A litany of St. Brigid of Ireland

Today is Lá Fheile Bhríde, St. Brigid's Day! It is a solemn feastday here in Ireland as we commemorate the great Brigid of Kildare, Abbess, eldress, healer, wonderworker and patron of Ireland. Traditionally today was seen as the first day of Spring here in Ireland and the work of the year ahead both on the land and in the home was placed under the patronage of St. Brigid... 

Litanies both old and new are wonderful ways of meditating on the life and witness of the saints may this litany bless you and yours this St. Brigid's day.

Brigid of the hearth and the hare

Brigid of the spark and the flame

Brigid of the cloak and the veil

Brigid of the herb and the stars

Brigid of the byre and the kine

Brigid of the ill and the old

Brigid of the young and the wild

Brigid of the poor and the voiceless

Brigid of the oak and the staff

Brigid of the long nights watching

Brigid of the sun’s slow dawning

Brigid of the moon’s spring rising

Brigid of the first bloom’s flowering

Brigid of the well’s gentle healing

Brigid of the Earth’s old wisdom

Brigid of the Nun’s deep chanting

Brigid of the High King of Heaven

Brigid of the rush woven cross

Brigid of the shaven head

Brigid of the lost sword

Brigid of the royal house

Brigid Abbess of the duel house of prayer

Brigid Eldress of the sanctuary’s light

Brigid Wise Woman of the healing touch

Brigid saint of Ireland

Pray for us

An Icon of the Franciscan Contemplative Journey

I love this image of the Christ of the Cross of San Damiano surrounded by our Capuchin saints and martyrs. It was created to celebrate the recent beatification of the many brothers who were martyred during the Spanish persecution of the Church and the Civil War. Sadly I don't have the name of the artist..but if anyone out there knows then please let me know and I will duly credit them.

It is a profoundly theological image which, though modern, uses medieval imagery to depict our sainted brothers in the act of contemplating the Christ of the Cross of San Damiano. This is the Cross before which St. Francis had the vision of the Crucified who told him to, "Go and Rebuild my Church, which as you see is falling into ruin!", thus beginning the Franciscan Movement. 

Depiction of the moment of the Vision of the Christ of San Damiano

The Cross of San Damiano is unusal as it represents not a a suffering or dying Christ but one who is the Eternal Logos (The Word of God) and the Crucified and Risen Christ in the One Eternal Now as depicted by the Divine Mandorla. (The Full Divine Halo that surrounds Christ and indicates the fullness of His Divinity and the point of contact between the Divine annd Creation.) His place within the Trinity is seen in the trifold knot of His Robe and His vivifying of all creation is seen in the concave abdomen which shows Him breathing life into all creation.

Modern version of the Full San Damiano Crucifix

As for the friars who surround Him they rest within the light of the Mandorla (the Divine Uncreated Light) to show they have completed the Spiritual journey of their vocation to Franciscan brotherhood in the living of the Gospel. The four stars illustrate the four Gospels by which the fullness of the Revelation of the Christ is received and meditated upon by the brothers. A perfect meditation on the Franciscan Contemplative journey in iconographic symbolism!

Relics of some of the Capuchin Saints of the Spanish Persecution

A meditation and blessing for New Year's Eve

What of last year?

Be not afraid

to

let it go.

All of it;

the joys and the sorrows,

the burdens and the blessings.

Put them down gently 

and,

with reverence,

place them 

into the wounded hands

of Divine Mercy 

and then receive back

from

the source of all Love

the only real gift

that you may bring 

into 

the New Year;

wisdom

What of the New Year?

Be not afraid...

but, 

enter it with joy.

Welcome all of the gifts 

it waits to bestow, 

knowing that, 

when you rest secure in the infinite love that dwells in the wounded heart of Divine Mercy, 

then all 

becomes grace;

the joys and the sorrows, 

the burdens and the blessings,

and you will receive back 

from the source of all Love

the only real gift

that any year can bring;

wisdom.

