Getting a glimpse of Pascha: Lazarus being untied

untieing of Lazarus.jpg

Walking through Lent the Church gives us key glimpses, that is, tastes through the liturgical narrative leading to Pascha (Easter).

 

The icon shows Lazarus being untied of his burial shroud. In fact, this metaphor of being untied is key: the crucified and risen Lord unties us of our sin to live in freedom.

 

A hymn at Lenten Vespers is revealing:

“O Lord, while dwelling in the flesh on the other side of Jordan, Thou hast foretold that the sickness of Lazarus would not end in death, but that it had come to pass for Thy glory, O our God. Glory to Thy mighty acts and Thine all-sovereign power, for Thou hast destroyed death in Thy great mercy and Thy love for mankind.”

Nine Month Novena in Honor of the Virgin of the Incarnation

Annunciation AAllori 1603A friend of mine sent me an invitation to join her and others in praying this novena. It was given to her by a mutual friend a decade ago. Julie reports “each year, I am overwhelmed by the reports of the novenas prayed and the amazing prayers answered. Please seriously consider praying this quick prayer with me for the next nine months. I promise you: it will revolutionize your relationship with Our Lady, and your prayers will be heard and answered.”

Julie has confidence in the regular prayers of the novena when she says:

If you do take it on, I further promise you: you will likely fail.  You’ll forget a day; you might forget several days.  Do what you must to remind yourself—stick the prayer to your bathroom mirror, and pray it while you’re brushing your teeth! Place it by your bed, inside or on top of something that you will look at every night. If (WHEN) you fail, then simply double up, or say it five extra times, if it makes you feel better. Whatever! Just do NOT give up.  Run to your Mother, confide in her, and be certain that she won’t disown you when you fall down. God bless you and thank  you for praying with me!

I am doing the same here: please join me in this sacrifice of prayer.

Nine Month Novena in Honor of the Virgin of the Incarnation

Prayed each day from the Solemnity of the Annunciation the Solemnity of the Nativity, March 25 – December 25. In this novena offer to Our Lady three intentions.

  • Salve Regina (the Hail, Holy Queen…)

O Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we praise thee, a thousand times we greet thee, for the joy thou didst know when the Son of God became flesh in thy womb. Because thou art most powerful, O Virgin Mother of God, grant what we beseech thee for the love of God:  (here name the three intentions).

  • Memorare (Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary…)
  • Hail Mary

May the heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world and in the hearts of all men, even until the end of time.  Amen.

Earliest icon of the Annunciation

I love early Christian history. Don’t you? In fact, I have enjoyed time spent in the various musea, locally and notably here in New Haven, Connecticut at the Yale Art Museum where there is a marvelous exposition of Dura Europus, one of the earliest house churches. But there are marvelous early collections at the world’s musea. I’d suggest going on a study tour. The study of our early Christian roots is about our common Christian memory.

I saw this icon today in cyberspace making the historic claim of being the oldest surviving icon of the Annunciation. A terrific find! The icon is located in the Catacomb of Priscilla on theVia Salaria in Rome. This icon dates from the second century AD.

Several years ago I had the privilege of walking and praying in one of the catacombs but not this one. Historians of Christian archeology say that the Roman catacombs are treasuries of early iconography.

For more info on this early icon of the Annunciation is located here.

One of the interesting comments made is “One difference between this depiction of the Annunciation and later icons is that the Mother of God is shown with her head uncovered. In Rome, young virginal maidens would always have their heads uncovered, and so the imagery is in keeping with the Christian beliefs regarding Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ. The veil worn in the East would come to dominate iconography of the Mother of God in later centuries.”

Annunciation to Mary

Today is the beginning of our salvation. Indeed, we rejoice in Mary’s “yes” to being the Mother of the Redeemer, and respond with our own “yes” today to God’s will in our lives.

In the Servant of God Father Luigi Giussani’s Meditations on the Holy Rosary, he writes about the Annunciation:

The Angel’s words could have astounded with wonder and humility the young woman to whom they were addressed. But they were not so astounding as to be totally unintelligible; they contained something that made them intelligible to the heart of that young girl who was living her religious duties. The Virgin embraced them to herself: “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to Your word.” Not because she understood but, in the confusion that had become boundless because of the Mystery that announced itself by vibrating in her flesh, the Virgin opened her arms wide, the arms of her freedom, and said, “Yes.” And she stayed alert every day, every hour, every minute of her life. The Virgin Mary’s state of mind, that state of mind which determines an attitude and decides for it in the face of the occasion and the moment, how can we better describe the Virgin’s state of mind than with the word “silence”? Silence as memory filled to overflowing. Two things contributed to this memory, two things determined this silence. The first was remembering what had happened. What had happened preserved its marvelousness, its true mystery, its mystery of truth intact because — and this is the second thing — it had something that was present: that Child, that present young Man, that Son who was present.

