Blue Eyed Ennis

New Beginnings

2014-03-28T13:47:00.002+01:00

At long last, after stopping posts on Blue Eyed Ennis, I've landed in a new place where I'll be posting at least for a while ....

You're welcome to check it out.

It's on Tumblr and technically it's called a microblog, whatever that means. I had a Tumblr account for a while but never used it much and so I've been playing with it to get the hang of it, and I'm finding it easier to use than Blogger.

It's called Ennis Blue.

You can also link to Blue Eyed Ennis from it which people may find useful.

Click here for the link to Ennis Blue.

Hope people like it !!

Blessings Be With You And A Decision

2014-02-16T14:59:00.000+01:00

I am deeply moved and so very grateful for all the comments people have left here and on FB and via e mails. My hearfelt thanks goes out to all of you.

I have decided to stop posting. It's been a very hard decision to reach and despite praying I am still unsure as to what will replace it.

My faith tells me something will come, but as to what that is, I still have no idea. Leaving the blog open seems a sensible option and one that at least, honours the wishes of some people.

So, this is it then.
I'm finding words very hard, but I'll leave you with a poem, a prayer, a video blessing and a song of the snow goose.

Goodbye and Blessings Be With You
Gaelic - Slán Agus Beannacht Leacht

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their coloured clothes; caps and bells
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamour
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, 0 Lord,
Creator, Hallowed one, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

Denise Levertov

Ever Deeper Roots in Love
by Brother David Steindl-Rast

You, from whom we come
      And to whom we go,
      Unchanging love,
You give us time for change and growth
      In this time of great change in my life,
please, give me courage to change and grow
      and cheerfulness amidst growing-pain.
Let me take ever deeper roots in love
Make me faithful without clinging
And let me remain faithful in letting go.
Into your hands I lay my life
And the lives of all whom I love.
      Amen.

From Prayers for All People
collected by Mary Ford-Grabowsk from here

Anyone who knows Paul Gallico's beautiful story of the snow goose will understand the words of this song below :- "God Speed - The Snow Goose. "

Image source

Silver white

symphony of water,
wind and light

where a saltmarsh meets the sea

sanctuary, sanctuary

Grey and green
the painter's eye sees every hue between

and every brushstroke's reeds or rain,
reeds or rain

ease his pain

Now it's my time,

my turn to hold you

my time,

my turn to set you free

God-speed

Black and white

the mighty wings that never tired in flight

that crossed an ocean
in one bound

brought to ground

Pearl and gold

with violet eyes to fire a heart grown cold

brings her burden
to be healed

to be revealed

My time,

my turn to hold you

my time,

my turn to set you free

God-speed

Black and red

the port aflame,
so many good men dead

with peppered sail and angel's wings
salvation brings

Crimson blue

saltmarsh sunsets
gulls fly through

the snow goose has no tale to tell

just farewell

Now it's my time,

my turn to hold you

my time,

my turn to set you free

God-speed

The words of the above are found in this video below ;- the only version I could find.
The video quality is not the best but the audio is reasonably OK.

The introduction to the song says it is a tragic story but I feel that is too narrow a description. It is sad, but for me it represents the cycle of life, experience, love and letting go, and speaks also of salvation and hope. The snow goose is a Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit and an especially important one for me.
I don't know why this song speaks so much to me at this time, but it seemed an appropriate one to finish on.

Related post from my archives

From 2012 - Symbols Of The Holy Spirit

Third Sunday Ordinary Time 2014

2014-01-23T15:58:00.000+01:00

Just to let people know that I shall be offline from now until 15th February but here's one last post for this coming Sunday.

I am also coming closer to a conviction that doing this blog is no longer what is being asked of me. I have no idea what might replace it, and it may well be that my presence online will disappear altogether. I'll be praying and thinking about it when I'm away and holding everyone I have come to know here in my heart and prayers too. So I would ask you to keep me in your prayers too.

Blessings !

Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here.

Reflections on the various readings from St Louis Centre for Liturgy here

What is the character of Christ's calling ?

He carried within himself an unparalleled ability to make each of us feel connected not only to Him but to one another. High levels of consciousness in the ordinary encounters of daily life were made sacred through God's abiding presence.

Christ's call was a profound and authentic signal of the expansive life he was inviting us to enter.

Sometimes we shirk from the call of our faith as if it were an impossible standard of human perfectibility, way beyond our hopes. But faith is always a gentle call to an indeterminate space held in a future that is always inchoate, always evolving, however slow.

This article is one of a series and spells out four aspects of vision.

and this one outlines some wise steps for the future.

Today's Psalm

The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

R/ The Lord is my light and my salvation.

One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.

R/ The Lord is my light and my salvation.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

R/ The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Image by Sergey Galchenkov from here

Reading 2 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17

I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.

I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,”
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”

Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.

Gospel Mt 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.

He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.

He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.

Alternative Gospel reading Mt 4:12-17

REFLECTIONS FROM THE ARCHIVES

2013 reflection from here ( different Gospel and readings)

Related 2013 reflection here

2012 reflection from here

The Mystery and The Miracle of Being Here

2014-01-20T13:50:00.001+01:00

This is a fine post from Jim Gordon at Living Wittily on "Denise Levertov and Why Questions are as Much a Means of Grace as Answers," from which this extract below is taken, and one that helps me in trying to visualise what unity might mean in this week of praying for it ! There are other images I'm exploring too and maybe, or maybe not (!) I will post on them later in the week.

I was struck by the phrase "songbird eggs" and an image of thousands of eggs from around the world in a collection from here, also helped me realise how precious each song of faith is.

In his post, Jim Gordon says this Levertov poem "is pointing to a via negativa, not of theology, but of how we cherish, hold and pay gentle attention to the mystery and miracle of being here.

The title uses the indefinite article - this is not once for all gift, it is gift in the present continuous.

The "Yes, perhaps is neither question nor answer, but an affirmation of that wonderful place in between, in which as human beings we live, and move, and have our being."


                                                                               A Gift

Just when you seem to yourself
nothing but a flimsy web
of questions, you are given
the questions of others to hold
in the emptiness of your hands,
songbird eggs that can still hatch
if you keep them warm,
butterflies opening and closing themselves
in your cupped palms, trusting you not to injure
their scintillant fur, their dust.
You are given the questions of others
as if they were answers
to all you ask. Yes, perhaps
this gift is your answer.

Update - Week of Prayer For Christian Unity 2014 - Has Christ Been Divided ?

2014-01-20T12:52:00.000+01:00

The annual "Week or Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity" began on Saturday and continues for the next seven days. Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox throughout the world will hold various events centred on praying for the unity of the Christian faith.

The Prayer Octave is traditionally celebrated between the feasts of St. Peter (Jan 18) and St. Paul (Jan 25).

The theme for this year is “Has Christ Been Divided?” – 1 Cor:1-17

Both the Roman Catholic and the Revised Common lectionaries designate portions of this text (although not quite the same portions) as the second reading this weekend and next weekend.

The prayer resources this year were prepared by Christians in Canada, and include a reflection on how the particular circumstances of the church in Canada affect their experience of the theme.

The materials are available both on the Vatican website and the World Council of Churches website, which has a link to the material as a PDF.

Click here for m usic that has been composed and made available for use during this week of prayer.

