Blog by-the-Sea

St. Teresa of Avila's Dove Metaphor, Part 7: The Cocoon and The Night of the Senses

2009-11-22T19:10:27-08:00

This is a continuation of a series of posts in The Dove category of this blog about St. Teresa of Avila's use of dove images in her writings. Sorry about the small font -- I have had trouble learning how to use the "New Typepad", so I had trouble preparing the post in Word (Plain Text) and then pasting it into Typepad and formatting for some reason. I will try to get it worked out.

I have reached the point in writing about St. Teresa of Avila's dove metaphor that made me hesitant for so long to start down the path of explaining it in the first place: the higher mansions. If I write anything, there is a risk of someone saying I have gone beyond my place as a mere blogger. If I write nothing, I will have abandoned the project in the middle. So, of course, I enter this explanation with prayer and some remaining fear.

I last wrote about St. Teresa of Avila's dove metaphor from Interior Castle with a step aside to consider her silkworm and butterfly. She herself connects the butterfly and dove metaphors in a couple of places in Interior Castle (V:4 and VI:11). Early in the Fifth Mansion, looking back at the first four, she describes the silkworm growing and then building its cocoon, where it will die to the life it has known up to that point and will emerge as a beautiful white butterfly.

In the last few posts, I wrote about her image of the silkworm and its growth, and how that represents the soul's spiritual growth in the first four mansions. This post continues with the silkworm image, this time considering the cocoon.

St. Teresa begins her story of the silkworm by saying that she is going to say some things about the Lord's work in souls to whom He grants union with Him. She adds that "though we can take no active part in this work of God within us, yet we may do much to prepare ourselves to receive this grace." (Interior Castle V:2).

After describing the silkworm's growth, she writes, "When the silkworm is full-grown as I told you in the first part of this chapter, it begins to spin silk and to build the house wherein it must die. By this house, when speaking of the soul, I mean Christ. I think I read or heard somewhere, either that our life is hid in Christ, or in God (which means the same thing) or that Christ is our life."

She applies this story to explain what we can do through God's help to reach union with God, while it is God who does the bulk of the work:

"This shows, my daughters, how much, by God’s grace, we can do, by preparing this home [the cocoon] for ourselves, towards making Him our dwelling-place as He is in the prayer of union. You will suppose that I mean we can take away from or add something to God when I say that He is our home, and that we can make this home and dwell in it by our own power. Indeed we can: though we can neither deprive God of anything nor add aught to Him, yet we can take away from and add to ourselves, like the silkworms. The little we can do will hardly have been accomplished when this insignificant work of ours, which amounts to nothing at all, will be united by God to His greatness and thus enhanced with such immense value that our Lord Himself will be the reward of our toil. Although He has had the greatest share in it, He will join our trifling pains to the bitter sufferings He endured for us and make them one.
"Forward then, my daughters! hasten over your work and build the little cocoon. Let us renounce self-love and self-will, care for nothing earthly, do penance, pray, mortify ourselves, be obedient, and perform all the other good works of which you know. Act up to your light; you have been taught your duties. Die! die as the silkworm does when it has fulfilled the office of its creation, and you will see God and be immersed in His greatness, as the little silkworm is enveloped in its cocoon. Understand that when I say ‘you will see God,’ I mean in the manner described, in which He manifests Himself in this kind of union."

When the soul, through the prayer of union, has become "entirely dead to this world", she says, "it comes forth like a lovely little white butterfly!"

The "prayer of union" discussed in the Fifth Mansion is the beginning of the "flight" of contemplation. While the soul is "immersed in God's grandeur" in that prayer of the Fifth Mansion, it is never for as much as half an hour. Yet, for that time, it is a mystical grace of union with God called a union of the will. I will get to that later, when I write about the butterfly. For now, for clarification, it must be distinguished from that full and enduring union that is the highest level of prayer.

The cocoon is thus a symbol of detachment. "Detachment" is defined by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., in his notes to the Way of Perfection (Study Edition), as "Relinquishing what stands in the way of giving oneself to the All without reserve; in it one embraces the Creator rather than the creature, cares not for what comes to an end but for eternal things" (citations omitted).

P. Marie-Eugene, in I Am a Daughter of the Church, connects the cocoon to what St. John of the Cross calls the "night of the senses", the first of two nights described by St. John of the Cross. St. Edith Stein, in The Science of the Cross, connects the two nights with the Cross of Christ. The first is a point of taking up the Cross, and the second a sort of crucifixion.

