Our Lady of Sorrows

OL Sorrows AIsenbrant.jpg

Stabat Mater dolorosa

iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
   dum pendebat Filius.
The grieving Mother stood

beside the cross weeping
   where her Son was hanging.
Cuius animam gementem

contristatam et dolentem
   pertransivit gladius.
Through her weeping soul,

compassionate and grieving,
   a sword passed.
O quam tristis et afflicta

fuit illa benedicta
   mater Unigeniti!
O how sad and afflicted

was that blessed
   Mother of the Only-begotten!
Quae maerebat et dolebat

pia mater cum videbat
   nati poenas incliti.
Who mourned and grieved,

the pious Mother, with seeing
   the torment of her glorious Son.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,

matrem Christi si videret
   in tanto supplicio?
Who is the man who would not weep

if seeing the Mother of Christ
   in such agony?
Quis non posset contristari,

piam matrem contemplari
   dolentum cum Filio?
Who would not be have compassion

on beholding the devout mother
   suffering with her Son?
Pro peccatis suae gentis

vidit Iesum in tormentis
   et flagellis subditum.
For the sins of His people

she saw Jesus in torment
   and subjected to the scourge.
Vidit suum dulcem Natum

morientem, desolatum,
cum emisit spiritum.
She saw her sweet Son

dying, forsaken,
   while He gave up His spirit.
Christe, cum sit hinc exire,

da per matrem me venire
   ad palmam victoriae. Amen.
Christ, when it is henceforth in need to pass away,

grant that through your Mother I may come
   to the palm of victory. Amen.

What am I doing for Christ right now?

Crucifixion with saints AdelCastagno.jpg

Thinking about the life-saving cross of Jesus, I am
recalling what Saint Ignatius of Loyola taught in his Spiritual Exercises about God’s unconditional love for humanity: no talk of the mercy and love is reasonable without kneeling before the cross. This was evident to me as I walked into the chapel this morning for Lauds and forced to navigate in the
middle of the aisle a cross with relic of the True Cross before it. I knelt for a moment of prayer and kissed the relic. It is striking to do this pious gesture because it brings home to the heart, the Christian reality that the cross is so very central to our life of faith; it is the altar on which we are saved; and it is the cross that is the key which unlocks the door to the Father’s house; it is the love that kills and transcends all sin.

Loyola offers a meditation

Imagine Christ our Lord suspended on the cross before you, and converse with him in a colloquy: How is it that he, although he is the Creator, has come to make himself a human being? How is it that he has passed from eternal life to death here in time, and to die in this way for my sins?

In a similar way, reflect on yourself and ask: What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ What ought I to do for Christ?

In this way, too, gazing on him in so pitiful a state as he hangs on the cross, speak out whatever comes to your mind.

A Colloquy is made, properly speaking, in the way one friend speaks to another, or a servant to one in authority – now begging for a favor, now accusing oneself of some misdeed, now telling one’s concerns and asking counsel about them. Close with an Our Father.

(Spiritual Exercises 53 and 54)

The cross is no failure

Cross with Carthusian monk JdeBeaumetz.jpgIn one respect the cross does have a terrible aspect
that we ought not to remove. To see that the purest of men, who was more than a
man, was executed in such a grisly way can make us frightened of ourselves. But
we also need to be frightened of ourselves and out of our self-complacency.


Here,
I think, Luther was right when he said that man must first be frightened of
himself so that he can then find the right way. However, the cross doesn’t stop
at being a horror; it is not merely a horror, because the one who looks down at
us from the cross is not a failure, a desperate man, not one of the horrible
victims of humanity.

For this crucified man says something different from
Spartacus and his failed adherents, because, after all, what looks down at us
from the cross is a goodness that enables a new beginning in the midst of
life’s horror. The goodness of God himself looks on us, God who surrenders
himself into our hands, delivers himself to us, and bears the whole horror of
history with us.

Looked at more deeply this sign, which forces us to look at
the dangerousness of man and all his heinous deeds, at the same time makes us
look upon God, who is stronger, stronger in his weakness, and upon the fact
that we are loved by God.


It is in this sense a sign of forgiveness that also
brings hope into the abysses of history. God is crucified and says to us that
this God who is apparently so weak is the God who incomprehensibly forgives us
and who in his seeming absence is stronger.


Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI

Exaltation of the Holy Cross


Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo.jpg

God the Father has exalted

Jesus Christ, the Lord of all,

Who has emptied self of glory,

Took our human nature’s thrall;

In obedience, He was humbled

Taking even cross and death;

Now creation shouts in wonder

“Christ is Lord” with ev’ry breath!

As the Cross is boldly
lifted

And the faithful now embrace

What was once a thing so shameful,

Now the hope of all our race,

Let us, marked with Cross, and
baptized,

Shout this news throughout the earth:

Through the Cross, our God has conquered!

Through it, come to His new birth!

87.87. D, no tune
suggested

James Michael Thompson, (c) 2009, World Library Publications

St Stanislaus Church (New Haven, CT) receives St. Gregory Society

JRingly preachin Sept 13 09.jpg

This afternoon the first Mass celebrated by priests associated with the Saint Gregory Society was offered at Saint Stanislaus Church, New Haven, CT. Having attended Mass at the Church since the mid-1970s I am elated that this has transpired, as I mentioned earlier on this blog. The beauty of the architecture coupled with the beauty of the sacred Liturgy is a wonderful convergence.

What a happy day for the SGS and for Saint Stanislaus!

Saint John Chrysostom

St John Chrysostom SdelPiombo.jpgO blest teacher, light of holy Church, blessed John Chrysostom, thou lover of God’s law, plead with the Son of God for us.

We beseech Thee, O Lord, may heavenly grace enrich Thy Church which Thou hast willed to enlighten by the glorious merits and teaching of blessed John Chrysostom, Thy bishop and confessor.

Holy Name of Mary

Thumbnail image for Humility of Mary ZStrozzi.jpgYou have been blessed, O Virgin Mary, above all other women on earth by the Lord, the Most High God, for God has so exalted your name that human lips will never cease to praise you.

Lord our God, when Your Son was dying on the altar of the cross, he gave us as our mother the one he had chosen to be His own mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant that we who call upon the holy name of Mary, our mother, with confidence in her protection may receive strength and comfort in all our needs.
This feast was restored an optional memorial in our sacred Liturgy by the Servant of God Pope John Paul II when he published the 2002 Roman Missal (the translation is due out this century). The Preface of today’s Mass is worth adding to our examination of conscience today and I highly recommend using the liturgical texts to assist us here. In part the Preface reads:
“… But by Your loving providence the name of the Virgin Mary also should echo and re-echo on the lips of the faithful people who turn to her with confidence as their star of hope, call on her as their mother in time of danger, and seek her protection in their hour of need.”
The sentiments expressed by the Church’s Liturgy ought to call to mind the venerable prayer of the Memorare in which we ask Mary in confidence to be at our side at all times. Those who remain close to Mary, the Mother of God are always helped.