Tonight, 

however you choose to spend it, alone or with others, 

in quiet introspection 

or in loud celebration, 

in the moment 

between 

last year 

and new year, 

breathe deep, 

pause,

and know that in places 

all over the world 

you are being held in prayer 

Blessings of wisdom on your New Year!

Homily for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve Jubilee Year of Mercy

Christmas Blessings to one and all!

Here is the sermon I gave at Midnight Mass at our friary last night...

May it bless you and yours. +

Brother Richard

 Christmas Eve 2015 The Year of Mercy

Our God bows low…

This is the message of Christmas Night…

The One who is the Lord of Lords, and the Light from Light from all eternity;

the One who is the only begotten Son and the Eternal Word of the Father bows low…

Bows because of us…

Bows before us…

He bows so low that He descends, emptying Himself of all that would keep Him separate from us,

of all that would make us feel unworthy, or lost, or shameful…

The awful and terrible All-Holy presence in the Garden of Eden who sent Adam and Eve hurrying to hide their fallen selves now hides Himself in our flesh.

The voice of thunder upon the Mountain of Sinai that made all those who heard it throw themselves on the ground in fear while they begged Moses to pray that they would never hear it again is now heard in the cry and gurgle of new born baby.

The One whose luminous glory filled the Temple and whose reign transcends space and time chooses the deep rich darkness of a woman’s womb and delivered into time is now swaddled against the night’s cold and barely fills the manger He lies in…

Our God bows low…

He has descended to be with us, to seek us out.

He has descended to raise us up…

The Word became Flesh and dwelt amongst us…

Amongst us sinners!

We who were meant to be the joyous light filled pinnacle of creation but who had fallen to the lowest place of darkness and despair, now find ourselves called out of darkness and into His own wonderful light…

And His light is not the proud light of glory, but the gentle glow of lantern in a stable that is really only a little cave; just a crack in the earth that over the ages will crack the hardest of hearts open if they just hear its call…

Our God bows low…

He bows down to raise us up,

He empties Himself so that we may be filled,

He leaves the 99 to seek the One who is lost.

He comes not as conqueror or Lord, though He is truly both;

but only as Shepherd, Healer, Teacher, Carpenter…

Child…

But we forget…

we forget this every year…

every day…

even, perhaps, every moment…

We fail to hear the cry of the newborn calling us to this new beginning and so we need our Christmas celebration… and perhaps this year we need it like never before… we need its reminder of the Love and mercy that is poured into our world. The infinite Love and Mercy which sustains it and nourishes it and heals it and renews it in every moment…

We need it to call us to watch with the Shepherds and the Wise men for that glimmer of light in the sky of our souls, for that song of the Angels that we stopped singing a long time ago when we fell from the Eden of our innocence. It’s harmony has always been there just at the edge of hearing, on the threshold of our dreams, resting within our heart waiting to burst forth again and renew us with the light of Christmas, the light of Christ Mass, the light of the Child of Bethlehem who makes everything new and whose light the darkness can never overpower.

We seek that light in every Christmas bulb kindled on tree or shop-front or street corner, in every sparkle of tinsel or flame of hearth even when we do so un-remembering why it has ever been our human need to light lamps at the darkest time over the countless ages of our longing for He who is the Light for our darkness…

So how do we touch this mystery the Word Made Flesh, this mystery of mercy made flesh in our midst?

How can we, the cynical and the proud, the lazy and the lost, the anxious and the tired recover this gift offered to us in every moment?

We must come to the crib…

Do not hold back…

Do not let our sins hold us back…

We have been invited…

There is a place for us…

If there were not, if it were only a place for the holy and sainted then there would have been no shepherds, those unclean men of the fields and the hills, always excluded from the town and the temple.

Yet they are the first called, the first Apostles of the Lord who speak face to face with Angels and bring the message of the miracle to the people round about and to us…

Down through the centuries that message they were given comes to us again and speaks to us all the louder in these days of war and violence and so much pain:

“Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and Peace to all people of good will!”

If we were not invited there would have been no Ox, no Donkey, for us to find ourselves between… they have their place there by right… they the only honoured witnesses to the moment of the Divine Birth.

