Regular readers of our blog will recognize the name of Bishop Silvio Baez, our Discalced Carmelite confrere who is the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua. Let us pray for these negotiations in Nicaragua, that true justice and lasting peace may dwell in the hearts and homes of the people.
Yesterday, Daniel Ortega announced the start of negotiations between his administration and the Alianza Civica por la Justicia y la Democracia. This new round begins on February 27. Details about the negotiations have been trickling out since the official announcement. Here is what we know so far: The Alianza’s team: Business Interest Appropriately Represented The Alianza…
I am alone here. Two by four (meters) and the height is also four. A cell dwelt in becomes sweet, says Thomas à Kempis. I already feel at home here. I pray, read and write, the days are too short. From eight till seven it is night.
I am quite all right in my solitude, although I miss the church, Mass, communion, and although no priest comes here. Yet God is near to me, now that I cannot go to people any more, nor people to me. I am very calm, happy and content, and I adapt myself. I will hold out very well.
Your Fr. Titus, Carmelite
Blessed Titus Brandsma Letter to confreres and family from Scheveningen German Police Prison (excerpts)
February 12, 1942
Titus Brandsma was born in the Frisian city of Bolsward, Holland, 23 February 1881
This video gives details about Brandsma’s imprisonment in Scheveningen
At five in the afternoon, Teresa asked that Padre Antonio bring her Communion. When the Eucharist was brought in, her countenance changed and grew radiant with a kind of reverent beauty, making her look much younger. The impulses of love became so ardent that it seemed she who had been dying now wanted to leap from the bed to receive her Lord. She spoke aloud fervent words of love: “O my Lord and my Spouse, now the hour has arrived for us to go forth from this exile, and my soul rejoices in oneness with You over what I have so much desired.” She also uttered fervent prayers of thanksgiving to God for having made her a daughter of the Church and enabling her to die within it. [The Book of Her Foundations: Introduction]
USFWS Mountain-Prairie Trumpeter swan on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge | Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS
I believe a mistake that far too many people make is misunderstanding the Pharisees. When the Pharisees are brought up they are depicted as men who live the law strictly and cruelly that results in the heaping of burdens laced upon their own people…. (35 more words)
Being in prayer on the feastday of the glorious St. Peter, I saw or, to put it better, I felt Christ beside me; I saw nothing with my bodily eyes or with my soul, but it seemed to me that Christ was at my side — I saw that it was He, in my opinion, who was speaking to me.
Since I was completely unaware that there could be a vision like this one, it greatly frightened me in the beginning; I did nothing but weep. However, by speaking one word alone to assure me, the Lord left me feeling as I usually did: quiet, favored, and without any fear. It seemed to me that Jesus Christ was always present at my side; but since this wasn’t an imaginative vision, I didn’t see any form.
Yet I felt very clearly that He was always present at my right side and that He was the witness of everything I did. At no time in which I was a little recollected, or not greatly distracted, was I able to ignore that He was present at my side.
Yet I felt very clearly that He was always present at my right side and that He was the witness of everything I did.
I immediately went very anxiously to my confessor to tell him. He asked me in what form I saw Him. I answered that I didn’t see Him. He asked how I knew that it was Christ.
I answered that I didn’t know how, but that I couldn’t help knowing that He was beside me, that I saw and felt Him clearly, that my recollection of soul was greater, and that I was very continuously in the prayer of quiet, that the effects were much different from those I usually experienced, and that it was very clear.
It seemed to me that Jesus Christ was always present at my side
I could do nothing but draw comparisons in order to explain myself. And, indeed, there is no comparison that fits this kind of vision very well. Since this vision is among the most sublime (as I was afterward told by a very holy and spiritual man, whose name is Friar Peter of Alcántara and of whom I shall speak later, and by other men of great learning) and the kind in which the devil can interfere the least of all, there are no means by which those of us who know little here below can explain it. Learned men will explain it better.
I couldn’t help knowing that He was beside me
I saw and felt Him clearly
my recollection of soul was greater
I was very continuously in the prayer of quiet
the effects were much different
it was very clear
St. Teresa of Avila writes in the Book of Her Foundations, “We arrived in Villanueva de la Jara on the first Sunday of Lent, the feast of St. Barbaciani, [21 February] the vigil of the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, in the year 1580.” Read more about the founding of this monastery here
We arrived in Villanueva de la Jara on the first Sunday of Lent, the feast of St. Barbaciani, [21 February] the vigil of the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, in the year 1580. On this same day at the time of the high Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the church of the glorious St. Anne.
