The New Evangelization is Doomed (Because of Posts Like This One)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Rae 5 Comments

“The New Evangelization” is one of those Catholic terms which has been tossed around just enough that many people are completely confident about their confused understanding of it. I frequently see it used to mean “evangelization through new media.” If that were really all the term meant, then I think we could be confident that the Church is responding, and will continue to respond fully to the call for a New Evangelization.

But new media, while useful in its own ways, isn’t what the New Evangelization is really all about. Since it does not really matter what I say about these things, I will go with what my bishop, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, says.

Cardinal Wuerl is often quoted as saying that “At its heart the New Evangelization is the reproposing of the encounter with the Risen Lord, his Gospel and his Church to those who no longer find the Church’s message engaging.” (one source)

The New Evangelization is about each of us first of all cleaning up our own relationship with the Risen Christ and the Church. Then, from our renewed life, the New Evangelization is about passing on the joy of the Catholic faith to reawaken those who know the Gospel without actually knowing it.

You can read all about the New Evangelization here. Or you can read this long string of quotes excerpted from the letter:

The contemporary culture has reached a point where it turns off what is not immediately accessible. Our society prefers to listen in sound bites, rather than in semesters. Slogans replace thoughtful explanations. The broad advances of globalization over a relatively short span of time have had significant effects on daily life.

Entire generations have become disassociated from the support systems that facilitated the transmission of faith.

But no darkness, no matter how dense, can thwart or shroud the seed of new life waiting to emerge in this fresh moment. The missionaries in the first evangelization covered immense geographic distances to spread the Good News. We, the missionaries of the New Evangelization, must surmount ideological distances just as immense, oftentimes before we ever journey beyond our own neighborhood or family.

There are numerous people, particularly in the Western world, who have already heard of Jesus. Our call is to stir up again and rekindle in the midst of their daily life and concrete situation, a new awareness and familiarity with Jesus. We are called not just to announce, but to adapt our approach so as to attract and to urge an entire generation to find again the uncomplicated, genuine and tangible treasure of friendship with Jesus.

This is our mandate: to witness to others so that they reawaken to and rediscover the vital and inexhaustible friendship of Jesus Christ. Sisters and brothers, our eagerness and zeal for the task can be both the invitation and support for those who take their first steps back to the community of faith, as the ever deepening life within the seed is drawn to the light.

I hope all of us will see the New Evangelization as a lens through which we see everything that we are doing but now in the light of our understanding of how important it is for each of us to tell the story, share the excitement and be that leaven where the faith has gone flat and that salt where the faith has lost its zest.

In every action, our starting point and goal is Jesus Christ.

This pastoral initiative dedicated to the New Evangelization is the threshold of our own renewed, solid commitment, as a local Church, to the summons of Jesus. As we accept his promise of life in abundance, we also lean upon his promise so that we might find strength in every situation as we are called in new and, perhaps untried, directions.

Culture is the field of the New Evangelization. Culture refers to the daily ethos, the various networks of understanding and meaning that give rise to the many everyday connections between the person, community and society. Culture forms the deeper and more vital link that relates the person to the community and the community to society.

Every moment becomes a new opportunity to connect another person with the abundant Springtime that God promises. In this, we are protagonists of hope.

Protagonists of hope. How often the Church calls for the impossible!

I have very limited hope for the New Evangelization when I see the way that devout Catholic women interact online. Based on my (admittedly limited) experience, I believe that the New Evangelization is doomed. Apart from divine intervention, devout Catholics will choose to fight about appropriate etiquette rather than answer the Church’s call to share Christ with the faithful not in full communion with the Church’s ideals.

This unwillingness to participate in the New Evangelization has been made incredibly clear in recent backlash to a linkup where Catholic women post about what they wore to church on Sunday. Normal people outside of the limited target audience would probably yawn. But devout Catholic women are hardly normal. Instead of ignoring something which does not seem useful to them personally, they will invest the emotional energy required to tear it apart.

