Communio – Page 411 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Visiting St Louis Abbey: seeing old friends

These last 9 days I’ve been in St Louis, MO visiting friends, lay and monastic (including Mrs. Casey!). I periodically return to St Louis the scene of some studies I did at St Louis University between 1994 and 1997. I stayed with the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey; there I have many old friends.

When I went to St Louis in 1994 I didn’t expect to meet Benedictine monks as I was fully ensconsed in the life and works of the Society of Jesus. While I did hear of the St Louis monks, I really never thought that a friendship would flower with them. By Divine Providence I met two monks, Fathers Gerard and Gregory, at a consecration of a Coptic Orthodox Church. The monks had some Copts in their school and so being at the church consecration was a natural thing to do and I was there because of my high interest in Eastern Christianity. Plus, who could resist saying you met a pope, the Coptic Orthodox pope, Shenouda? To this day I still get some mileage out that anecdote.

From the providential meeting of the two priests I met other monks with whom I have had the privilge of being friends. Over the years the company has grown and for that grace, I am very grateful.

I haven’t been back to St Louis in the past three years. Since then the city and various suburbs have changed for the better with buidling and/or renovating public places and the like. I love the many new stores and the restaurants. Actually, there are many good eats in the greater St Louis area! But some things remain the same: a people who know each other vs. the terrific annonymity of many east coast cities. Sometimes, I have to say, St Louis is too small….

Time spent at the abbey and with other friends was truly delightful. I went particularly to see Fr Ambrose whom I hadn’t seen in a while and with whom I share many things, not the least being Rome and warm fuzzies. Fr Ambrose is modeling a warm fuzzy in the picture to the right.

I happily had the opportunity to visit with the students of St Louis Priory School making what is affectionately known as “Monkamp” (i.e., 4 days’ introduction to the monastic way of life, or at least the fundamentals of it –prayer, manual labor, community, silence, balance, study and fun); monkamp is a small effort at vocation promotion. At some point I had terrific dinner with a classmate who

remains in the Gateway City, David Miros, invitations to getting ice cream at Ted Drews (3x), a “drive-by” meeting with Tim Hercules, making an attempt with Fr Ambrose at having a Lebanese lunch at St Raymond’s Maronite Cathedral (instead we went for something equally as exoctic, Indian, as the Lebanese lunch was closed for a month), and the meandering around St Louis University and seeing an old friend who was recently ordained a Jesuit priest, Kevin Dyer, etc. While visiting St Raymond’s I ran into an old friend who told us of the tragic killing of her grandaughter, Gina, a few months ago by teenage muggers. Roxy’s recounting the crime moved me to tears. Pray for Roxy and her family as they deal with the aftermath. Gina, a single mother leaves two sons, one of whom witnesses the brutality of his mother’s murder.

Crucially important for me was the time spent with the monks in their fraternal life. Theirs is a more intense life than many US Benedictine monks in that their day begins with Office of Vigils at 5:35 am and ends with Compline at 7:40 pm with three other parts of the Divine Office, Mass and Lectio Divina integrated into the day complemented with care for the senior monks, house duties, parish and school work. Free time (holy leisure) is not often found, sadly. Besides the Priory School (junior and high) the monks are the pastors of Saint Anselm Church, the Oratory of Saints Gregory and Augustine (the traditional Mass crowd), and a vibrant Oblate program.

Catching up with Brothers Sixtus, Aidan, Mark, Maximillian, Edward, and with Fathers Ambrose, Linus (the newly ordained), Dominic and Bede (for an afternoon), et al, was good for me because I am edified by their witness. These are great men living a vocation that is engaging, attractive, life-giving and lived in order that God be glorified.

Particularly joyful for me was to see Brother Sixtus following his solemn profession of vows, and to see Brother Aidan. In the photo to the left is Br Sixtus and Brother Aidan.

Let us pray to Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Graces and to Saints Louis, Benedict, Scholastica, Walburga, Emma and Gertrude for the monks, their benefactors, Oblates and co-workers & students.

Other pictures found here.