Going to the Church Fathers is always a good thing: Saint Ireneus of Lyons teaches us that “For as Eve was seduced by an angel’s voice to turn from God betraying His word, so Mary was given the good news by an angel’s voice that she would bear God, and the latter was persuaded to obey God, so that Mary should become the advocate of Eve. And as the human race was bound to death by a virgin, by a virgin it was delivered.”

Servant of God Oscar Romero

RomeroFriends, on this day in 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was martyred while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. He was a great voice for human dignity and social justice.

Let’s pray for our Salvadoran brothers and sisters today — and for all those who are persecuted for their Christian faith.

Nuestra Señora de la Paz, Pray for us!

Archbishop José Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angelus

Theology of the Body, briefly visited with St Gregory Palamas

St Gregory PalamasThe Eastern Christian Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) whose feast day is observed twice a year by Orthodox Christians –once on November 14 and then on the Third Sunday of Lent. For Catholics Saint Gregory Palamas is a great guide for our spiritual training in Lent.

John Paul II was very keen on the theology of the body for some very good reasons. One of which is that he thought that the recovery of certain biblical principles as they are related to the human body were essential for the truthfulness, goodness and beauty Christian life life to thrive. His massive tome on the subject takes times to digest. But he’s not the only one to use the theme of “theology of the body.”

Some tend to reject the idea that the human body has anything to do with spiritual life. Nothing can be further from the truth. Christians, especially liturgically oriented Christians like Catholics and the Orthodox, believe that the body  Saint Gregory, the archbishop of Thessalonki taught a great deal about the importance of the body in the prayer life. Gregory was a proponent of hesychasm, a Greek work meaning stillness, quite. As it is related to a form of prayer it attends to the inner prayer life. It is mental prayer. The Jesus Prayer is prayed.

The point is to prayer unceasing no matter what we are doing. We know this from Saint Paul the Apostle. Saint Gregory helps us to focus on the essentiality of inner prayer amidst the noise of life. No activity is outside of God’s grace because the material world is not contrary to the things of God. However, if the material world becomes an idol, then sin creeps in, which is not good.

Incessant prayer and the worthy reception of the sacraments lead to communion with God. Nothing, particularly, the body-ethic, is outside communion with God, through the energy, not the substance, of the Holy Spirit. This is called thesois. The uncreated energy is defined as grace. It is the uncreated energy of God which transfigures and illuminates us drawing us in communion with the Divine Majesty.

Don’t get grumpy as the mid-Lent blues set in… but keep focus on your mental prayer as it will lead to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

Blessing material goods

I am asked all sorts of questions about the Catholic Church, her practices and beliefs. Recently asked: “Can I ask rightly ask for material things from God? I  do not want to be self-centered.” What do Christians mean when they say they are blessed?

Divine revelation will speak about the superiority of the spiritual over material. Our poverty is one dependence on God for everything recognizing that we do not make ourselves nor do we sustain ourselves. Everything is a gift. In the Old Testament we read that “The LORD has blessed my master [Abraham] so abundantly that he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys” (Genesis 24:35). We know that Jesus teaches: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6: 19-20)

If I understand what Our Lord is saying, I can have material things but I should not make an idol of these things. Long has Judaism and Christianity taught that material goods as blessings from God AND a proper use of these goods is required to remain in right-relationship with God. But the question of being blessed by God is understood at a far greater level –that of the beatitudes. Recently, I have been thinking of meaning of my person in relationship to the beatitudes. Saint Matthew pulls out the blessings: the kingdom of heaven, righteousness, peace, physical and spiritual sustenance and so forth. All these blessings are for the Kingdom of God, that is, for the good of the Church. We the know etymology of happiness, from Latin, is beatitudo, hence we have “Beatitudes.” Yet the question of what is means for my person necessarily surfaces. For my “I” to be true, that is, to be fully alive in Christ Jesus, I need to live in a proper relationship with the other, with God and with creation.

Jesus has a key desire for us: our happiness in this world lived in holy freedom. What comes to mind is the Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises of Loyola where we are reminded that we have to develop a discerned indifference to the material world leaving all things in the hands of God: life, death, sickness, health, wealth and poverty –all is in Providence. Loyola wants us to keep in mind that being free is to rely on God. As creatures we have reasonable concerns for a material well-being that is also the concern for the Lord. The material world is part of the make-up of the Incarnation. In all things we need to adopt an absolute priority for Christ, as Blessed John Duns Scotus calls it.

Jesus is against the excessive, idolization of the material world. For a fuller picture read Matthew 6.

