Preparing for Pentecost

Prayer of St Augustine

Breathe into me, Holy Spirit,
that my thoughts may all be holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit,
that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit,
that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit,
that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit,
that I may be holy.

With celebrating the feast of the Ascension yesterday we now turn to preparing for the Pentecost. I figure it is a very good thing to do since the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are quite important to our daily spiritual life. We ought to beg the Holy Spirit to pour out His 7 gifts daily.

St Pachomius the Great

Our venerable father among the saints, Pachomius, the great, is liturgically commemorated. He is a central figure in the monastic life, East and West.

Pachomius was born in 292. As a young man, he served in the army under the emperor Constantine. The hardship of military life in Egypt was lightened by the kindness the soldiers encountered in every Christian settlement along their march. Pachomius was so impressed that he was baptized and embraced the monastic life.

He withdrew to the Egyptian wilds to live with Palemon, one of the desert fathers. After his guide and teacher died, Pachomius’ brother John came to live with him. Before long there were others, and Pachomius was soon the abba of a whole colony of monastics, totaling about seven thousand. His gift of leadership and skill in organization has been raised by later tradition to the level of direct divine inspiration, which is expressed in the story of an angel, dressed in the monastic habit, appearing to Pachomius and instructing him to adopt this garb for his monks. Aside from such embellishments, Pachomius remained a model of practical genius.

He established the Lavra of Tabenna on the Nile, with a school for boys and a hospice for travelers. He wrote a typi­con in Coptic, probably the first such rule in monastic history, and insisted that all the monks learn to read the scriptures. He organized teams of cooks, bakers, and gardeners. Each dwelling for these professional families included a library and a scriptorium for the copying of sacred texts.

His sister begged him to start a monastery for women. Her persistence and the number of nuns already at the gates moved him to consent. It was built on the opposite bank of the Nile. Twenty years after the council of Nicaea, a plague swept through the Nile valley. Pachomius died nursing his stricken monks.

(NS typicon)

The Orthodox and Catholic Churches remember him today, May 15th while the Coptic Church celebrates his feast on May 9th.

St. Damien of Molokai

May 10th is the liturgical memorial of St. Damien of Molokai. He’s become the famous leper priest with the famous leper nun, St. Maryann Cope. Some of thoughts are worth reflecting upon:

“I feel no disgust when I hear the confessions of those near their end, whose wounds are full of maggots…This may give you some idea of my daily work. Picture to yourself a collection of huts with 800 Lepers. No doctor; in fact, as there is no cure, there seems no place for a doctor’s skill.

The Blessed Sacrament is indeed the stimulus for us all, for me as it should be for you, to forsake all worldly ambitions. Without the constant presence of our Divine Master upon the altar in my poor chapels, I never could have persevered casting my lot with the lepers of Molokai; the foreseen consequence of which begins now to appear on my skin, and is felt throughout the body. Holy Communion being the daily bread of a priest, I feel myself happy, well pleased, and resigned in the rather exceptional circumstances in which it has pleased Divine Providence to put me.”

~St. Damien of Molokai
Canonized by Benedict XVI, 2009

Saint Isaiah, the prophet

I love the prophets. For Catholics we place a great emphasis on the work and prophecies of the men called by God to call us into relation to him. Yet, the prophets are not well known among Catholics. Thanks to the Byzantine Church for keeping a liturgical commemoration alive.

As you know, the Holy Prophet Isaiah lived 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Some fun facts on Isaiah to recall: he had a royal lineage and is revered as a martyr. In another blog I remembered for the readers that the Jewish king Manasseh ordered that he cut in half by a wood-saw. Isaiah was buried near the Pool of Siloam but his bones were moved to Constantinople in the church of Saint Laurence at Blachernae. Part of the head of the Prophet Isaiah is preserved at Athos in the Hilandar monastery. The importance of being buried near the Pool of Siloam comes from a miracle he performed through God’s power to quench the thirst of those defending Jerusalem from her enemies. Siloam means i.e. “sent from God.” The holy prophet is known to be wonderworking. Genealogy shows us that Isaiah’s father Amos, raised him in the fear of God and in the law of the Lord.

