Reflections 2019

Feast of the Holy Family 2019

On this, the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, we honour the Holy Family of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph. In honouring them, we also honour all families, big or small. And in
honouring all families, we honour the family of God, the Church. But most especially, we
focus in on the hidden, day-to-day life of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

What was it like to live day in and day out in the household of St. Joseph? What was it like
to have Jesus for a son, Mary as a wife and mother, and Joseph as a father and
husband? Their home would have certainly been a sacred place and a dwelling of true peace
and unity. But it would have also been so much more.

The family home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have been, in numerous ways, just like
any other home. They would have related together, talked, had fun, disagreed, worked, eaten,
dealt with problems, and encountered everything else that makes up daily family life.
Of course, the virtues of Jesus and Mary were perfect, and St. Joseph was a truly “just
man.” Therefore, the overriding characteristic of their home would have been love.

But with that said, their family would not have been exempt from daily toil, hurt and
challenges that face most families. For example, they would have encountered the death of
loved ones, St. Joseph most likely passed away prior to Jesus’ public ministry. They would
have encountered misunderstanding and gossip from others. Our Blessed Mother, for
example, was found with child out of wedlock. This would have been a topic of discussion
among many acquaintances for sure. They would have had to fulfill all daily chores, earn a
living, put food on the table, attend gatherings of family and friends and the like. They would
have lived normal family life in every way.

This is significant because it reveals God’s love for family life. The Father allowed His
Divine Son to live this life and, as a result, elevated family life to a place within the
Trinity. The holiness of the Holy Family reveals to us that every family is invited to share in
God’s divine life and to encounter ordinary daily life with grace and virtue.
Reflect, today, upon your own family life. Some families are strong in virtue, some struggle
with basic communication. Some are faithful day in and day out, some are broken and deeply
wounded. No matter the case, know that God wants to enter more deeply into your family
life just as it is right now. He desires to give you strength and virtue to live as the Holy
Family. Surrender yourself and your family, this day, and invite the Triune God to make
your family a holy family.

Christmas 2019

HOMILY: “We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical
encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this
truly; let him rejoice.” -Pope Paul VI

~The long-awaited celebration is here. We have gathered here today, because Christ has
gathered us together by His birth. This was His mission for coming, to bring us together and
reunite us with God (Eph 1:7-20). He became one of us in order to enter deeply into the
fullness of our being to redeem us from the very root of sin that disconnected us from God
the father.

~His coming was not by accident. It was planned and wilfully accepted. It was part of God’s
eternal plan for the salvation of man not a consequence of the fall of man. God gave his son
who accepted to be born in the likeness of men. He took up our lowly state being born in a
manger to teach us the humility that should accompany our relationship with him; To teach
us that our lowly beginning does not define or limit our destiny; He was born in a manger
yet He was king of the universe.

~His birth has a purpose just as your and my birth has a purpose. He has a mission to
accomplish. It was obedience to the will of His father that saw him through on that mission.
So if we are to succeed in life, we too must be obedient to His commands.

~His birth was a gift to men. A gift borne out of selfless and unconditional love for man. He
became a gift to men and women that we, in turn, shall be a gift to others. It was a selfless
gift to men, to teach us that it is only in selfless service that we accomplish God’s designs
and fulfilment of our mission here on earth.

~His birth inaugurated a new era of grace. For 400 years no prophetic voice was heard in
Israel. No kings, no judges, until John appeared in the wilderness to announce his coming
and to prepare the way for Him. The birth of Christ was the greatest event in human history.
It marks a new dawn in the history of salvation. Israel waited for the coming of her Messiah,
the prophet’s prophesied about his coming. Malachi brought an end to the old testament
prophesies about his coming as the last prophet of old. All the prophecies of old found their
fulfilment in his birth. His is the long-expected saviour hence the inspiration of this song:

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
The joy of every longing heart.

(Fr. Chimezie C. Aladi.)

15th December 2019

Today we meet the Baptist overcome with doubt, locked by the powerful in the shadowy and
forbidding dungeon. The Messiah whom he recognized does not act as a sovereign judge, nor
as the merciless executor of divine sentences against the impious. Confused and distressed,
John has his followers question Jesus: "Are you the Messiah whom we await? You, the non-
violent one, the patient one, the merciful one?" This question which spans the centuries seizes
us today more than ever when we are confronted by the apparent silence of God in our de-
Christianised society. We had hoped the Gospel would give us answers; instead it raises
questions. We had hoped for ready-made solutions. Instead, it invites us to seek them out. We
had hoped for spectacular signs. Instead, the kingdom subjects itself to the laws of slow
germination. So often it is difficult for us to admit that Christianity is a freeing and loving
way of life – a life of faith and risk! Like John, we too must enter into the Advent of our faith
and recognize the image which God chose in the humble, merciful, liberating person of Jesus
Christ. The signs of his coming are among us, hidden, but alive. Through faith, many
Christians incarnate the Word of God in our generation. They already begin to change the
world and throw down the walls of our prisons. In greater numbers Christians are assuming
responsibility for the Church. They go in the name of the gospel to offer service to the poor.
They never cease to pray that they might burn with the fire of Jesus' love. These
contemporary prophets of the Messiah know that patient hope impels us to action. Why then
do we wait to join the ranks of those who, in working for the Advent of God, are promoting
humanity's true coming of age?

8th December 2019

 Behold the Lord will come . . . John [the Baptist] knows that God is
preparing something very great, something for which he is to be the instrument; and he
himself points in the direction that the Holy Spirit shows him. We know much more now
about what it was that God had in mind for humanity. We know Christ and His Church, we
have the sacraments. The doctrine of salvation has been perfectly marked out for us . . . We
know that the world needs Christ to reign, we know that the happiness and salvation of all
mankind depend on Him. We have Christ Himself; the same Christ whom John the Baptist
knew and announced. We are witnesses and precursors. We have to bear witness and at the
same time we have to show others the way. Our responsibility is great, because to be Christ's
witnesses implies first and foremost that we should try to live our lives according to his
doctrine, that we should struggle to make our actions remind others of Jesus and His most
loveable personality.

