Sunday 3 June 2012

Trinity Sunday Nicholas Cabasilas


 
Trinity Sunday, from the Night Office first Nocturne Reading to Vespers and Benediction enriches our whole day.
 
From: Donald - - -
To: nunraw - - -
Sent: Sunday, 3 June 2012, 20:45
Subject: Trinity

TRINITY SUNDAY 
Yr. B p274-273.
From The Life in Christ
by Nicholas Cabasilas
(Lib. 2: PG 150, 532-533).
The Life in Christ,  a Greek theological classic written some time after 1354, was intended not for monks or theologians, but for ordinary living in the world. Our extract shows the part played by each Person of the Blessed Trinity in our redemption , and explains why is fitting for each of the divine Persons to be invoked when baptism is conferred.
 
Although it was by a common benevolence that the Trinity saved our race, each one of the blessed Persons played his own part. The Father was reconciled, the Son reconciled. And the Holy Spirit was the gift bestowed upon those who were now God’s friends. The Father recreated us through the Son, but it is the Spirit who gives life.
Even in the first creation there was a shadowed indication of the Trinity, for the Father created, the Son was the Creator’s hand, and the Paraclete was the Life-giver’s breath. But why speak of this? For in fact it is only the new creation that the distinctions within the Godhead are revealed to us.
God bestowed many blessings on his creation in every age, but you will not find any of them being ascribed to the Father alone, or to the Son, or to the Spirit. On the contrary, all have their source in the Trinity, which performs every act by a single power, providence, and creativity. But in the dispensation by which the Trinity restored our race, something new occurred. It was still the Trinity that jointly willed my salvation new providentially arranged the means for its accomplishment, but the Trinity no longer acted as one. The active role belonging not to the Father, or to the Spirit, but to the Word alone. It was the only-begotten Son alone who assumed flesh and flesh and blood, who was scourged, who suffered and died and rose again.
Through these acts of his our nature received new life; through these acts baptism was instituted – a new birth and a new creation. Only in this new creation and the distinctions within the Godhead revealed. Therefore, when those who have obtained this holy re-creation call on God over the sacred bath, it is fitting that they should distinguish between the persons by invoking them as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
Responsory           Matthew 28: 18-19
  
To me has been given all power in heaven and on earty.
- Go and teach all nations.
Baptize them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
- Go and teach . . .
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday 2 June 2012

The Catechism teaches that “[the Most Holy Trinity] is the mystery of God in himself.

Trinity page of Mass
The Catechism teaches that “[the Most Holy Trinity] is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, ..
Try: The Most Holy Trinity Blogspot


Sunday, 03 June 2012

The Most Holy Trinity, solemnity




THE MOST HOLY TRINITY 
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.    
         The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.     The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (⇒ Jn 14:26) and by the Son "from the Father" (⇒ Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).   
        "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47).   
        By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG).  
        "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed).   
        Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church § 261-267 - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
TRINITY
SUNDAY
Page from Cistercian Breviary

Friday 1 June 2012

May 2012 B

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Fr Donald - - -
To: nunraw - - -
Sent: Friday, 1 June 2012, 20:22
Subject: [Dom Donald's Blog]
Feast of the Visitation May Thu 31st

P.S. Only last day of May brings to mind both the the Artwork of the front cover of MAGNIFICAT and the Dominican article.

THE VISITATION
Front cover: The Visitation, Pietro di Francesco degli Orioli (1458- 1496), Pinacoteca, Siena, Italy. © La Collection / Domingie & Rabatti. (For more information on this painting, please see the commentary on p.432.)  MAGNIFICAT,May 2012
Leap For joy!
Artwork of the front cover.
In thfifteentcenturytherepresentatioof thVisitationbecomes mucmorthaa simplepictorial narration of the GospeofLuke (139ff). It serves as a window througwhich to contemplatthmystery oGod who visits and redeemhipeopleOnthsurface, thVisitatioby Pietro Orioli depicts touchinfamilyreunionbaseothe apocryphal gospels. Here we see Zechariaand Elizabethfirst cousins of thVirgin Mary (Ane, thmother of Mary,haa sisterEsmeria, who was Elizabeth's mother), who greet MaroNazaretin the courtyard of their home. Our Ladiaccompanied btwo of hesisters (orsisters-in-law), MarSalorne (blonde), wife of Zebedee, and Marof Clopas (brunette). Alfour women are visiblpregnantwithrespectivelyJohthe BaptistJesus, lames theGreaterand lames "thbrother of thLord" (and first bishoof Jerusalem). However, as a cleasigthat Mary's pregnancy iincomparablto thaof any other womanthartisthas clothed thMotheof God in aimmaculate whitdress, symboof botthbaptismshreceiveiadvance and hevirginity.
Beyond these anecdotaallusions, this family encounteconveys a profound symbolicmeaningthintertwined handof Elizabeth, thelderlwomananof Mary, younger thansin, enact thtransitiofrom thChosen Peoplto thChurchfrom the olCovenantothnew and eternal CovenantAright in thpainting, thOlTestament irepresented by Zechariah thhigpriestbElizabetwho bearJohthBaptistthlasothprophets, and by a servant whpersonifies thLaw that withdrawbefore thWord madflesh. At left, thNeTestament is represented by thVirgin Mary. Present withithtabernaclof hewomb, the Saviour of thworld announced bthprophetis authenticated btheleaping oJohn thBaptistAnd here we see thtwother Marys, pregnanwitapostles, futurpillars of thChurch. They wilremain standing, faithfulat thfoot othe cross, and at the tomb they will be amonthfirst witnesses to thResurrection.
• Pierre-MariDumont


