Where are the athleta Christi?

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/europe-a-land-without-love

I taught ancient Greek and Roman History. My students loved the stories of Marathon and even
Thermopylae. The great exploits of the armies of Sparta and Athens inspired generations of students before my classes read about the battles which made Europe Europe.

Same with the history of the battles of Vienna and Lepanto. Same with the Battle of the Bulge.

Tyrants who hated liberty and tyrants who hated God lay in the dust because of brave men, like my dad, still alive at 92, and a World War II veteran.

The above article reveals a perspective not new to me. I remember asking my class of mostly young men in 2003 in Alaska if they would fight another war to save the Church and the West. The answer was a resounding "No"! I knew my students, all Catholic, and I knew what their answer would be, but I was still disappointed.

Boys who do not learn to sacrifice do not become men.

Patriotism is a minor virtue. It springs from the virtue of duty towards one's parents, a command of God to honor one's parents,and by extension, one's home land.

Patriotism includes a love of place, of a people with whom one can identify. The great heresies of individualism, an American blight, and relativism, both parts of the heresy of Modernism, has ruined the hearts of so many Americans and Catholics. The lack of patriotism is a lack of identity with the common good.

Some love countries other than, or in addition to the land of their births. I am like that type of person. loving the country which gave me my son, and moving there years before I was married and had a child because of a deep identity with this certain country.

One cannot always explain a "spiritual home" but for me, the Faith which built Europe, was still more obvious in Great Britain, than in Protestant America, despite years of oppression, when I move there so many, many years ago.

What causes love of a country is this identity, and for me, the identity of Catholicism. Having read history in college, as well as theology and philosophy, I knew the great heritage of thought and practice which made Europe unique, totally believing even as a young person, like Belloc, that Europe was the Faith and the Faith was Europe. I loved the heritage of art, architecture, music, education, even food, which was the heritage of Christian Europe.

I read every book (and still have every book) on this subject that Christopher Dawson ever wrote as early as the late 1970s. Because I knew history, I could sense the signs of the times. Because I knew my religion, I understood what was happening on the European front of the war, as well as on the American front.

The Catholic Church has lost great influence in the European world, just as Protestantism morphed into secularism in America. We know witness the rise of pagan nations, and paganism is rooted in selfishness, self-love and not love of a people or nation.

This passing of patriotism must be mourned by those of us who understand what this death of the heart means. Charity towards neighbor dies in a land of those who do not love their country. Civilization dies once individual desires take the place of sacrifice for the common good.

Men like my dad who spent their youth in trenches fighting against the real tyranny of  Nazism perhaps no longer exist in the numbers needed to preserve freedom. And, when a nation turns its back on God, to be honest, freedom no longer exists to preserve.

God will let nations die for lack of love, love of patria, love of neighbor, love of Him. He will punish nations which turn to lust, greed, gluttony, pride and so on. He will let people go their own way until there is no other way to turn but to Him.

This movement of punishment, death and rebirth forms a persistent theme in the Old Testament, when God called His People to repentance over and over through the words and deeds of the Prophets, who frequently, where killed rather than heeded. 

Christ Himself prophesied the Fall of Jerusalem and He wept, one of the few times mentioned of His weeping.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Luke 13:34

Satan has successfully spent years emasculating the men of my and following generations. Leadership simply cannot be found, either in the Church or in the State. We face the death of nations for one simple reason. Without Christianity, without God being the center of one's life, men stay as children, lost in the never, never land of self , pleasure, sloth.

How many times I have written about the "peter pans". The Lost Boys were lost not only physically but mentally, psychologically, spiritually. But, even they fought in the story, pushed to rescue and defend their own little world.

We have no defense, no cohesive energy to withstand whatever enemies decide to come against us. Women who are Christian have seen this for two, if not three, generations, lamenting the lack of protectors and the overwhelming presence of predators among the males with whom they come into contact at work, college, or even in church.