If you are not from these circles you might think that this is just typical female cattiness. But I am immersed enough to believe that these women are sincere rather than jealous. Unfortunately, giving them the benefit of the doubt turns out to make their reaction seem appalling rather than annoying.

One example is this comment quoted publicly on another blog:

I see this whole trend (What I Wore Sunday) coming out of discontentment with living such a hidden life. We all so want others to recognize the good that we do…I think this is an attempt to show that we are hip and trendy even if we do stay home. It’s like saying..” I still got it” or “See I can have it all!” instead of being content to live the hidden life of Nazareth…

(I will not source this quote unless requested to do so by the person who wrote it)

Read this with the belief that it was written in good faith and sincerity by a woman who considers herself to be fully living out the call of the Church, by a woman who sees herself as properly understanding the beauty of the call of Christ while other women are failing.

Read it and weep.

Because if you read this as written (and subsequently quoted) with sincere spiritual  reservations about this linkup, then you cannot help but be horrified by the fact that the response of these devout women is one of absolute defiance of all that is called for by the New Evangelization.

Let’s say that these devout women are correct in their understanding. Let’s say that this linkup does detract from all that we hope to receive in participating in Sunday Mass. What then?

Well, if one cared to see with the lens of the New Evangelization, she would seek to repropose Christ to her sisters who have failed to appreciate the great beauty of the life to which they are called and instead embraced vanity. She would take 10 seconds to read about the women behind the linkup. That would allow her to see that both women are very young and that one of them is not yet even Catholic. It is clearly inappropriate to expect these two women to be the spiritual peer of our hypothetical devout woman who has spent years being formed in the faith.

Thus a devout woman who cared about the call of the New Evangelization would seek to reach these women in a way that enabled her to bring them back to a more faithful life. Perhaps she would follow the example of Our Lord who ate with prostitutes and lower herself to actually participate in the linkup. Perhaps she could not bring herself to risk the scandal of participating in something she believes to be wrong, but she could still comment on the blogs of her lost sisters and build relationships with them.

But this is a dream, not reality. In reality, devout Catholic women like to criticize without going to the bother of building relationships which allow for both conversation and conversion. They would rather live in a limited bubble of perfection than to squander their precious time reaching out to others who do not meet their standards.

There are, of course, a few exceptions. But a few exceptions are not enough to carry out the incredible burden of the New Evangelization.

The New Evangelization is doomed. Devout Catholics must undergo a radical conversion which enables them to find drawing others back to Christ more appealing than stepping back and criticizing those who do not live up to their standards. Unless this happens, the bishops are wasting their time talking about a New Evangelization.

My bishop has put an incredible amount of work into promoting the New Evangelization. He calls me to be a protagonist of hope.

But the New Evangelization is exhausting. It requires a willingness to change, to adapt, to reach out to others when we would much rather analyze their mistakes. The New Evangelization requires one to care first and critique later.

I do not have the emotional energy to sustain friendships with women whom I deeply admire, with women whom I rely on as mentors. How then am I supposed to have energy to respond to all of the faithful women whom I see as missing out on the Church’s greatest joys?

Instead I offer you this post in beautiful irony. I make no claim to be a devout Catholic woman, but I fail right along with them.

I remain unfaithfully yours. My fervent prayer is that you will succeed where I fail, that you will joyfully embrace the call of the New Evangelization to get over yourself and draw others to Christ. The fate of the New Evangelization is in your hands.

. . .

Want to get started? Check out Seven Things Catholics Should Know About the New Evangelization

Catholic Fights , , , ,

John of the Cross Novena: Day 6

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Rae Leave a comment

Novena to Saint John of the Cross

Day 6:

Listen Here.

Full Text of Novena Here.

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised, and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

Sixth Day: Purity of Soul and Body

Great St. John of the Cross, favored by our Lord and the glorious Virgin, his mother, in reward for your angelic life and with the precious gift of chastity, you converted many souls held captive by the most shameful passions.