The intention is for this week to be celebrated and prayed as widely as possible, so the material includes an order of worship for ecumenical services, as well as resources that can be used or adapted as part of a church’s usual services.

There are also scripture readings, reflections, and a theme for each of the eight days . The Daily Themes are listed below.....

Together, We are called to be saints
Together, We give thanks for God’s grace in one another
Together, We are not lacking in any spiritual gifts
Together, We affirm that God is faithful
Together, We are called into fellowship

Together,We seek to be in agreement
Together, We belong to Christ
Together, We proclaim the Gospel

Here is the prayer for Monday...

Faithful, open-handed God, we bless you that you have given us all the spiritual gifts we need to come to the measure of the full stature of Christ : for wisdom, for gifts of service and for bread. Help us to be signs of your abundance, gathered in unity to bring the gifts of your everlasting kingdom to every place of pain and lack.
Filled with the Spirit, we pray in the name of the One whose gift was the bread of his life broken for us, now and forever.
Amen.

Click here for today's prayer from Fr. Austin Fleming at A Concord Pastor Comments.

Click here for extract from Pope Francis Document Evangelii Gaudium on Ecumenism.

Click here for a trenchant article by Fr. Ron Rolheiser : Ecumenism Our Neglected Mandate.

That All May Be One

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2014-01-20T10:02:00.000+01:00

To mark the anniversary of Martin Luther King Day on January 20th.

“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication, they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires.”

The quote above is from Howard Thurman, an African American who played a critical role in laying the theological foundation for the civil right movement, who published them in 1959 in his book, Footprints of a Dream: The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.

Today I am thankful for the vision of Martin Luther King and all others who were inspired by him and grateful too that the Spirit of God is still alive in the hearts of women and men today to challenge discrimination and injustice.

Image source

An excellent film

Related Posts

Heroes and Villains

Martin Luther King Day (margegower.com)

Commentary: King's Birthday celebrated on Jan 15th (bet.com)

My 2013 post for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Another 2013 post Marching For Martin Luther King.Jr. Day -The Task Is Not Yet Done.

Resources for Black History Month in February

Feed The Hungry Heart

2014-01-18T22:04:00.002+01:00

I remember hearing Adrian Snell's music in the 80's, and his name cropped up in conversation recently with some others, along the lines of whatever happened to.... ? so I decided to do a post on him.

Here's one of his songs from the '80's called Feed The Hungry Heart.

I did a little searching and found that Adrian now works as a Music Therapist and Arts Therapy Consultant for children and adults with special needs at Three Ways School, Bath, and regularly visits a school in Korce, Albania.

Three Ways School has 165 children and young people between ages 4 and 19 with a considerable range of special needs - learning difficulties, physical disabilities and behavioural problems. It is an extraordinary community and many of the students are profoundly responsive to sound and music within a therapeutic, relationship building context.
His work and music was featured in a special BBC Radio 4 programme at Three Ways School, Bristol in October last year, called "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made."

Sadly, I missed the programme which is no longer on BBC i-player but this is an edited extract from the BBC website here.

"Adrian's music room at Three Ways is a world away from the concert stage and recording studio, but he says he has no regrets about his transition from international performer to music therapist. 'This has been the most important step in my career as a musician', he says, 'many of us describe music as 'the language of the heart'. 'In the world of special needs, where many of our children are either unable to communicate through the spoken word, or choose not to do so, the idea of music as a language takes on a deeper meaning.'

Adrian said "I find myself asking why are people with special needs so under represented in our churches and Christian communities?

We have failed to offer a theology of inclusion, both practically and spiritually.

One of the great privileges I have as a music therapist is that I am focusing on what our children and young people CAN do, beyond their limitations."

This is his moving promotional video "Fierce Love" showcasing his work with the children. Adrian's new album 'Fierce Love', was inspired by these kids and features the range of instruments he uses as a therapist.

and this is the official music video

Wonderful and powerful lyrics !

You can read more on his life at his website here.

Second Sunday Ordinary Time 2014

2014-01-17T11:58:00.001+01:00

Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here

Reflections on the Readings from St Louis Centre For Liturgy are here.

Lamb of God Church of Santa Pudenziana, Rome.

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Reflection on today's Gospel "With The Fire Of The Spirit" from Iglesia Descalza by

José Antonio Pagola here
(English translation by Rebel Girl)

Reflection from Dan Clendenin - Coming Back For More: Why Go To Church ?

Plenty of fruitful insights from Fr. John Predmore S.J in this reflection from here.

My reflections from the archives

From 2012 here.

From 2011 here.

The Fallow Space

2014-01-17T11:54:00.002+01:00

It's often hard to write and some days it is a constant quest whether internally or externally to know what to write about and then how. When I saw this quote from Inward Outward in my inbox yesterday, it was a salutary reminder of how to honour the fallow space - it's too early for the digging and the turning over- the soil is not ready yet, and what will be planted and what will grow are big questions.

Why are these "Lenten" thoughts already breaking through so suddenly into Ordinary Time?

Lent is a tree without blossom, without leaf,

Barer than blackthorn in its winter sleep,

All unadorned. Unlike Christmas which decrees

The setting up, the dressing up of trees,

Lent is a taking down, a stripping bare,

A starkness after all has been withdrawn

Of surplus and superfluous,

leaving no hiding place, only an emptiness

Between black branches, a most precious space

before the leaf, before the time of flowers;

Lest we should only see the leaf, the flower,

Lest we should miss the stars.

Jean M. Watt 20th Century

Let mystery have its place in you;

do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination,

but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring,

and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird;

keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God.

Then if a bird sing among your branches, do not be too eager to tame it.

If you are conscious of something new—thought or feeling, wakening in the depths of your being—

do not be in a hurry to let in light upon it, to look at it;

let the springing germ have the protection of being forgotten,

hedge it round with quiet, and do not break in upon its darkness.

translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward
Source: Amiel's Journal. From Inward Outward- A great daily resource

Then this appeared and looks interesting too- Five poet-theologians explore faith and spirituality in this book " Making Nothing Happen."

Click here for the book's Introduction.

Click here for poet Tamar Yoseloff's reflection on W.H. Auden's much quoted line "Making Nothing Happen."

Anthony Wilson has a great post on the vicissitudes of being unable to write in his article " No Poem To Write" from here.

So I need to honour this liminal space, and some of this is reinforced at what I read at i- Benedictines post today when I read that it is the feast of St Antony of the Desert.

My post on St Antony from last year is here.

and there's another interesting one on St Antony from Parabola magazine here titled "Surrounded By Water and Dying of Thirst " from which the image below is taken.

Art Credit: 'Saint Anthony Abbot Tempted by a Heap of Gold', Tempera on panel painting by the Master of the Osservanza Triptych, ca. 1435, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inspiration comes dripping slow these days.

Image source

An earlier post featured a New Zealand writer, Joy Cowley, and this next part of my post features an Irish writer who also has links to New Zealand. How weird is it when these things come together unbidden ?!

Sinead Morrisey is Belfast's inaugural poet laureate, and this week was awarded the T. S. Eliot prize for poetry. It is the fourth time that she has been shortlisted for the £15,000 prize, considered to be the most prestigious poetry award in Britain. The prize, presented annually by the Poetry Book Society, was funded by TS Eliot's widow, Valerie Eliot. Since her death in 2012, it has been supported by the trustees of the TS Eliot estate.

