THE VISION by Archimandrite Lev Gillet

March 3, 2013, 5:29 am

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my source: coptichymns

In this excellent article, Father Lev Gillet, an Orthodox monk, discusses what it means to have a "heavenly vision", and the importance of pursuing that vision in today's age. Father Gillet is also widely known throughout his writings as "A Monk of the Eastern Church."

“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” -Acts 26:19

Let us place these words of the Apostle Paul within their historical context.  Paul is a prisoner at Caesarea, in the hands of the Roman procurator Festus. Accused by the Jews, but privileged as a Roman citizen, he is to be transferred to Caesar's tribunal in Rome. The coming to Caesarea of the Jewish King Agrippa and the princess Bernice provides Festus with the opportunity of elucidating a difficult case. Paul is therefore summoned before the procurator and his distinguished guests. He recalls to them the history of his life, putting both as a starting point and a center the vision that he had on the road to Damascus and that decided the further orientation of his existence. And he does not hesitate to sum up this last in a short, but extraordinarily loaded with meaning, sentence: “King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19)

It is on this theme - the vision - that I should like to say here a few words. What is this Vision we shall be referring to?  I shall answer: any true, any genuine vision coming from God. By “Vision”, I do not mean a physical sensation, fit to be compared with those that may be expressed in words such as: I see this tree, I see that table. Nor do I mean a mere product of the imagination, a fiction of our mind.  I am speaking of an inner impression, of an immaterial, incorporeal perception, more or less clear, more or less confused, brought to us from further on than ourselves, from higher than ourselves. The Vision I speak of is "supernatural.” It is something sent by God.

One may say that each philosophy, each global conception of the world, each work of art, starts with a certain image that a man carries with him, in him, and that he will but repeat with multiple variations and names.  Even the "pure” line drawn by an “abstract painter” may become a durable and overruling inspiration. But the Vision I now refer to has a divine origin. It takes many forms, always slightly vague, always mixing light and shade in some indefiniteness. It may assume human features. It may raise before us a certain image of Christ. It may evoke other personages, or certain scenes always endowed with an ideal vague, a stimulus, a challenge, a violent rupture from the limited and narrow realities hardened by our selfishness.

The Vision introduces what is new.  St. Paul's vision on the road to Damascus was a vision almost complete and perfect (I say “almost” because visions granted to men can never be perfect and complete). The Damascus vision united features or components that appear essential to a divine, authentic and far reaching vision. Paul is suddenly surrounded with light, but he at the same time becomes blind for a while.  He falls down as thunderstruck, unconditionally self-surrendering to the unknown Power.  He interrogates that Power: who are You? And, when the Lord answers: “I am Jesus”, Paul, trembling and astonished, says: “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:3-6)

Here we find all the elements present to the Vision (for visions are but modalities of the Vision): the light that makes everything new, the God-sent blindness which temporarily shuts us from what is alien to the Vision, the prostration or more exactly the lying flat on the ground that makes it impossible for humility to throw itself further down, the divine word which is heard and finally the decision, the act of radical and sacrificial obedience that confess to the Vision its practical value: What do you want me to do? This is the Vision almost perfect, almost complete, the highest Vision that can be given to a man. We are not Paul. But, in each God-given vision, whatever its form may be (and the Vision may take the most various aspects and even express itself through non-Christian symbols), we find the most fundamental elements of the Vision of Paul.

Let us for instance take the representation or inspiration (so mixed!) that the image of Jesus not seldom evokes in the minds of our hippies, of our drugged boys and girls, of our "sex perverts”, of the mass of men and women who refuse the definitions and structures of the Churches, but regard with some respect the Person of Jesus and even love Him in a confused way.  Let us think of the “Jesus movement” or, better said, Jesus movements and "Jesus kids”.  What do these youth think, whom do they see when they pronounce the name of Jesus? 

As far as my impression has been, they see in some indistinct appearance a kind of whiteness, a Purity, a welcoming Love, two arms, two hands extended towards men.  And there is the ocean of human suffering, the multitude of the heavy-laden whose troubled eyes look towards the Compassionate, the Merciful. Here is the Vision in the incipient state, a vision very imperfect, very incomplete, very intermittent.  It may come and disappear, but the Vision has been there, is there. Let us remember the words of the Gospel, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” (John 19:37)

Is the Vision before us? I believe that the Vision is offered to every one of us.  I am persuaded that in the life of each one, there has been a minute when he had a glimpse of a reality that was both far above us and acting within us, even if we did not know how to name it.  And he who experiences this vision cannot entirely forget it.  In the midst of many tumults, the inner voice continues to call: "The Master has come and is calling for you.” (John 11:28)

You are young.  Thinking of you whom I don’t know, and who perhaps read these lines, I think of the words of Joel quoted by St. Peter on the day of Pentecost: "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophecy; your young men shall see visions, and your old men sha1l dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)

And the old man, in his “dream”, prays that the powerful blessed Vision should launch on the roads of the Ancient World and New World small groups of young people having had a personal experience of this unique Vision - not necessarily priests or theologians or preachers, but simple young laymen who, without discussing, would say: This is what I saw, will you too see it? They would not claim to be the Church, but only to actualize, according to their measure, in the power of Pentecost and with the blessing of the Church, the essence (not parasitic accretions) of what the Church proclaims. Of course, they would emphasize peace and justice and the liberation of man from all oppressions, but they would find again accents (now rare) to announce the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Master of the Vision.  Is this impossible?

Only the Vision can give unity to our life - the Vision seen in our immediate circumstances and yet infinite. Shall we, when the end will come, be able to repeat the words of Paul: “I was not unfaithful to the Vision”?

Beirut, Theophany, 1973.

Credit and Attribution

Originally published in "Syndesmos News", an Orthodox youth publication, in 1973.

I think this Catholic contribution complements the article by the Orthodox Father Lev Gillet

 THE VISIONARY AND THE THEOLOGIAN
St Francis of Assisi and St Bonaventure

my source: Idle Speculations - a very good blog.

The chapel of St Bonaventure in La Verna

Two men climbed Mount La Verna in Italy: St Francis of Assisi in 1224 and about thirty years later St Bonaventure.

Seraphim appeared to St Francis bearing a vision of the crucified Christ and he received the wounds produced by the nails and lance, the stigmata.

What the Seraphic Francis lived, the mind of the Seraphic Doctor Bonaventure sought to understand so "as much as possible (to) be restored, naked of knowledge, to union with the very One who is above all created essence and knowledge."

Both men had the same ideal: to rise from the contemplation of God`s symbols in creatures to the vision of uncreated goodness itself.

In 1259 St Bonaventure had a cell made at the sanctuary near the spot where St Francis experienced the stigmata. It is now the Chapel of St Bonaventure seen above.

In 1260 a church was consecrated at La Verna in presence of St. Bonaventure and several bishops. A few years later the Chapel of the Stigmata was erected, paid for by Count Simone of Battifole, near the spot where the miracle took place. The Chiesa Maggiore was begun in 1348, although not finished until 1459

The Holy Father in his talk about St Bonaventure on 10th March 2010 made the following comments about the stigmata of St Francis and St Bonaventure:

"Of these his writings, which are the soul of his government and show the way to follow either as an individual or a community, I would like to mention only one, his masterwork, the "Itinerarium mentis in Deum," which is a "manual" of mystical contemplation.
This book was conceived in a place of profound spirituality: the hill of La Verna, where St. Francis had received the stigmata. In the introduction, the author illustrates the circumstances that gave origin to his writing:
"While I meditated on the possibility of the soul ascending to God, presented to me, among others, was that wondrous event that occurred in that place to Blessed Francis, namely, the vision of the winged seraphim in the form of a crucifix. And meditating on this, immediately I realized that such a vision offered me the contemplative ecstasy of Father Francis himself and at the same time the way that leads to it" (Journey of the Mind in God, Prologue, 2, in Opere di San Bonaventura. Opuscoli Teologici / 1, Rome, 1993, p. 499).
The six wings of the seraphim thus became the symbol of six stages that lead man progressively to the knowledge of God through observation of the world and of creatures and through the exploration of the soul itself with its faculties, up to the satisfying union with the Trinity through Christ, in imitation of St. Francis of Assisi.
The last words of St. Bonaventure's "Itinerarium," which respond to the question of how one can reach this mystical communion with God, would make one descend to the depth of the heart:
"If you now yearn to know how that happens (mystical communion with God), ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not the intellect; the groaning of prayer, not the study of the letter; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that inflames everything and transport to God with strong unctions and ardent affections. ... We enter therefore into darkness, we silence worries, the passions and illusions; we pass with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, so that, after having seen him, we say with Philip: that is enough for me" (Ibid., VII, 6).
Dear friends, let us take up the invitation addressed to us by St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, and let us enter the school of the divine Teacher: We listen to his Word of life and truth, which resounds in the depth of our soul. Let us purify our thoughts and actions, so that he can dwell in us, and we can hear his divine voice, which draws us toward true happiness"

Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland" (1875) dwelt upon the fate of five German Franciscan nuns fleeing anti-Catholic laws in Germany and who drowned together as their ship sank in a storm off Harwich, the sisters holding hands as their leader called out, "O Christ, come quickly!"

In his poem, Hopkins elided the nuns' fate with their founder's, "With the gnarls of the nails in thee, niche of the lance/his/ Lovescape crucified." In Hopkins' words, St Francis' stigmatic body became a landscape of Christ's love:


Five! the finding & sake
And cipher of suffering Christ.
Mark, the mark is of man's make
And the word of it Sacrificed.
But he scores it in scarlet himself on his own bespoken,
Before-time-taken, dearest prizèd & priced --
Stigma, signal, cinquefoil token
For lettering of the lamb's fleece, ruddying of the rose-flake.



Joy fall to thee, father Francis,
Drawn to the life that died;
With the gnarls of the nails in thee, niche of the lance, his
Lovescape crucified
And seal of his seraph-arrival! & these thy daughters
And five-livèd  leavèd favour pride,
Are sisterly sealed in wild waters,
To bathe in his fall-gold mercies, to breathe in his all-fire 
glances.

note:   It is often said that the stigmata is typical of western, Catholic mysticism.  This is totally untrue.   For St Bonaventure and his friends, this was a unique gift of God to St Francis.   More familiar to our Orthodox brothers is the story that, one day, St Francis and some brothers met up with St Clare with some sisters.   The Holy Spirit came upon them, and they engendered so much light that neighbours thought the house was on fire, and rushed their with buckets of water.  The first priest in history known to have the stigmata was Padre Pio in the twentieth century: hardly typical!! - Fr David.

---

HOMILY OF ABBOT PAUL FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY & VARIOUS COMMENTARIES ON THE BURNING BUSH

March 3, 2013, 7:26 pm

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Lent 3 Cycle C                                                                         3rd March 2013

            What a week this has been. More than enough has been said about Pope Benedict. We have the wonderful legacy of his writings and teaching to accompany us still and the outstanding example of his service to the Church carried out with such simplicity and humility. May we all learn from him the joy of putting Christ at the centre of our lives. I hope now that we can get through the next few weeks without losing our focus on prayer. The only choice that matters is God’s choice, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray that God’s will be done and that in all things God alone may be glorified.

            What marvellous readings we have heard this morning. Truly Lent is a time of grace and an opportunity for repentance and a deep and lasting conversion. During the Responsorial Psalm we repeated the refrain, “The Lord is compassion and love,” and surely that is the theme of today’s Mass and the meaning of Lent. “The Lord is compassion and love,” because he gives us not just a second chance, but every chance, for his love and compassion became flesh in Jesus Christ.

            Such was his love and compassion towards his children that, in the Burning Bush, he revealed his Name to Moses, not an ordinary name that differentiates one god from another or limits a person by the description of what he does or doesn’t do, the god of this or the god of that. I am who I am, the “ground of being” as Paul Tillich so beautifully put it. God simply is, and all that exists, exists in him. And yet the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, is at the same time a personal and intimate God and friend of man, “the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

            St Paul takes us a stage further as he discusses the Exodus, comparing Moses with Christ, in fact comparing the children of Israel under Moses with the Christian community at Corinth. What happened to the Hebrews “was written down to be a lesson for us who are living at the end of the age. The man who thinks he is safe must be careful he does not fall.” Now Paul gives us some important insights into the theology of the sacraments. Through Baptism and the Eucharist God delivers and sustains us in Christ, but this does not immunise those who receive the sacraments from sin or exempt us from divine judgement. We cannot take God’s compassion and love for granted and salvation is neither automatic nor guaranteed. We drink from the spiritual Rock who is Christ in order to be given the grace to do God’s will and not for our self-glorification.

            The two episodes Jesus speaks of in the Gospel are found only in Luke, the Galileans killed by Pilate while offering sacrifice in Jerusalem and the collapse of a tower in Siloam, while the parable of the fig tree could be a benevolent form of the cursing of the fig tree found in Mark and Matthew, a miracle become a parable. Those incidents might well be a warning, but God does not kill people or punish them in this life because they have sinned. Nevertheless, ultimately, we will all perish eternally if we do not repent. Jesus warns his hearers, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” The parable gives us hope of better things, that through Christ’s Passion and Death, God offers us another, final chance to do better and bear fruit, and what fruit more delicious than that of the fig tree?

            “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.” This is why we keep Lent and prepare for Easter though penance and confession. “It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion.” To Him be glory and thanksgiving, now and for ever. Amen.

THE BURNING BUSH

The Burning Bush

by One Voice: Coptic Hymns & Spiritual Songs

Contributed from "One Voice: Coptic Hymns and Spiritual Songs", Compiled by St. Mary's COC, and published by St. Mark COC, Chicago, IL.

my source: Poor Clare Heart Ponderings 

Not only to Moses on Mt. Horeb does God reveal Himself in a burning bush that is unconsumed. We saw Him in Mother Theresa who, although deprived of all sense of the presence of God for 50 years, was an icon of that presence to millions by her ardent charity toward the poorest of the poor. We looked upon God when we witnessed the flaming spirit of Bl. John Paul unquenched by the ravages of Parkinson’s disease. We have seen the divine action in the lives of members of our families and friends, who when faced with the most crushing of circumstances, somehow were not crushed. And we ourselves experience God each time after suffering the worst devastation of sorrow, that inexplicable flash of hope ignites our hearts anew. Wherever obedient love is revealed in the midst of pain, wherever the crucified Christ is once more manifested in one of his disciples, there is another burning bush and there is holy ground.

Exploring the Burning Bush

Image from Icon Reader.

my source: Ascending Mount Carmel

There is tremendous mystery contained within the account of the burning bush in Exodus.  I have always been fascinated by this passage.

On the surface, the passage is quite familiar to me from my years growing up in the Adventist church.  I remember taking it all in a very surface way - there was a burning bush, God was in it somehow, and spoke to Moses from it, telling him to go and free his people from their slavery.  Fair enough.  But when I thought about it later on as a teen, it became no more than an account of a delusion sprinkled with mythical flourishes.

Now it is different to me.  In this account, God declares who He is - "I AM WHO AM" (Ex. 3:14).  Bl. John Duns Scotus, that eminent Franciscan theologian, says of this passage: "O Lord our God, when Moses thy servant asked Thee, the most true teacher, about thy Name, so that he might tell it to the Children of Israel, Thou, knowing what the intellect of mortals could conceive of Thee, didst answer: I AM WHO AM, thus disclosing thy Blessed Name.  Thou art true Being, Thou art total Being"1 - this "fixes the gaze primarily and principally on Being itself, saying that God's primary name is He who is"2.  

This is something to be pondered deeply - God's declaration of His name as "I AM WHO AM" is such a rich statement that I think it could be ruminated on forever.  I AM - in this is implied that with God, there is no past or future, only present - "Know that no one can escape My hands, for I am who I am, whereas you have no being at all of yourselves.  What being you have is my doing; I am the Creator of everything that has any share in being"3.  St. Jerome writes that "There is one nature of God and one only; and this alone, truly is"4.  Philo of Alexandria, the learned Jewish theologian, agrees when he writes that God is the one "to Whom alone existence belongs"5. 

One interesting interpretation of the burning bush account comes from St. Gregory of Nyssa, who speaks on the Blessed Virgin Mary:

"From this we learn also the mystery of the Virgin: The light of divinity which through birth shone from her into human life did not consume the burning bush, even as the flower of her virginity was not withered by giving birth."6 

But let us delve further.  Last night, a guest priest delivered a homily on how the Scriptures are too familiar to us Catholics.  Instantly, memories of reading the common Protestant accusation in the past of how Catholics were not encouraged to read the Scriptures and the like jumped into my head.  But then the priest continued - he said that we must read the Scriptures anew again, everytime we read them.  Too often, he said, it happens that we hear a particular passage in Scripture and simply say, "Oh yes, I remember that part," and block off any wisdom that might come from feeding upon the inspired texts.

This made me think - are not, then, the Scriptures themselves much like the burning bush?  They are, or should be, always new, always fresh, always vital and alive, never consumed into a heap of familiar ashes that blow away in humdrum winds.  They are what they are, they stand as they stand - timeless.

We should be able, every time we open the Scriptures, to understand them in ever deeper and new ways.  As a Catholic, I have learned that reading the Scriptures is not about picking out a verse or two here and there, but reading the Scriptures as a living organic whole.  Scripture itself is alive and always vital.

But there is more to be learned from the burning bush.  In a way, I see ourselves as being called to be like burning bushes - on fire because of God dwelling within us, and yet never consumed.  We are to be living flames, "lamps of fire!  In whose splendors the deep caverns of feeling, once obscure and blind, now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely, both warmth and light to their beloved"7.

We are to be consumed by the love of God, and yet somehow never consumed but continually burning with it.  We are to be completely aflame, but never burnt to ashes and dust.

Just some thoughts on the burning bush.

1 - De Primo Principio, Ch. 1

2 - St. Bonaventure, The Soul's Journey Into God, V

3 - St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, 18 

4 - "Letter XV: To Pope Damasus"

5 - Vit. Mos., 1:14:75

6 - The Life of Moses, II;21

7 - St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, stanza 3

The Burning Bush

The Burning Bush seen by Moses

The prophet in the wilderness

The fire inside it was aflame

But never consumed or injured it.

The same with the Theotokos Mary

Carried the fire of Divinity

Nine months in her holy body

Without blemishing her virginity.

I open my mouth and proclaim

And utter hidden mysteries

With the praise of Virgin Mary

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

Gabriel the messenger came to you

With the incarnation of the Logos

The Lord will dwell in your holy womb

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you

The Most High will overshadow you

And you shall bear the Son of God

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

The burning bush seen by Moses…

David your father said of you

And prophesied about the birth

That God will be held in your bosom

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

All that was said has been fulfilled

The proclamations and prophesies

About the birth of Emmanuel

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

Through you, blessed and fair Mary

We were freed from slavery

God has filled you with eternal grace

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

The burning bush seen by Moses…

Each girl in Israel hoped to become

The mother of the Savior of the world

From her offspring the Messiah will come

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

But how can Mary have a son

Her life she’s given to the Holy One

By faith she said, “Your will be done”

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

The blessed daughter of Joachim

Achieved what was each woman’s dream

To be the mother of the One to redeem

Blessed is the pride of the human race.

The burning bush seen by Moses…

Contributed from "One Voice: Coptic Hymns and Spiritual Songs", Compiled by St. Mary's COC, and published by St. Mark COC, Chicago, IL.

  THE FULL MOVIE "THE PRINCE OF EGYPT" - WELL WORTH SEEING (click)

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March 4, 2013, 3:40 am

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SUNDAY, MARCH 03, 2013

Letter from Patriarch Kirill to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

March 1, 2013

Your Holiness!

In these exceptional days for you, I would like to express the feelings of brotherly love in Christ and respect.

The decision to leave the position of Bishop of Rome, which you, with humility and simplicity, announced on February 11 this year, has found a ready response in the hearts of millions of Catholics.

We have always been close to your consistent ministry, marked by uncompromisingness in matters of faith and unswerving adherence to the living Tradition of the Church. At a time when the ideology of permissiveness and moral relativism tries to dislodge the moral values of life, you boldly raised your voice in defence of the ideals of the Gospel, the high dignity of man and his vocation to freedom from sin.

I have warm memories of our meeting when you were elected to the Roman See. During your ministry we received a positive impetus in the relations between our Churches, responding to the modern world as a witness to Christ crucified and risen. I sincerely hope what developed during your active participation, a good trusting relationship between the Orthodox and the Catholics, will continue to grow with your successor.

Please accept my sincere wishes for good health, long life and help from above in prayer and in your theological writings.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace" (Romans 15:13).

With love in the Lord,

+ Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

From AD ORIENTEM
HT: Blog reader Dave B.

PEACE: CATHOLICISM'S NOT IN TOTAL CRISIS:

March 4, 2013, 6:46 pm

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Father Pierre-Marie Delfieux, founder of the Monastic Community of Jerusalem, died on Thursday, February 21st.   His funeral was an occasion celebrated by many bishops, a large number of priests, a packed church, and presided over by Cardinal Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, in Notre Dame Cathedral.  He was 78 years old.

The spirituality of his Community of Jerusalem is fed by several spiritual streams: of course, there is monastic tradition, Charles de Foucauld, the Charismatic Renewal, and, like much enlightened Catholicism in Paris - thanks to the immigration from Russia after the 1917 revolution of many philosophers,  theologians and saints - Russian Orthodoxy.   The community is known for the beauty of its liturgy.   It is positive proof that,  when it is properly celebrated, with a little bit of liturgical imagination, the "new mass" is every bit as beautiful and spiritual as the old.

Father Pierre-Marie Delfieux is one of the great monastic figures in modern times.   May he rest in peace.      

dedicated to Br Bernard of Belmont

Peace: Catholicism’s Not in Total Crisis

By Robert Royal  

MONDAY, 04 MARCH 2013

Taken fromThe Catholic Thing

Last week, quietly and with essentially no media coverage, Frère Pierre-Marie Delfieux, who founded the Community of Jerusalem, a remarkably vibrant renewal movement centered in the Church of Saint Gervais and Saint Protais in Paris – with rapidly growing affiliates across Europe and Canada – died and was buried. His farewell Mass at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral drew an overflow crowd, with lots of young people of high school and college age.  And hundreds of priests and a dozen bishops, all of whom took part in a very beautiful and moving liturgy – one of the attractive hallmarks of the Community. 

I only heard of this because a friend in Paris, who introduced me to San Gervais some years ago, rightly thought I’d want to know. Amidst all the flurry about the pope’s resignation and speculations about his successor, maybe it was only to be expected that the press wouldn’t have enough stamina left over to report on a different kind of Catholic story, a highly positive one at that, and in Europe – secular France, no less. Besides, it complicates the already established story line of a Church in total crisis.

It’s emblematic of where we are at present that something that is going beautifully right, as many things are in the Catholic Church, gets no attention while many people, including many Catholics, are obsessed with the things that have been going wrong. Scandal sells papers, and always will, of course. Still, there’s much else happening out there that needs to be reckoned with if you really want a full picture of Catholicism at this special moment in Church history.

It’s kind of the Catholic version of the sequester: despite all the apocalyptic hand-wringing about crises and institutional dysfunction, life largely goes on – and even flourishes, with many wonderful surprises. And anyway, as Ezra Pound once said, “an institution that survived the picturesqueness of the Borgias has a certain native resiliency.”

THE JERUSALEM MONASTIC COMMUNITY

taken from "before it is news"

Overall, our monastic and apostolic communities, including postulants, count almost 200 people of 30 nationalities.  We have about a thousand lay people in the 20 or so lay communities (of which the largest is the Evangelical fraternity), each one living at their own rhythm while respecting professional, societal or familial obligations, but still as a part of the Jerusalem family.

As for how many people we touch, it's always difficult and risky to say, for only God knows what touches a soul.  But concretely, 300,000 people come to St. Gervais per year; 800,000 pass through Vézelay; three million go to Mont-St-Michel... Every day, the Catholic television station KTO broadcasts the liturgy at St. Gervais.  Two guesthouses, Magdala in Sologne and Gamogna (11th century) near Florence in the Apenines, propose retreats and a place for solitude.  But only God knows who is touched in what way.  What is sure is that we are indeed touched by all those who support us and keep us in their prayers.

HEAVEN AWAITS US

DAWN MASS OF CHRISTMAS AT ST GERVAIS

THE MONASTIC COMMUNITY OF JERUSALEM (click)

Well worth watching!

 
THE HISTORY OF VATICAN II - Ep. 1

A PILGRIM'S WAY, SEARCHING FOR GOD THROUGH ROMANIAN MONASTICISM

March 6, 2013, 3:32 am

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This is an excellent introduction to the Search for God and Orthodox Monasticism as long as their knowledge of Catholicism is not taken too seriously. It is well worth perusing.

CATHOLIC VISION: CELEBRATION AND HUMILITY by Fr David Bird osb

March 9, 2013, 11:33 am

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CATHOLIC VISION

During my first couple of years in Peru, I used to wonder why images are so important to the peasants.   They have fiestas in their honour and spend extended periods before them, holding a bunch of lighted candles in their hands and staying there until the candles have burned themselves out.   They kiss them, touch them with their foreheads, and talk of them as though they are people.   It was difficult to find out from the peasants the reasons behind their behaviour because they certainly live their faith, but few can explain it; at least, that was true when we first arrived in 1981.    Few had received a formal education, especially in the Faith.   Then, one day, I met a highly articulate peasant with a large vocabulary and the imagination to understand what I wanted to know.   I asked him about the importance of images.   After thinking for a little while, he said, "When an image receives the blessing of the Church, it becomes for us a manifestation of God's presence, a point of contact between God and us."

It could have been the Fathers of the Second Council of Nicaea speaking.   They argued that the Incarnation had brought about a completely new relationship between material creation and God, so new that it rendered the old absolute prohibition against images obsolete.   In Christ, God and man became one in such a way that, "He who sees me sees the Father."   Since his Ascension into heaven, Christ lives in the Presence of the Father, and in him "all things hold together." (Col. 1, 7)   Since that time, everything can be and, at the end of time, will be a symbol of Christ's presence.   Whenever we see Christ in anything or anybody, this is part of the process by which God claims back for himself a fallen world;  and the painting, blessing and use of icons (images) is part of that process, as is the blessing and use of a church or shrine, the consecration of chalices, and the blessing of medals and of anything else under the sun which puts the material world at the service of God's rule.   This includes whatever we do under obedience if it manifests Christ's obedience, any act of love that manifests Christ's love.   Mother Teresa and her nuns, Dorothy Day and her houses of Christian hospitality and monasteries united in their love of God, all help to make Christ visible as well as heard.

In spite of the fact that God lives "in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen, or can see," (1 Tim. 6, 16), there is a visual element in Christian revelation, an anticipation of heaven, where "we will be like him, for we will see him as he is" (1 John 3,2).   "we declare to you...what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life" (1 john 1,1).   "Whoever sees me sees him who sent me" (John 12, 45).   "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14,9).   "In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live" (John 14, 19).   "Blessed are the pure in heart,  for they will see God" (Matt. 5,8).  "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear" (Matt. 13, 17)   "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2, 29).

There is an instinct in Catholicism to use all our senses when we seek God because God has a human face and has stooped in the Incarnation to meet us at a human level; and our faith has the ability to transcend, not only what we hear to discern the word of God, but also to use the others senses, including sight, to discern the presence of God in Christ through all that is good, beautiful and true.   Hence faith hears through our ears, sees through our eyes, touches through our hands, tastes through our mouth, and even smells through our nose.  

Moreover, Christ, whom we receive in holy communion, can work through our senses to the degree that we put them at his disposal; and we can become extensions of his body in the world, one of the myriad of ways that Christ charges the world through and through with his presence.

As St Gregory Palamas said, the whole of creation is one great burning bush, shot through with the energies of God without being consumed. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, it wasn't an isolated event: it was the unveiling for a moment of reality as it really is, all the time.   As Jean Paul de Caussade wrote, every situation, every moment,  is a kind of sacrament, wherever we go, whatever we do, it is absolutely filled with God without altering it in any way,just like the burning bush.  As St Francis said, a believer sees and believes, while the nonbeliever simply sees. All that is needed is faith to recognise his presence in the present moment and to respond to the duties and invitations of that moment.  

 We use all our senses to discern God' presence and to discern what he wants from us; and we use all our senses in reaching out to God in  worship, as any liturgical celebration will show, whether of the old Mass or the new, if it uses all the facilities that Tradition offers us to praise God.

If God communicates to us through what is visible by the power of the Spirit, as well as by what is audible, certain questions are raised.   For instance, what do the faithful see when they are at Mass?  What should they see to help them realise the truth they are celebrating?  What vision do we portray in our liturgy?

According to the Constitution on the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, the chief characteristic of the liturgy in general and of the Mass in particular is the presence and active participation of Christ from the very beginning to the very end:

The liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ.   In the liturgy, the sanctification of man is manifested by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way proper to each of the these signs: in the liturgy full public worship is performed by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members. (SC 1, 7)

If Christ is not present, it is not liturgy.   If the Church is not present, it is not liturgy.   Liturgy is always the activity of both, working together in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

"Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, for ever and ever".   THAT is liturgy.

St Augustine of Hippo puts it another way:

When the body of the Son prays, it does not separate itself from its head, and the same saviour of the body, our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, is he who prays for us, prays in us, and is invoked by us.   He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our head, and is invoked by us as our God.   Therefore, we recognise our own voices in him, and we recognise his voice in us. St Augustine of Hippo: Commentary on Psalm 85 (1: CCL. 39, 1176-1177) 

Does this appear to be the case? Does the celebrant in the Mass so conduct himself that both he and his congregation are aware  that he is only the instrumental cause of the sacrament, acting in the presence of Christ the Priest as a pen is in the hand of a writer; or does he act as though he is using his priestly power in the absence of his Lord, that he, rather than Christ, is in complete control and is the centre of attention?   Does his manner of celebrating draw attention to himself or to Christ? 

  The best rubric is the oldest and is Scriptural:  St John the Baptist said that Christ  must grow while  he must diminish. St John Chrysostom said, in the same spirit, that for Christ to appear, the priest must disappear.   It seems to me that, too often, whether priests are celebrating the old rite and are prancing around like princes in cappa magnas, birettas and lace, or are celebrating the new rite as though they were pop stars or television hosts, inflated egoism can soon become part of the rite.   

