dinsdag 31 december 2019
gregorius (iii)
He was obviously somebody...
who was steeped in great prayer.
I think we can see his holiness, the mystical quality of his work, from his scriptural writings. As I was saying, he spent years contemplating Sacred Scripture, seeing it as needed, the kind of nourishment that he needs. And therefore, in being in him as well a humility to listen to scripture rather than try to impose one's own expectations on it... intellectual humility of searching, of meditating and pondering on the realities of Scripture, and allowing it to become part of you, to listen to what God is saying.
E.g. the Moralia in Job...
When we hear the name Job... it's suffering... Gregory, he saw the moral sense of scripture as primary. In other words, we find in Scripture how to lead our lives. How to be moral? It flows then from being an authentic believer. How rich that is for us today. How universal and timeless! And that can only be accomplished from years of prayer and contemplation, of 'contemplatio', on the Word of God.
There is always a deep concern... for people's final destiny... He was taken first and foremost with the salvation of souls...
Hé sent out... Augustin to England e.g. to convert the Saxons...
He took the decision to send out his monks, his priests to the darkest parts of Europe... to the unimaginable vast stretches of territory beyónd the confines of what used to be the Roman Colony in Britain, all the way into Eastern Europe, into the lands beyond the Rhine... this was dark dark territory.
The conversion of their souls, bringing them to Christ... was his greatest worry.
And I would say his greatest accomplishment.
We owe an incredible debt to those men, we will never know their names, who went into those dark places... to be that 'Lumen Gentium', to be that Light...
We owe so much to that Servus Servorum Dei !!...
~bron~
There is always a deep concern... for people's final destiny... He was taken first and foremost with the salvation of souls...
Hé sent out... Augustin to England e.g. to convert the Saxons...
He took the decision to send out his monks, his priests to the darkest parts of Europe... to the unimaginable vast stretches of territory beyónd the confines of what used to be the Roman Colony in Britain, all the way into Eastern Europe, into the lands beyond the Rhine... this was dark dark territory.
The conversion of their souls, bringing them to Christ... was his greatest worry.
And I would say his greatest accomplishment.
We owe an incredible debt to those men, we will never know their names, who went into those dark places... to be that 'Lumen Gentium', to be that Light...
We owe so much to that Servus Servorum Dei !!...
gregorius (ii)
The call to prayer!
The effort to sanctify the little things!
To sancify our daily labours, to sanctify everything that we do, and to hand it back to God as a gift in humility and in gratitude. And you can see this ongoing transformation in Gregory! And I was imagining the disappointment in his friends, but I can also imagine Gregory's reaction when... he had not been in this monastery for very long, when the Pope who knew him of course asks him to serve as what was known at the time as an 'annunzio', a delegate, an ambassador to Constantinople...
But while he was there, Gregory álso lived the life of a monk! And in that sense too he experienced Byzantine Christianity, Eastern Christianity... and I think that also had a very great influence and impact on him as well. Notably, he did not learn Greek. He kept to his Latin. And in that sense too, he represents the kind of growing gulf between the East and the West. And the separation that began linguistically, then also expanded theologically.
Upon his return in Rome... we know that he immediately resumed monastic life!
After the death of Pope Pelagius... one wanted him as the next Pope... and he even tried to flee the town, because he knew where things were going... and he was brought back, and not forced to yield, but finally yielded to the demand, and he was unanimously chosen by the clergy of Rome, by the people and the Senate of Rome.
And in 590 he became the one thing he did not want to be, and that was Bishop op Rome and Successor of Saint Peter.
~bron~
The effort to sanctify the little things!
To sancify our daily labours, to sanctify everything that we do, and to hand it back to God as a gift in humility and in gratitude. And you can see this ongoing transformation in Gregory! And I was imagining the disappointment in his friends, but I can also imagine Gregory's reaction when... he had not been in this monastery for very long, when the Pope who knew him of course asks him to serve as what was known at the time as an 'annunzio', a delegate, an ambassador to Constantinople...
But while he was there, Gregory álso lived the life of a monk! And in that sense too he experienced Byzantine Christianity, Eastern Christianity... and I think that also had a very great influence and impact on him as well. Notably, he did not learn Greek. He kept to his Latin. And in that sense too, he represents the kind of growing gulf between the East and the West. And the separation that began linguistically, then also expanded theologically.
Upon his return in Rome... we know that he immediately resumed monastic life!
After the death of Pope Pelagius... one wanted him as the next Pope... and he even tried to flee the town, because he knew where things were going... and he was brought back, and not forced to yield, but finally yielded to the demand, and he was unanimously chosen by the clergy of Rome, by the people and the Senate of Rome.
And in 590 he became the one thing he did not want to be, and that was Bishop op Rome and Successor of Saint Peter.
