Queen of Carmel; Queen of Contemplation's Heights

Today we keep the Feast of Our Lady as Queen of Carmel...

From Old Testament times Carmel was seen as the mountain of prayer and contemplation, the place of encounter with God and longing for the Messiah. The Prophet Elijah spent time here and there founded a brotherhood of prophets, later Christian hermits gathered there and began the Carmelite Order seeking the way of Contemplation through the intercession of Mary as Queen of Carmel. Over the centuries the Carmelite family has given to the Church some of its greatest masters of prayer, meditation and the contemplative way. St.'s Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, Teresea Benedicta, (all depicted in the Icon above), and so many others continue to lead us to the heights of prayer and trust in the mercy and love of God.

Our Franciscan family has great ties to Carmel as both communities have enriched each other over the years.
(The franciscan mystics St. Peter of Alcantara and Brother Francis deOsima were the spiritual directors to St. Teresa of Avila for example!)

Today, with the Carmelite family, we once again place ourselves and our prayer life under the patronage of Mary who calls us to the heights of prayer, to the heights of Carmel...

Below is the beautiful antiphon sung to Our Lady of Carmel, the Flos Carmeli:

Flower of Carmel,
Tall vine blossom laden;
Splendour of heaven,
Childbearing yet maiden.
None equals thee.

Mother so tender,
Who no man didst know,
On Carmel's children
Thy favours bestow.
Star of the Sea.

Strong stem of Jesse,
Who bore one bright flower,
Be ever near us
And guard us each hour,
who serve thee here.

Purest of lilies,
That flowers among thorns,
Bring help to the true heart
That in weakness turns
and trusts in thee.

Strongest of armour,
We trust in thy might:
Under thy mantle,
Hard press'd in the fight,
we call to thee.

Our way uncertain,
Surrounded by foes,
Unfailing counsel
You give to those
who turn to thee.

O gentle Mother
Who in Carmel reigns,
Share with your servants
That gladness you gained
and now enjoy.

Hail, Gate of Heaven,
With glory now crowned,
Bring us to safety
Where thy Son is found,
true joy to see.
O Flower of Carmel!

Some practical advice from our elder brothers on Meditation

Over the years of being taught the ways of meditative prayer by our brothers many of them have shared a word of advice or teaching along the way… a few of them are recorded below, may they help you in your practice as they have helped me over the years.

1.)    Be regular in your practice; so far as is possible practice at the same time and in the same place each day. You are a creature of habit. Let abiding in a state of prayer become habitual.

2.)    At the start meditate for twenty minutes, twice a day. If this is too much begin with ten minutes. Better ten with attention than twenty with struggle.

3.)    Begin with a formal gesture of invocation and intention.

4.)    Call on the heavenly helpers to assist you in your prayer. Your Guardian Angel, patron saints, holy ancestors and above all the Blessed Virgin want to assist you in your prayer, but they await your invitation.

5.)    End with a moment of thanksgiving.

6.)    Still yourself by noticing your senses and your breath. They are the gateways to the present moment.

7.)    Use a short phrase or word to anchor yourself in the moment of prayer. The “prayer word” both unites us to God and gives the conceptual brain something to attend to until the thoughts quieten.

8.)    The prayer word or phrase should be in a language other than the one you speak daily as this will prevent associative ideas from arising and getting in the way.

9.)    Attend to physical needs first, or you will just spend your time thinking about your needs.

10.)                        Do not eat just before meditation. Your body is limited in its energy, eating before hand draws necessary energy for the meditation to digestion instead.

11.)                        Sit relaxed but straight, let your breath be open and gentle without altering the rhythm in any way. As you become still it will slow and deepen by itself.

12.)                        Surrender all thoughts, images, sensations, concepts as they arise. Simply notice them but do not grasp them. Remain instead in simple attention attuned towards meeting the Divine Presence in this moment, in this breath.

13.)                        Do not force anything.

14.)                        Do not expect anything.

15.)                        Try and meditate early in the morning as the sun rises and in the evening as it sets. In this way you will be united with the natural rhythm of the cosmos and its Divine order.

16.)                        You are just sitting, to sit. You are not owed anything. Anything you receive is a grace. Your job is just to show up, attend and be open.

17.)                        The distractions are part of the process. With each return from the distraction your faculty of attention will become stronger and your ability to maintain a centred awareness of the Divine Presence will grow.

