Hildebert of Lavardin ( * 1056 - † 1133 ) Archbishop of Tours

 

Hildebert of Lavardin ( * 1056 - † 1133 )

 

Archbishop of Tours

 

Hildebertus Cenomannensis, Hildebertus de Lavertino, Hildebert of Lavardin. Hildebert, one of the most distinguished Latin poets of the entire Middle Ages, saw the light of the world at the castle of Lavardin near Montoire-sur-Loire. His father, also called Hildebert, was the servant of Solomon of Lavardin, and his mother bore the name of Beresindis. Hildebert was made a student of Berengar of Tours, to whom he composed an epitaph; Unfortunately nothing is reported to us about Hildebert's literary career. He appears first (after 1085) as a scholar of the cathedral school of Le Mans; In 1091, he was promoted to Archidiakonus by Bishop Hoël, and after his death (July 1096), he was elected by the bishops of Le Mans in an ambivalent election. The lord of Le Mans, Élie de la Flèche, agreed, the feudal lord, William the Red of England, rejected them; It was not until Christmas that the consecration could take place. When, three years later, the king came to Le Mans after the second feud against Élie de la Flèche, he led Hildebert to England in a kind of captivity, because the bishop refused to settle the towers of his cathedral The king claimed that his troops had been shot. The death of William (August 2, 1100) gave Hildebert freedom. He used it for a trip to Rome, asked for his removal from Paschal II, but returned home with rich resources for the expansion of his cathedral (Pentecost, 1101).

 

Kupferstich des 18. Jh.

 

A fictitious representation of the frontispiece of issue 1708

In 1112 Hildebert was imprisoned in Nogent-le-Rotrou by Hubert, Truchess of Count Rotrou du Perche, and held in custody until March 1113. In 1116, in Le Mans, just as Hildebert took his second trip to Rome, Henry of Lausanne, asked for permission to preach in the diocese, and took the opportunity to stir it up against the absent bishop. When Hildebert returned for Pentecost, the fanatical sectarian escaped from the city to Saint-Calais and soon from the Sprengel, but the prelate had long to do until the waves which had excited him had softened.

 

On 25 April 1120, Hildebert experienced the pleasure of conjoining the essentially completed cathedral; In 1123 he traveled a third time to Rome to Calixt II, and in all likelihood lived according to the Laterankonzile of this year. Certainly his presence at the Council of Chartres in 1124. After the death of Gislebert of Tours, he was unanimously elected successor by the clergy and the people of the Archbishopric. For a long time he hesitated whether he should accept the election; An order of the pope and the recognition of the King of France put an end to his wavering. Even these last years of Hildebert were not without disturbances; They brought him into conflict with the king, who claimed the right to forgive the dignities of the parish; With the bishop of Dol, who raised claims on the Metropolitan dignity over the Breteno dioceses. In the Roman schism of 1130, Hildebert assumed a position to be awaited; In February he consecrated a chapel of the convent of Redon; On the eighteenth of December, he went to Tours, seventy-seven years old. See Hildebert's life Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, évèque du Mans, archévèque de Tours (1056 to 1133). Sa vie, ses lettres. Paris 1898.

 

From Hildebert's poetic works, we have only one complete (unfortunately, complete) edition, which was published by Beaugendre (1708), which was re-edited by Bourassé in 1854 (Migne EP, p. 171); Both editors have given Hildebert things which the author has never written without justification and proof, and often without the attempt of such a man. This led Hauréau to his exemplary investigations: Les Mélanges Poëtiques d'Hildebert de Lavardin, Paris, 1882. Only a few disappearing under Hildebert's lyric poems can be counted among the hymns (in a broad sense). This little is found in Anal. Hymn L, 408-422. If we have little in Hymns from Hildebert, then only a few whole books of hymns and poems will weigh up this. If he had only had the Oratio ad ss. Trinitatem, a poem with its theological depth in the first part and the depth of feeling in the last sections would suffice to count him forever to the best hymnos of all tongues. A German translation can be found in my book: The Church of the Latins in their Songs, Kempten, 1908, p. 86.

 

(Guido Maria Dreves, Clemens Blume, A Thousand Thousand Latin Hymn-poetry, Part One,

From the treatise on the Trinity by Saint Hilary of Poitiers

 

From the treatise on the Trinity by Saint Hilary of Poitiers

The unity of the faithful in God through the incarnation of the Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist

If the Word has truly been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that he abides in us naturally? Born as a man, he assumed the nature of our flesh so that now it is inseparable from himself, and conjoined the nature of his own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which his flesh is communicated to us. Accordingly, we are all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ in us. He himself is in us through the flesh and we in him, and because we are united with him, our own being is in God.

  He himself testifies that we are in him through the sacrament of the flesh and blood bestowed upon us: In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. If he wanted to indicate a mere unity of will, why did he set forth a kind of gradation and sequence in the completion of that unity? It can only be that, since he was in the Father through the nature of Deity, and we on the contrary in him through his birth in the body, he wishes us to believe that he is in us through the mystery of the sacraments. From this we can learn the perfect unity through a Mediator; for we abide in him and he abides in the Father, and while abiding in the Father he abides in us as well – so that we attain unity with the Father. For while Christ is in the Father naturally according to his birth, we too are in Christ naturally, since he abides in us naturally.