My own suggestion is that a bad theology of liturgy that limits Christ's presence to what happens after the consecration and thus distorts the understanding of priesthood, of liturgy and of the Eucharist, has been passed on in spite of Vatican II and continues to influence good men, now as then, to do the wrong thing while thinking they are acting appropriately.   

  The appropriate attitude of the priest is one of humble obedience, of service to Christ and the Church, all too aware, if possible, of the awesome presence of Christ and his own unworthiness.   If he is not aware of Christ's presence, who else will be? 

The antidote is to have a liturgy that expresses the presence of God, of approaching the Holy of Holies and passing through veil that is the flesh of Christ into the presence of the Father.

 I am not attacking splendour and beauty in the liturgy - that is contrary to my intention - but it must be a means of making people conscious of the Divine Presence and inclining the whole community to worship , not towards dressing up the ego of the celebrant.  I advocate the kind of splendour that belonged to the Divine Liturgy in Constantinople when the delegates of Prince Vladimir of Kiev attended.   It was a splendour that talked of God.  They said afterwards:

 “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere on earth. We cannot describe it to you; only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget the beauty!”

I have been to many a Catholic mass, both before the changes and afterwards, where I could have said the same thing; though I do not suppose they matched up to the splendour of the Mass celebrated in Hagia Sophia in the tenth century!!   The important thing is for those who celebrate  to be humbly aware of the presence of God who is the main actor in the Mass, of the Father who is the ultimate Source and Object of worship, of the Son who prays in us and we in him, and of the Holy Spirit who is our connection with the Son and, through him, with the Father.   The splendour  is only good in so far as it enhances that awareness.

In fact, the Mass is only possible because of the synergy (harmony of two activities) in the Holy Spirit between the humble obedience of Christ unto death, and the humble obedience of the Church in obeying his command to "do this in memory of me", this latter obedience reflecting the humble obedience of the Blessed Virgin who said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word."   

The priest needs the humble obedience of Christ and of the Church to confect the sacrament and offer the sacrifice, because he is the voice of both; but if he wants to spiritually benefit from the Mass himself like all the faithful, the only route is through his own humble obedience    The priest prays at the Offertory:

With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, O Lord, and may our sacrifice in your sight this day be pleasing to you, Lord God.

By the very nature of the kingdom of God which is about theocracy, God reigning, the only form of authority that can actually function in a way that allows God to reign  is through the meek and humble of heart.    The Beatitudes say that the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are merciful, who thirst for justice, who are persecuted  etc are blessed:  such people will be instruments of God's will, people through whom God will reign in his kingdom where the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   It could be said that the Beatitudes are a job description for servants of the kingdom who are also sons and daughters of God.   Jesus said, 

  You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority on them. 26But it shall not be so among you: but whoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27And whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

St Bede recounts a scene in which the Celtic bishops were about to meet Augustine of Canterbury who was Pope Gregory's envoy.  They were not sure whether to work with St Augustine or not; so they decided on a test: if he stood up out of respect when they entered into his presence, they would accept his authority; but, if he remained seated, they would not. Let us read this in St Bede'a own words:  

"This being decreed, there came, it is said, seven bishops of the Britons, and many men of great learning, particularly from their most celebrated monastery, which is called, in the English tongue, Bancornaburg, and over which the Abbot Dinoot is said to have presided at that time. They that were to go to the aforesaid council, be-took themselves first to a certain holy and discreet man, who was wont to lead the life of a hermit among them, to consult with him, whether they ought, at the preaching of Augustine, to forsake their traditions. He answered, "If he is a man of God, follow him."— "How shall we know that?" said they. He replied, "Our Lord saith, Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; if therefore, Augustine is meek and lowly of heart, it is to be believed that he bears the yoke of Christ himself, and offers it to you to bear. But, if he is harsh and proud, it is plain that he is not of God, nor are we to regard his words." They said again, "And how shall we discern even this?" – "Do you contrive," said the anchorite, "that he first arrive with his company at the place where the synod is to be held; and if at your approach he rises  to you, hear him submissively, being assured that he is the servant of Christ; but if he despises you, and does not rise up to you, whereas you are more in number, let him also be despised by you."

They did as he directed; and it happened, that as they approached, Augustine was sitting on a chair. When they perceived it, they were angry, and charging him with pride, set themselves to contradict all he said. He said to them, "Many things ye do which are contrary to our custom, or rather the custom of the universal Church, and yet, if you will comply with me in these three matters, to wit, to keep Easter at the due time; to fulfil the ministry of Baptism, by which we are born again to God, according to the custom of the holy Roman Apostolic Church; and to join with us in preaching the Word of God to the English nation, we will gladly suffer all the other things you do, though contrary to our customs." They answered that they would do none of those things, nor receive him as their archbishop; for they said among themselves, "if he would not rise up to us now, how much more will he despise us, as of no account, if we begin to be under his subjection?" Then the man of God, Augustine, is said to have threatened them, that if they would not accept peace with their brethren, they should have war from their enemies; and, if they would not preach the way of life to the English nation, they should suffer at their hands the vengeance of death. All which, through the dispensation of the Divine judgement, fell out exactly as he had predicted."

It was unfortunate that St Augustine did not have Pope Gregory's humility.  If it is true that all authority exercised within the context of God's kingdom must be so humbly open to God, so that God can truly rule through that authority,  a Pope who is not humbly obedient cannot effectively function as Pope.    Pope St Gregory's title for the Pope as "servant of the servants of God" not only showed the proper interior disposition of a pope, but also the nature of his authority.

   Within the orbit of the kingdom of God, whatever the role, lay or clerical, from the priest celebrating Mass, a father and mother educating their children, to the bishop and even the pope, all must so operate that God can operate through them.   Unlike other institutions, humble obedience is the number one essential for anyone exercising authority of any kind at all because it is the only dimension of the person through whom the Lord may act.
This disponibility, based on sheer trust when we obey God, even when we do not understand, and all we can do is trust, is one of the meanings of "faith" as in the "faith of Abraham".  This faith must be clearly expressed by priest and people alike in the celebration of Mass.


Before we depart from this question, we must examine another passage from Sacrosanctum Concilium which speaks of our participation as Church in the Liturgy of heaven.

8. In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle [22]; we sing a hymn to the Lord's glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ, until He, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with Him in glory. 

Our participation in the heavenly liturgy is expressed very well in the Letter to the Hebrews, and it is assumed in the Apocalypse; but, within the liturgy itself, it is most clearly expressed in the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I.   This canon excludes any thought of coming down to us.   Hence there is no real epiclesis, asking the Father to send his Spirit on the bread and wine to make them the body and blood of Christ: the only mention of the Holy Spirit is in the upward movement of the final doxology.  There is no mention of the Second Coming.   All is ascent.For consecration, the prayer asks:

In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, so that all of us, who through this participation at the altar, receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.  

 Apart from a few necessary additions, the number of apostles and martyrs in the two lists on either side of the words of institution are the same as that of the elders before the throne Of God and of the Lamb in the Apocalypse.   No other eucharistic prayer is so insistent on our participation in the heavenly liturgy; but that is where it ends.   Neither in the old liturgy nor in the new is there any further adequate expression of this dimension of the liturgy; so that it remains just  an interesting thought in the mind of theologians, in contrast to the Byzantine Rite where the idea is central to the celebration and to Christian piety.   Here is a commentary by a monk of St Tikhon's Orthodox monastery on the iconstasis which separates the sanctuary from the nave:

The Holy Fathers envisioned the church building as consisting of three mystical parts. According to Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople, a Confessor of Orthodoxy during the iconoclastic controversies (7th-8th Centuries), the church is the earthly heaven where God, Who is above heaven, dwells and abides, and it is more glorious than the [Old Testament] tabernacle of witness. It is foreshadowed in the Patriarchs, is based on the Apostles..., it is foretold by the Prophets, adorned by the Hierarchs, sanctified by the Martyrs, and its high Altar stands firmly founded on their holy remains.... Thus, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, the [Vestibule] corresponds to earth, the [Nave] to heaven, and the holy [Altar] to what is above heaven [Book on the House of God, Ch. 12].
Following these interpretations, the Iconostasis also has a symbolic meaning. It is seen as the boundary between two worlds: the Divine and the human, the permanent and the transitory. The Holy Icons denote that the Savior, His Mother and the Saints, whom they represent, abide both in Heaven and among men. Thus the Iconostasis both divides the Divine world from the human world, but also unites these same two worlds into one whole a place where all separation is overcome and where reconciliation between God and man is achieved. Standing on the boundary between the Divine and the human, the Iconostasis reveals, by means of its Icons, the ways to this reconciliation. (my source, click here)

I believe that this indicates that the "reform of the reform" needs to go further than recuperating some of the things that have been too easily taken out of use.   Perhaps that is the next stage.   However, once the Church has the stomach for it, it needs to do more to digest the teaching of Vatican II, because there is more to that teaching than has been expressed in the new form of Mass.   Perhaps it was too much to expect for the liturgists who had the job of expressing that teaching in concrete liturgical forms to be able to do so successfully with all its teaching.  Perhaps it was too much to expect them to digest all the teaching themselves.   Perhaps it will take generations to do justice to the whole teaching.   After all, Vatican II was a charismatic experience, a great movement of the Holy Spirit,  and liturgists are just people.

Meanwhile, our task is to live our faith so that we can present to the world a vision that does justice to the Gospel we preach.   To do this we must climb the ladder of humility because it is the only way to God, and turn St John the Baptist's statement into our rule of life: "He must grow, and I must diminish" and become more and more conscious of God's presence, both in the liturgy and in our everyday life.  If creation is like the burning bush, supercharged with the energies of God's presence, then humility opens a window that allows the light of God's presence to shine through into the world of men.

LAETARE SUNDAY: 4th SUNDAY OF 

LENT

FATHER PATRICK REARDON

ON THE PRODIGAL SON (click)

(Orthodox Homily)

PASTORAL LETTER OF HIS BEATITUDE JOHN X, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH AND ALL THE EAST (ORTHODOX)

March 10, 2013, 7:42 pm

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mi source: The Orthodox Church

His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, has prepared an extensive pastoral letter for his flock. It includes sections on Preaching, A Responsible Priesthood, Love and Pastoral Work, The Dialogue of Religions, and much more.

In Grace we grow,

In service we transcend

And in love the structure is strengthened

With the Mercy of God

John X

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

To all our beloved in the Lord

The Children of the Holy Antiochian See

Clergy and lay people

“Having been built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is strengthened, and will grow into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2: 20-2 1 ).

Beloved,

It is a pleasure to address you through this message, hoping that it conveys to you some of my concerns as to what our Church needs today and what is demanded of each of us. I would like to resort to these words, “In grace we grow, in service we transcend, and in love the structure is strengthened”, as a motto for my Patriarchate, as God has willed that I will be watching over the Antiochian Church and embracing its children with the help of my brothers the bishops. The Church is the Church of all of us. God has willed that we are in it as brethren, in order to work as one body. I know that many of you complain because they do not hear enough the voice of their Church. They think that it has abandoned them, and that it does not care for their real problems. Others, on the other hand, complain about the fact that many do not care about their Church, and are not interested in its affairs. I understand this complaint, and I am saddened by anyone who would forsake the flock of Christ because of negligence, arrogance, laziness or lack of transparency or care. It is my sincere wish that we should all share equally the responsibility for our Church, as Chrysostom has taught us. We will be responsible for it, if we respect our gifts and if we collaborate in caring for the affairs of our family as a whole.

For a person to take care of the affairs of his family, he should get acquainted with its situation, and should hope that the family itself knows his concerns and his constraints. We should therefore come up with diverse tools and measures that could make each of us listen to the other before we start preaching and planning.

Our Church has achieved in the previous era, through the efforts and sacrifices of my late predecessor Patriarch Ignatius IV and of the metropolitans of the Antiochian See, major accomplishments. With the help of the Holy Spirit these achievements can be continued with the assistance of devoted brethren. These achievements are now in our hands. We need to strengthen them, to develop them, and to render through them service to all our children and brethren and to all those who share with us this precious land of ours.

We hope to give each and every one the chance to express his opinion and to present constructive proposals, that may free our Church, with consultation, cooperation and efficient participation, from all weaknesses and impurities that it may become what its Lord and Master wanted it to be -a mirror of his glorious face. Then, through the ministry of the Church, through its humility and the cooperation of its children and their visitation in Love and conscious pastoral care, the world shall know that its Lord loves it so much, in spite of the hurdles and obstacles of the current situation.

The Pastoral Letter is a first step in a long journey for us together watching always over the common work and on how we can employ our capabilities for the service of all, for the service of this society, in which God has wanted us to witness for Him and for His love. You will find in it the main guidelines which I would like to lay before your eyes in order to straighten what has gone wrong in our life, and to strengthen what has been good in this Church which Jesus has entrusted to us that it may become the conscience of the world. These are common lines and headings. We shall work together on elaborating them, hoping to translate them soon to a plan of action, for the glory of the Lord and for consolidating our mutual love

1-Preaching:

The Lord said,”for this I was born, and for this I have come, to witness to the truth” (John 18: 37). He also said to us,”you shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1 :8). We witness to the truth, the truth which is Jesus Christ Himself, to Whom we witness by keeping His commandments, as He said, “whoever loves me, keeps my commandments” (John 14:23) Preaching is the backbone of the mission of the Church and the essence of its identity. This means the Church should carry the Word to all of humanity with the view of reviving it.

Preaching and ministering for the Word cannot be achieved by returning to old things, nor by clinging to a glorious past, nor by holding to an external tradition which is no longer of value. They are achieved and they become a reality to the extent they participate in the divine grace and live the tradition in a living dynamic way. We should think seriously how the Church can be heard in an age which boasts of its knowledge and material achievements, how the Church can dialogue with people, how to invite them to salvation, and how it can strengthen those who have believed in the mystery of their salvation.

In order for a Christian to accomplish his mission inside society, he needs first to accept and love this society, even if it contains dangerous trends, even if it is corrupt and evil, and even if its values conflict with the Christian conscience.

We should express the truth of our faith and our ministry of the Word in contemporaneous language resorting to technologies, without being estranged from our children and societies. It is important to use modern platforms to preach the Word. These platforms have transformed the wide world into a small village, by abolishing geographical boundaries and removing the obstacles between cultures. Modern media can help bring the Gospel to the people, as they can alienate them from it. Yes, we can use the media to reach millions of human beings who listen to them. The new media technologies have filled our homes and occupied the largest part of our children’s minds. We shall work with specialists and establish a specialized media center to put the media in the service of the Word. The center shall follow the example of the Apostle Peter in his speech on Pentecost, emphasizing openness, dialogue, and communication. We are invited to adopt a media policy that is centered not around ourselves but around God’s love to the world; this love was preached by the angels that peace may come from above.

We should affirm our identity within many identities, and we should raise our voice in the midst of many voices. The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church according to the Promise of Christ (John 14: 17), and works continuously in it, giving its members the gifts of Pentecost and its experiences. Therefore, we have to offer the experiences of sanctity and knowledge together without conflict or separation, in order for the Church to achieve its educational and informative role for the service of the believers and their spiritual growth.

Transmitting the Gospel to children and to the youth is a challenge that necessitates a great deal of awareness and effort. Through cultural centers and Church clubs, through printed and electronic publications, through traditional tools and modern communication and media facilities, we can accomplish our educational task and our ministry of the Word in all Church activities. We can also promote dialogue between members of the Church and between them and others. These technologies, despite some negative aspects in them, can play an efficient role in contributing to the good of human beings. Thus, we offer our children and the world a spiritual renewal, and bring the good tidings, as much as we can, to every human being, according to the saying of the Bible “Their call has gone out throughout the earth, and their utterances have reached to the end of the world” (Ps 19- 4).

This spiritual renewal leads us not to undermine the value of science, arts, literature, and all cultural aspects; we believe that the spiritual experience takes all knowledge to its sublime end in order to achieve its ultimate good. For God has loved the world, He loved it as it was, and will love it as it is now. We, as children of God, should love the world and take care of it, and perform our ministry of the Word by using all tools at our disposal

2-The Service of Praising:

“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5 19).

Liturgy, as the address of the created to the Creator; is the domain in which our Holy Fathers expressed the special relationship of the children with their heavenly Father; and the uprightness of their faith. They have lived this experience and expressed it in words cast in poems imbued with ascetic terms, resulting in prayers. These prayers reflect the life of the Church historically and theologically, the more we repeat them, the more we understand their depth and appreciate their sweetness.

However liturgy is not a rigid thing to be repeated unconsciously. It is an expression of the human need to talk to the Lord, and to thank Him for His grace. Liturgy is spirit and life running through the veins of the body of the Church, and nurturing all its members. It revives the Church, the community and the individuals with the grace that is bestowed upon it. Hence, we are here before a precious gem. We should polish it and reveal its glorious face, stressing the essence of the liturgical practice which leads the believer to grow in Christ. It is therefore important to resort to all tools that enable the people to reach the depth of this inspiring liturgy, that they may take from it that which will help them attain salvation and understanding of the mystery of God.

We are aware of the fact that ritual services and sacramental life are important in our parishes. Performing these services, unifying the forms and developing chanting play a specia1 and basic role in harmonizing between the liturgical practice and the pastoral reality. Activating the pastoral aspect of Liturgy can increase the religious awareness and deepen the relationship between the created beings and the Creator.This is realized by making the language understandable to the people, and by restoring the pastoral liturgical order which takes into consideration the particular needs of parishes and the necessity of sanctifying time in a world of drastic changes. We should also restore the pastoral dimension of all sacramental practices in order that these practices may become the center of the life of the believing community, not merely as passing practices of individuals.

3-Our Institutions are a helping hand extended to the neighbor:

Our institutions belong to the Church, that is to the believers. They are for the good of the believers and are not supposed to be for the individual interests. They are part of the vineyard of the Lord who says in the Gospel, “son, go today and work in my vineyard” (Matt 21 : 28). This blessed work is addressed to our people who need assistance, our youth who are working to build their future, our elderly who want to spend the rest of their lives in happiness and bliss, our orphans that they may grow in an atmosphere of tenderness, love, and stability. The aim of investing in our institutions is not for material gain or economic growth; it is primarily spiritual: it is a service to our neighbour.

Today, more than ever before, human beings are falling under the pressure of harsh circumstances, conflicts, economic interests, world commerce and technological change. Today, human beings are dealt with as machines, not as persons. This fact increases their spiritual toils and their ethical problems. Social life has changed into a life of isolation.

We have therefore to offer a new and correct vision in addressing the affairs of this world, by working on improving the administration of the Patriarchal properties and lands, by developing their investments, by keeping all of the possessions within the framework of our religious law, harmonizing its administration with the expectations of the Church and the welfare of the community.

And in order for our philanthropic institutions, schools, university, and hospitals, to shine with the divine light, that is always present in them, each of these institutions, be it small or large, should seek to have a clear vision of its service. It should define its raison d’etre, and have a clear plan of action leading to the realization of its goals according to a well studied methodology elaborated by specialists. The specialists are expected to gather the necessary data, to analyze it, to explain it,and to crystallize it in a manner that it can serve everyone, that we may repeat with the Apostle, “therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as the wise” (Eph 5: 14).

4-A Responsible Priesthood:

Priesthood is a great honor; human beings do not deserve it. It is God’s gift to men emanating from the fullness of His love. It is a divine call. We, as humans, are honored to share in it through gifts given to us. Our participation in the priesthood is a commitment to serving the people of God, to the work of faith, to the toil of love, and the patience of hope.

Hence, there is need to prepare dedicated pastors, who love their ministry and who commit themselves to it, in a way that would fit the divine calling. We are aware of the importance of priestly education for the success of the ministry, as much as we are aware of the pioneering role of the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology in this respect. However in order not to confine the concept of education to an interest in theoretical theological knowledge alone, we have to help the priests accomplish their duty and succeed in their work, by finding necessary frameworks for their development, by following them, assisting them, and securing a decent living for them. We need to prepare them before they embark on their pastoral work that they may have the necessary experience to accomplish their ministry. We should exhort them to dedicate themselves fully to the service of the Lord on His Holy Altar and on the altar of the neighbour.

This cannot be accomplished without joining the efforts of the priests with those of the parish, in such a way that all of them make up the gifted people of God, and the one body in which the function of each of the members completes the functions of the others. Only then, the priest is capable of giving himself to the service of his parish, and the parish shall use all its capacities to achieve solidarity among its members and care for its priest. This will make the face of Christ shine in love, and human beings will then see our good deeds and glorify our Father who is in heaven, and we will be Christ’s true witnesses.

5-Love and Pastoral Work:

“Because you are our glory and our joy” (I Thess 2: 10).

“Do you love me? He said, Lord you know everything and you know that I love you. He said to him,Tend my sheep” (John 2 1 : 17). As He said to Peter so also Jesus says to each of us, “Son, do you love me? He stands before the door of our heart waiting for our love. Do we answer? Or we forget to open the doors of the heart and let the many preoccupations and the filthiness permeate our soul? But if we say,”yes we love you, help the lack of our love”, and if we open the door he will certainly say to us, “tend my sheep”. The Lord affirms that there is no pastoral work without love. Love comes first, because the Christian life is a love story. Love is the mother of faith and its distinctive mark. It is the mother of all virtues, greater than knowledge and even greater than prayer; as the Fathers say. Whoever loves serves and gives himself for the sake of those whom he loves, with full respect to their talents and their capacities. These are the characteristics of the good ministry, following the example of the only good shepherd who gave himself for the sake of the sheep. Preserving love is necessary to be like Christ and to live according to His morals and teachings, and persevere with “the teaching of the apostles, communion, breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2: 42). This is the kind of pastoral work we have to realize in our Church circles. Priests and lay persons in the councils mentioned in our laws and rules, should be encouraged to perform a better communion and service.

a-Christian Education and the Development of a Religious Awareness:

We have to offer encouragement and pastoral care to all those who work in carrying the flame of faith to the new generations, in all ages. We must remind them that they are invited to transmit the person of Christ through His teachings and through their life in Him, not only through words. Jesus, who is “the way”, shows us the ways leading to Him. The long experience of the Church helps us to see the places where we can find Him in them. We cannot walk on these ways without repentance and change of mind, without a conscious practice of the sacraments of the Church, and an ontological encounter with the Word of God in His Holy Book, and a continuous vigilance in repeating His name in prayers. We should always be aware of His presence with us and in His brethren in whom He was pleased to dwell.

A big effort is awaiting us in order to evaluate and rectify the curricula of religious education in our Church, in order to bring them closer to today’s world and to use a language and educational tools which can be understood by the people and accepted by them.

b-Caring for the Youth:

Young men and women constitute the richness of the Church. As the Apostle says: “we should exhort them not to let anyone look down at their youthfulness” (I Tim 4: 12). They should rather be “an example in love” and service. We have to empower their abilities to serve their brothers and sisters and the Church, with a serious spirit, sacrifice and commitment. Jesus loved the rich young man. He demanded much of him. Every young person is rich in ambitions and talents. Let us care for our youth and ensure for them practical ways to fulfill their witness. Only then can we require much of them. Let us see to it that they have meeting places and conference centers. Let us encourage the Antiochian youth to open up to each other, in the Antiochian realm, so this may be a shining sign of the unity of our See.

c-Caring for Women:

Women have many special talents. We can benefit from them together or with men in the pastoral and social services. We see in the New Testament women who served the Church in many ways. In the apostolic age, the Christian community lived according to the saying of the Apostle, “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ then you are the descendants of Abraham and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3 27-28). Many women followed Jesus and accompanied Him while He was preaching the Word. We see in the Bible that some of these women have accomplished different tasks, collaborating with the Apostles in the service of the community. It is important that we think of ways to encourage women to get involved in preaching and service, and that we consult with them in all that is related to the matters of the Church We should invent new ways to strengthen their service in brotherhoods working in the world, in monastic orders, and in different social activities.

d-Caring for the Family:

We see in the world selfish tendencies separating man from the life of his community. The Church emphasizes the fact that the family is the cornerstone in the structure of society. The family is based upon the communion and the solidarity between its members,that each may find in it his or her personal dimension Therefore, we should work to preserve the family, and think of educational programs and activities supported by the successful initiatives of some centers interested in offering awareness to future couples in order to prepare them psychologically and scientifically and to provide them with all relevant information for a better marriage and a better family within society. A successful family is the basic guarantee for a better upbringing of our children and a deeper awareness of our youth, and it will ensure a deeper communion in our Christian family.

e-Caring for the Poor:

I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you visited me” (Matt 25: 35-36).

We should get used to finding Christ in every human being. Every human being whom God puts on our way is “our neighbor”. Through him Jesus reveals himself to us. Where are we in such interest? What is the share of the poor in our possessions? These are questions to be asked by each of us, first to his conscience, and then to the parish, and to the diocese in which we live.

f-caring for People with Special Needs:

Most of our community is not aware that some of our youth, in more than one diocese, are taking care of the deaf and the blind, and of others who have special needs, and are including them in projects of Christian education. This is a pioneering work which we should support and participate in, and in all dioceses. There is an increasing number of people with special needs nowadays. We cannot forget those who need more assistance than others. All our children should be encouraged to appreciate the importance of this service and help in accomplishing it.

g-Knowing the Reality of our Parishes and Caring for them:

There has been recently a great deal of confusion about the concept of Church and that of the sect. Several organizations have emerged speaking in the name of the Orthodox. We understand the feeling and the concern behind such initiatives, and we appreciate the zeal in claiming the rights of our children. We should, however emphasize that we are a Church and not merely a sect among others. The Church contains the sect and does not deny it; it embraces it. We need to renew our concern with the affairs of this good community. It constitutes the social texture of our Church. We should listen to it, dialogue with it, and care for its needs persevering in our responsibility in leading it to the Lord.

The movement of the population for different reasons, which we saw in the last decades in Lebanon, Iraq, and now in Syria, together with the emigration abroad led to a substantial change in the demography of most of our dioceses. It is important to observe this phenomenon with scrutiny through scientific research and through statistics. We need to know where our children are living now, to listen to them, to hear their opinion and to understand their expectations in collaboration with our brothers, our metropolitans across the globe. Once we have achieved this, we could start developing pastoral programs and build churches as well as centers for social and clerical activities.

Beloved,

God asked us to be servants, and gave us the example when He washed the feet of His disciples, teaching us how to be “first” in the community of love. He also commanded us, as in the Gospel of John, to be “one” as He and the Father are one (John 1 7: 11). Our ministry among you is perfected when it is linked to the concept of the communion which gathers all at all levels. Surely, we believe that this communion has a sacramental dimension which emanates from the Eucharist; however it is also expressed in the deeds which incarnate this communion in the internal life of the community on one hand, and its witness to the world, on the other.

6-Developing Monastic Life in Monasteries:

“Rejoice always, pray unceasingly, give thanks for everything” ( I Thess 5: 14). Monasticism is a return to the life of the first Christian community, to persevering in prayer and sharing possessions, to freeing oneself from passions and any such thing, and to devoting oneself fully to the teachings of Christ. Monasticism is applying these teachings simply as they are, especially His saying to the rich young man, “if you want to be perfect, go sell all that is yours and give it to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me” (Matt 19: 2 1 ; Mark 10: 2 1 ; Luke 1 8: 22). After the disappearance of most of the monastic orders of the Antiochian See, which witnessed in the past the beginning of monastic life, God has given us, in the last decades to witness a revival in more than a monastery. Our concern is to foster this kind of living with all its requirements and rules. Accordingly, the monks and nuns become living examples of the life in Christ, reminding the people of the world with the requirements of this life, carrying them and the whole world in their continuous prayers and offering them o the throne of God.

7-Our Antiochian See is One and Unified:

At the level of our internal life, the Holy Antiochian Synod is the symbol of the Antiochian Unity. When convened, it notes that the work in the dioceses is accomplished “in decency and order” according to what God expects of us as servants of His Word. Thus, the Holy Synod, in its unity, is the place of consultation, in which the gifts given to the believers are observed, and are used effectively. The Holy Synod lives the reality of the fathers’ love to their children, ensuring communication within the Church community. Because of the love which binds its members, the Holy Synod questions and ensures that services are effectively and honestly enforced.

We will not spare any effort to make every believer feel that the Church is ready to benefit from his knowledge, experience and abilities in promoting parish life, and Church life as well. Our task, nowadays, is to abolish the estrangement the believer feels between his Church affiliation and his affiliation to the world. This must be done because the believer must sanctify the world. The believing people, as a royal priesthood, are called to this divine mission to snatch the world away from its worldliness and bring it closer to God. Therefore, we shall work to activate the potential of individuals and institutions, in order to show the gifts that God has endowed his people with in all fields -theology, science, literature, arts, etc. Our interest in the history of our Church, and its landmarks is to show the particularities of the witness which we are supposed to fulfill.

We pray for Antioch, despite the sufferings of today, to continue to witness through all its children, to the authenticity of its faith and to the centrality of incarnation in its thought.

8-An Approach to our Contemporaneous Modern Reality:

The Church of Antioch played a prominent role throughout history in conciliating varying points of view. Therefore, the Orthodox Churches today shall make every effort to ensure that our Antiochian See should continue to play this historical role of reconciliation as a bridge of love and communication. Thus, all would then walk in one spirit to the glory of God and of His one Apostolic, Catholic, Holy Orthodox Church. We shall support, in this context, all efforts aiming at realizing the “Panorthodox Synod” which we hope will eventually take place.

In this spirit, we expect our institutions -the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology, the University of Balamand, and other research centers, to come up with the appropriate Orthodox positions on issues that preoccupy our generation such as genetics: cloning and other such thorny issues We should debate these issues with our brethren in the other Orthodox Churches that we may reach a common Orthodox approach to these challenges. We have to do that to guide our children in a world that is facing them continuously with vital questions. There is no doubt that the entire Christian world awaits our position on these issues. This is so because Orthodox thought is closest to the thought and theology of the early Church.