18.)                        Remember God is already present within you and around you. You are simply tuning into His presence.

19.)                        There is nothing you can do to make God more present. There is much you can do to become more present to God.

20.)                        Rest. You are loved. You are loved. You are loved.

21.)                        In the end this is not your work. You are being worked upon and within. You must simply turn up, abide past the distractions and attend to Love’s gaze.

22.)                        Just close your eyes and get out of God’s way.

Meditation for St. John's Eve

Meditation for St. John's Eve:

Now, as Vespers sings itself
to dusk’s silent sitting,
the beacons begin to burn.
Men watching for the moment
of Moon’s waning,
in twilight midsummer sky lit
by a Sun too lazy to truly set,
so to kindle flame for the Forerunner;
John.
He whose element is fire.
Both lamps now hanging
in cloth of such deep blue
that the world seems enfolded
in the mantle of one
who midwifed his birth,
even as she joined her magnificat
to old Elizabeth’s pangs,
and doubting Zechariah’s silence,
beneath the shining stars of desert sky.

Now, as Matins touches midnight
of Monks long vigilling,
the herbs are gathered.
Women seeking
the helpers and the healers
in wood, and dell, and garden bed,
where, blessed by dew and moonlight
and the long warmth of Sun’s summer,
the Yarrow and the Bracken,
the Fennel and the Rue,
the Rosemary and the Foxglove,
always the Elder and
the great yellow flower of the Forerunner
willingly give up
their essence on the night
that marks the first whisper
of the Word’s healing breath,
breathed through the one
who is His herald Voice;
John.
Dried, and hung,
and laid upon the Lady Altar
to become more than they are
they will bestow divine healing.
Twice gifted and graced
by Summer’s picking
and Autumn’s
Assumption blessing,
they reveal the medicine
present always, beneath.

Now, as Lauds’ psalms sun skywards
the pots and pans
and ancient drums are beaten.
The children sing the old songs
and the rhymes long lost to meaning,
as young men and women, harelike,
leap heedless across the
dying flames together.
Recalling he who leapt with joy,
filled with fire, even in womb’s waters,
so near was the One who first kindled flame,
rendered the rivers holy and made the wells
vessels of new birth.

Now, as Mass bell tolls dawn’s daily resurrection
monks and men,
and women, and children all
hear the summons of the Sanctifier
and His herald
loud upon morning’s breeze
as embers die down, and herbs are hung up.
Beneath the vaulted stone they gather
to join their voices to praise
that vastness veiled
in simple bread and wine,
and hear again the word first spoken by
the herald,
the lamp,
the flame,
the leaper,
the prophet,
the angel,
the voice,
the Baptist,
whose birth they have
blessed anew,
cry across the ages
“Behold the Lamb of God!”

I wrote this in 2016 to illuminate so many of the customs we have lost that wove the wisdom of the wild and the faith together so beautifully. On St. John's Eve, (The Vigil of the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist), the last official day of the solstice, bonfires were set burning to commemorate the fire of the Baptist's faith and the facing into the waning of natural light after the longest day.
Couples leaping across the fire was an old betrothal custom. This was also the traditional night for gathering the herbs that would be used as medicine for the year to come. Gathered tonight and dried until Assumption Day they would then be blessed in the Monasteries at the first Mass at Our Lady's Altar... The songs and noise making around the boundaries of the hills and the fields was to frighten away evil and stagnancy so as to refresh the fields and prepare for the Harvest... Our faith was and is both holy and holistic and we must return to such deep knowing again... May the Baptist pray for us on this the feast of fire!

Sacred Heart:

I remember still, with the sharp light 

of a child's knowing of newness, 

my Gran's bedroom. 

Spartan, yet equipped with things 

of a quality we do not have 

in many places now.

Long used. Loved. Meant to last.

Her carved bed seemed enormous to us 

as we flung ourselves onto its satin spread, 

sliding across it to thump, 

giggling, on the hard floor.

A mirror, a brush, a comb, all laid out 

upon the dresser as carefully 

as a surgeon's tools, 

heavy and cold to the touch,

but glowing with the warm barley sugar 

inner light of polished tortoise shell.

An old clock that worked, sometimes, 

its numerals glowing in the dark 

a faded ghost green. 

