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Post by hibernicus on Mar 17, 2016 19:47:15 GMT
Once again I have marked St Patrick's Day by re-reading the CONFESSION and the EPISTLE TO THE SOLDIERS OF COROTICUS. This year two things struck me most - the first was the humility of St Patrick. One of our besetting faults - partly in reaction against being so often and so long despised - is to have an unreally idealised self-image (often coupled with secret self-hatred and self-contempt). St Patrick frankly acknowledges his sins and failings, and yet he can speak of the great things he has done for the Irish because he knows God did them through him. If we idealise ourselves the next step is despair - only by facing our weaknesses can we understand the greatness of what Jesus has done for us, and how we may yet serve as His instruments. The second is the thought that Coroticus was a Christian, and yet he enslaved his fellow-Christians for the sake of power and gain, and sold them to pagans. Throughout our history there have been many Coroticuses - some merely self-seeking or conscious hypocrites, some who thought themselves righteous and through arrogance or self-righteousness or self-indulgence harmed the lives and the faith of those they should assist as brethren. How often in the past have we been a Coroticus to others; let us resolve instead to follow God with St Patrick. Rogerbuck offers some thoughts on Hilaire Belloc and St Patrick, though Belloc's praise of Ireland as successfully resisting usury rings a bit hollow in the post-NAMA era, now the vulture funds are starting to foreclose: corjesusacratissimum.org/2013/05/hilaire-belloc-saint-patrick-and-catholic-ireland/
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Saints
Apr 27, 2016 20:15:38 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Apr 27, 2016 20:15:38 GMT
Here's a pleasant surprise. A miracle worked through the intercession of Fr John Sullivan SJ has been officially recognised, which means that he will soon be beatified. John Sullivan was born of a mixed marriage (under the old-style arrangement where the children were brought up in the religion of the parent of the same sex). His father was a Protestant lawyer who rose to be Lord Chancellor of Ireland (by a mixture of great ability - he drafted some of Gladstone's land legislation - and more dubious means - if anyone has read Canon Sheehan's GRAVES AT KILMORNA it begins with a description of Sullivan's corrupt election for Mallow as contrast with the idealistic patriotism of the Fenians.) After attending Portora and briefly being a fashionable young man about town he was converted through the shock of a brother's death in a boating accident and seeing the consolation their mother received from her religion. He later became a Jesuit and was noted for his simple piety and modest lifestyle; he lived and taught at Clongowes and the local people believed he worked cures. There is a biography of him by a younger JEsuit contemporary, Fr Fergal MCGrath, which is the main source for his life (he was not a fluent writer). He was, incidentally, decidedly West Brit in his political instincts (though he generally stayed out of politics). In that sense he might be a suitable figure for veneration for those of that political persuasion, because the great vices of that tradition have always been arrogance, snobbery and self-indulgence; whereas he embraced apostolic poverty, wore shabby and threadbare clothes, met and spoke freely with the ordinary people and was venerated by them. This BTW is one side-effect of a Jesuit Pope - a lot of JEsuit Causes get promoted (e.g. the canonisation of Peter Faber, the advancement of the Cause of MAtteo Ricci); but that doesn't mean they are not worthy of veneration and imitation. www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/pope-paves-the-way-for-beatification-of-jesuit-irish-priest/
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Saints
Oct 14, 2016 20:09:39 GMT
Post by maolsheachlann on Oct 14, 2016 20:09:39 GMT
One of the saints to be beatified on Sunday, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, is particularly interesting. Remarkably enough, after my interest in her had been piqued by a poster advertising a talk about her in UCD's chapel, a special edition of a Carmelite magazine devoted to her turned up on UCD's book exchange shelf. I had never heard of her before. Contemplative saints seem to appeal specially to our own era. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_the_Trinity
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Saints
Oct 14, 2016 20:54:05 GMT
Post by Young Ireland on Oct 14, 2016 20:54:05 GMT
One of the saints to be beatified on Sunday, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, is particularly interesting. Remarkably enough, after my interest in her had been piqued by a poster advertising a talk about her in UCD's chapel, a special edition of a Carmelite magazine devoted to her turned up on UCD's book exchange shelf. I had never heard of her before. Contemplative saints seem to appeal specially to our own era. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_the_TrinityShe is indeed. Perhaps one reason she is so little known is because of the devotion to a much more famous French Carmelite nun who lived around the same time. If she lived in another age, she would probably be better known.
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Saints
Oct 17, 2016 20:27:38 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Oct 17, 2016 20:27:38 GMT
Indeed - the saints canonised on Sunday seem an interesting batch. www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/10/17/pope-canonises-seven-saints-who-fought-the-good-fight-of-faith/They include a 14-year-old martyr from the Mexican persecution, the De La Salle Brother Salomon Leclerq martyred during the French Revolution (I visited the Eglise des Carmes on rue Vaugirad in Paris, where the massacre in which he died took place, not knowing about the massacre - I was visiting the tomb of Bl. Frederic Ozanam - and was started to see so many martyrs' skeletons on display) and the first Argentine canonised saint. Of Elizabeth of the Trinity I know only her name - I've seen books about her on display in the Carmelite shop in Clarendon Street church. Must find out more.
