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A celebration of beauty, truth, and goodness, and, of course, love...and perhaps a little nastiness 
My Buddy, ONION"I agree with about 99% of what you blog" Johannes Paulus II "This is my favorite blog and wish it were mandatory reading for all" Joseph Ratzinger "I even read your blog from heaven" Mother Teresa "I wish I were alive to publish every word you write in The Catholic Worker" Dorothy Day A Catholic Page for Lovers Praise of Glory *Great* Books Center Some Catholic Blogs: "St Blog's" MY BLOG HOMEPAGE email Gerard N.B. Many of the images posted will be removed after a few weeks; the text will remain as is. Archives 
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Saturday, November 09, 2002
Scandal Is Stirring Lay Catholics to Push Church for More Power "As the nation's Roman Catholic bishops prepare to meet in Washington on Nov. 11 to complete their policy on sexual abuse by priests, they are confronting the most organized and widespread challenge to their power from the laity in the church's modern history..." U.S. Bishops to Vote on Liturgy Items WASHINGTON, D.C., NOV. 8, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. Catholic bishops will be asked next week to approve a new translation of the ordination rite and of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. The English translation of the rite of ordination for bishops, priests and deacons to be presented for the approval of the bishops' conference follows several years of work among the Holy See, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), and the bishops' conferences which are members of ICEL. The General Instruction in the Roman Missal, the book of prayer texts used for the celebration of Mass, treats various aspects of the eucharistic celebration. Among the topics the instruction addresses are "the importance and dignity of the Eucharistic celebration," the structure of the Mass, forms of celebration, the arrangement and furnishing of churches, and others. When the bishops approved the revised second edition of the Lectionary for Mass, the book of Scripture texts used at Mass, they also voted to review the Lectionary in five years. The bishops also will be asked to approve a process for conducting that scheduled review. The Committee on Liturgy will present the items for consideration. Exactly the Opposite Chesterton is seldom what we expect but often what we need. A conversation with Philip Yancey Jubilant / Triumphant Music Is there anything more jubilant / triumphant than Johann Sebastian Bach's Fugue in G major (The Jig Fugue)? To me it shouts the joy and triumph of the Resurrection. (Of course, a good contender is Mozart's famous Alleluia). By the way, thanks to all who commented on my Heavenly Music post - I listened to almost every piece mentioned as possible contenders to Mozart's Ave Verum and, yes, they are all beautiful and heavenly. Papal deeds speak louder Interesting observations by John Allen on the importance of "body language" of the Popes. (I wish he had mentioned the dramatic, unexpected gesture, of Pope Paul VI, who upon the first official meeting with representatives of the Orthodox Church, rose and went over and kissed the foot of Metropolitan Meliton, representing the Ecumenical Patriarch - a gesture full of significance if one knows the history of the Church and the "row" around the closing of the Council of Florence when the Ecumenical Patriarch refused to kiss the foot of the Pope). San Giuliano buries its angels Distraught relatives and friends of the 26 schoolchildren killed with their teacher in an earthquake in San Giuliano di Puglia, southern Italy, were comforted in an emotional mass funeral on 3 November and urged to have faith. Bishop Tommaso Valentinetti of Termoli-Larino told the weeping congregation that he shared their incomprehension. “We also shouted to Jesus: why have you abandoned us?” But he assured mourners that “we will see the tombs housing these small bodies open wide in the resurrection”. ..The bodies of the children, aged between six and 10, lay in white coffins. The parents came early to place photographs of their children and favourite toys on top of the small boxes. The 80-year-old grandmother of one little girl, Valentina, had only one explanation for the tragedy. “God needed angels”, she said through her tears. The bodies of the teacher and two neighbours who were killed lay in mahogany coffins. Although hundreds of buildings in 34 communities suffered damage, and left 6,000 people homeless, the school was the only building to be levelled. The earthquake, which measured 5.4 on the Richter scale, hit the town on 31 October as the children held a Hallowe’en party. The victims included the entire first grade of nine boys and girls. Civil defence workers and volunteers, who dug through the rubble with their bare hands for 30 hours, rescued 35 other children and teachers alive. ..Pope John Paul II is believed to have watched at least part of the funeral on television. “We have all participated spiritually in the grief of the community of San Giuliano di Puglia”, he said after the Sunday Angelus in Rome. In a message of condolence sent to the townspeople, he expressed his “paternal closeness, trusting that the young ones are in the hands of God in heaven”. - From the London Tablet Online DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA IN ROME Erected in the 4th Century November 9  In the fourth century of our era, the cessation of persecution seemed to give the world a foretaste of its future entrance into eternal peace. 