And there, upon the dresser too 

he stood, in stone stillness. 

Flaking slightly, but still royal 

in his red robe revealing the love 

that is at the heart of all things. 

and seeming huge to my small hands.

I would climb into the bed beside her 

as she whispered her prayers 

in his direction;

she would hand him to me then 

and he would sit comfortably 

upon my knees,

as I, entranced, traced the thorns 

entwining his poor heart, 

and tried to pull them out;

feeling his heart a flame, 

a fire for me, for her, for all!

I would whisper to him then,

my childish news and secrets

and I remember (can you believe it?)

sometimes, he whispered back

words of such love

they exist now only as 

scattered shards of light 

within my own heart's memories,

there and then I promised, I would 

one day, pull out those thorns.

Gran smiled when I told her this

"Maybe you will", she said toothlessly,

the liturgy of dentures coming after prayers

in the morning's ritual,

"But maybe you'll put another thorn or two 

in there too; don't worry, we all do from time to time, but never forget He loves you still!" she said, smiling sadly at my stricken face.

Then I kissed him hard as children do

and made the foolish promise

of a child to ease his heart a little.

A promise I confess I have yet to fulfil,

though no shortage of thorns 

have I added to his crown.

Devotions done she restored him to his place upon the dresser,

and I,  sliding off the bed,

now thought only of the day before us: 

of buses into town, bookshops, 

and Bewley's cafe!

Then we went downstairs 

to breakfast on tea and toast,

always, me going first,

she coming behind,

her breath, 

her voice as one, 

whistling upon each step,

the background music

of her life;

"Sacred Heart of Jesus,

I place all my trust 

in Thee."

Christian Contemplation and the Eucharist: Dwelling in Real Presence; Becoming the Real Presence

Christian Contemplation and the Eucharist: 

Dwelling in the Real Presence; Becoming the Real Presence

What is the goal of the Christian journey? Salvation? Justification?

Heaven? The Kingdom of God? Righteousness? The early Christians

had a word that included all of these meanings and also went far beyond.

They said the goal of the Christian Life was “Theosis”. It’s a Greek word,

meaning to become as alike to God as it is possible for us to become, literally to be divinised.

Sanctity or holiness in the Christian tradition is the journey of the person towards this theosis, allowing the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit, to gradually heal and transform

us so that on every level of our being, body, mind, heart and soul we approach what God wants us to become: saints. As far as the Christian tradition is concerned the

goal God has for each of us is simply this, to undergo theosis; to be remade into the image of Christ, to become a saint. As St. John says,

“We shall become like Him, for we shall see Him as He really is”

 (1 John 3:2).

This gradual journeying of the human being back to God is made possible through the Incarnation of Jesus. His entry into our world opened the path and the possibility for human beings to journey with and through Him back to God. As St. Bonaventure says: “He descended so that we could ascend.” And He did this through living a

human life and dying a human death.

Or as St. Augustine poetically put it,

“Divine Wisdom has assumed humanity and come close to human beings

by means of what is closest to us.” [1]

If this is true then how do we begin to approach this mystery? How do we start the journey? In the tradition of the Church we have a marvellous wealth of wisdom

that allows us to see how the sacraments and the life of prayer relate to each other in this path of transformation that we have to walk. Both are necessary and both inform the deeper practice of the other.

What are We?

However first we have to understand just what we are as human beings. We need to get to know the raw material that will make this journey. Again the early Christian writers can help us out here.

Over the first thousand years of the Church’s

existence these experts in contemplative being delved so deeply into scripture and

contemplation and inner observation that they evolved a marvellous spiritual anthropology that allows us to see how prayer, contemplation and the Eucharist are interrelated and are necessary for this journey.

To the Fathers of the Church, human beings are often described as fourfold creatures. We are made up of body, (soma), mind, (psyche), soul (nous) and most importantly of

all spirit (pneuma). Now the words soul and spirit have become somewhat mixed up nowadays but to the contemplative they have very different

connotations. The soul is the seat of the human personality. It is your “you” the place where your memory, will, imagination and capacity for emotion

and relating are present. The spirit however is quite different. It is the place where God dwells within the human being, the pure point of His presence. It is distinct from us but present in us. As such it is an unfallen place and always pure, while the previous three (body, mind and soul) are fallen, and in need of the

redemption that only Christ can bring.

