The first Norbertine convent has just been established in the United States, and 9 of their 20 sisters made their solemn profession on January 29 in Fresno, California. More than 50 priests and hundreds of guests were present. The Norbertines, also called the Premonstratenisan Order, was founded by St. Norbert in 1121 in the Valley of Prémontré, France. According to the press release about the new convent, the saint's first community of "canons regular" followed the Rule of St. Augustine. This order is unique in that its professed members are called canons and canonesses rather than monks and nuns, mainly because liturgical prayer is at the core of their vocation. The Norbertine nuns are the first cloistered nuns in the Fresno Diocese, and were welcomed in May of 2000 by the late Bishop John T. Steinbock. Locals call them "the sisters in the mountains." It was 1997 when Mother Mary Augustine, a native of French New Caledonia, and four other women took the first steps towards "full autonomy as an independent canonry of Norbertine Canonesses." Their convent is now called the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph of Tehachapi, California. The community has grown to 20:
The sisters, representing four continents, are a truly international community, bringing with them varied backgrounds prior to their entry into the convent, including young women who entered directly from high school as well as those with experience in various professional fields, women with talents in many areas, with all of them laying their gifts at the service of God.
Many thanks to the sisters for sending me their press release and photos.
Monday, February 7, 2011
French Carmelite to preach Lenten Retreat at the VaticanFebruary 07, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI has chosen a French theologian, Father Francois-Marie Lethel, to preach this year’s Lenten Retreat at the Vatican.
Father Lethel, a Discalced Carmelite, is the secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Theology; he has written extensively on the lives of the saints. The theme for the retreat will be: “The light of Christ in the heart of the Church: John Paul II and the theology of the saints.”
The Vatican indicated that the retreat is intended to prepare participants not only for their Lenten spiritual journey but also for the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1.
The annual spiritual exercises, held in the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the apostolic palace, are attended by the Pope and the leaders of the Roman Curia. During the week-long retreat, papal audiences are cancelled and Vatican offices work at a reduced schedule. This year’s Lenten Retreat will begin on March 13, the first Sunday of Lent, and continue through the following Saturday.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Missionary: Egyptian protestors want democracy, not Islamic stateFebruary 03, 2011
An Italian missionary who ministers in an impoverished section of Cairo has told the Fides news agency that the protestors there are more interested in democratic reforms than in establishing an Islamic state.
In general, "the atmosphere [has been] joyous and festive," says Father Luciano Verdoscia. "I have not experienced a climate of fanaticism."
"The youth with whom I spoke say they want a democratic government not an Islamic government," he added. "It is the youth who organized the uprising, not the Muslim Brotherhood."
"What may happen, nobody knows," he cautioned. "We know that the most organized opposition is represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has several branches. There are some parts more violent than the other more moderate, parts which seek dialogue and others who seek confrontation."
Founded in 1929, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks the restoration of the caliphate (which ended with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire), the imposition of Sharia law, and a union of Islamic nations.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Commemorated on February 3 Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver was, according to the testimony of the holy Evangelist Luke, a just and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him (Luke 2:25). God promised him that he would not die until the promised Messiah, Christ the Lord, came into the world. Ancient historians tell us that the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.) wished to include texts of Holy Scripture in the famous Library at Alexandria. He invited scholars from Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin sent their wise men. The Righteous Simeon was one of the seventy scholars who came to Alexandria to translate the Holy Scriptures into Greek. The completed work was called "The Septuagint," and is the version of the Old Testament used by the Orthodox Church. St Simeon was translating a book of the Prophet Isaiah, and read the words: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son" (Is 7:14). He thought that "virgin" was inaccurate, and he wanted to correct the text to read "woman." At that moment an angel appeared to him and held back his hand saying, "You shall see these words fulfilled. You shall not die until you behold Christ the Lord born of a pure and spotless Virgin." From this day, St Simeon lived in expectation of the Promised Messiah. One day, the righteous Elder received a revelation from the Holy Spirit, and came to the Temple. It was on the very day (the fortieth after the Birth of