Greeted by the newborn Babe as His gentle friends, they the emissaries of that kingdom whose countless centuries of simple animal obedience honoured him more by their very being than we have ever done until He came and gave us our new beginning in Love, are first to carol His coming with the warmth of body and breath.

So come now, join with St. Francis and the brothers who journey through the ages to the Crib taking not the smooth paved road to town square or shining basilica but a mountain track into the deep forest where a cave lies prepared to stun the people back to innocence. Follow those torches lighting their bare-footed steps and sing with them those ancient songs, of Holly and Ivy, of Blood and Berry, of Candlelight and Crib as we travel to the Cave where time stands still and the white candle is kindled as eternity enters time and the Babe is born to die; where God bows low and the Father of the World to come, sleeps gently on His Mother’s breast…

Come to the crib…

Come to the cave where Mother Earth holds her most precious treasure and there bow low too…

You will have to…

I will have to…

For none can enter this place without bowing…

Without stooping…

To enter this first Holy Door of Mercy you must enter at a child’s height, and with a child’s heart… and then you will hear the whispered choirs of the ages sing their eternal “Venite Adoremus” and looking around you will find that no matter how old, or hardened, or weak you are you have the shining eyes of a child again…

This is the first gift to you of the One who is Mercy itself, the One who restores innocence and heals hearts long hardened… and then you will discover Christmas, the reality of Christmas again…

Not the Christmas of the shops and the TV’s and the black Fridays, and the rows, and the drinks, and the noise, and the pressure, and the stress, and the stuff, (so much stuff), and the buying, and the queuing, and… and… and…

Stop, breathe, be…

All that is another thing altogether… a distraction… the mere wrapping paper on the real Christmas Gift…

Having bowed low you will come to stillness there sitting upon the rough straw of the crib, the perfect stillness of a Mother and Child, and stilled yourself you will know the new beginning that comes with the Child.

You will discover again the true Christmas that always sits in your heart and there opens a stable to One who is greater than all.

One who is Compassion.

One who is mercy.

One who IS Love…

Our God has bowed low…

He bows so low that wherever we are, He is…

Even in the mess, even despite our sins…

He entered the world in a dung filled stable…

How could He ever draw back from you, draw back from me…

He bows so low that He seeks to enter the stable of our hearts now and in every moment and once born there to invite us to begin again in love

He bows so low that, yes, we can sometimes forget Him… for sometimes what is nearest to us we do not see unless we open the eyes of our heart again with a child’s simplicity; until we come to the crib, yearly, daily, even in every moment entering the Holy Door of Mercy by serving each other in compassion and love, by simply bowing low.

So bow low this Christmas and be met by the God who bows low.

Enter the cave.

Come to the crib.

Cross the Holy Door of Mercy.

Become Love.

Dealing with those Distractions: The Meditation Gym.

Dealing with those Distractions: The Meditation Gym.

There is a wonderful story from the life of that great mystic and master of meditation, St. Teresa of Avila, that deals with distractions in prayer beautifully.

Having been brought to a convent of sisters to teach them about the way of meditation she did so in great depth and with much skill. However, towards the end of her time with them she was asked by one of the sisters to describe how she herself meditated. Taking the last half hour that the sisters had gathered she began by saying she had gone to the chapel with them, genuflected before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and interiorly dedicated the time of prayer to Him. Then she sat in stillness, and almost immediately was distracted by a sunbeam illuminating the corner of the chapel that showed up a little dust. She began to think to herself that the sister in charge of the sweeping wasn’t doing a very good job…

But she remembered she was there to pray and returned to her meditation…

A few moments passed and then she noticed that the sister kneeling in front of her had three nails in the sole of one sandal, but four in the other…

Where could the other one have gone to, she wondered…

Was it a case of two few nails in one or too many in the other?...  

But she remembered she was there to pray and returned to her meditation…

A few moments passed, and then she noticed that the breathing of the sister beside her was in a different rhythm to her own and she began to listen to the music of her breath…

But she remembered she was there to pray and returned to her meditation…

St. Teresa continued to describe the ongoing oscillation from distraction to distraction that to her listeners seemed to comprise the whole of her meditation much to the dismay of the sisters who wanted to learn from this Master of Prayer.