9-Towards a Full Sacramental Unity of the Christians:

We, as Antiochians, are aware of the painful wound inflicted on the body of Christ by the schism between the believers. This has led the Antiochian Church to participate actively for decades in every dialogue to remove the obstacles which block the way to restoring the unity of the Christian world. We will always be faithful to the policy of my predecessors. I insist on the importance of maintaining the absolute respect between the Churches ignoring any arrogance, anathematizing, and schismatization. I am deeply convinced that Orthodoxy; which is the basis of every interaction between us and other Churches, is a unifying factor not a divisive one. I am also convinced that adhering to it is the right way. With love and humility, we strengthen the common factors that bind us all together. There will undoubtedly be differences, not in essentials, and this a source of propitious diversity. This shall be considered a richness to us, and not a deviation of our adherence to Christ.

Therefore, we hope to accomplish all steps towards a full sacramental unity with our brethren in the Eastern non-Chalcedonian Churches, based on what we have agreed upon in Chambesy as a positive result of a long and extensive dialogue. If we realize this, we should be able to show that we have offered a living example of the credibility of our endeavors to achieve unity and to witness to our loyalty to the Lord. On this occasion, we also affirm that we will continue all dialogues now taking place between the different Eastern and Western Churches, seeking to show our unlimited readiness to show the face of the bride, that is the Church. In this respect, we should affirm the importance of the living witness which we as Christians should show by living the love we carry to the whole world in the name of Jesus Christ. We call for consultation among ourselves as Christian Churches, about the different issues raised by the modem world, emphasizing the issues that unite us and constitute our common denominators. These common denominators can be offered to the man of today as a consolation from the Lord.

10-The Dialogue of Religions:

What we have said about our relations with the other Christian Churches applies equally on our relations with other religions, especially at a time when religions are used to categorize people and sow conflicts and divisions among them. Our Antiochian history is full of examples showing that we have always rejected any such categorizations and divisions with other religions, or with compatriots in the same country. Throughout the centuries, we, as Antiochian Church, believe in living together; and we practice this belief fully. Because man is the focus of all religions, we have to nurture in him the love of the other and not just accepting him. We should also teach not only to take this into consideration, but also to serve him in addition. Hence our Church today, as in the past, works for continuing the dialogue with everyone, on the basis of mutual respect, of equality and of the acceptance of differences. As a Church rooted in this East, we reject isolation in its many manifestations. We encourage openness and the participation with our brethren in citizenship and in all concerns. What unites us is far greater than what separates us.

Ignorance is the enemy of us all. The distorted image one has of the other is harmful. Therefore, we call for a mutual understanding based on science and objectivity, in order to dispel fake ideas and beliefs that often permeate our thoughts. We should also seek to live love. To live love is the best way to overcome the ignorance which leads to hatred. In our East, we need the good with all its powers to work for us because of what we are going through. Therefore we should work hand in hand, whatever our religion, in order to embark on major human goals, asking God to bestow upon us His grace as faithful servants, that we may enjoy an encounter with love, not an encounter with hate and ignorance.

We should stress here the fact that our Muslim brothers, our co-citizens, have a special place in our heart and mind. Our relations with them go beyond the mere living together in peace. With them we share all the concerns which face the development of our countries, and the peace of our people. With them we build the common future of our children, with them we face all dangers. We shall work on rejecting every negative spirit that could negate our presence on this land of ours or could limit our role in serving our country. We will work faithfully to get rid of ignorance through strengthening the ways of dialogue and communion, asking God to shed on us His grace in the spirit of togetherness for the best of the people in this region of the world.

11-A Responsible Presence at the level of Man and Society:

Religions are living nowadays in a pluralistic society, as boundaries between nations have been shrunk by modern technology. The doors of society are now widely open to any innovation that appears anywhere in the world. This is reflected in our vision of the role we are invited to play. We, as Christians, reject profanization, because it creates an estrangement between the world and its Creator. We believe, however; that we are called to convey the love of the Creator to the world, completing in service the work of His love. Our vision of man is based on the fact the he is created on the image and resemblance of God, and is called to be deified because of the grace which was bestowed upon him by the incarnation. These realities were offered by Antioch to the world since the dawn of Christianity. Today we are keen to strengthen this social presence as an integral part of our work in the Church.The first social circle which is of great interest to us all is the Arab society. We are here the children of the East.We are rooted in it since the early days of Christianity: here the Apostles have preached, the blood of our martyrs was shed, and our fathers have taught. Here, together with others, we have built, and we shall continue to build a glorious human history. From here we shall contribute to the building of a global culture which would not deny the past, but would learn from its cultural treasures in order to prepare for the future. We, the Antiochians, are a formative part of this Eastern texture. Our role in it is not measured by numbers but by the spirituality with which we create with others a dynamic culture which carries the imprints of this East and its rich heritage. We live in an East that is used to give to everyone the opportunity to be creative and to communicate at the cultural level. We shall make every effort to make of this common endeavor a leading trend in the Eastern presence within the global culture.

We are keen as Antiochians to convey the human message of the East to wider societies, defending the dignity of man, every man. In an age of profanization and materialism, which made of man a mere thing, we are determined to work to make the voice of authenticity heard, the authenticity which defends man for whose sake Christ was crucified. We shall seek to affirm this orientation with others. We shall also work, together with men of good will, in order to have better international and local legislations embodying fundamental ethical dimensions. Science cannot be used to harm man and the universe. Modernity cannot deny the essence of the human entity, nor its particularities, nor the upright relations between the members of society.

We believe that the positive contributions of science, thought, and art emanate from the essence of our Christian thought, which believes in man, and in his constructive role in respecting creation and protecting it.

12-To be committed to the Issues of the Earth:

In this context, we should observe that the nations, as political organizations, have a crucial role in the societal growth and the relations between the people. And because the Church exists in the world and witnesses in it, it should observe what is taking place in contemporary societies. It should ask about it, and question it, because it is concerned about preserving the dignity of man. The Church has also to realize what was proclaimed by the angels the day Jesus was born, I mean, it should realize joy and peace.

We are fully aware that we have to be messengers of joy and peace in the world. We know we have to be ready with others to work for peace that it may prevail wherever there is war, displacement, and conflict. We should also remember in our prayers all those who suffer that God may relieve them of their pain, and inspire the leaders towards what is best. We are aware we have to draw plans, whenever we can, to offer services in order to bring joy and happiness to the hearts of all. We, as Christians, work for conciliation, because our service in the world is a “service of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5: 18). This, we cannot disregard. Our interest in man, and in the responsibility of the nations in defending his freedom and dignity and spreading joy in his environment, is extended to the whole creation. Our world has known in the last years an unprecedented ecological deterioration which could endanger human life on earth. We have already developed in our Antiochian Church a long term plan concerning the environment and a better use of it. We shall implement these plans, and we shall widen the participation in this concern on the local and the global levels, because the creation is called to praise the Lord.

Beloved,

We are a community that believes in resurrection, and we are aware that the divine grace “makes the imperfect perfect”. For this reason, we trust that our weaknesses will not hinder us from accomplishing the mission with which we were entrusted as individuals and as a community. I ask God to enable us to work on these guidelines which shall enable our Apostolic See to accomplish the tasks as a witness to Christ in the East we all love, and in the whole world.

May God give us power in order to grow in His Grace and to transcend through the communion of love, and to strengthen the bonds of faith and of man.

Amen.

Issued from our Patriarchal Residence in Damascus

On February the seventeenth, two thousand thirteen

John X

Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

TUESDAY 11th OF MARCH: THE CONCLAVE OPENS

March 11, 2013, 6:59 pm

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THE CHURCH THAT THE NEW POPE WILL GOVERN

cardinals arriving

my source: Sandro Magister

 It will be a Church with two thirds of the faithful in the southern hemisphere. With more Catholics in Manila than in Holland. With the West in a decline of faith. And with the United States at the center of the new geography by Sandro Magister Catholics were and remain one sixth of the global population. They were and remain half of all Christians. But in absolute numbers they have quadrupled. In 1910 they were 291 million. In 2010 1.1 billion. What is most arresting, however, is the geographical revolution. This has been presented by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent survey: 

 The Global Catholic Population A century ago, 70 percent of Catholics lived in Europe and North America. Today just 32 percent, less than one third of the total. More than two thirds of Catholics today therefore live in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia and Oceania. In Latin America, they have grown in one century from 70 million to 425 million. In Asia and Oceania from 14 million to 131 million. The most astonishing increase has been in sub-Saharan Africa. Catholics were just 1 million in 1910. A hundred years later 171 million. In one century they have gone from less than one percent to 16 percent of the population. 

 The ranking of the countries with the largest number of Catholics has also been revolutionized. In 1910 the leaders of the pack were France and Italy, with 40 and 35 million Catholics respectively. Brazil followed with 21 million. There were more Catholics in Germany than in Mexico: 16 million versus 14 million. In 2010 Brazil jumped into the lead with 126 million Catholics, followed by Mexico with 96 million and the Philippines with 75 million. And for the first time one of the top ten was an African country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 31 million Catholics. Among the countries of Europe and North America, only the United States has seen over the past century a clear percentage increase of Catholics in the overall population. They were 14% in 1910, now they are 24%. In absolute numbers, with 75 million Catholics, the United States today is tied with the Philippines for third place in the general ranking. 

 In various countries of ancient Christian tradition, including those high in the rankings, Catholics no longer make up almost the whole of the population, as was the case a century ago. For example, in Brazil in 1910 Catholics were 95 percent of the population. Today 65 percent. This reduction has taken place above all in recent decades. In the United States as well, where changing from one religion to another is very common, Catholics have undergone an erosion over the past century. Those who have left the Church turn out to be more numerous than those who have entered. In compensation, however, a great number of immigrants to the United States, especially from Latin America, have come to increase the overall presence of Catholics. “Latinos” are today almost one third of Catholics in the United States and half of those under the age of 40. The United States is in short a focal point of the new dislocation of Catholics in the world. The cardinals who will enter into conclave tomorrow are aware of this. 

In the new century - if not already - an “American” pope will no longer be a surprise. 

Veni Creator Spiritus

 It may seem astonishing that such a strong expansion of the Catholic Church should have taken place in a century like the twentieth, marked by anti-Christian persecutions and invaded by the secularist onslaught. But this paradox is not new. In the nineteenth century as well, the Catholic Church experienced formidable growth in mission territory, precisely while in Europe it was harshly opposed by the liberal and anti-clerical revolutions. 

WHAT THE POPE CAN AND CANNOT DO.

Doctrine limits what the new pope can change.

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As the world awaits a new pope, polls are taken, essays written and hopes expressed for what he might change. Priestly celibacy? Contraception? The working language of the Vatican Press Office?

The latter would be most feasible, but probably would likely involve a tough internal political battle for the new pontiff and his aides. There are theological and logistical limits on the changes he can make. He can't create new doctrine out of thin air.

"Popes are servants of the church's settled tradition, not the tradition's masters," said papal biographer George Weigel, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Conclave: The making of a pope

This Catholic News Service video has cardinals explaining the conclave.

While the pope has authority to govern the church, he must answer to its doctrine as a president answers to the Constitution, said Edward Peters, canon law professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

"There are an awful lot of things he's in charge of, but he's not free to change a doctrine of the church or to alter the fundamental structure of things like the papacy," he said.

Some changes that laity say they want from a new pope may involve media-based misconceptions. A 2012 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 60 percent of American Catholics want the church's public policy statements to focus more on the obligation to help the poor, even if that means speaking less about abortion.

However, regular reading of the Vatican's daily bulletin shows a church that cumulatively speaks far more often on hunger, poverty, violence, human rights, immigration, the environment and even traffic safety than it does against abortion. But usually only the statements on abortion grab headlines.

The easiest things for a pope to change involve how the Vatican gets its work done. Theologians from the left and the right, along with many bishops, have called for a bureaucratic overhaul.

"Conservatives ... want an efficient Curia that speaks with one voice in implementing their policies," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit political scientist from Georgetown University who studies the hierarchy. "Liberals want more decentralization. One liberal said to me, 'The last thing we want is an efficient Vatican bureaucracy. An efficient Inquisition?' "

Father Reese and Mr. Weigel, who have clashing hopes for the church's future, both want to see heads of Vatican offices chosen for their expertise and removed for ineptitude. Father Reese, who wants local bishops to have more freedom, argues that top Vatican administrators should no longer be made bishops or cardinals, so they can be removed more easily if they do a bad job.

Mr. Weigel, a conservative on matters of economics and foreign policy, takes issue with some statements on social policy that have issued from Vatican offices. He wants the lower level offices, such as the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to cease making public statements and serve only as advisory think tanks.

But both want the Vatican to issue statements in English and Spanish as soon as they are available in Italian, and to vastly improve its crisis response. Some high-ranking Vatican officials allowed devastating sex scandals to fester.

"Nothing happened when these crises broke, thus underscoring the importance of a deep reform of the culture of the Roman curia and its habits of work," Mr. Weigel wrote in his latest book, "Evangelical Catholicism."

Limited authority on theology

But to most Catholics, administrative concerns are inside baseball. Their focus is on theological issues, which the pope has limited authority to change.

Contrary to popular opinion, infallible statements by popes are extremely rare, but many that carry lesser authority still can't be easily revised. Most doctrines that the church deems infallible, such as physical resurrection of Jesus, are rooted in Scripture and the creeds -- and don't need a pope to declare them infallible. Those can't be tampered with either.

"There are limits to the papacy. He's not God, after all," said the Rev. Francis Sullivan, 90, a Jesuit who taught theology for 36 years at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. As Pope Benedict told some priests in 2008, "The pope is not an oracle; he is infallible in very rare situations."

There have been only two papal declarations that everyone agrees are officially infallible. Both concerned the Virgin Mary. The first, in 1854, was the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that she was conceived free from original sin. The second, in 1950, was the dogma of her Assumption, the belief that her body was drawn up into heaven rather than decaying in the grave.

In order to make an infallible declaration, a pope must clearly address the worldwide church from the throne of Peter, saying that he is defining a matter of faith or morals that every Catholic is required to assent to. The doctrine at stake must already have strong roots in tradition, have wide support from bishops and the faithful, and be compatible with Scripture. A declaration of infallibility is called a "solemn definition."

"He can't just define anything he wants," Father Sullivan said.

When it comes to doctrines that aren't infallible, theologians speaks of "development" rather than change.

Although the pope can't violate the teachings of the Bible, "church teaching can evolve just as our interpretation of Scripture evolves," Father Reese said. "Catholics no longer believe that the world was created in seven days, but they do recognize the role of God in creation and understand that the creation story is not just teaching scientific truth, but a truth about our relationship with God. Before a teaching can change, it must be studied carefully."

A recent example concerns purgatory. The Catholic Church has long taught that it is a state in which souls that are ultimately bound for heaven are purified of the effects of living a sinful life. Images of purgatory were shaped by the medieval poet Dante, who wrote of a place in which souls might spend centuries doing difficult penance. Dante wasn't doctrine, but he fueled centuries of sermons.

But in his 2007 encyclical on hope, "Spe Salvi," Pope Benedict proposed purgatory as an encounter with Christ, whose divine love burns away all the effects of the sins that his death has already atoned for. This was an understanding, originally put forth by others, that he had endorsed since he was a university professor and had included in one of his textbooks, Father Sullivan said.

It's not infallible but must be taken seriously by all Catholics, Father Sullivan said.

"He is saying 'I think this is the way it takes place and I'm telling you about it.' This is somewhat unheard of, to have such a sequence where something he put forth as a new idea when he was a theologian then appears in his papal encyclical."

Endorsing religious freedom

Important modifications to popular or long-standing Catholic belief were made 50 years ago at Vatican II. There the world's bishops denounced a belief that had been preached for centuries, though it was never doctrine, that all Jews for all time were guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus. They also rejected a teaching that "error has no rights" in civil society, endorsing the right to religious freedom.

On two of the most contentious issues for American and European Catholics -- contraception and women's ordination -- experts disagree over whether church teaching can change.

The ban on artificial contraception is different from the ban on abortion, because it's based on the spirituality of sex and marriage rather than on a belief that the sperm and unfertilized ovum are human beings. The idea is that God calls married couples to be open to participating with him in the creation of new life, and that using chemicals or barriers to prevent conception shuts God out.

Some theologians argue that artificial contraception has been so consistently condemned over the centuries that it meets an infallibility standard without a papal definition. It's "a settled matter," said Mr. Weigel, who believes the church must do a better job of explaining it.

Father Sullivan believes that it would be difficult but not impossible to modify church teaching against artificial contraception, perhaps reviving an idea that a papal commission proposed to Pope Paul VI before he issued his encyclical on contraception in 1968. The majority on the commission reportedly supported the idea that each sexual act didn't have to be open to procreation as long as the marriage as a whole was. A minority on the commission, including one of Father Sullivan's former professors, persuaded Pope Paul to reject that proposal. They argued at least in part, that it would be a devastating blow to papal authority if he reversed what Pope Pius XI had said about contraceptives, Father Sullivan said.

A pope would have far more leeway to remove the celibacy requirement that was imposed on Western diocesan priests in the 11th century. The Eastern Catholic Churches in Europe, the Middle East and Asia have always had married priests. In the West, married Protestant clergy who convert to Catholicism have been accepted into the priesthood for more than 30 years.

Although the church cites biblical support for celibacy in the examples of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, it is considered a rule, not a doctrine.

Mr. Weigel's view on whether a new pope could lift the celibacy requirement is, "He could, but he won't. And, in my view he shouldn't. In a culture choking to death on eroticism ... the witness of celibacy as a gift of self to God and the people of God is even more important."

Eventually, "the church will allow married male priests, and following that they will allow women to be priests," said Joan Houk of McCandless, a bishop in Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which claims that its clergy are validly ordained Catholics. The Vatican doesn't recognize them and says they have excommunicated themselves.

"What it would take is action by the Holy Spirit," she said. "Whether that could happen this time around, I don't know."

'Complicated' issue

Father Sullivan is doubtful, saying that the issue of whether church teaching on women in the priesthood is infallible is "complicated." Others are absolutely certain that Pope John Paul's 1994 apostolic letter on the matter was definitive.

Pope John Paul's letter didn't use words such as "infallible" or "dogma."

"Normally, if he intended to issue a solemn definition, he would have done so more clearly than that," Father Sullivan said.

"So I think yes, a future pope could reverse that. He could say that he does not agree now with the judgment of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

Mr. Peters, the canon law professor, believes that if a pope announced that women could be ordained as priests, the bishops and faithful of the world would realize he had fallen into heresy and disregard him. On the other hand, polls show that about 60 percent of American Catholics favor ordaining women as priests.

While he acknowledged that the issue of whether women can be ordained as deacons hasn't been settled, Mr. Peters said, "I think a crisis would erupt even if women were ordained to the diaconate. People would say, 'I'm sorry. I think the pope has completely lost his reason. It may look like [the ordination] happened, but it didn't. Nothing sacramental occurred in the ceremony.' "

If most bishops concluded that a pope had committed heresy, he said, it's unclear how they would proceed. He wouldn't expect a trial to remove the pope.

"I think what you'd have would be a large number of bishops saying, 'I observe this behavior in the Holy Father and I think it's time for Catholics to pray for him. Church teaching hasn't changed ... and we trust the Holy Spirit will resolve this situation for us.' "

Ann Rodgers: arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.

First Published March 10, 2013 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/what-a-pope-can-and-cannot-do-doctrine-limits-new-pope-on-changes-678697/#ixzz2NEy0KVIM

BBC INTERACTIVE VIDEO ON THE CONCLAVE

my source: Sandro Magister

ROME, March 12, 2013 – This afternoon, the 115 cardinals who will elect the pope will make their solemn entrance into the Sistine Chapel.

The place in which the conclave will be carried out is unique in the world. And the frescoes upon which the eyes of the cardinal electors will fall will have an effect on them that is also unique.

As Joseph Ratzinger recognized in recalling the conclaves in which he participated:

"I know well how we were exposed to those images in the hours of the great decision, how they called us to task, how they insinuated into our souls a sense of the greatness of the responsibility. The word "con-clave" brings forward the thought of the keys, of the heritage of the keys left to Peter. To place these keys in the right hands: this is the immense responsibility in those days.”

In effect, as soon as the 115 cardinals enter in procession into the Sistine from the Sala Regia, their first glance will fall upon the famous fresco by Perugino with Jesus handing the keys to Peter.

But immediately afterward they will have before their eyes, on the back wall, the Universal Judgment painted by Michelangelo.

And above that the imposing figure of the prophet Jonah, in his turn facing God who is separating the light from the darkness, the first act of creation.

Then the cardinals will take an oath of silence with their hands on the Gospel, with Jonah and the judgment still before them.

Then they will listen to the meditation read by the octogenarian Prosper Grech, a great master of patristics and disciple and scholar of Augustine, the author of that masterpiece of theology which is the “De Civitate Dei."

Then they will pray, and finally they will prepare to vote. Still enveloped in the frescoed walls and vaults of the Sistine Chapel.

In the Sistine the ensemble of images - including those before the frescoes of Michelangelo - speak of the divine origin of the power of the keys given to Peter and to his successors. Keys that open the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the figure in the dominant position, Jonah, entrusted by Pope Julius II to the genius of Michelangelo, says much more.

Jonah is the prophet sent by God to preach conversion to the pagans. He goes, reluctantly, but rebels against the idea that God should use mercy with the repentant city of Nineveh. In the vault of the Sistine he sees that sin accompanies the history of man ever since the flood, and even before, from the days of Adam and Eve. As an upright man he wants the sinner to be punished. But then his glance is fixed on the very first act of God who is creating light. And he understands that God cannot bear that all that he has made from the beginning of the world should be lost, but only wants to save it.

That “sign of Jonah” which Jesus applies to himself in Matthew 12:40 will therefore weigh upon the cardinals gathered to elect the successor of Peter.

Like John, Peter as well and the popes after him are sent by Jesus to preach conversion to men, because “the Kingdom of God is near.” These are the keys of Peter, this is the power of the Church. A power that stems from the creative act of God and will reveal itself fully in the end, in the Judgment of Christ upon men and upon the world.

“To place these keys in the right hands: this is the immense responsibility.” Looking at the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals will be aware that their choice does not concern only the Church, but all of creation present and future.

The cardinals who will close themselves up in this space to elect the new pope cannot help but receive the imprint of the art that surrounds them. They cannot help but be overwhelmed by its extraordinary communicative power.

Of this as well is made the microculture that makes a conclave unique event.

From this as well will be born the selection of the successor of Benedict XVI.

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HABEMUS PAPAM!! THE NEW POPE AND ST GREGORY THE GREAT

March 13, 2013, 8:12 pm

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Cardinal Bergoglio has been elected pope as Francis I. He was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.   When appointed to that post, he moved out of the archbishop's palace into an ordinary apartment, commuted every day by bus, and cooked his own meals.   It has been suggested that he will have a completely new style of papacy

For those of us interested in Catholic relations with the Orthodox, his introductory speech holds out many hopes.   He made it clear that his first task is the evangelisation of the diocese of Rome as its bishop, and he spoke of the "church of Rome", rather than himself personally, as having first place in the Catholic Church.   This echoes the theology of Affanasiev and eucharistic ecclesiology.   He is pope BECAUSE he is Bishop pf Rome; so that, if history wishes to judge his papacy, its criticism must begin, not with his impact of the universal Church, but with his impact on Rome.   For him, the "new evangelisation" begins at home.   I am sure that the Orthodox patriarchs will welcome this emphasis.
In the Orthodox Calendar, the day the Conclave opened,, Sunday, 12th March, is the feast of St Gregory the Great who is recognised by both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a great saint and Father of the Church.   I am sure that he was praying for the Cardinals as they made their choice.  This post comes from THE BYZANTINE FORUM

Saint Gregory, surnamed "Dialogos" and "the Great", was born in Rome to noble and wealthy parents about the year 540. While the Saint was still young, his father died. However, his mother, Sylvia, saw to it that her child received a good education in both secular and spiritual learning. He became Prefect of Rome and sought to please God even while in the world; later, he took up the monastic life; afterwards he was appointed Archdeacon of Rome, then, in 579, apocrisiarius (representative or Papal legate) to Constantinople, where he lived for nearly seven years. He returned to Rome in 585 and was elected Pope in 590. He is renowned especially for his writings and great almsgiving, and also because, on his initiative, missionary work began among the Anglo-Saxon people. It is also from him that Gregorian Chant takes its name; the chanting he had heard at Constantinople had deeply impressed him, and he imported many elements of it into the ecclesiastical chant of Rome. He served as Bishop of that city from 590 to 604 and is celebrated annually on March 12th.

By Rev. James Barmby

Pope Pelagius died on the 8th of February, 590. The people of Rome, as has been already intimated, were at this time in the utmost straits. Italy lay prostrate and miserable under the Lombard invasion; the invaders now threatened Rome itself, and its inhabitants trembled; famine and pestilence within the city produced a climax of distress; an overflow of the Tiber at the time aggravated the general alarm and misery; Gregory himself, in one of his letters, compares Rome at this time to an old and shattered ship, letting in the waves on all sides, tossed by a daily storm, its planks rotten and sounding of wreck. In this state of things all men's thoughts at once turned to Gregory.

The pope was at this period the virtual ruler of Rome, and the greatest power in Italy; and they must have Gregory as their pope; for, if anyone could save them, it was he. His abilities in public affairs had been proved; all Rome knew his character and attainments; he had now the further reputation of eminent saintliness.

He was evidently the one man for the post; and accordingly he was unanimously elected by clergy, senate, and people. But he shrank from the proffered dignity. There was one way by which he might possibly escape it. No election of a pope could at this time take effect without the emperor's confirmation, and an embassy had to be sent to Constantinople to obtain it. Gregory therefore sent at the same time a letter to the emperor (Mauricius, who had succeeded Tiberius in 582), imploring him to withhold his confirmation; but it was intercepted by the prefect of the city, and another from the clergy, senate, and people sent in its place, entreating approval of their choice.

During the interval that occurred, Gregory was active in his own way at Rome. He preached to the people, calling them to repentance; he also instituted what is known as the "Septiform Litany", to be chanted in procession through the streets of the city by seven companies of priests, of laymen, of monks, of virgins, of matrons, of widows, and of poor people and children, who, starting from different churches, were to meet for common supplication in the church of the Blessed Virgin. In it the words occur, peculiarly interesting to us as having been afterwards sung by his emissaries Augustin and his monks, as they marched into Canterbury at the commencement of their mission in this country: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy mercy, that thy wrath and thine anger may be removed from this city, and from thy holy house. Allelujah." It was at the close of one of these processions that the incident is said to have occurred from which the Castle of St. Angelo has derived its name; the story being that Gregory saw on its site, above the monument of Hadrian, an angel sheathing his sword, as a token that the plague was stayed.

At length the imperial confirmation of his election arrived. He still refused; fled from the city in disguise, eluding the guards set to watch the gates, and hid himself in a forest cave. Pursued and discovered by means, it is said, of a supernatural light, he was brought back in triumph, conducted to the church of St. Peter, and at once ordained on the 3rd of September, 590.

Flight to avoid the proffered dignity of the episcopate was not uncommon in those days, and might often be mere affectation, or compliance with the most approved custom. A law of the Emperor Leo (469), directed against canvassing for bishoprics, had even laid down as a rule, that no one ought to be ordained except greatly against his will; "he ought to be sought out, to be forced, when asked he should recede, when invited he should fly; for no one is worthy of the priesthood unless ordained against his will."

But there is no reason to doubt that Gregory felt a real reluctance, though he may have been partly actuated by the received view of what was proper in such a case, and though it may be suggested that he could hardly have thought seriously that flight from the city would in the end avail. Throughout his life he gives us the impression of a sincere man; he often afterwards recurs with regret to the peace of his convent; and it would be very unfair to him to question his sincerity, when he gives as his reason for refusal the fear lest "the worldly glory which he had cast away might creep on him under the colour of ecclesiastical government."

Five letters remain, written by him soon after his accession, in which he expresses his feelings on the occasion. They are addressed to John, patriarch of Constantinople, to Anastasius of Antioch, to Paulus Scholasticus in Sicily, to his closest friend Leander of Seville, and to Theoctista, the emperor's sister. To the last, whose acquaintance he had doubtless made at Constantinople, and with whom, as being a pious lady of rank, it was according to his habit to keep up correspondence, he wrote as follows:

"Under the color of the episcopate I have been brought back into the world; I am enslaved to greater earthly cares than I ever remember to have been subjected to as a layman. For I have lost the joys of my rest, and seem to have risen outwardly, while inwardly I have fallen. I lament that I am driven far away from my Maker's face. For I used to strive to live daily outside the world, outside the flesh; to drive from the eyes of the mind all phantasms of the body, and incorporeally to see supernal joys. Desiring nothing in this world, fearing nothing, I seemed to be standing on an eminence above the world, so that I almost thought the promise fulfilled in me, 'I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth'. But suddenly driven from this eminence by the whirl­wind of this temptation, I have fallen into fears and tremblings, since, though I fear nothing for myself, I am greatly afraid for those who have been committed to me. On all sides am I tossed by the waves of business, and pressed down by storms, so that I can say with truth, 'I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me'. I loved the beauty of the contemplative life, as a Rachel, barren, but beautiful and of clear vision, which, though on account of its quietness it is less productive, yet has a finer perception of the light. But, by what judgment I know not, Leah has been brought to me in the night, to wit the active life, fertile, but 'tender-eyed'; seeing less, though bringing forth more."

He concludes, with a touch of humour, such as often enlivens even his most serious letters, "Lo, my most serene lord the emperor has ordered an ape to be made a lion. And, indeed, in virtue of this order, a lion can the ape be called, but made one he cannot be. Wherefore my pious lord must needs lay the charge of all my faults and shortcomings not on me, but on himself, who has committed to one so weak an office of such excellence." His treatise also on "The Pastoral Care", written, as will appear in our review of his writings, with the immediate object of excusing his reluctance to accept the popedom, shows evidently how a peculiarly deep sense of the responsi­bility of the episcopal office, and of risk to the souls of its bearers, had actuated him in his refusal.