We await the canonization of the first couple to be canonized together, Louis and Zelie Martin. Louis was a quiet, monklike man who God called to raise a house of saints. His type, the sacrificial man, is so rare that the day of his canonization, along with that of his brave and loving wife, will be a tribute to a truly lost generation.

Catholics forget that God commanded the take-over of the Promised Land. Abraham fought, Moses fought, Joshua fought, Gideon fought. David fought--all saints, all men of God.

No Charles Martel, no Charlemagne, no Men of the West, no Louis Martin walks the streets of Athens today, or Chicago, or Canberra. The heart needs God, needs Christ to be a patriot.

All the pagan cities fell to the energies of the new generations of those focused on Christ and His Kingdom. Christendom died a long time ago, but now, even the vestiges of civilization crumble from the lack of will and, more importantly, the lack of virtue.

War began in Heaven. It was an extremely short war, but the battles continue on Earth. St. Michael, one of the lower echelons of the heavenly host, won the day. However, the mop-up falls to us.

Thirteen years ago, when I was facing death, I told my young son that I wanted a certain phrase on my tombstone. This phrase was one I had pondered for many, many years before this occurrence. 

Now, we do not even have heroes of fiction.

I put the phrase in boldface.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. 

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I decided to become a saint, and to raise a saint. That is what Louis and Zelie Martin decided to do.

That is the call of every Catholic parent. Some saints may become leaders, even leaders of war.

Pray that God puts a heart of warriors into some of the sons born to real Catholics today. The great spiritual war is not over, yet.

I have given God a spiritual warrior. May other parents give their sons to God, both for prayer and penance, and even for war.

St. David, pray for us. St. Martin, pray for us. Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us. St. George, pray for us.

(P.S. Did you read the encyclical in the previous post on the Church Militant in my repost?)

From Today's Office

Having died to that which held us prisoners, we are discharged from the law. Let us serve God, then, in a new way, the way of the spirit, in contrast to the old way, the way of a written code.

For those who love God, the written law is unnecessary, not because it is not binding, but because one obeys out of love and not because of the external law. When one becomes free from sin, through Christ, one is discharged from the outside law because the natural law becomes informed by grace.

Law becomes internalized through love. One wants only to please God and not men. Yesterday, we heard in the Scriptures that God said David was a man "after His Own Heart". 

David loved God, and God loved David. The relationship between David and God prefigures our own relationship with Christ, through the Church, the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist. Today, we see a prefiguring of that symbol in the fact that the priest in today's reading gives David the temple bread for his hungry soldiers.

Then, the high priest present to David his old sword, kept for posterity, used to cut off the head of Goliath years ago. David represents the Church Militant. Prayer first, action second.

David represents one of the patriachs whose lives reveal the plan of God in the world, preparing the world for Christ. This is our job as well, to bring Christ into the world through prayer and evangelization. But, nothing can be done without purity of heart, the theme of today's readings.

1 Samuel 21:2-10,22:1-5

Thou art our trust, O King of kings, from today's hymn at Lauds.

Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Time--Part Three Heaven

2 Peter 3:10-13

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.[a]

11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening[b] the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Sadly, there is a lot of confusion on the Net, because of the myriad Protestant sites concerning the rapture, which is a heresy.

Catholics need to confine themselves to the ideas of the Second Coming and heaven to solid theologians and Church teaching throughout the ages.

The question as to time, especially the time between the particular judgment and the last judgment, was asked by a reader. Before answering this, one must considered what the soul, as separated from the body, knows or perceives. The separated soul has many abilities based on the time used on earth, as the intellectual or higher faculties remain but the senses are changed, as the soul does not have the body.

Garrigou-Lagrange writes this:

To have a just idea of the future life in general we must first see what theology teaches on the knowledge possessed by the soul separated from its body, the soul which no longer has the use of its senses, not even of imagination. Next, we study the state of the will, illumined by this new knowledge beyond the tomb.

