Monthly Archives: May 2019

May102019

As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be…

All of us are glad to see that you are immersed in ‘The Benedictine Monk’. Such a book, written by a monk, could render great service, if it were to be well launched and could reach the public…

The Benedictine Monk will be timely, against the diabolical hatred that is coming to the surface at the moment. It could be a defiance of the magnificent monastic life, make it understood at last, at a time when Freemasonry is seeking to give the Church a blow on the head by persecuting the religious orders. There are going to be some hard times to get through, for certain. I personally know something about it since ‘En Route’, which marked me out as an enemy in the office. Still, we must hope that the storm will pass, and will not succeed in uprooting any order. But what an age we live in all the same!

I am still immersed in my work, which at least permits me to live in another period, and to abstract myself a little from the chaos that surrounds me. Unfortunately, the citadels of the spirit are fragile, and the enemy destroys them without great difficulty; and the whole of modern life floods in through the breach. That is when one really envies monastic life, the possibility of being recollected, taking on a long-term work in peace. In Paris it is impossible, there are distractions even in the churches. How far removed it all is from the closed and cloistered chapels!

Letter from J.K.Huysmans January 1896 to Dom Besse from the book: ‘The Road From Decadence From Brothel to Cloister Selected Letters of J.K. Huysmans’.

YOUR SONG
Poem by Joseph Mary Plunkett

If I have you then I have everything
In One, and that One nothing of them all
Nor all compounded, and within the wall
Beneath the tower I wait to hear you sing:
Love breathing low above the breast of Spring,
Pressing her heart with baby heart and small
From baby lips love-syllables lets fall
And strokes with gentle hand her quivering wing.

You come rejoicing all the wilderness,
Filling with praise the land to joy unknown,
Fresh from that garden whose perfumes have blown
Down through the valley of the cypresses—
O heart, you know not your own loveliness,
Nor these your songs, for they are yours alone.

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May082019

A poem from Absolute Solitude

My blood is like a river that brings me landscapes both reflected and erased, landscapes from other shores I have never seen.

It is like a long, mysterious river I feel flowing within me and whose name I shall ignore.

It comes from a depth so remote I am afraid to look into it. It goes I know not where, and meanwhile, passes like a river dragging sand, flowers, and remnants of me myself, prisoner of a flow without meaning.

Dulce Maria Loynaz

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May072019

A powerful reality

‘It is true that on account of the blessings of the Lord, sin was impossible in me. But (this) was hidden from me. I saw that as far as it depended on myself alone, I could fall. Thus God left me in holy fear of sinning during my pilgrimage From the instant of my conception until my death, I never lost this fear, but rather grew in it with time….” The Queen of Heaven speaking to St Mary Agreda. ‘The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics’ compiled by Raphael Brown.

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May072019

Reason

I tripped and fell, bloodying myself,
Spilling blood, my own,
Consequences and others,
A heart opened, pouring forth a need,
Alone, a penitent removing a multitude of masks,
The love of Our Lord overflowing with mercy,
Within the Church, receiving absolution,
Aftermath, still before the Eucharist,
A life, a brief defining escapade.

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May022019

May prayer: Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted

Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of God and our most compassionate Mother,
we present ourselves in thy sight in all humility,
and with full confidence
we implore thee for thy maternal patronage.

Thou hast been proclaimed by Holy Church
the Comforter of the Afflicted,
and to thee constant recourse is had
by the sorrowful in their afflictions,
the sick in their maladies,
the dying in their agony,
the poor in their straitened circumstances,
those who stand in all manner of need
in both public and private calamities;
and from thee they all receive consolation and strength.

Our dearest Mother,
turn upon us also,
wretched sinners that we are,
thy merciful eyes,
and graciously accept our humble and confident prayers.
Aid us in all our spiritual and temporal necessities,
deliver us from all evil
and especially from sin,
which is the greatest evil,
and from all danger of falling into it;
obtain for us from thy Son Jesus
every blessing of which thou seest we stand in need
both in soul and body,
and especially the greatest blessing of all,
which is Divine grace.
Comfort our spirits,
troubled and afflicted in the midst of the many dangers that threaten us,
and the countless miseries and misfortunes that beset us on every side.
This we ask through that immense joy
which filled thy pure soul
in the glorious Resurrection of thy Divine Son.

Obtain tranquillity for Holy Church,
help and comfort for her visible Head,
the Sovereign Pontiff,
peace for Christian princes,
refreshment in their pains for the Holy Souls in Purgatory;
for sinners, the forgiveness of their sins,
and for the just, perseverance in well-doing.
Receive us all, our most tender Mother,
under thy loving and mighty protection,
that we may be enabled to live virtuously,
die holily and attain to everlasting happiness in Heaven.

Amen.

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