Friday Florilegia, Friday, January 11, 2013

The Old Testament reading for next week.

Reading 1

IS 62:1-5

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,

for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.

Nations shall behold your vindication,

and all the kings your glory;

you shall be called by a new name

pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.

You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,

a royal diadem held by your God.

No more shall people call you “Forsaken, “

or your land “Desolate, “

but you shall be called “My Delight, “

and your land “Espoused.”

For the LORD delights in you

and makes your land his spouse.

As a young man marries a virgin,

your Builder shall marry you;

and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride

so shall your God rejoice in you.

One of the most difficult things about doing lectio is deciding which text to pray with. My intent here is to provide a reading from the Sunday mass for you to pray with during the following week. This should help in two ways, one you have a ready made text to turn to for prayer, two, you'll be a little bit better prepared to assist at the next week's Mass. I hope you find these helpful.

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Silence, Part One of Who Knows How Many?

I could write endless posts about silence and never get to the heart of why it seems so vital for me as part of being human.  I wonder, though, if the effort would, itself, be a violation of silence, my own and anyone who happened to read my scribbling’s.
 

I think it's a Camaldolese ideal that one shouldn't break the silence unless you can offer something better than the silence.  That's hard to do, if you think about it.  How many of us have anything to say that is that important or would be that gratifying to those around us (or to blog readers, for that matter)?  Not many. 

I say this because I think I should use that guidance for posting here, I really hope over the next year I can do that.  I think there is way too much on the Internet that is just noise, much of it uncharitable noise, and that it would be better had it never seen the light of day.  To try my best to avoid that probably means doing fewer posts here, trying to write and post only what is truly sincere and heartfelt, and trying to, in all cases write charitably.  I'm not always very good at that latter point.

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 5, 2012, Justin Martyr

We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these, but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).  Justin Martyr

Blue Cloud Abbey

Blue Cloud Abbey closes this week.  I really hate to see this happen with any abbey.  It means there were no vocations and the monks in the monastery were simply getting too old.  It's a bit of a mystery to me why some monasteries, for instance, Clear Creek Monastery and Christ in the Desert, seem to thrive and others struggle.  Ivars Kraft is an oblate at Blue Cloud and is documenting the final days there on his blog, here. 

I hate to see a monastery close for a strange reason, I think.  Monasteries played a key role in the direction of Western Civilization, guaranteeing it's continued existence.  In addition, several of the monastic orders formed in the 11th and 12th centuries, first the Camaldolese and later the Cistercians, were efforts at reform within the Church as well as monasticism.  They may be called on to do that again in the not too distant future.  It may be that there will be a few select monasteries when that occurs that will be called on to do this, but the loss of any monastery certainly reduces the resources available to do that.

Please pray for the monks and oblates of Blue Cloud Abbey as they begin the process of transferring to new monastic homes, and while you're at it, pray for the monasteries in this country that remain that they might gain holy vocations, grow stronger in their faith, and continue to offer their prayer for the good of the world.  PAX

The Light of the World

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ^{15 m}Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so ⁿthat² they may see your good works and ^ogive glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 5:14-16, ESV)

A couple of days ago I read an interesting post by Bruce Charlton, a British professor and prolific writer and blogger. He always has some interesting point to make on his blog. The post I refer to was titled, Should Christians Self-Identify in the West? His conclusion was in the affirmative, and he gave two or three or more reasons for saying so. There was one I thought was one easily over looked by most people today.

And partly because most non-Christians self-identify...

...so that devout adherents of most other religions are usually immediately identifiable - and so are anti-Christians by their style of dress (youth cult allegiance, immodesty), bodily self-mutilations, badges, consumption and conspicuous life styles.

It isn't fashionable, or politically correct, to be Christian these days. It's actually positively frowned upon. We are to keep our religion to ourselves if we are Christian, especially if we are Catholic Christians. Yet, as Mr. Charleton pointed out, for members of other religious groups, for instance, Muslims, these rules don't apply. Why shouldn’t Christians be more visible in the world?

The question is, how do we do this? Professor Charlton doesn't tell us, but one way could be to make ourselves more conspicuous by wearing a crucifix around our neck or as a lapel pin. We could wear gaudy t-shirts that proclaim some Christian message. I guess we could even wear sackcloth and ashes on occasion. After all, Jesus did say, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden,” we shouldn’t just be invisible.

Yet this isn’t the way Christians have “self-identified” in the past. For instance, since the days of the early Church, Christians have self-identified by the way they live their lives. The Letter to Diognetus tells us:

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.

It seems it was the distinguishing marks of the early Christians not to be distinguished; they blended in, as far as the casual observer was concerned. Yet, there was “something extraordinary” about them – they lived their lives in a different way, with different goals, than their non-Christian neighbors. They self-identified by living truly Christian lives.

I agree with Professor Charlton that Christians should self-identify, but that doesn't mean we have to wear different clothes, or Christian symbols around our necks. We should self-identify by living Christian lives. Christians today are indistinguishable from those around them, but sadly, for the most part, neither is there much extraordinary about them. Too often, they’re willing to share both their meals and their wives; they’ve surrendered to the culture. We should be noticed as Christians, not because we don't dress like those we live and work with, but because we don't act like those around us; we act like someone seeking to be holy.

How do we do that? St Josemaria Escriva had a specific, and simple, method for Christians to follow, described by Scott Hahn in his book Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace:

“St Josemaria Escrva sketched out a simple apostolic program: ‘First, prayer; then, atonement; in the third place, very much “in the third place,” action.” Most of our apostolate, then, will be invisible. Our friends might someday glimpse the tip of the iceberg – maybe. In heaven, however, they’ll know our love in its very depths.”

 

Prayer, atonement, action – these are the steps necessary if Christians are to have any hope of self-identifying, maybe also the only hope of the West itself. It's a call to Christians, and our neighbors, to true conversion. Little else has worked to change our steadily declining culture; this surely can.

Friday Florilegia, Friday, July 27, 2012

This is the first reading from those for the 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This post is the latest in a series I've started on the other blog, Colorado Catholic Musing.  I do these posts to encourage anyone who might stop by here to begin the practice of sacred reading if they are not already doing it.  Offering a short text provides an easy way to begin the practice to those not familiar with it and not sure what kind of text might be suitable for  lectio.  Give it a try.

Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15

The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!"

Then the LORD said to Moses,
"I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.

"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God."

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this?"
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
"This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."

It's Official

We received formal notice of our acceptance as oblate postulants on Saturday with a very nice email from Fr Robert.  We begin on August 15th, and will be postulants for one year.  Please pray for us during this time.