We have said above [174] that the soul begins to be fixed either in good or evil by the last voluntary act, meritorious or demeritorious, which it makes at the very moment when it separates from the body. We have said further, that it completes this fixation by the act of the will which it produces at that precise instant where the state of separation begins. Then, since everyone judges according to his inclination, the humble soul continues to judge and will conformably to humility during its state of separation, whereas the proud man who has died in final impenitence continues to judge and to will according to his pride.

This fixity, either in good or in evil, is mysterious. But this mysteriousness is not without an analogue in facts which we meet with in the present life. The disposition wherewith we enter upon a permanent state often lasts throughout the entire duration of that state. The infant born into good surroundings has promise of lasting good health, whereas the child born into poor surroundings may anticipate feeble health. Again, he who with Christian motives enters marriage has good hopes of perseverance, whereas he who enters with an evil intention will not be blessed by God in this state, unless he is converted. He who enters religion for a good purpose ordinarily perseveres, whereas he who enters for an evil motive does not persevere, and has no profit from the religious life. These examples, in a way, illustrate the fixity of the soul after death, a fixation which is affirmed by revelation. [175]

The topic we now turn to, namely, the knowledge in the separated soul, will confirm this doctrine. It is immutability in knowledge that is the source of the immutability which is characteristic of the state of separation.

The central principle is this: Human intelligence, though it is the lowest of all intelligences, is nevertheless a genuine intelligence, an immaterial and spiritual power. [176]

Preternatural Knowledge

The separated soul, since it no longer has its body, no longer has sense operations, internal or external, because all these are operations of an animated organ. The separated soul retains the sensitive faculties, but only radically, since they do not exist actually anywhere except in the human composite. The human imagination, like the animal imagination, does not exist actually after the corruption of its material organ. The same holds good for the habitudes of the sense faculties. Remembrances of the sensitive memory do not exist actually in the separated soul. The separated soul can no longer see in the sense order, no longer imagine in the sense order.

But the separated soul does retain actually its higher faculties, its purely spiritual faculties, namely, intellect and will and the habits which are found in these faculties. But here we must draw a distinction. Reprobated souls can retain certain acquired sciences, but do not have virtues, either acquired or infused. They have lost infused faith and infused hope. But the souls in purgatory preserve their knowledge and their virtues, acquired or infused: faith, hope, charity, prudence, religion, patience, justice, humility. This truth is very important.

Similarly the separated soul preserves the habits which have remained in these faculties. Nevertheless the exercise of these acts is in part impeded, because these faculties have no longer the aid of the imagination or sense memory, an aid which is most helpful. What, for instance, would be a preacher who would no longer have the use of imagination in the service of his intelligence?

Theologians, generally, teach that the mode of being of the separated soul is preternatural, because the soul is made to animate its body. Hence it has also a preternatural mode of action, which it receives from God at the moment of separation, a mode consisting in infused ideas, similar to those of the angels, ideas which can serve it without the aid of the imagination. [177] Thus, to illustrate, a theologian who has become blind, and is no longer able to read, becomes a man of prayer and receives higher inspirations. It may be that formerly he worked too much and prayed too little. Now he consecrates himself to interior prayer and thereby becomes a better theologian.

But from this notion of infused ideas received by the separated soul there arises another difficulty, quite different from the preceding. Whereas the use of abstract and acquired ideas is difficult without the imagination, the use of infused ideas is difficult because they are too high for the natural intelligence, which is the lowest of intelligences and has as its proportioned object the lowest intelligible object, namely, sense objects. These infused ideas are too elevated, just as metaphysical conceptions are too high for an unprepared spirit, or as a giant's armor is too heavy for a young fighter. David preferred his sling to the armor of Goliath.

These deficiencies are balanced by perfections. First, the soul sees itself intuitively, as does the angel. [178] Consequently it clearly sees its spirituality, its immortality, its liberty. Further it sees in itself, as in a mirror, with perfect certitude, God, its Author and Creator. It answers the great philosophical problems with perfect clarity. St. Thomas says: "The soul in a certain real sense is thus more free to understand." Thus separated souls naturally know one another, although less perfectly than do the angels.