Obtain for me some share in so priceless a gift that, pure and chaste in soul and body, I may reach heaven where nothing stained may enter and where choirs of virgins follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Obtain for me also the special grace I ask through your intercession during this novena, if it be for the glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

Pope Benedict XVI on John of the Cross (read the complete audience here) 

John faced great suffering with exemplary serenity and patience. He died in the night between 13 and 14 December 1591, while his confreres were reciting Matins. He took his leave of them saying: “Today I am going to sing the Office in Heaven”. His mortal remains were translated to Segovia. He was beatified by Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726.

John is considered one of the most important lyric poets of Spanish literature. His major works are four: The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, The Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love.

In The Spiritual Canticle St John presents the process of the soul’s purification and that is the gradual, joyful possession of God, until the soul succeeds in feeling that it loves God with the same love with which it is loved by him. The Living Flame of Love continues in this perspective, describing in greater detail the state of the transforming union with God.

The example that John uses is always that of fire: just as the stronger the fire burns and consumes wood, the brighter it grows until it blazes into a flame, so the Holy Spirit, who purifies and “cleanses” the soul during the dark night, with time illuminates and warms it as though it were a flame. The life of the soul is a continuous celebration of the Holy Spirit which gives us a glimpse of the glory of union with God in eternity.

The Ascent of Mount Carmel presents the spiritual itinerary from the viewpoint of the gradual purification of the soul, necessary in order to scale the peaks of Christian perfection, symbolized by the summit of Mount Carmel. This purification is proposed as a journey the human being undertakes, collaborating with divine action, to free the soul from every attachment or affection contrary to God’s will.

Purification which, if it is to attain the union of love with God must be total, begins by purifying the life of the senses and continues with the life obtained through the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity, which purify the intention, the memory and the will.

The Dark Night describes the “passive” aspect, that is, God’s intervention in this process of the soul’s “purification”. In fact human endeavor on its own is unable to reach the profound roots of the person’s bad inclinations and habits: all it can do is to check them but cannot entirely uproot them. This requires the special action of God which radically purifies the spirit and prepares it for the union of love with him.

Saint John describes this purification as “passive”, precisely because, although it is accepted by the soul, it is brought about by the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit who, like a burning flame, consumes every impurity. In this state the soul is subjected to every kind of trial, as if it were in a dark night.

This information on the Saint’s most important works help us to approach the salient points of his vast and profound mystical doctrine, whose purpose is to describe a sure way to attain holiness, the state of perfection to which God calls us all.

According to John of the Cross, all that exists, created by God, is good. Through creatures we may arrive at the discovery of the One who has left within them a trace of himself. Faith, in any case, is the one source given to the human being to know God as he is in himself, as the Triune God. All that God wished to communicate to man, he said in Jesus Christ, his Word made flesh. Jesus Christ is the only and definitive way to the Father (cf. Jn 14:6). Any created thing is nothing in comparison to God and is worth nothing outside him, consequently, to attain to the perfect love of God, every other love must be conformed in Christ to the divine love.

From this derives the insistence of Saint John of the Cross on the need for purification and inner self-emptying in order to be transformed into God, which is the one goal of perfection. This “purification” does not consist in the mere physical absence of things or of their use; on the contrary what makes the soul pure and free is the elimination of every disorderly dependence on things. All things should be placed in God as the centre and goal of life.

Of course, the long and difficult process of purification demands a personal effort, but the real protagonist is God: all that the human being can do is to “prepare” himself, to be open to divine action and not to set up obstacles to it. By living the theological virtues, human beings raise themselves and give value to their commitment. The growth of faith, hope and charity keeps pace with the work of purification and with the gradual union with God until they are transformed in him.

When it reaches this goal, the soul is immersed in Trinitarian life itself, so that St John affirms that it has reached the point of loving God with the same love with which he loves it, because he loves it in the Holy Spirit.