  He himself has told us how natural this unity is: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. No-one can be in Christ unless Christ is in him, because the only flesh which he has taken to himself is the flesh of those who have taken his.

  He had earlier revealed to us the sacrament of this perfect unity: As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. He lives because of the Father, and as he lives because of the Father so we live because of his flesh.

  Every comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we may grasp the subject concerned by help of the analogy set before us. To summarize, this is what gives us life: that we have Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live because of him in the same manner as he lives because of the Father.

Fr. Raimundo Panikkar

 

Fr. Raimundo Panikkar

 

What ultimately matters is not our ideas, or our experiences, our denying this or doing that; what "matters" is not a prayer or a peculiar way of life. The all-important thing, the unique and the ultimate end of man is sanctity, union with God, transformation in God, divinization of our full being.

 

Throughout the whole of the 16th century Europe was suffering from a world crisis in all aspects. Everywhere problems and solutions were planned and enforced in the horizonal line. The answer of the Carmelite nun has only a single tune: sanctity. But not a sanctity of the nature of a selfish self- reform, not an individualistic saintliness in order to arrange world and solve its problems, or to save oneself, i.e., as a means for something else, or as first condition, but a true sanctity as an end in itself, because the ontological weight of a divinized person is greater than anything else, because the mean of life on earth—this "bad night in a bad inn"—is not to organize heaven on earth, but to move earth into heaven. And as a consequence, as something that comes from itself, it is the only real approach to the world. According to its deep nature will life on earth be truly human and happy and beautiful "Is it not somehow amazing that a poor nun of St. Joseph's Cloister can reign over the whole earth and elements?"  It is the least world-denying attitude imaginable, because it sees the whole creation as an outburst of divine Love. Only then will humankind be the king of creation and transform everything into the real everlasting Kingdom, which is much more than a temporal world.

St. John of the Cross

 

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope

 

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope

Christ the Good Shepherd

I am the good shepherd. I know my own – by which I mean, I love them – and my own know me. In plain words: those who love me are willing to follow me, for anyone who does not love the truth has not yet come to know it.

  My dear brethren, you have heard the test we pastors have to undergo. Turn now to consider how these words of our Lord imply a test for yourselves also. Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock, whether you know him, whether the light of his truth shines in your minds. I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him, but by love; not by mere conviction, but by action. John the evangelist is my authority for this statement. He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping his commandments is a liar.

  Consequently, the Lord immediately adds: As the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. Clearly he means that laying down his life for his sheep gives evidence of his knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of him. In other words, by the love with which he dies for his sheep he shows how greatly he loves his Father.

  Again he says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Shortly before this he had declared: If anyone enters the sheepfold through me he shall be saved; he shall go freely in and out and shall find good pasture. He will enter into a life of faith; from faith he will go out to vision, from belief to contemplation, and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.

  So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There, the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.

  Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveler who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.

Hymn for the Carthusian Office of the Virgin: Matins

 

 

Hymn for the Carthusian Office of the Virgin: Matins

We sing the mystery of the Church as now our hymn to Christ we raise: He, the Father's timeless Word, born on earth the Virgin's babe. She alone of womankind was chosen from the human race, worthy in her sacred womb to bear the Lord of time and space. The holy prophets long ago foretold what now has come to pass: a virgin would conceive and bear Emmanuel - our God with us. Great mystery surpassing all: that Mary is allowed to see the God by whom all things were made proceed from her virginity. All glory be to you, O Lord, and to your sole-begotten Son, who with the Spirit e'er abide through endless ages wholly One. Amen.

Bellarmine Defends Honoring the Saints

 

Bellarmine Defends Honoring the Saints

 

In his defense of the Holy Eucharist against the Calvinists, St. Robert had to answer some of their stock charges on the traditional custom of offering the Holy Sacrifice in honor of the Saints. He explains that the Protestant bias against this practice arises from two fundamental errors in their theology: one a misunderstanding of Catholic doctrine, where they claim that we offer the Mass as an act of adoration to the Saints instead of to God; the other is an unwarranted limitation of membership in the Mystical Body. "The practice of offering Holy Mass to honor the Saints," he says, "is especially appropriate as a public expression of our belief in the Communion of Saints. The Sacrifice of the physical Body of Christ is an oblation of the corporate Mystical Body of Christ. Moreover, since we do not hesitate to mention the names of living persons, such as the Pope and bishop, in the ritual of the Mass, why should we fail to remember those of the faithful departed who are in heaven or in purgatory, when all of them belong to the same Body of the Lord? According to St. Augustine, there is no better way of fulfilling the one great purpose for which the Eucharistic Sacrifice was instituted, than that it might symbolize the universal sacrifice in which the whole Mystical Body of Christ —the whole regenerated City of God—is offered by the hands of the great High Priest to the glory of His Heavenly Father. Once we recognize the Saints, no less than we, are organically united to the Mystical Body, it becomes not only proper but necessary that their memory should be recalled during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."