MEDITATION OF THE DAY

A Lesson of the Visitation
When Mary was greeted in this way by her elderly cousin Elizabeth, she at once sang herMagnificat, that great song of joy and of self-knowledge in God: "My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in the Lord God, my Saviour!" Mary was not able to respond in this way when she was greeted by the angel Gabriel. No - what in the end occasioned her joy were words spoken to her by Elizabeth, her elderly relative, very simple and very humble words of delighted recognition: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" There is here, if I'm not mistaken, an important but unexpected lesson. Sometimes we might be inclined to think that, without the confirmation of some interior vision or some deep experience in prayer, we cannot hope to know the joy of God's love for us. But Mary's experience at the Visitation reminds us that such a deep and joyful realisation can be the result of a simple good deed or act of generosity done to someone in need. Again and again, to our astonishment, we discover that it is in the poor, in those who need our help, that the Lord is waiting to fill us with the knowledge, the joyful knowledge that we are loved. And this knowledge is knowledge that heals. If we, who know ourselves to be wounded in some way, make an effort to help others who are suffering, if we "share our bread with the hungry" and try to "shelter the homeless poor" or make a visit to someone in need like Mary, then, according to the prophet Isaiah, not only will we experience enlightenment of some kind, but "[our] wound will quickly be healed over" (Is 58: 6-8) . And why? Because in those who are most in need of help we will meet Christ himself: "Whatever you do to one of these, the least of my brothers, you do to me."
Door into the Sacred: a Meditation on the Hail Mary 2011.By Father Murray OP. Also his books include T S Eliot and Mysticism and A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment 

Posted By Fr Donald to Dom Donald's Blog on 5/03/2012 08:19:00 PM


The Sacred Heart - Pomises of Jesus, St. Margaret Mary


Sacred Heart of Jesus statue next to right side altar in St. Mary's Oratory, Rockford, Illinois. (Photo by Scott P. Richert) 
June: The Month of 
the Sacred Heart

About.com GuideJune 1, 2012

On June 1, 2008, at his weekly Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics "to renew, in this month of June, their devotion to the Heart of Jesus." The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a moveable feast, but it most often takes place in June, and thus June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart, as the Holy Father explained, is a symbol "of the Christian faith that is especially dear, to ordinary people as well as to mystics and theologians, because it expresses the 'good news' of love in a simple and authentic way, encapsulating the mystery of Incarnation and Redemption." 

The Sacred Heart reminds us that Christ is not God simply appearing as man; He is truly man, just as He is truly God. As Pope Benedict put it, "From the boundless horizon of His love, God entered the limitations of history and of the human condition. He took a body and a heart so that we can contemplate and encounter the infinite in the finite, the invisible and ineffable Mystery in the human Heart of Jesus of Nazareth." In that encounter, we feel the presence of Christ's heart within our own.
We can join Pope Benedict in renewing our devotion to the Sacred Heart by making use of these prayers for June, the month of the Sacred HeartO Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
(Sacred Heart of Jesus statue next to right side altar in St. Mary's Oratory, 
Rockford, Illinois. Photo by Scott P. Richert.)
Twelve Promises of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary
In the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus gives these twelve promises for those who are devoted to His Sacred Heart.
  1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
  2. I will establish peace in their families.
  3. I will console them in all their troubles.
  4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
  5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
  6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
  7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
  8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
  9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
  10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
  11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
  12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.