1. The Cocoon Exists Only to Produce a Butterfly

The union with God – a union of our will with God's will – is St. Teresa's focus in the Fifth Mansion. She is not interested in deprivation in and of itself, but rather for the purpose of enabling the grace of contemplation. Her butterfly image is not mentioned until the Fifth Mansion, which is primarily about God's grace in the prayer of union.

In her chapter "The Message of the Cross" in The Science of the Cross, St. Edith Stein likewise says, "The cross has no purpose of itself. It rises on high and points above." We die on the cross with Christ in order to be resurrected with Him. Detachment, the night of the senses, death to the world, have a purpose as the path to spiritual life. The cocoon is a point of transition on that path.

2. The Cocoon and the Cross in Scripture

St. Teresa specifically mentions one Scripture reference that she has in mind in speaking of the cocoon. At Col. 3:2-3, St. Paul wrote to the Church at Collosae, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." That is what she specifically says she has in mind in her image of the cocoon: dying to the things that are on earth, setting our minds on things that are above, for our life is hid with Christ.

That death that St. Paul writes about is by implication connected with the Cross, as seen elsewhere in Scripture. Jesus says, "So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33) and "And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.'' (Mark 8:34-35).

St. Paul thus wrote to the Church at Rome, "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:1-2).

3. Dryness in the Early Stages of the Spiritual Life

In connecting the cocoon and death to the world with the night of the senses in St. John of the Cross, it is important to draw some distinctions. There are times of dryness in the earlier mansions, and the "dark night of the soul" is generally connected with St. Teresa's Sixth Mansion that it is still ahead of us. Indeed, by the Sixth Mansion, she has returned to her description of the dove in flight, and its trials "make it fly still higher" (Interior Castle VI:2).

The Christian's dying with Christ begins at baptism. St. Paul describes that in Rom. 6:3-4: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

St. Teresa addresses spiritual warfare in the Second Mansions, aridities in prayer in the Third Mansions, and distractions during prayer in the Fourth Mansions. P. Marie-Eugene writes, "Even in the case of beginners this dryness is often accompanied by an intermittent ray of divine light which itself produces contemplative dryness." (I Want to See God, Chapter VI). He adds that "it does not seem too presumptuous to consider that contemplative dryness is possible, intermittently, in the majority of fervent souls, even in their early stages in the ways of prayer."

However, P. Marie-Eugene contrasts those early stages of dryness with St. Teresa's long seasons of aridity in prayer, which he says were "states illumined by a strong divine light that was adjusting sense to spirit and preparing her soul for the marvelous graces that she was to receive."

Thus, trials and aridities exist at all stages of the spiritual life, and can be identified with the Cross. They may also, at early stages, be accompanied by rays of divine light accompanied by contemplative dryness. Yet, it is necessary to distinguish those early aridities from the two nights of St. John of the Cross and thus from the cocoon.

4. The Two Nights of St. John of the Cross

The term "the dark night of the soul" is used widely in secular and Christian discussion to mean something much broader than what St. John of the Cross has in mind by that term. Anyone going through difficulty in their work or family life, may say that he or she is "going through a dark night of the soul", but that is not what St. John had in mind.

He describes, first, a "dark night of the senses", and then a "dark night of the soul", which is different. According to P. Mari-Eugene, in I Am a Daughter of the Church, "The nights are privations and purifications through which the soul must pass to reach union with God".

5. The Cocoon and the Night of the Senses

In Interior Castle, the Fourth Mansion is a point of transition between meditation and contemplation.

St. John of the Cross describes that transition as a spiritual director in The Ascent of Mount Carmel as marked by a particular time of aridity in which the person no longer derives satisfaction from meditation, is troubled about the lack of satisfaction found in worldly images because of the disturbance it brings to their peace, and has a loving general knowledge and awareness of God (Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, Chapter 14).

This general knowledge, he says, "is at times so subtle and delicate, particularly when it is most pure and simple and perfect, most spiritual and most interior, that, although the soul be occupied therein, it can neither realize it nor perceive it." He explains, "Such a soul, since it no longer has those things wherein the understanding and the senses have the habit and custom of occupying themselves, is not conscious of them, inasmuch as it has not its accustomed powers of sense. And it is for this reason that, when this knowledge is purest and simplest and most perfect, the understanding is least conscious of it and thinks of it as most obscure."