~bron~
gregorius (i)
Silvia's zoon...
was dus Gregorius de Grote, de paus
naar wie de 'Gregoriaanse gezangen' zijn vernoemd !
One of the richest people in all of Rome...
but he never abused that. You find in him - e.g. in his book on the pastoral rule - what were some of the things he expected from a bishop: well, one was humility! And he stresses the importance of humility!... So he did not see himself in a lordly manner. He saw himself always at the servive of the city of the people that he intended to serve...
was dus Gregorius de Grote, de paus
naar wie de 'Gregoriaanse gezangen' zijn vernoemd !
One of the richest people in all of Rome...
but he never abused that. You find in him - e.g. in his book on the pastoral rule - what were some of the things he expected from a bishop: well, one was humility! And he stresses the importance of humility!... So he did not see himself in a lordly manner. He saw himself always at the servive of the city of the people that he intended to serve...
The call to the monastic life however...
was one that he knew he had to answer... in part because he was being called by Christ... to something more important... than just an administrative career as some civil servant... And how wise! Because think of the good that he had accomplished by not simply being filled with worldly ambition...
He knew that he was called to something deeper. And he answered that call. And not only the Church but the wider world benefited from that.
Can you imagine someone doing that today? I am trying to think of a current figure that has that wealth, has that political power and yoúth as well, and not so much gives it away, but sháres it!... And he makes sure that it gets there where it needs to go!
Yes, he has these estates on the Caelian Hill, and he transforms it into a monastery! And he is building on the great lecacy of Benedict of Nursia, and he becomes a monk! And I can imagine the perplexity on the part of his friends, trying to understand what was going on. But also some of the other magistrates who were probably a little disappointed at first... that someone of this promise was abandoning the city, so to speak...
But we have seen this before!
I think of Saint Ambrose for example, who is himself somebody seen as potentially one of the greatest figures in the Western Empire and gives that up to the life of faith, the life of deeper service, a life of deeper meaning... and that's exactly what Gregory did.
But we see too that his time of monasticism was filled with this greatness of study, of Scripture, of the Fathers of the Church who went before him. And yes, he was emptying himself of ambition, but he was being filled with holiness, he was being filled with the Word of God. And all of this was mere preparation for the task that Christ had ahead of him.
was one that he knew he had to answer... in part because he was being called by Christ... to something more important... than just an administrative career as some civil servant... And how wise! Because think of the good that he had accomplished by not simply being filled with worldly ambition...
He knew that he was called to something deeper. And he answered that call. And not only the Church but the wider world benefited from that.
Can you imagine someone doing that today? I am trying to think of a current figure that has that wealth, has that political power and yoúth as well, and not so much gives it away, but sháres it!... And he makes sure that it gets there where it needs to go!
Yes, he has these estates on the Caelian Hill, and he transforms it into a monastery! And he is building on the great lecacy of Benedict of Nursia, and he becomes a monk! And I can imagine the perplexity on the part of his friends, trying to understand what was going on. But also some of the other magistrates who were probably a little disappointed at first... that someone of this promise was abandoning the city, so to speak...
But we have seen this before!
I think of Saint Ambrose for example, who is himself somebody seen as potentially one of the greatest figures in the Western Empire and gives that up to the life of faith, the life of deeper service, a life of deeper meaning... and that's exactly what Gregory did.
But we see too that his time of monasticism was filled with this greatness of study, of Scripture, of the Fathers of the Church who went before him. And yes, he was emptying himself of ambition, but he was being filled with holiness, he was being filled with the Word of God. And all of this was mere preparation for the task that Christ had ahead of him.
silvia 3
On his father's death...
Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery...
dedicated to the apostle Saint Andrew (after his death it was rededicated as San Gregorio Magno al Celio). In his life of contemplation, Gregory concluded that "in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without."
Gregory took seriously the monk's vow of poverty.
Thus, when it came to light that a monk lying on his death bed had stolen three gold pieces, Gregory, as a remedial punishment, forced the monk to die alone, then threw his body and coins on a manure heap, to rot with a condemnation, "Take your money with you to perdition!"
Gregory believed that punishment of sins can begin, even in this life before death. However, in time, after the monk's death, Gregory had 30 Masses offered for the man to assist his soul before the final judgment, since Gregory believed in Purgatory.
Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life.
He viewed being a monk as the "ardent quest for the vision of our Creator."
His three paternal aunts were nuns renowned for their sanctity. However, after the two eldest died after seeing a vision of their ancestor Pope Felix III, the youngest soon abandoned the religious life and married the steward of her estate. Gregory's response to this family scandal was "many are called but few are chosen."
Gregory's mother Silvia herself is a saint.
~wikipedia~
Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery...
dedicated to the apostle Saint Andrew (after his death it was rededicated as San Gregorio Magno al Celio). In his life of contemplation, Gregory concluded that "in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without."