(from In Conversation with God, Daily Meditations, Volume One: Advent and Christmastide)

1st December 2019

As we begin this time of quiet prayer, I invite you to find a comfortable place to sit with your
back straight and your legs planted on the ground. Allow yourself to notice your breathing as
you breathe normally. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Take a few moments and close your eyes, preparing yourself to listen to what God may be
saying to you during this prayer. As you sit with your eyes closed, use these or similar words:
“Here I am, Lord. Here I am.” When you are ready, open your eyes and pray.

(Ignatian Reflections for 1st Sunday of Advent)

24th November 2019

"This is the King of the Jews". In Luke this is a simple inscription, in Mark and Matthew a
cause for condemnation, in John an affirmation disputed by the chief priests. What a contrast
there is between the inscription and the spectacle of the helpless crucified, between the
salvation which some expected from him and the reality of the condemned man incapable of
saving himself! For Luke, Jesus on the cross, enduring mockeries and insults, is the type of
the persecuted just one, martyred by the impious who hurl their defiance at him: "lf you are
the king of the Jews, save yourself." Highlighting the reactions of the two criminals who
surround Jesus, Luke shows two possible attitudes toward the Messiah. One man condemns
himself by blaspheming this laughable king, the other turns to him through whom "we have
redemption, the forgiveness of our sins" (Col 1:14). Jesus who, since his temptation in the
desert, has refused any demonstration of power for his own advantage, claims that he can
save the one who trusts in him, "this day you will be with me in paradise." "This day" is the
time of the kingdom already present in the person of Jesus. Here, at the foot of the cross, the
lordship of Christ takes root.

17th November 2019

Obsession with an end of the world is not alien to our times. We too fear cosmic upheavals
and cataclysms of every sort. The means of nuclear catastrophe plays a significant part in this
preoccupation. More than one recent author and several films have described extreme events
as if the end of the world were at the door. Every age has had doomsayers who announce the
imminence of the parousia based on the wars and upheavals of the time. The possibility that
Christians might be deceived by their predictions already disturbed Luke. He set out the
alternate view of Christian vigilance. Although the destruction of the temple in the year 70
seemed to forebode the end of the world, the ruin of Jerusalem did not bring about the
fulfilment of time. The necessary prelude to the catastrophes which will signal the end of
time is the persecution of Jesus' disciples. These persecutions will provide the opportunity for
exercising that perseverance which alone obtains life, that constancy in faith which is
necessary in any period of history.

10th November 2019

Haunted by the tragic and revolting character of death, our society devotes a great deal of
speculation to life after death. This contemporary discussion recalls the debate between the
Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus' time. One party to such controversy, the Sadducees,
brought Jesus into the debate. Opportunists in politics, conservatives in religion, these
Sadducees had held to the ancient conception of a dim survival of souls in a problematic
"sheol". They dismissed the idea of the resurrection of the dead, articulated well after Moses,
as useless innovation. In this spirit they propose to Jesus one of those bizarre cases dear to
casuists of every age. Basing themselves on the levirate law, which required a man to marry
the childless widow of his brother, they complicate things to the extreme in order to ridicule
the theory they reject. Jesus takes the question to a higher level. In the new world of the
resurrection, it will no longer be necessary to marry and reproduce in order to survive. Our
experience of God is not restricted to the brief and passing time of a human life. Those who
know the presence of God within the limits of a corruptible existence are drawn to hope that
they will remain in that presence forever.

3rd November 2019

 The Jesus Prayer

The Jesus Prayer is very simple:

"Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,"

The Jesus Prayer according to numerous Church Fathers is "essential" to our spiritual
growth. The Jesus Prayer proclaims our faith and humbles us by asking mercy for our
sinfulness. The Jesus Prayer is thought to be as old as the Church itself.

The Jesus Prayer, says Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, “more than any other,” helps us to
be able to “stand in God’s presence.” This means that the Jesus Prayer helps us to focus
our mind exclusively on God with “no other thought” occupying our mind but the
thought of God. At this moment when our mind is totally concentrated on God, we
discover a very personal and direct relationship with Him.

Jesus Christ - the Power In the Name

The Jesus Prayer's power comes from the use of our Lord's Name, Jesus Christ, Son of
God. It is a confession of our faith.

Jesus Prayer requires Humility

The Jesus Prayer in its practice assumes you are a regular participant in the worship
services of the Church, in her Sacraments and aware of your sinfulness. Be sure to
consult with and follow the advice of your spiritual Father. Humility is a prerequisite for
all prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer.

Jesus Prayer Has Two Functions

The Jesus Prayer has two important purposes. The first is worship as with all prayer.
The second is a discipline to help our soul gain control our overactive brains and create
stillness so the Holy Spirit can work through us and help us live the virtues in union
with God.

Jesus Prayer Has Three Stages in Practice

The Jesus Prayer involves three stages of progress in its practice. You begin praying the
Jesus Prayer by repeating the words of the prayer out loud or at least moving the lips.
This is called verbal prayer. After some time saying of the Jesus Prayer becomes silent
or mental and is repeated only in the mind. This is mental prayer. Finally, the Jesus
Prayer becomes a continuous prayer in the heart, the inner core of our being. We begin
with vocal prayer and do not force the move to mental prayer. This will happen
naturally when you are ready.
Jesus Prayer in Practice
In praying the Jesus Prayer, our holy Fathers tell us, we say it over and over hundreds of
times as part of our daily prayer rule. It is best to add the Jesus Prayer to your morning
prayers as this is when the mind is the quietest. Begin by saying the Jesus Prayer
verbally focusing on each word. Repeat the Jesus Prayer continually for 15 minutes at
first and then expand to 30 minutes. You will experience the challenge of dealing with
your thoughts, the tendency for you mind to wander. Attention when praying the Jesus
Prayer is important. Be sincere in your prayer and repeat it with contrition. Praying the
Jesus Prayer is that simple!

