aeternus

“Who is this who comes from the desert, and who rises  like a column of smoke, laden with myrrh and frankincense and with every  perfume known, and who is leaning upon her Lover? [Song 3:6; 8:5].  Humility in its beginning is a desert, although in the end it may be very  fruitful, and the soul that is humble thinks itself as being in a desert  where neither birds nor even savage beasts dwell, and where there is no  fruit tree at all.

The spouse coming up from the desert rises like a shoot or  column of smoke, laden with myrrh. This represents hope, for even though  myrrh gives off a pleasant odor, it is nevertheless bitter to the taste.  Likewise, hope is pleasant since it promises that we shall one day possess  what we long for, but it is bitter because we are not now enjoying what we  love. Incense is far more appropriate as the symbol of hope, because, being  placed upon fire, it always sends its smoke upward; likewise, it is  necessary that hope be placed upon charity, otherwise it would no longer be  hope, but rather presumption. Hope, like an arrow, darts up even to the  gate of Heaven, but it cannot enter there because it is a virtue wholly of  earth. If we want our prayer to penetrate Heaven we must whet the arrow  with the grindstone of love.”

– sermon on the Spirit of Prayer.  St. Francis de Sales

When my husband was finishing his studies at Lehigh University and was looking for his first appointment afterwards, he interviewed at a company in St. Louis. We were young and eager to come explore the city (even though we had never considered it a place even to visit let alone live in!) Getting off the airplane and driving downtown we headed straight down to the Gateway Arch monument on the banks of the Mississippi River. The giant arch was almost swimming in the muddy waters as this was just after the big floods back in the early 1990s.  We found our way into an old historic district called Lafayette Square and instantly fell in love with its beautiful French inspired architecture and wonderfully designed urban community.  When we knocked on the door of a “for rent” house and OLD, OLD man answered the door.  He was at first a little scary but as we spoke to him and explained that we were moving from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania  he gasped.  The old man took a long pause, squirreled his face and then smiled widely as he said he had graduated from Lehigh University some 65 years earlier. Imagine that.  Its a small world.  This little bit of collegiate history was an instant bond and our life in St. Louis began.

As an life long East Coast girl why did this isolated Midwestern city attract me/us so greatly I can only imagine. I think it may have had something to do with visiting the St. Louis Cathedral that first Sunday. What a beautiful and amazing Basilica we have and after praying just one mass there I was in deep love!  Gradually this city helped me to develop that love of the Church I had known so fiercely when I was a young girl.  My imagination was once again fascinated with the mystery of God and the yearning in my soul grew to know a new life of prayer and joy (and suffering) which was contained within my small little being.  I have a lot to thank this city commonly known here as the “Rome of the West” and this city has lots to thank in its patron saint, the ninth King of France, Louis.

As we celebrate the feast of St. Louis King of France this year I thought I might try to find some new facts out about him. If you happen to pray the Divine Office you would already be familiar with Louis’s letter to his son Philip. I posted that bit of beautiful writing last year. Today, however, I found a short bit of writing to his daughter, Isabel.

“Faith was the foundation of St. Louis’s moral and intellectual life, but love was the foundation of his sanctity. He was strict as to the obedience which he considered that his children owed him in his double character of father and of king. The love of God was his primary teaching to his son Philip and his daughter Isabel. He had, however, greatly desired that his daughter Isabella should become a nun, and had even especially exhorted her to do so. He poured out his heart more fully to the latter, since he was aware of her more fervent piety:

“Beloved daughter, I enjoin you to love our Lord God with all your heart and all your might; for without such love every one is of little worth, and nothing else can be loved so profitably. He is the Lord, to Whom every creature may say: ‘Lord, Thou art my God, Who hast no need of any good thing of mine.’ He is the Lord, Who sent His blessed Son on earth, and who offered Him up to death so as to deliver us from the pains of hell. Beloved daughter, if you love Him, the profit will be yours. That creature has gone far astray whose heart’s love is bestowed elsewhere than on Him, or in submission to Him. Beloved daughter, the measure of the love which we should give to God is to love Him without measure. He is indeed fully entitled to our love, since He first loved us.”

Dear daughter, obey humbly your husband, and your father and mother, in such things as are agreeable to God ; you must willingly render unto each one of them that which is due, because of the love which you must feel for them ; and, more- over, you must do it still more for the love of our Lord who has so ordered it ; but against God you must obey no one. Dear daughter, take such pains to become perfect in all good things that you may be an example to those who see you and hear about you. Me seems it good that you should not have too great a number of robes and jewels, in accordance with the position you occupy, but I think it would be better used for giving alms, at any rate with that which would be superfluous ; and I think it would be good for you not to spend too much time on decking and adorning yourself; and be careful not to be extravagant in your dress, but in that be rather inclined to do too little than too much.”

