Love Alone

Ten Rules of Life I WILL … 1. … live the present moment to the fullest 2. … discern between God and God's works 3. … hold firmly to one secret: prayer 4. … see in the Holy Eucharist my only prayer 5. … have only one wisdom: the science of the Cross 6. … remain faithful to my mission in the Church and for the Church as a witness of Jesus Christ 7. … seek the peace the world cannot give 8. … carry out a revolution by renewal in the Holy Spirit 9. … speak one language and wear one uniform: charity 10. … have one very special love: the Blessed Virgin Mary

What more do you want, 0 soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom -your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you.  Spiritual Canticle , I.8 Having been made one with God, the soul is somehow God through participation. Although it is not God as perfectly as it will be in the next life, it is like the shadow of God. Being the shadow of God through this substantial transformation, it performs in this measure in God and through God what He, through Himself, does in it. For the will of the two is one will, and thus God's operation and the ...

The solemn dedication of the Church of the Mother of God near the Temple in Jerusalem took place on November 21, 543; this felicitous association of the Mother of God with the Temple supports the ancient tradition of the Blessed Virgin Mary's presentation in the Temple as a child. Saint John Damascene -- interpreting the Holy Name of Mary as "Lady" -- tells us that the "Lady of every creature and the Mother of the Creator . . . first saw the light in Joachim's house, hard by the Pool of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, and was carried to the Temple." Secundum Verbum Tuum In the hidden recesses of the old Temple, the Holy Spirit prepares the new Temple, the all-holy Virgin, to become the Mother of God . She who is destined to be the living Temple of the Word dwells in the Temple of the Old Dispensation. She hears the chanting of the psalms, the prophets, and the Law. Was it there that she learned Psalm 118, the long litany of loving surrender to the Word? And was i...

Executed by R  Buchbinder Wiener Philamoniker

For Christians in Egypt the rise of Islamist political groups and a spate of violence targeting churches suggest that the cataclysmic events of the past 12 months have turned Arab Spring to Winter. In late November, the first round of parliamentary elections – the first since the February 2011 fall of President Hosni Mubarak – produced shock results favouring hard-line Islamic groups. With turn-out reported at 62 percent, the hard-line Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party polled 45 percent, as had widely been expected. But the big surprise was the Nour Party – backed by the even more extremist Salafist Islamists – which polled 21 percent. In the first round of the elections, held at the end of November 2011 in nine of Egypt's 27 provinces including Cairo and Alexandria, a coalition of secular parties polled only 25 percent. Father Antoine Rafic Greiche, official spokesman for the Catholic Church in Egypt, warned that the success of the Salafists was a grave...

Vuestra soy, para Vos nací, ¿qué mandáis hacer de mí? Soberana Majestad, eterna sabiduría, bondad buena al alma mía; Dios alteza, un ser, bondad, la gran vileza mirad que hoy os canta amor así: ¿qué mandáis hacer de mí? Vuestra soy, pues me criastes, vuestra, pues me redimistes, vuestra, pues que me sufristes, vuestra pues que me llamastes, vuestra porque me esperastes, vuestra, pues no me perdí: ¿qué mandáis hacer de mí? ¿Qué mandáis, pues, buen Señor, que haga tan vil criado? ¿Cuál oficio le habéis dado a este esclavo pecador? Veisme aquí, mi dulce Amor, amor dulce, veisme aquí: ¿qué mandáis hacer de mí? Veis aquí mi corazón, yo le pongo en vuestra palma, mi cuerpo, mi vida y alma, mis entrañas y afición; dulce Esposo y redención, pues por vuestra me ofrecí: ¿qué mandáis hacer de mí? Dadme muerte, dadme vida: dad salud o enfermedad, honra o deshonra me dad, dadme guerra o paz crecida, flaqueza o fuerza cumplida, que a todo digo que sí: ¿qu...

Иконографически Владимирская икона относится к типу Елеуса (Умиление). Младенец припал щекой к щеке Матери. Икона передаёт полное нежности общение Матери и Ребёнка. Мария предвидит страдания Сына в Его земном пути. Отличительная особенность Владимирской иконы от прочих икон типа Умиление: левая ножка Младенца Христа согнута таким образом, что видна подошва ступни, «пяточка». Оборот На обороте изображены Этимасия (престол уготованный) и орудия страстей, относимые очень приблизительно к началу XV века (времени второй починки иконы). Существуют версии, что икона ещё с самого начала была двыфаей: об этом говорят одинаковые формы ковчега и лузги обеих сторон.  Датировка и сохранность По оценкам искусствоведов, икона написана в XII веке, предположительно, вКонстантинополе. Первоначальный размер иконы 78×55 см. Позже были нарощены поля. На протяжении своей истории была записана, по меньшей мере, четыре ра...

In Iraq the very survival of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities now hangs in the balance. Continuing attacks against the faithful have prompted successive waves of emigration. According to UN reports in 2010, of the 1.6 million Iraqi refugees abroad, up to 40 percent were thought to be Christians. According to some of the country’s most senior bishops, over the past decade the number of Christians haemorrhaged from nearly 900,000 to perhaps fewer than 200,000, a rate of decline far steeper than official figures suggest. By 2011, some sources gave an even lower figure for the number of Christians left in Iraq. Nor does there seem any end in sight to the problem, with Christian emigration continuing unabated. Catholic leaders said the number of Christians remaining in Baghdad by early 2011 would be a mere fraction of the 200,000 living there at the start of 2003. Even more Christians fled the city after the 31st October 2010 siege of Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Syr...