Click here for a transcript of a far ranging interview with Sinead Morrisey from The Stinging Fly in 2002

Related articles

Bonus Wednesday- Songs and Poem

2014-01-15T18:01:00.000+01:00

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Let It Go
by Carrie Newcomer

To live we learn what we love most,

Embrace it all and hold it close.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go.

To live is to love so many things,

Fly on beautiful wax wings.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go, let it go.

Breath in breath out, let it go, let it go.

I held anger like a coal,

Burning hot but did not let go,

With the thought that I could

throw it at someone.

Such a hard lesson to learn,

My own hand was what got burned.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, Let it go

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go, let it go.

Breath in breath out, let it go, let it go.

What is won is won,

What is done is done

Let it go

What is real is real,

What we feel we feel

Then let go

I saw one candle in the night,

Become a thousand lights.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go.

Life is fleeting this I know,

Short and draped in marigolds.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go.

Breathe it in and breathe it out, let it go, let it go.

Breath in breath out, let it go, let it go.

Holy As The Day Is Spent

Holy is the dish and drain
The soap and sink, and the cup and plate
And the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile
Shower heads and good dry towels
And frying eggs sound like psalms
With bits of salt measured in my palm
And It's all a part of a sacrament
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the busy street
And cars that boom with passion's beat
And the check out girl, counting change
And the hands that shook my hands today
And hymns of geese fly overhead
And spread their wings like their parents did
Blessed be the dog who runs in her sleep
To chase some wild and elusive thing

Holy is the familiar room
And the quiet moments in the afternoon
And folding sheets like folding hands
To pray as only laundry can
I'm letting go of all my fear
Like autumn leaves made of earth and air
For the summer came and the summer went
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the place I stand
To give whatever small good I can
And the empty page, and the open book
Redemption everywhere I look
Unknowingly we slow our pace
In the shade of unexpected grace
And with grateful smiles and sad lament
As holy as a day is spent
And morning light sings 'providence'
As holy as a day is spent

Just a Little Difference

Ah—a resting place,
where we come to understand
it is not required of us
to wrestle constantly and passionately
with our God—
nor pursue relentlessly
all God's decrees as we understand them,
but only that we listen and wonder
and hope and pray,
that we might, perhaps,
make just a little difference,
one quiet grey day.

Edwina Gateley poem from here.

From There Was No Path So I Trod One

Wednesday Poem

2014-01-15T17:06:00.003+01:00

Image source

A Tree Fallen Across the Road

The tree the tempest with a crash of wood
Throws down in front of us is not to bar
Our passage to our journey’s end for good,
But just to ask us who we think we are
Insisting always on our own way so.
She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,
And make us get down in a foot of snow
Debating what to do without an axe.

Robert Frost

A Pilgrim Tale and a Poem on Surrender

2014-01-14T01:03:00.000+01:00

Today, I was delighted to come across a very talented New Zealand author by the name of Joy Cowley and I found her writings on spirituality particularly interesting.

I've pinched the text below from the You Tube site that accompanies the video below..

" By anyone's standards, Joy Cowley is a remarkable person. Born into a very ordinary background, she's become one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors. She's written more than 600 books for adults and children - including 500 reading books for children who are either learning early reading skills or who have reading difficulties. And that's one of her passions, helping people of all ages to read and to discover whether they, like her, have a talent for storytelling.

One of Joy's most recent projects has been to tell the story of Tarore, a young Maori girl murdered in the early nineteenth century, but whose love for the Gospel lived on long after her death. Tarore lived near Matamata in the Waikato, and it was there near the girls gravesite that Joy spoke to Allan Lee."

I've chosen two samples of her work: a long story and a poem.

Click here for her wonderful story called The Pilgrim.

You can click here to read it in pdf format.

and below is her poem," Surrender."

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God, I come before you
as empty as a paper cup,
waiting to be filled
with the wine of your presence.

Somewhere back along the road a bit,
I dropped all those things
I was going to offer you,
the doing, the giving, the praying.

I'll pick them up again later,
but right now,
it's just you and me, God,
and there's not much of me.

It's a good feeling
to be this empty, this open
to the amazing stillness of you,
not knowing how to name you
or the life you pour into me.

God, right now I feel so small
and yet so vast.
I can't say where I end
and you begin.

Joy Cowley from the book 'Psalms from Down Under'

If you thirst for more, click here for Joy's website.

January Monday 2014 - Music and Prayers for Peace

2014-01-13T14:21:00.000+01:00

To start the week a little Chopin and Prayers for Peace- Click here.

Berceuse by Chopin.

Vatican Monthly Series of Articles On Women, Church and World 2014

2014-01-12T22:01:00.001+01:00

The Vatican See has a free newspaper L'Osservatore Romano,which means Roman Observer, which can be accessed in various languages online. The logo of the paper in the image above has the intriguing double motto, Unicuique suum : "To each his own," and Non praevalebunt "The gates of Hell shall not prevail".^[2]

The paper's website has several sections.

One of its new features for 2014 is a monthly series of articles on “Women, Church, World” (Donna, Chiesa, Mondo) focusing on the theology of women, in response to Pope Francis’ repeated calls for a reexamination of the “theology of women” in the Church. Click here for link to this section.

James Tissot Women on The Way to The Tomb

Artist Elsie Palmer Payne Image source

As editor Lucetta Scaraffia explains here and below, in a January editorial, each month a male or female theologian will analyze “this open question central to the Church today” as a means for “enriching…the discussion” about the contributions to and the role of women in the Church.

Artist Winslow Homer Source

Full text of Lucetta Scaraffia's editorial is below...

"The New Year begins with a single-theme issue of our monthly dedicated to the family. This will be the main topic of reflection and analysis in the Catholic world in preparation for the Synod on this subject that has been convoked for October 2014.

In addition, women – at the heart of relationships that keep families together and enliven them, with regard to both their daily and their relational and affective aspects – are also crucial in making the family the place where the experience of faith is passed on.

But this year also brings an innovation. In response to Pope Francis’ request for an in-depth study of the theology of women to define more clearly their role in the Church’s life, we are adding to our monthly a page dedicated exclusively to this subject. Here, every month, a man or woman theologian will develop his or her thoughts on this open and key issue in the Church today, thereby enriching the discussion under way with new food for thought.

We have decided also – if not especially – to ask for collaboration from people who are not experts in this field. Indeed we think that on the whole specialists have already written about this and thus their reflections are available even without our intervention.

Moreover since this is such a central topic of Christian life in our day, it is necessarily an object of thought and suggestions on the part of all, especially those who have made reflection on the Church a central dimension of their life.

Woman At The Well Roman Catacombs Image source

The series of theological reflections is opened by Pierangelo Sequeri, a deeply admired and well-loved theologian who has never previously been concerned specifically with the woman question and, for this very reason, contributes a fresh, new analysis that is highly stimulating for all. He shows us once again that theology may become vital and useful thinking with which to face the problems in the life of the Church. We shall continue these new pages for several months and at the end of the experience will present a round table of discussions on the proposals made that will be published. We intend to give the green light to the work by offering, in conclusion, a collection of these efforts to Pope Francis. (l.s.) "

Italian theologian and writer Msgr Pierangelo Sequeri the first to author a piece in the series, is an Italian theologian and writer.