From what is revealed in Scripture we need to move to Aquinas who teaches that while it is not correct to desire material things principally because they are not about ultimate destiny, we can ask God to grant us material things “as helps whereby we are assisted in tending towards beatitude,” since they are “means of supporting the life of the body, and are of service to us as instruments in performing acts of virtue” (STh. I-II q. 83a.6).

Catholics, then, can in good conscience ask for the material blessings if they indeed the right use of them for the upbuilding of the Kingdom. Any other reason needs to be atoned for in the confessional.

70th Anniversary of the Destruction and Reconstruction of Abbey of Montecassino

MontecassinoToday, the Holy Father was represented by Ennio Cardinal Antonelli, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family to be his Special Envoy at remembrance celebrations at the Abbey of Montecassino on March 21. As papal envoy, the Cardinal will attend the 70th Anniversary of the Destruction and Reconstruction of Abbey of Montecassino. The date is the anniversary of the death of Saint Benedict of Norcia.

Montecassino as a community of Benedictine monks founded in 529 by the saint, suffered several destructions and reconstructions of the centuries, the last one being 15 February 1944 bombing by the Allied troops in the Second World War. In four months, the Battle of Montecassino there was about 200,000 causalities (on both sides).

The monks oversaw an immediate and exact reconstruction at the war’s end between 1948 to 1956. Joseph Breccia Fratadocchi led the reconstruction.

The Benedictines still live at Montecassino.

Saint Joseph…a contemplative of pure love

St Joseph“… the apparent tension between the active and the contemplative life finds an ideal harmony that is only possible for those who possess the perfection of charity. Following St. Augustine’s well-known distinction between the love of the truth and the practical demands of love, we can say that Joseph experienced both love of the truth-that pure contemplative love of the divine Truth which radiated from the humanity of Christ-and the demands of love-that equally pure and selfless love required for his vocation to safeguard and develop the humanity of Jesus, which was inseparably linked to his divinity.”

Blessed John Paul II
Guardian of the Redeemer

Saint Joseph: participator in Mary’s dignity

Go to JosephThe Catholic devotion to Saint Joseph is strong and vital, and it is has been for centuries. You will see the phrase, “Ite ad Joseph” at the Saint Joseph shrine or altar. In fact, over the head of Joseph in this image you see the scroll with just that: Ite ad Joseph. The beloved spouse of Mary, since 1870, has been the Patron of the Church, named so by Pope Pius IX. In biblical typology of the OT Saint Joseph is prefigured by an earlier Joseph who is the protector of Israel.

Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical, Quamquam pluries, speaks of Saint Joseph an “exemplary model of kindness and humility.” Such are the virtues that we expect all Christians to possess and develop: this is especially true for fathers, parents, priests, educators, and the like. As the spouse of Mary and earthly father of Jesus we come to understand Joseph as a “participator in her [Mary’s] sublime dignity.” Leo develops in a new way a theology of Joseph in looking at his chaste spousal relationship to Mary by describing him for us when he says that Joseph was “closer than any” other person.

Leo also designated Saint Joseph to be the universal patron of the Church.

One aspect of Saint Joseph that’s not well spoken of but was raised by Pope Leo is Joseph as protector, guide, patron of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Considering biblical typology with regard to Joseph we see the Spouse of Mary as connected with, that is, echoing, Joseph of Egypt found earlier in the OT and as the earthly father of Jesus he is custodian of holiness. This man of righteousness we say exercised significant overseeing of Jesus is the “true bread come down from heaven.” Hence, Joseph’s role as guardian of the Holy Child, it is not unrealistic to consider as crucial to the life of both the ministerial AND lay priesthood. What is seen in Joseph is now seen in the our priestly life. Catholics distinguish the two priesthoods, one serving the other in a unique manner all oriented to salvation in Christ Jesus.

Just as Joseph attended to his family and daily work, he also was attentive to life of prayer and sacrifice given to him through the Torah (the Law of Moses). It is fitting to see these things held in creative tension but likely with an accent on prayer. All the things we say that Joseph could have done that would be opposite to having concern for Mary and Jesus were actually fulfilled because the Holy Spirit was such a powerful presence in Joseph. Without this Divine Presence Joseph would have collapsed under the weight of self-absorption. The intense friendship (that is, obedience) with the Divine Majesty allowed for his earthly love to taken on a new dynamism for all of history. One might say, like we ascribe to Mary, that Joseph was the second disciple of Jesus. Yet, he is the first to experience this discipleship in an unrepeatable way as being that close to the dignity of Mother and Son.

One last point of salvation history, Joseph is a fitting patron of the priesthood because he was the spouse of Mary, and that the report of Fatima is that he was with Mary then, leading up to these last days in the Lord.