Christ) when the All-Pure Virgin Mary and St Joseph had come to the Temple in order to perform the ritual prescribed by Jewish Law. When St Simeon beheld their arrival, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that the divine Child held by the All-Pure Virgin Mary was the Promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. The Elder took the Child in his arms and said, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel" (Luke 2:29-32). There is a Christian epigram (Number 46) in THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY which is addressed to St Simeon. It tells the righteous Elder to receive the Child Who was born before Adam, and Who will deliver Simeon from this life and bring him to eternal life. A similar idea is expressed in the Aposticha (Slavic use) for the Forefeast of the Nativity of the Lord (December 24). There the Mother of God refers to her Son as "older than ancient Adam." Simeon blessed the All-Pure Virgin and St Joseph, and turning to the Mother of God he said, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34-35). The holy Evangelist continues: "And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband for seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not leave the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming at that very hour, also gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption at Jerusalem" (Luke 2:36-38). The holy righteous Simeon the God-Receiver died at a great age (Tradition says he was 360). His holy relics were transferred to Constantinople in the sixth century. His grave was seen by the Russian pilgrim St Anthony, the future Archbishop of Novgorod (October 8) in 1200.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
St. Teresa's spirituality a cure for modern ills, Pope saysFebruary 02, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI devoted his weekly public audience on February 2 to "one of the highest examples of Christian spirituality of all time," St. Teresa of Avila.
The Pope traced the life of St. Teresa (1515-1582), her reform of the Carmelite order, and her enormous spiritual influence. He pointed in particular to "her profound christocentric spirituality and her breadth of human experience."
Pope Benedict, who has devoted his recent Wednesday audiences to the most influential women in the development of Christian thought, has indicated that he will now concentrate on the doctors of the Church. St. Teresa would qualify under both headings; she was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.
The most important lesson of St. Teresa, the Pope said, is her understanding of "prayer as an intimate friendship with Christ leading to an ever greater union of love with the Blessed Trinity." That message, he remarked, could provide an important antidote to the problems of "our current society, often lacking in spiritual values."
"Time spent in prayer is not lost," the Pope reminded his audience. "It is a time in which we open the way to life, learning to love God and his Church ardently, and to show real charity toward our neighbors."
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Little boy evades security for private talk with PopeFebruary 02, 2011
A little boy squirted past security officers to approach Pope Benedict XVI during the regular papal public audience on February 2.
Bolting from his parents, the boy gained the stage of the Paul VI auditorium, where the audience was being held, as the Pope was reading short versions of his Wednesday talk in various languages. Guards quickly closed in, but the Holy Father signaled that they should back away, letting the little boy approach.
Pope Benedict spoke to the boy quietly and gave him a blessing, before returning him to his parents, to the delight of the crowd in the auditorium.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
February 2 is the 15th World Day of Consecrated Life, a commemoration begun by Venerable John Paul II in 1997. In his message for the 1st World Day of Consecrated Life, the Pontiff explained that the day has three purposes:
In the first place, it answers the intimate need to praise the Lord more solemnly and to thank him for the great gift of consecrated life, which enriches and gladdens the Christian community by the multiplicity of its charisms and by the edifying fruits of so many lives totally given to the cause of the Kingdom …
In the second place, this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God … The third reason regards consecrated persons directly. They are invited to celebrate together solemnly the marvels which the Lord has accomplished in them, to discover by a more illumined faith the rays of divine beauty spread by the Spirit in their way of life, and to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world.
Immersed in a world which is often agitated and distracted, taken up sometimes by the press of responsibilities, consecrated persons also will be helped by the celebration of this annual World Day to return to the sources of their vocation, to take stock of their own lives, to confirm the commitment of their own consecration.
The World Day of Consecrated Life is held on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Pope explained, because "the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is an eloquent icon of the total offering of one's life for all those who are called to show forth in the Church and in the world, by means of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus -- the chaste, poor and obedient one."