Click here to read his article: An Epochal Development.

The monthly insert also highlights the family which will be the focus of the Synod of Bishops in October 2014.

As this is a New Year and in anticipation that some of these topics will develop apace as time progresses I have put a link to the newspaper on the side bar of the blog for easy reference/ access. Look out for the logo below.

The current issues are free of charge but the archives are not, so it may be useful to copy the ones that interest you before they disappear.

Related articles

Further Update - Pope Francis Chooses 19 New Cardinals and Sends Them A Letter

2014-01-12T17:47:00.001+01:00

Pope Francis has chosen his first batch of Cardinals. Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next Pope. The ceremony to formally install them as Cardinals will be held on Feb. 22nd at the Vatican, the Feast of the Chair of St Peter.

ope Francis named his first batch of cardinals on Sunday, choosing 19 men from Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere, including the developing nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief that the church must pay more attention to the poor.
Francis made the announcement as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal’s most important task. The ceremony to formally install them as cardinals will be held Feb. 22 at the Vatican.
Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday’s list Francis stuck to the church’s rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.
The College of Cardinals is currently 13 shy of that 120-mark among eligible-to-vote members. In addition, three cardinals will turn 80 by May. That means Francis chose the exact number of new cardinals needed to bring the voting ranks up to 120 during the next few months.
Some appointments were expected, including that of his new secretary of state, the Italian archbishop Pietro Parolin, and the German head of the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller. Two others named Sunday also come from the curia, as the Holy See’s Rome-based bureaucracy is known.
But some names were surprising.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s selection of churchmen from Haiti and Burkina Faso reflects Francis’ attention to the destitute as a core part of the church’s mission.
Also chosen to become a “prince of the church,” as the cardinals are known, was Mario Aurelio Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a post Francis left when he was elected as the first Latin American pope in March. Poli had impressed Francis by earning a degree in social work from the public university of Buenos Aires.
In the case of the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, the selection of Orani Joao Tempesta was widely hoped for back home as a kind of reward for Monsignor Orani Joao Tempesta’s work in organizing Francis’ wildly popular visit to that city in July.
Whether one continent or country has a large contingent of cardinals is heavily watched when it comes time to pick the next pope because churchmen could vote as a geographic bloc in hope of furthering the interests of their flock back home.
Not counting the four picks from the curia, who no longer represent the church in their homelands, the others new voting cardinals include two from Europe, three from North and Central America, three from South America, and two apiece from Africa and Asia.
Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, in Britain, called his appointment a “humbling moment” of service to the church.
The youngest new cardinal chosen by Francis is the 55-year-old Monsignor Chibly Langlois from Haiti.
In reading out the names, Francis said the new cardinals, coming from “every part of the world represent the deep church ecclesial relationship between the church of Rome and the other churches scattered throughout the world.”
Francis has stressed that the church hierarchy must not view itself as an elite aloof from its flock but instead serve its flock, especially for the poor, others on the edges of society and disillusioned faithful.
Once again on Sunday, a pope has passed over a prominent churchman in predominantly Catholic Ireland as a potential cardinal: Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. He has irritated some in the Vatican by strongly criticizing how the hierarchy handled the worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal.
In a sentimental touch in Sunday’s selections, the three men chosen as cardinals who are too old to vote for the next pope include 98-year-old Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, who had served as personal secretary to Pope John XXIII. That late pontiff will be made a saint along with John Paul II in a ceremony at the Vatican in April.

Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2014/01/12/Pope-to-appoint-19-new-cardinals-from-Asia-Africa-Caribbean-elsewhere-in-February.html#IHkJCzUBqT5diIGo.99

Here's the list....

Archbishop Pietro Parolin (Italy)
Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri (Italy)
Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla (Italy) *
Archbishop, Beniamino Stella (Italy)
Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti (Italy)

Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar (Spain) *
Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller (Germany)
Archbishop Vincent Nichols (Britain)

Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix (Canada)

Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa (Ivory Coast)
Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso)

Archbishop Orani João Tempesta (Brazil)
Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli (Argentina)
Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano (Nicaragua)
Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello (Chile)

Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo (Philippines)
Archbishop Chibly Langlois (Haiti)
Monsignor Kelvin Edward Felix (St Lucia) *
Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung (South Korea)

* Cardinal emeritus, without voting rights

Below are a few interesting comments I've gathered from social media ....

"Sad that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin is missing from the list of new cardinals. No doubt the thinking was that more cardinals from the Third World means fewer from Europe. But Archbishop Martin, showed tremendous courage and honesty in addressing the sex abuse scandal."

" Diarmuid Martin, was passed over once again. While I love the direction of these appointments (more pastors, fewer academics, and fewer Curialists), I am disappointed that Martin, who has been so courageous in addressing the abuse scandal in the Irish church, was not selected. His nomination would have said volumes about the seriousness that the institutional church plans to take about abuse revelations in the future."

" The one ordinary of an Italian diocese named is an interesting choice - Perugia. Passing over Venice and Turin, which have had Cardinals for multiple centuries. One of Perugia's suffragan dioceses is a little place called Assisi !"

"It is significant to me that a bishop in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti, was elevated to the College of Cardinals. Love it."

NEW UPDATE

Pope Francis wrote a letter to the Cardinals designated yesterday in the course of the Angelus, who will be created in the consistory of February 22.

Here below is a translation of the Pope’s letter.

* * *

" Dear Brother,

On the day in which your designation is made public to be part of the College of Cardinals, I wish to express to you a cordial greeting together with the assurance of my closeness and my prayer. I hope that, as associate of the Church of Rome, clothed in the virtues and sentiments of the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 13:14), you will be able to help me, with fraternal effectiveness, in my service to the universal Church.

The Cardinalate does not signify a promotion, or an honour, or a decoration. It is simply a service that calls for enlarging one’s vision and widening one’s heart. And, although it seems a paradox, this ability to look far ahead and to love more universally with greater intensity can only be acquired by following the same way of the Lord: the way of abasement and humility, taking the form of a servant (cf. Philippians 2;5-8). Therefore, I ask you, please, to receive this designation with a simple and humble heart.

And, although you must do so with joy and gladness, do it in such a way that this sentiment is far from any expression of worldliness, from any celebration that is foreign to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.

Farewell, then, until next February 20, in which we will begin two days of reflection on the family. I remain at your disposition and, please, I ask you to pray and to have others pray for me."

May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin protect you.
Fraternally,
FRANCIS."
From the Vatican, January 12, 2014.

[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]

Updated - Related articles

Rocco Palmo's Analysis
Update - Guardian UK article

Redemption Song

2014-01-12T12:42:00.002+01:00

Ziggy Marley singing his dad's Redemption Song accompanied by The Chieftains.

Great !

Thought For The Day

2014-01-10T15:12:00.000+01:00

Today's Thought For The Day on BBC Radio 4 here was worth listening to. If the link below does not work for you, I've pasted a transcript below.

This week has also seen ex -President of Ireland, Mary McAleese repeat her call for changes in the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality and links to that are at the end of this post.