'Glory to the Almighty! Glory to the Redeemer of our souls' wrote Eusebius at the opening of the tenth and last book of his History. Himself a witness of the triumph, he describes the admirable spectacle everywhere displayed by the dedication of the new sanctuaries. In city after city the bishops assembled, and crowds flocked together. From nation to nation the goodwill of mutual charity, of common faith, and of recollected joy, so harmonized all hearts that the unity of Christ's Body was clearly manifested in these multitudes animated by the same inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It was the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies: the living city of the living God, where all, whatever their age or sex, praise together the Author of all good things. How solemn were then the rites of the Church! The complete perfection therein displayed by the pontiffs, the enthusiasm of the psalmody, the inspired readings, the celebration of the ineffable mysteries, formed a divine pageantry.' Today is the birthday of the mother and mistress of churches, called 'of our Savior, Aula Dei (God's palace), the golden basilica'; it is a new Sinai, whence the apostolic oracles and so many Councils have made known to the world the law of salvation. No wonder this feast is celebrated by the whole world. Although the Popes for centuries have ceased to dwell in the Lateran palace, the basilica still holds the first rank. It is as true now, as it was in the time of St. Peter Damian, to say that 'as our Savior is the Head of the elect, so the church which bears His name is the head of all churches; those of St. Peter and St. Paul, on its right and left, are the two arms with which this sovereign and universal church embraces the whole earth, saving all those who desire salvation, cherishing and protecting them in its maternal bosom.' And St. Peter Damian applied conjointly to our Savior and His basilica the words of the prophet Zacharias: ' Behold a Man, the Orient is his name: and under him shall he spring up, and shall build a temple to the Lord. Yea, he shall build a temple to the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit, and rule upon his throne: and he shall be a priest upon his throne.' It is still at the Lateran basilica that the Roman pontiffs take official possession of their See. There each year, in the name of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, the episcopal functions are performed — viz., the blessing of the holy Oils on Maundy Thursday, and on Holy Saturday the blessing of the font, solemn Baptism and Confirmation, and the general Ordination. Could the great poet of the age of triumph, Prudentius, return to life in these our days, he might still say: 'The Roman people hasten in eager crowds to the Lateran, whence they return marked with the sacred sign, with the royal chrism. And are we yet to doubt that Rome is consecrated to thee, O Christ?' - from the K of C website Friday, November 08, 2002
Good News vs Bad News Reading other blogs I notice a phenomenon that seems rather general: posts about good news get a lot less responses and comments than posts about bad news and bad reports about others. Often posts on the more popular Catholic blogs, crticizing someone, especially a bishop or priest, will get dozens of replies; posts praising the good works of Catholics seem to draw, often enough, a blank. Am I alone in seeing this - or am I way off base? Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller Blessed John Duns Scotus, "the Subtle Doctor", died on November 8, 1308. This Franciscan had great influence with his understanding of the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception (he gave the Church a key to understanding this truth) and was a "mentor par excellence" of the incomparable poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Scotus believed that the Incarnation would have taken place even if there had been no fall and original sin - a self-emptying/sacrifice undertaken for sheer love and for the praise of God's glory. Duns Scotus’s Oxford TOWERY city and branchy between towers; Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded; The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and town did Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers; Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded Rural rural keeping—folk, flocks, and flowers. Yet ah! this air I gather and I release He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace; Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece; Who fired France for Mary without spot. - Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ Friday: A Day of Penance The Code of Canon Law Book IV - The Sanctifying Office of the Church Chapter II DAYS OF PENANCE Can. 1249 All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe. Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent. Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance. Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety. Perhaps as part of the overall "reform" of the Church and greater fidelity called for of late, the US Bishops meeting soon could call for a greater fidelity to the official norms of the (Latin) Church already in place regarding penance and Fridays of the year (not just Lent). Let's face it: who, in the USA, thinks of most Fridays as days of penance anymore? (I know some do, thank God; but most of us?). This could be a real moment for episcopal leadership..... The Contrarian has decided to keep blogging! I am grateful and appreciate his latest musing on "Soul Force and Gay Liturgists" and the pitfalls of extremism on this issue. Thursday, November 07, 2002