At the end one of them was so amazed she blurted out, “But then you were just distracted for the whole of your meditation!”

“Ah,” said Teresa, smiling, “Yes, I was distracted but I returned each time and that makes all the difference.”

Perhaps one of the most common difficulties in prayer that is brought to me both as a teacher and as a confessor is the whole area of distractions during meditation.  

People can often torture themselves over this perceived difficulty, indeed, for some the encounter with the dross and ephemera that arises before the mind’s eye during meditation can be so off-putting and the struggle to defeat them become so exhausting that it can even be enough to put them off the practice of meditation completely… in a later post we will deal with the content of these thoughts and the wisdom of the fathers and mothers as to how to deal with the major ones that every meditator has to struggle with, but for today let’s look at the general problem of distractions and how we should deal with them in meditation…

You see, the problem often begins with dividing our assessment of our period of meditation into the time “I was distracted”, (which often seems like the majority of our time), and “the time I was meditating”, (which usually seems like the minority), when the real issue is that we are approaching it from the wrong perspective by using this as the framework of our division of the time in the first place. The problem then becomes further compounded when we add a layer of guilt and self-recrimination for the distractions in to the mix. This then arouses anxiety and further separates us from the relaxed stillness necessary to our prayer. These difficulties arise when we fail to realise that the distractions are a part, indeed a very necessary part, of the meditative process. I will repeat that: The distractions are part of the discipline of prayer.

Let me explain…

Suppose as part of your “New Year, New You” initiative, (that takes place every January first), you decided you wanted to build up your biceps, or triceps, or abs or whatever muscle group you feel needs some work. You go to the gym and with effort you lift a weight. (So far so good.) But then you NEVER put it down again. Do you build the muscle? No of course not, in fact you will probably wither it and end up with less movement and less muscle. It is in both the contraction and the release, the picking up of the weight and the putting it down again, that the strength of the muscle is built when the process is repeated over and over again. The same is true for the mind at prayer. Every time a distraction arises, and we notice we are distracted, we simply and gently return to the anchors of the breath and the Prayer Word that draws us back to our focused mindful awareness of the Divine Presence. The taking up of the time of prayer is the picking up of the weight. The distraction arising is the releasing of the weight. As long as we pick up the weight again as soon as we notice that we have put it down, we are only building the “muscle” of the attention, refining our mindful awareness a little more each time, so that over the days, weeks, months and years of practice we will find that the distractions become less and the periods between them become longer. Indeed, after a time the distractions will simply rise and fall but our own focus on the Presence will remain true beneath and beyond them.

This “discipline of distraction” is actually essential to the beginner in meditative prayer and is the whole of the art in its initial stages. It refines focus, builds attention in a gentle way, opens the present moment as the place of encounter with the Divine Presence, and deepens our humility and the awareness of our need for Divine Grace.

In coming back again, and again, and again, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to write the path of metanoia, the path of conversion, (literally re-turning to God) within our hearts. It is on and in this struggle (parrhesia) for mindful attention that the Desert Fathers and Mothers saw the foundations of the real meditative life being built, and it was the art that the monastic had to be grounded in before moving on to deeper forms of meditative prayer.

As the great master of prayer St. Francis DeSales wrote in his wonderful treatise The Introduction to the Devout Life,

“If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master’s presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole hour, (of meditation), but bring your heart back and place it in Our Lord’s presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.” 

 So then, the next time you go to sit... and the distractions arise... smile... once you have noticed them... and then immediately return to the breath and begin again...and again... and again... this is the discipline of meditation, this is the path of prayer... this is the way to build mindful attention of the Divine Presence... And as you leave your meditation, if anyone asks you what you were doing in there just say "Working out!"

Blessings :)

Becoming Present: The Mindfully Meditative Way of Prayer

The Mindful Meditative Way...

Mindfulness is the buzzword of the moment. It seems to be everywhere. 