In explaining that Dark Night of the Senses, St. Edith Stein writes (The Science of the Cross, Chapter 3):

"Detachment is designated as a night through which the soul must pass. It is this in a threefold sense: in regard to the point of departure, the path and the goal. The point of departure is the desire for the things of this world, which the soul must renounce. But this renunciation transplants her into darkness and as though into nothingness. That is why it is called night."

It feels like darkness, she explains, because we must withdraw from "the firm foundation that supports us". It feels "as if the ground were swept away from under our feet" and yet, in truth, we are being "set upon a surer way", the way of faith which is a "dark knowledge" about something we do not get to see.

In The Dark Night of the Soul, Book I, Chapter 9, St. John of the Cross again discusses the three signs by which to tell whether the soul is in the Night of the Senses and not experiencing some other cause for aridity, and he explains the reason for it. The "sensual part of a man has no capacity for that which is pure spirit", he says. As a result, when it is the person's spirit, and not their senses, that receive pleasure from God's presence, the senses taste nothing and are left weak. "But the spirit, which all the time is being fed, goes forward in strength." Initially, the person is only aware of aridity and the loss of the sweetness formerly tasted by the senses. That is because the new sweetness of the spirit is still unfamiliar to the palate.

St. John then explains the reason for aridity and inability to meditate as God begins to communicate Himself to the soul "by pure spirit" by "an act of simple contemplation, to which neither the exterior nor the interior senses of the lower part of the soul can attain". This Night of the Senses is the point of departure into the mystical life. St. Edith explains, "Our basic attitude toward the world we perceive by the senses must change." What is felt is "the dying of the sensory being", while a "new life that is concealed beneath it" is emerging without the soul's awareness. "The death of the sensory human being keeps in step with the rise of the spiritual human being."

In her description of the silkworm and the cocoon, St. Teresa affirms that most of this transformation is accomplished by God; it is God who constructs the dwelling place that He is in the prayer of union. As quoted above, using the silkworm as her example, she writes about our part in this transition:

"Let us renounce self-love and self-will, care for nothing earthly, do penance, pray, mortify ourselves, be obedient, and perform all the other good works of which you know. Act up to your light; you have been taught your duties. Die! die as the silkworm does when it has fulfilled the office of its creation, and you will see God and be immersed in His greatness, as the little silkworm is enveloped in its cocoon."

Caring "for nothing earthly" is much of our part in the transformation. That is what the Scriptures spoke about as quoted above. While God's action performs most of our detachment from the senses and transition to an awareness of God in the spirit, we have a part in that detachment as we set our minds "on things that are above, not on things that are on earth" as St. Paul wrote, and as we try not to be "conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of [our] mind[s]."

6. Contemplation and the Laity

Like me, most who read this will probably be lay people or members of third orders, and not cloistered nuns, monks or priests in religious orders. So I want to write about detachment and contemplation in the lives of lay people.

St. Teresa wrote about lay people from time to time. Although she wanted her nuns to live in strict closure and in poverty, she did not consider the same way required for everyone. There are places in her writing that may be taken to imply that it is God's will that everyone will reach the Seventh Mansion, and yet she is clear that she does not believe that everyone is called to live a cloistered life. Consider, for example, the Fifth Mansion, Chapter I, where she writes, "Later on you will see how it is His Majesty's will that the soul should have fruition of Him in its very centre, but you will be able to realize that in the last Mansion much better than here."

St. Teresa, who as a young woman left her father's house early one morning without his knowledge, to enter a Carmelite monastery, wrote much later in life that "the question is not whether we wear the religious habit or not, but whether we practise the virtues and submit our will in all things to the will of God." (Interior Castle III:2).

In her Book of the Foundations, she wrote about an encounter she had once had with a businessman who "was kept so busy through obedience with work in occupations and government that in all those years he didn't remember having one day for himself, although he tried the best he could to keep a pure conscience and have some periods each day for prayer." Although this man was a lay person extremely occupied in the affairs of this world, she said, "His soul in its inclination is one of the most obedient I have seen, and so he communicates this spirit of obedience to all those with whom he deals. The Lord has repaid him well; for he has found that he has, without knowing how, that same precious and desirable liberty of spirit that the perfect have. In it, they find all the happiness that could be wanted in this life, for in desiring nothing they possess all." (Foundations 5:7).