Can the separated soul know, not only universal truths, but also concrete facts? Yes, where it has special ties of family, friendship, and grace. Local distance is no impediment in this kind of knowledge, since it does not arise from sense but from infused ideas. [179] Thus a good Christian mother may recall in purgatory the children whom she has left on earth.

Finally, we are getting to the question at hand. Those souls in heaven have a different knowledge than those in purgatory. This knowledge is not only from merit, but infused.

Do these souls know what is happening on earth? St. Thomas replies: "In the natural order they do not know, because they are separated from the society of those who are still on the road to eternity. Nevertheless, if we restrict the question to the souls of the blessed, it is more probable to say that they, like the angels, do know what happens on earth, particularly what happens to those who are dear to them. This is a part of their accidental beatitude." [180] Those in purgatory too can have love of us, even though they do not know our actual state, just as we pray for them, although we do not know their actual state, their nearness, for example, to deliverance.

I return to the question of time

Here is Garrigou-Lagrange on this matter again, from a different perspective:

In beatified souls there is added to this double duration (eviternity and discontinuous time) also that of participated eternity, which measures their beatific vision of the divine essence and the love which results from this vision. This is one unique instant, an immovable eternity, entirely without succession. Yet this participated eternity differs from that of essential eternity which is proper to God, just as effect differs from cause. Participated eternity had a beginning. Further, the essential eternity of God measures everything that is in God, His essence, and all His operations, whereas participated eternity measures only the beatific vision and the love which follows. Eternity is like the invisible point at the summit of a cone, whereas continuous time is pictured by the base of this cone. Eviternity and discontinuous time are between these two, the one like a circular conic section, and the other like a polygon inscribed in this circular section.

So, what do the souls in heaven know about time on earth? 

What God wants them to know is the answer. They are not yet in the perfection which will come at the joining of the bodies and souls together in bliss at the Second Coming, but they are "living" out of time, but without their bodies, at least to this present day, as Christ has not returned in glory and the world continues on.

But, remember the Present Moment? When one is wrapped up with God, time no longer is the same as successive time, or solar time, which of course, does not affect heaven. Time is always present.

If time is always present in heaven, then one can extrapolate that the joining of the body and soul happens within that Present Moment in some mysterious way. 

That the Second Coming, with the resurrection of the bodies of all humans, is in time, one must recognize that on this point, and this point alone, the souls in heaven, too, await this joining of their complete humanity body and soul.

Waiting indicates time, but to put this time in to the format of solar time would be a huge error.

Heaven is eternal and in that eternity, the souls of the just await the Second Coming, but not in the time frame which we do. 

When Christ appeared in glory at the Transfiguration, He was seen with Moses and Elijah in glory, two saints whose bodies were already in glory. Mary is in glory with her assumed body. Perhaps, Enoch, who walked into heaven is another in glory with his body. Other than that, we can assume there is some sort of "waiting" outside of time.

More on this later.

The Great I Am Passages

Those of you who read and study Scripture know about the great "I Am" passages in the New Testament which riled the feathers of the Sanhedrin. There are eight, a number of completion after the holy number of seven, of these in John's Gospel and today we see Christ claiming, rightly, to be God. Here these verses are for your reference:

John 6: 35, 48 I am the bread of life John 8: 12, 9:5 I am the light of the world John 8: 58 Before Abraham was, I am John 10:9 I am the door John 10:11 I am the good shepherd John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life John 15:1 I am the true vine 

Today, Christ tells us unequivocally, that He is God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God. Those religions which deny that Christ is God, do not accept this passage, obviously.

Christ is either a liar, or a madman or really God, states C. S. Lewis, and I paraphrase.

We are faced with a choice today. Do we really believe in Christ as God, and take all His actions and words seriously, or, like some of the Jews of His day, reject the "I Am" statements?

The Jews wanted to kill Christ as they knew He was referring to the great epiphany to Moses--I Am.

Those who wanted to stone Christ for blasphemy were closed to the great I AM.