The best way to imagine it is to see it as St. Paul

describes it, we are earthen vessels carrying a heavenly treasure (cf 2 Corinthians 4:7). If human beings had never fallen then the soul would have

been in perfect communion with the spirit and had perfect governance over the mind and the body.

The spirit as place and point of Divine Presence holding us in being is present in every human person. Christ is “the Light who enlightens all people”[2], but sadly

many are unaware of the divine presence dwelling within. Prayer, repentance and sacramental grace gradually restore the harmony and order of being that was meant

to be there from the beginning. This is the path of re-ascending with Christ that the Christian aspires to. We begin that path through the practice of

prayer.

What is Prayer?

But what do we mean by prayer? Let’s take a brief look at what Jesus says to His followers about it in one important Gospel passage.

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they

love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street

corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have

received their reward in full.”

"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close

your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and

your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

(Mt 6:5-6)

Now, let us consider whom Jesus was addressing these words to. In speaking to the ordinary people of the Palestine of His day He was addressing mostly those who were poor. They would have lived in a one room dwelling. So where was this inner

room he was speaking of? In fact the phrase “inner room” was a well known image used by the rabbis of the day to illustrate the inner room of the heart, the inner place of the spirit. The image of the closing of the door was often used to indicate a turning inwards to a time of silence and stillness. All this would have been quite familiar to those of his followers who had heard the teachings of the rabbis.

However Jesus adds something new to this image. He tells us that when we do become still and silent and enter into the inner place of the heart then we will find that the Father is already present there. Again we have, from Jesus’ own mouth, the teaching that God is already present at the heart of the human being. To be there consciously in that place, the holy of holies of the human being and rest in the presence of the Father is at the heart of this teaching. Jesus is essentially

teaching his disciples the beginning of contemplative prayer. This is a form of prayer that is to be of few words, grounded in the truth of our own sinfulness but resting always on the promise of the divine presence within. Down the ages this form of prayer will be characterised by an interior intimacy, by silence and by attentive listening.

As the great St. Teresa of Avila said;

“prayer is simply conversing with someone whom I already know loves me.”[3]

One of the great stories from the Scriptures that illustrates this intimate practice of prayer is that of Elijah in the cave. It was used so extensively by the

desert fathers as a teaching tool that it must have been handed down in

the early Christian communities as an image of true prayer. In the book of the Kings we learn that Elijah has been persecuted for his fidelity to the covenant of God and so, at the end of his tether, he takes off into the desert to simply lie down and die. He has had enough, he is lost in desolation and dryness. An angel appears twice and feeds him that he might have strength for the journey into the desert and off he

trots until he comes to the cave where he dwells in prayer until he is told that the Lord is about to reveal Himself to him. Let’s look at what happens next:

“The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the

presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Then a

great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and

shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in

the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the

LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a

fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a

gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over

his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”

(1 Kings 19: 11-13).

It is a beautiful and powerful story of the Lord renewing the call of his prophet but, more than that, the story was also seen by the Fathers as an indication of

the place the Eucharist plays in the contemplative path. It is only after he has been fed the “bread of angels” that Elijah has the strength for the journey

into the desert of prayer, where after descending into the cave of the heart, he is then able to still his emotional turmoil enough that he can come to such a calmness

that he is able to discern the presence of the Spirit of God whose voice comes like a gentle breeze. In the story of Elijah and the cave we have traced out for us

the whole Eucharistic – contemplative relationship. Here we see revealed the Eucharist as the fuel for our contemplative journey while being, at one and the

same time, the very goal of that journey; namely intimate communion with Jesus Christ and through Him with the Father and the Spirit.

Now it is also worth noting that the Hebrew phrase for this inner voice that Elijah hears may be translated a number of ways. In Hebrew it is

“qôl d’mâmâh daqâh” (1 Kings 19:12) which literally translates as: “a voice of murmuring silence” or “a breath-filled voice” or even “a gentle breeze”.

Like many of the ancient languages Hebrew is a fluid and poetic. To the Fathers all of

these senses were important as they united in themselves the presence and revelation of the Holy Spirit as “ruah” The living-breath-Spirit-wind of God. The importance of this is that it identifies the Spirit who pours out on the Church the streams of

Sacramental Grace as the same Spirit who reveals to us the inner presence of the Lord in our own spirit through the gift of prayer.