Thus, when it came to light that a monk lying on his death bed had stolen three gold pieces, Gregory, as a remedial punishment, forced the monk to die alone, then threw his body and coins on a manure heap, to rot with a condemnation, "Take your money with you to perdition!"
Gregory believed that punishment of sins can begin, even in this life before death. However, in time, after the monk's death, Gregory had 30 Masses offered for the man to assist his soul before the final judgment, since Gregory believed in Purgatory.
Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life.
He viewed being a monk as the "ardent quest for the vision of our Creator."
His three paternal aunts were nuns renowned for their sanctity. However, after the two eldest died after seeing a vision of their ancestor Pope Felix III, the youngest soon abandoned the religious life and married the steward of her estate. Gregory's response to this family scandal was "many are called but few are chosen."
Gregory's mother Silvia herself is a saint.
~wikipedia~
silvia 2
Weduwe geworden rond 573...
trok zij zich terug in een huis aan de Aventijn genaamd Cella Nova.
Volgens de Benedictijnse regel, wijdde zij de rest van haar leven aan gebed, meditatie en de hulp van de zieken en meest behoeftigen. Haar zoon Gregorius bleef in plaats daarvan in de villa van zijn vader wonen, die hij transformeerde tot een klooster, waar hij een kerk bouwde die was gewijd aan Sant'Andrea, het huidige oratorium van Sant'Andrea al Celio.
Tijdens die periode maakte zijn moeder zich zorgen zodat ze hem elke dag een warme maaltijd liet bezorgen, uit angst dat de soberheid van het kluizenaarsleven zijn toch al slechte gezondheid verder in gevaar zou brengen.
Silvia stierf in 592.
Paus Gregorius liet haar begraven in het klooster van Sant'Andrea.
In het graf waar haar schoonzussen Tarsilla en Emiliana al lagen. Haar afbeelding had het kruis aan de rechterkant en een boek links, met de inscriptie: "Vivit anima mea et laudabit te, et iudicia tua adiuvabunt me" [ps.119,176, "Dat mijn ziel wáárlijk leeft en Uw lof zingt: moge Uw rechtsorde daartoe mij tot hulp zijn."]
Hier liet kardinaal Cesare Baronio in 1603 het oratorium van Santa Silvia al Celio bouwen, en in datzelfde jaar verkreeg hij van paus Clement VIII dat de naam van Sint Silvia op 3 november werd opgenomen in de Romeinse martyrologie.
-
Op verzoek van paus Johannes XXIII, op 23 februari 1959, in het district Portuense, werd een parochie opgericht gewijd aan de moeder van Sint Gregorius de Grote, wiens kerk werd geopend voor aanbidding in 1968.
~wikipedia~
trok zij zich terug in een huis aan de Aventijn genaamd Cella Nova.
Volgens de Benedictijnse regel, wijdde zij de rest van haar leven aan gebed, meditatie en de hulp van de zieken en meest behoeftigen. Haar zoon Gregorius bleef in plaats daarvan in de villa van zijn vader wonen, die hij transformeerde tot een klooster, waar hij een kerk bouwde die was gewijd aan Sant'Andrea, het huidige oratorium van Sant'Andrea al Celio.
Tijdens die periode maakte zijn moeder zich zorgen zodat ze hem elke dag een warme maaltijd liet bezorgen, uit angst dat de soberheid van het kluizenaarsleven zijn toch al slechte gezondheid verder in gevaar zou brengen.
Silvia stierf in 592.
Paus Gregorius liet haar begraven in het klooster van Sant'Andrea.
In het graf waar haar schoonzussen Tarsilla en Emiliana al lagen. Haar afbeelding had het kruis aan de rechterkant en een boek links, met de inscriptie: "Vivit anima mea et laudabit te, et iudicia tua adiuvabunt me" [ps.119,176, "Dat mijn ziel wáárlijk leeft en Uw lof zingt: moge Uw rechtsorde daartoe mij tot hulp zijn."]
Hier liet kardinaal Cesare Baronio in 1603 het oratorium van Santa Silvia al Celio bouwen, en in datzelfde jaar verkreeg hij van paus Clement VIII dat de naam van Sint Silvia op 3 november werd opgenomen in de Romeinse martyrologie.
-
Op verzoek van paus Johannes XXIII, op 23 februari 1959, in het district Portuense, werd een parochie opgericht gewijd aan de moeder van Sint Gregorius de Grote, wiens kerk werd geopend voor aanbidding in 1968.
~wikipedia~
silvia 1
Saint Silvia...
6th century AD...
Mother of Pope Gregory the Great...
Little biographical information about her exists.
Her native place is sometimes given as Sicily, sometimes as Rome.
