7 August, Traherne V: the Darling of His bosom.

Mary Mother from Hales Place Jesuit Chapel, Canterbury

Love is deeper than at first it can be thought. It never ceaseth but in endless things. It ever multiplies. Its benefits and its designs are always infinite. Were you not Holy, Divine, and Blessed in enjoying the World, I should not care so much to bestow it. But now in this you accomplish the end of your creation, and serve God best, and please Him most: I rejoice in giving it. For to enable you to please GOD, is the highest service a man can do you. It is to make you pleasing to the King of Heaven, that you may be the Darling of His bosom.

This is Meditation 11. To be read slowly and repeated. And the pictures of the Darling of Mary’s bosom seem to fit. They come from the Jesuit Chapel in Canterbury and from the Missionaries of Africa.

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February 23: Little Flowers of Saint Francis XII: A sense of humour helps, 1.

It is all too easy to be over solemn when reading about Jesus or his followers. Here Brother Masseo teases Francis, who takes it in good part and points a lesson from it. Another two-part post.

How Brother Masseo, as though mocking, said unto Saint Francis that all the world came after him: and he replied that this was for the confusion of the world and the grace of God.

W HENAS Saint Francis on a time abode in the House of Portiuncula with Brother Masseo of Marignano, a man of much sanctity, discretion and grace in speaking of God, for the which cause Saint Francis loved him much: one day Saint Francis returning from the wood and from his prayers, and being at the entrance to the wood, the said Brother Masseo desired to make proof of his humility, and stood over against him, and as though mocking said : “Why after thee ? why after thee ? why after thee?”

Replied Saint Francis: “What is this thou wouldest say?”

Quoth Brother Masseo, “I say, why doth all the world come after thee? And why is it seen that all men long to see thee, and hear thee, and obey thee? Thou art not a man comely of form, thou art not of much wisdom, thou art not noble of birth: whence comes it then that it is after thee that the whole world doth run?”

January 26: Reflections from the Little Flowers of Saint Francis. IV.

Apologies that we miscalculated where Church Unity Week clashed with The Little Flowers, so that this post got separated; but we conclude this chapter concerning Brother Bernard, Francis’s first follower. More flowers to follow next month.

Of Brother Bernard of Quintavalle, 4.

A certain man whose name was Silvester seeing that Saint Francis gave and let give so much money to the poor, being moved by greed, said to Saint Francis: “Thou hast not paid me in full for the stones thou didst buy of me for to rebuild the church; therefore pay me now that thou hast money.” Therewith Saint Francis, marvelling at his greed and willing not to stir up
strife with him, as a true follower of the holy Gospel, put his hands into the bosom of Bernard; and filled his hands with money, which he put into the bosom of Silvester, saying that if he wished for more, more would he give him.

Silvester being content with these, forthwith was away and gat him to his house: but in the evening bethinking him of what he had done throughout the day, and chiding himself for his
greed, pondering on the fervour of Bernard and the sanctity of Saint Francis, he had from God, on the night following and two other nights, a vision on this wise, that from the mouth of Saint Francis sprang a cross of gold, of which the top reached unto heaven, and the arms
stretched from the East even unto the West. By reason of this vision, he gave away all that he had for the love of God, and became a brother minor, and lived in the Order in such sanctity and grace that he spake with God, as doth one friend with another, whereof Saint Francis ofttimes was witness.

Bernard in like manner had such grace of God that oftentimes in contemplation was he caught up to God: and Saint Francis said of him, that he was worthy of all reverence, and that it was he that had founded this Order; inasmuch as he was the first to leave the world, keeping back naught for himself, but giving all unto the poor of Christ, and, when he took on him the Gospel poverty, offering himself naked in the arms of the Crucified;

Bless we His name,

world without end.

Amen.

Another picture from Christina Chase’s pilgrimage to Ste Anne de Beaupre.

25 December. Five notes: Father Andrew at Christmas, III.

More from Fr Andrew’s Introduction to his book of Carols.

The Mystery of the Incarnate Love has brought to us, first of all, a revelation of simplicity. Theology teaches us that the life of God is a simple act, and, since God is Love, that act must surely be, however expressed, an act of love; and here in the little Babe laid in the midst of the straw of our human poverty is the simple appeal and revelation of the love of God.

The second note is sympathy, and that in the direct meaning of the word – ‘suffering with.’ We cannot understand the mystery of suffering, and really there is no particular reason why we should, since God has suffered with us, and one of the sufferings of God was this very mystery of suffering, for did not He take upon His lips the great classic words of the twenty-second Psalm and cry in His own darkness, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’

The third note is joy. These poems and carols all have in them a note of joy and a note of pain. Laughter and tears are mingled in these Christmas songs.

The fourth is the sacredness of human nature. God joined together flesh and spirit. Sin put these asunder, and by the fall of man the flesh, which was only lower than spirit in condition and degree, became lower also in quality, and by the taint and twist of original sin this human nature of ours was made to seem a bad thing, as though the flesh were, in God’s intention, the enemy of spirit. In the coming of the Holy Child, when the angels sang their Gloria, once more flesh and spirit were united in perfect oblation.

The fifth note, which contains in it all else, is love. Over the cross, over the manger, over the altar, one can write the golden words, ‘God is Love.’

7 June: Year of Mercy: the Divine Mercy, is a GIVEN.

Strasbourg Cathedral: Thomas, Peter, et al.

God is love. The unconditional love of God, the Divine Mercy, is a GIVEN. It is always available. The one unforgivable sin is to think that our sin is too great for the mercy of God. As we see during Holy Week this was the sin of Judas: not that he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver but that he denied the Divine Mercy. He thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. He could have been forgiven just as Simon Peter was forgiven.

Mary Magdalene, with her pot of ointment, meets the Lord on Easter Morning. York Minster.

See the lesson in this piece of verse – author unknown [to me].

St. Peter was a liar

St. Dismas was a thief

Mary Magdalene a party girl

and Tom without belief.

 

but there they are in Heaven

smiling down upon us now

as each wears a tilted halo

on a badly battered brow.

 

so the sin of all you sinners

doesn’t definitely damn

for your “wasness” doesn’t matter

if your “isness” really am.

Mercy does not come from the attributes of the God nor from the fruits of philosophical speculation – as the manuals suggested – but solely from the historical self-revelation of God in Jesus. Dogma has difficulty with a compassionate God. As God is total fullness of being – such perfection does not allow for God to suffer! So mercy became pity – God not suffering, but being with his people who do! God has no connection with life as we know it, which is why God has become irrelevant.

The manuals associated mercy with justice – as we know it – you get what you deserve. God rewards the good and punishes the bad – if this wasn’t so how could God be just? The answer often given was God is merciful to those who repent [conditions apply!] – And punishes those who do not. The relationship between justice and mercy divided the Church in the 16th Century. With the dialogue between Catholic and Lutheran in the 20th Century it was realised that God’s justice is God’s mercy. Now, mercy is no longer a Cinderella no way is there a saccharine God, but one who takes wholeness/holiness seriously. Mercy is out of place if it is not social.

 

AMcC.