The Eucharist and Contemplative Prayer

So then, from the beginning of the Church the path of Contemplative Prayer and the Eucharist are intimately connected — the one inviting a deeper

participation in the other as the Catechism teaches:

“Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the

Eucharistic liturgy: we "gather up:" the heart, recollect our

whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide

in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our

faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits

us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the

Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as

an offering to be purified and transformed.” (Catechism of

the Catholic Church §2711)

This beautiful paragraph builds marvelously on what we have just said (and traces every one of the steps that Elijah takes!). In a way, our participation

in the Eucharist invites us again and again to trace the contemplative path, and our taking a contemplative stance when celebrating the Eucharist allows us to deepen our levels of understanding of and participation in this great mystery.

St. Bonaventure reaffirms the importance of having this contemplative

understanding of the Eucharist so as to be enabled to participate as fully as

possible in this great mystery of love:

“Whoever draws worthily near to the Eucharist obtains a quadruple grace. This

sacrament instills the strength to operate; raises one to contemplation; disposes one

towards knowledge of divine reality; animates and ignites contempt for the world

and the desire for heavenly and eternal things, as it was said of Elijah who, with the force of that food walked up to the mountain of God, saw divine secrets and stopped at the entrance to the cave.”[4]

According to Bonaventure the Eucharist becomes our “contemplative viaticum”, which strengthens us on the way, while also deepening our gifts of prayer and

contemplation. There is simply no escaping the reciprocal relationship of contemplation and the Eucharist for the fathers, mothers, saints and mystics of the Church. So what happens to us then when we take a contemplative stance and begin the path of meditative prayer? How will it effect our participation in the Eucharist?

Well one of the first things it does is to invite us to see deeply the mystery that we celebrate. We begin to understand that what we are present at is the representation

of the supreme moment of human history. There is an old proverb that you will still hear in Italy from time to time. “At the table no one grows old.” It was co-opted some years ago into a marketing campaign for one of those olive oil butter substitute spreads. In the TV version of the advertisement we see a beautiful Mediterranean

family busily spreading branded olive oil over their bread as the dulcet tones of the announcer claim that at THIS table no one grows old … presumably because of the youth preserving qualities of olive oil. However what many of us probably don’t know is that the marketing people got it wrong! The table referred to in the old proverb is the table of the Eucharist, the Altar. And the claim that at

this table no-one grows old was based on the faith of the early Christians that the celebration of the Mass was a moment when we step into the eternal now of God’s

presence so fully that we are no longer governed by time. We are literally outside of time as “chronos” while celebrating the Eucharist.

Now I’m sure you, like me, have been bored so often at some Masses as the preacher drones on that you have looked at your watch frequently and felt that no time was passing at all! But this isn’t what is meant here. Rather there is the understanding that in some mysterious way we are participating in an eternal moment: a nodal point of history where the eternal NOW of God intersects human history in the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus being fully God and fully human is the centre of this nodal point. Indeed it would be better to say that He is the centrepoint of all history in that our story finds its origins, its ongoing existence, and its fulfilment in Him. This means that our prayer life, our desire to have relationship with God and to communicate with Him on ever deeper levels of love —what we call the contemplative path in Christianity —

must always relate to and be centred upon the person of Jesus. And if we centre our prayer life on Jesus as the one who reveals the Father’s face then we will also

centre our life on the table where no one grows old, on the Mass. For this is the place in time where we come face to face with the ultimate eternal act of divine compassion, the sacrifice of Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the

World. The fathers saw this as the moment when the old pagan understanding of time as the destroyer, Chronos  that eats up our lives by the minute is conquered by the

intersection of the eternal dimension, the Kairos of Christ. The time of the new and perpetual jubilee arrives with the incarnation of Jesus and His announcing of the Kingdom and it remains forever open to us through His death and resurrection. We

encounter these salvific moments that are at once historical and eternal in every celebration of the Mass. However, often we are too busy or distracted to be present to these extraordinary events. Perhaps as Church we have spent so long talking about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist that we have forgotten that we must work on our side to be really present to Him!

Fostering a Contemplative Stance

The Contemplative Christian seeks to live always in the awareness of this eternal dimension, this interpenetration of time and eternity. We live in

incarnational awareness with the understanding that all of creation has been rendered holy once again by the entry of Jesus into our world.