Apparently she was of as distinguished family, as was her husband, the Roman regionarius Gordianus. She had besides Gregory a second son, whose name did not survive through the ages.
-
Silvia was noted for her great piety...
and she gave her sons an excellent education.
After the death of her husband, around 573, she devoted herself entirely to religion in the 'new cell by the gate of blessed Paul'.
Gregory the Great had a mosaic portrait of his parents executed at the monastery of Saint Andrew, it is minutely described by Johannes Diaconus.
Silvia was portrayed sitting, with a face 'in which the wrinkles of age could not hide the beauty, the eyes were large and blue, and the expression was gracious and animated'...
-
The veneration of Saint Silvia is of early date.
She was honoured by the Romans as a type of a Christian widow.
Silvia had built a chapel in her house. In 645, the monks from the monastery of Mar Saba settled in this house, and devoted it to the celebration of Saint Sabas. In the 9th century, an oratory was erected over her former dwelling, near the Basilica of San Saba.
Pope Clement VIII...
inserted her name under 3 November in the Roman Martyrology.
She is invoked by pregnant women for a safe delivery.
Two of her relatives, sisters-in-law Trasilla and Emiliana, are also venerated as saints.
~wikipedia~
6th century AD...
Mother of Pope Gregory the Great...
Little biographical information about her exists.
Her native place is sometimes given as Sicily, sometimes as Rome.
Apparently she was of as distinguished family, as was her husband, the Roman regionarius Gordianus. She had besides Gregory a second son, whose name did not survive through the ages.
-
Silvia was noted for her great piety...
and she gave her sons an excellent education.
After the death of her husband, around 573, she devoted herself entirely to religion in the 'new cell by the gate of blessed Paul'.
Gregory the Great had a mosaic portrait of his parents executed at the monastery of Saint Andrew, it is minutely described by Johannes Diaconus.
Silvia was portrayed sitting, with a face 'in which the wrinkles of age could not hide the beauty, the eyes were large and blue, and the expression was gracious and animated'...
-
The veneration of Saint Silvia is of early date.
She was honoured by the Romans as a type of a Christian widow.
Silvia had built a chapel in her house. In 645, the monks from the monastery of Mar Saba settled in this house, and devoted it to the celebration of Saint Sabas. In the 9th century, an oratory was erected over her former dwelling, near the Basilica of San Saba.
Pope Clement VIII...
inserted her name under 3 November in the Roman Martyrology.
She is invoked by pregnant women for a safe delivery.
Two of her relatives, sisters-in-law Trasilla and Emiliana, are also venerated as saints.
~wikipedia~
maandag 30 december 2019
zaterdag 28 december 2019
h. onschuldigen -4
Hallelu-ja !
Looft, alle dienaren van de Heer, looft de naam van de Heer !
De naam van de Heer zij gezegend van thans tot in eeuwigheid. Van de opgang der zon tot haar dalen zij geprezen de naam van de Heer. Hoog boven alle volken de Heer; hemelhoog is zijn glorie.
Wie is als de Heer onze God, die woning maakt in den hoge, die neder wil zien op dit laagland...
Die de arme opricht uit het stof, uit het slijk wil heffen de schamele, dat hij zetelen mag met de machtigen, met de machtigen van zijn volk. Die de onvruchtbare geeft haar plaats in het huis: een lachende moeder van kinderen.
God-lof !
[ps.113]
h. onschuldigen -3
Een bedevaartslied van David.
Was het niet dat Jahwe ons bij had gestaan - spreke het Israël uit - was het niet dat Jahwe ons bij had gestaan, toen mensenmacht ons vervolgde... vast hadden ze, als beesten, ons levend verscheurd. Zo hoog laaide hun haat tegen ons. Vast hadden de wateren ons meegevoerd, had de kolkende stroom ons bedolven. Vast had ons levend bedolven het water in zijn geweld.
Gezegend de Heer !
Hij gaf ons niet prijs !
Niet ten prooi aan hun tanden !
Was het niet dat Jahwe ons bij had gestaan - spreke het Israël uit - was het niet dat Jahwe ons bij had gestaan, toen mensenmacht ons vervolgde... vast hadden ze, als beesten, ons levend verscheurd. Zo hoog laaide hun haat tegen ons. Vast hadden de wateren ons meegevoerd, had de kolkende stroom ons bedolven. Vast had ons levend bedolven het water in zijn geweld.
Gezegend de Heer !
Hij gaf ons niet prijs !