One may glimpse through this letter how “Isabella of France, queen of Navarre, Thibaut’s wife, was St Louis’s favorite daughter. He could not prevail on her to embrace the monastic life, but in the high rank assured by her marriage she retained the sentiments and gave herself up to the practice of most fervent piety. The saintly king, who knew her spirit of faith and penitence, did not hesitate on one occasion to give her a present which, even then, would doubtless not have been appreciated by all princesses. “The pious king,” says Queen Margaret’s confessor, “sent to his daughter of Navarre two or three ivory boxes, and at the bottom of those boxes there was a little iron nail, to which he had attached small iron chains of an ell long or thereabouts; these chains were enclosed in each of the boxes, and the said Queen of Navarre would discipline and scourge herself with them sometimes, as she told her confessor when she was nearing death. And the pious king sent moreover to his same daughter a horsehair belt as wide as the palm of a man’s hand, with which she girded herself occasionally, as she told her confessor at the same time. And with all that the pious king sent to the said queen a letter written with his own hand, in which it was stated that he was sending her by Brother John of Mons, of the order of Friars Minor (then the confessor of that queen and sometimes of the pious king), a discipline contained in each of the boxes, as is said above, and he begged her in that letter often to use these disciplines for her own sins and for the sins of her poor father.”

– from Saint Louis IX King of France by Marius Sepet

Happy Feast day!  Isn’t great we get to celebrate a feast every day!

Below is a short biography of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux I found in an old Breviary.  I thought it was a great little write up for him.  It is followed by a meditation from him…

Bernard was born (in the year of salvation 1091) at a decent place in Burgundy called Fontaines. On account of extraordinary good looks, he was as a boy very much sought after by women, but he could never be turned aside from his resolution to keep chaste. To fly from these temptations of the devil, he determined at two-and-twenty years of age to enter the Monastery of Citeaux, whence the Cistercian Order took its rise. When this resolution of Bernard’s became known, his brothers did all their diligence to change his purpose, but he only became the more eloquent and happy about it. Them and others he so brought over to his mind, that thirty young men entered the same Order along with him. As a monk he was so given to fasting, that as often as he had to eat, so often he seemed to be in pain. He exercised himself wonderfully in watching and prayer, and was a great lover of Christian poverty. Thus he led on earth an heavenly life, purged of all care and desire for transitory things.

He was a burning and shining light of lowliness, mercifulness, and kindness. His concentration of thought was such, that he hardly used his senses except to do good works, in which latter he acted with admirable wisdom. Thus occupied, he refused the Bishoprics of Genoa, Milan, and others, which were offered to him, declaring that he was unworthy of so high a sphere of duty. Being made Abbat of Clairvaux in 1115, he built monasteries in many places, wherein the excellent rules and discipline of Bernard long flourished. When Pope Innocent II., in 1138, restored the monastery of St Vincent and St Anastasius at Rome, Bernard set over it the Abbat who was afterwards the Supreme Pontiff Eugene III., and who is also the same to whom he addressed his book upon Consideration.

He was the author of many writings, in which it is manifest that his teaching was rather given him of God, than gained by hard work. In consequence of his high reputation for excellence, he was called by the most exalted Princes to act as arbiter of their disputes, and for this end, and to settle affairs of the Church, he often went to Italy. He was an eminent helper to Pope Innocent II., in putting down the schism of Peter Leoni, and worked to this end, both at the Courts of the Emperor and of Henry King of England, and in the Council of Pisa. He fell asleep in the Lord, (at Clairvaux, on the 20th day of August,) in the year 1153, the sixty-third year of his age. He was famous for miracles, and Pope Alexander III. numbered him among the Saints. Pope Pius VIII., acting on the advice of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, declared and confirmed St Bernard a Doctor of the Universal Church. He also commanded that all should use the Mass and Office for him as for a Doctor, and granted perpetual yearly plenary indulgences to all who should visit Churches of the Cistercian Order upon the Feastday of this Saint.

“Ah, if you wish to attain to the consummation of all desire, so that nothing unfulfilled will be left, why weary yourself with fruitless efforts, running hither and thither, only to die long before the goal is reached?