So, in building contemplative moments into our days, moments of prayerful pausing that allow us to come face to face with this mystery, or as St. Clare puts it,

“to place our minds before the mirror of eternity”[5]

we create a chain of experience that enables us to begin to live in the presence of the

Lord here and now to be really present to the One who is always present to us

Practices that help are as old as Christianity: Lectio Divina, the praying of the psalms, the Jesus Prayer, the Rosary, the Divine Office, Centering Prayer, Practice of the Presence of God, the Sacrament of the Present Moment etc ...

All of these methods and many others have at their core the goal of uniting the person with the presence of God who is present to them. They allow us to journey like Elijah into the cave of the heart, there to wait, to abide in stillness until the storms of emotions, stresses, and thoughts have abated and we are calm enough to discern the voice of God within.

The Mass is of course at a completely different level of “practice” but our participation in it may be deepened by applying to it some of the techniques that come from the prayer practices that we have mentioned above. Bringing times of stillness and quiet into our celebration of the sacred liturgy are the most important. These times allow us a moment or two for the words of the liturgy and the scriptures of the day to anchor themselves in our minds so that we may have fuel for our prayerful pauses later that day. How often have you left a celebration of Mass unable to

remember the readings that you have just heard? It happens to me so often!

Following on from silence and stillness, the next most important practice to bring to our celebration of the Mass is that of posture. We forget at times that we are embodied! We are a psycho-biological entity that has a sacramental

world view: in other words our bodies, and what they are

doing are just as important to how we pray as are our thoughts and feelings. Indeed our thoughts and feelings will often be much better and more deeply centred if our

posture is appropriate to what we are saying or thinking. There is a body-language of prayer, commented on by the monastics of the Church from the days of the desert

fathers. Moving from standing to sitting to kneeling to bowing to prostrating reminds us of the truths we are celebrating and takes us out of a “spectator mentality” so

often present in today’s liturgy. Where the body goes the mind and heart will follow.

Arising then from our encounter with this eternal salvific moment in the Mass we are in turn driven to deepen our prayer life such that we become ever more aware of our need to be healed, to make this transformative journey into theosis.

We become aware of our own soul-sickness, our sinfulness, though without anxiety or fear; and at the same time we see that the perfect remedy for that sickness has been provided in the Holy Eucharist. It is no wonder then that one of the earliest images by which the Church described itself was as the “ field hospital of humanity”: the place where those who know they are sick come to in order to be healed.

It is interesting to not that the saints assure us that the self-knowledge that arises through prayer would be too much for us if we didn’t know that God has already

provided the means by which we may be healed. To the earliest monks and nuns daily

Communion was encouraged as an inoculation

against sin.  As St. Ambrose wrote:

“Anyone who

is wounded looks for healing. For us it is a

wound to be liable to sin. Our healing lies in the

adorable heavenly Sacrament.”[6]

St. Therese of Lisieux, a modern Doctor of the Church, writes in her letters that nothing should prevent us from receiving the Lord, not even our

sin. She goes on in one famous letter to teach that once we have repented in heart and have the resolution to go to confession as soon as is

possible we should be confident of the Lord’s mercy and go to receive the medicine that He has provided for our healing. After all, we are supposed to realise that the Eucharist is the medicine for sick sinners not the reward for perfect saints. Otherwise the Lord would have waited until we enter the heavenly life to

provide it. Of course we must co-operate with the grace offered in this deepest communion with the Lord that the Eucharist offers.

Sometimes we forget that the Lord gave of himself in Communion to all of the Apostles just before they would abandon and betray Him. He does that for us as well. Our prayer therefore should be that if we fall we will have the grace to

respond to His call to repentance like Peter and not fall into despair like Judas.

So then, descending into the cave of the heart through building a practice of meditative prayer so as to hear the still, small voice of the Spirit is

the perfect preparation for participating in a deeper way in the celebration of the Eucharist. As the Holy Spirit reveals to us our need to be healed and renewed in the image and likeness of God we approach the Eucharist to receive this

inner healing, we recognise that Jesus wants us to come to Him, to be fed, healed and restored to enter into the fullness of our destiny as saints, to

walk the path of theosis. The Eucharist will deepen our prayer life and our prayer life will deepen our celebration of the Eucharist, and in

this mutuality of experience the seeds of our future destiny are sown, watered and cared for, until that day when we shall see Him face to face and, please God, take our place at the eternal banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven.