In addition to the virtue of life of Isaiah, he important because he is clear in his prophesies about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, Christ the Savior. The prophet names the Messiah as God and Man, teacher of all the nations, founder of the Kingdom of peace and love.

In the Kondakion the Church sings,

You were favored with the gift of prophecy, O martyr and seer, Isaiah, preacher of the things of God, and you announced the Incarnation to all when you proclaimed: Behold, a virgin will be with child.

By Isaiah’s prayers, may our souls be saved. May we, like the Holy Prophet make the Incarnation known.

The Received Iconography of the Mother of God

Today, May 7, Marek Czarnecki, a well skilled in iconography, from Meriden, Connecticut, gave a presentation on the Iconography of the Mother of God. The presentation was given as part of the Knights of Columbus Museum’s webinar series.

 

Scholars have classified over 600 distinct prototypes for icons of the Mother of God. How can this multiplicity point to only one source, the first century Miryam of Nazareth? The first Christians responded to her intuitively with the earliest catacomb frescoes. The early church validated her importance with biographical icons narrating her participation in the life of Christ. Icons representing her solely with the Christ child expressed formal Marian dogma, beginning with her title as Mother of God. As Intercessor, her icons catalogued every possible human need. Other icons commemorated the sites of miracles or apparitions, while new prototypes continue to be revealed and painted into the present.

The Lamb’s high feast

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing praise to our victorious King, Who hath washed us in the tide flowing from his pierced side. 

Praise we him whose love divine gives his sacred Blood for wine, Gives his body for the feast: Love, the Victim; Love, the Priest. 

Where the Paschal Blood is shed, Death’s dark Angel sheathes his sword; Israel’s host triumphant go through the wave that drowns the foe. 

Christ, the Lamb, whose Blood was shed, Paschal Victim, Paschal Bread; With sincerity and love, eat we manna from above. 

Mighty Victim from the sky, powers of hell beneath thee lie; Death is conquered in the fight, Thou has brought us life and light. 

Now thy banner Thou dost wave; vanquished Satan and the grave; Angels join his praise to tell, see o’erthrown the prince of hell. 

Paschal triumph, Paschal joy, only sin can these destroy; From the death of sin set free souls re-born, O Lord, in Thee. 

Hymns of glory, songs of praise, Father, unto Thee we raise; Risen Lord, all praise to Thee, ever with the Spirit be. 

— Ambrosian Hymn, 7th Century

St Joseph models work

Yesterday (May 1), we observed the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. The history of this feast is rooted in the ideology of work propagated by Communists and Pope Pius XII wanted to remind Catholics that theory of work of the Communists contradicted what the Church (and by extension St. Benedict) taught about work so he instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. That was 1955.

Pius XII considered St. Joseph to be the model of work: “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.”

In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, Pope St. John Paul II wrote: “…the Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

The coronavirus has many of us on a work hiatus it so it seems like a good time to break this great encyclical out and read or reread it. Do you consider your professional work to have meaning for your life in the family, does your professional life have dignity and an importance that you can see it as cooperating with the work of God in building up the Kingdom of God? Is there a creative genius that connects with the care of the land as proposed by Genesis 2:15?

 

Roman woman fined for walking turtle

I am sure the turtle appreciated the fresh air and sun. But that’s not excuse for breaking the Italian State’s restrictions. The turtle’s owner, however, now supports the Roman state with the $440 fine for breaking the coronavirus restrictions for taking her turtle for a walk. “The 60-year-old woman was caught outside her home without a justifiable reason” and fined, Roman police said, according to a statement.

Italian Police reported issuing a record 13,756 fines were issue on Easter Sunday and another 16,545 fines on Easter Monday.

Christ is risen!