Showing posts with label Saints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saints. Show all posts

Monday 6 October 2014

Saint Bruno Saint of the day: 6th October

By courtesy of MAGNIFICAT.com   


A Witness of the Absolute
_______ Pierre-Marie Dumont         ____________
Front Cover Artwork
1 n 1084, Bruno decided to withdraw to the "desert", to an isolated wilderness where he might give himself up to spiritual devotions without danger of distraction from the clamour of the world. He founded a hermitage in the heart of the Chartreuse Mountains, in the Alps-the source of the name "Carthusian". adopted by the religious of his order, as well as the "charterhouses", which their monasteries came to be called. In the background, the painter Mignard depicts Brunos first six companions occupied in the various tasks of  eremitical life. In 1090, Bruno founded a second charterhouse in a "desert" of Calabria, Italy. While building work was underway, Bruno lodged in a cave. Wishing to meet him, the lord of the domain, Count Roger of Sicily, scoured the countryside for days but could find him nowhere. And so he returned with his pack of hunting dogs. One of them tracked Bruno down to his cave, in rapt contemplation of God. Mignard pictures the hound here in the foreground. Before him, we find Bruno, his whole being turned toward the divine light which floods down over him through a fissure in the rock. The rosary hanging from the saint's belt is an anachronism, a witness to the fact that this devotion, popularised by the Dominicans, was actually first conceived by the Carthusians. On the ground, in the opposite corner, a skull recalls the vanity of all human existence whose goal is not life in God. For, to a Christian, each vocation is a religious one: through faith working through love (Ga 5:6), to make of one's existence on this earth a life that endures for eternal life. But the perfection of the vocation of each member of the Church is only fully realised through the complimentarily of the gifts encompassed by the mystical Body of Christ. Thus, while some devote their lives to preaching the Gospel, while others witness to Christ's charity in service of their brethren, and still others consecrate themselves to God through a conse­cration to one another by love in marriage-certain members of the mystical Body are called to withdraw from the world to act as perpetual witnesses of the Absolute, ensuring that Christ's prayer to his Father is never extinguished from his Body. 

Saint Bruno praying in the wilderness (1638), Nicholas Migard. Calvet Museum, Avignon, France.


Artist. NICOLAS MIGNARD 1606/1668
Saint Bruno praying in the wilderness (1638)
Nicolas Mignard is anything but an isolated provincial painter. In 1635, he moved to Rome in the suite of the Ambassador of France Alphonse de Richelieu. This is former Carthusian and very attached to the figure of St. Bruno, the founder of the order. This may be to flatter his powerful protector that Mignard realizes this painting, his first masterpiece.




Saturday 3 May 2014

Sts. Philips and James, James' special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7)

COMMENT: Christ appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and to James. Resurrection without prompting as Jesus 'first appeared to His Mother'. 
The Evangelists spotlighted the witnesses like Thomas to respond to belief, Mary Magdalene, disciples at Emmaus, ...
James the Less  
Leonardo Last Supper positions









Weekday Homilies: Sts. Philip and James, Apostles, 03-05-14
  1. frstephenyim-weekdays.blogspot.com/.../sts-philip-and-james-apostles-0...

    7 hours ago - Saint Paul tells us that he was favored by a special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7). As the Apostles went forth ...



FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014


Sts. Philip and James, Apostles, 03-05-14

1 Cor 15:1-8 / John 14:6-14

Today we celebrate the feast of two apostles, St. Philip and St. James.

St. Philip was one of the first chosen disciples of Christ.  He in turn shared his calling with Nathaniel, saying, “We have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth.” And when Nathaniel in wonder asked, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” And St. Philip simply answered, “Come and see,” and brought him to Jesus.
St. James (the Lesser), traditional author of the Letter of James, was the son of Alphaeus. Saint Paul tells us that he was favored by a special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7). As the Apostles went forth among the nations to preach the Good News, Saint James remained as Bishop of Jerusalem, where the Jews held him in high veneration for his purity, mortification, and prayer, that they named him the Just. He governed that church for 30 years before his martyrdom.