Святый Боже ('Holy God') Зарю бьют ('Dawn Strikes') The dawn beats. From my hand my shabby copy of Dante falls to the ground. On my lips, the half-pronounced verse ceases to shape meaning. - My soul flies far off. - Familiar, everyday living sound, although you often radiate far out, I shrink away - into my silent sense of age. 'Pastoral'

Звёздная дружба  The ecstasy of St Francis of Assisi На мотив из Платона Душа себя найти желает. Томится по себе самой. Тоскливо по себе вздыхает и плачет в горести немой. Дрожащий в тусклых очертаньях пред ней витает мир идей, и Эрос, – мощный чародей, – Душой во сне или в мечтаньях в какой-то миг овладевает. Душа томится и рыдает. И вот почудилось, что снова Душа-близнец ей найдена. Полёт в Эфир свершать готова на белых крыльях не одна. Но сон проходит, и тоскливо она взирает вкруг, стеня. И шепчет страстно-сиротливо: «найди меня, найди меня...» (1905) *   *   * On a motif from Plato The ecstasy of St Bernard of Clairvaux Desiring to find itself, the Soul languishes by itself, sighs wistfully by itself  and cries in sorrow, silent. Tremulous in dim outlines, hovering below her world of ideas, Eros, - a mighty magician, -  and the Soul in dream.  The Soul seizes, as in some instant,...

"If anyone says that good is difficult to attain – for the Lord of creation is alone immutable while human nature is mutable and inclined to change – how can a mutable nature realize what is fixed and stable in the good? My response is that a person who does not lawfully strive in a contest cannot be crowned (1Tim 2:5); he would not be a legitimate athlete if an opponent were lacking.  Without an opponent there is no crown, for victory against oneself is lacking if there is no weakness. Hence, let us struggle against our nature’s mutability as though against an adversary; wrestling with our reason makes us victors not by ca6ting it down but by not consenting to the fall. Man can change not only for evil; if he had a natural inclination only to evil it would be impossible to turn to the good … Perfection consists in never stopping our growth towards the good nor in circumscribing perfection."  St Gregory of Nyssa, On Perfection ,  J213-4.

God is real since he produces real effects. The real effects in question, so far as I have as yet admitted them, are exerted on the personal centres of energy of the various subjects, but the spontaneous faith of most of the subjects is that they embrace a wider sphere than this. Most religious men believe (or ‘know’, if they be mystical ) that not only they themselves but also the whole universe of beings to whom the God is present, are secure in his paternal hands. There is a sense, a dimension, they are sure, in which we are all saved, in spite of the gates of hell and all adverse terrestrial appearances. God’s existence is the guarantee of an ideal order that shall be permanently preserved. This world may indeed, as science secures us, some day burn up or freeze; but if it is part of his order, the old ideals are sure to be brought elsewhere to fruition, so that where God is, tragedy is only provisional and partial, and shipwreck and dissolution are not the absolutely f...

O Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, thou didst promise to abide with us always. Thou dost call all Christians to draw near and partake of Thy Body and Blood. But our sin has divided us and we have no power to partake of Thy Holy Eucharist together. We confess this our sin and we pray Thee, forgive us and help us to serve the ways of reconciliation, according to Thy Will. Kindle our hearts with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Give us the spirit of Wisdom and faith, of daring and of patience, of humility and firmness, of love and of repentance, through the prayers of the most blessed Mother of God and of all the saints. Amen. [Sergej Bulgakov]

Doing Lectio Divina today in community with next Sunday's Gospel (Lc 24: 33-49), I was struck by one phrase in particular, "…  he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures."  What is at once striking is the fact that prior to their journey back to Jerusalem, the two disciples of Emmaus had met Jesus on their way, fleeing as they were, away from Jerusalem, disheartened by Jesus' death. But in such dramatic state, they are given the grace of receiving Jesus (without them knowing) whilst he explained to them the meaning of the Sacred Scriptures. Their opened eyes during the sharing of bread, later that night, saw that the one to be explaining this to them was indeed the Risen Christ himself.  On their return to Jerusalem, the community of believers that welcomes these two disciples had received the same grace as them, for, it is said, Jesus opened their minds for the meaning of the Sacred Scriptures.  I was reminded at once of a most defining m...

Is it too late to be reconciled with someone after they died?  What do we mean when we speak of eternity?  How do we take care of our dead? What can the Far East teach us in the cure of the dead? 

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Follow this link: Sicut Passer Solitarius (Ps 101:7)

O adorable face of Jesus, sole beauty which ravisheth my heart, vouchsafe to impress on my soul Thy Divine Likeness, so it may not be possible for Thee to look at Thy Spouse without beholding Thyself. O my Beloved, for love of Thee I am content not to see here on earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, not to feel the ineffable Kiss of Thy Sacred Lips, but I beg of Thee to inflame me with Thy Love, so that it may consume me quickly, and that soon Teresa of the Holy Face may behold Thy glorious Countenance in Heaven. St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)

Come, O true light! Come, O eternal life! Come, O hidden mystery! Come, O indescribable treasure! Come, O ineffable thing! Come, O inconceivable person! Come, O endless delight! Come, O unsetting light! Come, O true and fervent expectation of all those who will be saved! Come, O rising of those who lie down! Come, O resurrection of the dead! Come, O powerful one, who always creates and re-creates and transforms by your will alone! Come, O invisible and totally intangible and untouchable! Come, O you who always remain immobile and at each moment move all, and come to us, who lie in hades, you who are above all heavens. Come, O desirable and legendary name, which is completely impossible for us to express what you are or to know your nature. Come, O eternal joy! Come, O unwithering wreath! Come, O purple of the great king our God! Come, O crystalline cincture, studded with precious stones! Come, O inaccessible sandal! Come, O ...