Heavenly Music Is there anything more beautiful this side of heaven than Wolgang Amadeus Mozart's "Ave Verum?" Troubles again I am having a heck of time trying to access my own blog (and those that use the YACCS comments system). I may be changing, as some others have done recently, to another comment system. Hope you aren't having as much trouble as I am! (The difference may not be the comments but whether it's a free or paid for Blogger account - not sure either way). The Church I Love God knows our Church has troubles enough. And there is plenty to criticize. But, at her best, there is just nothing like the Catholic Church, in my opinion anyway. I was just doing a bit of surfing the internet for a webpage I am working on, and came across the work of the "Hawthorne Dominicans" - who work with those with incurable cancer - and once again am blown away.... From their own webpage: "The Community's six modern nursing facilities are maintained entirely by contributions from generous benefactors. Our homes are for people who cannot afford nursing care elsewhere. All the care that we give in our homes is free." This remarkable Order was founded by the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rose Lathrop Hawthorne, who became a Catholic. I am a huge fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne, especially The Scarlet Letter (which happily I read as an adult and not as a high schooler when I was supposed to read it). That book seems a perfect work of art to me and one that casts light on the mysteries of the human heart. His daughter Rose was a poet, an author, a married woman. She and her husband became Catholics and she began to intensify her works of charity. After her husband died, she was joined by another woman, Alice Huber, an artist. These became Mother Alphonsa and Mother Rose whose spirit lives on in the beautiful lives and joyful service of the Hawthorne Dominicans. This is the Church I love (and hope to be worthy of someday)! Leaves Didn't Read the Reports - thank God! Thank goodness the leaves didn't read the reports on how, because of the droughts and other conditions, the foliage change would not be good and bright this year. It was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and colorful autumns of my lifetime - and the best ever in Maryland. And thank God people don't read - or at least take too seriously - the reports on how they are going to vote..... It's a great world! DeMatha's Wootten Retires A name known to many in the Baltimore/DC corridor is that of Morgan Wootten, basketball coach of a small Catholic high school, De Matha - a "local legend." I am sure many other areas have similiar persons and stories. This is the stuff of life and perhaps too often taken for granted. At any rate, best wishes to Coach Wootten in his "retirement" and may De Matha prosper. Frank Duff: founder of the Legion of Mary Born: June 7, 1889 - Died: November 7, 1980 Thanks to Tino for bringing this anniversary to my attention and for sending on the following prayer written by Frank Duff. The Legion of Mary, founded by him, is one of the most influential lay movements of modern times, bringing holiness and evangelical zeal to countless throughout the world.  "O my God, I do not ask for the big things - the life of the missionary or the monk, or those others I see around me so full of accomplishment. I do not ask for any of these; but simply set my face to follow out unswervingly, untiringly, the common life which day by day stretches out before me, satisfied if in it I love You, and try to make You loved. Nature rebels against this life with its never-ending round of trivial tasks and full of the temptation to take relief in amusement or change. It seems so hard to be great in small things, to be heroic in the doing of the commonplace; but still this life is Your will for me. There must be a great destiny in it. And so I am content. And then to crown the rest, dear Jesus, I beg of you to give me this . . . fidelity to the end, to be at my post when the final call comes, and to take my last, weary breath in your embrace. A valiant life . . . and faithful to the end. A short wish, dearest Jesus, but it covers all." - "Can we be Saints?" by Frank Duff Wednesday, November 06, 2002
Welcome to Saint Blog's More Like Mary, Less Like Martha - Amy Kropp Envoy Magazine - Patrick Madrid et al. Sons of Frater Louis - Dave Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus: 1898-1989 "God took me by the hand and blindly I followed." One of the greatest witnesses to Christ in modern times is Charles de Foucauld, Brother Charles of Jesus. His heroic life of prayer, penance, friendship ended in what seemed like utter failure. Yet years later the seed sown in the ground began to bear fruit, and the Church has been and is being enriched by the spirit of Venerable Charles de Foucauld.
In France a young woman in her twenties happens upon a biography of de Foucauld. She immediately recognizes her own deepest ideals and dreams here! "I found in him the ideal of which I had been dreaming: living the Gospel, total poverty, becoming one with the most abandoned people... and above all, love in all its fullness: Jesus Caritas, Jesus Love."