Transcript of Thought For Today 10.01.14

"On the 3rd May 1998, in a deserted lock-up garage in London’s East End, the professional footballer Justin Fashanu tragically took his own life. The years of abuse he had received for being gay had eventually taken their toll and had become too much for him to live with. If only the attitudes that had led to Fashanu’s suicide were a thing of the past - but unfortunately they are not.

Which is why the coming out of former Aston Villa midfielder, Thomas Hitzlsperger, is such a big deal. No other professional footballer currently playing in this country has had the courage to do the same. Hitzlsperger explains why: “the players concerned have not dared to declare their inclinations because the world of football still sees itself … as a macho environment.”

Of course, it’s not just football that has a problem with homophobia. If anything, it’s more difficult with religion where this attitude towards homosexuality can commonly be presented as having some moral or theological justification.

But despite the widespread perception that faith is uniformly hostile to homosexuality, there are a significant number of people of faith who want to offer a minority report that insists being gay is no sort of moral issue – indeed, that the ways in which two adults express their love for each other physically ought to be celebrated as something precious, as something publically to affirm.

What makes homophobia so especially wicked is that is traps people into a miserable life of clandestine relationships, continually fearful that they might one day be discovered and exposed for who they really are. Which is why having the guts to make such a public declaration of being gay, thus risking insults and name-calling – and in some countries considerably worse - is such a powerful witness to the truth.

“Long my imprisoned spirit lay” wrote Charles Wesley in a famous hymn about his religious conversion. “I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free,  I rose, went forth, and followed thee.” He then goes on “No condemnation now I dread”.

It was not, of course, a hymn about coming out of the closet, but about discovering and being able to speak the truth about oneself - and how liberating such truth-telling can be. Nonetheless, these experiences are remarkably similar. “I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses” wrote Gloria Gaynor in a rather different sort of anthem.

And St John put it even more pithily: “The truth will set you free.” And yet, for many, the truth may not necessarily set them free, but might even end up landing them in jail. In Uganda, for instance, a law is about to be enacted in which consensual gay sex can lead to a 14 year term of imprisonment.

Indeed, it’s going to be a criminal offense if one fails to report gay people to the authorities. Whereas St John spoke of truth as leading to freedom and release, for others, however, the truth can lead to prison."

The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill is now with the President who has the opportunity to veto it. It is a clear violation of human rights. If you want to stop this Bill! Take action by clicking on the link http://bit.ly/bill-uganda.

Which Are You ?

2014-01-10T12:08:00.004+01:00

Geologists's Rainbow by Frank Townsley from here

Which Are You?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

THERE are two kinds of people on earth to-day;
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well understood,
The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.

Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean,
Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Wherever you go, you will find the earth’s masses,
Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,
There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load,
Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner, who lets others share
Your portion of labour, and worry and care?

Once again, a poem that should be gender inclusive...

Feast of The Baptism of Christ 2014

2014-01-08T16:46:00.006+01:00

Scripture Readings For Sunday's Mass are here.

I love this video of Pope Francis talking about Baptism in 2013. It radiates humour and Joy, and today, 8th January, 2014, at his General Audience, he once again asked Christian people to learn the date of their Baptism and celebrate it like a feast day.

Click here for a translation of the Pope's catechesis which was given in Italian.

Reflections from the Archives

Baptism of Jesus Christ 2013 post here.

2012 post is here.

Baptism and Joy Of Christianity 2012 post here

Baptism, Justice and Beatitudes 2012 post here

My 2011 post is here.

and another 2011 post is here

Image source

Daniel Bonnell- Image source

Gloria Ssali- Image source

Image source

Marco Rupnik

This video below from 2013 was made in 2013 for the feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ, at the original site at Qasr al Yahud at the Jordan River, from where the photos above are taken. It is not too far from the old city of Jericho. It starts with a procession to the Baptism site.

Andrei Rublev- Image source

Image source

More thoughts from Pope Francis on Baptism..

“For me ecumenism is a priority. Today there is an ecumenism of blood. In some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a Bible and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic or Orthodox. Their blood is mixed. To those who kill, we are Christians. We are united in blood, even though we have not yet managed to take necessary steps towards unity between us and perhaps the time has not yet come. Unity is a gift that we need to ask for. I knew a parish priest in Hamburg who was dealing with the beatification cause of a Catholic priest guillotined by the Nazis for teaching children the catechism. After him, in the list of condemned individuals, was a Lutheran pastor who was killed for the same reason. Their blood was mixed.

The parish priest told me he had gone to the bishop and said to him: “I will continue to deal with the cause, but both of their causes, not just the Catholic priest’s.” This is what ecumenism of blood is. It still exists today; you just need to read the newspapers.

Those who kill Christians don’t ask for your identity card to see which Church you were baptized in.”
- Pope Francis, in an interview with La Stampa.

Coptic Icon of Theophany- Image source

He Qi - Image source from Gallery

A 2012 post on Baptism from Fr. Ron Rolheiser, which contains a poem by Jesuit Fr. John Shea.(sad news about John Dear S.J. which I'm struggling to understand.)

Image source

More from Pope Francis......

"When I speak of prudence I do not think of it in terms of an attitude that paralyzes but as the virtue of a leader. Prudence is a virtue of government. So is boldness. One must govern with boldness and prudence.

I spoke about baptism and communion as spiritual food that helps one to go on; it is to be considered a remedy not a prize. Some immediately thought about the sacraments for remarried divorcees, but I did not refer to any specific cases; I simply wanted to point out a principle. We must try to facilitate people’s faith, rather than control it.

Last year in Argentina I condemned the attitude of some priests who did not baptize the children of unmarried mothers. This is a sick mentality."

Read the full article: Pope Francis Full Interview: "God Is Patient" - A La Stampa

Click here for reflection onThe Baptism Of Jesus from UK Dominican Friar Peter Clarke.

From Pinterest- Image source Original unknown.

Verrocchio - Image source

RELATED REFLECTIONS

Suzanne Guthrie's reflections from her blog At The Edge of Enclosure here.

"A Shocking Request And A Stupendous Claim," by Daniel B. Clendenin.

Walter Brueggemann on Baptism

Sometimes

2014-01-07T15:08:00.001+01:00

Image source

Sometimes
you find a beautiful poem ...
This one's by Sheenagh Pugh..

(but I'd like to see woman/inclusive language added too !)

Poem from Jim Gordon's Blog Living Wittily from here.

Sometimes

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

On Kairos Time, Liturgical Cycles, Theophanies and Gerard Manley Hopkins

2014-01-07T00:09:00.004+01:00

Happy Feast of the Epiphany and it's also the 12th day of Christmas. This coming Sunday, the Western Christian Churches celebrate the Baptism of Jesus.

I took down the Christmas celebrations today, always a bit of a sad day and a reality call !

My friend Sean remarked, that for some, the Christmas season doesn't end until Feb 2nd, the Feast of The Presentation Of The Child Jesus in The Temple. It could be a sign of my age that I can take a little more time and space to lag behind and stay with the "feltness" of the seasons. These past few years I've kept one small Christmas tree up all year round just to remind me that Christmas is every day if I let it !

