Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Freedom of the press?
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/britain-forced-guardian-destroy-copy-snowden-material-222933670.html
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-detention-schedule7-editorial
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10253417/Encrypted-computer-files-seized-from-David-Miranda-were-from-US-whistleblower.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-usa-security-britain-idUSBRE97J0CN20130820?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637
As people noted when King Charles I was beheaded, if this is how a king is treated, what did that mean for the rest of the public? If this is how a noted journalist is treated, what does this trend mean for the rest of us small, unprotected writers?
And, the US government knew about this situation before it happened. We live in increasingly perilous times. Where are the states, the countries, which value freedom? This is scary, as this is personal and not professional.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-detention-schedule7-editorial
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10253417/Encrypted-computer-files-seized-from-David-Miranda-were-from-US-whistleblower.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-usa-security-britain-idUSBRE97J0CN20130820?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637
As people noted when King Charles I was beheaded, if this is how a king is treated, what did that mean for the rest of the public? If this is how a noted journalist is treated, what does this trend mean for the rest of us small, unprotected writers?
And, the US government knew about this situation before it happened. We live in increasingly perilous times. Where are the states, the countries, which value freedom? This is scary, as this is personal and not professional.
As usual, Buchanan is spot-on
http://buchanan.org/blog/who-owns-the-future-2-5767
And he asks the same question I had been asking my students in the past for years, regarding fighting to defend Christianity.
Millions of Muslims are willing to fight to drive us out of their part of the world. How many Americans are willing to send our sons to die for secular democracy and American values in their part of the world?
And he asks the same question I had been asking my students in the past for years, regarding fighting to defend Christianity.
Millions of Muslims are willing to fight to drive us out of their part of the world. How many Americans are willing to send our sons to die for secular democracy and American values in their part of the world?
Why are the bishops silent? This is tragic.
No statement from the USCCB, or the Great Britain or Ireland conferences of bishops on the horrible persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Egypt. I am ashamed of my own leadership. Why the silence? If someone hears of a joint statement from these countries, let me know.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/minya-churches-cancel-second-mass-first-time-1600-years
http://www.aina.org/news/20130818125428.htm
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/minya-churches-cancel-second-mass-first-time-1600-years
http://www.aina.org/news/20130818125428.htm
A Compendium of Supertradmum on St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Happy Feast Day, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Here is an incomplete list of the posts on this blog concerning him.
26 Feb 2013
I am sure that readers can tell by now that I cannot write enough on my favourite male saints, Bernard of Clairvaux. I hope you have received his insights and experiences of God with the pleasure and amazement with which I ...
20 Mar 2013
St. Bernard of Clairvaux on the Knights Templar. Posted by Supertradmum · http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html. Prologue TO HUGH, KNIGHT OF CHRIST AND MASTER OF CHRIST'S MILITIA: ...
23 Feb 2013
Therefore, when I read St. Bernard of Clairvaux and some of his commentators, one of the things which comes across very clearly is that he understands the progress of holiness as explained in these few words. Know, love ...
22 Feb 2013
Part 47: DoC: St. Bernard of Clairvaux, continued, and perfection. Posted by Supertradmum. Those of us who are workaholics have the hardest time with meditation and contemplation. But, was there ever a man busier than St.
24 Feb 2013
Words for the Papabile from St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Part 51: DoC. Posted by Supertradmum. If I remember, the subject of my discourse. to your Excellency was to be Consideration. And certainly. the matter to which I have ...
19 Aug 2012
Can you imagine in the cold and damp monastery of Clairvaux, in the refectory or monastery church, St. Bernard reading to his monks an exposition of The Song of Songs? I wonder at his audacity as well as his mystic insights ...
23 Nov 2012
The reason I encourage reading is that is the first step on the chair to Contemplation as taught by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. We must read the right books, however. Some people get bogged down in conversion stories. That is ...
28 Feb 2013
I know I started the postings on St. Augustine, which will continue on Friday, but today I was reading in the sermon of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Detraction. I am only going to refer to two ideas, both repetitions on this blog.
23 Nov 2012
Here is the quotation from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, from a homily of his at Easter. "We look for God where He is not to be found, or rather, we do not look for Him where He is chiefly to be found; hence, all the confusion, all the ...
21 Feb 2013
As those of you who read my blog know, St. Bernard of Clairvaux is my favourite saint. I discovered him when in a particularly Romantic period of my life was unfolding and he captured my imagination as well as my intellect.