Yet, like the rest of the apostles, St. Philip and St. James also took a while to understand who Jesus was and who He really was.
St. Philip - right
  
As we heard in the gospel, St. Philip asked Jesus to let them see the Father and they shall be satisfied. We could almost hear Jesus sighing as He commented that they still do not know Him.

As we also heard in the 1st reading, after His resurrection, Jesus seemed to have made a special appearance to St. James and then to the rest of the apostles.

It was after His resurrection that the apostles began to understand who Jesus really was and that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Just like how the St. Philip and St. James and the rest of the apostles were called and sent forth to preach the Good News, we too are called and sent.

Just like the apostles had to slowly come to an understanding of who Jesus is and that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, we too must come to that understanding of who Jesus is.

The apostles were ordinary men who trusted and loved Jesus and led holy lives worthy of their calling.

May we too love Jesus deeply, pray faithfully and live lives worthy of the Good News of Lord.

Saturday 1 February 2014

St. Bridgid of Ireland (+ 523), 1 February


  


Dear Sr. Patricia, St. Brigid.
We remember of visit to the Faughart Shrine.
Best wishes of your favourite Patroness on the 1st of February.

Also greetings for our friend Brigid for the Feast Day of the Abbess, and Patroness of Ireland for Saturday.
Blessings and hope for a day of brighter weather at home.

God bless.
Fr. Donald.
PS. The Blogspot is from the traditional Butler's Lives of the Saints.

Saturday, 01 February 2014

St. Bridgid of Ireland (+ 523)



31 Jan 2011
In 835, her remains were moved to protect them from Norse invaders, and interred in the same grave that holds the remains of St Patrick and St Columcille at Downpatrick. She is sometimes known as Bridget, Bride and Mary ...


SAINT BRIDGID
Abbess, and Patroness of Ireland
(c. 453-523)
        Next to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridgid, whom we may consider his spiritual daughter in Christ, has ever been held in singular veneration in Ireland. She was born about the year 453, at Fochard in Ulster. During her infancy, her pious father saw in a vision men clothed in white garments pouring a sacred unguent on her head, thus prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet very young, Bridgid consecrated her life to God, bestowed everything at her disposal on the poor, and was the edification of all who knew her. She was very beautiful, and fearing that efforts might be made to induce her to break the vow by which she had bound herself to God, and to bestow her hand on one of her many suitors, she prayed that she might become ugly and deformed. Her prayer was heard, for her eye became swollen, and her whole countenance so changed that she was allowed to follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more thought of. When about twenty years old, our Saint made known to St. Mel, the nephew and disciple of St. Patrick, her intention to live only to Jesus Christ, and he consented to receive her sacred vows. On the appointed day the solemn ceremony of her profession was performed after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, the bishop offering up many prayers, and investing Bridgid with a snow-white habit, and a cloak of the same color. While she bowed her head on this occasion to receive the veil, a miracle of a singularly striking and impressive nature occurred: that part of the wooden platform adjoining the altar on which she knelt recovered its original vitality, and put on all its former verdure, retaining it for a long time after. At the same moment Bridgid's eye was healed, and she became as beautiful and as lovely as ever.

        Encouraged by her example,

Monday 30 December 2013

Evangelist St. John, to be proclaimed "Best Friends Day." Post ...


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Best Friends Day

I hereby proclaim December 27, Feast of the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, to be "Best Friends Day." This is, after all, "the disciple Jesus loved," the favorite among the Twelve apostles. With St Andrew he was the first (literal) follower of Jesus, and the witness to all the major events in the public life of Jesus. He stood under the cross, took Christ's bereaved mother in, ran to the tomb on Easter Day (where "he saw and believed" what had not yet been announced). John is a wonderful patron and image of a faithful friend.

Is it possible that friendship is a notion we need to reclaim as a culture?

