The Meditation. The Second Sunday in Great Lent March 17 th - A.D. 2019

Transcription

1 The Meditation The Second Sunday in Great Lent March 17 th - A.D Jesus and the Canaanite Woman (c. 1500) Painting by John of Flanders (Juan de Flandes: ) Upon the Gospel of the Day: St. Matthew; Chap. 15, Vss

2 The Introit (Entrance) Prayer for the Second Sunday in Great Lent Unto thee, O Lord, will I lift up my soul: O my God, I have put my trust in thee, O let me not be confounded. (Psalm 25) The Living and Life-giving Bread We can read in the sixth chapter of St. John those unforgettable words of our Blessed Lord, where He speaks of Himself as the living Bread; words which contain such great truth. He Who could say of Himself I am the Life [1] may also call Himself the Bread of life, God s gift to mankind, which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Let us ask our Lord Jesus to give us the grace to accept these truths without question, and to ruminate upon them. Fed by Him, the true Bread of life, we ll live through Him, as He lives by the Father, and in the last day shall rise again in eternal union with Him. [2] Our Lord s sermon on the living Bread is based on that other truth: I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh into the Father, but by me. (St. John; Chap. 14, Vs. 6) Christ, the head of the Church, gives life to the world, and it is only through Him that we can reach that future life which is eternal. We live in times which many believe that one way is just as good as another, one truth is as valid as another, and they attempt to minimize the words of the Son of God... the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus, never ambiguous, would have made mention of this if that were the case, but instead, He is emphatic: I am the way, the truth, and the life. St. Ambrose can save many souls a lot of time and trouble when he writes: When we have travelled all ways, we shall come to the End of all ways, He who says, I am the way. [3] Jesus continually reminds us of the fruits of our union with Him and the sign of our share in His divine nature the resurrection on the last day. We become part of that living Bread, by giving ourselves to Him as sharers in His eternal life. Faith in Jesus Christ may be likened to bread: His words are spirit and life [4]. Jesus took Mary s flesh, lived here on earth in that flesh, and gave it to us, to be the food of our salvation, writes St. Augustine of Hippo. He concludes by saying: Our faith is sound if we believe that no man, old or young, is delivered from the contagion of death and the bonds of sin, except by the one Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ. [5] Jesus continues: The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (St. John; Chap. 6, Vs. 51.) His promise is accomplished literally when at the last Supper He says; Take, eat, this is my body.[6] The eucharistic Jesus is an absolute necessity for our spiritual life: Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. (St. John; Chap. 6, Vs. 53) Those who eat that Flesh and drink that Blood are united to the true Vine that has eternal life in them, because Christ dwells continually in them, and they in Christ. [7] The Venerable Bede writes: He washes us from our sins daily in His Blood, when the memory of His blessed passion is repeated at the altar, when the creature of bread and wine is transferred into the sacrament of His Flesh and Blood by the ineffable sanctification of His Spirit: and thus His Body and His Blood is poured out and killed, 2

3 not by the hands of infidels to their destruction, but is assumed by the mouth of the faithful unto their salvation. [8] All who desire to come to the Father must come by the Way which is Jesus Christ, on Whom God has set His seal, and without Whom there is no salvation. Divine Love found a means by which we can be united to Him: the species of bread in which He, God, is contained. Whosoever eats this Bread dwells in Christ and Christ dwells in them. St. Augustine also tells us that the intrinsic power of the Eucharist is the power of producing that union. We are absorbed in Christ s Body, of which we become members, and are made what we receive. Christ says of mankind: Only the spirit gives life; the flesh is of no avail. (St. John; Chap. 6, Vs. 63). What an awesome and overwhelming mystery this is! Spirit and flesh combine to give us life in God. It is His free gift to all of us, the gift of the Spirit of love, whose freedom is boundless, and, Who is the cause of our life in Him. We have but one heart, one soul, and one body with Christ in Communion. No words of ours can express the fullness of that union, that merging of two personalities, unhindered by the material or physical, and in which all obstacles that make up our humanity disappear. The soul loves itself in its origin, a member in the whole body. It s an entry into peaceful rest, the self lost in the infinite Self... God. May we all give deeper thought to these truths, and may our dispositions on receiving Holy Communion be grounded in them! Lent is the perfect time to read and meditate upon this. We may discover that the soul travels from strength to strength, from glory to glory, simply because Christ remains in it, conforming all to Himself. Lent is the time of year when we are most likely hear Bach s St. Matthew s Passion played on the airwaves of local classical and public radio channels. These words are within that great masterpiece: Lord, I give thee my heart! O my salvation, lose thyself in it, that I may lose myself in thine! Getting lost in Jesus... what a beautiful thought! O Lord, grant unto us, we pray thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood that we may constantly feel in our lives the effects of thy redemption. Amen. 3