Sometimes the seasonal cycle of the liturgy is a pure gift of grace that pulls me along, irrespective of where my own sense of location is. I read in a book somewhere that the liturgical cycle is like taking hold of a rope, and sensing as you do, that many others have their hands on the rope and are going to pull you. At other times it seems to be an unwelcome ring fence that constrains and restricts. I am not always in Advent mode or Pentecost mode at the "right time" and I'm comfortable with that - see archive post on the difference between Chronos v Kairos time.

I didn't start this year with any particular resolutions but maybe I have been revisited today and given a gift of the word "Kairos" and I will try and resolve to pay more attention to it this coming year. For ultimately if my faith in the Resurrection of Christ is worth anything at all, it tells me that what is happening to us and our world is happening within the wider provenance and providence of God.

As it says below (from my inbox today) :-

" Providence is the faith that nothing can prevent us from fulfilling the ultimate meaning of our existence. Providence does not mean a divine planning by which everything is predetermined, as is an efficient machine. Rather, Providence means that there is a creative and saving possibility implied in every situation, which cannot be destroyed by any event."

Paul Tillich Source: The Shaking of the Foundations

Meanwhile here's a nice extract below from Joan Chittister from The Liturgical Year. It's valuable as a redux for some of the events we have just strolled through these past few weeks, and a way of looking ahead to this very special Sunday - another theophany or revelation of God to the world.

"There’s a popular folk tale about three blind men who walk around an elephant to determine what kind of beast this animal might be. One takes hold of the elephant’s tail and says, “This creature is very like a rope.” The second happens to take hold of its tusk and says, “This creature is very like a spear.” And the third, patting the wide, hard side of the animal, says, “This creature is surely a wall.”

Obviously, if any one of them had all three insights at once, these men would have understood a great deal more about elephants than any one of them could possibly know alone.

Liturgical spirituality is a bit like that as well. Each season has a great consuming centerpiece on which we concentrate — Christmas Day or the Resurrection — but it is being willing to walk thoughtfully through all the other parts of each particular cycle that gives us the fuller, truer picture of exactly what the feast itself is all about.

The Christmas season, or Christmastide, is not about one feast day. It is a series of feasts that embed us in a kind of refracted glory, the underpinnings, the other pieces of the mosaic that complete the feast itself.

The feasts of a season create a heightened awareness in us of what the season’s major feast is about. They help us to understand the feast from multiple perspectives and various layers of meaning. Together they create a mosaic that fleshes out for us the fullest meaning of the feast. They give us a way of looking at our own world differently because through them we come to see Jesus differently. They provide the hope because of which we can move in the dark parts of the spiritual life with both confidence and conviction.

Christmas — the light that shone upon a manger — was also, the ancients knew, the light that led them on beyond it as well. If God is truly with us, has been manifested among us, companions us as we go, knows our pains and our hopes, then life is not a dark forest from which there is no exit. It is a darkness, however dark, that is always overcome by light.

But how would they know that? How do we know that? We know that because surrounding the feast of Christmas are the feasts that open up to us the real nature of this child whom, with the shepherds, we have come to realize lives with us, in us, as much today as yesterday. These minor feasts of Christmastide give us a great deal more than a manger. They give us, as adults, models to live by if we, too, are to be steeped in Jesus and full of new life.

The Feast of the Holy Family
The Feast of the Holy Family depicts Jesus in a home where he grows in wisdom, age, and grace. (Luke 2:52) It is a model of what we want for the children of our time. It is a model of the kind of love and care that encourages children to grow up to be on their own but guides them as they do.
This feast causes us to pause and look at our own families, both the ones we grew up in and the ones we’re now developing ourselves. It raises questions in us about the harmony of the home we’re in now — and what part we play in both its peace and its disturbance. We are brought to wonder what wisdom, maturity, and virtue the children of our time are able to see in us that will transfer itself to them.

We must ask ourselves if we are learning from one another, caring for one another; becoming more spiritual together as we go. And if not, why not? And what do we intend to do about it, as Jesus did, for the sake of the rest of the world?

The Octave of Christmas: The Feast of Mary, the Mother of God

Very few feasts have an octave, an eight-day commemoration of the feast, meant to give even more significance to the dignity and importance of the major celebration itself. Like incense, an octave is the sweet memory, eight days later; of what has gone before. It is the aura of a feast, so important, so impacting, that the power of its presence in the human soul lingers far after the feast itself.

If nothing else, it is an octave that says to the deepest part of us, Don’t overlook what you have just seen. Think again. Think about it always.

In that same way, this feast adds another layer to Christmas. The Octave of Christmas, January 1, while we are still very much aware of the birth of Jesus, confronts us with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. But this feast is not the church’s answer to the annual Mother’s Day so common in the secular world; this feast is a statement about both Mary and Jesus. She is human, we know, and therefore so is he. This Jesus is no Greek god, no being from another planet, no fairy-tale divine. This child, born of Mary, is us. The Solemnity of Mary is a cataclysmic theology of both the compassion of God for human limitation and the potential of the human spirit to grow into the divine.

Epiphany
The second great feast of the Christmas season that amplifies our awareness of the person of Jesus is the Western church’s separate celebration of the ancient Eastern feast of the Epiphany. While the Eastern church concentrates on the baptism of Jesus as the divine revelation of the Holy Trinity, the Western church continues to maintain the story of the Magi. These foreign kings, themselves altered by strange manifestations of the stars in the heavens, like the shepherds, find their way to the child and, the scriptures say, “to pay him homage.” (Matthew 2:2) The world recognizes the heavenly in this tiny child. And the child recognizes the people of God in them. This is not a Christian child only; this child belongs to the world.

The Baptism of Jesus

On the Sunday after Epiphany, the Christmas season ends in the West with its own celebration of the baptism of Jesus by John at the Jordan. As the Eastern church points out, it is at this moment that we see for the first time the union of God the Creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But we see something else as well. We see Jesus accepting baptism by John, a sign that Jesus accepts humanity, His own and ours, in all of its struggles, all of its limitations, all of its burdens, and all its focus on the ultimate, on the divine.

The feast days of Christmastide make the full meaning of Christmas clear. There can be no doubt about it: this child is human, yes, but he is of heavenly as well as earthly origin. In this child’s light we all walk safely through the unknown. We are all here with the Magi, full of gifts to give in his behalf.

What’s more, with the opening of the heavens on the bank of the Jordan, we all have our first vision of life beyond life.

Christmas is larger than a baby in a manger. Christmas is the coming of a whole new world. More than that, it is what makes that world possible."

Thanks also to Marilyn Santos for her beautiful image on her FB page for today, on the 12th day of Christmas, to which Google has added a little extra "twinklement."

"My true love gave to me...Twelve Drummers Drumming..

Marilyn relates that the song points to the twelve points in the Apostles' Creed:
1) I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 2) I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. 3) He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 4) He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell [the grave]. 5) On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 6) He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 7) I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, 9) the communion of saints, 10) the forgiveness of sins, 11) the resurrection of the body, 12) and life everlasting.
Amen.

I'll leave you with some gifts from Gerard Manley Hopkins.