Saturday 14 December 2013

Jesse Tree 14th. St. John of the Cross


Jesse Tree
KING SOLOMON 
December 14
Symbols: Scale of Justice, Temple, Crown
Solomon is honored in Scripture as the wisest monarch. Though he used a real sword to make his point, he used his wisdom, the sword of justice, to divide truth from lies.
God foretold that David's son and heir, Solomon, would be the one to build a temple to the Lord God. Solomon did in fact complete the construction of the temple during his reign.
Recommended Readings: Kings 3:23-28; 3 Kings 5:5


Saturday 14 December 2013
Saint John of the Cross, Priest, Doctor
 (Saturday of the 2nd week of Advent)  
   
Second Reading
A Spiritual Canticle of St John of the Cross
(Red. B, str. 36-37)
Recognising the mystery hidden within Christ Jesus
Though holy doctors have uncovered many mysteries and wonders, and devout souls have understood them in this earthly condition of ours, yet the greater part still remains to be unfolded by them, and even to be understood by them.
  We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.
  For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attain them, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket of suffering, enduring interior and exterior labours, and unless it first receives from God very many blessings in the intellect and in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.
  All these are lesser things, disposing the soul for the lofty sanctuary of the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ: this is the highest wisdom attainable in this life.
  Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.
  Saint Paul therefore urges the Ephesians not to grow weary in the midst of tribulations, but to be steadfast and rooted and grounded in love, so that they may know with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height and the depth – to know what is beyond knowledge, the love of Christ, so as to be filled with all the fullness of God.
  The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.
Responsory
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, things beyond our imagining – all that God has prepared for those who love him: these are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God: these are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

Let us pray.
Lord God, you gave Saint John of the Cross
  the grace of complete self-denial
  and an ardent love for the cross of Christ.
Grant that by following always in his footsteps
  we may come to the eternal vision of your glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
  who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
  one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Friday 13 December 2013

Saint Lucy - we celebrate her entrance into eternal glory, we ask to share her happiness in the life to come.

Santa Lucia Vergine e martire - Memoria


CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.

Lord,
give us courage through the prayers of Saint Lucy.
As we celebrate her entrance into eternal glory,
we ask to share her happiness in the life to come.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

iBreviary

Friday, 13 December 2013
SECOND READING

From the book On Virginity by Saint Ambrose, bishop
(Cap 12, 74-75)

You light up your grace of body with the radiance of your mind

You are one of God’s people, of God’s family, a virgin among virgins; you light up your grace of body with your splendor of soul. More than others you can be compared to the Church. When you are in your room, then, at night, think always on Christ, and wait for his coming at every moment.

This is the person Christ has loved in loving you, the person he has chosen in choosing you. He enters by the open door; he has promised to come in, and he cannot deceive. Embrace him, the one you have sought; turn to him, and be enlightened; hold him fast, ask him not to go in haste, beg him not to leave you. The Word of God moves swiftly; he is not won by the lukewarm, nor held fast by the negligent. Let your soul be attentive to his word; follow carefully the path God tells you to take, for he is swift in his passing.

What does his bride say? I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hear me. Do not imagine that you are displeasing to him although you have called him, asked him, opened the door to him, and that this is the reason why he has gone so quickly; no, for he allows us to be constantly tested. When the crowds pressed him to stay, what does he say in the Gospel? I must preach the word of God to other cities, because I have been sent for that. But even if it seems to you that he has left you, go out and seek him once more.

Who but holy Church is to teach you how to hold Christ fast? Indeed, she has already taught you, if you only understood her words in Scripture: How short a time it was when I left them before I found him whom my soul has loved. I held him fast, and I will not let him go.

How do we hold him fast? Not by restraining chains or knotted ropes but by bonds of love, by spiritual reins, by the longing of the soul.

If you also, like the bride, wish to hold him fast, seek him and be fearless of suffering. It is often easier to find him in the midst of bodily torments, in the very hands of persecutors.

His bride says: How short a time it was after I left them. In a little space, after a brief moment, when you have escaped from the hands of your persecutors without yielding to the powers of this world, Christ will come to you, and he will not allow you to be tested for long.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, and finds him, can say: I held him fast, and I will not let him go before I bring him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me. What is this “house”, this “room”, but the deep and secret places of your heart?

