: "The Fount of Knowledge not only contains much that is original and a fresh viewpoint on many things, but is in itself something new. It is the first real Summa Theologica." [Frederick Chase, Jr., Vol. 37 in Fathers of the Church series, p. xxvi].
The third and most important part of the Fount is known as the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith in100 chapters. It was translated into Latin at the request of Pope Eugene III. Its powerful influence on the West can be surmised from the large number of Latin manuscript copies still in existence. Peter the Lombard used it and may have owed much to it, and St. Thomas Aquinas quotes from it.
St. John Damascene is especially clear in writing about the Incarnation, and the greatest of those who wrote about Christ in later ages owe him a considerable debt. St. John's words are precise and clear.
"Christ was in all things and above all things, and at the same time He was existing in the womb of the Holy Mother of God, but He was there by the operation of the Incarnation. And so He was made flesh and took from her the first fruits of our clay, a body animated by a rational and intellectual soul, so that the very Person of God the Word was accounted to the flesh . . . And so we confess that even after the Incarnation He is the one Son of God, and we confess that the same is the Son of Man, one Christ, one Lord, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God, Jesus our Lord. And we venerate His two begettings
-----one from the Father before the ages and surpassing cause and reason and time and nature, and one in latter times for our own sake, after our own manner, and surpassing us."
St. John on why God creates a man He knows will be lost:
"Being comes first, and afterwards, being good or evil. However, had God kept from being made those who through His goodness were to have existence but who by their own choice were to become evil, then evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Thus, all things which God makes He makes good, but each one becomes good or evil by his own choice."
The Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith ends with a chapter on the resurrection of the body. St. John asks those who say this resurrection from the dust is impossible to consider how the body is formed in the first place from a little drop of seed that grows in the womb.
"And so, with our souls again united to our bodies, which will have become incorrupt and put off corruption, we shall rise again and stand before the terrible judgment seat of Christ. And the devil and his demons, and his man, which is to say, the Antichrist, and the impious and sinners will be given over to the everlasting fire . . . And those who have done good will shine like the sun together with the Angels unto eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ, ever seeing Him and being seen, enjoying the unending bliss which is from Him, and praising Him, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.
A Little Treatise on Mary
by St. John Damascene
2. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HIS MARIAN DOCTRINE
St. John Damascene at various places in his writings shows a clear belief in Our Lady's Immaculate Conception. He explains in a sermon on Mary's nativity why she was born of a sterile mother. "Since the Virgin Mother of God was to be born of Anne, nature did not dare to precede the product of grace, but remained sterile until grace had produced its fruit." In the homilies on the Assumption, St. John explains: that Mary, although not subject to death, died nonetheless. Death, of course, is the penalty for sin, and only one preserved even from Original Sin would be exempt.
For how could she who brought life to all, be under the dominion of death? But she obeys the law of her own Son and inherits this chastisement as a daughter of the first Adam, since her Son, Who is the Life, did not refuse it. As the Mother of the Living God, she goes through death to Him. [Sermon 2]
In the East, Marian devotion probably reached its high point with St. John of Damascus. It would be easy, for example, to go through his sermons on the Dormition and from them alone construct a litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the perennial "source of true light, the treasury of life, the richness of grace, the cause of all our good. She is life-giving ambrosia, true happiness, a sea of grace, a fountain of healing, a fruitful tree, the lily of the field, the rose among thorns, the gladness of Angels, the sweetness of patriarchs, refreshment of the weary. She is as shining as the dawn, beautiful as the moon, conspicuous as the sun; she is Queen, Virgin Mother of God, a rich treasure-house of the Godhead. Mary is the Saint of Saints, the spotless Virgin, most dear among women, all fair; her fragrance is sweeter than all ointment, the Ark of God". Over and over St. John Damascene calls her "the Mother of God".
St. John was a man who sought wisdom humbly. He did not push himself. Only near the close of his life did he write his greatest work, the Fount of Knowledge, and that at the request of Cosmas, Bishop of Maiuma, once his fellow-monk.
