Here and There

The length of every Lent commemorates

Our Saviour's forty days and forty nights

Of fasting in the wilderness, and waits

Till Garden of Gethsemane invites

Us back to Paradise: paid for and won

Only by Second Adam, God the Son.

It rained upon the earth for forty days

And forty nights it rained upon the earth,

God sets his bow in heaven to amaze

Us by the beauty of His promise: worth

So much is each new rainbow by its meaning

That viewing it we reach for Truth, keep gleaning.

Moses for forty days and forty nights

Stayed fasting in the mount, obeyed the Lord

In setting down His law to set to rights

The sons of men: The Son of God's accord

With the mosaic pattern did far more

By Love fulfilling it than writ of yore.

For forty days and nights it did not rain,

The people hot got water on the brain,

The prophet prayed and it displayed again: Selah!

~John Bradburne, 1978

Copyright to this poem is owned or controlled by The John Bradburne Memorial Society

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Third Order Franciscan, mystic, poet and friend of lepers. Born in England in 1921, John Bradburne served with the Gurkhas in Malaya and Burma during World War II. A Pauline like conversion led him to become a pilgrim seeker, first with the Benedictines, then the Carthusians, but remained a layman to the end. His search for God's will led him through England, Europe and the Holy Land, mostly on foot. In 1962 he went to "seek a cave" in Zimbabwe. Instead he found Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement. There he tended a flock of 80 leprosy patients with loving care, laying down his life for them on September 5th, 1979.

At his funeral, a pool of blood was seen beneath his coffin. On opening it, there was no evidence where the blood had come from. However, an oversight was revealed: John had not been clothed in the habit of St. Francis, as is the privilege of members of the Third Order, and had been John's wish. The habit was found and John was clothed in it.

Since his death there have been many signs of his sanctity: reports of miracles, claims of cures, as well as many answers to prayer. More important, many have turned to God through John's extraordinary example.

Wash me with Hyssop

At first I thought this was a joke, but it's for real and it looks like these folks take themselves very seriously. I post it here out of curiosity and the connection with Lent, not as a product endorsement. Hyssop Baths in South Carolina makes Hyssop Soap.

Here's what they have to say: "As a spiritual cleansing soap, it can be used in conjunction with praying and fasting, during times of trouble, before receiving communion, during atonement and other spiritual moments. We truly believe that cleansing with Hyssop Soap will help church leaders and their congregations experience an uplifting movement to our Heavenly Father and His Kingdom in a spiritual rejuvenation."

I think they're taking Psalm 51 (50 LXX) a little too far. Our Lord said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." (Mt. 23:25-26)

I'll keep my focus on inward cleansing this Lent.

Thou shalt purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Have mercy on me, O God, after Thy great goodness: according to the multitude of Thy mercies, do away mine offences. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. (Ps. 50:8,1-2)

Lourdes at 150

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1858 the Blessed Virgin mary visited St. Bernadette Soubirous 18 times. Mary requested that a chapel be built on the spot. This is the 150 year Jubilee of this visitation.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France is the most visited pilgrimage site in the world--mainly because of the apparent healing properties of the waters of the spring that appeared during the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Official Shrine Site

150 Year Jubilee


The Lourdes Marian Center here in Denver is an official distributor of water from Lourdes. When anyone is sick around our house, Sophia gets out her bottle of Lourdes water and prays for us.

Icon Available from Monastery Icons

"The story told by the ignorant little girl, and the wonders wrought by the slender stream which flowed forth from the rock beneath her hands, have gone further to confound the objections of the sceptical criticism which calls itself modern thought, than the arguments of the most learned apologists or of the most subtle theologians. God has taken the weak and the foolish things of the world into His hands, and with these for ffis instruments has overcome those who, in the pride of their intellect, had set themselves up against Him—has silenced the learned and bewildered the scientific—and in the midst of the most mocking incredulous country of this mocking incredulous age, has shown us the Grotto of Lourdes as an irrefragable testimony to His existence, His power, and His love."