Maintain this house, sweep out its secret recesses until it becomes immaculate and rises as a spiritual temple for a holy priesthood, firmly secured by Christ, the cornerstone, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in it.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, whoever prays to Christ in this way, is not abandoned by him; on the contrary, Christ comes again and again to visit such a person, for he is with us until the end of the world.

Saturday 16 November 2013

ST. MARGARET QUEEN OF SCOTLAND David McRoberts














Previous fore-programmed seems to have failed.    
Printed here usefully from EWTN, below.
ST. MARGARET QUEEN OF SCOTLAND
David McRoberts

Foreword We have decided to reprint David McRoberts excellent historical essay on the life of St. Margaret in this the ninth centenary year of her death. It is hoped that all who come to know her may be inspired by her Christian charity and exemplary life.
Nine hundred years after Queen Margaret lived and ruled with her husband King Malcolm III the people of Scotland still revere her as their patron and admire her many qualities which had such a profound beneficial effect on the country of her adoption. In an age where the role of women in our society has only recently been seen as emerging to a truly equal status it is a matter of some wonder that nine centuries ago Margaret was to wield such an enormous influence in the life of her people on so many different and yet powerfully important levels. At court, in the life of the Church, in domestic and international affairs her influence would be seen and can still be discerned centuries after her death.
It is a great privilege therefore to make her life known through this little booklet that once more we can truly benefit from her wonderful example and lasting witness as a woman of deep Christian faith who followed her path of destiny and paced them closely to her Lord and God, not rejecting her role as sovereign and lady, but neither setting so much store by them as to lose sight of her eternal destiny. It is from the viewpoint of this wider back-cloth that her life takes it's true meaning and her actions and aspirations come into focus and find their ultimate context. . .
Fr. David M. Barr P.P.
St. Margaret's Dunfermline
April 1993

I
Saint Margaret, the winds of yore
Oppressed the bark that carried thee
And drove a treasure from the sea
To Scotland's wild and barren shore.1

The modern kingdom of Scotland is the outcome of a long and painful evolution. After the withdrawal of the Roman Legions from Britain, in the early fifth century, four kingdoms slowly came into being in the area occupied by present-day Scotland: Cumbria occupied the territory between Glasgow and Carlise, Bernicia stretched from the Firth of Forth to the Tyne, Scotia was the territory of Argyllshire with some of the Western Isles, occupied by the Scoti from Ireland, and the rest of the north and east was the extensive, ill-defined Kingdom of Pictavia—the land occupied by that race which, in our history books, is given the name, or perhaps the nickname, of Picts—the painted people. During the four or five bleak centuries which separate Roman Britain from the early Middle Ages we catch fleeting glimpses of these four kingdoms becoming gradually consolidated under the guidance of warrior kings, shadowy monarchs because of our meagre records, but men who were apparently wise and politic leaders. As the dark ages gave place to mediaeval and feudal Europe we see a united Kingdom of Scotland gradually taking shape. It was an age of iron warfare; the nobler things of life were almost lost sight of in the prolonged and bitter struggle for survival. The plight of Scotland was not exceptional; that land was only sharing in the general misery of Europe in an era when culture, orderly government and even religion seemed to be fighting a steadily losing battle against anarchy and barbarism. The Church, like the other institutions of civilised life, had suffered grievously. By the tenth century it presented a gloomy picture; almost everywhere abbacies and episcopal sees (for awhile even the great See of Rome) had fallen into the hands of the rapacious and lawless barons who had sprung up in each locality and seized the authority of the broken down central government. Only too often these local chieftains installed unworthy prelates into the churches they had seized, and, as a result, laxity of discipline and ignorance of the church's teaching prevailed over wide areas. The Celtic churches of the west had perhaps suffered most severely. The great monasteries of the Celtic lands had preserved the learning and piety of Europe during the flood-tide of the barbarian invasions and later, in the amazing wanderings of the Celtic scholar- monks during the sixth and seventh centuries, these men actually began the conversion of the new barbarian ruling classes and relit the almost extinguished lamp of monasticism in Europe. But in their turn Scotland and Ireland had to bear the full brunt of yet another invasion, that of the pagan pirates of Scandinavia.
St. Margaret's Crossing Edinburgh to Fife
Projection of the new Bridges
When the Vikings bore down on Europe the defenceless riches of churches and abbeys attracted their ruthless bands. The great monasteries of the western islands were reduced to ruin. Clonmacnoise and Lindisfarne, Bangor and especially Iona were plundered and burnt time and again and the white monks martyred. In every place similar conditions prevailed.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Memorial of Saint Hedwig