Exodus 3 Douay-Rheims 

3 Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.

2 And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt.

3 And Moses said: I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4 And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am.

5 And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6 And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.

7 And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works:

8 And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite.

9 For the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians.

10 But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12 And he said to him: I will be with thee: and this thou shalt have for a sign, that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain.

13 Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? what shall I say to them?

14 God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.

15 And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Christ reveals Himself as the Everlasting God, pointing to the Trinity, and referring back to the freeing of the Hebrews from slavery. Christ is getting His listeners ready for the real freedom from the slavery of satan, the rule of Original Sin, the life of sin, and everlasting death.

But, these people were not open to hearing these words of truth from The Word of God. A long time ago, a rabbi told me in London, that the Jewish unspoken word for the Name of God means this, "I Am Who Am and shut up and stop asking me."

The point is that God gives us absolute knowledge of Him through the Revelation of the Old Testament and for us Christians, the New Testament. We have been told Who Christ Is.

We accept Christ as our Lord, Saviour, King, or we reject Him.

John 8:51-59Douay-Rheims 

51 Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever.

52 The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever.

53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself?

54 Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God.

55 And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word.

56 Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad.

57 The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.

59 They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

Should have been a Catholic Mass planned

This King was not Anglican, of course...he would not have recognized the present monarch as queen, or as head of the national "church".

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/22/richard-iii-final-resting-place-500-years-bosworth

I am actually one of those doubters who thinks the story of the killing of the two princes in the Tower was made up by those who hated King Richard III and wanted to discredit him.

An interesting person, to say the least.

One has to chose between the White and the Red Rose. As much as I love the actual Rose of Provins, I fall on the side of the White Rose, an ancient symbol of Mary, recognizing her purity and and innocence and the fact that she brought Light into the world.

New readers might like my long poem on the white rose and more.


I repost it today in honor of a Catholic King of England, Richard III.

White Roses on the Shore: a Long Poem by Supertradmum

Posted by Supertradmum April 15, 2013

White Roses on the Shore: Sea, ships and the bend of the coast

Part One: Ancona-"A star rises in midwinter"

Here, at this Ancona

I am beginning to forget you,

like we forget the histories of towns,

or the names of beautiful harbours.

But, memory, say the ancient holy ones,

can either aid us or be great rocks

in the heart and the mind-who recalls

the Valley of the Brambles, or

the Broken Bridge, or the Land

of the Grand Master. The henge is wrapped

in bureaucracy and Glastonbury’s martyrs

forgotten in silly action and false colours.

“But love, when perfect, is so powerful,

that we forget our own pleasure

in order to please God, whom we love”

wrote the Great Teresa—but what should

we keep in memory and what forget, as

I am forgotten in these walls?  The sea and

the ships bring my heart back in waves to you,

in greys, whites, reflecting my Clairvaux moods.

How can I grieve, like Odysseus on Circe’s isle,

waking out of drugged slumber from the depths

of the Middle Sea? “They say the sea is cold, but

the sea contains the hottest blood of all.”  This sea

holds mine and if I could send Love like ripples

to your shore, like tides to all whom I love, these

would be small white roses, riding on the dark sea,

small tokens lapping up on the far shores….

moving through time and memory, tossed over

the largest heart of all with a memory as old

as the song it sings, but it cannot sing the songs

of purged memory, the nocturnes of this day.

No white prayers come up from the deep, only

the praise of being warm in the cold, cold sea,

under the sail boats, under the rain and mist, the songs

vary outside my door—do those creatures on board

praise Him with persistent longing as the whales

below? What do they remember and what forget?

We have the missa and Word Incarnate, to remind

us of who we are and what we should remember.

Part Two: Telemachus- "They took a terrible vengeance"

Persistent love cannot be false, purified in the

gem polisher, made into some perfect stone

not born of passion, but compassion and pity;

not lust, but a reaching of the heart for completeness.

The young prince’s beard made mater’s decision

strong in pain and promise, being queen true to

her word, watching, weaving, weeping in the night

weary of those burning in envy and hatred.

