Oh Beloved Silence!

"I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me.”

-Arvo Part

31 December 2015
Day VII in the Octave of Christmas

Happy Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

"Think not, therefore, it is of small things you are hearing, when you hear of this Birth, but rouse up your mind, and straightway tremble, being told that God has come upon earth."

-St. John Chrysostom




25 December 2015
Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Compel Yourselves in Silence

"Compel yourselves in silence, the mother of all godly virtues. Keep silent, in order to say the Prayer [of Jesus]; for, when someone speaks, how is he able to escape idle talk, from which comes every evil word, which weighs the soul down by the responsibility for it."

-Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, "Counsels from the Holy Mountain"


23 December 2015
Advent Feria

Closeness

From First Vespers of the Fourth Sunday of Advent,

" Canite tuba * in Sion, quia prope est dies Domini: ecce veniet ad salvandum nos, alleluia, alleluia."

"Blow ye the trumpet * in Zion, for the day of the Lord is nigh at hand: behold, He cometh to save us! Alleluia, Alleluia."


This is the First Antiphon and as we have been progressing towards Christmas, it seems like the Liturgy is telling us that Our Lord's Coming is closer and closer!  Let us recall the Antiphon at the Magnificat on the First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent, when Advent had just started,

" Ecce nomen Domini * venit de longinquo, et claritas eius replet orbem terrarum."

"Behold, the name of the Lord * cometh from far, and the whole earth is full of His glory."




Let us finish Advent strong.  Have we failed in what we wanted to do?  Forget the failures and give the Lord the best you have as we will meet the Lord soon!


19 December 2015
Ember Saturday of Advent

Second Place

“Let everything take second place to our care of our children, our bringing them up to the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If from the beginning we teach them to love true wisdom, they will have great wealth and glory than riches can provide. If a child learns a trade, or is highly educated for a lucrative profession, all this is nothing compared to the art of detachment from riches; if you want to make your child rich, teach him this. He is truly rich who does not desire great possessions, or surround himself with wealth, but who requires nothing…Don’t think that only monks need to learn the Bible; Children about to go our into the world stand in greater need of Scriptural knowledge.”

-St. John Chrysostom

16 December 2015
Ember Wednesday of Advent

Hail, Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope!

From The Divine Office, Lectio 3:

"In Mexico, on the hill of Tepeyac, in the year 1531, the God-bearing Virgin Mary, as is piously handed down, appeared to the neophyte Juan Diego, and gave him a command for Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, which She urgently repeated, that a Church was to be constructed in Her name at that location. The bishop, however, requested a sign. Then, while he was seeking the sacraments for his dying uncle far from the place of the apparition, his loving Mother favored the neophyte with a third vision, assured him of his uncle's health, and after he had gathered roses into his cloak that had blossomed out of season, She ordered him to take them to the bishop. The roses having spilled out in the sight of the bishop, an image of Mary, impressed upon the cloak itself, according to the tradition, appeared to those present in a wondrous manner. At first kept in the bishop's chapel, then transferred to a shrine constructed on the hill of Tepeyac, it was finally moved to a magnificent temple, to which Mexicans increasingly began to gather in droves, for reasons of veneration and frequency of miracles. And therefore as an ever-present defense, the Mexican bishops, to the applause of the whole people, chose the blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe as the first Patroness of the Mexican people, which was duly confirmed by the apostolic authority of Benedict XIV. Leo XIII adorned the sacred image with a golden crown on Columbus Day, 1895, by the agency of the archbishop of Mexico. And St. Pius X declared the blessed Guadalupan Virgin as the Patroness of all Latin America. "


12 December 2015
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Octaves

One of the most wonderful aspects of the Traditional Calendar is the use of Octaves.  Octaves were created by the Church to give eight days of celebration to some of the larger Feasts.   The beauty of the Octave comes from the fact that Holy Mother Church, in Her Liturgy, wants the faithful to celebrate the depth of the Feast over many days.  One day is simply not enough time to truly understand the message of a Feast and is does not give you much time to celebrate either!

As we are in Second Day of the Octave of the Immaculate Conception, I leave you with the Collect that will be utilized throughout the week,

Deus, qui per immaculátam Vírginis Conceptiónem dignum Fílio tuo habitáculum præparásti: quæsumus; ut qui ex morte ejusdem Fílii tui prævisa, eam ab omni labe præservásti, nos quoque mundos ejus intercessióne ad te perveníre concedas.
Per eúmdem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
R. Amen. 

O God, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, thou prepared a worthy habitation for thy Son; we beseech thee, that, as by the foreseen death of thy same Son thou preserved her from all stain of sin, so thou would grant us also, through her intercession, to come to thee with pure hearts.
Through the same Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen.

9 December 2015
Day II in the Octave of the Immaculate Conception

Part on Silence

"On the one hand, silence is like fertile soil, which, as it were, awaits our creative act, our seed.  On the other hand, silence must be approached with a feeling of awe. And when we speak about silence, we must keep in mind that it has two different wings, so to speak. Silence can be both that which is outside of us and that which is inside a person. The silence of our soul, which isn't even affected by external distractions, is actually more crucial but more difficult to achieve."

-Arvo Part



Part, my favorite composer, has such a profound understanding of silence.  You can hear the fruits of his contemplation in his work.



8 December 2015
Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Walk Whilst You Have The Light

"Jesus therefore said to them: Yet a little while, the light is among you. Walk whilst you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not. And he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth."

-St. John 12:35




5 December 2015

St. Francis Xavier

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis Xavier.  He is a saint that means much to me because he went to my native land of India for the conversion of pagans to the True Faith.

He was not a man of the modern forum of dialogue.  Let us ask for his intercession so that we might be brave as he was in proclaiming Catholicism.

Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Protestantism cannot save.  Only Christ can save and He wants us to enter His Holy Catholic Church.   If we are already Catholics, let us realize the great Gift we have and live a genuine Catholic life.

4 December 2015
Feast of St. Peter Chrysologus
Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church