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From a letter by Saint John Bosco, priest I have always labored out of love
First of all, if we wish to appear concerned about the true happiness of our foster children and if we would move them to fulfill their duties, you must never forget that you are taking the place of the parents of these beloved young people. I have always labored lovingly for them, and carried out my priestly duties with zeal. And the whole Salesian society has done this with me.
My sons, in my long experience very often I had to be convinced of this great truth. It is easier to become angry than to restrain oneself, and to threaten a boy than to persuade him. Yes, indeed, it is more fitting to be persistent in punishing our own impatience and pride than to correct the boys. We must be firm but kind, and be patient with them.
I give you as a model the charity of Paul which he showed to his new converts. They often reduced him to tears and entreaties when he found them lacking docility and even opposing his loving efforts.
See that no one finds you motivated by impetuosity or willfulness. It is difficult to keep calm when administering punishment, but this must be done if we are to keep ourselves from showing off our authority or spilling out our anger.
Let us regard those boys over whom we have some authority as our own sons. Let us place ourselves in their service. Let us be ashamed to assume an attitude of superiority. Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of serving them better.
This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalized, and still others to hope for God’s mercy. And so he bade us to be gentle and humble of heart.
They are our sons, and so in correcting their mistakes we must lay aside all anger and restrain it so firmly that it is extinguished entirely.
There must be no hostility in our minds, no contempt in our eyes, no insult on our lips. We must use mercy for the present and have hope for the future, as is fitting for true fathers who are eager for real correction and improvement.
In serious matters it is better to beg God humbly than to send forth a flood of words that will only offend the listeners and have no effect on those who are guilty.
CHRISTOLOGY –
Comparative Outline: Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria & Gregory of Nazianzus
Athanasius – 'On the Incarnation', from "The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers", second series, vol. IV. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted 1978.
The Word of God who was from the beginning involved in creation was the only one who could, in turn, bring humanity out from sin's corruption and back to incorruption; "He alone of natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer of behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father…", all the while the Word "fills all things everywhere, remaining present with his own Father. (40)
Seeing corruption ever greater weighing upon humanity whom he had created, and unwilling to allow it to continue, the Word chose to become incarnate;
He took a body "of our kind, but from a spotless and stainless virgin, knowing not a man, a body clean and in very truth pure from intercourse of men. For being Himself mighty and Artificer of everything, He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple unto Himself and makes it His very own as an instrument, in it manifested and in it dwelling…". (40)
He took a body like our own out of his love for us in order to vanquish sin, and corruption, and death in humanity.
Incorruptibility of the flesh is introduced to humanity through the bodily resurrection of the incorruptible Word. Sin corrupted humanity in his nature, but by Jesus' assuming flesh he redeemed all humanity and all creation. The Word, by his life, death, and resurrection redeems the whole of the created order; "He blotted out… death… by the offering of His own body, He corrected [humanity's] neglect by His own teaching, restoring all that was man's by His own power." (40-41) Only the Word who created humanity could act to save humanity.
In Jesus humanity was recreated in the image of the Father; Humanity, remade after the image of the Father, in Jesus incarnate and resurrected from the dead, "might once more be renewed." (43) Only the Word of God incarnate could re-teach humanity the truth of who God is as Father and Saviour. Jesus became incarnate to meet humanity "half way" as human beings sought after God through nature and the material world. (44)
By coming as man God guided man back to himself, persuading them "by the works he did that he is not man only, but also God, and the Word and Wisdom of the true God." (45) Jesus' bodily presence among men did not circumscribe his power as the one "in whom we live and move and have our being" as the Word of God, but rather, like the sun, he "illumines and cleanses" humanity and the created order. (45)
Jesus as immortal God could not die, so his human bodily death results in the resurrection of the dead, offering "his own [body] in the stead of all" to deliver humanity from death. Death now is only like the 'dissolution' of the seed that is, in reality, birth to fullness of life. (47) Jesus' dying the most reprehensible death his enemies could conceive is evidence of his humility and power over all death; he did not choose to die a glorious death, he died a death in shame before the eyes of man. (49)
As to the unity of Christ, "even in death his body was not divided (ie. as in John's decapitation - his body being divided into two parts) "in order that even in death He might still keep his body undivided and in perfect soundness, and no pretext be afforded to those that would divide the Church." By dying on the cross his hands were outspread "that with the one he might draw the ancient people [Israel], and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in himself." (49)
Christian martyrdom and the choice of virginity for Christ are a witness to his resurrection. (62, 64) That war like peoples become peace loving is testimony to his deity. (65-65) The Word "was made man that we might be made God" (65); and the Scriptures "were spoken and written by God through men who spoke of God. (66) The imitation of the lives of the saints opens one to "understand also what has been revealed to them by God…". (67)
Cyril of Alexandria – 'On the Unity of Christ', Trans. John A. McGuckin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995.