24 Feb 2013
Part 52: DoC: Bernard of Clarivaux and the Perfection of Love. Posted by Supertradmum. From St. Bernard of Clairvaux on Love from Sermon 83 on the Canticle of Canticles. Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself ...
26 Feb 2013
Posted by Supertradmum. On this blog, I have already referred to the sermons of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on the Song of Songs, or. Canticle of Canticles. These sermons may be considered his masterpiece as a Doctor of the ...
29 Aug 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux has a fascinating sermon on two aspects of love regarding St. John and St. Peter. St. Bernard, in St. Peter and St. John, XLI, In Joannic Evang; Tract CXXIV. Bernard says the Peter loved Christ more ...
20 Jan 2013
St. Bernard of Clairvaux would have made an excellent 21st century psychologist He understood human nature and nurture. He understood the workings of the soul, the psyche. He understood the need for the seeking of ...
23 Dec 2012
As the year comes to an end soon, and the Feast of St. John is upon us after Christmas, I want to revisit a strange saying of St. Bernard of Clairvaux He has a fascinating sermon on two aspects of love regarding St. John and ...
04 Feb 2013
All the members of St. Bernard of Clairvaux's immediate family are either Blesseds or Saints, including his father and mother. Here they are listed, plus a cousin and in-law.
07 May 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux created a movement of love outside himself, because he was in love with Christ. So too were St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila. St. Maximilian Kolbe and many, many other witnesses to the Faith.
21 Nov 2012
Bernard of Clairvaux's famous sermon on the meeting of Christ and Mary Magdalen in the Garden highlights the theme I have here and in the previous post on the Presence of Christ within us. Bernard states that Mary was ...
07 Apr 2013
Some commentators, like my friend CK, wanted a simple version of the perfection series and I have finally found a good description from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, my favourite saint. He describes in his sermon "On the Different ...
29 Jan 2012
I do not have my works of St. Bernard of Clairvaux with me, but I can paraphrase one of his sayings: There is rejoicing in heaven when a bad man becomes good, but how much more rejoicing is there when a good man ...
27 Aug 2012
I have been reading the Sermons of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, specifically on the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Without going into great detail, one of the points St. Bernard makes, which has been made by many saints, is that ...
19 Aug 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux is my favourite saint and Dante puts him high in heaven, Beatrice leaving Dante in the hands of the mystic saint. St. Bernard is, in my mind, the Saint of Love. He asks Mary, Queen and Mother, to allow ...
12 Dec 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux in his great sermons on the Bride in the Song of Songs, notes that the Church is Christ's Bride. Many of the so-called womynpriests are also liberals in other ways. The Anglican Church, which has ...
18 Feb 2013
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bede the Venerable, Peter Damian, Gregory the Great, and the reformer of the Benedictine Order, Bernard of Clairvaux. So, although the Franciscans claim they have the most, I count more ...
27 Aug 2012
Like the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, or Augustine, the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux give us endless spiritual milk to drink on these points. In his sermon, On Humility and Patience, Bernard writes this, “Some endure ...
15 Feb 2013
St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his family were in the highest echelons of their society. They owned great tracts of land, at least on castle, and had labourers, as well as house staff and so on. St. Bernard gave up his inheritance, ...
28 Dec 2012
Bernard of Clairvaux had seven-hundred monks and lay brothers at the peak of the monastery's history, which allows for a steady stream of visitors. We need more vocations to the religious life. There are two young ones in the ...
04 Dec 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux cooperated with grace. So did St. Paul and St. Peter. Yesterday was the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, a saint who learned the Ignatian method of prayer. Pray that God's Perfect Will be done in your life ...
09 Dec 2012
St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes that great men ask God for great things. Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, and many others asked God for great things, including the revelation of the Glory of God. We do not ask because we are ...
20 Jul 2013
2 comments: Corax said... Dear Supertradmom How do guys like myself relate to this whilst still being masculine? 20 July 2013 00:12 · Supertradmum said... Read SS. Bernard of Clairvaux and John of the Cross. Good night.
07 Jun 2013
9) Christ the Bridegroom calls us to the stages of understanding that each one of us must experience, as explained, for example, by Bernard of Clairvaux; these stages are knowing one is a child of a loving Father; that one is ...
Dark Night of the Soul Part 38-The Purification of the Memory Continued...
Father Phelim writes that the purification of the memory allows these steps in the soul to occur: one, hope grows as memory is cleansed; two, this hope created a longing for God, Who will answer that longing; three, this hope increases as the soul is dispossessed of the past, of sin, of memory; four, once this happens, the soul will attain perfect possession of God in union.