God gives all a vocation

Every man is a vocation, the Pope tells us in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate; he has a vocation. Why? Because man is by nature a being who listens, a given being; before him, there is another who gives meaning to his life. We came into the world because there is someone who loved us first: at the beginning is always love, the gift, and when we consider ourselves, we realize that we feel the need to redirect ourselves toward the source from which we come. We came from the eternal love of God.

And when we enter into the mystery of God’s love, we feel almost a fear, a tremor, like the prophet Isaiah. Contemplating the mystery of God, it almost seems like we are dying, because we feel all our fragility and weakness; but when the mystery of God enters into even our fragility, into our weakness, it purifies us. God does not enter into our lives to annihilate us, but to free us and allow life to be manifested in its fullness. And purified by God, we discover untold energy within us, and then if man by himself can do nothing, man with God can do everything. Nothing is impossible for God, and we are called every day- we created beings, we who have a vocation- we are called every day to rediscover the eternal mystery of God, to experience our weakness and fragility, and at the same time, to experience the merciful and renewing grace of God. And on God’s side, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with Jesus who has risen and called us to be his friends and brothers, we can do great things. We can be at the service of his kingdom and make the kingdom of God triumph first in ourselves and then by the witness of life we want to give.

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, CS
Homily excerpt, Legion of Christ
July 10, 2010

The lost Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, found with the Jesuits

The art world is abuzz due to an article in L’Osservatore Romano on Sunday stating that a “lost Caravaggio” may now be found.

The as yet unauthenticated painting, “The Martyrdom of St Lawrence,” owned by the Society of Jesus, is thought to be a Caravaggio because it has the hallmarks of a Caravaggio, including dramatic lighting effects, the L’Osservatore Romano said. “Certainly it’s a stylistically impeccable, beautiful painting,” the article stated in its Sunday edition. “One can’t but be reminded of works like the Conversion of St Paul, the Martyrdom of St Matthew and Judith and Holofernes.”

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the acknowledged pioneer of the Baroque painting technique of contrasting light and dark known in Italian as “chiaroscuro.” It is estimated that about 80 of the painter’s works are extant. He was born in Milan and trained there under Titian. Many are also aware of the artist’s wild lifestyle and the alleged murder he committed of a man in a brawl and then fled Rome. Moreover, Caravaggio’s mysterious death in 1610 has long intrigued scholars. Among the theories of his disappearance are that he was killed on a deserted Tuscan beach or collapsed there due to an illness. Italian anthropologists announced last month they had found the famous artist’s mortal remains. The artist’s club is observing the 400th anniversary of the artist’s death.

Leave it to the Jesuits to have at least two Caravaggio’s!

Looking toward a time of peace, reconciliation and social justice

I’ve had some spare time to read and so this morning I pondered the address given by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People at the 2010 Conference of European University Chaplaincies, 14-18 June 2010. The title of the address is “Young hearts and minds toward ‘Peace, Reconciliation, and Social Justice.”

A few paragraphs that I thought would be germane for reflection and deeper prayer.

Pope John Paul II … wrote that “forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil. The measure of such a decision is the love of God who draws us to himself in spite of our sin. Forgiveness therefore has a divine source and criterion. Forgiveness, as a fully human act, is above all a personal initiative (World Day of Peace message 2002). The ability to forgive lies at the very basis of the idea of a future society marked by justice and solidarity. Peace is essential for development, but true peace is made possible only through forgiveness and reconciliation” (ibid).

Pope Benedict XVI, in his Message to the youth in 2007, invited them to “dare to love” and not to desire anything less for their life than a love that is strong and beautiful: love that is capable of making the whole of their existence a joyful undertaking of giving themselves as a gift to God and their brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love (cf. Rev 5:13). Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations.

