Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Sunday 29 June 2014

The Holy Apostles Saint Peter And Saint Paul. Feast Day 29 June.


Text and Illustration taken from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
which states that all Text and Illustrations are taken from the Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
1952 Edition, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press.

The Holy Apostles Peter And Paul.
Feast Day 29 June.

Double of the First Class
   with an Octave.

Red Vestments.


The Apostles Peter and Paul.



Today, the whole Church rejoices, for "God has consecrated this day by the Martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul" (Collect). In both the grand Basilicas erected at Rome over the tombs "of these two Princes, who, by the Cross and Sword, have obtained their seat in the Eternal Senate [Hymn at Vespers]," this double Martyrdom was celebrated.

Later, on account of the distance which separates the two Churches, the Festival was divided, Saint Peter being more specially honoured on 29 June and Saint Paul on 30 June.




Saint Peter, Bishop of Rome, is the Vicar, that is to say, the visible representative of Christ. As is shown in the Preface, Alleluia, Gospel, Offertory and Communion, the Jews had rejected Jesus. They also rejected His successor (Epistle). Displacing the religious centre of the world, Saint Peter then left Jerusalem for Rome, which became the Eternal City and the Seat of the Popes.

Saint Peter, the first Pope, speaks in the name of Christ, Who has communicated to him His Doctrine of Infallibility. He is not guided by flesh and blood, but by the Heavenly Father, who does not permit the gates of Hell to prevail against the Church, of which he is the foundation (Gospel).




Saint Peter, on receiving the Keys, is placed at the Head of the "Kingdom of Heaven" upon Earth, that is to say, the Church, and he reigns in the name of Christ, Who has invested him with His Power and Supreme Authority (Gospel).

 The names of Saint Peter and Saint Paul head the names of the Apostles in the Canon of the Mass (First List).



With "the Church, which did not cease Praying to God for Saint Peter" (Epistle), let us Pray for his successor "the servant of God, our Holy Father the Pope" (Canon of the Mass).

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.


Saturday 28 June 2014

The Vigil Of The Feast Of SS. Peter And Paul.


Text and Illustration taken from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
which states that all Text and Illustrations are taken from the Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
1952 Edition, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press.

The Vigil Of The Feast Of Saint Peter And Saint Paul.
28 June.

Violet Vestments.



Saint Peter and Saint Paul.


The Church celebrates, tomorrow, the Feast of the two Apostles who are the two foundations on which she is solidly established (Collect).

"The rigour to which a people subjects itself by certain days of preparation," writes Dom Guéranger (The Liturgical Year), "is a mark of the Faith which it has preserved, showing that it understands the greatness of the object proposed by the Holy Liturgy for its worship." [The Liturgical Year: Vigil of The Holy Apostles.]

Peter raised to his Cross (Introit, Gospel), like Christ rises above the world. He seals in his blood his confession of Faith (Gospel of tomorrow) and love (Gospel) in Jesus, and, henceforth, it will be in His name (Ibid.) and as His Vicar that he will be King of Souls.

Paul, by sharing his labours and Martyrdom, shares his Kingship and his Triumph.


The Most Pure Heart Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Feast Day: Saturday Within The Octave Of The Sacred Heart.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Most Pure Heart Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Feast Day: Saturday Within The Octave Of The Sacred Heart.

White Vestments.




The Virgin in Prayer.
Artist: Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (1609 – 1685).
Date: Between 1640 and 1650.
Current location: National Gallery, London.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.
(Wikimedia Commons)



[Editor: How apt that, within the Octave of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Feast Day also Commemorates The Most Pure Heart Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother. Two Hearts, so close, they cannot be separated. Ever.]

These are the characteristics of the Heart of Our Blessed Lady, which we set forth from the Texts of the Mass:

1.      All her Holiness proceeds from her Heart (Introit);
2.      Her grief, when she lost the Child, Jesus, in the Temple (Gospel);
3.      Her Heart is filled with the Love of God (Epistle, Secret, Communion);
4.      Mary's Heart is Pure, therefore it is pleasing to God (Collect, Gradual);
5.      Her Heart is courageous (Offertory);
6.      Mary's intercession (Postcommunion).

[Editor: Note that this Feast Day is in addition to The Immaculate Heart Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on 22 August.]


Monte Cassino Abbey.