For this reason the Mystical Doctor maintains that there is no true union of love with God that does not culminate in Trinitarian union. In this supreme state the holy soul knows everything in God and no longer has to pass through creatures in order to reach him. The soul now feels bathed in divine love and rejoices in it without reserve.

Dear brothers and sisters, in the end the question is: does this Saint with his lofty mysticism, with this demanding journey towards the peak of perfection have anything to say to us, to the ordinary Christian who lives in the circumstances of our life today, or is he an example, a model for only a few elect souls who are truly able to undertake this journey of purification, of mystical ascesis?

To find the answer we must first of all bear in mind that the life of Saint John of the Cross did not “float on mystical clouds”; rather he had a very hard life, practical and concrete, both as a reformer of the Order, in which he came up against much opposition and from the Provincial Superior as well as in his confreres’ prison where he was exposed to unbelievable insults and physical abuse.

His life was hard yet it was precisely during the months he spent in prison that he wrote one of his most beautiful works. And so we can understand that the journey with Christ, travelling with Christ, “the Way”, is not an additional burden in our life, it is not something that would make our burden even heavier but something quite different. It is a light, a power that helps us to bear it.

If a person bears great love in himself, this love gives him wings, as it were, and he can face all life’s troubles more easily because he carries in himself this great light; this is faith: being loved by God and letting oneself be loved by God in Jesus Christ. Letting oneself be loved in this way is the light that helps us to bear our daily burden.

And holiness is not a very difficult action of ours but means exactly this “openness”: opening the windows of our soul to let in God’s light, without forgetting God because it is precisely in opening oneself to his light that one finds strength, one finds the joy of the redeemed.

Let us pray the Lord to help us discover this holiness, to let ourselves be loved by God who is our common vocation and the true redemption. Many thanks. (Click here to read the complete audience)

Prayer, Saints , , , , ,

Advent Vespers

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Rae 1 Comment

For those of you who don’t have the option of sung vespers near you this Advent:

Advent ,

What I Wore Sunday: That Time of Year

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Rae 6 Comments

We have now reached that lovely time of the year which really, really needs a new name. Did you know that around here they lump together the seasons from Advent to Easter and call them by one name?

Flu season.

Dreadful, right?

So we really need to do our Catholic part in redeeming this time of year with a new name. ;-) I can’t really come up with anything other than the purple-sandwich (because it is basically violet, white, green, violet), and that’s no good!

Anyway, it is coat season for me.

When it came time to take a picture for What I Wore Sunday I decided to keep it real by showing you what my parish actually saw. I am wearing a purple shirt, brown dress pants, and brown dress shoes (not flats because apparently my brown flats are visiting my parents). But I never took my coat off because I was feeling a bit cold.

Which brings me to another point. I tend to feel a little rude when keeping a coat or hat on in church. I used to have a rule of taking my coat off when going up to receive communion, but I’ve apparently gotten over that.

I wonder if this is completely my own random quirk or if anyone else feels like it is slightly less than desirable to keep one’s coat on in church?

For Smirks , , ,

John of the Cross Novena: Day 5

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Rae Leave a comment

Novena to Saint John of the Cross


Day 5:

Listen Here.

Full Text of Novena Here.

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus
crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised,
and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so
burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments
and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

Fifth Day: Protection from Temptation

Dear Saint John of the Cross, you exercised dominion over the powers of hell,
often obliging them to relinquish the souls, as well as the bodies of their victims.

Have compassion on me; ask God to preserve me from the temptations and deceits of these wicked spirits, not only throughout my life, but above all at the hour of my death, that persevering to the end in the grace and love of God, I may possess Him with you forever.

Obtain for me also the special grace I ask through your intercession during this novena, if it be for the glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

Prayer, Saints , , , ,

John of the Cross Novena: Day 4

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Rae Leave a comment

Novena to Saint John of the Cross


Day 4:

Listen Here.