Jesus Prayer is A Long and Difficult Path

Do not be fooled by its simplicity. The Jesus Prayer practice is a difficult task and like all
ascetic practices it requires commitment of time, patience and perseverance. Remember
the Jesus Prayer's aim is not to obtain a calmness or any kind of spiritual experience, but
to become in communion with God and participate in His grace.

Jesus Prayer - When To Pray

The Jesus Prayer will eventually be prayed throughout the day and when this happens,
you will find that your life changes.

Jesus Prayer is Not a Form of Eastern Meditation

The praying of the Jesus Prayer should not be confused with methods used in Eastern
Yoga or meditation. In praying the Jesus Prayer as in all Orthodox Prayer we are seeking
a relationship with a personal God based on faith and love.

(orthodoxprayer.org)

27th October 2019

One creates a caricature by taking a significant trait, exaggerating it, and making it larger
than life. This is how Jesus sets up the two extremes of religious attitudes in his day. The
Pharisee asks nothing for himself. He is undoubtedly no hypocrite. What he says, he does to
perfection. Unfortunately, he is preoccupied with himself and is judging others. He is
interested in God primarily as the one who will reaffirm the merits he lists. In contrast to this
religiously active man stands the tax collector. He does not make a prayer of thanksgiving.
He confesses, not out of a need to clear his conscience, but to express all the pain that he is
feeling. Finding nothing which can give him assurance before his judge, he throws himself on
the divine mercy. It is from that mercy that he hopes to receive his life as a grace, a gift. This
humble man goes home justified but the other does not. The Christian knows that the just one
is never more than a person who has been justified, saved by God, beyond all merit.

20th October 2019

Jesus sets before us a parable sketched from life. A persistent widow importunes an
uncooperative judge until she obtains satisfaction. From this account, let us not conclude that
the way to pray to God is to bore him to death or to drive him crazy. Only the Gentiles
imagine that they will succeed in getting an answer by dint of words. This gospel
demonstrates in a remarkable way the danger of interpreting parables as allegory. In an
allegory, every element has another dimension of meaning. A parable works as a whole to
make a single point or to raise a disturbing question. In this parable it would be a mistake to
equate God with the judge. It would be even more of a mistake to equate the woman's
obstinate pleading with a superstitious attempt to pry an answer from God. Jesus' parable is
set under the heading of persevering prayer. It calls Christians to unceasing vigilance. Prayer
is less an act which forces God's hand, but much more one which opens us to the always
available gifts of God.

13th October 2019

The episode of the ten lepers follows from the parable of humble service read last Sunday. It
again invites us to wonder at the gracious gifts of God. On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus
meets leprosy, an illness which cuts the sufferer off from worship and the presence of others.
Like those poor in the psalms who call on the loving tenderness of the God of the covenant,
the lepers cry out to the one in whom they discern a saviour. In sending them first to those
who are qualified to verify a cure, Jesus not only makes them a promise, he also puts their
faith to the test. For, at that moment, they are not yet cured. They are healed "on the way", by
obeying Jesus' word. Then, filled with joy, but forgetful of the giver, they scatter. There is
one exception, a Samaritan, a foreigner! For him alone the journey of faith is not complete
until he returns to the giver of the gift. Jesus continues the dialogue by sending him forth
once more, this time as a disciple.

6th October 2019

Like the disciples, we turn to Jesus and say, "Increase our faith!" They have guessed correctly
that faith is first of all a gift, a grace. No one conquers it, buys it, earns it. One can only
implore the Lord who is both the gift and the giver. Without directly answering the disciples'
prayer, Jesus turns to a paradoxical image which expresses the incredible vitality of faith.
Like a lever which lifts much more than its weight, a tiny grain of faith is capable of
achieving the impossible. To become convinced of this and to take advantage of its power
one need only examine what happened to Paul. Faith is, for him, unmerited participation in
the very life of the risen Lord. "To me, 'life' means Christ!" (Ph 1:21). His whole person,
body, mind and heart is seized, transformed, lifted up, in such a way that he can live the
kingdom of God in the midst of the world.

29th September 2019

Parables demand careful reading. There is little detailed description about the characters in
today's gospel. It is never said that the rich man is wicked. We are never told that Lazarus
badgers him for help which he actively refuses. Between them, however, lies an abyss that
cannot be bridged. It is the abyss of unawareness and self-sufficiency. The anaesthetized
conscience of the rich man is no longer touched by the reproach of poverty. Thus we can
understand Jesus' warnings: "How hard it will be for the rich to go into the kingdom of God.
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven" (Lk 18:25). Sometimes we read on the door of elegant buildings: "No
soliciting". What if that prohibition were to be found reversed at the threshold of the
kingdom, "The rich need not apply." That is the picture Luke seems to paint. Is there no
redemption then for the rich? At the door of the kingdom there are no rich and poor. Both are
saved by the word of God. That word reveals to men and women their radical
interdependence. The self-sufficiency of the rich can blind them to the Lazarus at their gates.
The affluence of our society can close our ears to the cries of the third world. In neglecting
their needs, we exclude ourselves from the table of the kingdom.