YOUNG PRIEST REFUSED TO PROVIDE FUNERAL FOR TERROR VICTIM by Semen Novoprudsky, Dmitry Rudnev Izvestiia, 2 November 2002 ...One of the victims of the terrorist attack in the House of Culture on Dubrovka was Dmitry Lavrov, a resident of the Moscow suburb of Zhukovsky. His relatives, smitten by grief, decided to bury the deceased in accordance with Orthodox ritual. In order to arrange for the funeral, several of Dmitry's loved ones went to the church of the Vladimir Mother of God located in the town of Bykovo, near Zhukovsky. This is the church in which the deceased had been married. Approaching the priest, the relatives told of their grief. But instead of a sympathetic and good word, they heard from the pastor a threatening and accusatory sermon. "At the time there were several parishioners in the church," the treasurer of the church, Ekaterina Strunina, who witnessed the conversation, reports. "Fr Vitaly Kustov, a young priest, has been ordained only one year. When he learned that the deceased had been at the concert that the terrorists broke up he said that attending such activities as a musical is displeasing to God. He said that it was for this reason that Dmitry's death cannot be considered an Orthodox death. Fr Vitaly told the relatives: 'How can I, an Orthodox priest, give a funeral for such a person?' He said this very sternly. The relatives were dumbfounded. Then they silently turned around and left." When it was learned the next day that there really had not been a funeral and Dmitry Lavrov had been buried without a church funeral, Ekaterina Strunina called up the rector of the church, Fr Valentin, an experienced and mature priest, and told him about the incident. "The rector had a serious talk with Fr Vitaly," Ekaterina described. "I did not hear their conversation. But I saw that after this the young priest walked around a long time in deep contemplation." Yesterday Fr Vitaly's contemplation had passed. "The whole thing got out of hand," he told Izvestiia. "I cannot give a funeral for a non-Orthodox person; that would be unimaginable. I asked the relatives whether the deceased believed in God. They thought it over for a while. That was a simple question and it does not require thinking. So then I drew the conclusion that the dead person was not a believer. As regards the way someone talks with people, the scriptures say that to attract people to church it is necessary to use love with some and fear with others." The "attracted" relatives of the late Dmitry Lavror flatly refused to talk about what happened. They said that talking about such a situation is simply inappropriate. "The rector of our church, Fr Valentin, is extremely upset about what happened," his secretary, Galina Golovacheva, told Izvestiia. "He said that it is wrong to condemn people who are grieving. At the time the rector was in the refectory of the church and it was only by chance that he did not talk with Dmitry's relatives. And Fr Vitaly did not at all have the right to talk with them in such a tone. What's more, the rector makes all decisions in the church and Fr Vitaly is only a junior priest. In the end, in order somehow to resolve this unpleasant situation the rector decided to gather together all of the church's workers and parishioners after the Sunday service. And in the presence of them all he condemned the actions of Fr Vitaly." Yesterday Fr Vitaly served an all-night vigil in the church of the Vladimir Mother of God. Several dozen parishioners attended the service. The first song of vespers was the Psalm that begins with the words: "Blessed is the man who does not go to the gathering of the ungodly." It would seem that Fr Vitaly invested these words with his own meaning and addressed them to the victim of the terrorist act, Dmitry Lavrov. (tr. by PDS, posted at http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/00currentchoices.shtml on 4 November 2002) Tuesday, November 05, 2002
PRAYER OF TRUST MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. - Thomas Merton (Father Louis OCSO) The reform of the Church Last evening discussing the "state" of the Church with an old friend. He asked me "what will it take to reform the Church?" I said: "I don't know. I really don't. But I sense it's working itself out right now before our eyes." I hope, too, that I am a part of it all. We're in this together! Ecclesia in America: Reform, Renewal and the Role of the Laity in a Time of Turbulence Mary Ann Glendon offers her reflection on topics of interest to many Catholics. "And perhaps the most promising sign of all is the ever-expanding generation of unapologetically Catholic young people who have been inspired by the heroic vision of John Paul II. Some of these young people, please God, will be called to religious life. Others will embrace their lay vocations with enthusiasm. Together -- priests, laity and consecrated - they may indeed 'set the world ablaze'." P.S. This piece is posted on Steven Hand's website TCRNews, which seems to get better and better. Monday, November 04, 2002
Friar Tuck (Mystery Worshipper) reviews a Catholic church with "disco liturgy" Scroll down to "The huge sanctus bells of Our Lady, Lexington, NC " Apparantly the celebrant of the Mass Friar Tuck attended does what I have heard a few times myself. After the celebrating priest gives an expressive - either "The Lord be with you" or "The Lord IS with you", and after the response of the congregation "And also with you" he adds: "Thank you!" (I always add as loud as I am able: "You're welcome!". Raissa Maritain: Poet and Mystic: died November 4, 1960 “It is an error to isolate oneself from men... If God does not call one to solitude, one must live with God in the multitude, make him know there and make him loved.”  The life of Raissa Maritain was inextricably intertwined with that of her husband, Jacques, tbe renowned Catholic philosopher. In their long life together they were united not only by bonds of matrimony but friendship,” a union in which God remained an intimate third partner.