The English Pilgrimage to Lourdes, May 1883

Fasting, a Source of Trial

It is commonly said, that fasting is intended to make us better Christians, to sober us, and to bring us more entirely at Christ's feet in faith and humility. This is true, viewing matters on the whole. On the whole, and at last, this effect will be produced, but it is not at all certain that it will follow at once. On the contrary, such mortifications have at the time very various effects on different persons, and are to be observed, not from their visible benefits, but from faith in the Word of God.

Some men, indeed, are subdued by fasting and brought at once nearer to God; but others find it, however slight, scarcely more than an occasion of temptation. For instance, it is sometimes even made an objection to fasting, as if it were a reason for not practicing it, that it makes a man irritable and ill-tempered. I confess it often may do this. It is undeniably a means of temptation, and I say so, lest persons should be surprised, and despond when they find it so.

Let it not then distress Christians, even if they find themselves exposed to thoughts from which they turn with abhorrence and terror. rather let such a trial bring before their thoughts , with something of vividness and distinctness, the condescension of the Son of God. He was tempted in all points "like as we are, yet without sin." Surely here too Christ's temptation speaks comfort and encouragement to us.

~St. John Newman

Prayer

We beseech Thee, O Lord, let Thy gracious favor carry us through the fast which we have begun; that as we observe it by bodily discipline, so we may be able to fulfil it with sincerity of mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Heal My Soul

Heal my soul for I have sinned against Thee.

I said: O Lord, be Thou merciful unto me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit.

(Psalm 40:5)

40 days in the desert with Jesus

But that you may learn how great a good is fasting, and what a mighty shield against the Devil, and that after baptism you ought to give attention to fasting and not to lusts, therefore Christ fasted, not Himself needing it, but teaching us by His example. And to fix the measure of our quadragesimnal fast, he fasted forty days and forty nights. But He exceeded not the measure of Moses and Elias, lest it should bring into doubt the reality of His assumption of the flesh. (St. John Chrysostom)

The Creator of all things took no food whatever during forty days. We also, at the season of Lent as much as in us lies afflict our flesh by abstinence. The number forty is preserved, because the virtue of the decalogue is fulfilled in the books of the holy Gospel; and ten taken four times amounts to forty. Or, because in this mortal body we consist of four elements by the delights of which we go against the Lord's precepts received by the decalogue. And as we transgress the decalogue through the lusts of this flesh, it is fitting that we afflict the flesh forty-fold. Or, as by the Law we offer the tenth of our goods, so we strive to offer time tenth of our time. And from the first Sunday of Lent to time rejoicing of the paschal festival is a space of six weeks, or forty-two days, subtracting from which the six Sundays which are not kept there remain thirty-six. Now as the year consists of three hundred and sixty-five, by the affliction of these thirty-six we give the tenth of our year to God. (St. Gregory the Great)

From Catena Aurea (The Golden Chain), Matthew 4

Prayer

Grant us, O Lord, to enter on the service of our Christian warfare with holy fasting; that as we are to fight against spiritual powers of wickedness, we may be fortified by the aid of self-denial; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Gelasian Sacramentary)

An Acceptable Fast

Let us keep an acceptable fast that will please the Lord. A true fast means estrangement from evils, abstinance from anger, control of the tongue, giving up the passions, insults, lies, and swearing. To be deprived of all these is a true and acceptable fast. (Stichera from the Presanctified Liturgy, Tone 3)

Come, O faithful, let us eagerly take up the strong shield of the fast to deflect the enemy's every evil scheme. Let us not be enticed by passionate pleasures nor fear the fires of temptations; for through them Christ the lover of us all will reward us with crowns for our perserverance. Then let us pray with boldness; let us fall down before Him and cry out, begging peace for our souls and great mercy. (Stichera from the Presanctified Liturgy, Tone 5)

The Metropolitan Cantor Institute of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, 2007

http://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/sheetmusic/general/PresanctifiedGifts.pdf

Prayer

We beseech Thee, O Lord, that our earnest devotion may become fruitful through Thy grace; for then shall our fast be profitable to us, if it is well-pleasing to Thy loving kindness; through jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ash Wednesday

"For dust you are, And to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:19)

It's here! Welcome to Lent.

