Monthly Archives: February 2017

Feb182017

St Dominic early morning prayers and the Culture of the Provisional

Jesus in the Eucharist,
Give me the grace of a cheerful heart,
An even temper, sweetness,
Gentleness, and brightness of mind,
As I walk in your light and by your grace,
I pray you give me the spirit of over-abundant,
Ever springing love,
Which overpowers the vexations of life,
By its own riches and strength,
And which, above all things, unites me to you,
Who are the fountain and center of all
Mercy, loving, kindness, and joy.
Amen.

Psalm to the Divine Master (based on Psalm 23)

The Lord is my Master,
He teaches me the art of living.
Most patient, He understands
The inner movements of my soul.
The Lord lights up my darkness.
Through all creation, He teaches me—
I will sit forever at His feet.
He speaks softly within me,
Leading me by my own heart.
Though I can’t see the path,
His eyes never lose me,
Turning to Him I am safe,
Wrapped in the blanket of His love.
He calls me to follow Him more closely—
Clasping His nail-pierced hand.

My Master died and rose for me,
Loving me into life,
He transforms every sadness,
His ever-present kindness and mercy
Make each day shine anew.
I sing out my joy in Him.
And proclaim His abundant goodness—
He fills up my life.

Early morning Mass at St Dominic and prayer with spiritually mature souls, three of us in conclusion. I then went into work for the morning, rushing in order to make Adoration prayers at St Paul Shrine. The morning was a bit futile as the excellent job I thought I performed and constructed was not what my boss had in mind. He was gracious, yet I felt frustrated. The drive to the Shrine proved startling in revelation. I have been focused upon the Youtube videos of Father David Mary and his Franciscan Brothers Minor. They have just put out an incredible series on the topic of ‘The Service of Authority and Obedience’–being in leadership and being in obedience. Listening in bed reposed, I was greatly moved by the lecture of Brother Joseph Maria, falling asleep before its conclusion, admiring the word promulgate. I awoke to the commanding voice of Father David Mary, inspiringly speaking about love, the necessity of love in the collaborative effort of authority and obedience, hammering home his ever present message that all effort must arise from a healthy and exercised prayer life—associating the proper role of prayer in a consecrated individual’s life as his spiritual mistress, a tenant from the Franciscan constitution.  He stressed that the early Capuchins found leadership a burden, a diversion from their profound desire to live a simple life of contemplation. The video in the series that stunned me while driving from work to St Paul Shrine, Be Opened—Ephphatha, was a lecture by Brother Fidelis Maria. I linked to the video, also promoting the others I mentioned. There are powerful words within all the videos, the Holy Spirit gracing the community with wisdom and understanding, and the ability to humbly articulate. Starting about the twenty-fifth minute of the lecture, driving upon the highway, in the sunshine of an absurdly warm day, a dreamlike sense of acuteness overcame me as Brother Fidelis words pierced and penetrated. I knew God wanted me to hear these words, to comprehend them, and be open to them—to take them in and process them for the sake of strengthening. Condemnation, or trivial knowledge amassing, was NOT the point. Within love and healing, God graced an awareness these words were important to my future. The video concluded with Brother closing out his words with a passionate plea to the Mother of Fairest love, Mary guard and protect us all. I arrived at St Paul Shrine disheveled, forgoing Mass, seating myself amidst the turmoil of triviality. Blocking and centering myself, waiting for communal Adoration prayers, shutting down my mind as the surrounding children immediately after Mass broke into chatter before the exposed Eucharist, understanding God was demanding control before the frivolity and willingness of spiritual children to splash around in muddy shallow water. Soon the Church was empty, except for the small prayer group and the Eucharist. Within prayer, I reflected upon my post yesterday morning, especially the video from the esteemed Catholic scholar Father Peter Fehlner. Before spending the day watching Franciscan Brothers Minor videos, I recalled, during prayer, meeting Father Fehlner with Father David Mary. If you observe the background of the Father Fehlner video, you will see an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The senior father is stationed at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Returning from a retreat at a seminary in Wisconsin, we stopped at the shrine. Touring the premises, we were graced with the gracious attention of Father Fehlner. I had no idea who he was, although I was impressed with the immense respect Father David Mary showed him, understanding he studied under him. My lasting impression was the elder’s presence and booming voice, his words captivating in tone and utterance. It was easy for matters to settle into proper perspective before the Eucharist, second Holy Hour of the day, and prayer. My spiritual mistress appeased, providing the peace to ponder without effort or demand, simplicity and authenticity subtly kissing the mind. The heart seeking purity.  I want to quote words from Pope Francis that Brother Fidelis quoted from the newspaper, exploring the idea of ‘culture of the provisional’.  Individuals of modern civilization who are ruled by the provisional, a temporary mindset (maturity) lacking in conviction and the ability to be humbled and struggle through adversity, always willing to throw aside ideas, people, and circumstances according to the whims of individual will.  Let’s be clear on the word provisional by defining: temporary, providing or serving for the time being only; existing only until permanently or properly replaced, impermanent,  a provisional government. 2. Accepted or adopted tentatively; conditional; probationary.  