22nd September 2019

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social
activist, and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the
priesthood and given the name Father Louis.
Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism,
as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his
bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of World
War II veterans, students, and even teenagers flocking to monasteries across the US, and was
also featured in National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century.
 Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with
prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, the Japanese writer D. T.
Suzuki, the Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh,
and authored books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

What is the “world” that Christ would not pray for, and of which He said that His disciples
were in but not of it? The world is the unquiet city of those who live for themselves and are
therefore divided against one another in a struggle that cannot end, for it will go on eternally
in hell. It is the city of those who are fighting for possession of limited things and for the
monopoly of goods and pleasures that cannot be shared by all.

(New Seeds of Contemplation, from the chapter A body of broken bones, 1961)

15th September 2019

Twice in this Sunday's gospel we witness the same outburst of joy on the part of someone
who has found what was lost: the shepherd his sheep and the woman her silver piece. This
joy stands in sharp contrast to the dour recriminations of the scribes and Pharisees who see
Jesus welcoming sinners and eating with them. At the time Luke's gospel was written, some
were indignant at the rejoicing which accompanied the entry of the Gentiles into the
household of the Church. Some, like the older brother, balked at crossing the threshold of a
house open to sinners. The book of Acts, also written by Luke, confirms this. The fifteenth
chapter of Luke reminds us that ostracism and intolerance, even when motivated by
unquestionable fervour, are contrary to the gospel.

8th September 2019

The Koran

Muslims believe that the Quran was orally revealed by God to the final Prophet, Muhammad,
through the archangel Gabriel (Jibril), incrementally over a period of some 23 years,
beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632, the
year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as Muhammad's most important miracle, a
proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages starting with
those revealed to Adam and ending with Muhammad. The word "Quran" occurs some 70
times in the Quran's text, and other names and words are also said to refer to the Quran.
According to tradition, several of Muhammad's companions served as scribes and recorded
the revelations. Shortly after his death, the Quran was compiled by the companions, who had
written down or memorized parts of it. The codices showed differences that motivated Caliph
Uthman to establish a standard version, now known as Uthman's codex, which is generally
considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings,
with mostly minor differences in meaning.

And we sent Noah and Abraham and placed in their seed prophecy and the Book; and some
of them are guided, though many are workers of abomination.

Then we followed up with Jesus the son of Mary and we gave him the Gospel; and we placed
in the hearts of those that followed him kindness and compassion. – But monkery, they
invented it; we only prescribed to them the craving after the goodwill of Allah, and they
observed it not with due observance. But we gave to those who believe amongst them their
hire; though many amongst them were workers of abomination.

(Qur’an, Chapter LVII)

1st September 2019

Chief Luther Standing Bear (1863-1939)

Luther Standing Bear was a Sicangu and Oglala Lakota chief notable in American history as
a Native American author, educator, philosopher, and actor of the twentieth century.
Standing Bear fought to preserve Lakota heritage and sovereignty and was at the forefront of
a Progressive movement to change government policy toward Native Americans.
Standing Bear was one of a small group of Lakota leaders of his generation, such as
Gertrude Bonnin, and Charles Eastman, who were born and raised in the oral traditions of
their culture, educated in white culture, and wrote significant historical accounts of their
people and history in English.
Standing Bear's commentaries on Native American culture and wisdom educated the
American public, deepened public awareness, and created popular support to change
government policies toward Native American peoples. Luther Standing Bear helped create
the popular twentieth-century image that Native American culture is holistic and respectful of
nature; his classic commentaries appear in college-level reading lists in anthropology,
literature, history, and philosophy, and constitute a legacy and treasury of Native American
wisdom.
The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the
kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into
his being the true essence of civilisation. And when the native man left off this form of
civilisation, his humanization was retarded in growth.

25th August 2019

"Are they few in number who are to be saved?" This question has been repeated through the
centuries. Faced with the demands of the gospel or with the fact that millions never hear the
gospel, laity and theologians alike have experienced a certain anxiety. The discussion often
takes place in the atmosphere of certainty that we are on the right side. Yet the theoretical
question concerning the number of elect is fruitless. We have been forewarned that the door
which leads to salvation is narrow. What matters is to act, to do courageously all that lies
within our power to enter. There are no guaranteed reservations that will assure us access to
the banquet. We must not mistake the door. Neither ethnic identity nor religious heritage
substitutes for life in Christ. Our religious tradition tends toward one of two extremes. Either
we rest smug in the conviction that baptism alone suffices or we suffer the delusion that we
can earn salvation by spiritual athletics. The narrow door opens between these two.

18th August 2019

R.S. Thomas (1913-2000)

Ronald Stuart Thomas, published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest who
was noted for his nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John
Betjeman, in his 1955 introduction to Song at the Year's Turning, the first collection of Thomas's
poetry to be produced by a major publisher, predicted that Thomas would be remembered long
after he himself was forgotten. M. Wynn Thomas said: "He was the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of
Wales because he was such a troubler of the Welsh conscience. He was one of the major
English language and European poets of the 20th century."
……
God, it is not your reflections
we seek, wonderful as they are
in the live fibre; it is the possibility
of your presence at the cone’s
point towards which we sore
in hope to arrive at the still
centre, where love operates
on all those frequncies
that are set up by the spinning
of two minds, the one on the other.

(from Cones)

11th August 2019

Sara Maitland (1950-)

Maitland originally became regarded as one of those at the vanguard of the 1970s feminist
movement and is often described as a feminist writer.
She has been absorbed in religion since 1972, however: from 1972 to 1993 she was married
to an Anglican priest. In 1993 she was divorced and became a Roman Catholic. In 1995 she
worked with Stanley Kubrick on the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Maitland has moved towards a solitary and prayerful life in a variety of locations, first of all
on the Isle of Skye and ultimately in her present house in Galloway. She says today that she
wants to avoid most of the comforts of life, especially those that intrude into her quest for
silence such as mobile phones, radio, television and even her son. She has described these
changes in her life and the experiences leading to them in the autobiographical A Book of
Silence. Maitland lectures part-time for Lancaster University's MA in Creative Writing and is
a Fellow of St Chad's College, Durham University.