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.



Interior of the Basilica of Monte Cassino Abbey.
Photo: 4 September 2012.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Monte Cassino Abbey.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Pilecka.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Monte Cassino (sometimes written Montecassino) is a rocky hill about 130 kilometres (81 miles) South-East of Rome, Italy, 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) to the West of the Town of Cassino (the Roman Casinum, having been on the hill) and 520 m (1,706 ft) altitude. Saint Benedict of Nursia established his first Monastery, here, the source of the Benedictine Order, around 529 A.D.

It was the site of the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, when the building was destroyed by Allied bombing and re-built after the war. The site has been visited many times by Popes and other senior Clergy, including Pope Benedict XVI in May 2009. The Monastery is one of the few remaining Territorial Abbeys within the Catholic Church. Until his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on 12 June 2013, the Territorial Abbot of Monte Cassino was Pietro Vittorelli.



English: Monte Cassino Arch-Abbey, Italy, at Dusk.
Deutsch: Erzabtei Monte Cassino.
Latina: Archiabbatia de Monte Cassino, Italien.
Italiano: Archiabbazia di Monte Cassino, Italia.
Photo: 18 December 2004.
Source: Own work.
Author: Halibutt.
(Wikimedia Commons)


According to Gregory the Great's biography of Benedict, "Life of Saint Benedict of Nursia", the Monastery was constructed on an older pagan site, a temple of Apollo that crowned the hill. The biography records that the area was still largely pagan at the time and Benedict's first act was to smash the sculpture of Apollo and destroy the altar.

He then re-used the temple, dedicating it to Saint Martin, and built another Chapel on the site of the altar, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Archaeologist Neil Christie notes that it was common in such hagiographies for the protagonist to encounter areas of strong paganism. Once established at Monte Cassino, Benedict never left. There he wrote the Benedictine Rule that became the founding principle for Western Monasticism. There at Monte Cassino he received a visit from Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, perhaps in 543 A.D., (the only remotely secure historical date for Benedict), and there he died.


English: Monte Cassino Abbey after the bombing, 1944.
Italiano: Rovine di Monte Cassino, 1944.
Photo: 1944.
Source: Copied from the Italian Wikipedia. Originally from this page
on www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil
(Wikimedia Commons)


Monte Cassino became a model for future developments. Unfortunately, its prominent site has always made it an object of strategic importance. It was sacked or destroyed a number of times. In 581 A.D., during the Abbacy of Bonitus, the Lombards sacked the Abbey, and the surviving Monks fled to Rome, where they remained for more than a Century. During this time, the body of Saint Benedict was transferred to Fleury, the modern Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, near Orleans, France.

A flourishing period of Monte Cassino followed its re-establishment in 718 A.D., by Abbot Petronax, when, among the Monks, were Carloman, son of Charles MartelRatchis, predecessor of the great Lombard Duke and King, Aistulf, and Paul the Deacon, the historian of the Lombards.



The Polish War Cemetery,
Monte Cassino Abbey.
Source: Own work.
Author: Radomił.
(Wikimedia Commons)


In 744 A.D., a donation by Gisulf II of Benevento created the Terra Sancti Benedicti, the Secular Lands of the Abbacy, which were subject to the Abbot and nobody else, save the Pope. Thus, the Monastery became the Capital of a State, comprising a compact and strategic region between the Lombard Principality of Benevento and the Byzantine City-States of the Coast (Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi).

In 884 A.D., Saracens sacked and then burned it down, and Abbot Bertharius was killed during the attack. Among the great historians who worked at the Monastery, in this period, there was Erchempert, whose Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum is a fundamental Chronicle of the 9th-Century Mezzogiorno.

It was rebuilt and reached the apex of its fame in the 11th-Century, under the Abbot, Desiderius (Abbot 1058–1087), who later became Pope Victor III. The number of Monks rose to over 200, and the Library, the Manuscripts produced in the Scriptorium, and the School of Manuscript Illuminators, became famous throughout the West. The unique Beneventan Script flourished there during Desiderius' Abbacy.