St. John Damascene had a penetrating and exact mind that made him a great theologian; at the same time he had the fine feeling and beauty of expression that made him an outstanding poet. This combination of talents must have made him a superb orator. But the point that seems most striking and endearing about St. John Damascene is his constant gratitude for being able to serve God and sing the praises of his Lady, the Theotokos or "God-bearer." Perhaps he expressed this best when he said: "We know that in celebrating her praises we payoff our debt, and that in so doing we are again debtors, so that the debt is ever beginning afresh."
John writes on all the mariological questions that were current in his day: Mary's predestination, the Old Testament figures and prophecies that were usually applied to her, her Divine maternity, her perpetual virginity, and the meaning of the name Mary, which he interprets as "Lady", according to Syriac etymology. He was the first author to speak of consecration to Mary. Here we confine ourselves to certain aspects of mariological doctrine that are most original and most important to him, aspects for which the Church's Magisterium still invokes him today as an authority. Along with Germanus of Constantinople and Andrew of Crete, he is cited in Munificentissimus Deus, the document in which Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption and in John Paul II's encyclical Redemptoris Mater. His Marian thought has been the object of various studies and research, which have emphasized its value and depth.
John Damascene often speaks of Mary as a sublime creature, filled with spiritual treasures. Accordingly, his homily on the Nativity, for example, goes so far as to make clear and explicit allusions-----unprecedented in previous centuries-----to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
For John, both the Virgin Mary's conception and her birth took place completely under the influence of Divine grace. These two events also shaped the role played by her parents, Joachim and Anna. Their previous sterility is explained thus:
"Because it would come to pass that the Virgin Theotokos would be born of Anna, nature did not dare anticipate the seed of grace but remained unfruitful until grace bore fruit." [Homily on the Nativity, 2]
Anna's sterility was, therefore, a condition previously arranged in the Divine plan, so that the role of grace would appear fully predominant. This is why Damascene always names the Virgin's parents with profound respect: they would offer themselves as the passive instruments of God's miraculous intervention:
"O blessed loins of Joachim, whence the all-pure seed was poured out! O glorious womb of Anna, in which the most holy fetus grew and was formed, silently increasing! O womb in which was conceived the living heaven, wider than the wideness of the heavens." [Ibid, 2; "Fetus" means offspring in Latin. We mention this because in modern societies the term has lost its Latin and (and true) definition and has come to signify a "non-person" for all practical purposes, a distortion for political manipulation------The Web Master]
In these considerations [not devoid of realism], the author wants us to notice that even the physiological process of Mary's conception and birth unfolded in a sinless fashion, under the mysterious guidance of the Almighty. The very seed of which Mary was born was utterly perfect [panamomos]. This concept of perfection, then, is decidedly positive: it goes beyond a simple absence of sin and corruption to include an exceptional richness of grace.
Now one can understand why the Damascene gave himself over to the praise of Mary, seeing her as a new heaven:
"This Heaven is clearly much more Divine and awesome than the first. Indeed He Who created the sun in the first heaven would Himself be born of this second heaven, as the Sun of Justice."
Mary also appears as a lofty ladder, planted between Heaven and earth, a kind of means of communication between God and man:
Today [Christ] . . . built Himself a living ladder, whose base is planted in the earth and whose tip reaches Heaven. God rests upon it. Jacob saw a figure of it. God, unchanged, came down it. . . . He was made manifest on the earth and lived among men.
The author emphasizes the fact that Mary's spiritual beauty derives from her special relationship with God:
She is all beautiful, all near to God. For she, surpassing the cherubim, exalted beyond the seraphim, is placed near to God.
It is understandable that the author should treat the theme of Mary's exceptional purity and sanctity in this context, since he considers it a condition that belongs to the very beginning of her earthly existence.
3. MARY ASSUMED INTO HEAVEN
Doctor of the Assumption
On November 27, 1950, St. Peter's in Rome Pope Pius XII raised his voice to give the blessing on the occasion that commemorated the twelfth centenary of the death of St. John Damascene, the last of the Greek Fathers, proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church by Leo XIII on August 19, 1890.