Hugh Taylor, a carthusian Lay brother Source: The Tablet – The International Catholic News weekly - Page 22, 16th March 1895

 Hugh Taylor, a carthusian Lay brother Source: The Tablet – The International Catholic News weekly - Page 22, 16th March 1895 

 The Catholic Truth Society has just published a short life of Dom Maurice Chauncy and Brother Hugh Taylor, from the pen of Dom Lawrence Hendriks, of the same order. Hugh Taylor was a Conversus, or professed lay brother, distinguished by his virtues and by the evident efficacy of his prayers; He entered the London Charterhouse in 1518. 

 Under the able direction of Prior Tynbygh, the holy Irishman who formed the Carthusian Martyrs to monastic life and led them to heroic virtue, Brother Hugh made rapid progress in the way of perfection, and was favoured with many special graces. It is recorded that he was so pleasing to God that his prayers were well-nigh always effectual. He was wont, moreover, to give advice, in all humility, to those who sought his aid ; and his advice was always good, for he consulted our Lord in earnest prayer before speaking. 

 Blessed John Houghton the Protomartyr of King Henry's persecution, may be counted amongst those who had profited by this good lay brother's prayers and counsels. When John Houghton was the Father Sacristan of the Charterhouse, he was desirous of reverently consuming, during his Mass, a sacred particle which had been rejected by a monk who was sick of the plague ; feeling however a great repugnance and fearing contagion, he thought he would ask Brother Hugh to beseech our Lord to manifest His will. The brother had already been favoured with several revelations and all the monks knew that he was a man of God, and obtained almost all that he demanded. John Houghton then, always remarkable for his humility, had recourse to the lay brother. Hugh, with his wonted simplicity, accepted the proposal, and with most earnest devotion he begged our dear Lord to make known His good pleasure. Hugh's prayer was beard. Rapt in ecstasy during the "Great Watch" at dead of night, he saw a procession of angels in white raiment, each bearing a lighted candle in his hand. Entering the sacristy, they went straight to the place in which the Sacristan had concealed the sacred particle. They bowed down in deepest adoration, opened the pyx, and after remaining some moments in contemplation of their Lord hidden in the Sacrament of His love to men, they vanished away. When morning came, Brother Hugh asked the Sacristan if he had not placed the sacred particle he spoke of in that place. The answer being in the affirmative, Hugh told the story of his vision, and the Sacristan, fully assured by this grace, consumed the particle during his Mass; "neither," says Chauncy, "did he fear death, for he received the Author of life, not sickness, for he received Him Who healeth all our infirmities; nor did he any longer feel repugnance, for he tasted in spirit that the Lord is sweet." Seculars were also in the habit of confiding their doubts and difficulties to Brother Hugh. One day, for instance, a young man, unable to decide whether to embrace the religious state or to marry, laid his case before him. The brother, after recommending the matter to God, told him to get married; " for " said he, the will of God is that you should be both a husband and a monk." Accordingly he married, and then begged his bride to give him leave to enter a monastery. She refused, and he abandoned the project. At length, having become the father of a family, he forgot all about his attraction to the religious state. Some years elapsed, and the wife reminded her husband of his former aspirations, saying that she now wished to be a nun. Brother Hugh's prediction presented itself to his memory, and he consented to the proposal. Having provided for the education of his children with a relative, the pious couple separated, the husband becoming a Carthusian monk at the Charterhouse of Sheen, near Richmond, and the wife a Bridgettine nun at Syon, near Isleworth. Hugh Taylor's charity was not only for the good and pious. This large hearted lay brother was sometimes of use to those who were unworthy of his kindness. There was, unfortunately, a bad monk in the London Charterhouse whose name was Thomas Salter. Clauncy's.work on the Martyrs, the archives of the Order, and the State papers of England all bear witness against him. Not content with rendering himself guilty of quitting the enclosure without leave on three occasions, he was noted for detraction and slander. He was always ready to speak and to write evil of his brethren, his Order, and his Prior. His letters, in which he attacks his rule, that he did not choose to observe, and his Superior, Blessed John Houghton, whom he could not appreciate, are still extant. It is, moreover, to be feared that he once laid violent hands upon the holy Prior. Even this wretched man found a friend in need in Brother Hugh Taylor, for it appears that, divine grace having at length abandoned Thomas Salter, the devils were permitted to vex and beat him ; and had they not been put to flight by the charitable and earnest prayers of a lay brother, they would probably have killed him. It is believed on good authority that this pious lay brother was none other than Hugh Taylor. Hugh Taylor was a true contemplative, but—as is generally the case—he was quite able to apply himself to active work. When he was well advanced in years and ripe for heaven he still held the office of Procurator, for as long as Brother Hugh lived Father Chauncy would never have another. The Procurator should be a cloister monk, but the exception to the general rule which was made in Brother Hugh's case did not offend or displease anybody: "he was so charitable to all men." It is recorded that good Brother Hugh was favoured with many Divine visions. He lived, so to speak, on familiar terms with our Blessed Lord; but he never sought in these favours an excuse for idleness, nor a pretext for refusing to render himself useful to all. The Ephemerides Carthusienses tell us that one day, after promising to help another lay brother with some work at a certain hour; Brother Hugh applied himself to mental prayer. Our Lord appeared, and held sweet conversation with His faithful servant. At length the hour for work came, and the apparition continued. What was Brother Hugh to do? Was not so signal a favour enough to excuse him from the fulfillment of his promise? The holy man did not reason thus, but begging his Divine Guest to excuse him, he hastened to the workshop. When the work was completed, Hugh returned to his cell, where he found the heavenly apparition still present, and had the consolation of hearing these words: "Hugh, the duty that thou hast just performed has pleased Me more than anything thou hast done hitherto, for thou hast renounced the enjoyment of My sensible presence in order to aid thy brother." Father Suertis mentions another remarkable vision with which Hugh Taylor was favoured. "He told me once," says Suertis, "our Saviour, in a vision, called him; saying, 'Hugh, dost thou love Me?' ' Yea Blessed Lord,' said he, I love Thee with all my heart.' Then our Lord in the figure of His humanity reached him His foot, which he reverently kissed. Ask of Me,' said our Blessed Lord, 'what thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.' 'I will ask nothing but what pleases Thee, Blessed Lord,' said Hugh. Then our Lord said, 'I promise thee I will do more for thee than for any mortal man in the world now living.' And so, suddenly he was gone." Nobody knows what this promise was. Suertis thought it might be the preservation of a remnant of the English Carthusians ; and had not that remnant ceased to exist towards the close of the 18th century, we should be inclined to think so too. It would indeed be very interesting if the present Carthusians of England could claim to be descended through Maurice Chauncy from the Martyrs of the London Charterhouse. But it is not so. That line ended with Father Francis Williams, who died in 1797. Perhaps it might seem rash to hope that the promise made to Brother Hugh will be realized in the foundation of the thirty-three British Charterhouses. A great many vocations, both to the cloister and to the state of the lay brothers, would be required before that could be accomplished. Having suffered exile, poverty, and many hardships and contradictions for his fidelity to the Catholic religion and to his holy vocation, Hugh Taylor died on September 30, 1575. The obituary of the General Chapter held at the Grande Chartreuse in the following spring, contains the word of commendation, which is so rare in the Order that those who receive it may almost be considered to have been judged worthy of canonization—" who lived fifty-seven years in the Order in a praiseworthy manner (laudabiliter)