Pope Francis:

“I heard a seminarian, a good seminarian, who said he wanted to serve Christ, but for just ten years, after which he would think about starting a new life… This is dangerous! Listen carefully: all of us, even the oldest among us, we too find ourselves under pressure from this culture of the provisional; and this is dangerous, because we no longer commit our lives once and for all. I’ll be married for as long as I’m in love, I’ll become a nun for a little while, and then we’ll see; I’ll become a seminarian to become a priest but I’m not sure how it will turn out. This is not what Jesus wants! … Nowadays, making a definitive choice is very difficult. It was easier in my day, because culturally a definitive choice was preferred, be it for matrimonial life, or consecrated life, or the priestly life. But in the present day a definitive choice is not easy. We are all victims of this culture of the provisional”.

“I would like you to think about this”, Pope Francis continued. “How can we be free of this culture of the provisional? We need to learn how to close the door of our innermost being, from the inside. … but when we always leave a key outside, just in case – that is not enough. We need to learn to close the door from the inside! And if I am not sure, I think, I will take my time, and when I feel sure – in Jesus, you understand, because without Jesus no-one is sure! – when I feel sure, I’ll close the door. Do you understand this? What is the culture of the provisional?”

Finally, if anyone linked to Brother Fidelis’ video, this link here presents further: The Baars Institute 

spacer
Feb182017

Transubstantiation into the Immaculate examples

TRANSUBSTANTIATION INTO THE IMMACULATE

We belong to her, to the Immaculate. We are hers without limits, most perfectly hers; we are, as it were, herself. Through our mediation she loves the good God. With our poor heart she loves her divine Son. We become the mediators through whom the Immaculate loves Jesus. And Jesus, considering us her property and, as it were, a part of his beloved Mother, loves her in us and through us. What a lovely mystery!  We have heard of persons who are obsessed, possessed by the devil, through whom the devil thought, spoke, and acted. We want to be possessed in this way, and even more, without limits, by her: may she herself think, speak, and act through us. We want to belong to such an extent to the Immaculate that not only nothing else remains in us that isn’t hers, but that we become, as it were, annihilated in her, changed into her, transubstantiated into her, that she alone remains, so that we may be as much hers as she is God’s. She belongs to God, having become his Mother. And we want to become the mother who would give the life of the Immaculate to every heart that exists and to those who will still come into existence.  –St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Scritti di Massimiliano Kolbe, Roma

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe uses the expression transubstantiation into the Immaculate to describe the desired effect of total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The use of the same term that describes the complete substantial transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ to describe our complete substantial offering of ourselves to Mary is not accidental.

To quote the classical Aristotelian axiom: “What is first in intention is last in execution.” Christ was the first in the mind of God before the creation of the world. The thought of Christ was “followed” immediately in the mind of God by the thought of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was predestined by God’s eternal decree to be the Mother of Christ. 

The use of the term “transubstantiation” to describe the ultimate perfection of the union of love between divine and human will known as the Immaculate Conception recalls a parte rei the connection between the mystery of Mary on the one hand (and derivatively any type of Mariology, whether “Christo” or “Ecclesio” typical) and that of the Eucharist, whether in reference to the Head of the Church or in reference to the members of the Body of Christ perfectly incorporated into that Body….Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner expounds:

spacer
Feb172017

Every day a new day

What up until now seemed to me like obstacles, such as temptations, distractions, internal and external difficulties, will now serve as helps to me. When earlier, instead of rising, I always fell deeper through my sins, faults, and weaknesses, I just stayed there. I did not know how to make use of my failings. Now, however, I see that with the grace of God that “fall” can be used to raise me so much more surely to God, and bring me to my goal…what might previously have been a hindrance and source of discouragement to my efforts can now serve as the means for raising me up from creatures to their Creator. In all of this I now recognize a pressing invitation of God to unite myself as closely as possible with him through acts of faith, trust, selfgiving, and love. And so everything discouraging is for me a pure grace, which enables and invites me to live more and act more through God and in God. 