The city council and some others along with Doctor Ervías came out to receive us, and we got down from our wagons at the church in the town, which was quite far from St. Anne’s. The joy of the whole town was so great.
It gave me much consolation to see the happiness with which they received the order of the Blessed Virgin, our Lady.
We had heard from afar the peal of the church bells. Once we were inside the church, they began the Te Deum, one verse sung by the choir and the other played by the organ.
When it was finished, they carried the Blessed Sacrament on one portable platform and a statue of our Lady on another, and crosses and banners. The procession proceeded with much pomp.
We were in the middle near the Blessed Sacrament with our white mantles and our veils covering our faces, and next to us were many of our discalced friars from their monastery and Franciscans from the monastery of St. Francis that was located there, and one Dominican who happened to be present (even though he was alone it made me happy to see that habit there).
Since the distance was great, there were many altars set up along the way. From time to time the procession stopped and some verses were recited in honor of our order which moved us to great devotion. So did the sight of all of them praising the great God present in our midst and the fact that because of Him they paid so much honor to us seven poor, little discalced nuns who were there.
While I was engaged in all these reflections, I became very ashamed in recalling that I was among them and that if they were to do what I deserved they would all turn against me.
Saint Teresa of Avila The Book of Her Foundations, Chapter 28
We are grateful to photographer José-María Moreno García for making his photo-documentary of the Fifth Centenary visit to Saint Teresa’s foundation of Villanueva de la Jara available for download under a Creative Commons license. To see the complete photo album from this foundation, click here.
We have so little time left to live. Death is at our heels, so be on guard: death comes only once! Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, O.C.D. The Practice of the Presence of God, Letter 1
I have taken advantage of this opportunity to share with you the experience of one of our friars concerning the admirable effects and continual help he receives from the practice of the presence of God; we can both benefit from it.
He often complains of our blindness and cries out ceaselessly that we deserve sympathy for settling for so little. “God,” he says, “has infinite treasures to give us, yet we are satisfied with a bit of perceptible devotion that passes in an instant.” He complains that “we are blind since we bind God’s hands in this way and halt the abundant flow of his graces; yet when God finds a soul penetrated by an intense faith he pours out his graces in abundance. This torrent of his grace, impeded from running its ordinary course, expands impetuously and abundantly once it has found an outlet.”
Yes, sometimes we stop this torrent by our lack of appreciation for it. We must not stop it any longer, dear Mother; we must turn inward, break through the dam, let grace come forth, and make up for lost time. We have so little time left to live. Death is at our heels, so be on guard: death comes only once!
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, O.C.D. The Practice of the Presence of God, Letter 1
Father Conrad De Meester, O.C.D. who was the editor of the French critical edition of Writings and Conversations on the Practice of the Presence of God notes these biographic details concerning the uncle whose own Discalced Carmelite vocation inspired Brother Lawrence to enter religious life after military service:
His uncle Jean, his mother’s brother, a native of Hériménil, Jean Majeur entered the Discalced Carmelites as a lay brother at the beginning of October 1633. He took the name “Brother Nicolas of the Conception.” He was professed in Paris on December 9, 1635, and died on February 20, 1652, in his nephew’s monastery in Paris.
Detail from Book of Hours, Use of Rome Folio 98/254 Meister des Gijsbrecht van Brederode [illustrator] Netherlands, 1440 – 1460 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford See the entire folio and the complete Book of Hours here
Mas ¿cómo perseveras, ¡oh vida!, no viviendo donde vives? Para cuya inteligencia es de saber que el alma más vive donde ama que en el cuerpo donde anima, porque en el cuerpo ella no tiene su vida, antes ella la da al cuerpo, y ella vive por amor en lo que ama. Cántico Espiritual (CB): Canción 8
These last two days our dear invalid has grown considerably weaker, and this morning she wasn’t able to get up to take Holy Communion. Our beloved Sister is in a state of weakness, oppression, and anxiety which leads us to think that the end cannot be far off.
She was most touched by your parcel, but she eats so little now that she only tasted it. She has asked us to convey her gratitude for this kind gesture which moved her deeply.