Hugh of St. Victor: Why the human heart has this disease of instability and how it may be cured

 

Why the human heart has this disease of instability and how it may be cured

 

The author's reason for embarking on this work.

 

The thing we have to do is first to show whence such great mutability arises in the heart of man, and then to suggest the way in which the human mind can be brought to steady peace, and how it can be kept in that selfsame stability. And, though I doubt not that it is the property of divine grace to bring about this work, and that possession of such grace comes about not so much by man's activity as by the gift of God and the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless I know that God would have us work along with Him, and that He so offers the gifts of His loving kindness to the thankful that from the thankless He often takes away the very things that formerly He gave. Moreover, there is a further reason why it is not unprofitable for us to acknowledge both how great our weakness is and by what means it may be remedied; for a man who does not know how great a grace has been conferred on him does not under-stand how great is the gratitude which he owes to the Bestower.

 

The first man, then, was made in such a way that, if he had not sinned, the power of contemplation would have kept him always in his Maker's presence. By always seeing Him he would thus always have loved Him, by always loving Him he would always have cleaved to Him, and, by always cleaving to Him who is immortal, he too would have possessed in Him life without end. This was, therefore, the one, true good of man, to wit, the full and perfect knowledge of his Maker, full, you must understand, after that fullness which he received at his creation, not after that which he was to receive hereafter, when his obedience was fulfilled. But he was banished from the face of the Lord when, smitten with the blindness of ignorance through his sin, he came forth from the inward light of con- temptation. And the more he forgot the sweetness of supernatural things, for  which he had already lost the taste, the more did he bend his spirit down to earthly desires.

 

In this way he became “a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth; ”a wanderer on account of disordered desire, and a fugitive because of guilty conscience, the voice whereof is fittingly suggested by those words, 'whosoever finds me shall slay me”. For every temptation that assails it overthrows the soul that is bereft of the divine assistance. Thus, once it had begun to lose its integrity through its earthly desires, the human heart, which had hitherto kept its stability in cleaving to divine love and remained one in the love of the One, was as it were divided into as many channels as there were objects that it craved, once it had begun to flow in different directions through earthly longings. And that is how it happens that the soul, not knowing how to love its true good, is never able to maintain its stability. Failing to find what it longs for in those things which it has, its desire is always reaching out in pursuit of the unattainable; and so it never has rest. Therefore, from movement without stability is born toil without rest, travel without arrival; so that our heart is always restless till such time as it begins to cleave to Him, in whom it may both rejoice that its desire lacks nothing, and be assured that what it loves will last eternally.

 

See, we have shown you these stages the disease itself, a wavering heart, unstable and restless; the cause of the disease which is clearly love of the world; and the remedy of the disease which is the love of God. And to these must be added a fourth, namely, the application of the remedy, that is, the way in which we may attain to the love of God. For without this it would be of little or no profit to know all the rest. The thing we have to do, therefore, is first to show whence such great mutability arises in the heart of man, and then to suggest the way in which the human mind can be brought to steady peace, and how it can be kept in that selfsame stability. And, though I doubt not that it is the property of divine grace to bring about this work, and that possession of such grace comes about not so much by man's activity as by the gift of God and the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless I know that God would have us work along with Him, and that He so offers the gifts of His lovingkindness to the thankful that from

the thankless He often takes away the very things that formerly He gave.