St Hedwig’s Beads

hedwigoxted1a
I was intrigued by the graphic of St Hedwig from the Paternosters site (left) that shows St Hedwig with prayer beads so I decided to look around for more graphics of St Hedwig with beads. The only luck I have had so far is the modern stained glass window to the right. Unfortunately I now can’t find where this modern window comes from.  Does it look to you like those are prayer beads in her hand? Its hard to tell if its prayer beads or a handle to a bag. As a modern window it could have also been inspired by the medieval graphic of her with beads.
So who is St Hedwig? She was a born in Bavarian, 1174, and married a Henry Duke of Silesia and later Duke of Greater Poland at age 12. One of her sisters married King Andrew of Hungrey and another sister became a Benedictine abbess of Lutzingen in Franconia in medieval Germany. Hedwig and Henry had seven children, including Henry the Pious, a duke of medieval Poland, who was killed in the battle of Legnica against the Mongols two years before Hedwig’s death. After the birth and subequent early death of their seventh child, Hedwig and Henry took public vows of chastity. Duke Henry went so far as become tonsured and took the lifestyle of a lay Cisterian brother. Hedwig was renoned for helping the poor and as a patroness of the church. Hedwig and her husband Henry founded and/or supported several monsateries for Augustinians, Dominicans, Francisicans, Cistercians and even Templars.  In 1202 Henry founded a Cisterician convent at Trzebinca, the first religious foundation for women in Silesia, where he was buried in 1238 and she entered a convent upon his death. Their daughter  Gertrude became the first abbess there. She was only there five years before her own death in 1243. Hedwig took the dress and lifestyle of a Cistercian sister but never took her formal vows so that she kept control of her revenue to direct it to the poor. Her pious reputation was such that she was considered a saint in her lifetime. Her daughter Abbess Gertrude was the only one of her seven children to survive her. Two of her grand-daughters by Henry the Pious did eventually become abbesses at St Clara of Trebinca.  St Elizabeth of Thuringia and Mechtilde of Kitzingen were her nieces. She was canonized only 24 years after her death. St Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin was built by Frederick the Great in 1773 and is now the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Berlin.
References: St Hedwig, Wikipedi, and St Hedwig, New Advent website.
A the most complete image of the medieavel illustration I’ve found online but I haven’t been able to find any more specific information about its medieval source. If you know any more about St Hedwig’s beads, this illustration or the stained glass window above, please post a comment.
A
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http://www.ibreviary.com/m/breviario.php

iBreviary

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Wednesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
For the Memorial of Saint Hedwig:

SECOND READING

From the life of Saint Hedwig by a contemporary author
(Acta Sanctorum Octobria 8 [1853], 201-202a)

She Was Always Directed Towards God

Hedwig knew that those living stones that were to be placed in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem had to be smoother out by buffetings and pressures in this world, and that many tribulations would be needed before she could cross over into the glory of her heavenly homeland. And so she exposed herself completely to the waters of suffering and continually exhausted her body with rigorous chastisement. Because of such great daily fasts and abstinences she grew so thin that many wondered how such a feeble and delicate woman could endure these torments.       

She afflicted herself with continual mortification of the flesh, but she did so with prudent discretion. The more attentively she kept watch, the more she grew in the strength of the spirit and in grace, and the more the fire of devotion and divine love blazed within her. She was often borne aloft with such ardent desire and impelled toward God that she would no longer be aware of the things that were around her.