There is a deep mystery here, which Fr. Phelim reminds us of in the reference to Luke 14:33. It is not just things one must give up, but the very part of one's being which one thinks is essential- memories. But, it is not merely the isolated memories one is giving up, but the faculty of memory itself. This is the insight, that the entire ability to remember is given over and God begins to purge that faculty as He chooses. The faculty, like that of understanding and the will gradually belongs to God alone.
Sometime, one must grieve over the giving up of memory. We must let memories go into the darkness of the Dark Night. One must be willing to stop thoughts which take one away from the deep suffering which is the Dark Night. Fr. Phelim reminds one that the devil uses memory and the imagination, especially, to seem like things which are in the light, when in reality, the images are of evil intent, intent on taking one away from faith in the unseen God and the hope of being one with Him.
So likewise every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my disciple.
This process is very painful. God cannot be held in any ideas one may have of Him or even how He worked in the past. How can one recognize God truly if one is stuffed full of images which take one away from the real moment of the now.
The less one has, the closer one is getting to union with God...If one especially clings to memories of human love, God cannot enter into the soul. The soul is simply too crowded for His Presence.
Remember, that all of this is the passive purification of the soul, and if one runs about filling up the soul with activities, even those which seem good, the process is severely hindered.
To be continued...
Prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux
MEMORARE, O piissima Virgo Maria, non esse auditum a saeculo, quemquam ad tua currentem praesidia, tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia, esse derelictum. Ego tali animatus confidentia, ad te, Virgo Virginum, Mater, curro, ad te venio, coram te gemens peccator assisto. Noli, Mater Verbi, verba mea despicere; sed audi propitia et exaudi. Amen.
Dark Night of the Soul Part 37-The Purification of the Memory Revisited
A Carmelite priest wrote some interesting words in connection with St. John of the Cross on the subject of the purification of the memory.
As I have struggled with this concept and with the actual beginnings of this change of memory, which is not really a loss, but a giving over to God the memories of the past, I am revisiting this step of the Dark Night. I have struggled with this, as a poet, writer and historian. When one is using one's memory for art or study or teaching, this purification process seems odd. But, St. John taught and preached and gave spiritual direction using his memory. At his state of holiness, this meant that God to bring to mind the things God wanted to impart, and that St. John was in the Will of God in his thoughts, speech, and deeds.
The goal of the purification of the memory by the Holy Spirit is primarily to create a state of freedom in the soul and mind. Memories can trap people into hatred, bitterness, lust, fantasies.
Father Phelim writes this, "The soul experiences tranquillity and peace of mind, and more importantly it grows in purity of conscience and purity of soul. The soul is free too from the suggestions, temptations and deceptions which the devil can arouse by means of thoughts and memories."
Now, many of us cling to memories of happier days, or past relationships which brought joy, or even loved ones who have passed away. Some use their memories for keeping hatred alive. I met a man here who is my age. He started talking about his family hatred of the British. He was horribly full of hate. I stopped him, and asked him if he thought God would let him take that hate into heaven. He said he would never forgive the past wrongs, never.
I pity him and say a Hail Mary for him, as he will not be able to take that hatred into heaven.
Father Phelim continues, "On the positive side the soul through recollection and forgetfulness of passing things acquires a spirit that is open and docile to the delicate movements of the Holy Spirit. It acquires too, a certain stability amidst difficulties, and a certain equanimity in the face of adversity. It is neither cast down by adversity or unduly elated by prosperity."
Father also cautions, "It is quite easy to confuse virtue with lofty ideas of God, whereas true virtue is always accompanied by deep humility and self-contempt. Indeed one degree of humility is of far greater worth than all manner of visions, revelations, or emotional feeling concerning God."
The purification of the memory takes away imaginings in the memory which may make one think they are holier than they actually are. Memory cannot create one act of love as much as faith and hope do, writes Father. Deception and vanity prove to be the stumbling blocks to some who think they are on the way to holiness, Father notes.
When one allows God to purify the memory, such fantasies and imaginings of holiness disappear in the cold light of truth and emptiness. Sometimes, one has to grieve away memories holding one back from living in the present, the Presence of God. This is why in the convent, the nuns never talk about their pasts and no one knows about each others past. It may seem strange, but it takes away the living on past successes or even re-thinking past failures. The purified imagination lives totally in the present moment.
There will be more on this subject. Sadly, these comments are in a pamphlet, which is old. But, I shall write more of Father Phelim's insights in the next post as well.
to be continued...
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