Jesus was conceived by the Spirit and born of a virgin to make a 'new beginning' for humanity in Him. Jesus was conceived of a virgin so that by the Spirit God would be Father of all through Jesus' incarnation; we no longer have Adam as our father but in Christ we have God as our Father in a direct line – Jesus is the new Adam and God is His Father as well as our Father. (62-63)
Nestorius said a human Jesus was born but a divine Jesus came to indwell that body, so Cyril suggests that it must be inferred that in fact there are two separate sons. Cyril by contrast argues "the Word became flesh" (Jn. 1:14) therefore there is one and only one Son, the Word incarnate. (68-69) Cyril explains that God can assume manhood without either nature being diminished, i.e. in the burning bush neither bush nor fire are the less; God chose to do this and nothing is impossible to Him. (79) To suggest as Nestorius does, that there is in Jesus one divine and one human son is to say that there is not one Son but a duality of sons, and that clearly the divine son is superior to the human son. (84) Cyril uses Phil 2:5-9 to illustrate how if Jesus were not fully God and fully man, why did he, as God, choose to "humble himself", become obedient unto death, etc.? (85) As God, Jesus "humbled himself, economically submitting himself to the limitations of… manhood." (86)
Jesus, the second person of the Trinitarian God, came as man to save those in danger "so that in him first of all the human race might be refashioned… in him all things became new (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). (88) That Jesus worked miracles and commanded angels in his own name testifies to both his divinity and humanity without division. (95) If Jesus was merely a man who worked miracles because "the Word was within him" as Nestorius suggested, then He is no more than any of the ancient prophets. (97)
At the baptism of Jesus he received the Holy Spirit in order to give the Holy Spirit and received the Holy Spirit at the desire of God the Father, [not for his benefit, I would suggest, but for our benefit, so that we might come to perceive the Holy Trinity]; at baptism "He was sanctified insofar as he was man, but sanctifies insofar as he is understood as God. As I have said, He was both the one and the other in the same person." (99-100)
"The Only Begotten did not become man only to remain in the limits of the emptying. The point was that he who was God by nature should, in the act of self-emptying, assume everything that went along with it. This was how he would be revealed as ennobling the nature of man in himself by making it participate in his own sacred and divine honours." (101)
That Jesus, for example, cried out from the cross, "O God, why have you forsaken me?", Cyril says this was not for his own sake but for our own sake that we would know in our struggle how we might call out to our God in the midst of our own terrible trials. (102-103) That "Jesus suffers in his own flesh, and not in the nature of the Godhead" is a presupposition that Cyril holds due to contemporary philosophical views regarding the impassibility of deity. Like fire affects iron and makes it malleable yet does not change the nature / properties of the iron, so Jesus in his humanity suffers, but not in his divinity. (130-131)
Finally, Cyril suggests that the bread and wine of the eucharist are the body and blood of Jesus present in actuality; "His flesh is life giving" in the eucharistic elements. If Jesus' body is not his actual flesh "then how could it be understood as life giving. He said himself: 'I am the living bread which has come down from heaven and gives life to the world... [my flesh is the bread of life for the world] (Jn. 6:51, 33). (130-131)
Gregory of Nazianzus – "On God and Christ: the Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius", Trans. Frederick Williams (Oration 27) and Lionel Wickham (Orations 28-31). Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002.