Pope John Paul II in fact was convinced that the future far lies in the hands of the youth. The future of peace lies in their hearts. To construct history, as they can and must, they to free history from the false paths it is pursuing. To do this, the youth must have a deep trust in the grandeur of the human vocation -a vocation to be pursued with respect for truth for the dignity and inviolable rights of the human person. Pope Wojtyla felt the feeling of the modern youth indeed. He said that he saw them being touched by the hunger for peace; that they are troubled by so much injustice around them and sense overwhelming danger in the gigantic stockpiles of arms and in the threats of nuclear war; that they suffer when they see widespread hunger and malnutrition and are concerned about the environment today and for the coming generations; that they are threatened by unemployment and many already without work and without the prospect of meaningful employment and are upset by the large number of people who are oppressed politically and spiritually and who cannot enjoy the exercise of their basic human rights as individuals or as a community. All this can give rise to a feeling that life has little meaning. In this situation, some may be tempted to take flight from responsibility: in the fantasy worlds of alcohol and drugs, in short-lived sexual relationships without commitment to marriage and family, in indifference, in cynicism and even in violence. Pope John Paul II invited them therefore to be themselves on guard against the fraud of a world that wants to exploit or misdirect their energetic and powerful search for happiness and meaning. He invited them not to avoid the search for the true answers to the questions that confront them (World Day of Peace 1985).

L’Osservatore Romano
June 23, 2010

Our need for God is above all else, Benedict says

Even in the summer the Pope meets the faithful at the residence in Castel Gandolfo to give a brief reflection before praying the midday Angelus. He’s on vacation so-to-speak, though he continues with meetings and writing and the like on a much reduced schedule. A paragraph from yesterday’s address on vacation and God is noteworthy as many of us are now taking time off from work for leisure activities. The Pope emphasizes in his reflection that Christ is clear: the active life and hospitality are essential in discipleship but it is absolutely necessary to listen to the Word of the Lord. The heart of St Luke’s narrative of the Martha & Mary event is that in “the Lord is there in that moment, present in the person of Jesus! Everything else will pass and will be taken away from us, but the Word of God is eternal and gives meaning to our daily activity.”

And so, we have the heart of Benedict’s message:

This Gospel passage [on Martha and Mary, Luke10:38-42] is very important at vacation time, because it recalls the fact that the human person must work, must involve himself in domestic and professional concerns, to be sure, but he has need of God before all else, who is the interior light of love and truth. Without love, even the most important activities lose value and do not bring joy. Without a profound meaning, everything we do is reduced to sterile and disordered activism. And who gives us love and truth if not Jesus Christ? So let us learn, brothers, to help each other, to cooperate, but first of all to choose together the better part, which is and will always be our greater good.

Fr Robert Taft advocates ecumenical scholarship & theology as a new approach to restore communion among the churches of East and West

The
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches should own up to their
past misdeeds and work to restore communion, according to Archimandrite Robert F.
Taft, SJ.

Fr. Taft, a Jesuit priest of the New England Province and professor emeritus of the history of Byzantine Liturgy at the Pontifical
Oriental Institute in Rome, said that the rift between the churches was
sustained primarily by offensive actions–not theological differences.
He delivered “Perceptions and Realities in Orthodox-Catholic Relations
Today,” on June 28 at Fordham University.

“The main problem that we Catholics and Orthodox face in our ecumenical
dialogue is not doctrine but behavior,” Fr. Taft said. “The issue is
not that Catholics and Orthodox do not know how to pray and believe and
live Christianity in the right and true apostolic way. The problem is
that we do not know how to act.”

He
pointed to Catholic “uniatism”–aggression against another church–as a
major problem blocking fruitful dialogue between the religions. He
added that although the Orthodox faith has been victimized, it also
refuses to admit its own misdeeds.

Fr. Taft advocated a system of “ecumenical scholarship and theology”–a
new way to study Christian tradition that seeks to reconcile and unite,
rather than to confute and dominate. To accomplish this, the Catholic
and Orthodox churches must recognize one another as historic apostolic
sister churches, he said.