From psychology to education, from psychotherapy to the worlds of business and management, the “mindful way of doing things” is the prescribed way of achieving success and the conduit by which all of these disparate disciplines hope to move to the next level. This current wave of mindfulness arises primarily from the work of Dr. John Kabat-Zinn an american professor who, with his book, “Full Catastrophe Living”, (which itself arose after his own experience of the usefulness to himself and his clients of a series of exercises proposed by the Buddhist Monk and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh at a retreat he attended), opened up the practice of Mindfulness for the twentieth century. At a time when humanity seems to be mindless in so many of the directions it is taking Mindfulness, as proposed by Kabat-Zinn and many others like him, has offered a way of becoming present to ourselves, to each other and to the transcendent dimension of life in a way that is accessible to everyone. However, sometimes this way of presenting mindfulness has led to a false belief that the discipline is one that is only found in the eastern traditions. In fact, all religions and cultures have taught that the mindful state is the prerequisite for beginning the meditative path, and this includes our own Judeo-Christian tradition.

Since Old Testament times Mindfulness, “Kavannah” in Hebrew, has been taught as an essential practice on the way of prayer. The revelation of the Divine Name to Moses as he encounters the burning bush invites the chosen people into a unique awareness of God as the “I AM”, literally the only One who is truly present, who truly IS and whose presence is accessed through deepening our awareness of His presence in every succeeding present moment. The ancient Jews taught that unless the law, “the Torah”, was observed with Kavannah, with mindfulness, then it could not be said to be observed truly. Jesus Himself teaches the disciples to dwell in the present moment, having no care for tomorrow but trusting in the loving providence of the Father. In teaching them of prayer He insists they must enter the inner room of their heart and there encounter the presence of the Father who is already there, present and waiting for us in the present moment. In speaking of the Holy Spirit, the life of God within them, Jesus teaches them to perceive the presence of the Spirit as the breath of life, (pneuma), and after His resurrection breathes the Holy Spirit over them. The ancient fathers of the Church such as St.’s John Climacus, John Cassian, Benedict, Gregory Nazianzus, and all those coming from the desert monastic tradition, continually returned to these ideas and spoke of the necessity of developing the “art of attending to the present moment”, being mindfully aware, (prosekai), as the essential art of the man or woman who prays, and they developed many techniques for centering the mind in the heart through the use of the breath and the “prayer word”, (versiculum), so as to remain in this inner watchfulness in which the love of God may be truly encountered and then yielded to in such a way as to allow the Holy Spirit to begin His healing work of sanctification.

Over the succeeding centuries many of the saints, mystics and great teachers of prayer have even spoken of the present moment as a “Sacramental Space” in which, if we deepen our attention fully enough, become mindful enough, we will be able to discern the presence of God inviting us into contemplation and then hear the voice of God inviting us into mission. In modern times saints and teachers such as St. Therese of Lisieux, Dom John Main, Thomas Merton, Abbot Thomas Keating, and Pope St. John Paul II have all insisted that this contemplative, mindful dimension of Christianity must be taught once again as the birthright of all the baptised and so have preached and taught its ancient way of practicing the presence of God. Practices as seemingly diverse as Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, the Practice of the Presence of God, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Jesus Prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, are all instruments that, when prayed mindfully, with the attention of the heart, may become ways by which Divine Grace can lead us into the encounter with that deep stillness and silence that exists behind the noise of our distracting thoughts and allows us to “Be Still and Know that I am God.” (Ps:46) 

We can, therefore, safely say that the practice of Mindfulness Meditation, centred on Christ, has always been a part of our prayer tradition and we must give thanks that the modern wave of Mindfulness has woken us up to the ever ancient, ever new contemplative path that is distinctively our own as Christians, while also allowing us a space in which to dialogue with our brothers and sisters of other traditions and learn from them as they learn from us. The mindful, meditative path is the path of every Christian and indeed of every human being, and a universal invitation to know the God who IS and whose “ISness of Love” is revealed in the precious present moment.

As one of our own saintly brothers, Venerable Solanus Casey always taught, “All that God asks of humanity is that they be faithful to the present moment.” 

Blessings to you in this present moment...