I read Hopkin's poetry in my teens, and was entranced by his innovative use of language and rhythm, even if I didn't grasp the meaning of it all.
But in later years, I have come to appreciate his exquisite sixth sense of being able to write from the heart, to portray the emotional "ups and downs of the joys and anguish of faith, along with the intensity of his questioning search for God's presence and I can see how his writing is immersed in Ignatian spirituality.

His poem, "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day," is one that many can relate to at some point in life.

But his magnificent poem, "God's Grandeur," is perfect for theophanies: the Incarnational events before and at Christmas, at the Epiphany or at the Baptism of Jesus, or the Transfiguration, and then at Easter, and the post Resurrection appearances, at Pentecost and the Ascension into Heaven.

This is a beautiful reading of the poem by Stanley Kunitz,
who died in 2006 at the grand age of 101. He was Poet Laureate in the USA.
Here's an extract from the video...

"Back in 1926, I was roaming through the stacks of the Widener Library at Harvard. When I was walking through the section on English poetry of the nineteenth century, I just at random lifted my arm and picked a book off the shelf. It was attributed to an author I was not familiar with—Gerard Manley Hopkins. The page that I turned to and began to read was a page devoted to a poem called ‘God’s Grandeur.’

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It really shook me, because it was unlike anything else I had ever read before.

Suddenly that whole book became alive to me. It was filled with such a lyric passion; it was so fierce and eloquent, wounded and yet radiant, that I knew that it was speaking directly to me and giving me a hint of the kind of poetry that I would be dedicated to for the rest of my life.”

I also love this post from one of my favourite singers Andrew Peterson, who describes how he found the poem, and how he was moved to tears by the video below.

A few posts back I mentioned a book by Janet Morley titled "Haphazard by Starlight," which featured a poem a day from Advent to Epiphany. Hopkin's poem "God's Grandeur, " is also the final entry in her book.

Here's the complete poem.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; Bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with the warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

I included Hopkin's poem in this post in 2010, in late Advent,
which just goes to reinforce what I was saying earlier about my not always being in perfect synchronous time with the season !

Here's a short edited extract from Janet Morley's commentary on it.
Morley does not link the poem to the events of the baptism of Jesus, but I think it is a very appropriate one for this coming Sunday's feast, where the triune origin of our God is brought together beautifully in the Gospel

" The last six lines of the poem set a new direction and the poem recovers the exultant tone of its confident beginning: in spite of human exploitation and indifference, " nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things." This is a beautiful assertion of the integrity of the natural world, and its capacity for endlessly returning to the freshness of the moment of creation, since the grandeur of the creator inhabits every particle of it like a charge. Pointing out the pattern of day and night, sunset and new dawning are a constant cycle around the globe, the poem builds towards the line that recalls the moment of creation when as Genesis puts it, the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters before things were brought into being.

Many have observed that this description recalls the brooding of a bird that is hatching new life and the Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove. Hopkin's "warm breast" and "ah bright wings" give concreteness and intimacy to this image. It may also recall the cry of Jesus as He contemplates the city of Jerusalem where he will die, and which will itself soon be destroyed by the Romans: " How often would I have gathered your chidren together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not !" (Luke 13:34.)

......The Holy Spirit plays a crucial part in the conception of Jesus so here we have brought together the act of creation, the event of The Incarnation and the memory of Jesus death and the redemption of the world in one short celebratory poem.

That world remains bent and smudged by generations of the sins of humanity, but it is deep down still fresh and radiant with the unquenchable glory of God, made manifest to those with eyes to see."

Today, I also was lucky to discover a rare documentary video on Gerard Manley Hopkins on You Tube.

It's in six parts so I decided to include them all in this post, plus a short summary of his life.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 -- 8 June 1889) was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame established him as one of the Victorian era's greatest poets.
Born at Stratford, Essex, England (Now Newham, East London), on July 28, 1844. He was raised in a prosperous and artistic family. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, in 1863, where he studied Classics.

In 1864, Hopkins first read John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua, which was a defence of the author's reasons for converting to Catholicism.

Two years later, Newman himself received Hopkins into the Roman Catholic Church. Hopkins decided to become a priest himself, and in 1867 he entered a Jesuit novitiate near London. At that time, he vowed to "write no more...unless it were by the wish of my superiors." Hopkins burnt all of the poetry he had written to date and would not write poems again until 1875. He spent nine years in training at various Jesuit houses throughout England. He was ordained in 1877 and for the next seven years carried his duties teaching and preaching in London, Oxford, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Stonyhurst.

In 1875, Hopkins began to write again after a German ship, the Deutschland, was wrecked during a storm at the mouth of the Thames River. Many of the passengers, including five Franciscan nuns, died. Hopkins poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland" He introduced the term "sprung rhythm."

In 1884, he became a professor of Classics at University College in Dublin.

Hopkins writing desk
Newman House, Dublin -Source

Hopkins' experienced some dark nights of the soul in these years but his intense emotional and spiritual suffering produced some of his finest poetry.
He died five years later from typhoid fever and his poems were never published during his lifetime, but his friend poet Robert Bridges edited a volume of Hopkin's poems that first appeared in 1918.

In addition to developing new rhythmic effects, Hopkins was also very interested in ways of rejuvenating poetic language. He regularly placed familiar words into new and surprising contexts and in unusual word combinations. As he wrote to in a letter to Burns, "No doubt, my poetry errs on the side of oddness..."

Hopkin's memorial plaque outside the public library in The Grove, Stratford, London.Source

The inscription reads:

Loathed for a love men knew in them
Banned by the land of their birth,
Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them,
Surf, snow, river and earth
Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light.

from: Stanza 21 'The Wreck of the Deutschland'".'

I haven't watched all of these myself yet, but the opening scenes of the first video were spot on for the type of bleak weather we have been experiencing here in Cornwall and the rest of the UK these past few weeks !

and this quotation from Hopkins poem "Inversnaid," evoked a wry smile too !!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Related links

Poetry Foundation on Gerard Manley Hopkins

Dappled With Damson

2014-01-04T14:23:00.001+01:00

Nicholas Mynheer- Lullaby of Winter

Please check out more of Nicholas Mynheers's beautiful work at his website here.
It's stunning !

Here's a couple more

Flight Into Egypt

I kiss my hand

To the stars, lovely-asunder

Starlight, wafting him out of it; and

Glow, glory in thunder;

Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:

Since, tho’ he is under the world’s splendour and wonder,

His mystery must be instressed, stressed;

For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from The Wreck of the Deutschland

AboveThe Great Orion Nebula can be glimpsed as a fuzzy patch with the naked eye, and seen as a down-turned, flower-shaped cloud of gas and dust through backyard telescopes. Credit: Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF

Related article

From National Geographic- Five Sky Events This Week, A Cosmic Blooming Flower and a New Year's Shower

Friday Bonus Song - I Shall Not Walk Alone

2014-01-03T17:57:00.003+01:00

The Feast Of The Holy Name of Jesus and More on the New Jesuit Saint, Peter Faber

2014-01-03T17:17:00.002+01:00

Image source

The second round of today's news from the Vatican ( see previous post today here.)

Today, January 3rd, Pope Francis celebrated a Mass for The Feast Of The Most Holy Name of Jesus at the Jesuit Mother Church in Rome, along with 300 fellow Jesuits, and gave thanks for the New French Jesuit Saint Peter Faber/Pierre Favre.