Greed pitted itself against her age of fast happiness,

she wanted peace;  but, cannot the past be washed away,

the blood purified cleansed by the Blood of Him

Who showed Himself to a tribe unknown to

Telemachus? “Love is as strong as death” could

have been mater’s song as well as the desert groom,

coming up from the sheepfold, coming into the tent

looking for her who was dark and comely. Remembering.

Youth’s ascendency tossed him into the sea of Mnemosyne,

into Menelaus’ grand company, but no wisdom there.

Sailors brought the son back to miracles and a goddess

he did not know.  He became a man, true, unlike others.

Wrapped in the courage of Pallas Athena, he did not see

like another youth of the sheepfold, He, Who broke the Seal of Death,

Ever-Young in the dawn of a foreign day. Did the bearded youth

look south, as I do today, towards the hot lands for courage,

missing the purple sea, far from this cold land of grey mist

this land rimmed by sunsets of orange and duck-egg blue?

Telemachus’ sun set quickly, like yours, fame for a thousand

years without a twilight, but there is no other way

than to be taught by one’s father the ways of war and wooing.

The Hyperborei knew this and blessed their bards, placing them

in the front lines of battle for fame and fortune. Such is the play

of poetry and war, youth and death, marriage and separation.

Part Three: Penelope- "How can I cherish my man?"

Orion’s Belt melts the clouds in this night’s brightness,

but Penelope’s constellation seemed smaller than mine,

this one who strides across the Bay and meets the hot

cliffs of the other lands of deeper waters and older tribes.

Memory and reflection were her gifts of love, she

affectionate emblem of faithfulness, like me, always

monogamous, notoriously faithful beyond waiting days.

A woman’s face grows old while the heart is purified.

She undid her weary work until minds of lust and greed

jackals, predators, circling her and showing themselves

not to be real men of the Middle Sea, but boys . While

she mourned the lion, the whelps played war.

Searching the shore in the grey mist of morning, she

with spring-love in her heart gave in for a moment, but

what we have is greater, stronger, divine Love holding

all in His Heart, Humanity reaching down to earth

like Orion capturing the sea. Penelope’s god was her

husband, but now God becomes the Husband, and even such

a man as her’s striving with Neptune to get home, could

not compare with the Crucified One.

Odysseus of collective memory regained his bride through

suffering, a man purified in water and wind, Poseidon’s

plaything, until humility was learned and earned.

Some of us, like the Poet, are “rememberers”,

the bards with bow and arrow in the line of honour,

passing on the muir Desunt caetera, repetition, memory,

love in names and titles never to be forgotten unless

carved in foreign lands. We forget to our own peril.

The missing have forgotten who they are and were and

what they were supposed to be. Like Adam, thrust out

of the green home, reflecting in nine-hundred years of

remorse, waiting for death, and then the harrowing.

Profane love, like coal, becomes a diamond heart over time

and heat and pressure. The God of History changed all,

for Penelope, for me, renewing hope in the heart

making one young in vision and mastery.

Without memory, there would be no people,

no poem, no bard in the front line of fire;

no children to carry on the reflections of the

mater and pater; nothing but death.

Part 4: Ithaca- "The soul of man"

I would sit quietly in the southern sunlight

and bring you tea, sitting not too close in

the heat of the day, in silence, where the

geraniums bloom under the low sierras

which hid the pain crying out for healing

and completeness. So much has been lost

in this generation lost to the confusion of

each Child of Our Time, like the sailors

stopping up their stubborn ears in order to reach

the wineskin of wind, of curiosity, destroying

years of peace and Odysseus’ domesticity, pushing

out again into the Ionian Sea; none returned but one.

Love and will were separated. We threw away chances,

for completeness, renewable, yes, but not the same, like

the queen’s lost years of childbearing.  But, there is

a greater mercy than Athena’ magic.  The shore is in view.