Having been once placed in the high position he so little coveted, he rose to it at once, and fulfilled its multifarious duties with remarkable zeal and ability. His comprehensive policy, and his grasp of great issues, are not more remarkable than the minuteness of the details, in secular as well as religious matters, to which he was able to give his personal care. And this is the more striking in combination with the fact that, as many parts of his writings show, he remained all the time a monk at heart, thoroughly imbued with both the ascetic principles and the narrow credulity of contemporary monasticism. His private life, too, was still in a measure monastic: the monastic simplicity of his episcopal attire is noticed by his biographer; he lived with his clergy under strict rule, and in 595 issued a synodal decree substituting clergy for the boys and secular persons who had formerly waited on the pope in his chamber.

POPE FRANCIS

March 14, 2013, 6:57 am

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(From "L´espresso" no. 49, November 28 - December 5, 2002, original title: "Bergoglio in Pole Position")

my source: Sandro Magister

Midway through November, his colleagues wanted to elect him president of the Argentine bishops´ conference. He refused. But if there had been a conclave, it would have been difficult for him to refuse the election to the papacy, because he´s the one the cardinals would vote for resoundingly, if they were called together to choose immediately the successor to John Paul II.

He´s Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Bueno Aires. Born in Argentina (with an Italian surname), he has leapt to the top of the list of the papabili, given the ever-increasing likelihood that the next pope could be Latin-American. Reserved, timid, and laconic, he won´t lift a finger to advance his own campaign - but even this is counted among his strong suits.

John Paul II made him a cardinal together with the last group of bishops named to the honor, in February of 2001. On that occasion, Bergoglio distinguished himself by his reserve among his many more festive colleagues. Hundreds of Argentinians had begun fundraising efforts to fly to Rome to pay homage to the new man with the red hat. But Bergoglio stopped them. He ordered them to remain in Argentina and distribute the money they had raised to the poor. In Rome, he celebrated his new honor nearly alone - and with Lenten austerity.

He has always lived this way. Since he was made archbishop of the Argentinian capital, the luxurious residence next to the cathedral has remained empty. He lives in a nearby apartment, together with another bishop, old and sickly. In the evening, he himself cooks for both of them. He rarely drives, getting around most of the time by bus, wearing the cassock of an ordinary priest.

Of course, it´s more difficult now for him to move about unnoticed, his face becoming always more familiar in his country. Since Argentina has spun into a tremendous crisis and everyone else´s reputation - politicians, business leaders, officials, intellectuals - has fallen through the floor, the star of Cardinal Bergoglio has risen to its zenith. He has become one of the few guiding lights of the people.

Yet he´s not the type to compromise himself for the public. Every time he speaks, instead, he tries to shake people up and surprise them. In the middle of November, he did not give a learned homily on social justice to the people of Argentina reduced by hunger - he told them to return to the humble teachings of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. "This," he explained, "is the way of Jesus." And as soon as one follows this way seriously, he understands that "to trample upon the dignity of a woman, a man, a child, an elderly person, is a grave sin that cries out to heaven," and he decides not to do it any more.

The other bishops follow in his footsteps. During the Holy Year of 2000 he asked the entire Church in Argentina to put on garments of public penance for the sins committed during the years of the dictatorship. As a result of this act of purification, the Church had the credibility to be able to ask the nation to acknowledge how its own sins had contributed to its current disaster. At the celebration of the Te Deum at the most recent national feast, last May 25th, there was a record audience for Cardinal Bergoglio´s homily. The cardinal asked the people of Argentina to do as Zacchaeus had done in the Gospel. Here was a sinister loan shark. But, taking account of his moral lowliness, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, to see Jesus and let himself be seen and converted by him.

There isn´t a politician, from the right to the extreme left, who isn´t dying for the blessing of Bergoglio. Even the women of Plaza de Mayo, ultraradicals and unbridled anti-catholics, treat him with respect. He has even made inroads with one of them in private meetings. On another occasion, he visited the deathbed of an ex-bishop, Jeronimo Podestá, who had married in defiance of the Church and was dying poor and forgotten by all. From that moment, Mrs. Podestá became one of his devoted fans.

But Bergoglio has also had his difficulties with his ecclesiastical environment. He is a Jesuit of the old school, faithful to St. Ignatius. He became the provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina just when the dictatorship was in full furor and many of his confreres were tempted to take up the rifle and apply the teachings of Marx. Once removed from his position as superior, Bergoglio returned to obscurity. He came back into the public eye in 1992 when the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Antonio Quarracino, made him his auxiliary bishop.

From there, his ascent began. The first - and almost only - interview he has given was to a parish news bulletin, "Estrellita de Belém," as if to make the point that the Church is in the minority and shouldn´t cultivate illusions of grandeur.

He travels as little as possible. He visits the Vatican only when strictly necessary, the four or five times a year they summon him. He reserves a small room in a residence for clergy (the "Casa del Clero" on Via della Scrofa), and every morning at 5:30 he´s already awake and praying in the chapel.

Bergoglio excels in one-on-one communication, but he can also speak well in public when necessary. At the last synod of bishops in the fall of 2001, they unexpectedly asked him to take the place of one of the speakers who had withdrawn. Bergoglio managed the meeting so well that, at the time for electing the twelve members of the secretary´s council, his brother bishops chose him with the highest vote possible.

Someone in the Vatican had the idea to call him to direct an important dicastery. "Please, I would die in the Curia," he implored. They spared him.

Since that time, the thought of having him return to Rome as the successor of Peter has begun to spread with growing intensity. The Latin-American cardinals are increasingly focused upon him, as is Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. The only key figure among the Curia who hesitates when he hears his name is Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano - the very man known for supporting the idea of a Latin-American pope.

my source: Sandro Magister

Cardinal Bergoglio is elected as Pope Francis I!!

ROME, March 13, 2013 - By electing as pope at the fourth scrutiny the archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the conclave has made a move as surprising as it is brilliant.

Surprising for those - almost everyone - who had not noticed, during the preceding days, the effective appearance of his name in the conversations among the cardinals. His relatively advanced age, 76 years and three months, led him to be classified more among the great electors than among the possible elect.

In the conclave of 2005 the opposite had happened for him. Bergoglio was one of the most decisive supporters of the appointment of Joseph Ratzinger as pope. And instead he found himself voted for, against his own will, precisely by those who wanted to block the appointment of Benedict XVI.

The fact remains that both one and the other became pope. Bergoglio with the unprecedented name of Francis. 

A name that reflects his humble life. Having become archbishop of Buenos Aires 1998, he left empty the sumptuous episcopal residence next to the cathedral. He went to live in an apartment a short distance away, together with another elderly bishop. In the evening he was the one who saw to the cooking. He rarely rode in cars, getting around by bus in the cassock of an ordinary priest.

But he is also a man who knows how to govern. With firmness and against the tide. He is a Jesuit - the first to have become pope - and during the terrible 1970's, when the dictatorship was raging and some of his confrères were ready to embrace the rifle and apply the lessons of Marx, he energetically opposed the tendency as provincial of the Society of Jesus in Argentina. 

He has always carefully kept his distance from the Roman curia. It is certain that he will want it to be lean, clean, and loyal.

He is a pastor of sound doctrine and of concrete realism. To the Argentines he has given much more than bread. He has urged them to pick the catechism back up again. That of the ten commandments and of the beatitudes. “This is the way of Jesus,” he would say. And one who follows Jesus understands that “trampling the dignity of a woman, of a man, of a child, of an elderly person is a grave sin that cries out to heaven,” and therefore decides to do it no more.

The simplicity of his vision makes itself felt in his holiness of life. With his few and simple first words as pope he immediately won over the crowd packed into St. Peter's Square. He had them pray in silence.

And he also had them pray for his predecessor, Benedict XVI, whom he did not call “pope,” but “bishop.”

The surprise is only beginning.

my source:Vatican Insider - La Stampa

The new Pope, the 76-year old Argentinean Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was Ratzinger’s main contender in the last Conclave. He is unusual in that he has always rejected posts in the Roman Curia and only visited the Vatican when it was absolutely necessary. One thing he hates to see in the clergy is “spiritual wordliness”: ecclesiastical careerism disguised as clerical refinement. 


The new Pope was born in Buenos Aires and later became its archbishop, on 17 December 1936. He was born to a Piedmontese family, graduated as a technical chemist and then entered the novitiate of the Company of Jesus. He completed studies in the humanities in Chile and obtained a degree in Philosophy and Theology in Argentina. He was Professor and Rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel and vicar of the Patriarch of  San José, in the Diocese of San Miguel. 


In 1986 he completed a PhD in Germany, after which he returned to Argentina, where his superiors made him spiritual director and confessor in the Jesuit Church of Cordoba. In 1992 John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, in 1997 he became coadjutor bishop and a year later he succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino for six years, until 2011, when he became President of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina. 

He doesn’t have a chauffeur and preferred to use the metro to get around Buenos Aires. In Rome he prefers to get around on foot or use public transport. Those who know him well see him as a true man of God: the first thing he always asks people to do is pray for him. 

In the pre-Conclave General Congregations, the new Pope spoke of Christianity as merciful and joyful. His favourite priests are those who work in the “villas miserias”, the slums of the Argentinean capital. Instead of driving people away with rigid doctrinal preachings, he tries to look at all possible solutions in an attempt to embrace those who are the furthest from the Christian community. The Church, he insists, must show the merciful side of God. 

The Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church speaks about HH Pope Francis I.(thanks to Father Deacon Daniel G. Dozier):

Patriarch Sviatoslav on Pope Francis:

"I would first like to say that the newly elected Pope Francis was mentored by one of our priests, Stepan Chmil who is now buried in the basilica of St. Sophia in Rome. Today’s Pope, during his time as a student of the Salesian school, awoke many hours before his classmates to concelebrate at our Divine Liturgy with Fr. Stepan. He knows our Tradition very well, as well as our Liturgy.

The last time I had an opportunity to see him was as I was preparing to leave Argentina for Ukraine. I asked him to bear witness to the process of beatifying Fr. Stepan Chmil, to which, he gladly agreed. The Holy Father very well knows not only of our Church, but also our liturgy, our rites, and our spirituality.

Apart from this, Pope Francis, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, was assigned as ordinary for Eastern Catholics, specifically those who at the time did not have members of their own hierarchy. Our Eparchy in Argentina is, let’s say, suffragan to the Archbishop’s seat of Buenos Aires. In this way, Cardinal Bergoglio, always took care of our Church in Argentina; and as a young bishop, I took my first steps in episcopal ministry under his watchful eyes and help. Because of this, I am positive that the Holy Father will be a great help to our Church, and I expect that great things await our Church with this Pope.

In regards to the personality of the new Holy Father - he is an incredibly modest person. For example, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, he never relied on his own automobile, rather relying on public transportation, always in simple clothing. He mostly stands out in his enormous care for the less-fortunate, visiting the most impoverished neighborhoods. He is a person, I would say, of great pastoral foundation.

As a Jesuit, Pope Francis is an incredibly deep intellectual. I can attest to the fact that his homilies are quite short, sometimes no longer than five or six sentences, but he manages to fill them with such deep meaning, always leaving the faithful in silent contemplation upwards of five-to-seven minutes".

my source: The Morning Offering

A Jesuit with a Franciscan's Simplicity A Russian Orthodox tribute to the new Pope.

In Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi had a mystical vision in which Christ told him to rebuild his Church. In taking the name Francis, this pope seems to be pledging himself to rebuild the image and integrity of a church that has suffered from widespread allegations of corruption, and the cover-up of the child sex abuse by innumerable members of her clergy.

After becoming archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, he sold the archbishop's palace, preferring instead to live in an apartment. He was known to cook his own meals, and rejected the services of a chauffeur, preferring instead to ride the bus. As Jesuit Provincial, he put an end to the Liberation Theology being taught among Jesuits under him, demanding they stop their involvement in politics, and place their energies on serving the spiritual needs of their people.

This is the man who went to a hospice during Holy Week, and washed the feet of twelve aids patients. Known for a simple lifestyle and for dedication to social justice, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had taken a strong stand against the corruption of politicians and business men in Argentina. He has not only been a champion of the poor, but a champion of democracy.

Pope Francis, upon coming out on the papal balcony, asked the crowd to join him in praying "for our emeritus bishop, Benedict XVI." Following the "Our Father," the "Ave Maria," and "Glory Be" prayers in Italian, the Argentinean then continued: "Now, let's start working together, walking together...this is part of the governance of love, of trust."

And before giving the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing to those in the crowd, the Argentinean asked "for a favor. Before the bishop blesses his people, he asks that you pray to the Lord to bless me, the prayer of the people for the blessing of their bishop." As he said these words, he bowed his head and clasped his hands. A 15-second silence lasted in the reported 100,000-person crowd.

In taking the name of a saint known for humility and a simple lifestyle, Pope Francis promises to be the Christ-like image of leadership the Roman Catholic Church, and, dare I say, the whole world, needs. With the rise of secularism, atheism, and Islam, the Christ-like witness we see in this pope, promises to be a leaven for the rebuilding of a Christianity that has been in decline. This, to my mind, is a pope we Orthodox can work with, and a man we can love.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

THE FIRST HOMILY OF THE NEW POPE

TO THE CARDINALS WHO ELECTED HIM.

In these three readings I see that there is something in common: it is movement. In the first reading, movement in walking; in the second reading, movement in the building up of the Church; in the third, in the Gospel, movement in confession.

To walk, to build up, to confess.

To walk. “House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” This is the first thing that God said to Abraham: Walk in my presence and be without reproach. To walk: our life is a journey and when we stop it is no good. To walk always, in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that irreproachability which God asked of Abraham, in his promise.

To build up. To build up the Church. Stones are spoken of: the stones have substance; but living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. To build up the Church, the bride of Christ, on that cornerstone which is the Lord himself. This is another movement of our lives: to build up.

Third, to confess. We can walk as much as we wish, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, it is no good. We will become a humanitarian NGO, but not the Church, bride of the Lord.

When one does not walk, one halts. When one does not build on stone what happens? That happens which happens to children on the beach when they make sand castles, it all comes down, it is without substance. When one does not confess Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the expression of Léon Bloy: "He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.” When one does not confess Jesus Christ, one confesses the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon.

To walk, to build/construct, to confess. But the matter is not so easy, because in walking, in building, in confessing, at times there are shocks, there are movements that are not properly movements of the journey: they are movements that set us back.

This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who has confessed Jesus Christ says to him: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let us not speak of the cross. This has nothing to do with it. I will follow you with other possibilities, without the cross.

When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we confess Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: we are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord.

I would like that everyone, after these days of grace, should have the courage, truly the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the cross of the Lord; to build up the Church upon the blood of the Lord that was shed upon the cross; and to confess the only glory: Christ crucified. And in this way the Church will move forward.

I hope for all of us that the Holy Spirit, through the prayer of the Virgin Mary, our Mother, may grant us this grace: to walk, to build up, to confess Jesus Christ crucified. So may it be.

POPE FRANCIS OF ROME & PATRIARCH JOHN X OF ANTIOCH ARE BOTH NEW: COMPARE THE TWO TALKS.

March 15, 2013, 6:43 am

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We are celebrating because the Church has a new Pope who has taken as his patron saint St Francis of Assisi.   A month before, the Orthodox Church of Antioch had a new Patriarch, John X. I have already published the first sermon of HH Pope Francis: here is the speech of the new Patriarch.  To make the comparison easier, I am re-printing the homily of the Pope below.

my source: St Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church, Emmaus, Penn. USA

On Sunday, February 10, 2013, His Beatitude, Patriarch JOHN X (Yazigi) was enthroned as the 170th successor of the Apostles Peter and Paul on the patriarchal throne of the Orthodox Church of Antioch. Following is the text of his speech.

We thank the Lord our God who allowed us, in the two previous months, to celebrate His appearance in the flesh as man and His manifestation as God coming to save us. After Jesus has fulfilled His plan of salvation by dying on the cross and rising from the dead, and after He ascended in the flesh to heaven from whence He had descended, sitting on the right hand of the Father, He prayed the Father to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of each of us. Everyone who desires this and wants the Spirit to dwell in him does this so that Jesus may appear to him, and also that he might be reminded of the Lord’s sayings and teachings. The Holy Spirit shows us Jesus Christ, at first in the Church, which is His Body and which He wanted to be “a glorious church, with neither stains, wrinkles, nor any such thing” (Eph. 5:27). It also makes Him present in the Church through the word of His Gospel, in the Body and Blood of His Eucharist, in His meeting with His brothers who gathered in His Name, as well as in every human being – especially in the poor, the homeless and the broken hearted, in whom He accepted to dwell. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus wherever it dawns, making Him present yet veiled in all religions and all cultures.

Jesus, Emmanuel, is always present here and everywhere, present among us. He is always with us, ready to meet us. He rejoices in our joys, He revels in our holiness, and He weeps with us when we are troubled and sorrowed. He also cries when, as shepherds and flock, we neglect to live according to His teachings, and whenever our sins mar His bleeding, yet glorious face, and thus veil the world from seeing Him in His Church, and through us.

Brethren, let us on this blessed day, when the cross of shepherding the great and glorious Church of Antioch is entrusted to me, join hands that together we may live its glory and reveal it to all. This happens when we listen together to Jesus, and when we pray daily: “teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God” (Psalm 142: 10).

God is not pleased to see that the unity He wants for His people is shattered, and that His flock is divided into many factions. We, together, constitute the people of God, a charismatic people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Each of us must realize the gifts given to him by the Spirit in the service of others. The shepherd is the first servant who sacrifices himself for his flock; he knows each of them by name, like the Good Shepherd who gave his life for all. The shepherd does not command “as if he was an autocrat” (Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians 3:1), as the great St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in his letter to the people of Ephesus. The shepherd orders by love and sacrifice. He orders by the cross which he willingly climbs, as his Lord did before. He observes the talents of his flock. He recognizes the good in them to enhance it. He calls us all to participate in the Kingdom’s Design that starts here on this earth, in the Church. And then the flock should put all their resources and their powers at the service of the Church, our true mother. In this way the face of Christ will be revealed under the leadership of the bishop who steadfastly calls for love, service and “cooperation”, “For one is your Master and all ye are brethren” (Mt. 23: 8). Let us practice this brotherhood in mutual respect and rise above ourselves, as our Lord has done by loving us unto death.

God is not pleased to see His Church which is called upon to care for all —not caring enough about the poor, those little ones whom He loved, and not treating them as its priority and the priority of its institutions. Jesus desires that no one should suffer from poverty, especially when He knows that we ourselves have the necessary means and resources. Why don’t we set as our goal what St. John Chrysostom, the great shepherd from Antioch, taught us: “Do not possess anything that you have. What you have belongs to the others. It is yours and your neighbour’s as well, like the sun, the air and the earth” (Homily n. 20 on the Epistle to the Corinthians).

Jesus suffers when He sees many of us, and especially the young, drift away, leave the flock or become indifferent. Regaining them must be our utmost priority. Thus, we will rejoice at the return of the prodigal son and that he may resume his place in the work of the Church. Why don’t we seriously ponder the real reasons behind the emigration of our young? Why don’t we develop the methods of our pastoral care that we may reach them, not only with words, but through liturgical revival, and through the teaching that refocuses on the core of our tradition and liberates some of our practices from monotony? We have to find a way that enables them to touch the depths of our inspirational Liturgy, to let them inhale from it, and show them that it will open many opportunities for them to enter into God’s and their brethren’s hearts. We face the huge task of modernising the practice of our pastoral care and of our educational programs. Such a task requires the participation of the priest, the monk, the nun, and the lay men and women. The task has to be founded on the knowledge of the theologian, the specialization of the educator, and on the labor of workers in the pastoral field as well.

Indeed, our youth are the treasure of our Church. They are its ambassadors in this rapidly changing world. We want them to assume the role of ambassadors in a serious way. We want them to know that the whole Church needs their enthusiasm and commitment. It needs their readiness to consecrate their lives for a goal they want to achieve. We have to make them aware of their special role in the Church of Christ “who loved the rich young man” and was saddened by his departure. The young are rich in their modern outlook, in their passion, and in the many gifts that God bestowed upon them. We need them and urge them, through our love, to always work in the Church’s workshop and to consider themselves responsible for it along with their brothers, and especially those whom God has called upon to watch over His flock. If we love them the way Christ loves them, then our relationship with them would become one of brotherhood, love and mutual respect. In this way they will overcome every contradiction between obedience and authority and will live as the children of one family, obeying those who obey Jesus Christ. Thus, authority becomes obedience and obedience becomes a loving authority.

God is not pleased when He sees us clinging to the letter of things, emptying the letter from spirit and life. We know that the Church is alive by the Holy Spirit, and through ‘Which’, it has survived throughout history. Ecclesial Tradition is not something motionless or stagnant but a tool of salvation and a way to understand the divine sacrament. We live at a time where tradition is often rejected, and this negatively affects our youth. Our Church is concerned with the developments of our time because Jesus Christ wants it to be His witness at all times. Following up on a time like ours requires wiping off the dust that, due to our sins, has accumulated on our tradition throughout the centuries. It also requires working to reveal what is authentic in it. Modernity is a blessing that calls us to revive the fundamentals of our worship and teachings, and also to differentiate between the one Holy Tradition and the many secondary traditions and practices to which we often cling. The witness of the Church, at this age, is to discern and make choices. Modernity offers many opportunities. We must resort to the good in it to regain our people who are getting increasingly attracted by prevailing globalization. Our Church must not fear to use the methods available in our time to modernise its practices, to build bridges towards its children, and to learn to speak their language. This is what the holy fathers did when they used Greek philosophy, which was widespread in their time, to convey the message of the Gospel in a language that the people understood. We have to follow their example if we are to remain faithful in transmitting the message. The challenge lies in making the life of Jesus Christ glow in our faces, in our worship, and in all the aspects of our Church that the people may find their salvation in it. Finally, renewal is not only to modernise the texts and to make them understandable in the language of our time, but to renew the human soul and bring it closer to the face of Jesus. All its attention must be in His direction. Only then will modernisation interact with the human heart and lead to the salvation of man.

Needless to say, the Lord is saddened by the violence and killing now permeating many regions, as is now happening in Syria. We have there members of our Church who have been forced to leave their homes and towns; they have become jobless, they have lost their means of livelihood. Love is the enemy of death and of violence wherever they may come from. We have to consider the cause of the homeless as our cause and help those who suffer from this tragic situation. We have to show them our love, to consecrate ourselves to comfort them. Jesus suffers in each one of them; do we see Him in them? Shouldn’t we consecrate ourselves to serve them by donating a part of what we own to them? Shouldn’t we be ‘the administrators of divine matters’, as the great Antiochian St. Maximos the Confessor said? In this respect, we have to carry the cross of our country and to pray and work for reconciliation, brotherhood, peace, freedom and justice in our region, categorically refusing all kinds of violence and hatred.

Jesus is undoubtedly saddened when He sees some of us, shepherds and flock, behaving in a way totally strange to the spirit of His Gospel. Such behavior transforms our character and becomes a stumbling block in guiding people to imitate Jesus and espouse His ethos. Hence, we have no choice but to repent as persons and as a community, and to rely fully on God, seeking His forgiveness, and trusting that He will guide us to His path. “He who longs after God and finds his ease and comfort in Him, God can be seen in him for God is in all His creatures”, according to St. John of Damascus.

Here we appreciate the importance of a good clerical education that will provide us with shepherds who will live and behave according to God’s will, who will be committed to the mission of Priesthood and who will participate in the Church’s work. Therefore, I call our youth to approach this ecclesiastical service with humility, steadfastness and boundless love for God, remembering the Lord’s saying to Peter: “If you love me, feed my sheep” (John 21: 15). To help those priests in fulfilling their mission and succeeding in it, we ought to support them and assure them a decent life. The community has a major role to play in this regard.

The monastic movement plays a central role in the revival of the Church and in its spiritual life. We are thankful that in the past fifty years and with the help of God, we have regained in our Patriarchate, these “spiritual oases”, the monastic orders that arose in the first centuries of Christianity. We need monasteries with members who truly live brotherly communion in prayer, spiritual exercise and physical work, thus carrying us with them in their prayers. We are certain that their fervent prayers will protect the entire world and will strengthen the Church in fulfilling its mission.

Jesus wants everything among us to be performed decently, wisely, in an orderly manner and abiding by the rules. We respect our institutions and our laws, and we try to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of their proper implementation. Canons are not rigid laws. They are an expression of the life of the Church and of its relationship with its Lord. In addition, we should enable the institutions established by our ancestors, with the grace of God, to be more conscious of the challenges of the modern consumer society. These institutions should continue to inhale from our tradition and from the Spirit manifested in it. If we do that, then the dialogue with the world will become easier and our children will be better equipped to face the challenges of modernity. They will also get acquainted, without fear, with its positive aspects. The only reason for justifying the existence of an institution in the Church is to witness to Jesus and to spread His teachings in its own way, although it may have other important social and cultural roles to play as well.

Jesus wants his Church to be the light of the world, and the light should not be hidden. It should illuminate the minds and hearts of our people. We have to mobilize all our resources and activate all our brethren to serve their mother, our Antiochian church, that it may preserve its shining light ignited in the past by our Apostolic See. In this respect, we recall the important role of St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology and of the University of our Orthodox Church, the University of Balamand, in renewing the pastoral vision, in offering new possibilities, and in helping to find the right responses to the urgent challenges facing our generation, as well as our institutions.

We please the Lord when we work as shepherds and flock in strengthening the unity of the Orthodox churches, in helping them in the realisation of the awaited Great Holy Synod, and in resolving the challenges facing it. We cannot, in this respect, forget the basic role of the Church of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As for us, in Antioch, we shall remain a bridge of communication among all, and supporters of all decisions taken by consensus of all the churches working together. We are also committed to finding solutions that will manifest the face of Jesus in His Church, for the salvation of the world, setting aside all divisive material and mundane concerns.

Jesus cries when He witnesses the divisions in the Christian world, and the distance among its members, as well as the recent weakening of ecumenical work. We have to pray with Jesus and all brothers belonging to Him, that “the unity Christ wills might grow” (John 17: 1). We must understand that this unity is a necessary condition “that the world may believe” (John 17: 21). The drifting of the people away from faith, their disinterest in God’s love, their reliance on a world without the God who created them in His own image, calling them to His likeness, and offering them a way toward deification, is disturbing. These tendencies urge us to try and instill harmony between the Eastern and Western churches and to strengthen cooperation in the fields of ministry and pastoral care. We need to encourage dialogue, to get to know each other better, and to take daring religious initiatives so that we may reach, in God’s good time, the communion in the one chalice. We may then tell those who ask about our faith: “come and see” (John 1: 46), come and see how our love for each other stems from our love for the One who loved us and gave His life for all.

God is not pleased to see co-existence with non-Christians with whom we share the same country regress and even vanish here and there for various reasons, for reasons of politics, or for fundamentalist tendencies, that have nothing to do with religion. Love does not know fear or hostility: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast… It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil…” (1 Co 13: 4-8). Love is our byword and our weapon. We, the Antiochians, are an Eastern church; its roots go deep in the history of our region. Along with our Muslim brothers, we are the sons and daughters of this good earth. God wanted us in it to witness to His Holy Name, and in it we must stay, encouraging decent and respectful co-existence, refusing all kinds of hatred, fear and arrogance. To my Muslim brothers I proclaim, we are not only partners in the land and in its destiny, for together we have built the civilization of this land and shared in the making of its culture and history. Let us therefore work together in preserving this precious heritage. We are also partners in worshipping the one God, the true God, the light of the heavens and of the earth.

We are a church and not just one confession among others. The Church includes the confession and does not deny it, but the Church is not a confession whose concerns stop at its boundaries without thinking of the others. This is so because our Lord asked us to love everyone and to seek the common good. This does not mean that we should neglect the concerns of the community that constitutes the social environment of our church. We have to care, according to an open evangelical spirit, about all its components. We continuously pray for all its members because this is how we “lead them to God” (St. Ignatius of Antioch). We want to listen to them and try to solve their problems and difficulties. We know that many of their members emigrate because they are afraid and anxious about their fate; they emigrate searching for a better life. The Church must deal seriously with these problems which are at the heart of its mission, using all available capacities, resources and endowments to help its children stay in this region. As for those who have already emigrated or are about to emigrate, the Church must find adequate ways to shepherd them abroad, in their respective Antiochian archdioceses. We must always call them to be “imitators of Christ even as He is of his Father” (St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Letter to the Philadelphians 7: 2), reminding them that they are all “fellow-travelers and God-bearers” (St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Letter to the Ephesians 9: 2). Without God and without returning to Him in total humility, all human associations are in vain, with no present and no future.

My brothers, my sons, our common concern is to please God. This is the main challenge that members of the Holy Antiochian Synod, and our archdioceses in the homeland and abroad, our sons and daughters, and all members of our Church will have to face. The Antiochian See is one and we will continue to work that it may remain united and continue to shine even brighter. Our archdioceses are and should be open to each other and should cooperate at all levels. They should be open to the other Orthodox churches, to the sister Christian churches, and to all people of good will. The goal of our Antiochian Patriarchate is to ensure that Christ is not ashamed of us. Rather, we have to stand united together in love in order to fulfill this goal. Help me to reach this goal, that our church may shine by His light and may serve as a vehicle of peace, brotherhood and cooperation. It is this goal that will ultimately salvage our deteriorating world and infuse it with meaning. We know well that this meaning is in us, but it is often hidden behind our passions and sins. I humbly and collegially call upon all our archdioceses to actively congregate and wipe off the dust of the precious jewel entrusted to them. Through joint solidarity and participation of all members of these archdioceses, we shall together bear witness to the One God who redeemed us with His precious blood, and who wants the Antiochian Church, where we were first called Christians, to recover the leading role it played in its glorious history.

In these three readings, I see that there is something in common: it is movement. In the first reading, movement is the journey [itself]; in the second reading, movement is in the up-building of the Church. In the third, in the Gospel, the movement is in [the act of] profession: walking, building, professing.

Walking: the House of Jacob. “O house of Jacob, Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” This is the first thing God said to Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” Walking: our life is a journey and when we stop, there is something wrong. Walking always, in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that blamelessness, which God asks of Abraham, in his promise.