4 The priest is much more than just a Minister of the Gospel... He is an Ambassador for Christ, and like Christ, A victim at the altar for humanity, and a mediator in the confessional between God and man for the latter s place in eternity. Meditation Notes: [1] St. John; Chap. 11, Vs. 25 [2] Ref; St. John; Chap. 6, Vss. 32 & 33: Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. [3] St. Ambrose of Milan: Explanation of Psalm 118: 5, 22 (4 th cent.) [4] St. John; Chap. 6, Vs. 54: Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. [5] St. Augustine of Hippo: De Correptione et Gratia (On Rebuke and Grace); 7. (5 th cent.) [6] St. Matthew; Chap. 26, Vs. 26 St. Mark; Chap. 14, Vs. 22 St. Luke; Ch. 22, Vs.9 1 Cor. Ch. 11, Vs. 24 [7] St. John; Chap. 6, Vs. 57: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father : so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. [8] St. Bede the Venerable: excerpted from his Homilies, I, 14 4

5 Priory Kalendar For the week of: March 17 th to March 24 th - A.D in Great Lent Sunday, March 17 th.... Second Sunday in Lent Comm. St. Patrick of Ireland; B. & C. - 4 th /5 th cent. Monday, March 18 th.... St. Cyril of Jerusalem; B. C. & Doct. 4 th cent...fast Day. Tuesday, March 19 th.... St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin and Foster- Father of Jesus Christ...Fast Wednesday, March 20 th.. St. Cuthbert; B. C.-O.S.B. - 7 th cent. England...Fast Day Vernal Equinox- BEGINS! Full Worm Moon Thursday, March 21 st.. Our Holy Father St. Benedict: Ab. & founder O.S.B. 5 th cent. Feast Day for Benedictines....Partial Fast 2- day Establishment of the Cistercian Order in Friday, March 22 nd.... Feria in Lent... Fast and Abstinence First day on which Easter can fall. Saturday, March 23 rd... St. Ethelwald; Hermit, O.S.B. 7 th cent. England...Fast Day Sunday, March 24 th... Third Sunday in Lent Comm. St. Gabriel the Archangel. March 18 th March 19 th March 21 st St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. Joseph Spouse of the B.V.M. St. Benedict 5