Raissa and Jacques met as students at the Sorbonne. Raissa born in Russia. Her parents, Orthodox Jews, had moved to France to seek better educational opportunities for their gifted daughters. RaIssa advanced so quickly in her studies, despite having to learn a new language, that she was admitted to the university at the age of sixteer She met Jacques Maritain when he solicited her signature protesting the treatment of socialist students in tsarist Russia. The attraction between them was immediate, and they were soon inseparable. They were married in 1904. Raissa and Jacques shared a passion for poetry, art, and social justice. But they soon found another bond - a common obsession with the question of truth and a need to discover the meaning of life. Though neither had much religious training, they found it intolerable to imagine that existence might be absurd. They, made a vow that if they had not, within a year, found an answer to their quest they would end their lives. Soon after this they began to attend the lectures of the philosopher, Henri Bergson. From him they acquired a sense of the Absolute. Thye were led in turn to the novelist, Leon Bloy (see yesterday's blog about Bloy). He was not only a devout Catholic but a prophet, whose writings celebrated God's prediliction for the poor and excoriating the sins of bourgeois Christianity. From their friendship with Bloy the Maritains were introduced to the world of Catholicism but also to Holy Scripture. Raissa was particularly moved by on the Jews, chosen by God for a special role in the history. Within a year of their first meeting with Bloy the Maritains were baptized in 1906. Bloy was their godfather. On their way to the Church, Raissa and Jacques ever after conceived of their lives in religious terms. They took vows as Oblates of St. Benedict and soon after made a vow of perpetual celibacy. Despite this private commitment, they felt strongly that they were not meant for monastic life, but were called to live out their faith in the midst of the intellectual and artistic circles in which they were immersed. The first volume of her memoirs, We Have Been Friends Together, described the early years of their marriage almost entirely in terms of ther relationships with such figures as Bloy, the artist Georges Roualt, the poet Charles Peguy. Throughout their life together the Maritains' salon was the center of an extraordinary Catholic intellectual revival . Jacques became the most eminent Catholic philosopher of the twentieth century. Raissa was also recognized through the publication of of poetry and prose. But otherwise she remained more in the background, the intimate collaborator in her husband’s work. He later said her aid and inspiration had penetrated everything he wrote: "Everthing comes from God. But as an intermediary on earth everything good has come to me from her.” Raissa died on November 4, 1960. It was only then that Jacques discovered the private journals and so realized the depth of spirituality that had remained hidden even from him. Later published, the journals reflected Raissa's intense life of prayer and her understanding of her vocation as a comtemplative “on the roads of the world.” Indeed, on the basis of these later writings, Thomas Merton called her “perhaps one of the great contemplatives of our time.” In one of her entries she had written: I have the feeling that what is asked of us in to live in the whirlwind, without keeping back any of our substance, without keeping back anything for ourselves, neither rest nor friendships nor health nor leisure - to pray incessantly... in fact to let ourselves pitch in nd toss in the waves of the divine will till the day when it will say: "That’s enough."  This article is from ALL SAINTS by Robert Ellsberg
This article is a good introduction to Raissa Maritain (as are all the entries in ALL SAINTS by Ellsberg), but he does not mention the decisive influence of Saint Thomas Aquinas on both Raissa and her husband Jacques. May God give us more like the Maritains! Today's Memorial: Saint Charles Borromeo: 1538 - 1584 The nameday feast of the Pope! One of the great "reforming" Bishops after the Council of Trent, Charles Borromeo tirelessly promoted Christian living by teaching, action, convocation of synods, promulgation of laws relating to good order. There is a good and detailed life on Kevin Knight's marvellous New Advent site from the Catholic Encyclopedia. There is a good introduction on another wonderful site, The Patron Saints Index. Yesterday, the Sunday following Feast of All Souls, the Pope had this to say: "2. In this connection, I am pleased to quote a text of St. Charles Borromeo, whose liturgical memorial we celebrate tomorrow. "May my soul - he wrote - never cease to praise the Lord who never ceases to lavish gifts. It is a gift of God if, from being a sinner, you are called to righteousness; a gift of God if you are sustained