Niet ten prooi aan hun tanden !
anima nostra, sicut passer,
erepta est de laqueo venantium
laqueus contritus est,
et nos erepti sumus
adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini
qui fecit caelum et terram
onze ziel, als een vogel,
kwam vrij uit de vogelaarsstrik
de strik brak
en wij, wij ontkwamen
onze hulp is in de naam van de Heer
die gemaakt heeft hemel en aarde
[ps.124,7-8]
[ps.124,7-8]
h. onschuldigen -2
Weer keek ik...
en zie, daar stond het Lam op de berg Sion
en met Hem honderdvierenveertigduizend.
Die droegen Zijn naam en de naam van Zijn Vader op hun voorhoofd geschreven.
En ik hoorde uit de hemel een geluid als het gedruis van vele wateren en het dreunen van de donder. En het geluid dat ik hoorde, was de klank van citerspelers die op hun citers speelden. En zij zongen een nieuw lied, staande voor de troon en voor de vier dieren en de oudsten.
En niemand kon het lied leren...
dan alleen de honderdvierenveertigduizend vrijgekochten van de aarde.
Dezen zijn het die zich niet met vrouwen hebben bevlekt.
Maagden zijn het en zij volgen het Lam waarheen het ook gaat.
Zij zijn vrijgekocht als de eerstelingen van de mensheid, voor God en het Lam.
En in hun mond is geen leugen gevonden, zij zijn zonder smet.
Apokalyps
14, 1-5
en zie, daar stond het Lam op de berg Sion
en met Hem honderdvierenveertigduizend.
Die droegen Zijn naam en de naam van Zijn Vader op hun voorhoofd geschreven.
En ik hoorde uit de hemel een geluid als het gedruis van vele wateren en het dreunen van de donder. En het geluid dat ik hoorde, was de klank van citerspelers die op hun citers speelden. En zij zongen een nieuw lied, staande voor de troon en voor de vier dieren en de oudsten.
En niemand kon het lied leren...
dan alleen de honderdvierenveertigduizend vrijgekochten van de aarde.
Dezen zijn het die zich niet met vrouwen hebben bevlekt.
Maagden zijn het en zij volgen het Lam waarheen het ook gaat.
Zij zijn vrijgekocht als de eerstelingen van de mensheid, voor God en het Lam.
En in hun mond is geen leugen gevonden, zij zijn zonder smet.
Apokalyps
14, 1-5
h. onschuldigen -1
Deus
cuius hodierna die praeconium
innocentes martyres
non loquendo
sed moriendo confessi sunt
... da, quaesumus,
ut fidem tuam
quam lingua nostra loquitur
etiam moribus vita fateatur
-
O God
whom the Holy Innocents
confessed and proclaimed on this day
not by speaking
but by dying
... grant, we pray,
that the faith in you
which we confess with our lips
may also speak through our manner of life
-
O God,
wiens lof heden
de onschuldige martelaars
niet door hun woorden
maar door hun dood verkondigd hebben
wil in ons
alle slechte genegenheid tot zonde
vernietigen
opdat wij Uw geloof
dat wij met de tong belijden
ook door onze levenswandel mogen verkondigen
donderdag 26 december 2019
newman (6)
Newman's motto:
Cor Ad Cor Loquitur
evangelisatie via vriendschap !
drawing people to God through friendship...
drawing people to God through friendship...
newman (5)
David Hilliard writes...
that relationships such as Newman's with Froude and St John were not regarded by contemporaries as unnatural.
Nor is it possible, on the basis of passionate words uttered by mid-Victorians, to make a clear distinction between male affection and homosexual feeling. Theirs was a generation prepared to accept romantic friendships between men simply as friendships without sexual significance.
Only with the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the doctrine of the stiff upper lip and the concept of homosexuality as an identifiable condition, did open expressions of love between men become suspect and regarded in a new light as morally undesirable.
-
Men born in the first decades of the nineteenth century...
had a capacity, which did not survive into later generations, for intense male friendships.
The friendship of Alfred Tennyson and Arthur Hallam, immortalised in In Memoriam A.H.H., is a famous example. Less well-known is that of Charles Kingsley [priest] and his closest friend at Cambridge, Charles Mansfield [chemist].
When Ian Ker reissued his biography of Newman in 2009...
he added an afterword in which he put forward evidence that Newman was a heterosexual.
He cited journal entries from December 1816 in which the 15-year-old Newman prayed to be preserved from the temptations awaiting him when he returned from boarding school and met girls at Christmas dances and parties.
As an adult, Newman wrote about the deep pain of the 'sacrifice' of the life of celibacy. Ker comments: "The only 'sacrifice' that he could possibly be referring to was that of marriage. And he readily acknowledges that from time to time he continued to feel the natural attraction for marriage that any heterosexual man would."
In 1833, Newman wrote that, despite having willingly accepted the call to celibacy, he felt "not the less the need of the sort of interest [sympathy] which a wife takes and none but she - it is a woman's interest"..
~wikipedia~
that relationships such as Newman's with Froude and St John were not regarded by contemporaries as unnatural.