Full Text of Novena Here.

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus
crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised,
and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so
burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments
and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

Fourth Day: Holy Patience

Great St. John of the Cross, model of patience and generosity, for the glory
of God and for the propagation of the holy reform of Carmel, you endured
grievous trials and undertook heavy labors, finding, as did St. Paul, joy in
opprobrium.

Obtain from our Lord for me the grace of unalterable patience in adversity that I may thereby glorify God, have cleansed my souls of every
stain, advance in the practice of solid virtue, and obtain at last the crown promised to those who suffer for the love of God.

Obtain for me also the special grace I ask through your intercession during this novena, if it be
for the glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

Prayer, Saints , , ,

Liturgical Confusion

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Rae 1 Comment

You know what is difficult? Trying to be liturgically correct with one’s celebrations.

For instance: today is December 7th, the feast of Saint Ambrose. For the past few years, we have celebrated by having honey (preferably with the honeycomb) on this day.

But today is also a Friday. During Advent (which is a penitential season, if even if no one knows it). And it is a First Friday. Which much of the Church takes extra seriously.

Honey is totally a happy treat for me. Hence why I love the feast of Saint Ambrose! Well, that and the fact that he was kind of the most Saintly chill dude about liturgical snobbery ever: “When I visit Rome, I fast on Saturday; when I am here, I do not fast. On the same principle, do you observe the custom prevailing in whatever Church you come to, if you desire neither to give offense by your conduct, nor to find cause of offense in another’s.” (source)

So pretty much the Saint of today is telling me that I should just do what all the local Catholics do… which is pretty much whatever they want. Got it!

Just for fun though, let me remind you of the rest of the complications of today. The evening of December 7th is obviously the vigil of December 8th, the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Which means that it is a time for celebration, not penance! Which meant that after we returned from the vigil mass it was the perfect time for honeycomb!

Except it isn’t the Feast of Saint Ambrose if it is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Which means we were too late and missed the chance to celebrate Ambrose. Saint Ambrose, I am sorry for missing your birthday feast day. I firmly resolve, with the help of thine intercession, to read more of your writings, eat more honey, and do better next year!

BTW what do you think about starting to use “LC” to mean “Liturgically Correct” in the same derisive sort of way that people use “PC?” A great way to honor Saint Ambrose every day of the year, right?

Also, in case you didn’t catch it, this was a jovial post. I only stress about liturgical issues when it is fun.

Holy Days , , , ,

John of the Cross Novena: Day 3

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Rae Leave a comment

Novena to Saint John of the Cross


Day 3:

Listen Here. 

Full Text of Novena Here.

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus
crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised,
and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so
burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments
and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

Third Day: Holy Enlightenment

O my beloved father St. John of the Cross, your continual prayer merited for
you the name of Ecstatic Doctor, favored with special graces in the guidance
and direction of souls.

I humbly beg you to enlighten my soul and to give me a relish for holy meditation that, detached from earthly things, I may love God alone and desire heaven only.

Obtain for me also the special grace I ask through your intercession during this novena, if it be for the glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

From John of the Cross: The person, His Times, His Writings by Michael Dodd, O.C.D. (read the rest here)

To begin this series of lectures on St. John of the Cross, I want us to reflect on spontaneous images or associations we have for saints. St. Francis: gentle figure surrounded by birds entranced by his preaching. St. Thérèse: childlike tenderness scattering roses. St. Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila: laughing and vital, dancing before her nuns with castanets. And St. John of the Cross? What image do you have? A friar on Christmas Day picking up a statue of the Christ child and dancing around the room? A small friar compo sing songs and singing to entertain his companions on a hot and dusty journey? A careful administrator, giving advice on how to deal with unscrupulous landowners over the pur chase of a convent? An artist drawing sketches to give to the sisters whose confessions he hears, or designing the cloister of a monastery or supervising the construction of an aqueduct? A manual laborer working in the garden, picking chickpeas and threshing them? A religious superior surrounded by political intrigue who concerns himself first with making sure the sick are fed, even preparing and serving them the food himself? The poet, the lover of nature, the beloved brother? What is your image?