It is so that these impious ones wander in a circle, longing after something to gratify their yearnings, yet madly rejecting that which alone can bring them to their desired end, not by exhaustion but by attainment. They wear themselves out in vain travail, without reaching their blessed consummation, because they delight in creatures, not in the Creator. They want to traverse creation, trying all things one by one, rather than think of coming to Him who is Lord of all. And if their utmost longing were realized, so that they should have all the world for their own, yet without possessing Him who is the Author of all being, then the same law of their desires would make them contemn what they had and restlessly seek Him whom they still lacked, that is, God Himself. Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no peace in the world; but he has no disturbance when he is with God.” — On Loving God, St. Bernard of Clairvaux

“Our catechism teaches us, my children, that prayer is an elevation, an application of our mind and of our heart to God, to make known to Him our wants and to ask for His assistance.

We do not see the good God, my children; but He sees us, He hears us, He wills that we should raise towards Him what is most noble in us—our mind and our heart. When we pray with attention, with humility of mind and of heart, we quit the earth, we rise to heaven, we penetrate into the Bosom of God, we go and converse with the angels and the saints.

It was by prayer that the saints reached heaven; and by prayer we too shall reach it. Yes, my children, prayer is the source of all graces, the mother of all virtues, the efficacious and universal way by which God wills that we should come to Him.

He says to us : ” Ask, and you shall receive.” None but God could make such promises and keep them. See, the good God does not say to us, ” Ask such and such a thing, and I will grant it ;” but He says in general : ” If you ask the Father any thing in My name, He will give it you.”

O my children! ought not this promise to fill us with confidence, and to make us pray fervently all the days of our poor life? Ought we not to be ashamed of our idleness, of our indifference to prayer, when our Divine Saviour, the Dispenser of all graces, has given us such touching examples of it? for you know that the Gospel tells us He prayed often, and even passed the night in prayer? Are we as just, as holy, as this Divine Saviour? Have we no graces to ask for? Let us enter into ourselves ; let us consider. Do not the continual needs of our soul and of our body warn us to have recourse to Him who alone can supply them ? How many enemies to vanquish!—the devil, the world, and ourselves. How many bad habits to overcome, how many passions to subdue, how many sins to efface ! In so frightful and painful a situation, what remains to us, my children ? The armour of the saints : prayer, that necessary virtue, indispensable to good as well as to bad Christians. . . Within the reach of the ignorant as well as the learned, enjoined to the simple and to the enlightened, it is the virtue of all mankind; it is the science of all the faithful! Every one on the earth who has a heart, every one who has the uee of reason, ought to love and pray to God; to have recourse to Him when He is irritated ; to thank Him when He confers favours; to humble themselves when He strikes.

See, my children, we are poor people, who have been taught to beg spiritually, and we do not know how to beg. We are sick people, to whom a cure has been promised, and we do not know how to ask for it. The good God does not require of us fine prayers, but prayers which come from the bottom of our heart.

St. Ignatius was once travelling with several of his companions; they each carried on their shoulders a little bag, containing what was most necessary for them on the journey. A good Christian, seeing that they were fatigued, was interiorly excited to relieve them ; he asked them as a favour to let him help them to carry their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties. When they had arrived at the inn, this man who had followed them, seeing that the Fathers knelt down at a little distance from each other to pray, knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again, they were astonished to see that this man had remained prostrate all the time they were praying; they expressed to him their surprise, and asked him what he had been doing. His answer edified them very much, for he said: “I did nothing but say, Those who pray so devoutly are saints; I am their beast of burden; O Lord! I have the intention of doing what they do; I say to Thee whatever they say.” These were afterwards his ordinary words, and he arrived by means of this at a sublime degree of prayer. Thus, my children, you see that there is no one who cannot pray,—and pray at all times, and in all places ; by night or by day ; amid the most severe labours, or in repose ; in the country, at home, in travelling. The good God is every where ready to hear your prayers, provided you address them to Him with faith and humility.”

– Translated from Esprit du Cure d’Ars from the exhortations of St. Jean Vianney

** photo above from a recent trip to Iowa.

Another happy time of year comes when we can honor Our Heavenly Mother under her title of Our Lady of Czestochowa. This is a short novena prayer found on the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Boy, I wish I could be there (especially so I could get some delicious pierogi and cabbage noodles!)

Novena of Masses in honor of our Lady of Czetochowa

(Nowenna Mszy Świętych do Matki Bożej Częstochowskiej)

O Mother of God and Queen of Poland!