Building: to build the Church. There is talk of stones: stones have consistency, but [the stones spoken of are] living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. Build up the Church, the Bride of Christ, the cornerstone of which is the same Lord. With [every] movement in our lives, let us build!

Third, professing: we can walk as much we want, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of Christ. When one does not walk, one stalls. When one does not built on solid rocks, what happens? What happens is what happens to children on the beach when they make sandcastles: everything collapses, it is without consistency. When one does not profess Jesus Christ - I recall the phrase of Leon Bloy – “Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.” When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.

Walking, building-constructing, professing: the thing, however, is not so easy, because in walking, in building, in professing, there are sometimes shake-ups - there are movements that are not part of the path: there are movements that pull us back.

This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who confessed Jesus Christ, says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let us not speak of the Cross. This has nothing to do with it.” He says, “I’ll follow you on other ways, that do not include the Cross.” When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.

I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward.

My hope for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, that the prayer of Our Lady, our Mother, might grant us this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified. So be it. ~ Pope Francis [Homily, 14 March 2013]

THE PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW CONGRATULATES THE NEW POPE

To His Holiness Francis, Pope of Rome

Your Holiness:

I congratulate you on your election to the eminent and responsible position of being the First Hierarch of the Roman Catholic Church.

Under your predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, the relationships between our churches received a new momentum and were characterized by a positive dynamism. I sincerely hope that Your Holiness would promote co-operation between our two churches in the spirit of brotherly love and mutual understanding.

At your accession to the papacy you chose the name Francis, which recalls famous Catholic saints who have served as an example of sacrificial devotion to alleviating people’s suffering and zealous preaching of the Gospel. In your choice one can see your desire to continue to care for the poor and the afflicted, which you showed in compassion and love over the many years of your service in Argentina, carrying the message of Christ crucified and risen to the modern world.

This same mission is now a priority for the Russian Orthodox Church, opening the possibility for co-operation and interaction with the Roman Catholic Church.

Orthodox and Catholics should be determined to combine their efforts to protect harassed and persecuted Christians in various parts of the world, as these people need our support and aid. We need to labour together for the affirmation of traditional moral values ​​in modern secular societies.

Please accept, Your Holiness, my best wishes for peace, spiritual strength and physical vigour, so that the generous support of God would come to you in the carrying out of your responsible ministry.

With fraternal affection in the Lord,
+ KIRILL
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

MASS "PRO ECCLESIA" CELEBRATED BY HH. POPE FRANCIS WITH THE CARDINALS

What I would have said at the Consistory: An interview with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2007

March 16, 2013, 4:14 am

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Benedict XVI with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio during the fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean bishops, at the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida in Brazil, 13 May 2007

Interview with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio

 by Sefania Falasca in 2007

my source: 30 Days«I must return», he repeats. Not that he doesn’t like the atmosphere of Rome. But he misses that of Buenos Aires. His diocese. He calls it «Esposa». Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, always makes lightning visits to Rome. But this time an attack of sciatica has forced him to prolong his stay in the Eternal City for some days of rest. And what is more, by an irony of circumstances, he had to miss the occasion for which he crossed the ocean, the meeting with the Pope and all the cardinals gathered in Consistory. 

His company is never far away. He tells us how the Aparecida Conference went, where he chaired the editorial committee for the concluding document. He confides that his speech at the Consistory would have been on that. And this is what he had to say about it in that light, but acute and incisive, way of talking that throws one off track and takes one by surprise. 

Your Eminence, you would have spoken about Aparecida at the Consistory. What for you characterized the fifth General Conference of the Latin American bishops?

JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO: The Aparecida Conference was a moment of grace for the Latin American Church.

Yet there was no lack of argument about the closing document… 

BERGOGLIO: The concluding document, that was an act of the Magisterium of the Latin American Church, underwent no manipulation. Neither from us nor from the Holy See. There were some small re-touchings of style, of form, and some things that were removed on the one hand were put back in on the other. The substance, therefore, remained identical, it was absolutely not changed. The reason for that is because the atmosphere leading up to the editing of the document was an atmosphere of genuine and brotherly collaboration, of mutual respect, that characterized the work, work that moved from below upwards, not vice versa. To understand the atmosphere one has to look at what for me were the three key points, the three “pillars” of Aparecida. The first of which was precisely that: from below upwards. It’s perhaps the first time that one of our General Conferences didn’t start out from a pre-prepared basic text but from open dialogue, that had already begun earlier between the CELAM and the Episcopal Conferences, and that has since continued. 

But wasn’t the orientation of the Conference already set out by the opening speech by Benedict XVI? 

BERGOGLIO: The Pope gave general indications on the problems of Latin America, and then left it open: up to you, up to you! That was very grand on the Pope’s part. The Conference began with statements from the twenty-three presidents of the various Episcopal Conferences and from that discussion opened on the topics in the different groups. The editing phases of the document were also open to the contributions of all. At the moment of gathering the “modes”, for the second and third editing, 2,240 arrived! Our stance was that of receiving everything that came from below, from the People of God, and to make not so much a synthesis, as a harmony.

An arduous task… 

BERGOGLIO:“Harmony”, I said, that’s the right word. In the Church harmony is the work of the Holy Spirit. One of the early Fathers of the Church wrote that the Holy Spirit «ipse harmonia est», He Himself is harmony. He alone is author at the same time of plurality and of unity. Only the Spirit can stir diversity, plurality, multiplicity and at the same time make unity. Because when it’s us who decide to create diversity we create schisms and when it’s us who decide to create unity we create uniformity, leveling. At Aparecida we collaborated in this work of the Holy Spirit. And the document, if one reads it well, one sees that it has circular, harmonic thinking. The harmony is perceived not as passive, but creative, that urges creativity because it is of the Spirit. 

And what is the second key point? 

BERGOGLIO: It’s the first time that a Conference of Latin American bishops has gathered in a Marian shrine. And the place in itself already speaks all the meaning. Every morning we recited lauds, we celebrated mass together with the pilgrims, the believers. On Saturday or Sunday there were two thousand, five thousand. Celebrating the Eucharist together with the people is different from celebrating it amongst us bishops separately. That gave us a live sense of belonging to our people, of the Church that goes forward as People of God, of us bishops as its servants. The work of the Conference then went on in a hall below the sanctuary. And from there one continued to hear the prayers, the hymns of the faithful… In the final document there is a point that concerns popular piety. They are very fine pages. And I believe, indeed I am sure, that they were inspired precisely by that. After those contained in the Evangelii nuntiandi, they are the finest pages written on popular piety in a document of the Church. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the Aparecida document is the Evangelii nuntiandi of Latin America, it is like the Evangelii nuntiandi. 

The Evangelii nuntiandi is an apostolic exhortation about the missionary spirit. 

BERGOGLIO: Exactly. There’s a close similarity also in that. And here I come to the third point. The Aparecida document isn’t sufficient to itself, it doesn’t close, it is not the last step, because the final opening is to the mission. The announcing and the testimony of the disciples. To remain faithful we need to go outside. Remaining faithful one goes out. That is what Aparecida says at bottom. That it is the heart of the mission. 

Brazilian faithful at the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida

Can you explain the image further? 

BERGOGLIO: Staying, remaining faithful implies an outgoing. Precisely if one remains in the Lord one goes out of oneself. Paradoxically precisely because one remains, precisely if one is faithful one changes. One does not remain faithful, like the traditionalists or the fundamentalists, to the letter. Fidelity is always a change, a blossoming, a growth. The Lord brings about a change in those who are faithful to Him. That is Catholic doctrine. Saint Vincent of Lerins makes the comparison between the biologic development of the person, between the person who grows, and the Tradition which, in handing on the depositum fidei from one age to another, grows and consolidates with the passage of time: «Ut annis scilicet consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate». 

Is this what you would have said at the Consistory? 

BERGOGLIO: Yes. I would have spoken about these three key points. 

Nothing else? 

BERGOGLIO: Nothing else… No, perhaps I would have mentioned two things of which there is need in this moment, there is more need: mercy, mercy and apostolic courage. 

What do they mean to you?

BERGOGLIO: To me apostolic courage is disseminating. Disseminating the Word. Giving it to that man and to that woman for whom it was bestowed. Giving them the beauty of the Gospel, the amazement of the encounter with Jesus… and leaving it to the Holy Spirit to do the rest. It is the Lord, says the Gospel, who makes the seed spring and bear fruit. 

In short, it is the Holy Spirit who performs the mission. 

BERGOGLIO: The early theologians said: the soul is a kind of sailing boat, the Holy Spirit is the wind that blows in the sail, to send it on its way, the impulses and the force of the wind are the gifts of the Spirit. Without His drive, without His grace, we don’t go ahead. The Holy Spirit lets us enter the mystery of God and saves us from the danger of a gnostic Church and from the danger of a self-referential Church, leading us to the mission. 

That means also overthrowing all your functionalist solutions, your consolidated plans and pastoral systems … 

BERGOGLIO: I didn’t say that pastoral systems are useless. On the contrary. In itself everything that leads by the paths of God is good. I have told my priests: «Do everything you should, you know your duties as ministers, take your responsibilities and then leave the door open». Our sociologists of religion tell us that the influence of a parish has a radius of six hundred meters. In Buenos Aires there are about two thousand meters between one parish and the next. So I then told the priests: «If you can, rent a garage and, if you find some willing layman, let him go there! Let him be with those people a bit, do a little catechesis and even give communion if they ask him». A parish priest said to me: «But Father, if we do this the people then won’t come to church». «But why?» I asked him: «Do they come to mass now?» «No», he answered. And so! Coming out of oneself is also coming out from the fenced garden of one’s own convictions, considered irremovable, if they risk becoming an obstacle, if they close the horizon that is also of God.

This is valid also for lay people… 

BERGOGLIO: Their clericalization is a problem. The priests clericalize the laity and the laity beg us to be clericalized… It really is sinful abetment. And to think that baptism alone could suffice. I’m thinking of those Christian communities in Japan that remained without priests for more than two hundred years. When the missionaries returned they found them all baptized, all validly married for the Church and all their dead had had a Catholic funeral. The faith had remained intact through the gifts of grace that had gladdened the life of a laity who had received only baptism and had also lived their apostolic mission in virtue of baptism alone. One must not be afraid of depending only on His tenderness… Do you know the biblical episode of the prophet Jonah? 

I don’t remember it. Tell us. 

BERGOGLIO: Jonah had everything clear. He had clear ideas about God, very clear ideas about good and evil. On what God does and on what He wants, on who was faithful to the Covenant and who instead was outside the Covenant. He had the recipe for being a good prophet. God broke into his life like a torrent. He sent him to Nineveh. Nineveh was the symbol of all the separated, the lost, of all the peripheries of humanity. Of all those who are outside, forlorn. Jonah saw that the task set on him was only to tell all those people that the arms of God were still open, that the patience of God was there and waiting, to heal them with His forgiveness and nourish them with His tenderness. Only for that had God sent him. He sent him to Nineveh, but he instead ran off in the opposite direction, toward Tarsis. 

Running away from a difficult mission… 

BERGOGLIO: No. What he was fleeing was not so much Nineveh as the boundless love of God for those people. It was that that didn’t come into his plans. God had come once… “and I’ll see to the rest”: that’s what Jonah told himself. He wanted to do things his way, he wanted to steer it all. His stubbornness shut him in his own structures of evaluation, in his pre-ordained methods, in his righteous opinions. He had fenced his soul off with the barbed wire of those certainties that instead of giving freedom with God and opening horizons of greater service to others had finished by deafening his heart. How the isolated conscience hardens the heart! Jonah no longer knew that God leads His people with the heart of a Father. 

A great many of us can identify with Jonah. 

BERGOGLIO: Our certainties can become a wall, a jail that imprisons the Holy Spirit. Those who isolate their conscience from the path of the people of God don’t know the joy of the Holy Spirit that sustains hope. That is the risk run by the isolated conscience. Of those who from the closed world of their Tarsis complain about everything or, feeling their identity threatened, launch themselves into battles only in the end to be still more self-concerned and self-referential.

What should one do? 

BERGOGLIO: Look at our people not for what it should be but for what it is and see what is necessary. Without preconceptions and recipes but with generous openness. For the wounds and the frailty God spoke. Allowing the Lord to speak… In a world that we can’t manage to interest with the words we say, only His presence that loves us, saves us, can be of interest. The apostolic fervor renews itself in order to testify to Him who has loved us from the beginning. 

For you, then, what is the worst thing that can happen in the Church? 

BERGOGLIO: It is what De Lubac calls «spiritual worldliness». It is the greatest danger for the Church, for us, who are in the Church. «It is worse», says De Lubac, «more disastrous than the infamous leprosy that disfigured the dearly beloved Bride at the time of the libertine popes». Spiritual worldliness is putting oneself at the center. It is what Jesus saw going on among the Pharisees: «… You who glorify yourselves. Who give glory to yourselves, the ones to the others». 

For the first time since the Great Schism, ecumenical patriarch to attend pope's inaugural Mass

(thanks, Jim Forest)

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/For-the-first-time-since-the-Great-Schism,-ecumenical-patriarch-to-attend-papal-inaugural-Mass-27408.html

The metropolitans of Argentina and Italy will accompany Bartholomew. Moscow Patriarchate hopes in closer cooperation with Rome but excludes for now a meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I will attend Pope Francis's inaugural Mass. The Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office informed AsiaNews about the decision, noting that this is the first time such an event occurs since the Catholic-Orthodox split in 1054, an important sign for Christian unity.

The ecumenical patriarch will be accompanied by Ioannis Zizioulas, metropolitan of Pergamon and co-president of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church, as well as Tarassios, Orthodox Metropolitan of Argentina, and Gennadios, Orthodox Metropolitan of Italy.

Relations between Catholics and Orthodox have been improving since the Second Vatican Council through mutual visits, acts of friendship and theological dialogue.

Under Benedict XVI, the dialogue picked up in earnest after a lull. In trying to promote it, the pope suggested ways to express the primacy of Peter's successor that could be acceptable to the Orthodox, finding his inspiration from the undivided Church of the first millennium.

Catholic ecumenism has met however with great resistance from the Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate, seat of the 'Third Rome'.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, said on Thursday that a meeting between the pope and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow was "possible but the place and timing will depend on how quickly we will overcome the consequences of the conflicts from the turn of 1980s and 1990s".

The issue of the Ukrainian Catholic Church is at the core of the "conflicts" to which Hilarion was referring. Although it was unbanned following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was left without its original churches, which had been seized by the Communists under Soviet rule and later transferred to the Orthodox Church.

Still, "on several occasions, Pope Francis has shown spiritual sympathy towards the Orthodox Church and a desire for closer contacts," Hilarion said.

It is his hope that under the new pontificate "relations of alliance will develop and that our ties will be strengthened."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

THE ROMAN SOCRATES [ST PHILIP NERI] BY LOUIS BOUYER Cong. Orat.

March 16, 2013, 8:37 pm

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THE ROMAN SOCRATES [ST. PHILIP NERI]

by Father Louis Bouyer Cong. Orat.

What place has Philip in such a garden as this, where even the loveliest flowers smell of brimstone? [ Reference is to Rome in the Renaissance.] The call from his peaceful retreat at San Germano to the turmoil of Rome was unquestionably a call to the apostolate.

On arriving there he set himself at once to win back the youth to Christ, but what weapons was he to use against the old pagan magic?

He did not seem attracted by any of the more ancient Orders; though he was still friendly with the Dominicans who had brought him up, he was no more likely to join them than he was to yield to the invitation of the monks of Monte Cassino. Nor did he feel drawn to the Capuchins ... He sent so many recruits to the Jesuits that Ignatius called him 'The Society's Bell', calling others to enter while remaining outside himself.

The rigorous methods of the saintly Spaniard, says Newman, had the same effect on this free Florentine as Saul's armor had on David. He preferred to go forth to meet the subtle attractions of the new Paganism armed only with the more powerful attractions of purity and truth.

It was not that he condemned any method, old or new; let those use them who made them; for his part, he could never adapt himself to them; he was too simple, too spontaneous, too direct, perhaps even too lively, to place any armour between himself and the world he planned to conquer. Though this involved the loss of many resources both in attack and defense, it did away with anything which might have hindered direct contact with the souls he sought; as it was, everyone could find immediate access to his mind and heart.

His tactics were entirely spiritual and none could avoid his influence except by avoiding him altogether; and there he was, like another Socrates, with apparently nothing else to do but wander about the Roman streets joining in every kind of group quite freely ...

This unusual apostolate, depending for its effect on personal influence alone, on simple friendship in which a soul's whole life may be transformed, is typical of the Oratorian method, in so far as the Oratorian has any method ...

There is no doubt that it was dangerous to go out against the new paganism with no other arms save love, and just as dangerous to expose his apparently vulnerable simplicity to its disturbing influence, yet his outrageous method made him the victorious apostle of neo-pagan Rome. To understand this victory we must consider another side of his personality, and in doing so we come face to face with a disconcerting paradox ...

To start with, what did he live on? Nothing, or almost nothing. [His position as the tutor of two boys] earned sufficient to satisfy his needs: a corner of the Custom-House to sleep in, a clothes-line for a wardrobe, and his food, a daily handful of corn and olives. ...The Charwoman who used to watch him eating his ration every morning in the corner of the court-yard nearest to the wall could have enlightened those learned critics who later described his spirituality as a mysticism without asceticism.

At the end of his life the last spiritual book he had read to him was The Fathers of the Desert, a book he always considered a manual of perfection. ...

Philip's Nocturnal Solitude Balances his Daylight Sociability

The church holds now no other presence save that guarded by the flickering flame. Alone with the Blessed Sacrament, Philip lingers in silent conversation.

The night is well advanced when at last he rises to his feet, though it is not the need for sleep that draws him away—there must be no mistake—this has been merely the beginning. He makes his way without hesitation through the familiar darkness to a flight of crumbling steps down which he plunges to an even darker night.

What draws him is not a mere crypt, but a secret kingdom which, led by an instinctive attraction, he has been one of the first to discover.

The steps lead to a network of galleries through which he passes as one who knows his way. The taper, lighted perhaps from the sanctuary lamp, serves to help him to re-discover cherished carvings and inscriptions, rather than to guide his feet; its light falls now upon the fish, now upon the lamb, and now on the dove. And on the <loculi>, partitioned off like the cells of some huge hive in which eternal life awaits the burgeoning of everlasting spring, it lights these words constantly repeated in letters of the same dark red,.—<'In Pace'>.

This strange buried world still holds intact within its shrine of silent night and secret freshness, the early vanished life of Christian Rome. In this kingdom of the Dead, which his faith sees as a buried garden of God ready to burst out again in blossom upon the kingdom of the Living, Philip is as much, if not more, at home as in the sun-drenched streets where all we see is his gaiety.

Here, surrounded by the symbols of immortal life he more than makes up for the sleep he has denied himself, by prayer in which the invisible world stands clearly revealed to his inward eye. He can no more dispense with this solitude thronged with spirits, a solitude denied him during the day, than could the monks of old whom he admired so much. Like them, he wishes to plunge himself, forgetful of time, deep into that absolute silence in which alone the Heart of God can speak to the heart of man.

From the young men who came to make their confessions to him, Philip quickly picked out those who could give God more than the minimum service and he never found it hard to get them to come back sometime in the afternoon when they were free. So it was that they formed the habit of gathering daily in his room before going out for the customary Roman saunter in the cool of the evening.

At first, on account of the smallness of the room, the number must have been fairly small, not more than seven or eight; nor could anything be less formal than these meetings....

At first it seems he spoke in the same simple way as had been the custom at Persiano Rosa's, but soon he had to adapt his material to a more educated class of people, to minds more lively and brilliant. He would use a book, perhaps one of the Gospels, St. John for preference, or the writings of some mystic, though he was always careful to avoid mere speculation, as such, or anything which his young audience might find unreal. After reading a few pages he would put the book away and his explanation of' what had been read would lead quite naturally to an exhortation, though he preferred to encourage immediate discussion by asking a sudden question. In either case he tried to avoid doing all the talking and encouraged the group to work things out for themselves. The evening's stroll in no way interrupted their talks, rather the opposite....

The extension of his work [to include greater numbers], compelled Philip to abandon something of its original spontaneity; mere conversation was no longer sufficient and so Philip would invite one or another of the small nucleus of his disciples to prepare an address, always expecting that it would be concrete, and never allowing it to become a scholastic or academic discourse. ... What appealed to Philip most of all, however, was his original 'talk on the book', as it came to be called, and it is interesting to notice the texts he was accustomed to use: most of them were taken from early spiritual writers such as Cassian or John Climacus, or from some of the greatest writers of the Middle Ages, Gerson, Denys the Carthusian, Richard of St. Victor, or St. Catherine of Siena. Any of the lives of the saints were popular but Philip seems to have shown a marked preference for the lives of the Desert Fathers. ...

Philip, avoiding the slightest didactic tendency, enlivened the discussion on such books with amusing or profoundly spiritual remarks which were always practical. He liked the conversations to be interspersed with music and the meetings to be brought to a close by some singing, so that the evening was filled with harmony.

The program of their meetings took some ten years to crystallize into the following form: reading with commentary, the commentary taking the form of a conversation, followed by an exhortation by some other speaker. This would be followed in turn by a talk on Church History, with finally, another reading with a commentary, this time from the life of some saint. All this was interspersed with short prayers, hymns and music, and the service always finished with the singing of a new motet or anthem. It was taken for granted that everyone could come and go as they chose, as Philip himself did.

He and the other speakers used to sit quite informally on a slightly raised bench before the gathering. .

 WHEN THE "NEW LITURGY" IS CELEBRATED AS IN THIS VIDEO, THEN IT IS EXCELLENT

TWO UNDERSTANDINGS OF CHRISTIANITY by Father Alexander Men

March 17, 2013, 7:41 pm

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Father Alexander Men (1935-1990) was a great leader, and one may say architect, of religious renewal in Russia at the end of the Soviet period. He was a pastor, who found the time to write a great number of books including a seven volume study of world religions, ranging in style from the academic to the popular, he lectured widely, at the end gaining access to radio and television and becoming a nationally known figure. He founded the first Sunday school after the communist persecution, established a university, made a film strip, started volunteer work at a children's hospital. He baptized thousands into the faith, was at home with simple people but was also called “the apostle to the intellectuals.”
His life and person and writings speak powerfully to a wide range of people, not only in Russia and not only Eastern Orthodox. It seems that he is one of the very few who can touch and speak to and for all Christians and indeed, through his broadness of learning and heart, not only to Christians.
He was assassinated in 1990 but through his writings and through his memory and his spiritual heritage he still speaks and it may be is an increasing presence in the world and his work becomes better known.

What follows is the text of a lecture which Fr Alexander gave on 25 January, 1989 in Moscow. His first topic takes its starting point in the contrast between two monks depicted by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov: Zosima, the famous spiritual guide, a lover of nature and experienced man of the world who believes the Christian path is to be lived in the world and therefore sends his young protege Alyosha Karamazov away from the monastery and back into the world to deal with the troubles of his family; and the ascetic Ferapont, living a life turned in on himself, full of hatred and portrayed by Dostoevsky as semi-crazed. These two monks represent two different models of Christianity: the one open to the world, like the famous monastery of Optina Pustyn, and the other withdrawing from it. Fr Alexander draws a telling portrait of the present weaknesses and distorted ideology of many adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church today and shows how this tendency is rooted in Russian history. The second theme of the lecture is to weigh up and assess the relative importance of the inner life and of outward works in the Christian life in general, arguing for a balance of each. The talk concludes by drawing out the point that has been running like a leitmotif through the lecture: a plea for pluralism and understanding in the religious life.

Dear Friends! Perhaps the subject of this talk of mine may seem strange to some of you, but I want to remind you of a scene from Dostoevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov, and you will realize that my subject has not been idly or casually chosen; it is a topic that has a deep relevance to the history of spiritual culture, to the history of literature and to the history of Christianity in Russia and in other Christian countries.

You remember, I'm sure, two characters in The Brothers Karamazov who are polar opposites: the starets Zosima and his antagonist Ferapont. Remember how the starets Zosima is described by Dostoevsky as a radiant personality with broad and enlightened views about the world, human destiny and about people's attitude to eternal life and to God. Some literary scholars think that Zosima is modelled upon the famous starets Amvrosy of Optino, who was canonized at the time of the thousandth anniversary of Christianity in Russia [1988]. Other specialist historians reject this idea because there are important differences between the real, historical Amvrosy and the character which Dostoevsky imagined. Even so, there definitely is a connection between the prototype and the literary character. The monastery of Optina Pustyn was not a typical one, and indeed it was unique in the history of our Church. That was why so many cultural figures made a point of going there: Khomyakov, Kireevsky, Dostoevsky, Solovyev, Leo Tolstoy, Leontyev, Sergei Bulgakov and many others.(2) They didn't stream off to any other monasteries, but specifically this one which was so unusual and unexpected. In one of the issues of the literary almanac Prometei, there is an article entitled 'Optina Pustyn - why did so many famous people go there?', written by the well-known poet Nadezhda Pavlovich,(3) who started publishing her work in Blok's lifetime. She worked at Optina Pustyn and managed to meet the last starets there. She shared her impressions with me of her meetings with this amazing character . In her article, Pavlovich names many more of them whom I have not mentioned.

The startsy and other inhabitants of the monastery were concerned with the same problems which preoccupied the cultured section of society at that time. That's why both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were able to discuss with the startsy not only their own personal problems but also general human and cultural issues. Yes indeed, the place was exceptional. That was why Dostoevsky created his Zosima with Optina Pustyn in mind for he found there a kind of open variant, an open understanding of Orthodoxy and an open understanding of Christianity.

But in this same monastery, which is described in Dostoevsky's novel, there is another character - starets Ferapont, a famous ascetic, a powerful old man who walked around bare-foot, dressed in a rough belted overcoat, like a beggar. He hated starets Zosima and even on the day he died, had no shame about denouncing him over his grave. If you haven't read it already, read this great epic novel, and you will see how within one Orthodoxy, one Church, one culture and even one monastery, two seemingly completely antagonistic elements clash - and clash quite sharply. The situation which Dostoevsky describes gives us as it were the first intimation that within Christian culture not everything is identical and not everything can be reduced to some sort of unity.

I do not intend now to discuss those divisions within the Christian world which have happened over the last twenty centuries - the split which occurred as early as the first councils of the church, divisions between Arians and Orthodox, between Orthodox and Monophysites and finally the great and tragic schism of the Christian world between West and East: that is between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This division took place in spite of the fact that each side adopted the same names: the Eastern church called itself Catholic and the Western called itself Orthodox, but still the schism took place.

Of course, two understandings of Christianity clashed there too. If we turn to history, then we shall see yet another great clash within Western European culture: the rise of Protestantism. This again was a new interpretation of Christianity: Catholicism and Protestantism are two different understandings of it. And finally, within Protestantism itself, the orthodox and radical movements clashed with each other. I do not intend to discuss this because it is a large special subject. For the present I shall be dealing only with problems related to that culture in which we Russians have grown up and were educated and which is closest and most comprehensible to us.

Orthodox culture derives from two sources. The first source is the fundamental and most important one, namely the Gospels. That source is the teaching and proclamation about God-manhood, in other words, about the mystery of the eternal and the mystery of the human. It is the teaching that humanity is exceptionally important and valuable for the Creator. It is the teaching that humanity is raised above all creation because the Eternal itself made contact with it, because human beings are created in the image and likeness of the Creator and in them lives a kind of programme for the future: to develop from beings akin to the animals to beings akin to heaven.

But there was another tradition too, born long before Christianity, and that is the tradition of ascetic practice. It is an exceptionally important tradition. It contains some of the richest experience of self-observation and the richest experience of inner practice, that is, of spiritual work designed to make the human personality grow. But this ascetic tradition, which came mainly from India and Greece and which was adopted by the church several centuries after the appearance of Christ, came to regard the surrounding world as something alien and external to it, something which had to be recoiled from and shunned.

Were there good grounds for this tendency? Of course there were. Every one of us can readily understand how energetically a person seeking depth, stillness, contemplation and eternal wisdom must push away the cares and noise, the superficiality and futility of life which surrounds them, if they are to find themselves. And then by picking out a few words from the Gospels (true, taken out of context) such as 'He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life' [John 12.25], this tendency began to predominate, firstly in monastic circles and in certain strands of the church, but then, gathering ever greater strength thanks to its inner spiritual energy, this tendency began imperceptibly to be the dominant one, and almost overshadowed the other source, the principle of the God-man. If in the Gospel it says, ' He who hates the world', it also says in the same Gospel of St John that God so loved the world that he gave his own Son to save it. This is the contradiction, and this is the dialectic in which we have to distinguish the two understandings of the world.

In practice, of course, it was not so straightforward. And so the other-worldly type of Christianity which shunned the life surrounding it, shunned history and creativity and culture, developed along its own lines. It could not, of course, be totally consistent, and it did create things of cultural value. We know that within the walls of monasteries of the ascetic tradition there were great artists, chroniclers, masters of historical narrative, and architects. But this culture developed there in spite of the basic tendency which set Christianity outside the world and above it.

And then in our own national culture, these two lines have clashed, and the clash grew into antagonism. For educated society at the beginning of the nineteenth century, this other-worldly Christianity was identified with Orthodoxy itself. And what is more, Orthodox circles themselves easily slipped into the same identification. That is why almost all initiative was left to the secular world. Social justice, the structure of society, agonizing problems such as serfdom - all were left to the sphere of the state and were disregarded by the church. These matters seemed to be of no concern to Christians. Hence the indifference, the apathy to things of this transient world, and hence the bitter inner split.Though the process had begun in the eighteenth century, the division deepened throughout the nineteenth century. Even Christian writers like Dostoevsky did not fully understand the true tradition of the church. And what of the church people who were far removed from society? There grew up two languages, in the literal sense - a church language and a secular language. The church language absorbed a mass of Slavonicisms (you will find, for example, a large number in the works of Leskov). This was why Russian versions of the Bible in the nineteenth century were immediately outdated for they didn't correspond either to the language of Pushkin and Gogol, or to that of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Secular language developed along its own lines.