St. John of the Cross similarly would not leave the laity out of the higher levels of prayer. His book The Living Flame of Love was written to one of his spiritual daughters "in the world". That is a book that addresses primarily the advanced stages of prayer beyond the Dark Night.

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI wrote about third orders, particularly Franciscans, in his discussion of the Beatitudes. What he wrote about third orders living the Beatitude of the poor in spirit is also relevant to living the detachment that St. Teresa saw as a portion of our role in making possible the transition to contemplation.

Pope Benedict wrote, “The point of the Third Order is to accept with humility the task of one’s secular profession and its requirements, wherever one happens to be, while directing one’s whole life to that deep interior communion with Christ that Francis showed us. ‘To own goods as if you owned nothing’ (cf I Cor. 7:29ff.) – to master this inner tension, which is perhaps the more difficult challenge, and, sustained by those pledged to follow Christ radically, truly to live it out ever anew – that is what the third orders are for.” He mentioned St. Thérèse's depiction of herself one day standing before God with empty hands as a depiction of the spirit of the poor ones of God in the Beatitudes, coming with empty hands to receive God’s blessings, and “not with hands that grasp and clutch.”

Detachment and contemplation are thus possible for persons living in the world, and indeed they are God's will for the laity. The way they are lived out differs for the laity, as compared with those in cloistered monasteries, obviously. But it can be lived.

7. In the Evening of Life: St. Thérèse's Empty Hands

In an appendix to The Story of a Soul, St. Thérèse's reference to empty hands appears in her Act of Oblation of Merciful Love. What she wrote is relevant to that detachment that avoids grasping and clutching at possessions and also relevant to that detachment that avoids grasping and clutching at our pride of intellect and even spiritual pride. It illustrates the point of all of the rest, which is the death of a sensual way of living in order to "see God and be immersed in His greatness" as St. Teresa of Avila wrote should be our motivation in "dying" like the silkworm. While St. Teresa explains that she means that we will "see God" "in the manner described, in which He manifests Himself in this kind of union". St. Thérèse of Lisieux here looks tozqrd reaching that even greater union with Christ that can only be experienced in its entirety in the Beatific Vision:

"After earth's exile I trust to possess Thee in the Home of our Father; but I do not seek to lay up treasures in Heaven. I wish to labour for Thy Love alone—with the sole aim of pleasing Thee, of consoling Thy Sacred Heart, and of saving souls who will love Thee through eternity.

"When comes the evening of life, I shall stand before Thee with empty hands, because I do not ask Thee, my God, to take account of my works. All our works of justice are blemished in Thine Eyes. I wish therefore to be robed with Thine own Justice, and to receive from Thy Love the everlasting gift of Thyself. I desire no other Throne, no other Crown but Thee, O my Beloved!

Unto the Darkness which is Beyond Light

2009-11-22T12:54:31-08:00

"Unto this Darkness which is beyond Light we pray that we may come, and may attain unto vision through the loss of sight and knowledge, and that in ceasing thus to see or to know we may learn to know that which is beyond all perception and understanding (for this emptying of our faculties is true sight and knowledge), and that we may offer Him that transcends all things the praises of a transcendent hymnody, which we shall do by denying or removing all things that are—like as men who, carving a statue out of marble, remove all the impediments that hinder the clear perceptive of the latent image and by this mere removal display the hidden statue itself in its hidden beauty."

- Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Mystical Theology, from Chapter II.

Breathe on me, breath of God, until with you I have one will

2009-11-22T12:49:33-08:00

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Until my heart is pure,

Until with you I have one will

To love and to endure.

- From the hymn from Midmorning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours.