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Saints
Dec 7, 2016 19:58:47 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Dec 7, 2016 19:58:47 GMT
An interesting piece about how nineteenth-century sentimental piety has overshadowed the strength and determination of St Aloysius Gonzaga (an early Jesuit novice who died helping plague victims) and what he can teach us today. www.crisismagazine.com/2016/time-rehabilitate-st-aloysiusOne point that might be borne in mind is that the C19 vogue for saints who died young reflected a much higher level of child mortality, and had resonances we can't so easily grasp today. That said, some aspects of devotion to St Aloysius were always iffy in the sense of pious inventions - St Josemaria Escriva criticised as an example of dodgy saints' lives a claim that a certain saint even in infancy was so modest that he would not take his mother's breast, and I think the saint in question was supposed to be St Aloysius.
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Saints
Mar 17, 2017 15:06:23 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Mar 17, 2017 15:06:23 GMT
Once again I have been marking St Patrick's Day by rereading the CONFESSION and LETTER TO COROTICUS Two thoughts: St Patrick was enslaved to sin before he was enslaved by the Irish, and through God's grace he was freed, first from that deep bondage and then from earthly slavery (not that that should be minimised, St Patrick certainly doesn't). Then he gave up his noble status (involving abstention from labour) of his own free will and gave himself to the service of the nation which had enslaved him. The 17th chapter of the Gospel of St Iohn, in which Iesus prays for the disciples and expresses His love for them, expresses the Word St Patrick received from Our Lord and gave freely to the Irish people.
Second: St Patrick denounced the soldiers of Coroticus who professed themselves Christians but hurt and exploited their fellow-Christians. How many of those who called themselves children of St Patrick were really children of Coroticus? How often have I thought of myself as a follower of St Patrick when I was really playing the part of Coroticus?
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Saints
Mar 17, 2017 17:34:40 GMT
Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 17, 2017 17:34:40 GMT
Well, how often do you capture and hold for ransom your fellow Christians? Once a week, once a month, rarely, never?
I've read those two documents for the last four or five St. Patrick's Days, although this year I'm thinking of reading only some of the Confession-- it's quite repetitive.
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Saints
Mar 20, 2017 21:41:25 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Mar 20, 2017 21:41:25 GMT
Well, I supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which had disastrous consequences for my fellow-Christians there. Until a few years ago, I didn't take the corporal works of mercy as seriously as I should... I could go on, but I'd rather not. BTW the soldiers of Coroticus didn't take their fellow-Christians for ransom; they refused to accept ransoms because they could make more money by selling them as slaves.
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Mar 20, 2017 23:19:59 GMT
Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 20, 2017 23:19:59 GMT
I vaguely guessed I was getting it wrong as I posted, but decided to leave it as it was; seeking to counter what Oscar Wilde (in the Decay of Lying) described as "falling into careless habits of accuracy."
I voted against the Good Friday agreement. We all make mistakes...
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Post by hibernicus on May 14, 2017 21:34:05 GMT
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Saints
May 26, 2017 20:50:49 GMT
Post by hibernicus on May 26, 2017 20:50:49 GMT
A very nice piece about what John Henry Newman had in common with St Philip Neri. The point about St Philip seeking to reconcile the new Renaissance civilisation with the Church and Newman doing the same in the C19 is very striking - the fact that they had to evangelise serious urban poverty while addressing the cultivated classes is another. www.crisismagazine.com/2017/newman-neri-spiritual-kinship
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Saints
May 26, 2017 20:56:33 GMT
Post by maolsheachlann on May 26, 2017 20:56:33 GMT
I'm reading a book about Newman right now. He is interesting because he "belongs" to both Christians and literary people (and, to some extent, to conservatives). He's interesting to me because I always knew he was a big deal without really knowing what he was a big deal for. When I worked on a FÁS course in a Christian Brothers Library in 2001 (the Allen Library, housed in the building where the Christian Brothers started), there was Newman stuff EVERYWHERE, but I still only had a vague idea who he was. He is the sort of figure who is mentioned as though you should know about him, and yet I think most educated and intelligent people would know very little about him today.
When you read his sermons, he seems so far removed from the lover of liberal arts for their own sake-- truly a fascinating and capacious character.
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Saints
Jun 22, 2017 19:33:59 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Jun 22, 2017 19:33:59 GMT
An interesting piece on the "forgotten" sister of the Little Flower, Leonie Martin, and how she has attracted increasing devotion, partly because the possibility that she was mildly autistic attracts to her those who are on the spectrum themselves, or have friends and relatives who are. Of course, in including her under "saints" I do not mean to anticipate the judgment of the Church on her cause (which has been introduced) but the piece is definitely worth reading: www.crisismagazine.com/2017/the-unmentioned-martin
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Saints
Aug 9, 2017 11:50:56 GMT
via mobile
Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Aug 9, 2017 11:50:56 GMT
Today's feast is St Edith Stein, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. It is also the 75th anniversary of her martyrdom
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