Just a few weeks before Pope Pius XII had defined the dogma of the Assumption. The tdeclarative eaching of this truth as a dogma was new, but the truth itself was revered and ancient as Tradition itself. Pope Pius' definition only brought it into its final and sharpest focus. In Munificentissimus Deus, defining the dogma of the Assumption, the Pope called St. John Damascene "the interpreter of this Tradition par excellence." He then quoted St. John:
"There was need that the body of her who in childbirth had preserved her virginity intact, be preserved incorrupt after death. There was need that she who had carried her Creator as a babe on her bosom, should linger lovingly in the dwelling of her God. There was need that the bride whom the Father had betrothed to Himself should live in the bridal chamber of Heaven, that she who had looked so closely upon her very own Son on the Cross, and who there felt in her heart the sword-pangs of sorrow which in bearing Him she had been spared, should look upon Him seated with His Father. There was need that God's Mother should enter into her Son's possessions, and as a Mother of God and hand- maid, be reverenced by all creation." [Par. 21]
The words are taken from the second of St. John's three homilies on the Assumption of Mary. From the opening words of the third sermon it seems that all three were preached on the same day at Mary's tomb in Jerusalem. The occasion was the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady-----also called her "Dormition" or "Falling Asleep."
The third sermon opens in this way:
"Lovers are wont to speak of what they love and to let their fancy run on it by day and night. Let no one, therefore, blame me if I add a third tribute to the Mother of God on her triumphant departure. I am not profiting her, but myself and you who are here present . . . She does not need our praise. It is we who need her glory . . . "
St. John Damascene's words about the Blessed Mother overflow with love, humility and gratitude. You can feel the surging emotion and understand that the beautiful words do not satisfy his yearning to say something better and more fitting. "She is greater than all praise." In his "winter of poverty" he wants to "bring garlands to our Queen, and prepare a flower of oratory for the feast of praise." [Sermon 2]
Grateful, humble love can hardly speak more convincingly: "But what is sweeter than the Mother of my God? She has taken my mind captive and held my tongue in bondage. I think of her by day and night. She, the Mother of the Word, supplies my words." [Sermon 3]
St. John addresses Mary's empty tomb and asks:
"Where is the pure gold which apostolic hands confided to you? Where is the inexhaustible treasure? Where the precious receptacle of God? Where is the new book in which the incomprehensible Word of God is written without hands . . . Where is the life-giving fountain? Where is the sweet and loved body of God's Mother?" [Sermon 2]
St. John concludes his third homily with this prayer to Our Lady:
"Accept then my goodwill, which is greater than my capacity, and give us salvation. Heal our passions, cure our diseases, help us out of our difficulties, make our lives peaceful, send us the illumination of the Spirit. Inflame us with the desire of thy Son. Render us pleasing to Him, so that we may enjoy happiness with Him, seeing thee resplendent with thy Son's glory, rejoicing forever, keeping feast in the Church with those who worthily celebrate Him Who worked our salvation through thee: Christ, the Son of God, and our God. To Him be glory and majesty, with the uncreated Father and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and forever, through the endless ages of eternity. Amen.
[Source #1, pp. 241-243]
Mary Assumed into Heaven
The three homilies on the Dormition reveal the exceptional importance of Damascene's teaching for the development of doctrine on the Assumption. John explicitly teaches the truth of Mary's bodily Assumption into Heaven. In confonnity with the teaching of his two famous contemporaries, Germanus of Constantinople and Andrew of Crete, our doctor accepts the thesis that Mary's death is a premise of her imminent glorification:
"O how could the Font of life be led to life through death? O how could she, who in giving birth surpassed the limits of nature, now yield to nature's laws and have her irnrnaculate body undergo death? She had to put aside what was mortal and put on incorruptibility, seeing that even the Lord of nature did not excuse Himself from facing death. He truly died in the flesh to destroy death by means of death; in place of corruption He gave incorruptibility; He made death into a font of resurrection!" [Homily 1 on the Dormition, 10]
Even though she must pass through death before being glorified, nevertheless the personal destiny of the Mother of God had an unusual outcome:
"Even though your most holy and blessed soul was separated from your most happy and immaculate body, according to the usual course of nature, and even though it was carried to a proper burial place, nevertheless it did not remain under the dominion of death, nor was it destroyed by corruption.