Monte Cassino's Cloistered Garden.
Date: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Pilecka.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The buildings of the Monastery were reconstructed on a scale of great magnificence, artists being brought from Amalfi, Lombardy, and even Constantinople, to supervise the various works. The Abbey Church, rebuilt and decorated with the utmost splendour, was Consecrated, in 1071, by Pope Alexander II. A detailed account of the Abbey, at this date, exists in the Chronica monasterii Cassinensis, by Leo of Ostia,and Amatus of Monte Cassino gives us our best source on the Early-Normans in the South.

Abbot Desiderius sent envoys to Constantinople, some time after 1066, to hire expert Byzantine Mosaicists for the decoration of the rebuilt Abbey Church. According to the Chronicler, Leo of Ostia, the Greek artists decorated the Apse, the Arch and the Vestibule of the Basilica. Their work was admired by contemporaries but was totally destroyed in later Centuries, except two fragments depicting greyhounds (now in the Monte Cassino Museum). "The Abbot, in his wisdom, decided that great numbers of young Monks in the Monastery should be thoroughly initiated in these arts" - says the Chronicler about the role of the Greeks in the revival of Mosaic art in Mediaeval Italy.

An earthquake damaged the Abbey in 1349, and, although the site was rebuilt, it marked the beginning of a long period of decline. In 1321, Pope John XXII made the Church of Monte Cassino a Cathedral, and the carefully preserved independence of the Monastery from episcopal interference was at an end. In 1505, the Monastery was joined with that of Saint Justina of Padua.



The Crypt,
Monte Cassino Abbey.
Photo: 4 September 2012.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The site was sacked by Napoleon's troops in 1799 and, from the dissolution of the Italian Monasteries in 1866, Monte Cassino became a national monument.

During the Battle of Monte Cassino (January 1944 – May 1944), the Abbey made up one section of the 161-kilometer (100-mile) Gustav Line, a German Defensive Line designed to hold the Allied troops from advancing any further into Italy. The Gustav Line stretched from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic Coast and the Monastery was one of the key strongholds, overlooking Highway 6 and blocking the path to Rome.

On 15 February 1944, the Abbey was almost completely destroyed in a series of heavy American-led air-raids. The bombing was conducted because many reports from troops on the ground suggested that Germans were occupying the Monastery, and it was considered a key Observation Post by all those who were fighting.

However, during the bombing, no Germans were present in the Abbey. Subsequent investigations have since confirmed that the only people killed in the Monastery by the bombing were 230 Italian civilians seeking refuge there. Only after the bombing were the ruins of the Monastery occupied by German Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers), aiding them in their defence, because the ruins provided excellent defensive cover.


Deutsch: Monte Cassino-ein Trümmerfeld83 anglo-amerikanische Bomber haben am 15. Februar ihre Bombenlast über dem ehrwürdigen Kloster von Monte Cassino, der Geburtsstätte des Benediktinerordens abgeworfen. Das herrliche Bauwerk wurde vollständig zerstört und unersetzliche Kulturwerte vernichtet. Als Vorwand der Bombardierung diente die Behauptung, deutsche Truppen hätten das Kloster als Artilleriefestung ausgebaut, eine Behauptung, die inzwischen durch Erklärungen der Mönche von Monte Cassino restlos entkräftet wurde. PK-L 2242.
English: Monte Cassino in ruins after Allied bombing in February 1944.
Date: February 1944.
Photographer: Wittke.
Source: This image was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the
German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) as part of a co-operation project.
Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2005-0004 / Wittke / CC-BY-SA.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The heavily-outnumbered Germans held the position until withdrawing on 17 May 1944, having repulsed four Main Offensives by the 2nd New Zealand Division, the 4th Indian Division and II Polish Corps. The Allied Forces broke the Gustav Line between 11 May 1944 and 17 May 1944. The Polish 12th Podolian Uhlans Regiment of the Polish II Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Władysław Anders, raised the Polish flag over the ruins on 18 May 1944. The road to Rome was then open.

The Abbey was rebuilt after the war; Pope Paul VI re-Consecrated it in 1964. During reconstruction, its Library was housed at the Pontifical Abbey of Saint Jerome-in-the-City.