Click here also. Extract - "In his homily, Pope Francis spoke of the particular way in which the Jesuit Order is marked – and desires to be signed - by the name of Jesus: “To march,” he said, “beneath the standard of His Cross.”

Pope Francis went on to explain that this means sharing in and having Christ’s very own sentiments. “It means,” he said, “to think like Him, to love like Him, to see [things the way He sees them], to walk like Him – it means doing what He did, and with the same sentiments He had, with the sentiments of His heart.”

Full text from page can be read here.

The canonisation of Peter Faber was announced by Pope Francis on 17 December. Pierre Favre, was the first companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola – for this reason he is known as “the second Jesuit” – and one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, of which he was also the first priest. The tombs of St. Ignatius and St. Pierre Favre are located in the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

Pope Francis dedicated his homily to the new saint, and said that he was a “restless” man of “lofty desires”: “it is necessary to search for God to find Him, and to find him in order to seek him again, and for ever. Only this restlessness brings peace to the heart of a Jesuit, a restlessness that is also apostolic, so that we never tire of proclaiming the kerygma, of evangelising with courage. And it is restlessness that prepares us to receive the gift of apostolic fruitfulness. Without restlessness, we are sterile”.

“And this was the restlessness of Pierre Favre”, continued the Pope, “a man of lofty desires, another Daniel. Favre was a 'modest, sensitive man with a profound inner life. He was endowed with the gift of making friends with people from every walk of life'. However, his was a restless, indecisive spirit, never satisfied.

Under the guidance of St. Ignatius he learned to unite his restless but gentle – indeed exquisite – sensibility with a capacity to make decisions. He was a man of lofty desires; he took charge of his desires, he recognised them. Rather, for Favre, it was precisely when faced with difficult tasks that he demonstrated the true spirit that sets into action”.

“An authentic faith always implies a deep desire to change the world. And this is the question we should pose ourselves: do we too have great visions and zeal? Are we bold too? Do our dreams fly high? Are we consumed by zeal? Or are we mediocre and satisfied with our theoretical apostolic plans?

Let us always remember that the strength of the Church does not reside in herself or in her organisational capacity, but is instead concealed in the deep waters of God.

And these waters agitate our desires, and our desires expand our hearts. It is as St. Augustine said: pray to desire and desire to expand your heart. It was precisely in his desires that Favre was able to discern the voice of God.
Without desires, one cannot go forth, and this is why we must offer our desires to the Lord. In the Constitutions it is said that we help our neighbours with the wishes presented to the Lord God”.

Favre, affirmed Pope Francis, “had the true and deep desire to open up in God”: he was completely centred in God, and for this reason he was able to go everywhere in Europe, in a spirit of obedience and often on foot, to enter into dialogue with everyone, with gentleness, and to proclaim the Gospel.

I think of the temptation that perhaps we experience, to which many people succumb, to link the proclamation of the Gospel with inquisitionary bludgeoning and condemnation.

No, the Gospel must be proclaimed with gentleness, in a fraternal spirit, with love.His familiarity with God led him to understand that inner experience and apostolic life always go together. He writes in his Memorial that the first movement of the heart must be that of desiring that which is essential and originary, or rather that priority must be reserved for seeking God, our Lord.

Favre experienced the desire to let the centre of his heart be occupied by Christ.
Only when centred in God is it possible to go out towards the peripheries of the world! Favre journeyed without respite even to geographical frontiers; indeed, it was said of him that he appeared to have been born never to stay still in any one place.

Favre was consumed by the intense desire to communicate the Lord. If we do not have the same desire, then we need to pause a while in prayer and, with silent fervour, ask the Lord, through the intercession of our brother Pierre, that we might again experience the fascination of the Lord who led Pierre in his 'apostolic follies'”, concluded Pope Francis.

2014 is also the Year of the Holy Name of Jesus in Ireland for the Franciscans and the Poor Clare Federation and the wider Franciscan family. The aim of the Year is simple -- to foster a renewed reverence and devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and in so doing to deepen personal love for the Lord Jesus and faithfulness to His Gospel among all people.

Plenty of excellent information available on this at the Irish Sacred Space 102 fm site here.

Related articles

A New Jesuit Saint -Peter Faber . Link to America magazine article.

A letter to fellow Jesuits from their Superior, Adolfo Nicolas, on Peter Faber's canonisation announced on the Pope's birthday,November 19th, 2013

Article from Online Journal Of British Jesuits on 2013 FeastDay of Peter Faber/Pierre Favre - " Everywhere There is Good To Be Done."

Repository of Images and short summary of Peter Faber's life from Jesuit Curia Website Rome

More excellent information on Peter Faber from William Ockham here and great to see my friend Claire Bangasser mentioned in William's post, ( one of my favourite writers too !) for her gift of a document on the Spirituality of Peter Faber by Severin Leitner.

C lick here for these resources at dot Magis the blog of Ignatian Spirituality.com

Click here for a homily for the Feast of St Ignatius Loyola on 31 July, 2013, given by Fr Michael Holman SJ who describes his visit to a chapel just outside Rome that Ignatius himself visited in 1537. As he prayed there, the founder of the Society of Jesus had an experience that informed his own mission; an experience which would in turn, shape the identity of his companions and all those in Ignatian orders today.

Update Wake Up The World - The Call Of Pope Francis To Religious Life and The Challenges Facing The Church

2014-01-03T16:41:00.000+01:00

"We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mould the People of God. This really gives me goose bumps.”

This is one of the stronger passages of the conversation between Pope Francis and the Union of Superiors General of Men.

The long dialogue about the challenges faced by religious life and the entire Church is reported by La Civiltà Cattolica in the edition released today at 3 p.m.

Click here for the complete English translation reported by Antonio Spadaro for the Italian publication La Civilta Cattolica,/The Catholic Civilsation held in November 2013, and published today.

The text is also available for download on the website www.laciviltacattolica.it in Italian, English and Spanish.

Father Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of the periodical sponsored by the Society of Jesus, joined the 120 superiors general who met with the Pope last November 29. He recounts the free and spontaneous conversation in a 15 page commentated chronicle of the meeting in light of the recent teaching of Pope Francis.

Among the many themes that surfaced: our complicated life which consists of grace and sin; being prophets in our world, fraternal community, complaint of a “novice slave trade” and of attitudes such as hypocrisy and fundamentalism, praise for Benedict XVI’s courageous decisions in confronting cases of abuse, the importance of charisms, the most urgent challenges, the relation between religious and bishops, the need for tenderness, knowing how to “caress conflicts,” and a jolt that is able to awaken our benumbed world.

Related links

Radio Vatican Short Summary

UK Catholic Herald's Take on The Interview

Jesuit John Thavis and his analysis on the interview

The Inevitable "Quotable Quotes " From The Catholic News Service

Blue Eyed Ennis

New Beginnings

Blessings Be With You And A Decision

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Sometimes

Poem from Jim Gordon's Blog Living Wittily from here.

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On Kairos Time, Liturgical Cycles, Theophanies and Gerard Manley Hopkins

Dappled With Damson

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The Feast Of The Holy Name of Jesus and More on the New Jesuit Saint, Peter Faber

Update Wake Up The World - The Call Of Pope Francis To Religious Life and The Challenges Facing The Church