so that you will not fall; a gift of God of you are given the strength to persevere until the end; the resurrection of your dead body will also be a gift, so that not a hair of your head will be lost; glorification after the resurrection will be a gift of God; and, lastly, it will also be a gift of God to be able to praise him continually in eternity" (Homily, Sept. 5, 1583). While I invite you to meditate on these illuminating thoughts of the holy archbishop of Milan, I take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all those who, recalling the feast of St. Charles, have sent me good wishes for my name day. I am especially grateful for your assurance of prayer, which I return sincerely, invoking abundant heavenly graces for all." HAPPY NAMEDAY, KAROL/CHARLES, POPE JOHN PAUL II! Sunday, November 03, 2002
Saint Martin de Porres OP  St. Martin de Porres was born at Lima, Peru, in 1579. His father was a Spanish gentleman and his mother a coloured freed-woman from Panama. At fifteen, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary at Lima and spent his whole life there - as a barber, farm laborer, almoner, and infirmarian among other things.
"On both the natural and moral planes, Martin seemed in so many ways he limits of the possible. His piety was fueled by an equally extrem asceticism. He subsisted almost entirely on bread and water. He e ground, wore a hair shirt, and generally treated his body with contempt. The accounts of his nightly rituals of self-flagellation are particularly painfful to read. When questioned about such practices, which were considered wildly excessive even by the prevailing standards of sixteenth-century monastery, Martin could only mumble something about sins to be atoned for. What sins could afflict the conscience of the holy brother? Slavery, the scorn heaped on the poor and existence of so much injustice in a supposedly Christian society... Martin did not set himself apart from the sins of his age, and he punished himself accordingly." -Robert Ellsberg, All The Saints Leon Bloy: Pilgrim of the Absolute  Yesterday I missed mentioning Leon Bloy, who died on November 2, 1917. Bloy is one of the great figures of the remarkable Catholic Revival in France during the first part of the 20th century. He was, too, the godfather of that luminous couple, Jacques and Raissa Maritain. To get a little feel, perhaps, of the interrelationship of these great Catholics, here is Raissa's retelling of her and Jacques' baptism, with Leon Bloy's participation:
"Although the speculative debate was ended for us, we still had many feelings of repugnance to overcome. The Church in her mystical and saintly life we found infinitely lovable. We were ready to accept her. She promised us Faith by Baptism: we were going to put her word to the test. But in the apparent mediocrity of the Catholic world, and in the mirage which to our ill-seeing eyes seemed to bind her to the forces of reaction and oppression, she appeared to us strangely hateful. She seemed to us to be the society of the fortunate of this world, the supporter and ally of the powerful, to be bourgeois, pharisaical, remote from the people. To ask for Baptism was also to accept separation from the world that we knew in order to enter into a world unknown: it was, we thought, to give up our simple and common liberty in order to undertake the conquest of spiritual liberty, so beautiful and so real among the saints, but placed too high, we thought, ever to be attained. It meant the acceptance of separation - for how long a time? - from our parents and the comrades of our youth whose lack of understanding we thought would be total (and indeed it was in many cases) - but then too the goodness of God was to hold many surprises for us. Finally we already felt like the "filth of the world" when we thought of the disapproval of those we loved. Jacques remained, despite everything, so persuaded by the errors of the "philosophers," that he though that in becoming Catholic he would have utterly to forswear the intellectual life. While the spectacle alone of the sanctity, and that of the beauty of Catholic doctrine had occupied our thoughts, we had been happy in heart and mind, and our admiration had grown by leaps and bounds. Now that we were preparing ourselves to enter among those whom the world hates as it hates Christ, we suffered, Jacques and I, a kind of agony. This lasted for about two months. Once, during those months, I heard in my sleep these words, said to me with a certain impatience: "You are forever seeking what you must do. You have only to love God and serve Him with all your heart." Later I found these words in the Imitation, which I had not then read. Leon Bloy had sent us to a priest of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, "the very image of a child and martyr, whom you will love," he had written to Pierre Termier. Father Durantel awaited our decision. Our