---

[1] St. Augustine, Sermon Denis 16:1

[2] Cf: John 1:4-9

[3] St. Teresa of Avila, Autobiography, ch 8:2

[4] St. Bonaventure: On the Most Holy Body of Christ, 12-13.

[5] St. Clare, Third Letter to St. Agnes of Prague, v 12

[6] http://thebyzantineanglocatholic.blogspot.ie/2007/10/eucharistic-quotes-patristic.html

St. Francis of the Elements: A Meditation

St. Francis of the Elements: 

A Meditation.

Brother Air:

Francis,
you were a feather born upon the breath of God; dancing with the unseen and manifesting the invisible in your skyborn steps, inviting all to see again the Divine dance into which they are blessed born...
Francis,
you were an Autumnal leaf gilded by grace's sunshine and shower; now unafraid to let go of anything that would keep you from the freedom of flight and happy to journey to the dissolution of all in offering...
Francis,
you were a snowflake; unique and Heaven sent, you kissed the earth lightly and woke us to her own beauty and wisdom, long lost in our lies...
Francis,
you were a lightening strike; shattering a clear sky and bringing the Divine storm that renews and creates, bringing beginning and drawing a new Spring from stuffy stalled hearts...

Brother Fire:

Francis,
you were a spark; struck by Grace from the Flint of heart's hardness, yearning for the dry straw of sin to be kindled in kindness consuming...
Francis,
you were a hearth on a Winter's night; leeching the indifference from our cold ecclesial bones, welcoming all to sit in storied circle and be one in warmth...
Francis,
you were a forest fire; consuming all in the conflagration of your consecrated love, incandescent within the light of Grace flaming through your burning bones...

Sister Water:

Francis,
you were the dew of dawn; appearing to announce a new morning of magic when beasts and birds become brothers and sisters and our tongues are loosed at last in Eden's song...
Francis,
you were a sweet spring; burbling with joy that knows no end, offering to all a deep draught of the Divine, the only answer to soul's thirst...
Francis,
you were a mountain stream; singing your silver song upon a pilgrim path, refreshing worn feet and charming the divine dance from stony hearts...
Francis,
you were an ocean's drop; borne upon the tide of love you yielded to the pull of prayer and lost yourself in the sacred sea of His resurrection gaze and became yourself in unbecoming all you were not...

Sister Mother Earth:

Francis,
you were a grain of dust upon the road; herald and holy, you dwelt in truth's humility, barefoot upon the brown earth, fading at distance into the truth of her embrace...
Francis,
you were a stone; becoming stillness you yielded yourself and were chisel formed into a foundation, while still a friar free to rest upon the rock of faith...
Francis,
you were a healing herb; condensing in yourself the medicine of first divine in-breathing when all that is, is named as good, for reminding us of redemption's remedy you gave root and leaf and flower and fruit for all...
Francis,
you were bird and beast; all found their friend in you and revealed their inner teaching of praise at your prayer; wondering to hear in you the voice long lost from creature's canticle sung by all that is, as you drew even tears from those who by Adam's naming had felt their brother-sisterhood of being lost to them until your call...

Francis,
you are beyond all elemental being now, plunged sainted and seraphic into Love's fire of origin and union and ending, all in one eternal communion of praise, where God is all in all and all are one. Pouring out upon those who are brave enough to follow your bloody footprints upon the Gospeled path an ever flowing fountain of peace and joy and brother beckoning us ever onward, ever upward, from earth's embrace, to sing with wind and fire and water our way into the Divine Dance of Being!

Homily for the Easter Vigil 2018

Homily for the Easter Vigil 2018

The Angel said, “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He has risen, He is not here. See here is the place where they laid Him. But you must go and tell His disciples and Peter: He is going before you to Galilee; it is there you will see Him, just as He told you.” Mk. 16:8

We have arrived at the place of fulfilment.

We have arrived at the place where all our longing, all our desiring falls away.

We have arrived at the moment of Resurrection, not just of Christ, but through Him and with Him and in Him, a resurrection of all that is.