English: The Nave,
Monte Cassino Abbey.
Italiano: Abbazia di Montecassino, Lazio, Italia.
Photo: 17 July 2006.
Source: Aaron Logan's Loblogomy.
Author: [1]
(Wikimedia Commons)


In December 1942, some 1,400 irreplaceable manuscript codices, chiefly patristic and historical, in addition to a vast number of documents relating to the history of the Abbey and the collections of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome, had been sent to the Abbey archives for safekeeping. Fortunately, German officers Lt. Col. Julius Schlegel (a Roman Catholic) and Capt. Maximilian Becker (a Protestant), both from the Panzer-Division Hermann Göring, had them transferred to the Vatican at the beginning of the battle.

Another account, however, from Kurowski ("The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring: Soldiers of the Reichsmarschall") notes that 120 trucks were loaded with Monastic assets and art which had been stored there for safekeeping. Robert Edsel ("Rescuing DaVinci") is more to the point about German looting. The trucks were loaded and left in October 1943, and only "strenuous" protests resulted in their delivery to the Vatican, minus the 15 cases which contained the property of the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. Edsel goes on to note that these cases had been delivered to Göring in December 1943, for "his birthday."


Friday 27 June 2014

Happy Feast.


Illustration from: TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS


+


Feast Of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus. The Friday After The Octave Of Corpus Christi.


Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal or, where indicated, 
      Abbot Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year".

Images from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
      unless otherwise stated.

Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi.


Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of the Third Order.


White Vestments.




The Sacred Heart of Jesus
with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and 
Saint Louis Gonzaga (circa 1770).
Artist: José de Páez, Mexico, 1727-1790.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Annum Sacrum


Annum Sacrum (meaning Holy Year) is an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on the consecration of the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on the 25th day of May, 1899, the twenty-second year of his pontificate.

The consecration in the encyclical entered new theological territory by consecrating non-Christians. The encyclical, and the consecration, were influenced by two letters written to the Pope by Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, who stated that, in visions of Jesus Christ, she had been told to request the consecration.

The encyclical includes the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, composed by Leo XIII.




English: Coat-of-Arms of Pope Leo XIII.
Français: Armoiries du pape Léon XIII : D'azur au cyprès de sinople planté sur une plaine de même accompagné au francs quartier d'une comête d'or et en pointe de deux flaurs de lys d'argent, à la fasce d'argent brochant sur le tout.
Date: 11 August 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Odejea.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Protestantism, in the 16th-Century, and Jansenism, in the 17th-Century, had attempted to spoil one of the essential dogmas of Christianity, namely, the love of God for all men.

It became necessary that the Spirit of Love, which directs the Church, should by some new means counteract the spreading heresy, in order that the Spouse of Christ, far from seeing her love for Jesus diminish, should feel it always increasing.

This was made manifest in Catholic worship, which is the sure rule of our faith, by the institution of the Feast of The Sacred Heart.

Yet, in early-Middle-Ages, the Doctors and Saints used to see, in the wound of Jesus' side, the source of all graces. Saint Bonaventure invites us "to enter this wound and to dwell in the quiet of this Heart" (Third Nocturn).





English: Saint John Eudes, 1673.
Nederlands: Portret Jean Eudes ca. 1673 -
publiek domein, ouderdom.
Source: Transferred from nl.wikipedia
Author: Original uploader was Besednjak at nl.wikipedia
(Wikimedia Commons)


Jean Eudes (14 November 1601 - 19 August 1680) was a French missionary, founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, and author of the Propers for Mass and the Divine Office of The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.


The two Benedictine Virgins, Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtilde, in the 13th-Century, had a clear vision of the grandeur of the devotion to The Sacred Heart. Saint John the Evangelist, appearing to Saint Gertrude, announced to her that "the meaning of the blessed beating of the Heart of Jesus, which he had heard whilst his head rested on His breast, was reserved for the latter times, when the world, grown old and cold in Divine Love, would require to have its fervour renewed by means of this mystery of burning love".




English
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Italiano
Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque
Contempla il Sacro Cuore di Gesù.
Polski
Św. Małgorzata Maria Alacoque adoruje Najświętsze Serce Jezusa.
Artist: Giaquito Corrado.
Date: 1765.
Source: Lib-Art.com
(Wikimedia Commons)


This Heart, say these two Saints, is an altar on which Christ offers Himself to the Father as a perfect and most acceptable victim. It is a golden censer from which rise, towards the Father, as many clouds of incense as there are kinds of men for whom Christ suffered.

In this Heart, the praise and thanks we give to God and all our good works are ennobled and become acceptable to the Father.