6 Guardian Angel Card of the Week Guardian Angel watching over a sleeping child (2) KALENDAR KEY: Abt. = Abbot, Abs. = Abbess, Abp = Archbishop, Anc. = Anchorite, Ancs. = Anchoress, Ap. = Apostle, Bl. = Blessed, Br. = Brother, Bp. = Bishop, Card. = Cardinal, C. or Conf. = Confessor, Comm. = Commemoration/Commemorate, Dcn. = Deacon, Doct. = Doctor of the Church, Ev. = Evangelist, H. = Hermit, LBr. = Lay Brother, LSr. = Lay Sister, K. = King, Mat. = Matron, M. = Monk, M.M. = Month s Mind ( Requiem for the recently departed on the 30 th day after death or burial). Myr. = Martyr, N. = Nun, Obl. = Oblate, P. = Priest, Po. = Pope, Pr. = Prior, Prs. = Prioress, R. = Recluse, RM = Requien Mortuorum, ( Mass and Offices for the departed once a month as designated on Kalendar). SDcn. = Sub Deacon, Q. = Queen, Ven. = Venerable, Vir.=Virgin, W. = Widow. FASTING KEY: A = Abstinence, F = Fast, F & A = Fast and Abstinence RELIGIOUS ORDER ABBREVIATIONS: C.O = Congregation of the Oratory (Oratorians), C.P. = Congregation of the Passion (Passionists), C.S.J. = Congregation of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Er. Cam. = Camaldolese Hermits, F.P. O. = Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, O. Car. = Carmelite Order, O. Cart. Carthusian Order, O.C.D. = Order of Discalced Friars (Carmelites), O.F.A. = Augustinian Order, O.F.M = Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), O.F.M. Cap = Capuchin Order, O.P. = Order of Preachers (Dominicans also called Blackfriars ), O. Praem. = Order of Cannons Regular (Norbertines), O.S.B. = Order of St. Benedict (Benedictines), O.Ss. S. = Bridgettines, O.S.U = Ursulines, O.C.O. = Order of the Cistercian Observance (Trappists/Trappistines), O.C.S.O. = Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists/ Trappistines). Tert. = Tertiary (Third Order religious) 6

7 About the Meditation and About Us The Meditation is an online apostolate of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Priory in Raymond, Maine, USA. We are an Anglican-Catholic Benedictine contemplative community that follows the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, the 5 th century Father of Western Monasticism. We are resident within the Diocese of the Northeast (DNE), of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), a member of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). The Meditation is a weekly online offering that is sent out free of charge to anyone who desires to receive it. Subscribers may copy and pass along The Meditation to their families and friends, or send us their e-address (with their permission) to add to our subscription list so they may receive it directly from us. Each issue is sent out as a BCC (Blank Copy) in respect to subscriber privacy and online security. To subscribe, contact us at: klamarre@maine.rr.com To read past issues of the Meditation, please go to our website at: and you can find them in the section marked Meditations on the homepage. PLEASE NOTE: In respect to our contemplative vocation and the animals in our rescue and rehab center, we do not have guest or bathroom facilities and do not regularly receive visitors. Fr. Kevin is available to hear confessions and give spiritual direction by appointment only. Please contact via to make an appointment or to make us aware of your needs, concerns and intentions for our prayerful attention. It is our privilege to pray for you. NOTE: We think due to the discrepancy between Windows 7 and Windows 10 we are not receiving some of your s. The Meditation will continue to be sent from klamarre@maine.rr.com however if you do us to subscribe, schedule confessions or spiritual counseling, and do not get a response please contact Fr. Kevin on his gmail account which is revkev258@gmail.com. PLEASE CONSIDER REMEMBERING US IN YOUR ESTATE PLANNING Contact Sr. Mary Francis, O.S.B. for more information via our address Animal News By Sr. Mary Francis Naptime for Zooey 7

8 Little Zooey continues to surprise us every day. She is feeding like a champ, starting to eat hay and playing in her water bowl. She not only can stand and get up on her own but bounces all over her pen. We are going to start bracing her neck a little at a time, along with the massage she has been getting to see how much we can correct her curvature. Unfortunately, in doing this, and especially where she was a preemie, we had to be sure she was a solid eater and able to stand before we could think about stressing her out with bracing. So, we gain ground and lose ground all at once but she is a champ with an unflappable and joyful will to live. We thank those of you Animal Angels who have sent funds to help with Zooey and the others. We could not do this without you. We also want to thank those of you who saved your prayerful pennies for the Deo Gratias fund of which we were named a recipient. We have not yet received these funds but wanted to express our gratitude none the less. God bless you all. PAX 8

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