In the desert I learned that silence is more for me than a context for prayer, or a way of
creating more time … It is, in itself, a form of freedom; it generates freedom, free choices,
inner clarity, strength. A freedom from one’s self and a freedom to be oneself.

I started to think that perhaps silence is God. Perhaps God is silence – the shining, spinning
ring of ‘pure and endless light’. Perhaps God speaking is a verb, an act, but God in perfect
self-communication, in love within the Trinity, is silent and therefore is silence. God is
silence, a silence that is positive, alive, actual and of its ‘nature’ unbreakable. Perhaps the
verb ‘God’ – speaking, creating – is one more reflex of the infinite generosity, the self-giving
abandonment, the kenotic love of God. Perhaps the incarnation of the Word is but a
secondary expression of that ‘for our hardness of heart.’ Far from ‘all silence is waiting to be
broken’ perhaps all speech is crying out ‘like a woman in travail’ to be reabsorbed into
silence, into death, into the liminal space that opens out into the presence of everlasting
silence.

(The Book of Silence, chapter 6, 2008)

4th August 2019

Quarrels over inheritance can provoke bitterness and enmity in the closest of families. Jesus
refuses to take sides on behalf of particular interests. He goes even farther, for he shows what
is really at the root of the quarrel: the greed for gain, the love of money. Jesus poses the true
question: what is it that assures life? In answer he recounts the short-sightedness of the rich
farmer. This man thinks he will assure his life with abundant reserves accumulated in grain
bins. But death suddenly snatches him away. Jesus denounces this lack of foresight. By
limiting his ambitions to this world, the rich man forfeited his chance for true life. We are
fools if we believe that what is essential here below is to accumulate and to produce, if we
identify the good life with a solid, reassuring bank account. "To be rich in the sight of God",
is to give and to share, to seek life where life is to be found.

28th July 2109

"Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples." The apostles address Jesus as a "master
of prayer", asking him to reveal his secret to them. We also need to know it, "for we do not
know how to pray as we ought" (Rm 8:26). "Ask ... seek ... knock...". These verbs emphasize
the insistence of the call to prayer and the assurance of being heard if we persevere. "You
will receive, you will find, it shall be opened to you". Above all, do not become discouraged.
Prayer requires a long patience, but through perseverance, it obtains an answer. If earthly
parents, with all the faults they may have, give to their children only good things, all the more
must our heavenly Father give the most precious good to those who ask for it. In showing us
God's response to prayer, Jesus helps us to understand prayer itself. To pray is not to impose
our will on God but to ask him to make us open to his will. To pray is not to want to change
God but to ask him to change us. For the second petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Your kingdom
come," a very ancient variant substitutes "May your Spirit come upon us and purify us."

21st July 2019

 The Talmud
The Talmud (‫ )תלמוד‬is considered an authoritative record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish
law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories. It consists of the Mishnah, a record of oral
traditions, and the Gemara, which comments upon, interprets and applies these oral
traditions. A section of the Mishnah is followed by the Gemara on that section. There are two
distinct Gemaras: the Yerushalmi and the Bavli, and two corresponding Talmuds: Talmud
Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) and the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud); The word
"Talmud", when used without qualification, usually refers to the Babylonian Talmud. Neither
Gemara is complete.

“The Talmud teaches that there are four kinds of people in the world.
The first person says, What's yours is mine.
The second person says, What's yours is yours.
The third person says, What's mine is mine.
And the fourth person says, What's mine is yours.
Which one are you?”

14th July 2019

Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, more popularly simply as Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist,
Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan. Rumi's influence
transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central
Asian Muslims, and the Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past
seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed
into various formats.

Rumi's works are written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic, and Greek in
his verse. His Masnavi (Mathnawi), composed in Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the
Persian language. His works are widely read today in their original language across Greater Iran and the
Persian-speaking world.

In the prayers and adorations of righteous men

Praises of all prophets are together bound.
All their praises mingle into a single stream,
As the water from several cups poured into a jug.
Because the praised is none but the One,
All religions by this token are the same.
Remember, all praise is directed to God’s light
And the various worshipped forms are from this light.

7th July 2019

Gustave Thibon (1903-2001)

Although essentially self-taught (he left school at the age of thirteen), Thibon was an avid
reader – especially of poetry, in French, Provençal and Latin. He was very impressed by the
First World War, which led him to hate patriotism and democracy. The young Gustave
Thibon travelled extensively, at first to London and Italy, and later to North Africa, where he
served in the military, before returning to his native village at the age of 23. Under the
influence of writers such as Léon Bloy and Jacques Maritain he converted to Catholicism. At
the invitation of the latter, he started his literary career in the pages of the Revue Thomiste.
During World War II Thibon hosted the philosopher Simone Weil at his farm; he published S.
Weil's work La Pesanteur et la Grâce (Gravity and Grace) in 1947.

Fides ultima – I believed in God, and now I only believe in God.

God is the only loved one with whom on can be fully, miserably oneself, with whom love has
never needed to lie at any level.

Divine omniscience – Your look intoxicates or crucifies, it does not disturb. It seems that
your eyes are discreet and innocent to the point of blinndness, your eyes that see everything.

Nature and grace – It is easy to fall beneath oneself, but we cannot fall beneath God.
Divine justice – “God’s punishments are invisible and that is their greatness. They affect
neither our happiness nor our conscience. They are the silence of God.” (Jean Giraudoux).
Nothing stronger can be said about the mystery of God’s vengence.