But, in order to make this worship public and recognised, Providence first raised up Saint John Eudes, who, in 1670, composed an Office and a Mass of The Sacred Heart for the so-called Congregation of the Eudists.

Providence then chose one of the spiritual daughters of Saint Francis of Sales, Saint Margaret-Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus showed His Heart at Paray-le-Monial, on 16 June 1675, the Sunday after Corpus Christi, and asked her to institute a Feast of The Sacred Heart on the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi.






The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
(Sacro cuore di Jesu),
painting on the Altar in the Northern Side Chapel
of Il Gesu, in Rome, circa 1767,
by Pompeo Batoni.
Source: http://www.enid.uib.no/texts/achen_l.htm
(Wikimedia Commons)



Lastly, God employed, for the propagation of this devotion, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere. He belonged to the Company of Jesus, "the whole of which inherited his zeal in the propagation of the devotion to The Sacred Heart" [the quoted portion is from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year, Volume 10, Book 1: The Feast of The Sacred Heart"].

[Dom Gueranger writes, in the above tome, on The Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus: "A new ray of light shines today in the heaven of Holy Church, and its light brings warmth. The Divine Master given to us by our Redeemer, that is, the Paraclete Spirit, who has come down into this world, continues His teachings to us in the Sacred Liturgy. The earliest of these, His Divine Teachings, was the Mystery of the Trinity; and we have worshipped the Blessed Three: We have been taught Whom God is, we know Him in His own nature, we have been admitted, by faith, into the sanctuary of the infinite Essence.






Image of Prosper Gueranger
by Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1874).
Date: 2007-05-07 (original upload date).
Source: Transfered from en.wikipedia
Author: Original uploader was Ikanreed at en.wikipedia
(Wikimedia Commons)


"Then, this Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost, opened to our Souls new aspects of the truth, which it is His mission to make the world remember; and His revelation left us prostrate before the Sacred Host, the Memorial which God Himself has left us of all His wonderful works.

"Today, it is the Sacred Heart of the Word made flesh that this Holy Spirit puts before us, that we may know and love and adore it."]

In 1765, Pope Clement XIII, gave his approbation to the Feast and the Office of The Sacred Heart, and, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, extended it to the universal Church. In 1929, Pope Pius XI composed a new Mass and Office for this Feast and gave it a Privileged Octave of the Third Order.

The Solemnity of The Sacred Heart sums up all the phases of the life of Jesus, recalled in the Liturgy from Advent to the Feast of Corpus Christi.

It constitutes an admirable triptych, giving us, in abridgment, all the Mysteries (Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious) of the Saviour's Life devoted to the love of God and men. This Feast is, indeed, placed on a height from which may be contemplated the redeeming labours of the Saviour on Earth and the glorious victories He will, by the working of the Holy Ghost, achieve in Souls until the end of the world.





Pope Leo XIII
in 1880.
Source: 1880 book on Pope Leo XIII.
Author: Karl Benzinger.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Pope Leo XIII wrote the Encyclical, "Annum Sacrum", on the Consecration of the entire world to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on 25 May 1899.



Coming after the Feasts of Christ, this Feast completes them, concentrating them in one object, which is materially Jesus' Heart of flesh, and formally the unbounded charity symbolised by this Heart. This Solemnity, therefore, does not relate to a particular Mystery of the Saviour's Life, but embraces them all; indeed, the Devotion to The Sacred Heart celebrates all the favours we have received from Divine Charity during the year (Collect), and all the marvellous things that Jesus has done for us (Introit, Tract, Alleluia).

It is the Feast of the Love of God for men, a love which has made Jesus come down on Earth for all by His Incarnation (Epistle), which has raised Him on the Cross for the Redemption of all and which brings Him down every day on our Altars by Transubstantiation, in order to make us benefit by the merits of His Death on Calvary.




Deutsch: Schwester Maria Droste zu Vischering
English: Mary of the Divine Heart
Español: Beata María del Divino Corazón
Portrait of Blessed Sister Mary of the Divine Heart,
and Mother Superior of the Good Shepherd Convent
Date: Circa 1890.
Author: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Blessed Mary of The Divine Heart (1863 - 1899).
Born Maria Droste zu Vischering, she was a German Roman Catholic Nun, who was best known for influencing Pope Leo XIII's Consecration of the World to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Pope Leo XII called this Consecration "the greatest act of my Pontificate".