Ithaca’s rocky coast rises out of the sea a long way

from my cove, but love rides the white waves, regardless

of the temperature of the sea and shore. Odysseus’ soul

was healed before he found Penelope again.  So, climb

up and see the small raft and like the man of the Middle Sea

come home to who you are.  The New God is not Poseidon,

ruler of horses, but the One Who walked on the waves,

proving a new King of the blue sea not far from you.

The ships sail away. My heart stays with the Babe in the Womb

silent in waiting for the fullness of time, and here we have

our being, if we look in the same place for this healing God.

Find the raft hidden beneath the cliff and come home.

Part 5: The Unknown God-"I would know my shadow and my light"

The sons of Telemachus may have seen the sons

of the red-haired man,  in the market place of Athens,

speaking the words of Epimenides for we are indeed,

people of memory; “Men of Athens, I perceive that

in every way you are very religious,” or a varied translation.

Damaris and Dionysius  heard with the blood of Odysseus

calling them home to a different Love, choosing a Known

God faithful to time and memory, the One Who entered history

again and again and again, changing the darkness into dawn.

in a Resurrection some derided. The long song of Homer

created a space for a new mimesis, heart, home, memory, will,

understanding, for new descendants of the wandering man.

The Blood washed away the obstacles, the encumbrances,

the imperfections of the tribe, purging our own hearts so

that we could decide to do something somewhere, somehow.

The Vulnerable God gave us His courage.

Spousal love so praised by Homer and Solomon becomes

the norm for you, for me, for those who care to listen

to the song. Love is now my occupation-let it be yours.

Let the heart follow us home….

Per lumen gloriae fit creatura rationalis  Deiformis

Cum enim aligius intellectus creatus vidit
Deum per essentiam—ipsa essentia Dei fit intelligibilis

infellectus.

The waters by the dry sands will not let my voyage

be delayed—for we are humans, semper idem,

semper paratus waiting for God. And, “seven times

a day, I praise Thee for Thy righteous ordinances.”

Benedict took up the heart and home of the Known God.

“Let me live, that I may praise Thee.” And the God of

time and memory redeemed the grass, redeemed the springs,

redeemed the Middle Sea and this near sea, redeemed place.

Small waves like white roses on the sea gather on the sand.

I would send them out again, in wind and sun to the south,

to lap up on another shore, like small prayers in the dark.

Yield, bend,  gather the signs of memory at your feet in the waters.

copyright, 2013

We Are Not Equal Part Seven

There is no such thing a coincidence, only God-incidences.

Returning to the theme of predilection, today's reading of the Te Deum praises God for choosing and watching over His People.

O God, we praise Thee, and acknowledge Thee to be the supreme Lord.
Everlasting Father, all the earth worships Thee.
All the Angels, the heavens and all angelic powers,
All the Cherubim and Seraphim, continuously cry to Thee:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.
The glorious choir of the Apostles,
The wonderful company of Prophets,
The white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee.
Holy Church throughout the world acknowledges Thee:
The Father of infinite Majesty;
Thy adorable, true and only Son;
Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When Thou tookest it upon Thyself to deliver man,
Thou didst not disdain the Virgin's womb.
Having overcome the sting of death, Thou opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all
believers.
Thou sitest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou willst come to be our Judge.
We, therefore, beg Thee to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy
Precious Blood.
Let them be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.

V.  Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thy inheritance!
R.  Govern them, and raise them up forever.

V.  Every day we thank Thee.
R.  And we praise Thy Name forever, yes, forever and ever.

V.  O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.
R.  Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

V.  Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee.
R.  O Lord, in Thee I have put my trust; let me never be put to shame.

---

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi caeli et universae Potestates;
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia,
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.

V.  Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
R.  Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.

V.  Per singulos dies benedicimus te.
R.  Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.

V.  Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
R.  Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri.

V.  Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
R.  In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.

(note...whenever I play Gregorian Chant, no matter what time of day or night, 

the birds in the courtyard and 

neighborhood here in Malta begin to sing. 

This has happened over and over in the months I have been here.)