At that time, in the reign of Nicholas I [1825-55], a person who became well-known as a writer was Archimandrite Fedor Bukharev. He was a monk who lived at the Trinity St Sergius monastery and a learned theologian and biblical scholar. He published a book entitled Orthodoxy and its Relationship With the Contemporary World in which he first broached the question of the need to bring the two understandings of Christianity together. He pointed out that the problems which concern everyone - culture, creativity, social justice and many more were not matters of indifference to Christianity; rather the contrary, that in the resolution of these problems, the spiritual ideals of the Gospel could be important and might be an inner resource for their solution. But Bukharev was attacked, abused in the press and reduced to such a state that he left monastic orders and the service of the church, became a journalist and soon died in poverty and oblivion. But his memory lasted long. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Pavel Florensky made a collection of his letters. But to date, his works have not been published in full.

Then Tolstoy came along and posed the problem in a completely different way. For him, the traditional understanding of Christianity as a sum of traditions which had grown up from the Gospels was only a useless burden, the dead weight of centuries. He proposed casting all of it aside and returning to the original nucleus. One might say that he was following a Protestant line. But that's not really so, for Tolstoy as a thinker never was a Christian. His ideas were different and much more Eastern, closer to the Eastern philosophies of India and China. That's why his conflict with theology and with the church was not an indication of the conflict between the two understandings of Christianity but merely a side issue. Then Vladimir Solovyev came along, a great figure of world philosophy. He was a person who, in an era dominated by materialism and positivism, had the ability to raise questions about spiritual values in such a way that the most cultured people of the time were compelled to acknowledge the seriousness of the problems. He was a man who was at the same time a poet, critic, philosopher, theologian, historian, and historian of philosophy, and publicist. People like that with universal gifts are born only once in a century. In his Lectures on God-manhood,(4) he put the question like this: is the Good News of Christ really only a method of salvation for the individual soul? Is it only a personal route for someone on the way to perfection to achieve eternal bliss after their death? Indeed, if that were so then this is no different from several other religious systems. We find essentially the same thing in Islam and in Eastern religions. Solovyev saw things from a completely different point of view: Christianity is the line which joins higher things with lower, the divine with the human. If this is what Godmanhood means, then there is nothing in history which is a matter of indifference to spirituality. Therefore, the Christian ideal can absorb into itself everything, including social problems, the moral problems of society, and even problems of art. Solovyev created a great synthesis whereby the two understandings of Christianity could be united. His follower in the twentieth century was our well-known compatriot Nicolas Berdyaev, a bold, enlightened thinker with a most brilliant mind. The whole world knows him and international conferences gather to discuss his works. Unfortunately, his works were not published in Russia and to many Russians his name for a long time has hardly meant anything at all.

Berdyaev wrote several articles which had the same title as our lecture today - 'Two Understandings of Christianity'. He clarified and reformulated the subject. He defined two points of view: personal salvation and creativity. These two points of view are as it were hostile to each other. To one group of Christians, the most important thing is simply inner self-perfection leading to salvation. Everything else is rejected. Creativity is left to the secular world, outside the domain of the church: it is left, as it were, outside the spiritual realm, without the light inherent to the impulse of the Gospels. This position led to a strange outcome: humanity was demeaned. The great word 'humility', which Christ spoke about, was turned into a synonym for compromise, appeasement and a wretched collusion with evil.

Collusion with evil means, in the final analysis, working for evil. Hence the unwillingness to make any kind of protest and the unwillingness to take any bold initiative. Submission means acknowledging evil. And although Christ said of himself that he was 'gentle and lowly of heart' [Matt. 11.29], he never taught us to compromise with evil. This was the source of human demeanment which offended Berdyaev so exceptionally. He said that faith and spirituality should elevate people, and help them to stand tall because people are made in the image of God and are the most valuable of beings. The gospel preaches about humanity, about the greatness of humanity on which the light of heaven shines. So Berdyaev treated humility in a completely different way: as openness to everything, as the readiness to accept other points of view, as the readiness to listen to and hear the voice of other people and the voice of God. This understanding of humility is the opposite of pride, for pride hears only itself. Pride, locked up in itself, feeds on itself, as the saying goes, lives in its own world, in its own prison. So Berdyaev sought to find a way of uniting these two opposing trends which were tearing the church apart.

This propensity for the two understandings of Christianity to clash continues even today. You can easily find it in literature. In Leskov's story The Mountain, you will immediately see two types of Christian: one is the artist Zenon and the other is the crowd which hangs around the patriarch's palace. There are also many legends and stories which Leskov makes into serious parables. Even Belinsky, in his letter to Gogol which you certainly remember from school, described his understanding of Christianity - true, in a very incompetent, irritable and inaccurate manner. He said that Christ proclaimed freedom, equality and brotherhood and so on - in short Belinsky treated Christianity as an egalitarian liberation movement of social opposition.

Why is it important for us to be aware of this now? - important for all of us, believers and non-believers? Because today our culture is getting back those lost and half-forgotten values from the past and, together with them, the age-old values of the Russian Orthodox Church and of Christianity as a whole. And people who lack a clear understanding of the richness and deep antinomies of the phenomenon that is Christianity, think that Christians are all the same and that the church is something which has one clearly defined official view and a systematic ideology fully worked out in theory and practice. And they will be discouraged when they see that within this historical stream are many diverse and even contradictory currents. And we must bear this in mind. It must be borne in mind by those who wish to start on the Christian way and by those who are interested in Christianity simply as a cultural phenomenon and who want to understand it and make their own minds up about it. In periods of social freezes and social storms, as in war, people get quickly divided into two groups: those for us and those against us, believers and non-believers and so on. This is an over- simplified picture. And for those people who are just joining the church the picture still seems valid. But it may happen that a pagan, someone far away from the church, may become spiritually closer to a Christian than their fellow believers. It's a paradox but it's true. This can happen because there isn't one single interpretation of Christianity which wholly corresponds to it.

There was a time when the antagonistic and seemingly irreconcilable principles of other-worldly, culture-denying Christianity and the Christianity which strives to share in creativity were in fact united in the church. But that was long ago. When Christianity first appeared in the ancient world, it faced the question: how to treat all this heritage? How to treat the philosophy, art, literature and in general all the great edifice of ancient culture? Should we say it's all rubbish? That it's all out of date? That it should all be thrown away? Many people said precisely that. Many were willing to go down that road.

The main answer given by the classic Christian thinkers, who are known as the patristic writers or the Fathers of the Church was, however, a positive one. Christianity could and should be open to all these questions. That's why the Church Fathers were most often the outstanding writers, thinkers, poets and social activists of their time. They did not consider that such things were alien to or unworthy of Christianity.

So in the case of John Chrysostom you will find not only discussions about injustice in his writings but also in his life too efforts to fight social oppression and the unjust distribution of material goods. You will find in the writings of Augustine the famous words that a state without law is in principle no different from a band of robbers. That was written in the fourth century. You will find among the writings of Basil the Great a special work on the meaning of pagan literature for Christian youth. You will find in the works of Gregory the Theologian (also the fourth century) marvellously humorous letters and poems which he wrote to his friend.

But often something else creeps in to this general orientation. In the great legacy of the Church Fathers there is a special section, a special part and that is the legacy of the Desert Fathers, of the supporters of monasticism. It was collected in the huge anthology the Philokalia.(6) This is a magnificent and, in its own way, eternally valuable book which has much to offer people. But then this tradition of the Philokalia began to be accepted as the only one. Yet it was intended for people who were called inoki [Russian for 'monk']. Inok means 'a person living a different way of life'. This means a person who deliberately lives apart from the world, not at all because he despises the world but because he personally has chosen for himself that special way. This was when the mistaken idea grew up that the legacy of the Church Fathers was to be regarded as the rejection of culture, whereas in fact this was not the case at all.

The return of contemporary Christian thought (by contemporary I mean over the last one hundred years) to the traditions of the Church Fathers, is the return of Christianity to an open model, which participates in the whole movement of human society. Berdyaev called this 'the churching of the world'. But understand me correctly: that word doesn't at all mean that some historical church incidentals are imposed on the secular culture of the world. It means that there is no such thing as the secular.

I myself, I don't know what the word 'secular' means. It is a conventional historical term because there is a spiritual element in everything - or not, as the case may be. Even though the title under a picture may say 'The Virgin Mary', if the picture is painted in an uninspired way, if it has something superficial, banal and flat about it, then it won't have anything to do with spirituality. And it's very important to understand that there isn't some literature which is spiritual and some which is unspiritual or 'secular', but rather there is literature with spirituality and literature without spirituality, there is good literature and bad literature. And truly good literature will always have a bearing on the eternal problems.

We can say the same of all types of art and also of the most varied kinds of creativity. Christianity has nothing to fear in all this. It's open to it all. The narrow, other-worldly model is a legacy from the past. It's something mediaeval (in the worst sense of the word) which, alas, is still extant. It often attracts new recruits who think they become true Christians if they put on black head scarves and walk around with a special mincing gait. None of that's necessary. That's parody, that's a caricature. There's a complex relationship between the inner and the outer. There is a tendency for some people to say: my spiritual life is going on here inside and I don't need anything from outside. But this is a serious mistake because somehow or other, a person expresses all their experiences. No one can be a bodiless spirit who looks indifferent and only experiences things somewhere deep inside them. No. Everything is expressed, is embodied, in gesture, facial expressions. Experience is a matter of body and soul together.

But at the same time what is outward, for instance, rituals are slippery customers, they are like dangerous underwater rocks: they have a tendency to become sufficient unto themselves. It is very good when a person makes the sign of the cross when they stand before the icon of God. But it's possible that person may gradually forget the important thing and just continue to cross themselves. Indeed, in popular speech, the words for 'to pray' and 'to cross oneself' have become interchangable. When a grandmother says to her grandson: 'Say your prayers, say your prayers', she is not thinking about what is going on in his heart. She is thinking about him waving his hand and making the sign of the cross. In this way, the external can gradually squeeze out the internal. Is this a danger for Christianity? Not at all. This danger is not specific to Christianity. Pharisaical mechanisms are at work in all spiritual movements, because the externals are always easier. That is why the Pharisees of gospel times observed thousands of rituals but inside, their spiritual lives were often dead. And this pharisaical external piety can exist in all places and all times. In the dialectic tensions between these two elements: the external and the internal, what is open to the world and at the same time concentrated, lies the deepest truth of the scriptures. And when we look deeply into it, we find there eventually the ultimate and final formula.

A spiritual community of people who are moving towards the supreme aim will undoubtedly still look like an exclusive group, but at the same time, this community is open to all and to the whole world. The foundation of the church goes back to ancient Old Testament times. When God called Abraham, he said to him: separate yourself, leave your country, leave your father's house, become a wanderer. This meant cutting himself off; but at the same time, God said to him: but through you will all the tribes and peoples of the earth be blessed. This contradiction, this paradox in the Bible, is still alive today. Yes, the person who wishes to develop in a deeply spiritual way must build some sort of defence around their soul. Otherwise, the noise of the world will deafen it. But at the same time anyone who does not wish to turn his soul into a small reservation, into a stuffy lamp-lit little world in which the spirit cannot live, must ensure that their defence is not absolute. It's like breathing in and breathing out. It's like talking to many people and talking to one. It's like solitude and company. It's like day and night. It's like what joins things together.

So the conclusion at least for me is clear: neither of the two understandings of Christianity is wrong, but each as it were takes one side and wrongly develops it. Fullness of life lies in the synthesis of the two. Florensky, the well-known theologian and philosopher, said that complete truth when it comes to our world is fragmented into contradictory parts and we see only this fragmented world, but somewhere in a higher dimension all these paradoxical, disunited and antinomic fragments are united in one. That's the mystery of life. That's the mystery of the two understandings of Christianity.

I hope, after this short digression, that you may feel that the variety and even the contradictions within the Christian church, and even more, the contradictions between the different Christian denominations - Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox - are not a sign of decay and breakdown but rather manifestations of parts of the whole, the united whole which we have to reach at greater depth. Then what seems to us to be impossible to unite will be united. Then the source, the profound source of spiritual life will nourish not only individual souls or small groups of individual souls in their interior lives but will also go beyond the limits of the merely personal and become for us a social force, a force in society, a force that will help us live in this world, and bring to the world our value as human beings and the light which each of us has been given to the degree that we are in communion with it. It follows, therefore, that this is not just a question for literary scholarship although you will find in it many literary aspects. Nor is it purely historical, although, of course, it has a direct relationship to history. It is a subject for today.

And it seems to me that such pluralism, such interaction of different points of view, is an important pre-condition for the vitality of Christianity. And perhaps it was providential that Christianity was split into different tendencies, because without this it would probably have been something uniform and forced. It is as if, knowing people's tendency to intolerance, God divided them so that each person in their place, in their own garden could bring forth their own fruit.

And the time will come when all the different fruits will come together into one stream, in which will be preserved all the best in the spiritual culture of humanity and of each person who is made in the image and likeness of God.

MARCH 19th FEAST OF ST JOSEPH and INAUGURATION OF POPE FRANCIS IN ROME

March 19, 2013, 9:29 am

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Before we get involved with popes and things, I would like to tell you what happened yesterday in my monastery in Pachacamac. A friend phoned me and asked if he could come and see me about nsomething. He is a Peruvian of Japanese extraction who has a polleria which sells chicken meals in nearby Lurin.   He is also a member of the Catholic lay community of PaxTv, though he does not work in the television side of that community.

He knew that I used to celebrate Sunday Mass in the Cenaculo Community before I went back to England for chemo therapy.   The new Pope had asked Catholics throughout the world to make St  Joseph,s Day a Day of Charity, when people would generously give to those in need.   My friend, Andres, decided that he would offer chicken meals to the orphanage run by the Cenaculo, but he did not know how to get in touch with them.  We thought it best to phone them, and I went off to find my mobile phone.

I phoned twice as a walked back to where Andres was waiting for me.  I told him that I couldnt reach them, but I would try once more.   A sister answered and I gave him the phone.   He told the sister at the other end that he wanted to donate as many chicken meals as there were people in their house, for the feast of St Joseph.   The sister was utterly astonished.   The reason why nobody had answered before was because the whole community, members of Cenaculo and orphans, were in the chapel, praying, especially to St Joseph, to provide them with food for the feast of St Joseph.  She left the prayer meeting to answer the phone   They had rice, but nothing else to go with it.   Well, they have now!   All seventy of them!

Cenaculo is a miracle in itself.   All its members, apart from the foundress, Mother Elvira, and the first priest member, Father Stephen, are people who have made a mess of their lives.  Most are drug addicts, some alcoholics or addicts of one kind or another.   They went to Cenaculo for help, either in Northern Italy, Lourdes in France, Medjugorje in Bosnia, or to one of their houses in different parts of the world, and there they received love, encouragement and Christ.  Out of their numbers, some have embraced celibacy as consecrated lay people, a community of sisters and, more recently, of priests, have been formed, not to speak of wonderful Catholic families.   Mostly Europeans, in Peru they dedicate themselves to orphans and abandoned children.   They want to start a rehabilitation home in Lima for drug addicts and are waiting for people to donate the wherewithal to bring this about.

Mother Elvira and the sisters of Cenaculo

This is because the Cenacle Community lives by faith, not having a regular income.   When they need something, they pray for it.  This is what they were doing when we phoned.  They were only astonished at the promptness of the answer to their prayer.

POPE FRANCIS IS A COMBINATION OF SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITY

my source:  San Angelo 

VATICAN CITY — At gatherings of Latin American bishops, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was often a star speaker about economic inequities in a profit-driven world. He also has used the forums to warn fellow church leaders about drifting from core Catholic values and teachings.

People in the square for the inaugural Mass

The twin messages are now expected to frame the beginning of the papacy of Pope Francis: Reinforcing the Vatican’s views on issues such as birth control and women’s ordination that will disappoint reform-minded followers, yet showing an activist streak that could hearten others pushing for greater attention to problems that include poverty and international debt.

These broad ideological strokes — drawn clearly over decades in the Argentine church — will likely be accompanied by growing nuances and initiatives demanded by the modern papacy that requires diplomatic skill, managerial acumen and a degree of pastoral flair.

His emphasis on clerical simplicity and populism, including efforts to keep divorced Catholics and unmarried mothers in the church’s fold, could raise alarms among staunch conservatives about a reorientation of Vatican priorities after eight years of strict guidance under Benedict XVI, who spent most of his Vatican career as the main doctrinal enforcer.

Through lesser-known gestures and comments in the past, the first Latin American pontiff also has shown an inclination to expand interfaith outreach to Islam and Judaism, and efforts to further close the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with the Orthodox churches. The pope’s historical namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, is described in church lore as walking unarmed to meet an Islamic ruler during the 13th century Crusades in a gesture of respect and shared humanity.

In his first Mass on Thursday as pope, Francis reinforced his pastoral priorities and service during a brief homily in the Sistine Chapel that was simple and inclusive, calling on all Catholics to help “build” the church and “walk” with the faith. Without such collective spirit, he said the underpinnings grow weak.

“What happens when children build sand castles on the beach?” he told the congregation that included the cardinals who elected him. “It all comes down.”

The pope then showed a sterner side by citing the words of French writer Leon Bloy, an agnostic who experienced a strong religious conversion before his death in 1917: “He who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.”

“To focus on the new pope only as a traditionalist is wrong, as is only to focus on him as a champion for economic justice,” said Ambrogio Piazzoni, a church historian and vice prefect of the Vatican library. “He is both and much more. This will be a papacy of complexity.”

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, described the initial period of any papacy as “days of surprise.”

But core elements of Pope Francis’ pontificate are already informed by his Jesuit order. Its nearly 500-year history has been marked by hostility from the Vatican over perceived disobedience and independent-minded theological interpretations, although in recent decades, there has been a growing sense of cooperation and common purpose.

The Jesuit ethos is built strongly around academic rigor and missionary service — and since the 1960s an association with so-called liberation theology, a Latin American-inspired view that Jesus’ teachings imbue followers with a duty to fight for social and economic justice.

Francis has disavowed liberation theology as a misguided strain of Catholic tenets. But that does not mean he also rejects the ultimate goal. His addresses and homilies often circle back to the need for the church to rivet its attention on issues of economic failings, including the growing divides between the comfortable and needy, and the pressures of Western-style capitalism.

Such views are likely to play an increasingly high profile in Vatican affairs — and win praise from some liberal factions in the church — in contrast to Benedict, who spoke about issues of poverty but without Francis’ credibility and direct links to grassroots church initiatives.

At a meeting of Latin American bishops in 2007, the future pope called on the church to purge the “social sin” of chronic poverty and economic inequality.

Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, who is among the church leaders alleged to have covered up sex abuse scandals, called the selection of the Buenos Aires archbishop a “historic decision in a number of ways.” It acknowledges the church’s demographic shifts in which nearly 40 percent of Catholics live in Latin America, and it also picks a Jesuit for the first time.

Jesuits “are renowned for their teaching, servants of the pope, but also for the witness, certainly in our country, to the need to witness to the poor and caring for the weak and speaking for justice,” Brady told reporters in Rome.

There is no doubt about Francis’ traditional groundings. He has spoken out resolutely in support of central Catholic tenets, echoing the words of Pope John Paul II to call abortion and contraception part of a “culture of death,” and showing no public tolerance for homosexuality.

But fellow church conservatives will have to readjust — with varying degrees of comfort — to his emphasis on hands-on, missionary-style outreach.

For some, it is a welcome return to the pastoral vigor of John Paul II for a church battered by abuse scandals and internal discord.

“When we were looking for who would be the next pope, we were concentrating on who would be the most compelling spiritual leader for the church today,” said U.S. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., just hours after Francis’ selection.

Others, however, face the prospect of losing a supporter of waning — but symbolically important — traditions such as the Latin Mass.

In an possible olive-branch comment, the breakaway Society of St. Pius X said it hopes the new pope will heed the divine calling of St. Francis to “rebuild” the church. The group was founded by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who split from Rome over interpretation of reforms from the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II, which revolutionized the church’s relations with Jews and allowed for the celebration of Mass in languages other than Latin. The Vatican is currently in talks with the society on whether to return to papal control.

“What is certain is it’s a great change of style, which for us isn’t a small thing,” Francis’ authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press as he recalled how the former Cardinal Bergoglio would celebrate Mass with ex-prostitutes in Buenos Aires. “He believes the church has to go to the streets to express this closeness of the church and this accompaniment with the people who suffer.”

The new pope, too, could extend the church’s outreach in other directions.

His choice of Francis as his papal name brought immediate connections to stories of St. Francis’ peaceful efforts to spread Christianity in the Muslim world, even amid the Crusades, which still taints Islamic views of the Vatican to this day.

In Saudi Arabia, the secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, expressed “ardent hope” that the “relationship between Islam and Christianity will regain its cordiality and sincere friendship” under Francis.

Jewish leaders also see the new pope as an ally. He won wide praise for his aid to Buenos Aires’ Jewish community following the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Center that killed 85 people. Iran has been blamed for the attack, but denied any links. A joint Argentine-Iranian “truth commission” is studying the evidence.

In one of the first international invitations, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Francis would be a “welcome guest in the Holy Land.”

Patriarch Bartholomew at the Mass

In Moscow, the powerful Russian Orthodox Church welcomed Pope Francis’ “spiritual affinity” to the Orthodox churches and urged closer ties, which have been gradually improved by successive popes. The two branches of Christianity split in the 11th century over disputes that included papal authority.

Metropolitan Tikhon and friends at the Inauguration of Pope Francis

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THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

March 19, 2013, 8:11 pm

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mt source: Glory To God For All Things  (an excellent Orthodox blog)
I think this is the work of the daughter  of Jim Forest.   Obviously a chip off the old block!! It is VERY beautiful.

Orthodox Christians (New Calendar) commemorate the death (Dormition) of the Virgin Mary on August 15th. For those for whom such feasts are foreign, it is easy to misunderstand what the Orthodox are about – and to assume that this is simply a feast to Mary because we like that sort of thing. Flippant attitudes fail to perceive the depths of the mystery of our salvation. The Dormition of the Mother of God is one of many doorways into that mystery – all of which is Christ – who alone is our salvation.

The Christian life, as taught by the Scriptures and the fathers, is grounded in the mystery and reality of communion. We do not exist alone, nor do we exist merely as a collection. Our lives are a communion of lives. We share one another in ways that permeate the whole of our being. I am unique, and yet I am also the child of Jim and Nancy. Though I am unique, so much of who I am and what I am is their lives and the lives of generations of human beings and culture – not just genetic relatives – but all of humanity. Without such knowledge (whether conscious or unconscious), we do not love as we should and will not live as we should. Your life is my life; God help us.

The belief that God became man in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, makes no sense and has but little value apart from the reality of life understood as communion. It is thus crucial that the Creed confesses, “He took flesh of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” The womb of the Virgin was not “borrowed space” which God inhabited until His birth. The womb of the Virgin is also that place and that source by which God “took flesh of the Virgin Mary.”

There are many theological accounts of Christ and His work of salvation that center almost solely upon the idea of Christ as a sacrifice on the Cross that pays the penalty of our sins (the doctrine of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement). This account tends to “stand on its own.” There is nothing inherent within Christ’s birth from a Virgin to such a view of the Atonement. Nor does the Virgin herself have any inherent connection to the saving acts of God as made known to us in the Scriptures. Thus those who profess her virginity in such cases only do so because it is recorded in the Scripture – but they do not do so because they understand its true role in our salvation.

However, our salvation is not achieved by an objective payment (even if the image of payment may be found in the Scriptures). The unifying teaching of the Scriptures with regard to Christ is our salvation through union with Him, through true communion in His life.

His Incarnation thus becomes a part of reality of God’s restoration of our communion with Him. He becomes a partaker of our life, that we might become partakers of His. This reality is made profoundly clear in that God not only comes to dwell among us, but comes to do so as a man, having taken flesh of the Virgin Mary. He becomes “flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone” (Ge. 2:23). And yet another image: “And a sword will pierce your own soul also” (Lk. 2:35). Mary is united to Christ in the flesh, and mystical in her soul as well.

Her role in the salvation of the world (through union with Christ) is so profound that it is prophesied in the early chapters of Genesis (Ge. 3:15). She, and the Virgin Birth, are pre-figured repeatedly throughout the Old Testament (as interpreted by the fathers). There is a traditional hymn, sung during the vesting of a Bishop that makes reference to just a small sample of such prefigurements:

Of old the Prophets aforetime proclaimed thee,

the Golden Vessel, the Staff, the Tablet, the Ark,

the Lampstand, the Table, the Uncut Mountain,

the Golden Censer, the Gate Impassible,

and the Throne of the King,

thee did the Prophets proclaim of old.

Perhaps the greatest collection of such references can be found in the 6th century hymn called the Akathist to the Theotokos.

This prefigurement and their abundant use in the fathers, all flow from the fundamental understanding of salvation as communion. Thus she, as the Mother of God, belongs with Christ. She belongs with Him as the Golden Vessel belonged with the Manna (she is the vessel who contained the Bread of Heaven); she belongs with Him as Aaron’s Rod belongs with the buds which sprang forth (that He should be born from her virginal womb is like the life which springs forth from Aarons lifeless rod); she is the Tablet as Christ is the words inscribed; she is the lampstand as Christ Himself is the Lamp, etc.

As the Creed tells us, Christ died, in accordance with the Scriptures. This does not mean in “accordance with the Gospel writings”, but “in accordance with the Scriptures of the Old Testament” (we first see the phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:3). Through the eyes of the fathers and the Tradition of the Church we begin to see that in accordance with the Scriptures is more than the few references that can be found that refer to payment or sacrifice or that point to the Cross. The Gospel given to us includes a very wholistic understanding of salvation and its story – and unfolds that from beginning to end.

The union with the flesh of the Virgin is the union with our humanity – indeed with the whole created order. What Christ takes to Himself in that action, He takes with Himself throughout His ministry, taking it into death and Hades and raising it again with Himself on the third day. Thus St. Paul can say:

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Romans 6:4-6).

These comments on death and resurrection in the context of Baptism, in which “we have been united together,” only make sense in an understanding of salvation as communion.

The death of the Mother of God (for He who was born of her was truly God as well as truly man), commemorated in the Feast of the Dormition, is something in which all of creation shares. For the point of the Incarnation was not simply to take flesh of the Virgin, but to be united with the whole created order. And so creation itself “groans and travails” as it awaits the final completion of our salvation (Romans 8). Or as the Church sings:

All of creation rejoices in Thee, O Full of Grace,

the assembly of angels and the race of men.

O sanctified temple and spiritual paradise,

the glory of virgins,

from whom God was incarnate and became a child.

Our God before the ages,

He made thy body into a throne,

and thy womb He made more spacious than the Heavens.

All of creation rejoices in thee,

O Full of Grace, glory to thee!

Her Dormition is indeed a day the earth stood still – for the Mother of us all passes from death to life.

GOD IS IMMEASURABLE LOVE - SAINT ISAAC OF NINEVEH

March 21, 2013, 5:31 pm

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With the new Pope Francis urging us to regard the whole human race as brothers and sisters in the same family, and to respect and care for the weakest among us, and to respect and care for the whole of Nature, we read here of an Eastern Father who eloquently teaches us to share in the universal love that God has for all that exists.

my source: Eclectic Orthodoxy, an excellent blog

Who among the Eastern Fathers has written more eloquently, more profoundly about the love of God Almighty than St Isaac the Syrian? “In Isaac’s understanding,” states Met Hilarion Alfeyev, “God is, above all, immeasurable love. The conviction that God is love dominates Isaac’s thought: it is the source of his theological opinions, ascetical recommendations and mystical thought” (The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian, pp. 35-36). Sadly this great doctor of the divine love remains relatively unknown in English-speaking Christendom. Only in recent decades have his discourses become available in translation. Yet despite Isaac’s relative obscurity, I believe that his writings are necessary reading for all Orthodox and Catholic preachers, pastors, and confessors. Why do I say this? Because having heard my fair share of Orthodox and Catholic sermons over the past eight years, I am convinced that most Orthodox and Catholic preachers simply do not understand what it means to speak the good news of Jesus Christ. They do not understand that preaching is, first and foremost, the proclamation of the God who is absolute love and mercy. The homilies I have heard may be characterized as exhortation. I have heard exhortations to good behavior. I have heard exhortations to imitate Christ in his care for the poor. I have heard exhortations to repentance and the acquisition of the virtues. I have heard exhortations to adhere to the dogmas and traditions of the Church. I have heard exhortations to prayer and ascetical discipline. But rarely, oh so rarely, have I heard the kerygmatic announcement of the surprising and unmerited mercy of God. Rarely have I heard the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ and the eschatological existence now freely given to us in the Church by the Spirit. Rarely have I heard of the God who leaves his flock in search for one lost sheep and upon finding it lays it on his shoulders and rejoicing takes it back to the flock. Orthodox and Catholic preachers prefer to exhort, urge, counsel, warn, and admonish their congregations; but this kind of preaching, whether moralistic or ascetical, cannot save. Only the proclamation of love communicates the abundant life that Christ came to bring us. Exhortation alone either drives away sinners or makes them into Pharisees. The prophet Amos declared, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD’” (Amos 8:11). In the Church today we are experiencing a famine of the gospel. We are told to act better, to pray better, to be better; but we are not given the only Word that can actually transform us and make us new. St Isaac the Syrian is the antidote to this woeful situation.

Isaac’s reflections on the divine love are scattered throughout his discourses–the First Part and the Second Part. I cannot point to a single homily or two in which Isaac expounds on the love of God at great length (though Homily 38 in the Second Part is a good place to begin). Fortunately Alfeyev has written a fine introduction to Isaac’s mystical thought, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian, and it is readily available from Orthodox bookstores and internet booksellers. Every preacher should read and inwardly digest this book. I wish I had been acquainted with the discourses of St Isaac during my years of active ministry. Perhaps I would have been a better preacher. I know I would have been a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

For Isaac the world is a gift of the divine love. It begins in love and will be consummated in love. This love is unconquerable and irresistible, not because it coerces—God forbid!—but because of its intrinsic beauty, truth, and goodness:

What profundity of richness, what mind and exalted wisdom is God’s! What compassionate kindness and abundant goodness belongs to the Creator! With what purpose and with what love did He create this world and bring it into existence! What a mystery does the coming into being of this creation look towards! To what a state is our common nature invited! What love served to initiate the creation of the world! This same love which initiated the act of creation prepared beforehand by another dispensation the things appropriate to adorn the world’s majesty which sprung forth as a result of the might of His love.