 

Moreover, there is a further reason why it is not unprofitable for us to acknowledge both how great our weakness is and by what means it may be remedied; for a man who does not know how great a grace has been conferred on him does not understand how great is the gratitude which he owes to the Bestower.

 

 

In this way he became “a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth”; a wanderer on account of disordered desire, and a fugitive because of guilty conscience, the voice whereof is fittingly suggested by those words, 'whosoever findeth me shall slay me'. For every temptation that assails it overthrows the soul that is bereft of the divine assistance.

Amalarius of Metz: De Oratione Dominica

 

Amalarius of Metz: De Oratione Dominica

 

The Lord's prayer, which contains seven petitions, is celebrated to commemorate the seventh day, when Christ rested in the tomb. On this seventh day the apostles labored in sadness and fear of the Jews, and—if I am not mistaken— they prayed to be freed from evil, and attained what they prayed for: the Lord's resurrection. Today the holy church also prays, as it were on the seventh day, when—now that the souls of the saints are at rest—it requests through fasting, vigils, praying and striving in charity that it not be cut off from the hope of heavenly joys by the dangers of this world. Who is there who does not beg to be freed from evil as long as he is in this world? Nor should we do this carelessly, that a prayer to cleanse us of sin may intervene before we participate in the body and blood of the Lord, lest we eat and drink the Lord's body unworthily.

From the first apology in defence of the Christians by Saint Justin, martyr The celebration of the Eucharist

 

From the first apology in defence of the Christians by Saint Justin, martyr

The celebration of the Eucharist

No one may share the Eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.

  We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Saviour became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.

  The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood. The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

  On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.

  On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen.” The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.

  The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.

  We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our saviour Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.

From a sermon by Saint Theodore the Studite

 

From a sermon by Saint Theodore the Studite

The precious and life-giving cross of Christ

How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

  This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in his hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom’s pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness.

  The wonders accomplished through this tree were foreshadowed clearly even by the mere types and figures that existed in the past. Meditate on these, if you are eager to learn. Was it not the wood of a tree that enabled Noah, at God’s command, to escape the destruction of the flood together with his sons, his wife, his sons’ wives and every kind of animal? And surely the rod of Moses prefigured the cross when it changed water into blood, swallowed up the false serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians, divided the sea at one stroke and then restored the waters to their normal course, drowning the enemy and saving God’s own people? Aaron’s rod, which blossomed in one day in proof of his true priesthood, was another figure of the cross, and did not Abraham foreshadow the cross when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on the pile of wood?

  By the cross death was slain and Adam was restored to life. The cross is the glory of all the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the sanctification of the saints. By the cross we put on Christ and cast aside our former self. By the cross we, the sheep of Christ, have been gathered into one flock, destined for the sheepfolds of heaven.

Saint Bruno of Cologne

 

Saint Bruno of Cologne

Confessor, ecclesiastical writer, and founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101.

He is usually represented with a death’s head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His feast is kept on the 6th of October.

1- While the world changes, the cross stands firm.

2-Only those who have experienced the solitude and the silence of the wilderness can know the benefit and divine joy they bring to those who love them.

3- No act is charitable if it is not just.

4- In the solitude and silence of the wilderness…, for their labor in the contest, God gives his athletes the reward they desire: a peace that the world does not know and joy in the Holy Spirit.

5- If the bow is stretched for too long, it becomes slack and unfit for its purpose.

6- Rejoice, my dearest brothers, because you are blessed and because of the bountiful hand of God’s grace upon you. Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and shipwrecks of the stormy world.

Rejoice because you have reached the quiet and safe anchorage of a secret harbor. Many wish to come into this port, and many make great efforts to do so, yet do not achieve it.

Indeed many, after reaching it, have been thrust out, since it was not granted them from above.

7-By your work you show what you love and what you know.

8- When you observe true obedience with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture.

9- The unclean spirit enters easily into a man, and easily goes out from him.

10- For the devil may tempt the good, but he cannot find rest in them; for he is shaken violently, and upset, and driven out, now by their prayers, now by their tears of repentance, and now by their almsgiving and similar good works.

St. Leo: Old Date: April 10: New Date

St. Leo: Old Date: April 10: New Date

Leo I, an Etruscan, ruled over the Church at the time when Attila, King of the Huns and called the Scourge of God, was invading Italy; he had taken and burned Aquileia and was preparing his forces to attack Rome. Leo went out to meet him and, by God-given eloquence, persuaded him to withdraw; then Leo was welcomed back to Rome with great rejoicing. A little later, when Genseric was invading the city, Leo persuaded him, with the same forceful eloquence, to abstain from burning, outrages and slaughter. When Leo saw the Church harassed by many heresies, and especially by the Nestorians and the Eutychians, he called the Council of Chalcedon at which, with six hundred and thirty bishops assembled, Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemned and the condemnation of Nestorius repeated. The decrees of this Council were then confirmed by Leo's authority. He constructed many churches and built a monastery near the Basilica of St. Peter. After a life filled with these and other admirable works, including a great number of holy and eloquent writings, he fell asleep in the Lord on the tenth day of November, in the twenty-first year of his pontificate.