(L’Echelle de Jacob – Jacob’s Ladder – 1942)

30th June 2019

Karl Rahner SJ (1904-1984)

Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit priest and theologian who, alongside Henri de Lubac,
Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar, is considered to be one of the most influential
Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century. He was the brother of Hugo Rahner, also a
Jesuit scholar.
Rahner was born in Freiburg, at the time a part of the Grand Duchy of Baden, a state of the
German Empire; he died in Innsbruck, Austria.
Before the Second Vatican Council, Rahner had worked alongside Congar, de Lubac, and
Marie-Dominique Chenu, theologians associated with an emerging school of thought called
the Nouvelle Théologie, elements of which had been condemned in the encyclical Humani
generis of Pope Pius XII. Subsequently, however, the Second Vatican Council was much
influenced by his theology and his understanding of Catholic faith.

The starting point is the experience of faith, which makes us aware that, through what we call
‘Holy Spirit’, God (hence the Father) really communicates himself in love and forgiveness,
that he produces this self-communication in us ansd maintains it by himself. Hence the
‘Spirit’ must be God himself.

(The Trinity, 1967)

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – Corpus Christi, 23rd June 2109

This celebration originated in the diocese of Liège (1246) on the basis of revelations of
Juliana of Cornillon. It was accepted with such enthusiasm throughout Europe that in 1264 it
was promulgated for the entire Latin Church. From the beginning the feast commemorated
both the body and the blood of the Lord. This original unity has been restored in the post-
Vatican II celebration. Human beings are so essentially physical that even our language of the
spirit derives from our bodies. To be a member of an organization requires that we be
incorporated into that organization. Publications of societies are said to be organs of these
groups. Jesus and his Church have a keen grasp of this reality in the celebrations we call
sacraments. Sacraments address themselves to the Church which is Christ's Body and to
individual members of that Body. The source and summit of all the Church's life is professed
to be the celebration of the eucharist where the Body of Christ partakes of what it is. On this
day we celebrate our identity as Christ's Body. On this day we profess our belief that the life-
giving and life supporting blood which flows among us is Christ's very life. On this day we
direct our attention to the symbol which makes all other symbols possible. The earthly
language of bodies and blood fills the scriptures. But those same scriptures proclaim that the
pouring forth of blood is unto the nourishment of God's people. Flesh, blood, bread and wine
are the products of destructive processes which bring them to human tables as food to sustain
a family. Christ immersed himself in those processes which brought him to the table of the
human family as the one food and drink which changes the eater into the eaten. In him we
truly become what we eat and drink.

The Most Holy Trinity, 16th June 2019

Two of the most fundamental, foundational tenets or dogmas of our Catholic faith are the
dogma of the Trinity and the dogma of the Incarnation. It should be stated from the outset that
these truths of the faith are mysteries – that is to say, while we know that they are, we don’t
quite know what they are in their fullness. For as long as we remain pilgrims on this earth, we
will never be able to wrap our minds around these two most mysterious truths that lie at the
very heart of our beloved faith. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the first of these mysteries,
the Trinity, insofar as human reason will enable us to do so. The mystery of the Incarnation
shall be explored in a future post.

The mystery of the Holy Trinity is a divinely revealed truth; that is, it is something that the
human mind could never have known through deductive or inductive reasoning. While it is
true that the actual term “Trinity” does not appear in Sacred Scripture, there are numerous
references to the reality of the Trinity throughout both Testaments. Time and again, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are referred to. In fact, Jesus exhorts the twelve to baptize potential
Christians “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the
“Trinitarian formula” used to this day to administer the sacrament of Baptism.

(Jason M. Brunelle, Marian Apostolate)

Pentecost Sunday, 9th June 2019

2nd June 2019

Rowan Williams (1950-)

Rowan Douglas Williams is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th
Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012.
Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, Williams was the first
Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of
England.
Williams' primacy was marked by speculation that the Anglican Communion (in which the
Archbishop of Canterbury is the leading figure) was on the verge of fragmentation over
disagreements on contemporary issues such as homosexuality and the ordination of women.
Williams worked to keep all sides talking to one another.
Having spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the universities of Cambridge and
Oxford successively, Williams speaks three languages and reads at least nine. After standing
down as Archbishop, Williams took up the positions of Master of Magdalene College,
Cambridge in 2013.
[Dostoevsky] reminds us that this failure [in depicting Christlikeness] is itself a theological
matter, a way of illustrating [Simone] Weil’s point that what we can successfully conceive as
a representation of the divine will inevitably be a falsehood in some crucial respect. But to
some extent, Dostoevsky knows what he is about, knows what kind of failure he has
condemned himself to. What he does in Karamazov is not to demonstrate that it is possible to
imagine a life so integrated and transparent that the credibility of faith becomes unassailable;
it is simply to show that faith moves and adapts, matures and reshapes itself, not by adjusting
its doctrinal content (the error of theological liberalism with which Dostoevsky has no
patience) but by the relentless stripping away from faith of egotistical and triumphalistic
expectations. The credibility of faith is in its freedom to let itself be judged and to grow.

(Dostoevsky, Language, Faith and Fiction 2008)

26th May 2019

Neil MacGregor (1946-)

Robert Neil MacGregor is a British art historian and former museum director. He was the
editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery,
London, from 1987 to 2002, Director of the British Museum from 2002 to 2015, and is
currently the founding director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.

Where much European secularism is essentisally anti-clerical, often the result of long
struggles against the political power of the Catholic church, the Indian version is not
grounded in hostility towards the institutions of religion. For the Indian economist and
philosopher Amartya Sen this secularism is based rather on the principle of ‘equidistance’.
“All religions have to be tolerated and treated with respect. So secularism in the Indian form
means not ‘no religion in government matters’, but ‘no favouritism of any religion over any
other.”

It is perhaps the only way that so large a country with so many religions can be governed.