These three Mysteries, which manifest to us the Divine Charity in a more special way, sum up the spirit of the Feast of The Sacred Heart. It is "His love which forced Him to put on a mortal body" (Hymn at Matins). It is His love which willed that The Sacred Heart should be pierced on the Cross (Gospel and Communion), in order that, from the wound, should flow a spring (Preface) we might draw from, joyfully (Versicle at Second Vespers), whose water cleanses us from our sins in Baptism and whose blood nourishes our Souls in the Eucharist.

And, as the Eucharist is the continuation of the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Calvary, Jesus asked that the Feast should be placed immediately after the Octave of Corpus Christi.

As these manifestations of Christ's Love only show the more the ingratitude of men, who only answer by coldness and indifference (Offertory), this Solemnity has a character of reparation (Collect) demanded of us by the Wounded Heart of Jesus and by His Immolation in the Crib, on the Cross and on the Altar.

Let us learn from the Heart of Jesus, whose gentle and humble Love turns no-one away, and in it we shall find rest for our Souls (Alleluia).

Thursday 26 June 2014

Nowhere, As In The Liturgy, Does There Exist Such A Complete, Simple, Orderly, And Deep Exposition Of All The Marvels Which God Has Performed For Our Sanctification . . .


The following Paragraph is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Blessed Columba Marmion, born Joseph Aloysius Marmion (1 April 1858 – 30 January 1923) was an Irish Monk, and the third Abbot of Maredsous Abbey, in Belgium. Beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on 3 September 2000, Blessed Marmion was one of the most popular and influential Catholic writers of the 20th-Century. His books are considered spiritual classics.



This Article can be found at VULTUS CHRISTI


Nowhere else, as in the liturgy.




Blessed Columba Marmion.
Illustration: VULTUS CHRISTI



Blessed Columba Marmion’s doctrine concerning the Liturgy is luminous and serene. His repetition of the phrase, “nowhere, as in the Liturgy”, affirms the teaching of Pope Saint Pius X that active participation in the Liturgy is the foremost and indispensable font of the true Christian spirit.
Filled as We are with a most ardent desire to see the true Christian spirit flourish in every respect and be preserved by all the Faithful, We deem it necessary to provide, before anything else, for the sanctity and dignity of the temple, in which the Faithful assemble for no other object than that of acquiring this spirit from its foremost and indispensable font, which is the active participation in the Most Holy Mysteries and in the public and Solemn Prayer of the Church.(Tra le sollecitidini, 22 November 1903)
It must be understood, of course, that when Blessed Marmion refers to the Liturgy in this Text, he is referring not only to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but also, in a special way, to the Divine Office, and the full complement of rites contained in the Pontifical and the Roman Ritual.




Blessed Columba Marmion.
Date: 27 October 2009 (original upload date).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia.
Author: Original uploader was Tiergarten 4 at en.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Christ Set Before Our Eyes

From Advent to Pentecost, the Church unfolds before our gaze the whole life of her Divine Spouse, not merely as it is found in the Gospels, but illustrated, if I presume to say so, by the Prophecies, the Letters of Saint Paul, the Commentary of the Holy Doctors. The whole existence of Christ, integral and living, is re-enacted before our eyes; the Church offers for our contemplation, one by one, under their particular aspect of splendour, in characteristic relief and according to their sequence, all the Mysteries of Jesus; the Church presents therein, in its appropriate place, all that He said, all that He did, all that He realised in His Person, all that He willed for us.

The Virtue and Grace of All His Mysteries

Nowhere else, as in the Liturgy, can we become so well acquainted with the the gestures of Jesus Christ, the words which fell from His lips, the feelings of His Divine Heart; it is the Gospel relived at each stage of the Earthly life of Christ, Man–God, Saviour of the World, Head of His Mystical Body, and bringing with Him the Virtue and Grace of all His Mysteries for our Souls’ benefit.




The Liturgy: The Most Perfect Expression of Revelation

Nowhere, as in the Liturgy, does there exist such a complete, simple, orderly, and deep exposition of all the marvels which God has performed for our our sanctification and salvation; it is the most perfect expression of Revelation and that most adapted to our Souls’ needs, it is an exposition which appeals both to the eyes of the body and of the imagination and which moves the attentive Souls to its depths.