"Indeed, just as her virginity remained intact when she gave birth, so her body, even after death, was preserved from decay and transferred to a better and more Divine dwelling place. There it is no longer subject to death but abides for all ages."
In his second homily on the Dormition, Damascene uses biblical typology to present a whole series of reasons why it was fitting that Mary's body was not consumed by decay in the tomb. In this text, as in the passage cited above, one notes the homilist's tendency to explain the privilege of the Assumption by referring to the mystery of Mary's virginity in giving birth. Although this might seem to be an argument from fittingness, in Damascene's eyes it has the character of most strict necessity, because of the indispensable role played by Mary in the mystery of the Incarnation:
"It was necessary that the body of the one who preserved her virginity intact in giving birth should also be kept incorrupt after death. It was necessary that she, who carried the Creator in her womb when He was a baby, should dwell among the tabernacles of Heaven . . . .
"It was necessary that the Mother of God share what belongs to her Son and that she be celebrated by all creation. An inheritance is normally passed down from parents to children; now, however, to use the expression of a wise man, the sources of the sacred rivers flow back toward their origin, now that the Son has made all created things His Mother's slaves." [Homily 2 on the Dormition, 14]
MARY'S TOMB, PLACE OF GRACE
"Your holy and all-virginal body was consigned to a holy tomb, while the Angels went before it, accompanied it, and followed it; for what would they not do to serve the Mother of their Lord.?
"Meanwhile, the Apostles and the whole assembly of the Church sang Divine hymns and struck the lyre of the Spirit: "We shall be filled with the blessings of Your house; Your temple is holy; wondrous injustice" [Ps 65:4]. And again: 'The Most High has sanctified His dwelling' [Ps 46:5]; 'God's mountain, rich mountain, the mountain in which God has been pleased to dwell' [Ps 68:16-17].
"The assembly of Apostles carried you, the Lord God's true Ark, as once the priests carried the symbolic ark, on their shoulders. They laid you in the tomb, through which, as if through the Jordan, they will conduct you to the promised land, that is to say, the Jerusalem above, mother of all the faithful, whose architect and builder is God. Your soul did not descend to Hades, neither did your flesh see corruption. Your virginal and uncontaminated body was not abandoned in the earth, but you are transferred into the royal dwelling of Heaven, you, the Queen, the sovereign, the Lady, God's Mother, the true God-bearer.
"O, how did Heaven receive her, who surpasses the wideness of the heavens? How is it possible that the tomb should contain the dwelling place of God? And yet it received and held it. For she was not wider than heaven in her bodily dimensions; indeed, how could a body three cubits long, which is always growing thinner, be compared with the breadth and length of the sky? Rather it is through grace that she surpassed the limits of every height and depth. The Divinity does not admit of comparison.
"O holy tomb, awesome, venerable, and adorable! Even now the Angels continue to venerate you, standing by with great respect and fear, while the devils shrink in horror. With faith, men make haste to render you honor, to adore you, to salute you with their eyes, with their lips, and with the affection of their souls, in order to obtain an abundance of blessings.
"A precious ointment, when it is poured out upon the garments or in any place and then taken away, leaves traces of its fragrance even after evaporating. In the same way your body, holy and perfect, impregnated with Divine perfume and abundant spring of grace, this body which had been laid in the tomb, when it was taken out and transferred to a better and more elevated place, did not leave the tomb bereft of honor but left behind a Divine fragrance and grace, making it a wellspring of healing and a source of every blessing for those who approach it with faith."