Nor is it possible, on the basis of passionate words uttered by mid-Victorians, to make a clear distinction between male affection and homosexual feeling. Theirs was a generation prepared to accept romantic friendships between men simply as friendships without sexual significance.
Only with the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the doctrine of the stiff upper lip and the concept of homosexuality as an identifiable condition, did open expressions of love between men become suspect and regarded in a new light as morally undesirable.
-
Men born in the first decades of the nineteenth century...
had a capacity, which did not survive into later generations, for intense male friendships.
The friendship of Alfred Tennyson and Arthur Hallam, immortalised in In Memoriam A.H.H., is a famous example. Less well-known is that of Charles Kingsley [priest] and his closest friend at Cambridge, Charles Mansfield [chemist].
When Ian Ker reissued his biography of Newman in 2009...
he added an afterword in which he put forward evidence that Newman was a heterosexual.
He cited journal entries from December 1816 in which the 15-year-old Newman prayed to be preserved from the temptations awaiting him when he returned from boarding school and met girls at Christmas dances and parties.
As an adult, Newman wrote about the deep pain of the 'sacrifice' of the life of celibacy. Ker comments: "The only 'sacrifice' that he could possibly be referring to was that of marriage. And he readily acknowledges that from time to time he continued to feel the natural attraction for marriage that any heterosexual man would."
In 1833, Newman wrote that, despite having willingly accepted the call to celibacy, he felt "not the less the need of the sort of interest [sympathy] which a wife takes and none but she - it is a woman's interest"..
~wikipedia~
newman (4)
In the chapel of Christ's College, Cambridge...
some twenty years ago, historian Alan Bray made an astonishing discovery: a tomb shared by two men, John Finch and Thomas Baines.
The monument featured eloquent imagery dedicated to their friendship: portraits of the two friends linked by a knotted cloth. And Bray would soon learn that Finch commonly described his friendship with Baines as a 'connubium' or marriage.
There was a time, as made clear by this monument, when the English church not only revered such relations between men, but also blessed them.
Taking this remarkable idea as its cue...
The Friend explores the long and storied relationship between friendship and the traditional family of the church in England. This magisterial work extends from the year 1000, when Europe acquired a shape that became its enduring form, and pursues its account up to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Spanning a vast array of fascinating examples, which range from memorial plaques and burial brasses to religious rites and theological imagery to classic works of philosophy and English literature, Bray shows how public uses of private affection were very common in premodern times.
He debunks [ontkracht] the now-familiar readings of friendship by historians of sexuality who project homoerotic desires onto their subjects when there were none. And perhaps most notably, he evaluates how the ethics of friendship have evolved over the centuries.
From traditional emphases on loyalty to the Kantian idea of moral benevolence to the more private and sexualized idea of friendship that emerged during the modern era.
Finely nuanced and elegantly conceived, The Friend is a book rich in suggestive propositions as well as eye-opening details. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of England and the importance of friendship in everyday life.
History Today's Book of the Year, 2003 Bray's loving coupledom is something with a proper historical backbone, with substance and form, something you can trace over time, visible and archeologicable.
~bol.com~
some twenty years ago, historian Alan Bray made an astonishing discovery: a tomb shared by two men, John Finch and Thomas Baines.
The monument featured eloquent imagery dedicated to their friendship: portraits of the two friends linked by a knotted cloth. And Bray would soon learn that Finch commonly described his friendship with Baines as a 'connubium' or marriage.
There was a time, as made clear by this monument, when the English church not only revered such relations between men, but also blessed them.
Taking this remarkable idea as its cue...
The Friend explores the long and storied relationship between friendship and the traditional family of the church in England. This magisterial work extends from the year 1000, when Europe acquired a shape that became its enduring form, and pursues its account up to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Spanning a vast array of fascinating examples, which range from memorial plaques and burial brasses to religious rites and theological imagery to classic works of philosophy and English literature, Bray shows how public uses of private affection were very common in premodern times.
He debunks [ontkracht] the now-familiar readings of friendship by historians of sexuality who project homoerotic desires onto their subjects when there were none. And perhaps most notably, he evaluates how the ethics of friendship have evolved over the centuries.
From traditional emphases on loyalty to the Kantian idea of moral benevolence to the more private and sexualized idea of friendship that emerged during the modern era.
Finely nuanced and elegantly conceived, The Friend is a book rich in suggestive propositions as well as eye-opening details. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of England and the importance of friendship in everyday life.
History Today's Book of the Year, 2003 Bray's loving coupledom is something with a proper historical backbone, with substance and form, something you can trace over time, visible and archeologicable.
~bol.com~
newman (3)
Alan Bray, in his 2003 book The Friend...
saw the bond between Newman and Ambrose St John as entirely spiritual, noting that Newman, when speaking of St John, echoes the language of John's gospel.