suffering and dryness grew greater every day. Finally we understood that God also was waiting, and that there would be no further light so long as we should not have obeyed the imperious voice of our consciences saying to us: you have no valid objection to the Church; she alone promises you the light of truth - prove her promises, put Baptism to the test. We still thought that to become Christian meant to abandon philosophy forever. Well, we were ready - but it was not easy - to abandon philosophy for the truth. Jacques accepted this sacrifice. The truth we had so greatly desired had caught us in a trap. "If it has pleased God to hide His truth in a dunghill," Jacques said, "that is where we shall go to find it." I quote these cruel words to give some idea of our state of mind. I see in a letter from Bloy to Termier that on May 2Ist we had given him "complete assurance" that we would soon enter the Church. My sister was also ready; and I believe even that she had been so for a long time. Yet on June 1st, Bloy wrote Tennier that "nothing has yet happened with the Maritains." Suddenly our decision was made. Purely for reasons of convenience - I had a journey to take - we chose the 11th of June for the Baptism of all three of us. And on June 8th Bloy was writing to Termier: "The object of this further letter is above all to inform you that Jacques Maritain, his charming wife Raissa and the latter's sister, Vera, will be baptized at Montmartre on Monday, the 11th, the feast of Saint Barnabas. My wife, Veronique, and I will be the godparents. You are among those who can understand the deeply hidden greatness and splendour of such an event. It is something to think that when I die I shall leave, kneeling beside me and weeping from love, people who knew nothing of such an attitude before they met me. I am writing to the same effect to Brother Dacien. I would like on this occasion to tell you something about Saint Barnabas, the apostle thus canonized by the Holy Spirit: Erat vir bonus, et plenus Spiritu Sancto et fide. When for the first time I read in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter xiv, the surprising fact that the Lycaonians, hearing with amazement the preaching of Saint Paul and his companion Saint Bamabas and taking them for gods in human form, called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury, I was very much impressed. It seemed very evident to me that this Barnabas, hebraice filius consolationis, who was mistaken by the pagans for the king of the Gods, must have been an infinitely mysterious and venerable personage. I decided then to venerate him and pray to him in a very special way, and in this I was not deceived. Saint Bamabas has done great things for me, and each year I await his feast with loving impatience. On the 11th of last June, the day ended without any sign of his great protection, and I was saddened. But something more wonderful happened. As the 11 th of June fell, in 1905, on the feast of Pentecost, Saint Barnabas' day had to be postponed to June 20th, and this was the very day when I received the first letter from the Maritains, who were then unknown to me. This year you see what happens! Perhaps other things will happen too. I know what I asked. I beg of you, my dear friend, to pay attention to these wonderful concordances. Each of us is at the centre of infinite and marvelous combinations. If God gave it to us to see them, we would enter Paradise in a swoon of pain and delight. Yours, Leon Bloy." On June 11th, unconscious of the significance of this date for our godfather, all three of us betook ourselves to the Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Montmartre. I was in a state of absolute dryness, and could no longer remember any of the reasons for my being there. One single thing remained clear in my mind: either Baptism would give me Faith, and I would believe and I would belong to the Church altogether; or I would go away unchanged, an unbeliever forever. Jacques had almost the same thoughts. "What do you ask of the Church of God?" "Faith." We were baptized at eleven o'clock in the morning, Leon Bloy being our godfather; his wife was godmother for Jacques and Vera, his daughter Veronique for me. An immense peace descended upon us, bringing with it the treasures of Faith. There were no more questions, no more anguish, no more trials - there was only the infinite answer of God. The Church kept her promises. And it is she whom we first loved. It is through her that we have known Christ. I think now that faith - a weak faith, impossible to formulate consciously - already existed in the most hidden depths of our souls. But we did not know this. It was the Sacrament which revealed it to us, and it was sanctifying grace which strengthened it in us. We passed a heavenly day with the Bloys, our godfather's heart bursting with joy." From Raissa Maritain, We Have Been Friends Together |