A letter of St Cyprian to the people of Thibaris

 

A letter of St Cyprian to the people of Thibaris

The contest of faith

As we do battle and fight in the contest of faith, God, his angels and Christ himself watch us. How exalted is the glory, how great the joy of engaging in a contest with God presiding, of receiving a crown with Christ as judge.

  Dear brethren, let us arm ourselves with all our might, let us prepare ourselves for the struggle with uncorrupted minds, with a whole faith, and with devoted courage.

  The blessed Apostle teaches us how to arm and prepare ourselves: Put round you the belt of truth; put on the breastplate of righteousness; for shoes wear zeal for the Gospel of peace; take up the shield of faith to extinguish all the burning arrows of the evil one; take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

  Let us take this armour and defend ourselves with these spiritual defences from heaven, so that when the evil day comes we may be able to resist the threats of the devil, and fight back against him.

  Let us put on the breastplate of righteousness so that our breasts may be protected and kept safe from the arrows of the enemy. Let our feet be shod in the teaching of the Gospel, and armoured so that when we begin to trample on the serpent and crush it, it will not be able to bite us or trip us up.

  Let us with fortitude bear the shield of faith to protect us by extinguishing all the burning arrows that the enemy may launch against us.

  Let us wear on our head the helmet of the spirit, to defend our ears against the proclamations of death, to defend our eyes against the sight of accursed idols, to defend our foreheads so that God’s sign may be kept intact, and to defend our mouths so that our tongues may proclaim victoriously the name of Christ their Lord.

  And let us arm our right hand with the sword of the spirit so that it may courageously refuse the daily sacrifices, and, remembering the Eucharist, let the hand that took hold of the body of the Lord embrace the Lord himself, and so gain from the Lord the future prize of a heavenly crown.

  Dear brethren, have all this firmly fixed in your hearts. If the day of persecution finds us thinking on these things and meditating upon them, the soldier of Christ, trained by Christ’s commands and instructions, will not tremble at the thought of battle, but will be ready to receive the crown of victory.

Hymn for Prime in Easter: London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. xii

 

Hymn for Prime in Easter: London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. xii

 

Milfull: appointed for Easter Sunday at Prime.

 

YMNUS IN PASCHA AD PRIMAM

 

TE, LUCIS AUCTOR, personent

huius caterve carmina,

quam tu replesti gratia

anastasi potentia.

 

Nobis dies hec innuit

diem supremum sistere

quo mortuos resurgere

viteque fas sit reddere.

 

Octava prima redditur,

dum mors abunda tollitur,

dum mente circumcidimur

novique demum nascimur,

 

cum mane nostrum cernimus

redisse victis hostibus

mundique luxum tempnimus,

panem salutis sumimus.

 

Hec alma sit sollempnitas,

sit clara hec festivitas,

sit feriata gaudiis;

dies reducta ab inferis.

 

Gloria tibi domine

 

The hymns of this band acclaim you, Creator of light, whom you fill with grace by the power of the resurrection. This day signals to us that a final day will come, when divine law dictates that the dead shall rise and be returned to life. The eighth day will be made the first, when endless death is taken away, when we are circumcised in soul and born anew. When we discern that our morning has returned after the victory over our enemies, we will hold in contempt the luxury of the world, and receive the bread of salvation. May this solemnity be nourishing, this feast be bright, may it be observed with joys, as day is returned from hell.

Annunciation: From the prayers of Saint Catherine of Siena: Proper of the Order of Preachers

 

Annunciation: From the prayers of Saint Catherine of Siena: Proper of the Order of Preachers

 

You, O Mary, have been made a book in which our rule is written. In you today is written the eternal Father' s wisdom; in you today our human strength and freedom are revealed.

 

If I consider your own great counsel, eternal Trinity, I see that in your light you saw the dignity and nobility of the human race. So, just as love compelled you to draw us out of yourself, so that same love compelled you to buy us back when we were lost. In fact, you showed that you loved us before we existed, when you chose to draw us out of yourself only for love. But you have shown us greater love still by giving us yourself, shutting yourself up today in the pouch of our humanity. And what more could you have given us than to give us your very self? So, you can truly ask us, "What should I or could I have done for you that I have not done?"

 

I see, then, that whatever your wisdom saw, in that great eternal council of yours, as best for our salvation, is what your mercy willed, and what your power has today accomplished.

 

So, what did you do? What way did your eternal unfathomable wisdom find to fulfill your truth and be merciful, and to satisfy your justice as well? What remedy did you give us? Oh, see what a fitting remedy! You arranged to give us the Word, your only-begotten Son. He would take on the clay of our flesh which had offended you so that when he suffered in that humanity your justice would be satisfied—not by humanity' s power, but by the power of the divinity united with that humanity. And so, your truth was fulfilled, and both justice and mercy were satisfied.