PAST IMAGES OF THE SAINT

My guess is that none of these is the first that comes to mind, although they are all easily shown to be John of the Cross. Instead we think of the mystic, eyes gazing abstractedly into the distance, hands clutching a cross, a whip or other instrument of penance. This is the man, “dry-eyed and bleeding,” called by some the butcher saint for his harsh demands and rigors. This is the saint of the dark night of the soul, the saint of the naked ascent of the Mount of Carmel. This is the saint of the nada nothing, nothing, nothing. This is the saint whose motto, reproduced on holy cards and paintings, is “To suffer and be despised for you, Lord.” If the province of Avila is the land of santos y cantos, saints and stones, in John of the Cross it seems to have produced the saint of stone. Or so it can appear.

Yet when he died, crowds of the poor flocked to view his body, to kiss hands and feet. In spite of the efforts of friars to prevent it, visitors tore pieces from his habit to remember him by. The cities of Ubeda, where he died, and Segovia, to which his body was transferred secretly two years after his death, fought over possession of the remains, petitioning all the way to the Holy See for resolution. The common people venerated him so much that it actually delayed his beatification, because the reverence shown went beyond that permitted by the Church until after serious and official inquiry has pronounced on the virtues of one with a reputation for holiness. For a while the place where he was buried had to be concealed to prevent people from leaving flowers or candles there. When visiting Ubeda some years ago, I was told that the city, long before John’s beatification, had gone so far as to proclaim him co-patron along with the archangel Michael. Do people respond thus to a saint of stone?

Some may be inclined to say that it does not matter what image you have of John of the Cross, since it is primarily his writings that interest us today. Yet people will also say that they find John of the Cross difficult to read or to believe or to accept. It is a commonplace to say that John of the Cross’s writings should not be given to beginners in the spiritual journey or that no one should read them without the guidance of a knowledgeable director. Yet he did not write his works for specialists in human development or those with doctorates in spiritual theology. He wrote for nuns and friars, novices and laywomen, for any who love God and desire God with passion. These people received his writings with joy and understanding. For them the writings were a precious gift, not an incomprehensible mystery. They were light, not obscurity. On their lips we could place the words of Jessica Powers about John’s books, written two years before she entered Carmel as Miriam of the Holy Spirit:

Out of what door that came ajar in heaven

drifted this starry manna down to me,

to the dilated mouth both hunger given

and all satiety?

Who bore at midnight to my very dwelling

the gift of this imperishable food?

my famished spirit with its fragrance filling,

its savor certitude.

The mind and heart ask, and the soul replies

what store is heaped on these bare shelves of mine?

The crumbs of the immortal delicacies

fall with precise design.

Mercy grows tall with the least heart enlightened,

and I, so long a fosterling of night,

here feast upon immeasurably sweetened

wafers of light.

Why this difference? I believe that it was at least in part because they knew the hands from which they received the writings that John’s first disciples found them to be “immeasurably sweetened/wafers of light.” It is at least partly because other readers do not know him that his teaching seems dry and cold. In order for us to experience them as light, we need to know the hands that wrote the words: hands that cared for the sick, hands that sketched and drew, hands that were calloused with labor, hands that clapped in rhythm to a dance. It will be my purpose, then, to speak about the person of John of the Cross, to tell the story of the man as a necessary prelude to reading the writings. The nature of the presentation will be primarily biographical, drawing attention to how some of the more important events shaped John’s personal vision and his writings. For some this will be familiar territory, but I hope you will get some new insights. I found when trying to prepare that I had too much I wanted to say, but I have cut it down in hope of staying brief. Inevitably this means some things will remain unmentioned, other points only alluded to. I hope that you may be encouraged, though, to seek out more information on John yourself, to get to know the person.

