Monthly Archives: April 2016

Apr162016

Christian morality: to be

If you are poor in spirit you learn not to care, in the sense of not endlessly fretting and worrying, even about your own state of soul….a negative view of morality…Morality for the Christian is religion; and religion is love; and love is not a negative but creative thing.  To know and love and serve: the moral life is a question first of what we ought to be, and only then, in consequence, of what we ought to do—and only thirdly, by implication, of what we ought not to do.

You have, or will have, your real problems to face; and you must face them squarely, think them out as best you can, pray and take advice, docile to God and His representatives; but then, when a decision is reached, you must rest in God, leave it to Him, refuse to keep going over and over the same ground, refuse to become introspective, and set yourself, instead, to the positive task of Life, the outward turning and love of God and His family, be active and creative in the work He has given you to do.   –Father Gerald Vann ‘The Divine Pity’

Father Gerald Vann

Father Gerald Vann

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Apr132016

Formed in secret

God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in perfection of love, without its doing anything or understanding of what manner is this infused contemplation. – – St John of the Cross ‘Dark Night of the Soul’

St John of the Cross. Euclid, Ohio.

St John of the Cross. Euclid, Ohio.

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Apr132016

Magdalen

By James Ryder Randall

The Hebrew girl, with flaming brow,
The banner-blush of shame,
Sinks at the sinless Savior’s Knees,
And dares to breathe His name.
From the full fountain of her eyes
The lava-globes are rolled—
Tears wash His feet; she spurns them off
With her ringlet-scarf of gold.

The Meek One feels the eloquence
Of agonizing prayer,
The burning tears, the suppliant face,
The penitential hair;
And when, to crown her brimming woe,
The ointment box is riven—
“Rise, daughter, rise! Much hast thou loved,
Be all thy sins forgiven!”

Dear God! The prayer of good and pure,
The canticles of light,
Enrobe Thy throne with gorgeous skies,
As incense in Thy sight;
May the shivered vase of Magdalen
Soothe many an outcast’s smart,
Teaching what fragrant pleas may spring
From out a broken heart!

El_Greco_-_Mary_Magdalen_in_Penitence_-_WGA10476

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Apr092016

Active in the world

The first thing is to care: it is precisely what the rapacious man does not do. We cannot help wanting things; it is our nature; but what makes the difference is how we want, and how we express our want. Things are not just means; they are God’s handiwork, lovely in themselves, therefore, and to be treated with reverence. And they are one with us in the unity of God’s family; and so they are to be treated with love. And they are His creatures and not ours, and so they are to be used or enjoyed—they are to become possessions—only within the framework of His will. You do no harm to God, or two things or to yourself if you use them or enjoy them according to their nature and His will for you, provided your attitude is one of love and reverence, provided you have learned to care.  –Father Gerald Vann ‘The Divine Pity’

Disciple of Charles de Foucauld

Disciple of Charles de Foucauld

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Apr082016

The Nightingale

AWWP-4

By Gerald Griffin

As the mute nightingale in closest groves
Lies hid at noon, but when days piercing eye
Is locked in night, with full heart beating high
Pours her plain song, over the light she loves;
So, Virgin Ever-pure and Ever-blest,
Moon of religion, from whose radiant face
Reflected streams the light of heavenly grace
On broken hearts, by contrite thoughts oppressed;
So, Mary, they who justly feel the weight
Of Heavens offended Majesty, implore
Thy reconciling aid with suppliant knee;
Of sinful man, O sinless Advocate,
To thee they turn, nor Him they less adore;
‘Tis still His light they love, lest dreadful seen in thee.

Here is a trailer for a powerful Serbian movie ‘Enclave’ witnessed at the Cleveland International Film Festival.  The young angry shepherding Albanian boy brought me to tears with a heroic act on a truly grand scale.  A softly moving film defining individual struggle for meaning within an overall malaise of despair.  Beautiful and absolutely human.

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Apr072016

It is what it is

God has now become all things to him, and all things have become, as it were, God to him, for all things present themselves to him now in the manner in which they are in God, yet they remain each one what as it is in its natural essence…Be steadfast, and never rest content until thou hast obtained the now of eternity as thy present possession in this life, so far as this is possible to human infirmity.  –Blessed Henry Suso

Accepting within stillness,
Perceiving in silence,
Seeing while remaining unseen,
Eternity nails in the flesh of Christ,
Barefoot and head bowed,
Understanding and wisdom,
Eyes open and alert,
Lacking self-consciousness,
The serpent and dove,
Being old while remaining young,
Masculine and feminine combined,
Joseph and Mary loving one another,
Worldly parents to the Savior,
Patient in time,
Affirmed within infirmity,
Daily receiving the Eucharist,
A Holy Hour,
Going out into the world,

Isaiah Chapter 6

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called,
and the house was filled with smoke.
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then flew one of the seraphim to me,
having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

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Apr062016

Prayerful recognition and gratitude

The Arise group advances into Christian Morality.  Wonderfully, Jim Nagle has joined the group.  The Cleveland International Film Festival provides a platform of splendid cultural enrichment supplying a dating experience with intense activity.  Life is overwhelming to a degree I comprehend I am encountering a personal flowering, the fruits of my life coalescing into a rootedness entrenched with, through, and in two immense gifts of the Trinity that being the Eucharist and His Blessed Virgin Mother.  Hidden, St Joseph abides, protecting, providing, loving.  God is good and all giving.

Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_-_The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Detail_Father_Son

Rembrandt’s prodigal son, a father with feminine and masculine hands–the serpent and the dove.

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