The
point of this new ecumenical theology is not that Catholics and
Orthodox never disagree. “What it does mean, is that at the official
level, disagreements can be discussed truthfully and courteously,
without invective, rudeness, and slander,” Fr. Taft said. [Fordham
University]

Fr André Louf, OCSO RIP

The Trappist monk and prominent theologian and retreat master, Father André Louf, died on July 12, 2010. Louf was a monk of Mont-des-Cats, in France. He was born in 1929 in Leuven, Belgium; he entered the monastery in 1947 and elected abbot of his monastery in 1963, a ministry he exercised for 34 years. Upon retirement in 1997 he lived as a hermit and served for a while as a chaplain to a group of nun in the south of France.

Famously he was the author of the 2004 meditations of the Way of the Cross at the invitation of Pope John Paul II. If you’ve not read them, get your hands on a copy which are available online.

… The sentiment which, in the end, will prevail for the truly humble person is an unshakeable confidence in God’s mercy of which he has tasted at least a glimmer even in the midst of failure. How then could he doubt any longer? (A. Louf, The Way of Humility)

His obit is here.

May Father André’s memory be eternal!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Cardinal Newman in his admirable “Letter addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., on occasion of his Eirenicon” (1865) says very aptly: “Theology is occupied with supernatural matters, and is ever running into mysteries, which reason can neither explain nor adjust. Its lines of thought come to an abrupt termination, and to pursue them or to complete them is to plunge down the abyss. St. Augustine warns us that, if we attempt to find and to tie together the ends of lines which run into infinity, we shall only succeed in contradicting ourselves” (Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, 5th ed., p. 430). It is widely agreed that the ultimate considerations which determine a true estimate of all particular points of the Christian tradition are doctrinal. No purely historical arguments, whether from antiquity or from silence, are ever decisive. They are subject to a further theological scrutiny and revision in the perspective of the total Christian faith, taken as a whole. The ultimate question is simply this: does one really keep the faith of the Bible and of the Church, does one accept and recite the Catholic Creed exactly in that sense in which it had been drafted and supposed to be taken and understood, does one really believe in the truth of the Incarnation?

Let me quote Newman once more. “I say then,” he proceeds, “when once we have mastered the idea, that Mary bore, suckled, and handled the Eternal in the form of a child, what limit is conceivable to the rush and flood of thoughts which such a doctrine involves? What awe and surprise must attend upon the knowledge, that a creature has been brought so close to the Divine Essence?” (op. cit., page 431). Fortunately, a Catholic theologian is not left alone with logic and erudition. He is led by the faith; credo ut intelligam. Faith illuminates the reason. And erudition, the memory of the past, is quickened in the continuous experience of the Church.

A Catholic theologian is guided by the teaching authority of the Church, by its living tradition. But above all, he himself lives in the Church, which is the Body of Christ. The mystery of the Incarnation is still, as it were, continuously enacted in the Church, and its “implications” are revealed and disclosed in devotional experience and in sacramental participation. In the Communion of Saints, which is the true Church Universal and Catholic, the mystery of the New Humanity is disclosed as a new existential situation. And in this perspective and living context of the Mystical Body of Christ the person of the Blessed Virgin Mother appears in full light and full glory. The Church now contemplates her in the state of perfection. She is now seen as inseparably united with her Son, who “sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” For her the final consummation of life has already come-in an anticipation. “Thou art passed over into Life, who art the Mother of Life,” acknowledges the Church, “Neither grave nor death had power over the Mother of God… for the Mother of Life hath been brought into Life by him who dwelt in her ever-virgin womb” (Troparion and Kontakion for the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary).

Again, it is not so much a heavenly reward for her purity and virtue, as an “implication” of her sublime office, of her being the Mother of God, the Theotokos. The Church Triumphant is above all the worshipping Church, her existence is a living participation in Christ’s office of intercession and his redeeming love. Incorporation into Christ, which is the essence of the Church and of the whole Christian existence, is first of all an incorporation into his sacrificial love for mankind. And here there is a special place for her who is united with the Redeemer in the unique intimacy of motherly affection and devotion. The Mother of God is truly the common mother of all living, of the whole Christian race, born or reborn in the Spirit and truth. An affectionate identification with the child, which is the spiritual essence of motherhood, is here consummated in its ultimate perfection. The Church does not dogmatize much about these mysteries of her own existence. For the mystery of Mary is precisely the mystery of the Church. Mater Ecclesia and Virgo Alater, both are birthgivers of the New Life. And both are orantes.