Last year, when I was Eastern Orthodox, I went to my local Antiochian Wetern Rite parish for the imposition of ashes during lunch hour. I work in the service department at a car dealership so all day I heard "Hey, you have grease on your forehead". The cool thing was that I was able to witness my faith. I noticed newscasters on CNN and ESPN that day with ashes too.

This will be my first Lent as a Roman Catholic after 12 in Orthodoxy. In fact, our first visit to an Orthodox church was on Cheesefare Sunday (the Sunday before Lent). This year the Orthodox don't start Lent until the middle of March since our Paschal celebrations are almost a month apart.

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday:

Mercifully direct, O God, all my thoughts, words, and actions throughout this season to Thy greater glory, and to the welfare of myself and others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~From "A Few Devotional Helps for Lent and Passion-tide" 1858

Mardi Gras

Well, here we are... Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, Pączki Day, Shrove Tuesday, etc. Lent begins in the Western Church tomorrow.

Today, which should be a festive day before the "joyful sorrow" of Lent, is ruined by the debauchery and scandal that will occur today in the name of Mardi Gras. I find the shenanigans embarrassing and it gives Catholics a bad name, but the Church has tried to stop or tame festivities in the past to no avail. How many of the hedonists who go down to places like New Orleans even plan on doing anything for Lent anyway. It's just an excuse to party and flash bead-throwing bystanders.

Regardless of the way it gets spoiled, it is still a significant day.

Eggs, meat, oils and butter were strictly prohibited during the 40 days of Lent before the fasting rules were relaxed (Byzantine Catholics and Eastern Orthodox still follow the stricter custom). "Fat Tuesday" was the day to eat all that remained of these foods in the house and enjoy one last feast on the day before Lent. When I lived in Detroit the Polish Catholics in Hamtramck called it Pączki (punch-key) Day, and people would get these deep-fried jelly doughnut type things--I never could finish one they were sooooo sweet and greasy!

The name "Shrove Tuesday" comes from the practice of "shriving," or the confession and absolution of sin, that takes place on this day. "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive (absolve) him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do (in the way of penance)." Ecclesiastical Institutes, Anglo-Saxon A.D. 1000.

So, clean out your cupboard of the foods you won't be eating during Lent, and clean out your soul with confession and penance. Have some fun and goof around, but keep your shirt on.

Tone 9!

In my Eastern Orthodox days I was a tonsured reader trained in Byzantine chant. I was taught that there were only eight liturgical tones (same goes for the Modes in the Western church). How surprised I was to read this post from The Onion Dome about the discovery of a ninth tone (actually it is tone "square-root-of-29"). This has caused some controversy between the Greeks and Russians, as usual--Not sure how the Antiochians recieved it.
http://www.theoniondome.com/2008/01/alex/

Letter and Spirit

Check out this new show on EWTN called "Letter and Spirit". It comes on at 7pm MST (9pm EST) right after "Journey Home".

Scott Hahn takes on the lofty subject of scripture and its relationship to liturgy. He shows how scriptural texts have been intimately tied to ritual public worship since the early Christian church and even before that in the Jewish temple.

If you aren't familiar with Mr. Hahn, he is a convert to the Catholic Church from Evangelicalism and the author of several excellent books. His journey to the faith of the Apostles can be found in the book "Rome Sweet Rome".

February Prayer Intentions

The month of February is dedicated to the Holy Family.

Pope Benedict's prayer intentions for this month really hit home for me, being bipolar and having several children with mood disorders we often seek the intercessions of St. Dymphna. Now, for the whole month, millions of faithful people will be praying for us.

Mentally Handicapped: That the mentally handicapped may not be marginalized, but respected and lovingly helped.

Institutes of Consecrated Life: That the Institutes of Consecrated Life in mission countries may rediscover the missionary dimension and generously proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth.

Check out Mental Illness Ministries website

http://www.miministry.org/

Also, here's a site for women considering Consecrated Life

http://www.consecrated-life.org/