St. Gregory Nazianzen: "I went up into the Mount . . . and entered away from matter and material things"

2009-11-22T12:48:41-08:00

"What is this that has happened to me, O friends, and initiates, and fellow-lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the Mount, and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God; although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us. And when I looked a little closer, I saw, not the First and unmingled Nature, known to Itself—to the Trinity, I mean; not That which abideth within the first veil, and is hidden by the Cherubim; but only that Nature, which at last even reaches to us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the Majesty, or as holy David calls it, the Glory which is manifested among the creatures, which It has produced and governs. For these are the Back Parts of God, which He leaves behind Him, as tokens of Himself like the shadows and reflection of the sun in the water, which shew the sun to our weak eyes, because we cannot look at the sun himself, for by his unmixed light he is too strong for our power of perception. In this way then shalt thou discourse of God; even wert thou a Moses and a god to Pharaoh; even wert thou caught up like Paul to the Third Heaven, and hadst heard unspeakable words; even wert thou raised above them both, and exalted to Angelic or Archangelic place and dignity. For though a thing be all heavenly, or above heaven, and far higher in nature and nearer to God than we, yet it is farther distant from God, and from the complete comprehension of His Nature, than it is lifted above our complex and lowly and earthward sinking composition."

- St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration XXVIII (Second Theological Oration).

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

2009-11-22T08:37:47-08:00

I've been working on another "Dove" post, this time about detachment and the cocoon in St. Teresa of Avila's butterfly image. I hope I'll have it finished today, but it might be next week-end. Meanwhile, here is a music and picture video to go with the theme. I'll see what else I can find if I wait until next week to finish the longer post.

The Cross Is the Paradoxical Sign of Christ's Kingship

2009-11-22T08:21:44-08:00

Asia News has posted its article on the Holy Father's words at the midday Angelus for today's Solemnity of Christ the King. The Daily Bulletin has the original Italian text and greetings in several languages. Catholic News Agency also has an article, and Vatican Information Service has a press release. Here is the English language greeting from the Holy Father's words after the Angelus prayer:

"I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at this Angelus on the Solemnity of Christ the King. His Kingdom is not built upon the power of this world but comes to us when we accept the presence of God in our hearts and live in his light. Let us strive to follow closely in the footsteps of Christ the Servant King and bear constant witness to his merciful love and his saving truth! God’s blessings upon you all!"

Pope Benedict on the Beauty of Medieval Cathedrals

2009-11-18T21:52:40-08:00

In today's General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI gave a wonderful catechesis about medieval Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, drawing from them a lesson about beauty that raises our minds and hearts to God, and about faith that inspired such great works of art. His presentation was in preparation for a meeting with artists scheduled for November 21, and was also a continuation of his series of catecheses on Medieval theology and history.

Zenit and Benedetto XVI Forum have full English translations. The Daily Bulletin has the original Italian text and greetings in various languages. Vatican Information Service has a press release. Asia News has an article. Vatican Radio has excerpts in English and an audio report.

Here is his English language greeting from what I think is one of the best of his Wednesday audience series this year:

"I have been speaking in recent weeks about medieval theology, and would now like to turn my attention to how the Christian faith of the Middle Ages inspired some of the greatest works of art of all time: the cathedrals of Europe. Romanesque cathedrals are distinctive for their size and for introducing to churches beautiful sculpture, including the image of Christ as the Universal Judge and the Gate of Heaven. By entering through Him, as it were, the faithful enter a space and even a time different from everyday life, somewhere they can anticipate eternal life through their participation in the liturgy. Gradually, Gothic architecture replaced the Romanesque, adding height and luminosity to the previous style. The Gothic cathedral translates the aspirations of the soul into architectural lines, and is a synthesis between faith, art and beauty which still raises our hearts and minds to God today. When faith encounters art, in particular in the liturgy, a profound synthesis is created, making visible the Invisible, and the two great architectural styles of the Middle Ages demonstrate how beauty is a powerful means to draw us closer to the Mystery of God. May the Lord help us to rediscover that "way of beauty", surely one of the best ways to know and to love Almighty God."

_____________

There are a few earlier posts about faith and beauty, and about Medieval architecture on this blog. See the categories Art and Architecture and Worship.

Anticipating the Eternal Call of Every Human Being

2009-11-15T08:44:33-08:00

In his words at today's midday Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the meaning of Christ's words from today's Gospel reading for Mass "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31). He compared this reference to the eternity of His words to the parable of the seeds and the sower in Mark 4, and pointed to Mary as "the living sign of this truth", who "received the Word of God with full disposition, so that her whole existence, transformed by the image of the Son, was introduced to eternity, body and soul, anticipating the eternal calling of every human being."