More Meditations for Christ The King

Now the sparrows and finches are singing......

Meditations for The Day

When I played these early this morning, birds started singing outside, including a British Robin

I was thrilled, creatures honoring their King.

The King of Humility

Remember, that the crown of glory is the crown of thorns. Christ allowed Himself to be mocked as King, when in reality, He is the King, forever and ever.

When we are mocked or persecuted, let us remember Him, the King of Humility.

From The Office of Readings Today-Feast of Christ the King

From Origen on prayer
http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm and

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/origen/prayer.pdf

The coming of the kingdom of God, says our Lord and Saviour, does not admit of observation, and there will be no-one to say “Look here! Look there!” For the kingdom of God is within us and in our hearts. And so it is beyond doubt that whoever prays for the coming of the kingdom of God within himself is praying rightly, praying for the kingdom to dawn in him, bear fruit and reach perfection. For God reigns in every saint, and every saint obeys God’s spiritual laws — God, who dwells in him just as he dwells in any well-ordered city. The Father is present in him and in his soul Christ reigns alongside the Father, as it is said: We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Thy kingdom come

  Therefore, as we continue to move forward without ceasing, the kingdom of God within us will reach its perfection in us at that moment when the saying in the Apostle is fulfilled, that Christ, His enemies all made subject to Him, shall deliver the kingdom to God the Father that God may be All in All.

  For this reason let us pray without ceasing, our souls filled by a desire made divine by the Word Himself. Let us pray to our Father in heaven: hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come.

  There is something important that we need to understand about the kingdom of God: just as righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness, just as light has nothing in common with darkness and Christ has no agreement with Belial, so the kingdom of God and a kingdom of sin cannot co-exist.

  So if we want God to reign within us, on no account may sin rule in our mortal body but let us mortify our earthly bodies and let us be made fruitful by the Spirit. Then we will be a spiritual garden of Eden for God to walk in. God will rule in us with Christ who will be seated in us on the right hand of God — God, the spiritual power that we pray to receive — until he makes his enemies (who are within us) into his footstool and pours out on us all authority, all power, all strength.

  This can happen to any one of us and death, the last enemy may be destroyed, so that in us Christ says Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory? So let our corruptibility be clothed today with holiness and incorruption. With Death dead, let our mortality be cloaked in the Father’s immortality. With God ruling in us, let us be immersed in the blessings of regeneration and resurrection.

Feast of Christ The King

We Catholics need to revive in our hearts, minds, families and parishes, the concept of the Kingship of Christ.

The fact that today we celebrate this magnificent feast reminds us that the Kingdom of God has a real King. The Kingdom of God is neither a democracy or a tyranny, but a hierarchy ruled by Christ Himself.

A few notes from today's Divine Office may help us remember Who the real authority of all the nations is.

Psalm 2 Douay-Rheims 

2 Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?

2 The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ.

3 Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us.

4 He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them.

5 Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage.

6 But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment.

7 The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.

8 Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.

9 Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

10 And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth.

11 Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling.

12 Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way.

13 When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, blessed are all they that trust in him.

Psalm 71 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

71 A psalm on Solomon.

2 Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king's son thy justice: To judge thy people with justice, and thy poor with judgment.

3 Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice.

4 He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor.

5 And he shall continue with the sun, and before the moon, throughout all generations.

6 He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth.

7 In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken sway.

8 And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

9 Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down: and his enemies shall lick the ground.

10 The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts:

11 And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him.

12 For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper.

13 He shall spare the poor and needy: and he shall save the souls of the poor.

14 He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity: and their names shall be honourable in his sight.

15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia, for him they shall always adore: they shall bless him all the day.

16 And there shall be a firmament on the earth on the tops of mountains, above Libanus shall the fruit thereof be exalted: and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth.

17 Let his name be blessed for evermore: his name continueth before the sun. And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him.

18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone doth wonderful things.

19 And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever: and the whole earth shall be filled with his majesty. So be it. So be it.

20 The praises of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.