Contemplative Haven

Is there a correct contemplative response to one’s city (OTTAWA!!!) being in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?  I think so.

GO     SENS     GO     !!!!!!!

Excuse me.  I’m just practising living in the present moment.  Now, back to our regular programing.

“He would fain shake off this immense burden that crushes Him - He would fain free Himself of this horrible load which makes Him shudder - His own purity rejects it - the very glance of the avenging Father, Who abandons Him in these muddy, putrid waters of guilt with which He sees Himself covered - All this rushes to His Spirit urging Him to draw back from the bitter Passion. The revulsion of His Divinity against sin adds to the conflict within His human soul. All instinct counsels that He unburden Himself of these infamies, rejecting the very thought of them. But the consideration of unvindicated justice and the unreconciled sinner predominates in His heart full of love. These two forces, these two loves, one more holy than the other, struggle for victory in the Heart of the Savior. Which will conquer? Without doubt He wants to give victory to offended justice. This gains over all else and He wants this to triumph. But what a spectacle must He represent? That of a man soiled with the filth of humanity. He, essential sanctity, to see himself filthy with sin, even if only in outward appearance? This, No! This terrifies Him, makes Him tremble, crushes Him.”
(St. Padré Pio: The Agony of Jesus)

Welcome!  I have not moved anything over from my previous site yet, and have not figured out too much here so far, but I’d rather concentrate on Lent right now.  I’m sure you understand! 

In the previous post I gave a link to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. For any of you who may be interested in learning more about the Oratory and Brother André in particular, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has eight short clips (from both t.v. and radio) in its archives which you might enjoy.

St. Joseph was named the patron saint of Canada in 1637 by Pope Urban VIII.

St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal is dedicated to this humble, silent saint, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Jesus.

The Oratory is filled with unused crutches, similar to at Lourdes; they are wooden and metal witnesses to the miracles that have taken place there.

St. Teresa of Avila was a recipient of just such a miracle. As a young woman she was paralyzed for more than two years following an illness. In her autobiography, she tells us that it was St. Joseph who was responsible for her cure, that he, “was true to his own nature when he cured my paralysis and gave me the power to rise and walk…”

St. Teresa of Avila had a very special devotion to St. Joseph. She writes, “To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succour us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint my experience is that he succours us in them all…” She explains that Jesus, in Heaven, wishes to do everything that his guardian and foster-father asks of Him, just as He did on earth.

St. Teresa tells us that, “those who practise prayer should have a special affection for him always”, and that if, “anyone cannot find a master to teach him how to pray, let him take this glorious saint as his master and he will not go astray.”

A couple of posts and several comments ago, Carol mentioned one of her many loves; you can find out more about St. Brigid here, and also over at Lily’s today! I would like to share this (a curious but beautiful mixture of Latin and Gaelic), sung by Katy Taylor on her CD entitled, “Welcome Brigid”. The first time I heard it I was startled, thinking that the lyrics were identifying St. Brigid and the Blessed Virgin Mary as being one and the same. Then I realized that the song was being addressed to the Blessed Virgin, in praise of St. Brigid. The appropriateness of this became more apparent when I came across an excerpt from an article written by Father Denis Murphy, S.J. in The Journal of the County of Kildare Archeological Society (Vol. I, No. 3; 1893):