 

O Mary, I see this Word given to you, living in you yet not separated from the Father—just as the word one has in one's mind does not leave one's heart or become separated from it even though that word is externalized and communicated to others. In these things our human dignity is revealed—that God should have done such and so great things for us.

 

And even more in you, O Mary, our human strength and freedom are today revealed, for after the deliberation of such and so great a council, the angel was sent to you to announce to you the mystery of the divine counsel and to seek to know your will, and God's Son did not come down into your womb until you had given your will's consent, He waited at the door of' your will for you to open to him; for he wanted to come into you, but he would never have entered unless you had opened to him, saying, "Here I am, God's servant; let it be done to me as you have said."

 

The eternal Godhead, O Mary, was knocking at your door, but unless you had opened that door of your will God would not have taken flesh in you. Blush, my soul, when you see that today God has become your relative in Mary. Today you have been shown that even though you were made without your help, you will not be saved without your help.

 

O Mary, my tenderest love! In you is written the Word from whom we have the teaching of life. You are the tablet that sets this teaching before us.

Friends of the Carthusians

 The following texts written by friends of the monastery, show how Saint Bruno’s charism & spirituality can also touch and transform God seekers who live amidst the challenges and agitations of today’s world.

I consider the Carthusians of both past and present to be a wonderful example of fidelity to Christ and His Church. I first heard of the Order when I was very young, while reading A Silent Life by Merton.

The thought of responding to the Call of Silent Love, to borrow the title of one of the Novice Conference volumes, has for me been a great inspiration. The Carthusian vocation has always reminded me of the Desert Fathers, and thinking of the life helped me reached a place in my heart where my words disappear, and the breath of the Holy Spirit is present. Words are not adequate to describe the fullness of reaching that place, in the depths of the heart, where I find myself united with the Light of His presence, and I can sense the souls that are His are with me, which of course includes St. Bruno and his spiritual family.

Through the years, when my romantic visions of monastic life were replaced by the harsh realities that face both monks and men who live outside the Charterhouse, and through the writings and monastic retreats I was so exposed, I became intimately connected with religious life, and my spiritual growth I feel was enhanced by this exposure.

-Kevin

It is in the midst of the immediate and its surround that the ever-approaching God speaks. It is here, in this present moment, in abiding, in receptive waiting despite the press of goal and schedule and responsibility that I find in each ‘now’ signs of the vast ocean that is the will of God. It is here that I am called to the Father. Finding God in the intimacy of silence and solitude in a manner that reflects the Carthusian spirit gives breadth and focus to this encounter with the Presence that calls to me and that sustains me. Nothing has given me guidance in living aligned with the golden thread that runs through the depth of the self compared to the awakening and homecoming I daily experience in being drawn through the “wound of love” into the portal of the Carthusian mystery.

The silence of the Charterhouse is filled with an unfathomable presence. It is like heart tissue, alive and sentient, vast and deep, austere and pulsating. Through the grace of exposure and intention my life progressively has been shaped around this Carthusian heart of silence and solitude, a shaping that echoes the search for God in the depth of my own heart. I have come to know-through fits and starts and often in the midst of failure–the deep wisdom, the resolute ascesis, the intimate embrace, the hidden silent simplicity of being, the brilliant nothingness, and the whispers of Love that pour forth from the Carthusian heart.

It holds for me contact with a most hidden interiority and with awe at all of creation. It mirrors, as only a sensibility shaped in likeness to the mind of Christ can, the knots of self-absorption and fear and despair that distract me from the path. It infuses me with compassionate attention to the afflicted and hungry and tormented states of being that I encounter in my profession as psychotherapist and in my occasional consulting role at the United Nations.

To follow this path which invites me with insistence is to enter into the desert. This desert of the heart leads me to ever more radical reliance on the guide. Through His counsel I work through struggle toward releasment into the freedom of divine Love. Growth in the desert of contemplation expands through actions of obedience (such as eating one meal a day, periods of fasting, days of recollection, and weeks of reclusion) that are less formally juridical than emergent through the Spirit and under the inspiration of the Carthusian Statutes.

Central to this growth for me is sustenance through devotion to Mary. The contemplative is akin to Mary, said one Carthusian, in that “he receives the Word as a lover’s secret.” I also am fed in this desert that beckons by the fruit of the psalms and by the essence that is the Eucharist.-paschal sacrifice and action of thanksgiving whose interior adoration anchors me in the midst of daily demand. This “Sacramentum Caritas” feeds my soul’s longing and leads me ever more into the silent mystery of the invisible Father’s unapproachable light.

-Elisha

The first image in the amazing documentary “Into Great Silence” is a flame piercing the darkness. Like Christ, that flame keeps alive the monk in whose cell it is burning. While I don’t require a flame from a wood burning stove to keep my body warm like that cloistered monk, I need Christ to keep my soul alive. The Carthusians have provided me with a discipline and an ethos to help me tend that flame, to make it grow and sustain me. There is also great joy in knowing that others, both in the world and in the charterhouses, are daily striving, like me, to tend that vital flame. There is happiness in realizing that those who have persevered before me have reached the point where they have become consumed by the Flame.

