RELATIONSHIPS

Quote for the Day - September 18, 2010


"Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger."


E. M. Forster [ 1879-1970], Howard's End (1910)

AND THE STONE 
BECAME FLESH ............

Quote for the Day - September 17, 2010

"Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart.
O when will it suffice?"

William Butler Yeats [1865-1935]

in Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1920)

"Easter, 1916"

MORALISTS

Quote for the Day -- September 16, 2010


"Moralists
are unhappy people.
When they insist
on the immutability
of moral principles,
they are reproached
for imposing unlivable
requirements on us.

When they explain
the way
those immutable principles
are to be put into force,
taking into account
the diversity of concrete situations,
they are reproached
for making morality relative.

In both cases,
however,
they are only upholdinig
the claims of reason
to direct life."


Jacques Maritain [1882-1973], Man and the State - 1949, but published in 1951

OUR LADY OF SORROWS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflection for today is, “Our Lady of Sorrows.”

This feast logically follows yesterday’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Christianity is a world religion because it deals with life and all its experiences. Life has not only joyful, glorious and wisdom or light bearing mysteries, but it also has sorrowful mysteries.

THE KEY TEXT

The key text is from Luke 2: 33-35 - when Mary is told by Simeon that a sword of sorrow shall pierce your heart so that the secret thoughts of many hearts will be seen.

Based on Mary’s life and based on that text, Christians down through the centuries feel God knows – because his Mother and his Son had to deal with the stab and sword of sorrow and pain.

SEVEN SORROWS
The 7 sorrows of Mary are:

1) Simeon’s prophecy at the Presentation (Luke 2: 25-35);
2) The escape to Egypt (Matthew 2: 13–15);
3) Jesus’ being lost and found in the Temple (Luke 2: 41–50);
4) Jesus meets Mary while carrying the cross (4 Station of the Cross);
5) Mary under the Cross at Jesus’ death (John 19: 25–30);
6) Mary holds Jesus’ dead body (13 Station of the Cross);
7) The burial of Jesus - (Luke 23: 50–56).

ARTISTS

Artists down through the years have sculpted and painted Mary and her sorrows.

We are all familiar with images of Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows – from the Pieta of Michaelangelo to the painting of our lady of Sorrows by many Spanish Artists like El Greco and Murillo.

Those in Redemptorist parishes all know about Our Lady of Perpetual Help – being a Lady of Sorrows. This is part of it’s popularity. We all have the image of the cross, the nails and the spear, in the background of our lives.

Picasso picked up on that theme with over 60 drawings of the crying woman – especially when he experienced the suffering women of the Spanish Civil War.

US

What are the biggest sufferings in life? What would be seven swords, seven sorrows that people have to deal with? Are they different for every person.

At first glance – first instance – I would list these seven:

· The loss of a child,
· betrayal,
· having enemies trying to get us,
· rejection.
· being attacked without being listened to,
· the loneliness of being misunderstood,
· death.

I guess better or worse, we have to name our own. Reflection on the life of Jesus and Mary – certainly will help.

Amen.

Paintings: Top Center, Picasso; Middle Right, Titian; Left bottom, El Greco

OUR LADY OF SORROWS

Quote for the Day - Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows - Sept. 15, 2010


"O Mother of God,
you are the mystical paradise,
which, untilled,
produced Christ,
through Whom
that life-bearing tree,
the Cross,
is planted on earth.
Wherefore
we now adore its exaltation,
and magnify you."


Byzantine Menaea,
Exaltation of the Cross (September 14),
Ninth Ode at Matins.
8th Century


Picture on top: Our Lady of Sorrows by Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682)

EXALTING THE CROSS,
EMPTYING THE SELF

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Exalting the Cross, Emptying the Self.”

Today, September 14, we Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Down through the centuries, this has been one of the key dates for this feast – but there are other days that this feast has been and is celebrated – not only in the Catholic Church but in the other Christian Churches as well.

7TH SACRAMENT

Last night as I was doing a bit of research and reading on this I noticed that in the Assyrian Church of the East – not affiliated with Rome – they make the Sign of the Cross the 7th Sacrament.

Immediate question: Which of our 7 don’t they consider a sacrament? Answer: Marriage. Interesting. Joke: some say at some times they are the same. Just a joke.

As I reflected upon that, do members of this Assyrian Christian Church of the East make the Sign of the Cross better – thinking it’s a sacrament – than we who don’t – or only consider it as a sacred sign?

I would think they would.

THE TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Exalting the Cross, Emptying the Self.”

As today’s 2nd reading points out – the great text from Philippians – Jesus emptied himself – lowered himself – by dying on the cross and then was exalted by the Father for suffering and dying for us.

I noticed in a sermon I read last night about the cross, some preacher suggested taking a pen or pencil and simply write the letter I on a blank piece of paper. Then he said, “Notice the I standing alone by itself. Next take that pen or pencil and cross out that I – eliminate oneself – and surprise – you have a cross.

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WHAT TO DO TODAY?

There are several things you can do today – to help make this feast significant.

Resolve next time you are at St. John Neumann’s church – to go up to the front – go up into the sanctuary – and stand under the cross and look up and see Jesus. Be aware of your reactions. Or you stand under the big cross in the back of this church.

Or make the stations of the Cross.

Or check out your home. Where is there a cross hanging? Dust it off. Then kneel before it and say to Jesus, “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. By your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

Or take a rosary and starting with the cross and then each bead say one of the four acclamations we say at Mass after the consecration, “Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the savior of the world. "

Or say on each bead, the great prayer message of John the Baptist from John 3:30, "I must decrease; you must increase."

Or say the prayer of Teilhard de Chardin [1881-1855] on each bead, "Christ ever greater."

CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Exalting the Cross, Emptying the Self.”



Picture of stained glass window on top from chapel in Malvern Pennsylvania Retreat House.

THE CRUX 

OF  

THE MATTER

Quote for the Day - Feast of the Holy Cross - September 14, 2010


"It is true,
and even tautological,
to say
that the Cross
is the crux of the matter."


G. K. Chesteron [1874-1936] The Everlasting Man (1925)