"To know God is hard, to describe Him impossible... to tell of God is not possible… and to know him is even less possible… to mentally grasp." (39) "That God, the creative and sustaining cause of all, exists, sight and instinctive law inform us". (40-41) The devil "caught at [humanity's] unguided longing to search for God, meaning to divert power to himself and cheat that desire of theirs – it was like taking a blind man's hand"… and pushing him "headlong down a variety of cliffs [leaving the pieces made of him to go] into just one pit of death and destruction." (48) Reason has guided man away from false deities and false worship; "God derived reason, bound up… with the whole of nature, man's most ancient law, has led us up from things of sight to God." (49) However, at a certain point, when reason's limits have been acknowledged, faith must come to take its role in these matters / questions. (60)
"Monotheism, with its single governing principle, is what we value - … the single rule produced by equality of nature, harmony of will, identity of action, and the convergence toward their source of what springs from unity – none of which is possible in the created nature. The result is that though there is a numerical distinction, there is no division in the substance. For this reason, a one eternally changes to a two and stops at three – meaning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." (70) The Son and Holy Spirit are not some kind of spontaneous overflow out of the one God as the product of a kind of "involuntary generation"; "This is why we limit ourselves to Christian terms and speak of "the Ingenerate", "the Begotten", and (as God the Word himself does in one passage) "what Proceeds from the Father." (70) "There has not been a 'when' when the Father has not been in existence. This then is true of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (71) "For us [Jesus] is true God, and on the same level as the Father." (86)
As regards Scripture's reference to Jesus as both God and man "we have now established a general… solution… of allocating the more elevated… divine expressions to Scripture to the Godhead, the humbler and more human to the New Adam, God passible for our sake over against sin." (93) "[Jesus] was actually subject as a slave to flesh, to birth, and to our human experiences; for our liberation, held captive as we are by sin, he was subject to all that he saved. What does the lowliness of man possess higher than involvement with God, than being made God as a result of this intermingling…?... Yes, these things were brought about by the action of the offspring, and the favor of his parent." (94) Jesus 'receives' from the Father only insofar as "'receiving' belongs to his manhood" (99-100); Jesus' will is in total conformity with the will of the Father. (102-103)"The Son is the concise and simple revelation of the Father's nature – everything born is a tacit definition of it's parent." (109) "[Jesus] has united with himself all that lay under condemnation [except sin], in order to release it from condemnation… the joint result is a man who is visibly, because he is spiritually discerned as, God… ". (111)
"We receive the Son's light from the Father's light in the light of the Spirit: that is what we ourselves have seen and what we now proclaim – it is the plain and simple explanation of the Trinity." (118) The Holy Spirit, "insofar as he proceeds from the Father… is no creature; inasmuch as his is not begotten he is no Son; and to the extent that procession is the mean between ingeneracy and generacy, he is God." (122) "To express it succinctly, the Godhead exists undivided in beings divided. It is as if there were a single intermingling of light, which existed in three mutually connected Suns." (127) "… To the best of my ability I will persuade all… to worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the single Godhead and power, because to him belong all glory, honour, and might forever and ever. Amen." (143)
Key Similarities and Significant Distinctives Between the Arguments of Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria and Gregory of Nazianzus
The key distinctives between the above cited works of Athanasius, Cyril, and Nazianzus lie in areas of focus primarily, rather than content; Jesus Christ and how we are to understand God incarnate in Christ is the central theme of the works, in addition to how the persons of the Trinity relate to one another in terms of the economy of salvation.
Athanasius' 'On the Incarnation' establishes that Jesus is 'God as man', and Jesus' birth of a pure virgin matters considerably to both Athanasius and Cyril; additionally Nazianzus' statement that "everything born is a tacit definition of it's parent" ('On God and Christ', 111) has Mariological implications and may be tacitly related to the Christologically rooted Chaldedonian definition of Mary the mother of Jesus as "Theotokos"(God Bearer), and 'Mother of God' . For Athanasius it was Jesus' taking on human flesh that made the redemption of humanity possible; for Cyril, Jesus' being born as human made God the Father of humanity through Jesus, thus removing Adam as humanity's first father and allowing us to become sons of God through Jesus' redeeming of the flesh.Nazianzus says that Jesus took upon himself all in humanity that needed to be redeemed.