New Liturgical Movement: The Orations of Low Sunday MICHAEL P. FOLEY

 

New Liturgical Movement: The Orations of Low Sunday

MICHAEL P. FOLEY

Caravaggio, The Incredulity of St. Thomas, ca. 1602

Lost in Translation #47

Nobody likes it when a good party is over, even when the party stretches out for a remarkable eight days. But all good things (this side of the grave) must come to an end, and so the orations for the Sunday after Easter, which concludes a glorious octave, beg for a way for the joys of the Resurrection to continue even though the main celebration has come to a close.

The Secret for Low Sunday is:

Súscipe múnera, Dómine, quáesumus, exsultantis Ecclesiae: et cui causam tanti gaudii praestitisti, perpétuae fructum concéde laetitiae. Per Dóminum.

Which I translate as:

Receive, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the offerings of Thy exultant Church, and grant to her, to whom Thou hast given cause for such great joy, the fruit of perpetual gladness. Through our Lord.

Similarly, the Postcommunion Prayer is:

Quáesumus, Dómine Deus noster: ut sacrosancta mysteria, quæ pro reparatiónis nostrae munímine contulisti; et praesens nobis remedium esse facias, et futúrum. Per Dóminum.

Which I translate as:

We beseech Thee, O Lord our God, to make the sacrosanct mysteries, which Thou hast bestowed as a fortification of our reparation, a remedy for us both now and in the future. Through our Lord.

“Sacrosanct” is the perfect word for the mysteries (i.e. sacraments) that God has bestowed upon us, for they are both “sacred” – set apart for divine use – and “holy” (sanctus) – infused with the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit. The sacrament of our reparation is, I suspect, Baptism, which repairs our relationship with God and which the neophytes received last week during the Easter Vigil. But the sacrament that fortifies our repaired life is the Eucharist, which we have just received at this point in the Mass.

It is the Collect that I find particularly fetching:

Praesta, quáesumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, qui paschalia festa perégimus; haec, te largiente, móribus et vita teneámus. Per Dóminum.

Which I translate as:

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who have finished the Paschal feasts may, by Thy bounty, hold onto them in our practices and in our life. Through our Lord.

“Ago” is the Latin verb for doing or making, and “per-ago” (which I have translated as “have finished”) is the verb for thoroughly doing, for carrying an action through to its end. We will, of course, continue to celebrate the Easter season all the way up to Pentecost, but on this Octave Sunday we complete the celebration of Easter Day.

The petition of the Collect subtly traces a movement from outer to inner. The external observance of ritual and ceremony (the “Paschal feasts”) condition our other “practices” or habits outside the liturgy. These habits, in turn, become so internalized that they reconstitute our very “life,” changing our character and our destiny. In some respects, the Collect reflects the moral anthropology of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics but with one key difference: the movement from outer observance to inner transformation cannot succeed without God's bounty. Te largiente literally means “with You giving lavishly.” God not only has to give, but He has to give lavishly, to make the joys of Easter stick to our being and change them forever. So please, God: give lavishly.

From an Easter homily by an ancient author

 

From an Easter homily by an ancient author

Christ the source of resurrection and life

Saint Paul rejoices in the knowledge that spiritual health has been restored to the human race. Just as death entered the world through Adam, so life has been given back to the world through Christ. And again: The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven and is heavenly.

  He adds the following: As we have borne the image of the earthly man, (that is, the image of human nature grown old in sin) so let us bear the image of the heavenly man: that is, human nature raised up, redeemed, restored and purified in Christ. We must hold fast to the salvation we have received. As the Apostle himself says: Christ is the beginning (that is, the source of resurrection and life); therefore those who belong to Christ (those who model their lives on his purity) will be secure in the hope of his resurrection and of enjoying with him the glory promised in heaven. As our Lord himself said in the gospel: Whoever follows me will not perish, but will pass from death to life.

  Thus the passion of our Saviour is the salvation of mankind. The reason why he desired to die for us was that he wanted us who believe in him to live for ever. In the fullness of time it was his will to become what we are, so that we might inherit the eternity he promised and live with him for ever.

  Here, then, is the grace conferred by these heavenly mysteries, the gift which Easter brings, the most longed-for feast of the year; here are the beginnings of creatures newly formed: children born from the life-giving font of holy Church, born anew with the simplicity of little ones, and crying out with the evidence of a clean conscience. Chaste fathers and inviolate mothers accompany this new family, countless in number, born to new life through faith. As they emerge from the grace-giving womb of the font, a blaze of candles burns brightly beneath the tree of faith. The Easter festival brings the grace of holiness from heaven to men. Through the repeated celebration of the sacred mysteries they receive the spiritual nourishment of the sacraments. Fostered at the very heart of holy Church, the fellowship of one community worships the one God, adoring the triple name of his essential holiness, and together with the prophet sings the psalm which belongs to this yearly festival: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. And what is this day? It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the author of light, who brings the sunrise and the beginning of life, saying of himself: I am the light of day; whoever walks in daylight does not stumble. That is to say, whoever follows Christ in all things will come by this path to the throne of eternal light.

  Such was the prayer Christ made to the Father while he was still on earth: Father, I desire that where I am they also may be, those who have come to believe in me; and that as you are in me and I in you, so they may abide in us.