Just as her devotion made her always seek after God, so her generous piety turned her toward her neighbor, and she bountifully bestowed alms on the needy. She gave aid to colleges and to religious persons dwelling within or outside monasteries, to widows and orphans, to the weak and the feeble, to leers and those bound in chains or imprisoned, to travelers and needy women nursing infants. She allowed no one who came to her for help to go away uncomforted.

And because this servant of God never neglected the practice of all good works, God also conferred on her such grace that when she lacked human means to do good, and her own powers failed, the divine power of the sufferings of Christ strengthened her to respond to the needs of her neighbors. And so through diving favor she had the power to relieve the bodily and spiritual troubles of all who sought her help.

RESPONSORY
See Proverbs 31:17-18

She set herself to work with courage;
she put forth all her strength;
 therefore her lamp will never go out.

She has discovered how good it is
to work for the God of wisdom.
 Therefore her lamp will never go out.

Monday 12 August 2013

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal 12 August



For the Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal: 


12 December
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, religious
OPTIONAL MEMORIAL
Jane Frances was born at Dijon in France in 1572. As a young woman she mar­ried and had six children, but then in 1601, she was widowed as the result of a shooting accident. At first she gave way to depression, but overcame that and sought instead to live a more spiritual life. She had always been pious. In 1604 she met Se Francis de Sales and placed herself under his direction.
In 1610 she founded the first convent of the Visitation at Annecy. By the time she died in 1641 sixty-four further convents had been founded.
St Jane Frances was purified by sufferings in her affections and in her faith.
St Vincent de Paul rated her among the holiest souls he had met.
As a reading, a letter from St Jane Frances to St Francis de Sales is offered.
This is the first of her letters to St Francis to be preserved. It was written in 1617. It concerns her prayer-life: she had obviously attained a high form of prayer.

I have many things to tell you, my unique Father, but I know not where they are, so overwhelmed and distracted is my poor mind with a thousand worries. I no longer feel that abandonment and sweet confidence (which I used to have in prayer), nor can I make any acts of those virtues, although it seems to me they are more solid and firm than ever. In its superior part, my soul is in a state of very simple union. It does not bring about this union itself; for when, on certain occasions, it wishes to make acts of union, it feels a difficulty in doing so. It clearly sees that it cannot unite itself, but can only remain united. It has no inclination to change this state for any other. It neither thinks nor acts, if I except the consciousness of desire, formed almost imperceptibly that God may do with it and with all creatures, in all things, whatever he shall please. It would wish to do nothing but this for the morning exercise, at holy Mass, in preparation for holy communion, and in thanksgiving for all benefits; in a word, for everything. It wishes only to remain in this most simple unity of mind with God, without looking elsewhere, and whilst in this state to say sometimes vocally an Our Father for the whole world, for individuals  and for itself, without, however, diverting its attention or thinking for whom or for what it prays.

Frequently, according to occasions, necessity, or inclination, which last comes without being sought, my soul flows into this union. With regard to this manner of prayer, I believe indeed that it suffices for everything; nevertheless, my unique Father, I am very often assailed by fears on this head, and I force myself (which I find very difficult) to make acts of union, adoration, the exercise of the morning, of Mass, and of thanksgiving. If I do wrong in this, please do tell me. Tell me, also, whether this simple union suffices, whether it will satisfy God for all the acts I have just mentioned, which are of obligation for us; nay, even, if it will suffice during spiritual aridity when the soul has no perception or consciousness of such union, except in its very highest point. I do not ask you for a long answer on the subject. In a dozen words you can tell me all that, repeating my question if you choose, and assuring me that this simple union will suffice for everything; then I shall, with God's help, be faithful to make no more acts.
St Jane Frances de Chantal, 'Letter to Francis de Sales', 1617

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&f
See Review from Amazon com: Francis De Sales, Jane De Chantal: Letters 