Haste, fearful self-consciousness, and distraction have till now so often influenced and ruled my life. From now on, however, I shall live with a spirit of trust and of pure abandonment to God’s all-knowing and all gracious providence. Before, nothing so depressed and worried me as my failings and weaknesses, but now I boast of them in the spirit of contrition. “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9). They should help to convince me of the nothingness of my own ego and move me to let myself be completely filled by Christ, insofar as through the awakening of faith, confidence, and love I unite myself more and more intimately with God. The feelings and desires of the old man must die out. “He must increase, but I must decrease—Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui” (Jn 3:30). The more I recede, the more will he grow. 

So little by little I will overcome the unforeseen occurrences of life and the petty things of this world and master them. All of my former enemies are now helpful to me in moving me closer to my ideal, and they serve to push me towards ever greater faithfulness and generosity and to trust that is ever more intimate  –A. Carthusian ‘Life in God’s Presence’

spacer
Feb162017

Carthusian celebration

Now I have found the ideal of my hoping and striving, bursting with energy, shining with dedication, saturated with the blood of sacrifice. Now I know what I want to, can, and should attain. Up until now I lived without a clear-cut goal, and the discomforts of the way made me tired and discouraged. Now, however, I see clearly, I am sure of my way and my goal, and nothing should hold me back from now on. I will not rest until I have found God in the innermost region of my heart. “I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go” (Song 34). Love lends me wings, “for love is strong as death” (Song 8:6). I will no longer shrink back from difficulties, for “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

When I look over my past life, I must admit that I have made such little prowess in the spiritual life because I was lacking in the proper goal.

I didn’t understand how greatly our divine Savior was thirsting for souls who would give themselves to him without reserve and to whom he could give himself with the same fullness. The degree of our trust and unity with him is by the extent of the generosity with which we follow the invitations of grace. Jesus did not set any limits to his love. He only longs to give himself wholly and to be able to possess souls without any reservations. But souls fear him, since they shy away from the requirements that this intimacy demands of men and women: sacrifice and self-denial.

From now on I shall be honest and upright with myself. I know that God wants to take complete possession of me and that he has predestined me to be transformed into the image of his Son Jesus. He wants me to be his child despite my unworthiness. Who can consider themselves worthy of such favor?

But it is not “in spite of’ my unworthiness that God longs for my soul. Rather it is precisely because of my misery that he wants to make me a masterpiece of his love, mercy, and glorification. The more unsuitable the material is, the greater the fame and prowess of the artist, who succeeds despite everything in making a work of art out of it. Our divine Savior wants to bring this truth to us more clearly and help us to grasp it through the parables of the prodigal son and the lost sheep. For there is more joy in heaven over a single converted sinner than over the perseverance of a whole multitude of the just.

Since I have resolved, from now on, to strive for this ideal, I must recognize in all of my thinking, willing, and doing that I am nothing of myself, so that I can give myself over to him with my whole being and all that I have.

The important thing is to believe effectively in his love. “Your faith has made you well” (Lk 8:48).–A. Carthusian ‘Life in God’s Presence’

spacer
Feb152017

Water

Today during daily Mass, the Genesis reading tied in perfectly with the posted Tarkovsky film shorts.  Coalesce, to grow together or into one body, synchronization, unification, the pulling together of tended ends.  Father Sam spoke flowingly of water in his homily.  Baptism, cleansing, thirst quenching—I thirst!—overflowing, a deluge, tears, rain, a river, an ocean, swimming in water, dreaming of water, submerged and intense, subtle and cooling—divinely ever present within iconography—beyond words, a flood.

At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back. In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: “Never again will I doom the earth because of man since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. As long as the earth lasts, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

spacer
Feb152017

Proper perspective

Is there question of our sins and imperfections? Let us say to God from the bottom of our hearts: “I detest my faults and my miseries. By the help of Thy grace I am resolved to do all in my power to get rid of them.” He will come to our assistance, yet in such a manner that whilst securing to us the victory, He will foster in us the feeling of self-contempt. Perhaps vain complacency would take hold of us if we found ourselves possessed of courage and strength. He will give us the grace to triumph humbly—–that is to say, with a sense of our weakness, and consequently with becoming modesty. Instead of being intoxicated with pride, we shall only think of our abjection and nothingness. Such self-contempt will make us very pleasing to God. And, on the other hand, when we have progressed so far that now our only pleasure is to please God, nothing more can ever trouble us.  –Abbot Vitalis Lehodey ‘Holy Abandonment’

Water: grace of the Holy Spirit.

spacer
Feb142017

A quick Tarkovsky scene

The images blending together in an Andrei Tarkovsky film are similar to nothing I have ever experienced. This short scene, shot directly down a well, is from ‘The Stalker’, a phenomenal movie–phenomenology–that must be experienced. Tunnel vision, I envisioned the water flowing and moving at the bottom of the well as an elastic diaphragm between the soul and the world.

spacer