"The Word became man that we might be made God" is a theme that runs through the writings of all three theologians. Nazianzus summarises this theme in stating that it was "through the medium of the mind [which forms the interface with the divine mind, that] he had dealings with the flesh, being made that God on earth, which is man: man and God blended… the stronger side predominating, in order that I might be made God to the same extent that he was made man." (86)
Unique to 'On the Incarnation' is Athanasius' reference to the unity of the body of Christ "even in His death" that leads him to infer the necessary and unquestionable unity that must be maintained within the Church which too is the Body of Christ. Additionally Athanasius speaks of how the faith of the Christian martyrs gives evidence of the incarnation of Jesus and his resurrection, as does the witness of those called to consecrated virginity.
His point that "the Scriptures were spoken and written by God through men who spoke of God" reflects the reality of the Trinity's choice of human agency as the means by which God acts to communicate Truth to humanity and is related to the role of the Church in communicating the faith with accuracy and fidelity; this is an aspect of the incarnation that intersects with Cyril's Eucharistic theology and Athanasius' ecclesiological argument regarding the undivided Church reflecting the undivided Body of Christ.
Whereas Athanasius places a primary focus upon how God became man in Jesus Cyril applies more significance and importance to the relationship of Jesus with both the Father and the Holy Spirit. Cyril also bridges Christology with a pronounced and rather distinctly Eucharistic theology when he speaks of the redemption and healing that was wrought through the incarnation of God in Christ, and the healing that continues to be experienced by the believer when they receive the Eucharistic Christ.
Cyril deals directly with the arguments of Nestorius which adds a distinctive element to his work. Cyril focuses on the unity of Jesus as both God and man in contrast with Nestorius who says 'Jesus the man' is indwelt by 'Jesus the God' because to his thinking God cannot be intermingled with man so Jesus may only 'appear to be man' in his deity. Cyril argues that Jesus' humbling himself to be made man infers that Jesus did indeed become fully man and that Jesus was only able to renew the human race because he was fully man; as Jesus himself said, "Behold, I have come to make all things new". Nestorius argues that Jesus received the Holy Spirit, and thus could not be God.Cyril, by contrast, states that all Jesus did which was distinctly human, insofar as we understand those actions, was in fact for the benefit of humanity and not for himself, thus enabling humanity to enter into fullness of relationship with the Father.
Nazianzus is the only one of the Fathers here cited who places great weight upon the role of reason in guiding humanity away from falsehood and superstition toward belief in the possibility of a God. His work is more comprehensive than those of Athanasius and Cyril in its elaboration upon the role of the Holy Spirit rather more than the other two works, however, both Nazianzus and Cyril reference the Holy Spirit repeatedly whereas Athanasius apparently felt little need to do so to make his arguments for the realities relating to Jesus' incarnation.
I am a consecrated Christian solitary brother, observant of the Rule of St. Albert (CCC 920-921). I serve the body of Christ in fraternal community with the Order of Preachers (Rom 11:17).
Please pray for us in our call and mission to serve God and His church. / The monks here depicted are of the eremitic Order of St. Jerome (Hieronymites) to whom I was introduced in Lisbon, Portugal through the 'Mosteiro dos Jeronimos' world heritage site.
The blog title page features an image of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne who gave their lives for the peace of God's people during the French Revolution's reign of terror.
Holy Carmelite Saints & Martyrs please pray for us +
For (well intentioned) questions related to the teaching of the Church in the areas of faith and morals you are very welcome to email me at the following address and I will try to be of assistance or refer you to other resources - Peace in our Jesus :) hermitbrothersjmc@gmail.com
The first Norbertine convent has just been established in the United States, and 9 of their 20 sisters made their solemn profession on January 29 in Fresno, California. More than 50 priests and hundreds of guests were present.
February 07, 2011