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Adorable!, March 18, 2012
By 
This review is from: Francis De Sales, Jane De Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
I have always been a big fan of Francis de Sales for his deep piety and intimacy with Christ. To know that he had had spiritual friendship with women and corresponded with them is even more appealing to me as I know what a woman is capable of spiritually and how much she can add to a relationship. Women generally tend to see what men can't see; women can see behind the corners because the Lord has given them the sixth sense. While we men see with just our two eyes, women definitely tend to have 3 eyes, if only they would choose to use them by constantly connecting with the divine. In this book you will not meet a woman and a man walking around with a halo on their heads, too holy to be touched, but instead you will meet real people like you and me. What took place between 1567 and 1641 is possible to occur once again in our too busy world where our loneliness increased more than ever before. From this book I learn that you can experience real close and mutuality with a woman if Jesus the center of this relationship, and here love would be pure, and not driven by hormones. Indeed, such loved can be attested to as having "the bond of perfection" as the Bible says. But your relationship with a lady has to be anchored in your common love for God. A lady is not just your friend, girlfriend, wife, lover, etc. but she is somebody with whom you enjoy spiritual friendship, and so you enjoy mutually your spiritual gifts and support each other in your commitment to faithfulness. You are there to assist each other humbly as you grow together day after day in your companionship of Jesus, seeking to be more and more like Jesus, to be perfect as our Father who is in Heaven is perfect. Because of Jesus, you will recognize tendencies to become possessive of each other which lead to violence. Jesus is there to purge us of that because the the relationship from the beginning is founded on Jesus. Because of Jesus, you will respect each other as individuals and your spiritual friendship will bear fruit. Francis and Jane will here teach us that the deepest intimacy we may experience as men is not in having just "a partner" in our lives but Christ is here in our midst and gives us to each other, and we together incarnate divine love. The relationship has to be also founded upon mutuality in sharing and confession. To share is to confess. To confess is to be vulnerable and completely open to the other person. This produces healing, genuine intimacy and reconciliation.
____________________________________________________ 

Friendship Quote of the Week"The deep affection they have for each other is generously shared with all women and men with whom they enter into a spiritual relationship.  There is no holding back, no careful distance, no concern about possible misinterpretations, no fear for too much too soon...Both Francis and Jane give and receive affection freely and share it generously with all who are part of their spiritual family."
Henri Nouwen (Preface) on the friendship between Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal



Monday 14 January 2013

St. Mungo's Church in Glasgow




Dear Andy,
Rejoicing for St. Mungo.
Thank you.
Donald 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Andy M ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2013, 13:58
Subject: 

Fr. Donald
Read with great interest your blog regarding St Mungo.
I attach a picture of St. Mungo's Church in Glasgow which has played a great part in peoples worship throughout the years in Glasgow.
Regards
Andy


Sunday 23 December 2012

St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest (1828-1898)


Monday, 24 December 2012

St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest (1828-1898)

image Other saints of the day



SAINT SHARBEL MAKHLUF
Priest
(1828-1898)
        Joseph Zaroun  Makhluf was born in a small mountain village of Lebanon. Raised by an uncle who opposed the boy's youthful piety, he snuck away at age 23 to join the Baladite monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya where he took the name Charbel in memory of a 2nd century martyr. He was ordained in 1858.   
        Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Sharbel lived as a model monk on the bare minimums of everything. He gained a reputation for holiness, and was much sought for counsel and blessing. He had a great personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and was known to levitate during his prayers. He was briefly paralyzed just before his death.
        Several post-mortem miracles were attributed to him, including periods in 1927 and 1950 when a bloody "sweat" flowed from his corpse. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage for Lebanese and non-Lebanese, Christian and non-Christian alike.
        Sharbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice, and prayer by the way he lived. He was beatified in 1965 and canonized in 9 October 1977 by Pope Paul VI.
        July 24th is the feast day for St. Sharbel Makhluf on the Universal Church. The Maronite Church celebrates him on the 3rd Sunday of July and on December 24th (the day he went to heaven). 

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