Long lost in self, long lost in despair, long lost in death we had felt the coldness of a life that seems to have no meaning, no essence, no hope…

we had felt the darkness of a wintered night without and even more so within…

we know what the long night of sin has done to us…

it has worn us down…

it has shamed us…

it has taken from us all that we hoped for…

as sin always does…

since the garden we have known its false promises and since the garden we have thought them real, only to stumble and fall again and again…

And yet for thousands of years we have hoped for deliverance, for freedom, for restoration…

We have been promised such in the proclamations of prophet and in the whispers of patriarchs, in the songs of the holy women and in the innocence of children we have seen another way, we have been recalled to righteousness, we have been invited again and again into covenant…

and we have heard that it is possible that the God who is Love never abandons His creation. Never abandons His people, never abandons you, never abandons me…

And He has promised…

he has declared that not only will He be Emmanuel, the God with Us, but He will be Jesus, the One who saves us from our sins. How? By facing down our darkness. He who is light will descend into the darkness of our sin. God from God, Light from Light, true God from True God; the everlasting Word of the Father will descend, will empty Himself and descend into the very bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh… this is how much He loves us…

He will become us and in becoming us He will face our darkness, consume our sin, heal our wounds…

He will be our sacrifice, the only sacrifice acceptable to the Father for in His humanity He will descend to heal us and in His divinity He will raise us up to our eternal home in the very heart of the communion of Love that we call God…

Yes He will descend and in descending touch the darkness, touch the despair, touch the sin, touch the misery of our selfishness and for just a moment, for just a seeming moment seem to be consumed. He will touch death, death on a cross. He will touch your death, all that is dead in you, all that is dead in me…

just for a moment…

they touch…

they embrace…

they kiss…

and from the darkened Golgotha sky the source of life and light breathes out his Spirit over the chaos we have caused…

And then…

and then He conquers!

Darkness is overcome by Light

Death is overcome by Life

Despair is overcome by Hope

Love… Love…Love

conquers all!

He is Risen!

Alleluia!

He is Risen!

This is the heart of existence, the heart of the story of creation, this is what it is all about and always was and will be about…

He descends and in that universal moment of Resurrection I am raised too, you are raised too, and crackling along the great faultline of history forwards and backwards into the world of the dead and the world of those yet to come all feel that great earthquake of power as death is conquered, the gates of hell are broken and the lamb reveals himself as the Lion of Judah

and He goes before us…

listen to the words of the Angel…

He goes before us…

We will see Him there just as He told us…

He goes before us…

the One who was foretold through the ages…

the One who emptied Himself of Divine Glory so as to become one with us…

goes before us…

The One who suffered and died and rose again goes before us…

He goes before me…

He goes before you…

Do you know what that means?

It is the great Easter secret…

from now on there is never a moment in your life or in my life, never a joy, a suffering, a place, or a time where He is not already there, waiting for you to arrive and be present to Him so that He may pour out love and light and power upon you… The resurrection is not just a moment in history it is happening now…

in this moment and in every moment we will ever face!

Our choice tonight and in each moment is to liberate His power in us, to allow Him to be the God He is who waits until we allow Him in… until we become present to Him…

Otherwise we miss it… we can be like the disciples who hear the word of hope and power and dismiss it… it can’t be we think! I had my plans and they failed… I had my hopes and they failed… I know who I am and I am a failure…

So I will dismiss the easter message tonight and descend back into my worry, my pain, my story of how things should be, could have been, would have been…

No not tonight! I beg you not tonight!

Leave the tomb of the past behind… walk out into the garden of the new morning of God’s Love.

He has died to show you how much you are loved. Your God has died for you!

He has risen to show you how much you are loved. Your God has risen for you!

He has gone ahead of you to prepare a place for you. Your God goes ahead of you!

No more fear of the future then!

No more regret for the past then!

As the Lamb He has cancelled your past

As the Lion He fights for your future…

So we on this holiest of nights begin again with the God of beginning

We say to Him again Lord that I may see! Lord that I may follow! Here I am Lord in all my mess, my pain, my glorious brokenness! Here I am for you! Let me begin again this day, this very moment. Not my will but yours…

What have we to fear?

We have it from the Angel’s mouth…

He has risen…

He is not here in the place of the tomb…

He is going before you…

It is there you will see Him…

Just as He told you…

And let us pray: Lord I will follow you into the easter light of the life you have prepared for me…