November: The "Dead Month"

For the Feast of All Hallows;  here's a little article I wrote some year ago on the Month of November as special time of remembering those who have gone before us and the Spiritual Practices associated with it...
Read on... and hopefully enjoy!

"It is a holy and wholsome thought to pray for the dead that they might be loosed from their sins"
2Mac, 12:46

Pic by Br. Javier Garza OFM Cap

A few people from different Religious traditions have asked me about the customs associated with Hallowe’en and the month of November in my tradition so this little article will hopefully answer most of the questions...

In the Catholic Tradition the whole month of November is dedicated to praying for and remembering the dead. We begin with Hallowe'en, the eve of the feast of All Hallows or Saints on the 31st, this falls on the old Celtic Feast of Samhain which again was to do with remembrance of the dead and was seen as the time when the veils that separated the worlds of the living and the dead were at their thinnest. This feast was subsumed into the Christian Calendar from very early on as entirely commensurate in essence with Christian theology and practice. Prayers and Rituals were offered for the departed, and often a candle or light was kindled specially in the home or at the graves of the deceased as a way of remembering those who had gone before. This continued right up to the present day. In my Grandmother’s time the custom was to clean the house and sweep out the hearth and leave bread and salt in a dish as the ancestors would come and visit the house on this night.

The feast of All Saints, Nov 1st issues in the month properly with its remembrance of all the saints of all times and places. All those Men and Women who have lived lives based on compassion and goodness and who have been gathered together in the kingdom of heaven. On this feast we celebrate not just the Canonised Saints but also the “common or garden” saints, as one old priest I knew used to put it… all those who though appearing to live ordinary lives, were transformed by grace and love to live extraordinary lives that brought peace and compassion to the world. The feast stresses that sanctity is the destiny of every human being and that it is within reach of all of us. In the churches Solemn Masses and blessings with the relics and icons of the saints are offered.

The second of November is dedicated to the feast of All Souls, here we remember all of those souls who though departed from this life are still “in via”, on the way to God. On this day we remember those souls who are completing their journey to heavenly life through the state of Purgatory. We call them the Holy Souls, for their salvation is assured and they in turn can pray for and help the living but we also call them Poor Souls for they are dependent on our prayer, penance and acts of charity.

Prayer for the Holy Souls is considered an important way of offering Spiritual Alms and so, on this day, every priest may offer three Masses and the Office of the Dead are prayed by priests and Monks and Nuns. The faithful attend Mass, light blessed candles and visit the graveyards throughout this month. One beautiful custom, which as far as I know is only found in Ireland, relates the prayers for the dead to the falling of the leaves off the trees in that if a leaf falls from a tree in front of your face it was taken to be a message from one of the Holy Souls asking for prayer. In the Christian tradition, Ghosts in the proper sense, (not poltergeists or mere psychic impressions), are known to be Souls in purgatory who appear to ask for Spiritual Help via prayer to complete their purgatory and move on to heavenly life. The faithful also record the names of their departed loved ones on the “November Dead Lists” and these lists are placed upon the Altar and Mass is offered for those whose names are recorded daily throughout the month. Special services of remembrance of all those who have died in the past year are held in most churches with their families being invited to come back and light a candle for the deceased. The candle is then given as a gift of remembrance to the family that they can bring home and light to remember their loved one. People often fast from meat and or alcohol and add extra prayers and daily attendance at Mass for the Holy Souls as well. Perhaps these or some other practice or prayer may be something you would like to take on for this month of remembrance?

 One of the oldest prayers for the dead is the “De Profundis” Psalm 129 which goes like this:
Out of the depths we have cried to thee O Lord,
Lord hear our voice
Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of our supplication.
If thou O Lord would mark our guilt; Lord who would endure it?
But with thee there is found forgiveness:
For this we revere thee.
My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on His word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
More than watchman for daybreak
Let the watchman count on daybreak and Israel on the Lord
Because with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed He will redeem from all its iniquity
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end.
Amen
O Lord hear my prayer
And let my cry come unto you
Let us pray,
O God the creator and redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants the remission of all their sins, that through theses pious supplications they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord.
Amen