I kneel before you, I cry out to you, I invoke your help. From of old you are the Merciful Queen of Poland. Plead with your Son, Jesus Christ, on my behalf, I beg you. Through your powerful intercession I pray for God’s mercy and salvation for myself, my family and for my country. Preserve the gift of faith intact with me. Come to my rescue in my battle with the powers of darkness. The Almighty has chosen you to be for us a sure sign of victory over the evil enemy. O Mother of the wondrous transformation, we ask you to come to us, we beg you to intercede for us. O Mother who stood at the foot of the Cross of your dying Son keep our faith alive. O Mother of fortitude and perseverance, pray for us.

Our Lady of Czestochowa, pray for us!

Bogarodzico, Królowo Polski!

Przed Tobą klęczę, do Ciebie wołam, wzywam Twojej pomocy, Maryjo. Z dawna Polski Tyś Królowa. Uproś u Syna Swojego Jezusa Chrystusa miłosierdzie i ratunek dla mnie, dla mojej rodziny i dla mojego narodu. Zachowaj mnie w wierze i przybądź z pomocą w walce z mocami ciemności. Ciebie Bóg ustanowił, abyś była dla nas zwycięskim znakiem.

Matko cudownej przemiany, Ciebie na ratunek wzywamy; przybądź nam z pomocą.

Matko stojąca pod krzyżem Jezusa konającego;

Matko pełna wiary w zmartwychwstanie Chrystusa;

Matko wytrwania i męstwa.

Módl się za nami!

Daily Prayer Our Lady of Czestochowa (To be said upon arising in the morning.)

Holy Mother of Czestochowa, Thou art full of grace, goodness and mercy,

I consecrate to thee all my thoughts, words and actions-my soul and body.

I beseech Thy blessings and especially prayers for my salvation.

Today I consecrate myself to Thee, Good Mother,

totally with body and soul amid joy and sufferings

To obtain for myself and others Thy blessings on this earth and eternal life in Heaven.

Amen

** Imprimatur: Cardinal O’ Boyle, Washington, DC

I walk down the Valley of Silence,
Down the dim, voiceless valley alone!
And I hear not the fall of a footstep
Around me save God s and my own;
And the hush of my heart is as holy
As hovers where angels have flown!

Long ago was I weary of voices
Whose music my heart could not win;
Long ago I was weary of noises
That fretted my soul with their din;
Long ago was I weary of places
Where I met but the human and sin.

I walked in the world with the worldly;.
I crayed what the world never gave;.
And I said: “In the world each Ideal,
That shines like a star on life’s wave;
Is wrecked on the shores of the Real,
And sleeps like a dream in a grave”;

And still did I pine for the Perfect,
And still found the False with the True;
I sought mid the Human for Heaven,
But caught a mere glimpse of its Blue:
And I wept when the clouds of the mortal
Veiled even that glimpse from my view.

And I toiled on heart-tired of the Human;
And I moaned mid the mazes of men;
Till I knelt long ago at an altar
And heard a voice call me: since then
I walk down the Valley of Silence
That lies far beyond mortal ken.

Do you ask what I found in the Valley?
“Tis my Trysting Place with the Divine.
And I fell at the feet of the Holy,
And above me a voice said: “Be mine”
And there arose from the depths of my spirit
An echo “My heart shall be thine”.

Do you ask how I live in the Valley?
I weep and I dream and I pray.
But my tears are as sweet as the dewdrops
That fall on the roses in May;
and my prayer, like a perfume from Censers,
Ascendeth to God night and day.

In the hush of the Valley of Silence
I dream all the songs that I sing;
And the music floats down the dim Valley,
Till each finds a word for a wing,
That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge,
A message of Peace they may bring.

But far on the deep there are billows
That never shall break on the beach;
And I have heard songs in the Silence
That never shall float into speech;
And I have had dreams in the Valley
Too lofty for language to reach.

And I have seen Thoughts in the Valley,
Ah me! how my spirit was stirred!
And they wear holy veils on their faces,
Their footsteps can scarcely be heard:
They pass through the Valley, like Virgins
Too pure for the touch of a word!

Do you ask me the place of the Valley?
Ye hearts that are harrowed by Care!
It lieth afar between mountains
And God and his angels are there:
And one is the dark mount of Sorrow,
And one, – the bright mountain of Prayer!