In love did He bring the world into existence; in love does He guide it during this its temporal existence; in love is He going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of Him who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised. And since in the New World the Creator’s love rules over all rational nature, the wonder at His mysteries that will be revealed then will captivate to itself the intellect of all rational beings whom He has created so that they might have delight in Him, whether they be evil or whether they be just. (II.38.1-2)

What a magnificent passage. God has created the world in love and for love. Angels and human beings alike have been brought into existence to delight in the divine mercy and to enjoy eternal communion with the God who is love. Everything that God has done, everything that he does in the present and will do in the future is an expression of love. “Among all his actions,” Isaac proclaims, “there is none which is not entirely a matter of mercy, love, and compassion: this constitutes the beginning and the end of his dealings with us” (II. 39.22). Here is the purpose of creation and the Incarnation, “to reveal his boundless love to the world” (quoted in Alfeyev, p. 36).

The love of God is indiscriminate, promiscuous, prodigal. It intends every rational creature. As Jesus teaches, the Father who is in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). There is no one “who is to the front of or to the back of God’s love. Rather, He has a single equal love which covers the whole extent of rational creation, all things whether visible or invisible: there is no first or last place with Him in this love for any single one of them” (II.38.2). There is no before or after, no greater or lesser. The divine love addresses and upholds all equally. St Isaac firmly rejects the Calvinist thesis that God has predestined some human beings for damnation. Such a thesis is unthinkable, indeed blasphemous. Every being created by God is loved by God. Our disobedience does not change the character of the Father; our sin does not diminish his love for us. “There is no hatred or resentment in His nature,” Isaac explains, “no greater or lesser place in His love, no before or after in His knowledge” (II.38.5). No matter how much disorder we cause in the world, no matter how grievous our sin, no matter how horrific the evil we commit, God’s salvific will for us does not change. He eternally wills our good, and in his wise providence he will accomplish this good. “There exists with Him a single love and compassion which is spread out over all creation, a love which is without alteration, timeless, and everlasting” (II.40.1).

The providence of love encompasses all material and spiritual dimensions:

Let us consider then how rich in its wealth is the ocean of His creative act, and how many created things belong to God, and how in His compassion He carries everything, acting providentially as He guides creation; and how with a love that cannot be measured He arrived at the establishment of the world and the beginning of creation; and how compassionate God is, and how patient; and how He loves creation, and how He carries it, gently enduring its importunity, the various sins and wickednesses, the terrible blasphemies of demons and evil men. Then, once someone has stood amazed, and filled his intellect with the majesty of God, amazed at all these things He has done and is doing, then he wonders in astonishment at His mercifulness, how, after all these things, God has prepared for them another world that has no end, whose glory is not even revealed to the angels, even though they are involved in His activities insofar as is possible in the life of the spirit, in accordance with the gift with which their nature has been endowed. That person wonders too at how excelling is that glory, and how exalted is the manner of existence at that time; and how insignificant is the present life compared to what is reserved for creation in the New Life; and how, in order that the soul’s life will not be deprived of that blessed state because of misusing the freewill it has received, He has devised in His mercifulness a second gift, which is repentance, so that by it the soul’s life might acquire renewal every day and thereby every time be put aright. (II.10.19)

The merciful God has provided a way for sinful creatures to avail themselves of the mercy of God—repentance. Nor is repentance something beyond our capabilities, says Isaac. God understands our weaknesses and limits. Repentance involves the whole person, mind, will, conscience, heart, “so that it might be easy for everyone to acquire benefit from it, both quickly and at any time” (II.10.19).

The infinite love of the Creator is dramatically displayed in the Incarnation of the Son. Why did God become man? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Certainly not to propitiate an angry deity. If God’s sole purpose was to achieve the remission of sins, he could have accomplished this end by another means. The cross is the perfect and compelling revelation of the divine mercy. Isaac understood that sinners would not and could not believe in the possibility of their reconciliation with their Maker without a revelation embodied in the terrible suffering and bloody death of God himself:

If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back to his Father? And why was he stretched out on the cross for the sake of sinners, handing over his sacred body to suffering on behalf of the world? I myself say that God did all this for no other reason than to make known to the world the love that he has, his aim being that we, as a result of our greater love arising from an awareness of this, might be captivated by his love when he provided the occasion of this manifestation of the kingdom of heaven’s mighty power—which consists in love—by means of the death of his Son. (Quoted in Alfeyev, p. 52)

God must die on the cross. Only thus can human hearts be pierced and turned away from self and sin; only thus can mankind apprehend the true identity and nature of their Creator and be converted to the path of salvation. It is the divine love, manifested in the humility and death of the Son, that transforms sinners and brings them everlasting life. St Isaac quotes the famous verse from the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (3:16).

Why do we not hear this message of the astonishing love of God every Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, in our Churches? This is the gospel. There is no other gospel worth preaching. In a world filled with wickedness, suffering, despair, and death, we desperately need to hear the proclamation of the omnipotent power of God’s love and mercy. We need to know that he treasures us, that he has a plan for us, that his good will for us, and for the world, will triumph. Only thus does it become possible for us to cooperate with him in prayer and good works. In the words of the great Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar: “Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the ‘work’ of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it; to believe against all the evidence of experience (‘credere contra fidem‘ like ‘spere contra spem‘), against every ‘rational’ concept of God, which thinks of him in terms of impassibility or, at best, totally pure goodness, but not in terms of this inconceivable and senseless act of love” (Love Alone is Credible, pp. 101-102). Without the preaching of the boundless love of God enfleshed in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the Church has no reason to exist; indeed it cannot exist, for it is the Word of love that creates the new life that is the Church. Without love, there is no theosis, no repentance, no sanctification, only Pharisaic zeal and deadly dogmatism.

Very little is known about Julian's personal life, including her birth name. Her texts indicate she was probably born around 1342-43,[2] and died in 1416, or sometime shortly thereafter.[3] She may have been from a privileged family in or around Norwich, Norfolk. After London, Norwich was the largest city in East Anglia in the 11th century. Plague epidemics were rampant during her time, and according to some scholarly debate, Julian may have become an anchoress unmarried or, having lost her husband and children in the Plague, as a widow.[1] Her becoming an anchoress could have also served as a way to quarantine her from the rest of the infected population.
At the age of 30 and a half, suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions of Jesus Christ. They ended by the time she recovered from her illness on 13 May 1373.[4] She was at home during her near death experience, and gives no mention of her personal life up until that point. Julian wrote down a narration of the visions immediately following them, which is known as The Short Text. Twenty to thirty years later she wrote a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as The Long Text.[5] These visions are the source of her major work, called Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love (ca. 1393). This is believed to be the first book written in the English language by a woman.[6] Julian became well known throughout England as a spiritual authority: the English mystic (and author of the first known autobiography written in England) Margery Kempe mentions going to Norwich to speak with her.[7]
[edit]History of Revelations or Showing of Love

“God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself;—only in Thee I have all”

IN this same time our Lord shewed me a spiritual sight of His homely loving.

I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us: He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all encloseth us for tender love, that He may never leave us; being to us all-thing that is good, as to mine understanding.  Also in this He   shewed me a little thing, the quantity of an hazel-nut, in the palm of my hand;
and it was as round as a ball. I looked thereupon with eye of my understanding, and thought: What may this be? And it was answered generally thus: It is all that is made. I marvelled how it might last, for methought it might suddenly have fallen to naught for little[ness]. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasteth, and ever shall [last] for that God loveth it. And so All-thing hath the Being by the love of God.

In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it. But what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover,—I cannot tell; for till I am Substantially oned to Him, I may never have full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened to Him, that there is right nought that is made betwixt my God and me.

It needeth us to have knowing of the littleness of creatures and to hold as nought all-thing that is made, for to love and have God that is unmade. For this is the cause why we be not all in ease of heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little, wherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty, All-wise, All-good. For He is the Very Rest. God willeth to be known, and it pleaseth Him that we rest in Him; for all that is beneath Him sufficeth not us. And this is the cause why that no soul is rested till it is made nought as to all things that are made. When it is willingly made nought, for love, to have Him that is all, then is it able to receive spiritual rest.

Also our Lord God shewed that it is full great pleasance to Him that a helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and homely. For this is the natural yearnings of the soul, by the touching
of the Holy Ghost (as by the understanding that I have in this Shewing): God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth,—but only in Thee I have all.

And these words are full lovely to the soul, and full near touch they the will of God and His Goodness. For His Goodness comprehendeth all His creatures and all His blessed works, and
overpasseth without end. For He is the endlessness, and He hath made us only to Himself, and restored us by His blessed Passion, and keepeth us in His blessed love; and all this of His Goodness.

ABBOT PAUL'S HOMILY AT BELMONT

St Benedict’s Day, March 21st 2013

 In some manuscripts of the Holy Rule there is a short sentence, probably not going back to St Benedict himself, which reads, “It is called a rule because it regulates the lives of those who obey it.” As Benedictine monks we try each day to live as closely to the Rule as possible because we know that, by obeying it, it will keep us on the way of the Gospel that alone leads us to God. Our oblates and friends try to do the same, each in their own way. By obeying the Rule and putting nothing before Christ, we also come to love our neighbour. Who is our neighbour but all those whom God puts on our path: our brethren and our families, guests and those in need, the sick in mind and body, the young and the old, our enemies too. In learning to see Christ in others, we discover him in ourselves. Praying for others, we also pray for ourselves. These past two weeks we have witnessed the election and installation of Pope Francis, which was a big surprise for everyone. Following the example of Blessed John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI, he has begun his ministry of service to the Church by speaking to us of the deep joy we experience when we trust in God and place our lives confidently in his hands. This is the way of both St Benedict and St Francis of Assisi, a way of simplicity and austerity, a way of joy and thanksgiving, a way of love and tenderness, a way of caring for creation and all that God created, a way of obedience to God’s will. As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Passing of Our Holy Father Benedict, we consecrate ourselves once more to God’s service in a spirit of humility and charity. We pray for patience and perseverance in living the monastic life and for a renewed spirit of obedience to Christ and the Gospel. In the tradition of the English Benedictine Congregation, we pledge our obedience to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, God’s gift to his Church. Through the intercession of St Benedict, may we find in obedience, that peace which surpasses all understanding and the perfect love that casts out fear. By sharing in the sufferings of Christ through patience, may we all deserve to share in his kingdom. Amen

POPE FRANCIS, ECUMENISM AND THE WORLD

March 22, 2013, 8:09 am

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THREE QUALITIES OF POPE FRANCIS 

 By Metropolitan Siluan Antiochian Orthodox Metropolitan of Buenos Aires, Argentina, official representative of the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch to the papal installation Mass (Vatican City -- March 19, 2013) 

 An enriching experience is the double act of asking and listening. That is how one learns and grows. I want to share that experience here, relating to the three qualities of Pope Francis. I was given that opportunity at dinner today, Tuesday March 18, where several Cardinals were present, along with the Patriarch of Constantinople and the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate. In the table that brought together the Cardinals of Cuba, Ecuador, Santo Domingo, etc.., I wanted to know the opinions they have of the Pope. Each agreed to answer the question: What are the qualities of Pope Francis? I share below some of the most significant responses I collected. Some of it, I shared with C5N in Argentina, who asked me to share some of what we experienced here. One emphasized the fact that the Pope is an organizer, who knows where and how to do things, a man of great simplicity and mercy. Another emphasized the fact that the Pope is a man who understands his environment, a generous man of his word, that can speak without offending. A third said he is a humble, transparent, honest, knowing the situation in Latin America and know the right way to handle things. A fourth spoke of the liturgical aspect, of the eucharistic celebration, of his knowledge, the fact that he is a hard working man. As for me, which was not shared at the table, I think he is a person who deeply loves Jesus Christ, respects everyone, without discrimination, and is a man who is not occupied with things, whether or not they will be alright, but who comes to prayer, awaiting therein for strength and the answer. He really has faith, and knows how to live the faith, and also, by his sincerity, inspires others to think that faith is real, true and authentic, leaving you the time and freedom to enjoy it.

PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE PRESENCE OF HH PATRIARCH BATHOLOMEW OF CONSTANTINOPLE.   IT IS MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE READ IN THE MEDIA. IT IS IN A BLOG OF FATHER PETER PREBLE (click previous sentence)

THE POPE'S DISCOURSE TO CHRISTIANS AND NON-CHRISTIANS

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

First of all, heartfelt thanks for what my Brother Andrew told us. Thank you so much! Thank you so much! 

 It is a source of particular joy to meet you today, delegates of the Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the West. Thank you for wanting to take part in the celebration that marked the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter. Yesterday morning, during the Mass, through you , I recognized the communities you represent. In this manifestation of faith, I had the feeling of taking part in an even more urgent fashion the prayer for the unity of all believers in Christ, and together to see somehow prefigured the full realization of full unity which depends on God’s plan and on our own loyal collaboration. 

 I begin my Apostolic Ministry in this year during which my venerable Predecessor, Benedict XVI, with true inspiration, proclaimed the Year of Faith for the Catholic Church. With this initiative, that I wish to continue and which I hope will be an inspiration for every one’s journey of faith, he wished to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, thus proposing a sort of pilgrimage towards what for every Christian represents the essential: the personal and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, Son of God, who died and rose for our salvation. This effort to proclaim this eternal treasure of faith to the people of our time, lies at the heart of the Council's message. 

 Together with you I cannot forget how much the council has meaning for the ecumenical journey. I like to remember the words that Blessed John XXIII, of whom we will soon mark 50 years since his death, when he gave his memorable inauguration speech: "The Catholic Church therefore considers it her duty to work actively so that there may be fulfilled the great mystery of that unity, which Christ Jesus invoked with fervent prayer from His heavenly Father on the eve of His sacrifice. She rejoices in peace, knowing well that she is intimately associated with that prayer ". Yes, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be intimately united to our Saviour's prayer at the Last Supper, to his invocation: ut unum sint. 

We call merciful Father to be able to fully live the faith that we have received as a gift on the day of our Baptism, and to be able to it free, joyful and courageous testimony. The more we are faithful to his will, in thoughts, in words and in deeds, the more we will truly and substantially walk towards unity.

 For my part, I wish to assure, in the wake of my predecessors, the firm wish to continue on the path of ecumenical dialogue, and I thank you, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, for the help it continues to offer in my name, for this noble cause. I ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to bring my cordial greetings to the Churches and Christian communities who are represented here. And I ask you for a special prayer for me so that I can be a pastor according to the heart of Christ. 

And now I turn to you, distinguished representatives of the Jewish people, to whom we are bound by a very special spiritual bond, from the moment that, as the Second Vatican Council said, "thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that according to God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets".(Decree Nostra Aetate, 4). I thank you for your presence and trust that with the help of the Almighty, we can continue that fruitful fraternal dialogue that the Council wished for. And that it is actually achieved, bringing many fruits, especially during the last decades . 

 I greet and thank cordially all of you, dear friends belonging to other religious traditions; firstly the Muslims, who worship the one living and merciful God, and call upon Him in prayer. I really appreciate your presence, and in it I see a tangible sign of the wish to grow in recipricol trust and in cooperation for the common good of humanity. The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – this I wish to repeat this: the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – this is attested evident also in the valuable work undertaken by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. 

The Church is equally aware of the responsibility that each of us bring towards our world, abd to the whole of creation, that we must love and protect. And we can do a lot for the good of the less fortunate, for those who are weak and suffering, to promote justice, to promote reconciliation, to build peace.. 

But above all, we must keep alive in our world the thirst for the absolute, and must not allow the vision of the human person with a single dimension to prevail, according to which man is reduced to what he produces and to what he consumes: this is one most dangerous threats of our times. We know how much violence has been provoked in recent history by the attempt to eliminate God and the divine from the horizon of humanity, and we feel the need to witness in our societies the original openness to transcendence that is inherent in the human heart.

 In this we feel the closeness also of those men and women who, while not belonging to any religious tradition, feel, however the need to search for the truth, the goodness and the beauty of God, and who are our precious allies in efforts to defend the dignity of man, in the building of a peaceful coexistence between peoples and in the careful protection of creation. Dear friends, thank you for your presence. To all, I offer my cordial and fraternal greetings.

 Posted by Josephus Flavius

"There is no true peace without truth"

Material and spiritual poverty. Relativism. Islam. Nonbelievers. Care for creation. The speech by pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the ambassadors and to the world. Including to "those few countries that do not yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See," like China 

Sala Regia of the Apostolic Vatican Palace

March 22, 2013

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Heartfelt thanks to your Dean, Ambassador Jean-Claude Michel, for the kind words that he has addressed to me in the name of everyone present. It gives me joy to welcome you for this exchange of greetings: a simple yet deeply felt ceremony, that somehow seeks to express the Pope’s embrace of the world. Through you, indeed, I encounter your peoples, and thus in a sense I can reach out to every one of your fellow citizens, with their joys, their troubles, their expectations, their desires.

Your presence here in such numbers is a sign that the relations between your countries and the Holy See are fruitful, that they are truly a source of benefit to mankind. That, indeed, is what matters to the Holy See: the good of every person upon this earth! And it is with this understanding that the Bishop of Rome embarks upon his ministry, in the knowledge that he can count on the friendship and affection of the countries you represent, and in the certainty that you share this objective.

At the same time, I hope that it will also be an opportunity to begin a journey with those few countries that do not yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, some of which were present at the Mass for the beginning of my ministry, or sent messages as a sign of their closeness – for which I am truly grateful.

As you know, there are various reasons why I chose the name of Francis of Assisi, a familiar figure far beyond the borders of Italy and Europe, even among those who do not profess the Catholic faith.

One of the first reasons was Francis’ love for the poor. How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure! After the example of Francis of Assisi, the Church in every corner of the globe has always tried to care for and look after those who suffer from want, and I think that in many of your countries you can attest to the generous activity of Christians who dedicate themselves to helping the sick, orphans, the homeless and all the marginalized, thus striving to make society more humane and more just.

But there is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the "tyranny of relativism", which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples.

And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth.

One of the titles of the Bishop of Rome is Pontiff, that is, a builder of bridges with God and between people. My wish is that the dialogue between us should help to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced! My own origins impel me to work for the building of bridges. As you know, my family is of Italian origin; and so this dialogue between places and cultures a great distance apart matters greatly to me, this dialogue between one end of the world and the other, which today are growing ever closer, more interdependent, more in need of opportunities to meet and to create real spaces of authentic fraternity.

In this work, the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people.

Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam. At the Mass marking the beginning of my ministry, I greatly appreciated the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world.

And it is also important to intensify outreach to non-believers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail, but rather the desire to build true links of friendship between all peoples, despite their diversity.

Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up. But it is a difficult journey, if we do not learn to grow in love for this world of ours. Here too, it helps me to think of the name of Francis, who teaches us profound respect for the whole of creation and the protection of our environment, which all too often, instead of using for the good, we exploit greedily, to one another’s detriment.

Dear Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you again for all the work that you do, alongside the Secretariat of State, to build peace and construct bridges of friendship and fraternity. Through you, I would like to renew to your Governments my thanks for their participation in the celebrations on the occasion of my election, and my heartfelt desire for a fruitful common endeavour. May Almighty God pour out his gifts on each one of you, on your families and on the peoples that you represent. Thank you!

PALM SUNDAY

March 23, 2013, 10:59 am

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Pope Francis as Archbishop of Buenos Aires washing the feet on Maundy Thursday

From a Palm Sunday homily in 2008:

"Jesus goes out to meet people, instead of waiting for people to come looking for Him. He goes out to be encountered. Today is the day Jesus goes to be met and He enters the city. Many Christians today have also gone out, in the name of Jesus, to meet the sick in the hospitals[, etc.]…the Church spills into the street because today Jesus is the king of the street, as He was that Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. The place to worship Jesus on this day, more than a temple, is the street. There he was acclaimed, there He was blessed, there He was recognized as the Lord. Out in the street. Later, on Friday, in the corridors of power, among the groups of influence, He was bought and sold [i.e.,

His fate was debated and decided] But where the people are faithful, where the people are believing, out in the street, He was acclaimed."

For everything above, my source is  [...] (photo credit: http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/pope-francis-on-liturgy-ii/) [...]

Palm Sunday - Liturgical Year

by Dom Prosper Gueranger

Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the gross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome's emperor, and of the high priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy fling will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.'[1] Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat.[2] is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God's people, and become docile and faithful.

The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Saviour, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him,[3] and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and fondly proclaiming Him to be King.[4] They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others out down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King.

Thus did God, in His power over men's hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to glamour for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God. Shortly after the birth of our Emmanuel, we saw the Magi coming from the extreme east, and looking in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews, to whom they intended offering their gifts and their adorations: but it is Jerusalem herself that now goes forth to meet this King. Each of these events is an acknowledgment of the kingship of Jesus; the first, from the Gentiles; the second, from the Jews. Both were to pay Him this regal homage, before He suffered His Passion. The inscription to be put upon the gross, by Pilate's order, will express the kingly character of the Crucified: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate, the Roman governor, the pagan, the base coward, has been unwittingly the fulfiller of a prophecy; and when the enemies of Jesus insist on the inscription being altered, Pilate will not deign to give them any answer but this: 'What I have written, I have written.' Today, it is the Jews themselves that proclaim Jesus to be their King: they will soon be dispersed, in punishment for their revolt against the Son of David; but Jesus is King, and will be so for ever. Thus were literally verified the words spoken by the Archangel to Mary when he announced to her the glories of the Child that was to be born of her: 'The Lord God shall give unto Him the throng of David, His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.'[5] Jesus begins His reign upon the earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition.

This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolours. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of today, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.

The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this saved rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honour of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but, after the triple the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God's watchful love.

It is scarcely necessary to tell our reader that the palms or olive branches, thus blessed, are carried in memory of those wherewith the people of Jerusalem strewed the road, as our Saviour made His triumphant entry; but a word on the antiquity of our ceremony will not be superfluous. It began very early in the east. It is probable that, as far as Jerusalem itself is concerned, the custom was estate. fished immediately after the ages of persecution St. Cyril, who was bishop of that city in the fourth century, tells us that the palm-tree, from which the people out the branches when they went out to meet our Saviour, was still to be seen in the vale of Cedron.[6] Such a circumstance would naturally suggest an annual commemoration of the great event. In the following century, we find this ceremony established, not only in the churches of the east, but also in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria. At the beginning of Lent, many of the holy monks obtained permission from their abbots to retire into the desert, that they might spend the saved season in strict seclusion; but they were obliged to return to their monasteries for Palm Sunday, as we learn from the life of Saint Euthymius, written by his disciple Cyril.[7] In the west, the introduction of this ceremony was more gradual; the first trace we find of it is in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, that is, at the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the seventh, century. When the faith had penetrated into the north, it was not possible to have palms or olive branches; they were supplied by branches from other trees. The beautiful prayers used in the blessing, and based on the mysteries expressed by the palm and olive trees, are still employed in the blessing of our willow, box, or other branches; and rightly, for these represent the symbolical ones which nature has denied us.

The second of today's ceremonies is the procession, which comes immediately after the blessing of the palms. It represents our Saviour's journey to Jerusalem, and His entry into the city. To make it the more expressive, the branches that have just been blessed are held in the hand during it. With the Jews, to hold a branch in one's hand was a sign of joy. The divine law had sanctioned this practice, as we read in the following passage from Leviticus, where God commands :His people to keep the feast of tabernacles: And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God.[8] It was, therefore, to testify their delight at seeing Jesus enter within their walls, that the inhabitants, even the little children, of Jerusalem, went forth to meet Him with palms in their hands. Let us, also, go before our King, singing our to Him as the conqueror of death, and the liberator of His people.

During the middle ages, it was the custom, in many churches, to carry the book of the holy Gospels in this procession. The Gospel contains the words of Jesus Christ, and was considered to represent Him. The procession halted at an appointed place, or station: the deacon then opened the sacred volume, and sang from it the passage which describes our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. This done, the cross which, up to this moment, was veiled, was uncovered; each of the clergy advanced towards it, venerated it, and placed at its foot a small portion of the palm he held in his hand. The procession then returned, preceded by the gross, which was left unveiled until all had re-entered the church. In England and Normandy, as far back as the eleventh century, there was practised a holy ceremony which represented, even more vividly than the one we have just been describing, the scene that was witnessed on this day at Jerusalem: the blessed Sacrament was carried in procession. The heresy of Berengarius, against the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, had been broached about that time; and the tribute of triumphant joy here shown to the sacred Host was a distant preparation for the feast and procession which were to be instituted at a later period.

A touching ceremony was also practised in Jerusalem during today's procession, and, like those just mentioned, was intended to commemorate the event related by the Gospel. The whole community of the Franciscans (to whose keeping the holy places are entrusted) went in the morning to Bethphage. There, the father guardian of the holy Land, being vested in pontifical robes, mounted upon an ass, on which garments were laid. Accompanied by the friars and the Catholics of Jerusalem, all holding palms in their hands, he entered the city, and alighted at the church of the holy sepulchre where Mass was celebrated with all possible solemnity.

We have mentioned these different usages, as we have done others on similar occasions, in order to aid the faithful to the better understanding of the several mysteries of the liturgy. In the present instance, they will learn that, in today's procession, the Church wishes us to honour Jesus Christ as though He were really among us, and were receiving the humble tribute of our loyalty. Let us lovingly go forth to meet this our King, our Saviour, who comes to visit the daughter of Sion, as the prophet has just told us. He is in our midst; it is to Him that we pay honour with our palms: let us give Him our hearts too. He comes that He may be our King; let us welcome Him as such, and fervently cry out to Him: Hosanna to the Son of David!'

At the close of the procession a ceremony takes place, which is full of the sublimes" symbolism. On returning to the church, the doors are found to be shut. The triumphant procession is stopped; but the songs of joy are continued. A hymn in honour of Christ our King is sung with its joyous chorus; and at length the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross; the door opens, and the people, preceded by the clergy, enter the church, proclaiming the praise of Him, who is our resurrection and our life.

This ceremony is intended to represent the entry of Jesus into that Jerusalem of which the earthly one was but the figure-the Jerusalem of heaven, which has been opened for us by our Saviour. The sin of our first parents had shut it against us; but Jesus, the King of glory, opened its gates by His cross, to which every resistance yields. Let us, then, continue to follow in the footsteps of the Son of David, for He is also the Son of God, and He invites us to share His kingdom with Him. Thus, by the procession, which is commemorative of what happened on this day, the Church raises up our thoughts to the glorious mystery of the Ascension, whereby heaven was made the close of Jesus' mission on earth. Alas! the interval between these two triumphs of our Redeemer are not all days of joy; and no sooner is our procession over, than the Church, who had laid aside for a moment the weight of her grief, falls back into sorrow and mourning.

The third part of today's service is the offering of the holy Sacrifice. The portions that are sung by the choir are expressive of the deepest desolation; and the history of our Lord's Passion, which is now to be read by anticipation, gives to the rest of the day that character of saved gloom, which we all know so well. For the last five or six centuries, the Church has adopted a special chant for this narrative of the holy Gospel. The historian, or the evangelist, relates the events in a tone that is at once grave and pathetic; the words of our Saviour are sung to a solemn yet sweet melody, which strikingly contrasts with the high dominant of the several other interlocutors and the Jewish populace. During the singing of the Passion, the faithful should hold their palms in their hands, and, by this emblem of triumph, protest against the insults offered to Jesus by His enemies. As we listen to each humiliation and suffering, all of which were endured out of love for us, let us offer Him our palm as to our dearest Lord and King. When should we be more adoring, than when He is most suffering?

These are the leading features of this great day. According to our usual plan, we will add to the prayers and lessons any instructions that seem to be needed.

This Sunday, besides its liturgical and popular appellation of , has had several other Dames. Thus it was galled , in allusion to the acclamation wherewith the Jews greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. Our forefathers used also to gall; it , because the feast of the Pasch (or Easter), which is but eight days off, is today in bud, so to speak, and the faithful could begin from this Sunday to fulfil the precept of Easter Communion. It was in allusion to this name, that the Spaniards, having on the Palm Sunday of 1613, discovered the peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, galled it We also find the name of given to this Sunday, because, during those times when it was the custom to defer till Holy Saturday the baptism of infants born during the preceding months (where such a delay entailed no danger), the parents used, on this day, to wash the heads of these children, out of respect to the holy chrism wherewith they were to be anointed. Later on, this Sunday was, at least in some churches, galled the , that is, of the catechumens, who were admitted to Baptism; they assembled today in the church, and received a special instruction on the symbol, which had been given to them in the previous scrutiny. In the Gothic Church of Spain, the symbol was not given till today. 

The Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday
my source: The Greek Orthodox Archidiocese of America           
Rev. Alkiviadis C. Calivas, Th.D.

COMMENTS ON THE MAIN THEMES


The solemnities of Great Week are preceded by a two-day festival commemorating the resurrection of Lazaros and the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem. These two events punctuate Christ's ministry in a most dramatic way (Jn 11. l- 12,19). By causing the final eruption of the unrelenting hostility of His enemies, who had been plotting to kill him, these two events precipitate Christ's death. At the very same time, however, these same events emphasize His divine authority. Through them Christ is revealed as the source of all life and the promised Messiah. For this reason, the interlude which separates Great Week from the Great Fast is Paschal in character. It is the harbinger of Christ's victory over death and of the inrush of His kingdom into the life of the world.

The Saturday of Lazaros is counted among the major feasts of the Church. It is celebrated with great reverence and joy. The event of the raising of Lazaros is recorded in the Gospel of John (11. 1-45). The hymnography of the feast interprets the theological significance of the event. Accordingly, the resurrection of Lazaros is viewed as a prophecy in action. It prefigures both the resurrection of Christ, as well as the general resurrection of all the dead in the end times. The hymns of the feast also emphasize the biblical truth that the resurrection as such, is more than an event. It is a person, Christ Himself, who bestows eternal life now upon all who believe in Him, and not at some obscure future time (Jn 11.25-26).