Prayer, Saints , , , ,

John of the Cross Novena: Day 2

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Rae 3 Comments

Novena to Saint John of the Cross

Day 2.

Listen Here

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised, and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

Second Day: Spirit of Penitence

Glorious St. John of the Cross, you preserved to death in unspotted
brilliancy the radiant whiteness of your baptismal innocence, while
nevertheless practicing the most cruel and persevering penance. In honor
and imitation of this crucifying love, I entreat you that I may share your
mortified and penitential life so that, even in this world, I may receive
the grace to atone for my many sins, purify my soul, and acquire merit, that
I may also enjoy heaven’s glory with you. Obtain for me also the special
grace I ask through your intercession during this novena, if it be for the
glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

Saint Edith Stein on the Feast of Saint John of the Cross (Source)

When someone desires to suffer, it is not merely a pious reminder of the suffering of the Lord. Voluntary expiatory suffering is what truly and really unites one to the Lord intimately. When it arises, it comes from an already existing relationship with Christ. For, by nature, a person flees from suffering. And the mania for suffering caused by a perverse lust for pain differs completely from the desire to suffer in expiation. Such lust is not a spiritual striving, but a sensory longing, no better than other sensory desires, in fact worse, because it is contrary to nature.

Only someone whose spiritual eyes have been opened to the supernatural correlations of worldly events can desire suffering in expiation, and this is only possible for people in whom the spirit of Christ dwells, who as members are given life by the Head, receive his power, his meaning, and his direction. Conversely, works of expiation bind one closer to Christ, as every community that works together on one task becomes more and more closely knit and as the limbs of a body, working together organically, continually become more strongly one.

But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God’s kingdom, are the most authentic children of God. And so those who have a predilection for the way of the cross by no means deny that Good Friday is past and that the work of salvation has been accomplished.

Only those who are saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ’s cross. Only in union with the divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power. To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly to sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.

Saints , ,

John of the Cross Novena

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Rae Leave a comment

Today is December 5th. You know what that means, right? Time to start a novena to Saint John of the Cross!

The Carmelites of St. Louis have the best version that I have seen. Unfortunately their blog appears abandoned, so I will copy everything here. I strongly encourage you to read through their archives and listen to the old segments of the podcast.

I will also try to include something relevant each day for those of you who wish to increase your appreciation for John of the Cross. Please share links to your favorite things related to John of the Cross (including your own blog) and I will share them in my posts leading up to his feast.

. . .

Novena to Saint John of the Cross

Day 1. 

Listen Here 

Beginning Prayer to be said each day:

O glorious St. John of the Cross, through a pure desire of being like Jesus crucified, you longed for nothing so eagerly as to suffer, to be despised, and to be made little of by all; and your thirst after sufferings was so burning that your noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the cruelest torments and afflictions.

Grant, I beseech you, O dear Saint, by the glory which your many sufferings have gained for you, to intercede for me and obtain from God for me a love of suffering, together with strength and grace to bear with firmness of mind all the trials and adversities which are the sure means to the happy attainment of all that awaits me in heaven.

Dear Saint, from your most happy place in glory, hear, I beseech you, my prayers, so that after your example, full of love for the cross I may deserve to be your companion in glory. Amen.

First Day: Unwavering Faith
Prayer:

My glorious father, Saint John of the Cross; overflowing with love for Mary and for the cross of her divine Son by which you merited to become the protector of afflicted souls, obtain for me from Jesus and Mary, I beseech you, an unwavering faith and a love of the cross so deep and so valiant that no possible misfortune will ever be able to separate me from the love of my God. Obtain for me also the special grace I ask through your intercession during this novena if it be for the glory of God and for my salvation (make request).

Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys.

. . .

Saints , , , ,