Letter from Sister Marie-Louise de Gonzague Vétillart, V.H.M. to Saint Zélie Martin (excerpt) 19 February 1877
I’m enclosing a letter I just received a moment ago which doesn’t leave us any more hope, as you can see. Last week I sent some roasted goose to my sister since she’d wanted to eat some cooked in our house. I also sent her a pound of gumdrops and a dozen cakes, but Pauline wrote Marie that she gave almost all of them to her.
Finally, I think her death is imminent, and it makes me very sad. But on the other hand, I want my poor sister to be freed as soon as possible.
Letter from Saint Zélie Martin to her sister-in-law Céline Fournet Guérin (excerpt) 20 February 1877
Garden of the former Visitation monastery, Rouen | Edhral / Flickr
Dr. Minúscula covers the unfolding drama in Nicaragua from the perspective of an academic and as a native of Nicaragua. We share the professor’s insights to help our readers understand the current events in this nation where Bishop Silvio José Báez, O.C.D. serves as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua.
On the evening of February 16, Daniel Ortega’s administration released a press statement announcing a meeting with “representative members of the private sector”. Also in attendance were Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, archbishop of Managua, and Mons. Waldemar Sommertag, Vatican Ambassador to Nicaragua, who came as “guests”. It might be a new attempt at a National Dialogue,…
Los expertos han realizado cálculos sobre el número de cartas que Teresa de Jesús pudo escribir a lo largo de su vida. Se habla de unas quince mil, aunque han llegado hasta nosotros algo menos de quinientas.
Son un tesoro, en buena medida aún por explotar. A través de ellas, nos encontramos con una imagen de la santa algo distinta de la que podemos percibir en sus grandes obras doctrinales.
Edgar Allison Peers escribió en una ocasión: «El gran regalo que las cartas legan a la posteridad consiste no en lo que ellas nos cuentan de las actividades de santa Teresa, sino lo que nos cuentan sobre ella misma»¹.
Algo que se percibe cuando vamos leyendo las cartas es el avance progresivo de la debilidad, el cansancio, la enfermedad y otros achaques, la prematura ancianidad de la Madre Teresa de Jesús, a pesar de su gran fortaleza de ánimo.
Ofrecemos un interesante video preparado por la grafóloga Sandra Cerro. Ella participó en 2015 en el Cngreso Mundial Teresiano que se celebró en Ávila con motivo del V Centenario. Ahora, su exposición, titulada “Semblanza grafológica de Santa Teresa, mujer emprendedora del siglo XVI”, la ha convertido en un video que acaba de publicar en su canal de youtube.
Como ella misma señala en su blog, hay algún dato que aparece en el video que conviene matizar:
Una errata: Al hablar de la fundación del convento de San José, se mezcla la fecha en la que Teresa se descalzó con la fecha de fundación del convento, que fue el 24 de agosto de 1562.
Al final del documental, hay referencia a la Santa como Patrona de las Españas. Actualmente no ostenta este título, aunque sí lo ha tenido en otros momentos de la Historia.
Many and varied are the ways in which our saintly forefathers laid down how everyone, whatever his station or the kind of religious observance he has chosen, should live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ — how, pure in heart and stout in conscience, he must be unswerving in the service of his Master.
It is to me, however, that you have come for a rule of life in keeping with your avowed purpose, a rule you may hold fast to henceforward; and therefore:
The first thing I require is for you to have a prior, one of yourselves, who is to be chosen for the office by common consent, or that of the greater and maturer part of you; each of the others must promise him obedience — of which, once promised, he must try to make his deeds the true reflection — and also chastity and the renunciation of ownership.
Pope Innocent III, on the 17th of February 1205, gave St. Albert a pressing invitation to accept his postulation as Patriarch of Jerusalem, made by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, by the suffragan bishops and by the King of Jerusalem, Almaricus II of Lusignan. Read more
Panajachel 16 de febrero de 2019 Guatemala”…pascua de quiebracajetes” (M.A.Asturias). Estamos viviendo un período en el que la amistad compite con la tecnología. Todos tenemos la necesidad de sentirnos apreciados y admirados, una palmada en la espalda, un abrazo, una sonrisa, un apretón de manos, un saludo, nos hace sentirnos bien….
comments on the breeze