(Living with the Gods, 2018)

12th May 2019

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)

Aelred of Rievaulx was an English Cistercian monk, abbot of Rievaulx from 1147 until his
death, and known as a writer.

Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis ("The
Mirror of Charity," reportedly written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux) and De
spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship").

Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up
man's entire relation to God and to his neighbour.

5th May 2019

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French idealist philosopher and Jesuit priest who
trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. He
conceived the vitalist idea of the Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and
consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving), and he developed
Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of noosphere.
Although a monitum was issued in regard to some of Teilhard's ideas, he has been
posthumously praised by Pope Benedict XVI and other eminent Catholic figures, and his
theological teachings were cited by Pope Francis in the 2015 encyclical, Laudato si'.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”

28th April 2019

 Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Hildegard of Bingen was a medieval mystic and visionary and Abbess of Bingen's
Benedictine community. She was also a prolific composer and the author of several books on
spirituality, visions, medicine, health and nutrition, nature. A powerful figure within the
church, she corresponded with Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine among other major political
figures of the time. She was made a saint of the Church of England and, later, was canonized
by the Catholic Church.

The soul is not in the body;

the body is in the soul.

Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings. Now,
think. What delight God gives to humankind with all these things. All nature is at the disposal
of humankind. We are to work with it. For without we cannot survive.

O Beloved,
your way of knowing is amazing!
The way you recognize every creature
even before it appears.
The way you gaze into the face
of every human being
and see all your works gazing back at you.
O what a miracle
to be awake inside your breathing.

(from Symphonia)

21st April, Easter Sunday, 2019

 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

Bernard of Clairvaux was a French abbot and a major leader in the reform of Benedictine monasticism
that caused the formation of the Cistercian order.
"...He was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about
15 kilometres southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. According to tradition, Bernard founded the monastery on 25
June 1115, naming it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There Bernard would preach an
immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary." In the year 1128, Bernard attended the
Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became
the ideal of Christian nobility.

If Christ the Lord, after the consummation on the Cross, had lived again to return once more
to our mortal nature and the sufferings of the present life, I should say most certainly, my
bretheren, that he had not passed over, but that he had come back; that he was not established
in a higher state but that he had taken up his pilgrimage again in his former state. On the
contrary, he is now raised up to a new life, and that is why he calls us too to the Passing-over,
he calls us into Galilee.

(Easter Sermon)

14th April, Palm Sunday, 2019

Henri de Lubac (1896-1991)

During the Second World War, the first interruption to this pattern came: de Lubac joined a
movement of "spiritual resistance," assisting in the publication of an underground journal of
Nazi resistance called Témoignage chrétien [fr], or Christian Testimony. It was intended to
show the incompatibility of Christian belief with the philosophy and activities of the Nazi
regime, both in Germany and also under the cover of the Vichy government in southern
France, which was theoretically independent of the Reich. De Lubac was often in hiding from
the Germans and several of his co-workers on the journal were captured and executed. Even
in hiding, he continued to study and write.

Nothing is more superficial than the charge made against [the Church] of losing sight of
immediate realities, of neglecting man’s urgent needs, by speaking to him always of the
hereafter. For in truth the hereafter is far nearer than the future, far nearer than what we call
the present. It is the Eternal found at the heart of all temporal development which gives it life
and direction. It is the authentic |Present without which the present itself is like dust which
slips through our hands.

(Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, 1950)

7th April 2019

Henri de Lubac (1896-1991)

Henri-Marie Joseph Sonier de Lubac SJ, known as Henri de Lubac, was a French Jesuit
priest who became a cardinal of the Catholic Church and is considered one of the most
influential theologians of the 20th century. His writings and doctrinal research played a key
role in shaping the Second Vatican Council.

If God had willed to save us without our own cooperation, Christ’s sacrifice by itself would
have sufficed. But does not the very existence of Our Saviour presuppose a lengthy period of
collaboration on man’s part? Moreover, salvation on such terms would not have been worthy
of the persons that God willed us to be. God did not desire to save mankind as a wreck is
salvaged; he meant to raise up within it a life, his own life. The law of redemption is here a
reproduction of the law of creation: man’s cooperation was always necessary if his exalted
destiny was to be reached, and his cooperation is necessary now for his redemption.
(Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, 1950)

31st March 2019

Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB (1923-1999)

Basil Hume OSB OM was a monk and priest of the English Benedictine monastery of
Ampleforth Abbey and its abbot for 13 years until his appointment as Archbishop of
Westminster in 1976. His elevation to cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church followed
during the same year. From 1979, Hume served also as President of the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of England and Wales. He held these appointments until his death from cancer in
1999. His final resting place is at Westminster Cathedral in the Chapel of St Gregory and St
Augustine.

What lies deepest in the heart of man, in all that he does and in the manner of his thinking, is
his striving to discover meaning, to escape from the absurd. The mind of man is in search of
meaning, his heart is in search of happiness, a happiness which will be complete and
unending. We are restless, as St Augustine says, until our hearts rest in Him who is truth and
goodness, the explanation of all things, the true object of our loving.
(To be a pilgrim, 1984)

24th March 2109

 Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social
activist, and scholar of comparative religion.

Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism,
as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his
bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). He pioneered dialogue with
prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, the Japanese writer D. T.
Suzuki, the Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

Christ prayed that all men might become One as He was with His Father, in the Unity of the
Holy Spirit. Therefore when you and I become what we are really meant to be, we will
discover not only that we love one another perfectly but that we are both living in Christ and
Christ in us, and we are all One Christ. We will see that it is He Who loves us.

(We are One Man in New Seeds of Contemplation, 1961)

17th March 2019

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts into a
prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy
for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before
returning to her family's house in Amherst.