An Incomparable Source of Supernatural Light

The Liturgical Cycle is an incomparable source of Supernatural Light. Moreover — and this is an essential truth for our sanctification — we may derive from it the special fruit which Our Lord willed to attach to each of His Mysteries when, as our Head, He lived with them here below.

Blessed Columba Marmion
"Christ in His Mysteries", pp. 22 and following.



Christ
in His
Mysteries.
Available from


Wednesday 25 June 2014

Vatican Sends Team To Canterbury (Where Else ?) To Sort Out Anglicans. Vatican Team Has No Plans For Maidens.


This Article can be found on CNA Catholic News Agency



A member of St. Peter's Cricket Club greets Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
during a June 23, 2014 Press Conference announcing their Tour.



Vatican cricket team to play Church of England in first tour

VATICAN CITY, June 24 (CNA/EWTN News) .- St. Peter’s Cricket team begins their “Light of Faith Tour” this Fall, which includes a warm-up game against a team from the Royal Household and a final match against the Anglican Church at Canterbury.

“We’re very happy that we were able to organise a cricket match against the Anglican Communion,” Fr. Eamon O’Higgins told CNA during a June 24 press conference announcing the cricket team’s tour.

“The fact that it is a team of priests and seminarians, all of whom study here in Rome...is very significant for the Christian faith and we hope also the tour.”



Illustration: SFCREATE


Fr. O’Higgins is in charge of spiritual formation at Rome’s Maria Mater Ecclesiae college where the majority of the team members study, and also serves as the team manager for St. Peter’s Cricket Club, officially founded last fall.

Called the “Light of Faith Tour,” the team’s first season begins Sept. 12 when they leave for England, where they are slated to play a series of warm-up matches before their first major game against the Anglicans.

A first warm-up match against the Edinburgh Divines will take place Sept. 10 – 11 in Rome, after which the Vatican team will travel to Brighton for a Sept. 14 – 15 game, and will play their final warm-up match against a team composed of members from the Royal Household at Windsor Castle, an official residence of Queen Elizabeth II, Sept. 17.



Illustration: SFCREATE


The initial matches will culminate in a Sept. 19 game played against a team from the Church of England, the mother church of the whole Anglican community, on the grounds of Kent County Cricket Club at the Canterbury Cathedral.

“Canterbury was the first Christian see. That’s where the first Christians came to England, the famous cathedral, the cathedral of St. Thomas Beckett, and St Anselm, the great philosopher and the remains of St. Thomas More are there” Fr. O’Higgins explained.

“It’s the center of Christianity in England. So, a bigger place for Christians there isn’t!”

Serving as a moment of ecumenical encounter, several moments of prayer are being planned for the game, including a special prayer before the match begins, the recitation of evensong, or the singing of the psalms, the evening of Sept. 18 as well as a daily hour of Eucharistic adoration throughout the tour.



Illustration: SFCREATE


Referring to the name of the tour, Fr. O’Higgins observed that “we’ve called it the ‘Light of Faith Tour,’” to express the hope “that it will give the light of faith to people there.”

“The very fact of seeing priests, seminarians, boys training for the priesthood in a public atmosphere playing a cricket match, gives a sign to people” he said.

Noting how the sport serves as a point of dialogue between Christianity and secular culture, the priest stated that it shows the world “that God does call young men to the priesthood, young men do respond and that faith is something alive and active.”



Illustration: SFCREATE


“Perhaps culture at times tends to make us forget the presence of God. And this is going to be a very visible presence of God on a cricket field at Canterbury.”

Made up of 12 priests, deacons and seminarians, the team is two thirds Indian, with other members hailing from England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

“I don’t know if you know (but) in India cricket is a passion like football or soccer is in Brazil or in Europe,” Fr. O’Higgins explained, referring to the large number of Indians who volunteered to be on the team.

“So playing cricket in India is a way of entering into the culture, in a peaceful way, in a way that proposes something positive to people who perhaps would not be exposed to Christian culture.”

“That’s the idea” he said, mentioning that “we don’t have any definite plans to go to India yet but we’re not going to stop anybody from inviting us.”



Illustration: SFCREATE


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