-----John Damascene, Homily 1 on the Dormition 12-13
4. MARY MEDIATRIX BETWEEN EARTH AND HEAVEN
John introduces the concept of Mary's mediation with the Old Testament image of Jacob's ladder. As already cited, he loves to use this image for Mary:
That man [Jacob] contemplated Heaven joined to earth by the two ends of a ladder and saw Angels going up and down upon it and saw himself symbolically wrestling with the Strong One, the Invincible. So you have assumed the role of a mediatrix, having become the ladder by which God comes down to us, assuming the weakness of our nature, embracing it and uniting Himself to it, and thus making man into a mind that can see God. Thus [O Mary] you have reunited what had been divided. [Homily 1 on the Dormition, 8]
He attributes great efficacy to the holy Virgin's mediation in the plan of salvation. Mary has a very active part in causing the fruits of the Incarnation to be applied. Accordingly, he ascribes the benefits of salvation to her and to her Divine Son, almost without distinction:
Through her, the long warfare waged with the Creator has been ended. Through her, the reconciliation between us and him was ratified. Grace and peace were granted us, so that men and Angels are united in the same choir, and we, who had been deserving of disdain, have become sons of God. From her we have harvested the grape of life; from her we have cultivated the seed of immortality. For our sake she became Mediatrix of all blessings; in her God became man, and man became God. [Homily 2 on the Dormition, 16]
Damascene does speak of Mary's compassion on Calvary . . . her sorrowful experience of Mary is linked to Simeon's prophecy:
It was necessary that she who contemplated her own Son on the Cross, and who had been pierced through the heart by the sword she had avoided while giving birth, should contemplate Him reigning with the Father.
Speaking of the Divine favors that the Mother of the Lord distributes to Christians in copious measure throughout the world, our doctor exhorts his audience to acquire the dispositions that will render them open to Mary's mediation:
If we firmly abstain, then, from past vices and love the virtues with all our heart, taking them as our companions in life, the Virgin will frequently visit her servants, bringing all manner of blessings. She will be accompanied by Christ her Son, the King and Lord of all, Who will dwell in our hearts.
In this passage, the author sums up the ways in which Mary exercises her power on our behalf: In giving us the incarnate Word to be our Redeemer, she has obtained for us all the graces we need for salvation, and, like an inexhaustible spring, she continues to pour them out upon us.
5. DEVOTION TO MARY
With regard to Marian devotion, a very practical part of Christian life, it is particularly interesting to revisit the thought of St. John Damascene. He introduces the fine distinction between the cult of adoration, or latria, owed to God alone, and the honor or veneration that ought to be given to the holy Virgin. Later on the terms dulia [and hyperdulia-----the Web Master] was introduced for this, but it was unknown to the Saint.
Here is a text:
But we, who consider God the object of adoration-----a God not made out of anything, but existing from all eternity, beyond every cause, word, or concept of time and nature -----we honor and venerate the mother of God. [Homily 2 on the Dormition, 15]
The cult of Mary, even though inferior to that owed to God, is superior to the honor paid to the other Saints and to the Angels in Heaven. Because she is queen and mistress of all things, she merits the veneration suited to her greatness and unique dignity:
If the memory of all the Saints is celebrated with panegyrics, who will refuse to praise the font of justice and the treasury of holiness? This is not done to glorify her but so that God might be glorified with an eternal glory. [Homily 1 on the Dormition, 5]
Such veneration can also be extended to images of Mary. In his discourses in defense of sacred icons, Damascene makes some extremely clear distinctions about this form of veneration. . . . As for icons of the Mother of God, they merit a special veneration because of Mary's unique personal position in the economy of salvation.
In addition to the extreme theological clarity with which our doctor resolves the objective question of Marian devotion, he is not held back by any inhibition or timidity when he wants to express his personal feelings toward her. Let us choose two texts from among the most expressive:
O daughter of Joachim and Anna, O Lady, receive the word of a sinful servant, who nevertheless burns with love and places in you his only hope of joy; in you he finds the guardian of his life, not only a Mediatrix in your Son's presence, but also a sure pledge of salvation. [Homily on the Nativity, 12]
St. John Damascene proposed a practice of Marian devotion that seems to come very close to the concept of consecration to the Blessed Virgin as understood and practiced in Marian devotion today.