Shortly after St John's death, Bray adds, Newman recorded a conversation between them before St John lost his speech in those final days. He expressed his hope, Newman wrote, that during his whole priestly life he had not committed one mortal sin. For men of their time and culture that statement is definitive.
Newman's burial with Ambrose St John cannot be detached from his understanding of the place of friendship in Christian belief or its long history. Bray cites numerous examples of friends being buried together. Newman's burial with St John was not unusual at the time, and did not draw contemporary comment.
saw the bond between Newman and Ambrose St John as entirely spiritual, noting that Newman, when speaking of St John, echoes the language of John's gospel.
Shortly after St John's death, Bray adds, Newman recorded a conversation between them before St John lost his speech in those final days. He expressed his hope, Newman wrote, that during his whole priestly life he had not committed one mortal sin. For men of their time and culture that statement is definitive.
Newman's burial with Ambrose St John cannot be detached from his understanding of the place of friendship in Christian belief or its long history. Bray cites numerous examples of friends being buried together. Newman's burial with St John was not unusual at the time, and did not draw contemporary comment.
newman (2)
Newman spelt out his theology of friendship...
in a sermon he preached on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the same person as the disciple John, "whom Jesus loved".
In the sermon, Newman said: "There have been men before now, who have supposed Christian love was so diffuse as not to admit of concentration upon individuals; so that we ought to love all men equally... Now I shall maintain here, in opposition to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to cultivate our intimate friendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us".
For Newman, friendship is an intimation [hint] of a greater love, a foretaste of heaven. In friendship, two intimate friends gain a glimpse of the life that awaits them in God.
Juan R. Vélez writes that someday Newman may well earn a new title, that of Doctor Amicitiae: Doctor-of-the-Church on Friendship, his biography being a treatise on the human and supernatural virtues that make up friendship.
"People are not won for Jesus Christ and his Church by means of argumentation alone, he said, but by credible witness. Newman believed that the truth of the Gospel, passed down through the centuries, has been upheld not as a system, not by books, not by argument, nor by temporal power, but by the personal influence of such men who are at once teachers and the patterns of it.
Newman understood that a friend is also a teacher, one who guides in truth. Like his patron St Philip Neri, Newman had a big heart. St Philip, the 16th century founder of the original Oratory, knew well how to lead others, guiding them gently to God, the greatest Love.
Newman, following his patron, guided many friends along their paths to God. He firmly believed and taught that those who have the biggest impact on our lives are our friends. Friends, who help us to know and love God more, help us to become better persons.
Both St Philip and John Henry lived long lives, leading many on the right path."
~wikipedia~
in a sermon he preached on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the same person as the disciple John, "whom Jesus loved".
In the sermon, Newman said: "There have been men before now, who have supposed Christian love was so diffuse as not to admit of concentration upon individuals; so that we ought to love all men equally... Now I shall maintain here, in opposition to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to cultivate our intimate friendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us".
For Newman, friendship is an intimation [hint] of a greater love, a foretaste of heaven. In friendship, two intimate friends gain a glimpse of the life that awaits them in God.
Juan R. Vélez writes that someday Newman may well earn a new title, that of Doctor Amicitiae: Doctor-of-the-Church on Friendship, his biography being a treatise on the human and supernatural virtues that make up friendship.
"People are not won for Jesus Christ and his Church by means of argumentation alone, he said, but by credible witness. Newman believed that the truth of the Gospel, passed down through the centuries, has been upheld not as a system, not by books, not by argument, nor by temporal power, but by the personal influence of such men who are at once teachers and the patterns of it.
Newman understood that a friend is also a teacher, one who guides in truth. Like his patron St Philip Neri, Newman had a big heart. St Philip, the 16th century founder of the original Oratory, knew well how to lead others, guiding them gently to God, the greatest Love.
Newman, following his patron, guided many friends along their paths to God. He firmly believed and taught that those who have the biggest impact on our lives are our friends. Friends, who help us to know and love God more, help us to become better persons.
Both St Philip and John Henry lived long lives, leading many on the right path."
~wikipedia~
newman (1)
Newman also experienced intense male friendships...
the first with Richard Hurrell Froude, the longest with Ambrose St John, who shared communitarian life with Newman for 32 years starting in 1843, when St John was 28.
Newman wrote after St John's death: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine". He directed that he be buried in the same grave as St. John: "I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John's grave, and I give this as my last, my imperative will".
the first with Richard Hurrell Froude, the longest with Ambrose St John, who shared communitarian life with Newman for 32 years starting in 1843, when St John was 28.