Some argue that Dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. Considered an
eccentric by locals, she developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for
her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never
married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon
correspondence.
Throughout her life, Dickinson wrote poems reflecting a preoccupation with the teachings of
Jesus Christ and, indeed, many are addressed to him. She stresses the Gospels' contemporary
pertinence and recreates them, often with "wit and American colloquial language". Scholar
Dorothy Oberhaus finds that the "salient feature uniting Christian poets ... is their reverential
attention to the life of Jesus Christ" and contends that Dickinson's deep structures place her
in the "poetic tradition of Christian devotion" alongside Hopkins, Eliot and Auden. In a
Nativity poem, Dickinson combines lightness and wit to revisit an ancient theme: "The Savior
must have been / A docile Gentleman – / To come so far so cold a Day / For little
Fellowmen / The Road to Bethlehem / Since He and I were Boys / Was leveled, but for that
twould be / A rugged billion Miles –".

The World is not Conclusion.

A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –
It beckons, and it baffles –
Philosophy – don’t know –
And through a Riddle, at the last –
Sagacity must go –
To guess it, puzzles scholars –
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown –
Faith slips – and laughs and rallies –
Blushes, if any see –
Plucks at a twig of Evidence –
And asks a Vane, the way –
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit –
Strong Hallelujahs roll –
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul –

(Death and Resurrection)

10th March 2019

Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, visual artist and Lebanese nationalist.

Gibran was born in the town of Bsharri in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Empire (modern-
day Lebanon), to Khalil Gibran and Kamila Gibran (Rahmeh). As a pre-teen Gibran emigrated with his
family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career, writing in both English and
Arabic. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at
the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the
classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.

When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings
enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when
he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays
waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your
growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their
clinging to the earth......

(The Prophet)

3rd March 2019

St John of the Cross (1542-1591)

John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a
Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite friar and a priest, who was born at
Fontiveros, Old Castile.
John of the Cross is known for his writings. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of
the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all
Spanish literature. He was canonized as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. He is one of
the thirty-six Doctors of the Church.

The first thing a person desires to do after having come a long distanceis to see and converse
with the one deeply loved. Similarly the first thing the soul desires on coming to the vision of
God is to know and enjoy the deep secrets and mysteries of the Incarnation and the ancient
ways of God dependent on it. Hence after expressing her desire to see herself in the beauty of
God, the soul declares in the following stanza:

And then we will go on

To the high caverns of the rock
Which are so well concealed;
There we shall enter
And taste the fresh fruit of the pomegranates.

(The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 37)

24th February 2019

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding
member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world
have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as
a modern classic.
Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi
dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal
persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at
Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to a Nazi concentration
camp. After being accused of being associated with the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf
Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of
the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9
April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.

My thoughts and feelings seem to be getting more and more like those of the Old Testament,
and in recent months I have been reading the Old Testament much more than the New. It is
only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of
Jesus Christ; it is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them
everything seems seems to be over that one may believe in the resurrection and a new world;
it is only when one submits to God’s law that one may speak of grace; and it is only when
God’s wrath and vengeance are hanging as grim realities over the head’s of one’s enemies
that something of what it means to love and forgive can touch our hearts.

(from Letter to Eberhard Bethge, 5th December 1943)

17th February 2019

Jalaluddin ‘Rumi’ (1207-1273)

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, more popularly simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian
poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan.
Rumi's influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks,
Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central Asian Muslims, and the Muslims of South Asia have greatly
appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely
translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats.

That which God said to the rose,

And caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
And made it a hundred times more beautiful.

(Mahnawi III, 4129)

3rd February 2019

Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Anselm of Canterbury, also called Anselm of Aosta after his birthplace and Anselm of Bec after his
monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church,
who held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a
saint; his feast day is 21 April.

Beginning at Bec, Anselm composed dialogues and treatises with a rational and philosophical approach,
sometimes causing him to be credited as the founder of Scholasticism. Despite his lack of recognition in
this field in his own time, Anselm is now famed as the originator of the ontological argument for the
existence of God and of the satisfaction theory of atonement. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church
by a bull of Pope Clement XI in 1720.

As archbishop, he defended the church's interests in England amid the Investiture Controversy. For his
resistance to the English kings William II and Henry I, he was exiled twice: once from 1097 to 1100 and
then from 1105 to 1107. While in exile, he helped guide the Greek bishops of southern Italy to adopt
Roman rites at the Council of Bari. He worked for the primacy of Canterbury over the bishops of York and
Wales but, though at his death he appeared to have been successful, Pope Paschal II later reversed himself
and restored York's independence.

For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I
believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.
A single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated
for the same intention after death.

27th January 2019

Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662)

Maximus the Confessor, also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of
Constantinople, was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.
In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor
Heraclius. However, he gave up this life in the political sphere to enter into the monastic life.
Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his
time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic
commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus.
When one of his friends began espousing the Christological position known as
Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an
interpretation of the Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that Jesus
had both a human and a divine will. Maximus is venerated in both the Eastern Orthodox and
Roman Catholic churches. He was eventually persecuted for his Christological positions;
following a trial, his tongue and right hand were mutilated.
He was then exiled and died on August 13, 662, in Tsageri in present-day Georgia. However,
his theology was upheld by the Third Council of Constantinople and he was venerated as a
saint soon after his death. It is highly uncommon among the saints that he has two feast days:
13 August and 21 January. His title of "Confessor" means that he suffered for the Christian
faith, but was not directly martyred. The Life of the Virgin, the only extant copy of which is in
a Georgian translation, is commonly, albeit mistakenly, attributed to him, and is considered
to be one of the earliest complete biographies of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Those who seek the Lord should not look for Him outside themselves; on the contrary, they
must seek Him within themselves through faith made manifest in action. For He is near you:
'The word is... in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith' (Rom. 10:8) - Christ
being Himself the word that is sought.