He explains it in a passage from a homily on the Dormition:
We today also remain near you, O Lady. Yes, I repeat, O Lady, Mother of God and Virgin. We bind our souls to your hope, as to a most firm and totally unbreakable anchor, consecrating to you [anath émenoi] mind, soul, body, and all our being and honoring you, as much as we can, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles. [Homily 1 on the Dormition, 14]
The Greek word used by Damascene, anatíthēmi means [inter alia] to dedicate, consecrate, offer in a religious sense. Damascene's text, therefore, is a good description of the act of a servant and devotee of Mary, who offers his whole self to her as his sovereign and lady. Thus, a consecration.
|
|
|
|
| Litany of the Holy Name of Mary |
|
Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-27-2021, 09:52 PM - Forum: Marian Litanies
- No Replies
|
|
Litany of the Holy Name of Mary
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Son of Mary, hear us.
Son of Mary, graciously hear us.
Heavenly Father, of Whom Mary is the Daughter,
Have mercy on us.
Eternal Word, of Whom Mary is the Mother,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Spirit, of Whom Mary is the spouse,
Have mercy on us.
Divine Trinity, of Whom Mary is the Handmaid,
Have mercy on us.
Mary , Mother of the Living God, pray for us.
Mary, daughter of the Light Eternal, pray for us.
Mary, our light, etc.
Mary, our sister,
Mary, flower of Jesse,
Mary , issue of kings,
Mary, chief work of God,
Mary, the beloved of God,
Mary, Immaculate Virgin,
Mary, all fair,
Mary, light in darkness,
Mary, our sure rest,
Mary, house of God,
Mary, sanctuary of the Lord,
Mary, altar of the Divinity,
Mary, Virgin Mother,
Mary, embracing thy Infant God,
Mary, reposing with Eternal Wisdom,
Mary, ocean of bitterness,
Mary, Star of the Sea,
Mary, suffering with thine only Son,
Mary, pierced with a sword of sorrow,
Mary, torn with a cruel wound,
Mary, sorrowful even to death ,
Mary, bereft of all consolation,
Mary, submissive to the law of God,
Mary, standing by the Cross of Jesus,
Mary, Our Lady,
Mary, Our Queen,
Mary, Queen of glory ,
Mary, glory of the Church Triumphant,
Mary, Blessed Queen,
Mary, advocate of the Church Militant,
Mary, Queen of Mercy,
Mary, consoler of the Church Suffering,
Mary, exalted above the Angels,
Mary, crowned with twelve stars,
Mary, fair as the moon,
Mary, bright as the sun,
Mary, distinguished above all,
Mary, seated at the right hand of Jesus,
Mary, our hope,
Mary, our sweetness,
Mary, glory of Jerusalem ,
Mary, joy of Israel,
Mary, honor of our people,
Mary, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception,
Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption,
Mary, Our Lady of Loreto,
Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes,
Mary, Our Lady of Fatima,
Mary, Our Lady of Czestochowa,
Mary, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal,
Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
Mary, Our Lady of the Angels,
Mary, Our Lady of Dolors,
Mary, Our Lady of Mercy,
Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary,
Mary, Our Lady of Victory ,
Mary, Our Lady of La Trappe,
Mary, Our Lady of Divine Providence,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us, O Lord Jesus.
Son of Mary , hear us.
Son of Mary, graciously hear us.
V. I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
R. I will praise thee in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Us Pray.
O Almighty God, Who beholdest Thy servants earnestly desirous
of placing themselves under the shadow of the name and protection
of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, vouchsafe, we beseech Thee,
that by her charitable intercession, we may be delivered from all
evil on earth, and may arrive at everlasting joys in Heaven,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhuntthedevil.files.word...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhuntthedevil.files.wordpress.com%2F2014%2F12%2Fandrea_vaccaro_-_tobias_meets_the_archangel_raphael_-_google_art_project.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
![[Image: pls-Forty-Martyrs-of-Armenia.jpg]](https://catholicsaints.info/wp-content/uploads/pls-Forty-Martyrs-of-Armenia.jpg)
![[Image: img_7772-1.jpg]](https://domdotugo.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/img_7772-1.jpg)
![[Image: Eulalie_Durocher_%28painting%29.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Eulalie_Durocher_%28painting%29.jpg)
![[Image: mary-queen-of-the-world-cathedral.jpg]](https://www.newyorkbyrail.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mary-queen-of-the-world-cathedral.jpg)