– Song of the Mystic – Fr. Abram Ryan

** The photo above is of my friend’s tomato which I shot yesterday.  I wouldn’t call it a “miracle tomato” but its pretty cool just the same.  I think it’s not just the cruciform shape which is neat but the apparent “crown of thorns” circling it.  Funnily enough, my friend called me just now as I am typing this blog entry.  I told her to keep the tomato so I can photograph it again but she told me she and her husband ate it for dinner last night (along with some kohlrabi they grew in their garden).  I bet the tomato tasted heavenly!

Also, I can’t help but laugh at the timing of this tomato incident.  It is pretty funny when you compare it with my last post which featured the “St. Clare miracle cross bread”!

Happy feast of dear Saint Clare!

I was privilidged to have spent last evening with my family at the final night of the Novena to dear Clare at the Poor Clare monastery in Illinois.  Father spoke so well of Clare’s fourth letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague in his homily that I thought I might read the entire letter today and post here its beautiful content.  (You can read that letter below.)

After mass the Poor Clares distributed to the faithful a sacramental bread they bake for the celebration of their Seraphic Mother’s day. This tradition comes from the miracle of the bread associated with Pope Gregory IX’s visit to Clare’s monastery in Assisi.  It is said the Pope dined with the sisters and he asked Clare to bless the bread. After her prayer, crosses miraculously appeared on the tops of all the loaves.  The photo above is one of those fine little breads…

Now here is Clare:

“Happy, indeed, is the one permitted to share in this sacred banquet so as to be joined with all the feelings of her heart to him

Whose beauty all the blessed hosts

of the heavens unceasingly admire,

Whose affection moves,

whose contemplation invigorates,

Whose generosity fills,

Whose sweetness replenishes,

Whose remembrance pleasantly brings light,

Whose fragrance will revive the dead,

And whose glorious vision will bless

All the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem,

Because the vision of him is the

splendor of everlasting glory,

The radiance of everlasting light,

and a mirror without tarnish.

Look into this mirror every day,

O queen, spouse of Jesus Christ,

And continually examine your face in it,

So that in this way you may adorn yourself

completely, Inwardly and outwardly,

Clothed and covered in multicolored apparel,

Adorned in the same manner with

flowers and garments

Made of all the virtues as is proper,

Dearest daughter and spouse of the most high King.

Moreover, in this mirror shine blessed poverty, holy humility, and charity beyond words, as you will be able, with God’s grace, to contemplate throughout the entire mirror. Look closely, I say, to the beginning of the life of this admired one, indeed at the poverty of him who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger.

O marvelous humility!

O astonishing poverty!

The King of the angels,

The Lord of heaven and earth is

Laid to rest in a manger!

Consider also the midst of his life, his humility, or at least his blessed poverty, the countless hardships, and the punishments that he endured for the redemption of the human race. Indeed, ponder the final days of this mirrored one, contemplate the ineffable love with which he was willing to suffer on the tree of the cross and to die there a kind of death that is more shameful than any other. That mirror suspended upon the wood of the cross from there kept urging those passing by of what must be considered, saying: O all you who pass by this way, look and see if there is any suffering like my suffering. In response let us with one voice and in one spirit answer him who is crying out and lamenting: I will remember this over and over and my soul will sink within me. Therefore, seeing this, O queen of the heavenly King, you must burn ever more strongly with the fervor of charity! Furthermore, as you contemplate his indescribable delights, riches, and everlasting honors, and heaving a sigh because of your heart’s immeasurable desire and love may you exclaim:

Draw me after you, Heavenly Spouse, we shall run in the fragrance of your perfumes! I shall run and not grow weary until you bring me into the wine cellar, until your left hand is under my head and your right arm blissfully embraces me; and you kiss me with the most blissful kiss of your mouth.”

– St. Clare of Assisi letter to Agnes.

“All good works together are not of equal value with the sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men, and the holy Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison ; it is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he understood himself, he would die.. . . God obeys him; he speaks two words, and our Lord comes down from heaven at his voice, and shuts himself up in a little Host. God looks upon the Altar. ” That is My well-beloved Son,” He says, ” in Whom I am well pleased.”

He can refuse nothing to the merits of the offering of this Victim. If we had faith, we should see God hidden in the priest like a light behind a glass, like wine mingled with water.

After the Consecration, when I hold in my hands the most holy Body of our Lord, and when I am in discouragement, seeing myself worthy of nothing but hell, I say to myself, “Ah, if I could at least-take Him with me! Hell would be sweet with Him; I could be content to remain suffering there for all eternity, if we were together. But then there would be no’ more hell; the flames of love would extinguish those of justice.”