Newman wrote after St John's death: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine". He directed that he be buried in the same grave as St. John: "I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John's grave, and I give this as my last, my imperative will".
dinsdag 24 december 2019
maandag 23 december 2019
klooster [5]
This is...
being with God, love in Love.
A human heart comes into contact with God, a limited heart comes in contact with the Unlimited Heart, a simple love meets with Infinite Love.
We, in our lives with God, are as a simple creek which runs until it meets the Sea, and pours into it, and blends with its endless waters. We are a drop of water, heated by the fervor of love, which evaporates, and so rises in order to come down into the depths of the Great River. Our life with God is a life of love.
Beloved, it is enough for you to meet with Christ, to talk with Him, to listen to Him, to create a relationship with Him, finding all your necessities in Him, not needing anything but to be with Him, to give Him your heart, then you will feel the ridiculousness of the whole world, and will delight in God’s love.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
'Being with God'
~bron~
being with God, love in Love.
A human heart comes into contact with God, a limited heart comes in contact with the Unlimited Heart, a simple love meets with Infinite Love.
We, in our lives with God, are as a simple creek which runs until it meets the Sea, and pours into it, and blends with its endless waters. We are a drop of water, heated by the fervor of love, which evaporates, and so rises in order to come down into the depths of the Great River. Our life with God is a life of love.
Beloved, it is enough for you to meet with Christ, to talk with Him, to listen to Him, to create a relationship with Him, finding all your necessities in Him, not needing anything but to be with Him, to give Him your heart, then you will feel the ridiculousness of the whole world, and will delight in God’s love.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
'Being with God'
~bron~
klooster [3]
Life for the two...
is spent in daily prayer, contemplation, the reading of the Bible, and other religious texts.
Their days are bookended by two daily, lengthy communal prayer sessions - one at 4:00am and the other at 4:30pm - interspersed with individual daily prayer time alone, in their private quarters.
The rest of the day filled with a variety of activities...
from making wooden crosses, to greeting guests, and overseeing the property, which includes cooking, cleaning and gardening.
"Our life is to completely focus on Christ," Mother Antonia said. "When Christ becomes everything to you and he's the only thing that's important to you he fills every void that could have ever existed in your life..."
"You don't wish you could have human intimacy, you don't wish you could have children. You don't want these things, you don't actually desire them."
~bron~
is spent in daily prayer, contemplation, the reading of the Bible, and other religious texts.
Their days are bookended by two daily, lengthy communal prayer sessions - one at 4:00am and the other at 4:30pm - interspersed with individual daily prayer time alone, in their private quarters.
The rest of the day filled with a variety of activities...
from making wooden crosses, to greeting guests, and overseeing the property, which includes cooking, cleaning and gardening.
"You don't wish you could have human intimacy, you don't wish you could have children. You don't want these things, you don't actually desire them."
~bron~
klooster [2]
Living a cloistered life...
means the nuns rarely leave their newly created Archangel Michael Monastery in central Victoria, expect when necessary. "We avoid it as much as possible," Mother Antonia said.
The monastery is also a retreat for women, for those wanting to "foster a spiritual life with God, to find some peace in a world where peace is slowly diminishing." The 20-room monastery is set on 18-acres of bushland, and features a large 1920s manor house and garden designed by Edna Walling.
While the monastery is currently only inhabited by the two nuns, many of Melbourne's Coptic Orthodox Diocese members are regular visitors, attending the monastery for respite and to volunteer their services.
~bron~
means the nuns rarely leave their newly created Archangel Michael Monastery in central Victoria, expect when necessary. "We avoid it as much as possible," Mother Antonia said.
The monastery is also a retreat for women, for those wanting to "foster a spiritual life with God, to find some peace in a world where peace is slowly diminishing." The 20-room monastery is set on 18-acres of bushland, and features a large 1920s manor house and garden designed by Edna Walling.
While the monastery is currently only inhabited by the two nuns, many of Melbourne's Coptic Orthodox Diocese members are regular visitors, attending the monastery for respite and to volunteer their services.
~bron~
klooster [1]
iedere geboorte, een dood
iedere dood, een geboorte
[kerst 2019]
When Mothers Antonia and Veronica...
first stepped out in their head-to-toe black religious habits on the streets of Woodend, people would stop and stare. With only their faces and hands exposed, it was an unusual sight for many of the locals.
"It's human nature to look at something that's different. We don't mind if people look at us," Mother Antonia said. "The body is no longer important, how we look is not important."
~bron~
iedere dood, een geboorte
[kerst 2019]
When Mothers Antonia and Veronica...
first stepped out in their head-to-toe black religious habits on the streets of Woodend, people would stop and stare. With only their faces and hands exposed, it was an unusual sight for many of the locals.
"It's human nature to look at something that's different. We don't mind if people look at us," Mother Antonia said. "The body is no longer important, how we look is not important."
~bron~
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