The Church invites the faithful and helps them to grow spiritually into these mysteries of faith which are as well the mysteries of their own existence and spiritual destiny. In the Church they learn to contemplate and to adore the living Christ together with the whole assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven (Heb. 12:23). And in this glorious assembly they discern the eminent person of the Virgin Mother of the Lord and Redeemer, full of grace and love, of charity and compassion — “More honorable than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, who without spot didst bear the Eternal Word.” In the light of this contemplation and in the spirit of faith the theologian must fulfill his office of interpreting to believers and to those who seek the truth the overwhelming mystery of the Incarnation. This mystery is still symbolized, as it was in the age of the Fathers, by a single and glorious name: Mary Theotokos, the Mother of God Incarnate.

The Ever-Virgin Mother of God
Archpriest George Florovsky

Saint Bonaventure…a self-possessed saint

“As for yourself, be self-possessed in all circumstances…. I am already being poured out like a libation.” –From the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy, and from the Gospel of Matthew.

When the papal legates came to the Franciscan convent, bearing the cardinal’s red hat of the see of Albano, they found Brother Bonaventure doing the dishes outside. In dishwater up to his elbows, the story goes, he pointed to the branch of a nearby tree and said, “Hang it there.” Self-possession is all right up to a point. Myself, I’d have poured out that magic detergent as a libation, and have made a dive for the “merited crown reserved for me.”

Saint Bonaventure had reason to be self-possessed. He was the general of the Franciscans at thirty-nine and curial cardinal a year before he died at fifty-nine. Just a year or so before this, his friend Aquinas had refused the archbishopric of Naples. And Saint Albert the Great, Aquinas’ teacher in Cologne, died as the Archbishop of Regensberg.

All three men I’ve named were later designated doctors of the Church and all three were mendicant friars. Is there any realtion between their state in life and the theological eminence –or even their office as teachers of the least of the commandments? The answer, I think, is yes and no. The first concern of the early friars was not intellectual. It was to break out of the mold of static institutions which were impeding the spread of the Gospel. Monasticism meant hugh landholding –a princedom for the abbot– as witness Monte Cassino where Saint Thomas did his grammar and high school. The parish clergy were illiterate. The monks who could read and preach were immobile. Francis, Dominic, the varying reform-fashioners of the Augustinians, the Carmelites, the Gilbertines, all decided to “get the Church moving.” They brought the monastery into the marketplace; they preached sermons in the streets to octogenarians who had never heard a sermon before. They even invaded the new universities –already the preserve of the secular clergy. They were poor men, and let the light of their goodness and dedication shine. They became students perforce because the great charity which men of that time needed to have shown them was broken bread of God’s word in all its purity and strength,

What the worker priests, the little brothers and sisters of Charles de Foucauld, lay missionaries and secular institutes are in our day, mendicant friars were in theirs. All human institutions, groupings excluding the family, tend to outlive their usefulness and die. That could include today’s relgious orders as we know them. New needs arise. But some things are constant: charity, stability, chastity, wisdom, obedience, utter fidelity to the Master’s message.

Gerard Sloyan
Homily, NOYP, 197-99

The Gianna Mass for infertile couples TONIGHT in NYC

The monthly Mass for couples suffering from infertility and
recurrent miscarriage, followed by a support group for couples with
infertility or a talk about the NaProTECHNOLOGY approach to treating
infertility, will be held this evening at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish, 411 W. 68th St., New York.

Schedule

6:00 pm Confessions

6:30 pm Mass

7:15 pm Support Group OR NaProTECHNOLOGY Talk by Dr. Mielnik

All events are open to the public and free of charge.

All are welcome to attend this beautiful night of recollection
which is co-sponsored by The Dominican Friars Healthcare Ministry of NY and The Gianna Center for Women.

Dr. Mielnik will be available after the talk to answer questions about NaProTECHNOLOGY as well.