In addition, the resurrection of Lazaros occasioned the disclosure of Christ's two natures, the divine and the human. He manifested His divine power by His foreknowledge of the death of Lazaros and by the final outcome, the miracle of his resurrection. Also, in the course of the dramatic events Jesus displayed deep human emotions. The Gospel records His deep feelings of love, tenderness, sympathy and compassion, as well as distress and sadness. The narrative reports that He sighed from the heart and wept (Jn 11.5, 33, 35, 36, 38).

The Entry into Jerusalem. At the outset of His public ministry Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and announced that the powers of the age to come were already active in the present age (Lk 7.18-22). His words and mighty works were performed "to produce repentance as the response to His call, a call to an inward change of mind and heart which would result in concrete changes in one's life, a call to follow Him and accept His messianic destiny.

The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is a messianic event, through which His divine authority was declared.

Palm Sunday summons us to behold our king: the Word of God made flesh. We are called to behold Him not simply as the One who came to us once riding on a colt, but as the One who is always present in His Church, coming ceaselessly to us in power and glory at every Eucharist, in every prayer and sacrament, and in every act of love, kindness and mercy. He comes to free us from all our fears and insecurities, "to take solemn possession of our soul, and to be enthroned in our heart," as someone has said. He comes not only to deliver us from our deaths by His death and resurrection, but also to make us capable of attaining the most perfect fellowship or union with Him. He is the king, who liberates us from the darkness of sin and the bondage of death. Palm Sunday summons us to behold our king: the vanquisher of death and the giver of life.

Palm Sunday summons us to accept both the rule and the kingdom of God as the goal and content of our Christian life. We draw our identity from Christ and His kingdom. The kingdom is Christ - His indescribable power, boundless mercy and incomprehensible abundance given freely to man. The kingdom does not lie at some point or place in the distant future. In the words of the Scripture, the kingdom of God is not only at hand (Mt 3.2; 4.17), it is within us (Lk 17.21). The kingdom is a present reality as well as a future realization (Mt 6.10). Theophan the Recluse wrote the following words about the inward rule of Christ the King:

The Kingdom of God is within us when God reigns in us, when the soul in its depths confesses God as its Master, and is obedient to Him in all its powers. Then God acts within it as master "both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil 2.13). This reign begins as soon as we resolve to serve God in our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then the Christian hands over to God his consciousness and freedom, which comprises the essential substance of our human life, and God accepts the sacrifice; and in this way the alliance of man with God and God with man is achieved, and the covenant with God, which was severed by the Fall and continues to be severed by our wilful sins, is re-established.

The kingdom of God is the life of the Holy Trinity in the world. It is the kingdom of holiness, goodness, truth, beauty, love, peace and joy. These qualities are not works of the human spirit. They proceed from the life of God and reveal God. Christ Himself is the kingdom. He is the God-Man, Who brought God down to earth (Jn 1.1,14). “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not. He came to His own home, and His own people received Him not” (Jn 1.10-11). He was reviled and hated.

Palm Sunday summons us to behold our king - the Suffering Servant. We cannot understand Jesus' kingship apart from the Passion. Filled with infinite love for the Father and the Holy Spirit, and for creation, in His inexpressible humility Jesus accepted the infinite abasement of the cross. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions and made Himself an offering for sin (Is 53). His glorification which was accomplished by the resurrection and the ascension was achieved through the cross.

In the fleeting moments of exhuberance that marked Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the world received its King. The king who was on His way to death. His passion, however, was no morbid desire for martyrdom. Jesus' purpose was to accomplish the mission for which the Father sent Him.

The Son and Word of the Father, like Him without beginning and eternal, has come today to the city of Jerusalem, seated on a dumb beast, on a foal. From fear the cherubim dare not gaze upon Him; yet the children honor Him with palms and branches, and mystically they sing a hymn of praise: "Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna to the Son of David, who has come to save from error all mankind." (A hymn of the Light.)

With our souls cleansed and in spirit carrying branches, with faith let us sing Christ's praises like the children, crying with a loud voice to the Master: Blessed art Thou, O Savior, who hast come into the world to save Adam from the ancient curse; and in Thy love for mankind Thou hast been pleased to become spiritually the new Adam. O Word, who hast ordered all things for our good, glory to Thee. (A Sessional hymn of the Orthros)


GENERAL OBSERVATIONS


Vestments - The Saturday of Lazaros and Palm Sunday are joyous festivals. Therefore, the priest wears festive vestments (white, gold, or green). The Holy Table is also adorned with a bright cover.

Palm Branches - The priest should make certain that a sufficient number of palm or some other suitable branches are available for the decoration of the Church and for distribution to the faithful, in accordance with local custom and tradition. It is customary to weave the palm branches into small crosses. The priest may assign this task to a group of parishioners. In some places, the faithful bring their own palms or some similar boughs or branches to the Church.

The priest may choose to have a few acolytes hold palm branches during the two Entrances of the Divine Liturgy. At one time the Church held a procession on Palm Sunday. This tradition has fallen into disuse, except in the churches of the Patriarchate of Antioch. In the Antiochene tradition a procession of the faithful takes place after the Divine Liturgy. An emphasis is placed on the participation of children. The roots of this tradition are to be found in the ancient rites of the Jerusalem Church.

The Blessing and Distribution of the Palms - A basket containing the woven palm crosses is placed on a table in front of the icon of the Lord which is on the Iconostasion.

The prayer for the blessing of the Palms is found in the 'Ieratikon or the Euxologion According to the rubrics of the Typikon, this prayer is read at the Orthros just before the Psalms of Praise (Ainoi). The palms are then distributed to the faithful.

In many places today, the prayer is said at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, before the apolysis. The text of the prayer, however, indicates clearly that it is less a prayer for the blessing of the palms, even though that is its title, and more a blessing upon those, who in imitation of the New Testament event hold palms in their hands as symbols of Christ's victory and as signs of a virtuous Christian life. It appears then, that it would be more correct to have the faithful hold the palms in their hands during the course of the Divine Liturgy when the Church celebrates both the presence and the coming of the Lord in the mystery of the Eucharist. The palms, therefore, should be distributed before the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

The Icon - On each day we display the appropriate icon of the feast for veneration.

A Folk Tradition - An interesting sidelight is the folk tradition related to the Saturday of Lazaros. In many places groups of children visit neighboring homes to sing the Carols of Lazaros. In return, the people of the house give the children fresh eggs. The children bring the eggs to their homes. On Great Thursday the eggs are boiled in the traditional red dye for the Paschal celebration.

Fasting - By custom and tradition fish as well as oil and wine are permitted on the Saturday of Lazaros and Palm Sunday.

The Apodosis of Palm Sunday - takes place on the same day in the late afternoon with the celebration of the Vesper Service. The service is conducted in accordance with the order in the Triodion. In current usage, however, few parishes conduct this service. It has fallen into disuse.

Removal of the Palms - The palms are removed from the Church at the conclusion of the Vesper Service of the Apodosis of the Feast, or in the late afternoon Palm Sunday.

The Orthros of Great Monday - On Palm Sunday night we observe the beginning of the reversed order of the services, which was noted above. The Orthros of Great Monday is celebrated on Palm Sunday night.

POPE BENEDICT XVI AND POPEFRANCIS

We only have to look at the two popes ,to see how they behave, how they dress, to listen to what they say, to realise that they are very different.  However, I am going to argue in a separate post, after Easter, that they are complementary. 

  I do believe that Pope Francis would be opposed to the the version of Pope Benedict that many conservatives formed for themselves.   They put great emphasis on some of his actions and words, while ignoring others.  As with Vatican II,  the media have been no great help: they have looked at him through secular spectacles and usually cannot understand him themselves.  Their categories  really make no sense within a papal context.  Moreover the words "conservative" and "liberal" are unhelpful to describe either pope.  They both uphold Catholic Tradition, which is their job.   There was not a cat's chance in hell of the cardinals electing anyone who had chosen secular values over Catholic ones, any more than they would have elected a Buddhist.

Of course, the two popes come from different backgrounds, had radically different experiences, and were formed by different cultures. 

 One comes from southern Germany where, before the Council, there were wonderful Masses on feastdays, with music by Mozart and other classical composers.   The people knew the music and anticipated with pleasure every tune.   He saw this idyllic scene being invaded by guitar-wielding visigoths and was horrified 

  Pope Francis, on the other hand, has celebrated among people living in extreme poverty, whose main instrument is the guitar, where the sacred and the secular mix and are at ease with each other, and where the people have taken the new Mass to themselves, and where it is celebrated with the same exuberance as Masses were celebrated among the ordinary folk in the Middle Ages.

In fact, the Mass that is celebrated in Latin, as exact a replica as possible of the old Mass, where the Epistle is read in Latin by someone with his back to the people, where the priests act exactly the same whether there are people present or not, where the people receive their spiritual food from anything but the texts of the Mass,- that kind of Mass is an expression of the manuel theology that people like Joseph Ratzinger, Yves Congar, Hans Urs Von Balthazar and de Lubac attacked.  It reflects a view of the relationship between the sacred and the natural world as between two completely separate realities. They believe in what Father Stephen calls a "two-storey universe". The more cut off from ordinary life, the more sacred the Mass becomes.   The more integrated with ordinary life, the more profane it becomes.

Actually, those who believed that Vatican II wanted to adapt to "modern man" by eliminating all transcendence from the liturgy, all awe at God's presence, and to emphasise relationships with each other in this world, belong to the same mental context as those who want to free the secular world from all religious influence, and as those who celebrate the Latin Mass described above.  Both sides agree that the sacred cannot be discovered in the ordinary.  One leaves the ordinary and celebrates Mass as though the ordinary does not exist.   The other stays in the ordinary and celebrates the Mass as though the sacred does not exist.   They take opposite positions within the same world view.

Neither Pope Benedict nor Pope Francis belong to these two positions,. Both believe in what Father Stephen calls a "one-storey universe", in which heaven and earth are one in Christ, and we rub shoulders with the angels.

  Pope Benedict belonged to the group inspired by the French "theologie nouvelle" in the Council that played a major part in writing the Vatican II documents, and shows every sign that he still does. Archbishop Wojtyla also attached himself to it at the Council.  One of its central tenets is  that"Nature" is created by God to be divinised by Grace, and thus there is a human need of God and a natural sense of the sacred.   Modern man is often secular because he is starved of this experience of the sacred which is a basis for supernatural religious experience.   This sense of the sacred must be fostered in the Liturgy; but, in order for this to happen, liturgy must be opened up so that ordinary people can participate in it.   This group believed in liturgical reform, as does Pope Benedict.  However, to their horror,  the new Mass was being celebrated with all sense of the sacred stripped from it.   AS they believed the sense of the sacred to be absolutely central to any revival of faith in Europe, they were not surprised when people left the Church in droves and adopted secular attitudes.   Pope Benedict strove to so celebrate the new Mass that people would realise they were in the presence of God.   He knew that this is what the Council fathers wanted. .

Pope Francis comes from a country where the faith is still very much alive and people have a great sense of the sacred.   His priorities have been social injustice and poverty.  He is much more confident that a sense of the sacred can be fostered in the Mass as it is.  As a traditional Jesuit who believes that every moment is filled with God, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, he does not agree that there is a separation between the sacred and the profane.  In reality, the profane is an illusion: the only profanity is sin.   Christ is the king of the street, secular state or not.  Our job is to make Christ visible and to help people recognise his presence and to respond, by any means possible.

Fundamentally both Popes have the same vision of Christ's presence in the world.   They have different tastes, different methods of responding to that presence which reflect their different  backgrounds.   Neither can replace the other: both have their special gifts; but both have been involved in the same basic task.   They complement each other.  This will not be evident to those who believe the sacred and the commonplace must be kept apart , whether they are conservatives who celebrate a "sacred" liturgy, or liberals who celebrate a "commonplace" one.   Both these groups have forgotten that nature and supernature, grace and human effort, Christ and the Christian are distinct but are made for each other, the divine filling the human and enabling the human person to fulfil his or her destiny as a son or daughter of God in Christ.   Thus their judgement is superficial, and see the differences between the two popes as opposition rather than a source of enrichment.   

The Icon of Mary that Pope Francis Gave as a Gift to Emeritus Pope Benedict Today Was... a Russian Icon 

my source: Irenikon
March 23, 2013, Saturday -- 

"We are brothers"... in humility

The present and former Pope met today, in a moment without precedent. And the words which remain are the ones spoken by Pope Francis to Benedict: "We are brothers."

As Nicole Winfield put it in her comprehensive Associated Press dispatch today: "The two men in white embraced and showed one another the deference owed a Pope in ways that surely turned Vatican protocol upside down: A reigning Pope telling a retired one, 'We are brothers,' and insisting that they pray side-by-side during a date to discuss the future of the Catholic Church."

In the same report, she noted: "Francis also brought a gift for Benedict, an icon of the Madonna. 'They told me it's the Madonna of Humility,' Francis told Benedict. 'Let me say one thing: When they told me that, I immediately thought of you, at the many marvelous examples of humility and gentleness that you gave us during your pontificate.' Benedict replied: 'Grazie, grazie.'"

But who were the "they" who told Francis that the icon was the Madonna of Humility?

"They" were... the people who gave the icon to him. But who were those people?

Well... they were representatives of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, who sent the icon to Pope Francis as a gift, and who handed it to Francis three days ago, on March 20.

How do I know this?

Because a few minutes ago I received an unexpected email from Metropolitan Hilarion, 46, an old friend who is also the "Foreign Minister" (the term isn't quite accurate, but it suggests the importance of his work and position) of the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate, so, the right-hand of Patriarch Kirill. He wrote:

"Pope Francis presented to Pope emeritus Benedict the icon which had been presented to Pope Francis by Metropolitan Hilarion on behalf of Patriarch Kirill [the head of the Russian Orthodox Church] after the private audience [with the new Pope] on 20 March. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aylAmChAaY Отправлено с iPhone [Sent  from iPhone]"

So the icon was the Russian icon Hilarion gave to Francis three days ago!


I wrote back: "Amazing. Are you pleased, or upset?"


I added: "It is reported here: 'They spent 45 minutes talking alone. Pope Francis gave Pope Benedict an icon of Our Lady of Humility, saying that when he received it, he immediately thought of giving it to Pope Benedict.'"


Hilarion wrote back: "Very pleased and touched."


Now, what does all this mean?

Well, it means that at the moment Pope Francis and Pope Benedict first met, at the first meeting ever of the "two Popes" of the Roman Catholic Church, there was a "Russian connection" and an "Orthodox connection" which was present, which was between them, joining them: an image of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna of Humility, brought from Russia and given to Pope Francis in Rome on March 20, an image which immediately struck Pope Francis when he received it as reminding him of Benedict, an image which he decided to bring with him today, to give to Emeritus Pope Benedict, on the occasion of the unprecedented, historic occasion, of their first meeting.

Others may find further elements in this bit of news to reflect upon. To me, it suggests that Mary, Mother of the Church, is watching over the Church, in these difficult and dangerous times, and acting as a mother even to these two men, Benedict and Francis, bringing them together.


I sense in this a mysterious design, yes, a mystical design, something transcending our ordinary understanding of cause and effect, a design, as I see it, for Christians, for the Christian Church, to return to greater communion, greater unity, East and West, Greek and Latin, Orthodox and Catholic -- with one of the great "hinge points" being... Russia.


The Madonna of Humility... it is precisely humility that brings these two Popes together. One very simple and humble, the other very simple and humble. One dedicated to a life of thought, to theology, the other dedicated to a life of action, to pastoral care of the poor.


And the way to proceed forward toward greater Christian unity is this same way, the way of Mary, the way of humility.

In the homily at the Mass on March 19 for his installation, Pope Francis concluded with these words, asking specifically for Mary's intercession:

"To protect Jesus with Mary, to protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest, to protect ourselves: this is a service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to which all of us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly. Let us protect with love all that God has given us!

"I implore the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Francis, that the Holy Spirit may accompany my ministry, and I ask all of you to pray for me! Amen."


"Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out." --St. John of the Cross

(More videos will be placed here as the opportunity permits)

ON THE EUCHARIST by Father Alexander Men (Orth)

March 25, 2013, 4:56 am

≫ Next: MARY, THE CROSS AND SALVATION

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Soon we shall be remember  the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.   This is an article about the Eucharist, written by a great priest who lived and died in the service of God and the Church in difficult and dangerous times.   It is all the more authoritative because he made Christ's sacrifice his own, sharing in Christ's chalice, when he was assassinated by Communists just before they were swept into the history books.

A bird is sitting in a tree singing. Even though its singing seems without purpose, it performs important work: singing is its territorial claim. The part of the forest that hears my voice is mine – says the bird. Even if someone larger and stronger inserts itself in that territory, the owner will begin to fight and more often than not come out victorious: there is a peculiar law of nature that protects the property right.

 It is in the very nature of life that the desire to spread out, conquer, consume the weaker is lodged. Yet, when the very life is threatened, nature put some limits in place, which do not allow a wolf, for example, to devour a fellow wolf. Konrad Lorenz described in detail the ritual where the lost side uses: the ritual submission position compels fangs, the ready to be clenched, to stop. It is only man who is capable of stopping on his own will when the nature is telling him to strike. On the other hand, let us not forget that it is only man who is capable of killing his own kind (excluding rats who most likely learned from us).

The world is given to man, which fact obligates us to answer for every piece we eat. The substance of food, the nutrients, the eaten, the consumed, the living things we kill, of everything given us, -- does not merely disintegrate: it enters our flesh and our blood. The flesh and blood of the earth, of the plants becomes our own flesh and blood. The flesh of the plant is the grain; the blood of the plant is its juice. When man eats, he takes communion with nature, he becomes its part, and the nature becomes his part. Man could tell the nature: “We are of the same blood you and I” [1].

 Moreover, man does not only takes communion with the nature, but also the common meal unites people. This is understood today and it has been understood always: through the ages a great significance existed in the common fraternal feast. All the sacrifice always ended that way: people, having burned a part of the victim on the altar, ate together that food. In the Old Testament we see references to rituals of sacrifice. Among the sacrifices a special place is given the Paschal Lamb. The Lamb is connected with the deepest symbol of man and mankind, the symbol of blood.

The animal kingdom is an array of competing and war-making groups. As he emerged on earth, man employed himself in hunting and gathering, and lived in separate clans. A stranger was someone who was to be chased away or even killed. The groups of blood relatives kept very much to their own and protected their territory with the same fierceness as animals protect their hunting estates. That, which is so deeply rooted in the animal, passed as in inheritance to the man. Whence the well known phenomenon of xenophobia: the fear of the foreign and the hatred of the foreigner. In a Seton Thompson’s book, the mother teaches her fox cubs: “every unfamiliar object may be dangerous!”

And so, in the life of men there is such a moment when they have to meet and overcome the barrier between the foreigners by blood, and enter in contact. This is a special period in the life of mankind. A complex system of inter-tribal marriage emerges, so-called exogamy. It was important that the people had to meet, despite their inclinations to the contrary. It was very difficult for them, in the beginning, to overcome the fear of the foreigner, the rejection of the foreigner, the dislike of him. So at that time peculiar rituals started to emerge, whose objective was to make people kin, make them relatives. Blood always was present in these rituals. It could be that two men representing their different tribes made a cut on their hands and mixed their blood. At times the blood of the sacrificial animal was smeared on the fence posts. In the Old Testament the blood of man was considered sacred: it symbolized life, and only God ruled over life. At times when a treaty was concluded, when a religious covenant – a testament -- was established, the blood of the sacrificed animal was sprinkled over the entire crowd and so all present became as if relatives. Similar rituals were repeated over centuries and became symbols of unity. So therefore Christ uses this symbolically significant ritual of the sacrifice, feast, eating, and establishes something similar in the form and in the essence.

Christ never left us any book, any school, any doctrine. He only left us His own Self. He remained with us himself: “I am with you all days” (Mt. 28:20). The strength of the Christians is that Christ is with them.

If we gaze with attention into Christ we notice something strikingly unique: when He gives His commandments of morals, He, in substance, does not offer anything new. “Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them” (Mt. 7:12). But this is what prophets, authorities and teachers said in ages! When He gives religious commandments, He nowise says anything principally new: didn’t Moses likewise installed faith in people; didn’t the prophets speak of the One God? So Christ speaks of the same things, formally He acts like they did. But not one – make note, not one! – of the great teachers of the past and of the present left us this miraculous mystery: I will be with you – this is the cup, this is the bread, these are My flesh and blood, this is Me Myself!

The Mystery of the Eucharist as a mystery of Christ Who abides with man is unique, -- nothing similar ever happened in the world! Christ is with men not like a memory, not like an idea, but like One really Present. So at every Liturgy Christ and man testify to the presence of Christ here and now. The entire Eucharistic text is not merely repetition of the words spoken and the Mysterious Supper, it is also a memory of what happened, and thanksgiving, and the confirmation of the One Who is present.

The First Eucharist was accomplished on the eve of the Passover, when the old and forever new story of Israelites’ delivery from captivity, of their crossing the sea, and of their wandering in the desert is remembered. That history turned myth in the conscience of man – not in the sense of a legend, but rather in the sense of an original scheme, the pattern offered form the ancient time, which man and mankind follow on their way to spiritual growth. The religious holiday of the Passover became not merely a memory, but a new substantiation of what had occurred: God is Liberator and Savior. So men present themselves to Him just as they did at the night of the exodus from Egypt. As it was then, so now, unleavened bread is before us.

In one ancient text it is said that every faithful who makes the Passover, who breaks unleavened bread on that day, himself participates in the escape from Egypt. That which was, the deed of God is happening over time. Then, people were ready for a journey and read certain prayers. The hasty preparation did not afford an opportunity to bake leavened bread, and here, now, unleavened bread is on the table. Christ with the Apostles repeats the holy word of praise, the prayers, brings a thanksgiving: Thank Thee for Thou gave us salvation. The disciples pray with Him. And later, when Christ breaks the bread and gives it out, He speaks the ancient words of the prayer over the bread, the bread that was scattered over the hills, but having been gathered, became one: may we then, likewise, gather together and become one. So the first Christians prayed in the same words: as the bread of thanksgiving was scattered and now is gathered, and became one in this unleavened bread, so may we join as one.

The Catholic form of the holy Eucharistic bread is the host, round flat unleavened bread. Many of these are made and they are put on the altar for consecration. In the time of the first Christians flat bread was brought for the fraternal meal and the leader read a prayer of thanksgiving over that bread. It was, to be sure, an improvisation: people spoke of what concerned all the present: thank Thee, o God, for gathering us all, for the salvation that Thee granted us, thank Thee for Jesus Thy Servant, Who gave Himself for us and on that night, when He was betrayed, said: “Take ye, and eat. This is my body … Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood…” (Mt 26:26-28). And a common cup moved around the circle -- the cup of communion of the people between themselves and with Christ.

This is continuing today. Of course, people should be fully informed as they participate in the Eucharist, but even when someone does not fully understand the meaning and the essence of what is going on, and simply takes his communion with the Divine Mysteries, he very often feels a certain impact of grace, he feels a change inside. This happens especially vividly with children.

In the sacrament of the Eucharist one very important moment is connected to the Incarnation. God made us as a second “I” of His, His alter Ego. We are in the immense Universe – and we are divine alter Ego, a reflection of His attributes, His signs, His nature. This is an infinitely reduced reflection, yet still it is a reflection. In order to lift us, bring us close to Him, let the uncommon possibilities in us open, God was drawing nearer to man at all times. The history of the Revelation is the history of God coming nearer to people. He had to come near, take on flesh, become not only God the hidden, God the mysterious, but also God Who stood level to man, became smaller.

Some ask why the reality of God is not as evident as the reality of the visible world. We can see the sun, the earth, but why do we not see God equally directly? Let us answer with an example.

It turns out that those who see the northern lights for the first time are strongly impressed by it. Many cry from some unexplainable ecstasy or terror. During a solar eclipse animals dash around in fear, dogs howl. One would think, -- so what has happened? Okay, so what that it became dark, the sun is covered by clouds… Or imagine the moon as it hangs on the horizon, brightly red. And suddenly you see the moon becoming larger, covering half the sky, -- truly that would be a frightening spectacle, that would depress, disturb, install fear; for a weaker psyche that would be a shock. Let us recall the scene from the “Faust” where the protagonist, seeking to know the mysteries of nature, invokes the Spirit of the Earth, and, when in a powerful explosion the Spirit appears, Faust falls and cannot stand up – that is how much the power of the event shocked him. Faust is crushed like a worm. So, the majesty and power of the transcendental God are such that we are not capable of bearing them. It is only by becoming smaller, only by leveling with us, becoming kin to us, He can be perceived by us. God turns off His power, His immeasurable vastness, makes it smaller and therefore becomes incarnate. The Incarnation had to happen even if there had been no Golgotha later, even if the history had been different and the destiny of the Man-God had been different. It was a possibility: do we not read in the Letter of Paul that the Lord endured the Cross instead of having joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2). The meeting of man with God face to face, when God becomes one of us, when He entered our world directly and visibly, -- that would have been the greatest joy! But the world turned out such that the result was the appearance of the Cross.

We have to decline the thought that is very popular in poetry and even among old theologians, the thought laconically and brilliantly expressed by the Blessed Augustine, about the “felica culpa” – the “happy fault”, that is the fault of man which gave us this Savior. The mind of the Church as a whole left the view point that the appearance of Christ was necessitated by the catastrophe and if the catastrophe had not been there, He would not have come to us. Rather, the situation is completely different. The encounter between man and God was intended, planned regardless of its actual form. That was the capstone crowning a certain period of human existence.

Let us now imagine the moment when the sacrament of the Eucharist is taking place. Again, this is incarnation! Again, the power of God – not invisibly, not purely spiritually, but in full reality – enters the feast of the offering, which in a short while will become a part of our own substance. The power feeds us, we commune with the flesh and blood, bread and wine, wheat and the vine. Christ Himself enters our flesh and blood. When He said “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth”, He became – everywhere.

Christ had power as a heavenly being, but as Man-God He was tied up, bounded: He felt fatigue, needed air and food; He did not have the entirety of the command over the nature. Surely, He could heal, He in the end defeated death by His Divine power. But He did not have the fullness of power on earth, He was bounded. But now, having conquered death, He says”, All power is given to me…” So now we can speak, as Teilhard de Chardin writes, of “cosmic Christ” – of the Christ Who ascended not to some particular place in the Universe, but to the entire Universe… Christ spread His hands wide across the Creation, that is: God incarnated and made the Universe His flesh and blood. It is the sanctification of the cosmos, the nature and the flesh, that leads to the future transfiguration of the world. The Eucharist is the pledge of it for us.

When a priest visits a sick woman in her house, and she is lying, in filth and odor of sickness, behind the cupboards [2] somewhere, on the dirty table in the squalid surroundings a pyx is placed. That tiny box sits like an orphan between the black rags, amidst all the disaster, but that is exactly what God wants to accomplish, and is capable of accomplishing. He came and that feast became a shining spot in the dirt, darkness, disease and poverty. This is how He enters everywhere and nothing is unclean to Him. He comes down to any place, even to the bowels of the earth.

With every Eucharist the Mysterious Supper is lived again, and it is lived much more fully than when the apostles experienced it. That is because at that time they did not understand what was going on, and merely tried to remember everything the Lord said; they were troubled but they did not know what it all meant. We are in an advantageous position compared to them because we know what was being worked and we are thankful for it. This is why the Lord said: it is better for me to go and then you will have me more fully. Before, He was bounded, and now he is in front of every altar, in every house, and every Cup is His heart!

There is a cult in the West, the Heart of Christ. Naturally, it is an image, because the heart is the symbol of love. So now that Heart gives Itself, like that legendary bird who fed his children with his blood. Often the bird was shown in medieval frescoes and stained glass, the bird picking his blood and giving it to the chickens. This is the way and the method of Christ’s work.

The scholastic questions how the unleavened bread, or the bread of the offering become body and blood of Christ, at what precise moment it is happening, and such, -- often became idle talk, at times, dispute. But this is not germane to the issue! We are not talking about some kind of chemical transformation – that is altogether absurd! Far more is here than a transformation. When Christ said “This is My flesh and blood”, -- it meant that He gave people His entire Self. This is something ineffable, something much deeper than, for example, the concepts of transubstantiation or something similar to that. The truth is that we don’t need to know, and since it is not needed to know, it is not given to know. The important part is that He said Himself: I am with you, I am here, I give Myself to you, you will drink My blood and eat My flesh, and you will commune with Me. This is not a spiritual, symbolic, or, far worse, ideological communion. He said that the sacred feast will be He Himself and in the end it turns out that He incarnates into us! The summit and center of the Eucharist is incarnation of Christ in us.

Now the sacred Eucharistic feast is divided between those present, it came into their bodies, united with them, dissolved in them, and everyone is carrying Christ in him. The desire of Christ is to make us commune with Him. As soon as we accept baptism, we become His instrument. He is to work in us, and out tragedy is that we are not sufficiently worthy. The irreligious or antireligious people are correct when they judge about our faith by us ourselves, because Christ wants us to make Him apparent, represent Him, and incarnate Him in our entire image. Every communion not merely reminds us of that, but we truly unite with Him. He lives and works in us and by us. And then everything is beauty: Christ burns in us, lives in us, and we do what we were not able to do before, and we do it now with His power. This is a great thing, the Eucharist, by which Christ attached us to Himself and made each of us not only an apostle, but more than an apostle, a carrier of His strength! This is our happiness, our grace, our joy, our font of endless energy!

Publication by Anastasia Andreeva

↑ Rudyard Kipling, the Jungle Book

↑ Common in rural dwellings in Russia, where furniture partitions the interior

THIS MAY SEEM FAR FROM THE SUBJECT OF THIS ARTICLE, BUT, IN REALITY, IT IS VERY MUCH CONNECTED.   I OWE SO MUCH TO FR ANDREW AND THE ST ELIZABETH COMMUNITY, AND THEIR LITURGY IS QUITE OUT OF THIS WORLD.  MAY GOD BLESS THIS WORK.