In his words in English following the Angelus prayer, he said:

"I extend heartfelt greetings to the English-speaking visitors here today. During this month of November, we remember especially the Holy Souls in Purgatory. In recent days we prayed for those who lost their lives in war, and on this World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, we pray for all who have been killed or injured in road accidents. As we commend their souls to the loving mercy of Almighty God, we also invoke his consolation upon their families and loved ones. For those of you who have travelled long distances to be here today, I pray that you may have a safe homeward journey. May God bless all of you, and your families and friends."

Benedetto XVI Forum and Zenit have full English translations. The Vatican Press Office's Daily Bulletin has the original Italian text with greetings in various languages.

Rewarded or Punished for the Impact of Our Example on the Souls of Others

2009-11-15T08:23:24-08:00

From the Letters of St. Boniface on responsibility for the impact our actions have on the souls of others (He does not specifically mention purgatory, a doctrine which was not fully developed until the 12th century.):

"If, then, the heathen who, as the Apostle says, know not God and have not the law carry out by instinct the injunctions of the law and show the works of the law written on their hearts, it is time now that you who are called a Christian and a worshipper of the true God should, if you have been defiled with lust in your youth, wallowed in the mire of adultery or drowned in the sea of lust as in the abyss of hell, call to mind your Lord, should escape from the snares of the devil and cleanse your soul from its foul iniquities. Now is the time for you to fear your Creator and to desist from defiling yourself by committing such crimes. Now is the time to spare the many people who, through following the example of a vicious prince, perish and fall into the pit of death. For it is certain that we shall be rewarded or punished by the eternal judge according to the number of people we have led to heaven by our good example or swept into hell by our evil courses."

- From Letter 32, a letter of admonition to King Aethelbald of Mercia (746-7), online at Medieval Sourcebook.

Prayer for All Souls on the Feast of All Carmelite Souls

2009-11-15T08:09:49-08:00

From Father Angelo Mario Geiger at Mary Victrix, a post about purgatory from All Souls Day. Hat tip Fountain of Elias on the feast day of All Carmelite Souls.

Here is an excerpt:

"The apostles slept through Our Lord’s agony and we sleep through the agony of the poor souls. It is so easy to do. Perhaps we could offer time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, or more frequent communions for the grace to understand better the extremity of the situation and how the deliverance of the poor souls from their suffering will help protect us against our own peril, and how our imitation of their selfless desire for purity may save us from their present distress."

Read all.

The Reforms of Cluny: A Foretaste of the Heavenly Liturgy

2009-11-11T21:55:19-08:00

In today's General Audience, Pope Benedict spoke about the monastic Order of Cluny, which was at its height in the 12th century.

Zenit and Papa Benedetto Forum have full English translations. Asia News and Catholic News Agency have articles. The Vatican Press Office's Daily Bulletin has the original Italian text with summaries in several languages.

Here is the English language summary:

"In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to the monastic reform linked to the great monastery of Cluny. Founded eleven hundred years ago, Cluny restored the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict and made the Church’s liturgy the centre of its life. It stressed the solemn celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours and Holy Mass, and enriched the worship of God with splendid art, architecture and music. The monastic liturgy, seen as a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy, was accompanied by a daily regime marked by silence and intercessory prayer. Cluny’s reputation for sanctity and learning caused its influence to spread to monasteries throughout Europe. Exempt from interference by feudal authorities, the monastery freely elected its abbots and flourished under a series of outstanding spiritual leaders like Saints Odo and Hugh. Cluny also contributed to the reform of the universal Church by its concern for holiness, the restoration of clerical celibacy and the elimination of simony. At a formative time of Europe’s history, Cluny helped to forge the Continent’s Christian identity by its emphasis on the primacy of the spirit, respect for human dignity, commitment to peace and an authentic and integral humanism."

The Apostolic Constituion Anglicanorum Coetibus Exceeded Anglican Expectations

2009-11-09T21:39:45-08:00

Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst, the Bishop of Fulham, has posted a first reaction to today's publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus on the Forward in Faith website. He is a married Anglo-Catholic bishop who some have speculated would be a likely selection as Ordinary for an Anglican Ordinariate, permissible under the new Apostolic Constitution although he would be a Catholic priest, and not a Catholic bishop. He called the Apostolic Constitution and accompanying papers "extremely impressive", and added: "Indeed it has offered the requests of Consecrated Women? with the completion of its ecumenical hopes." Consecrated Women? was a book co-authored by members of Forward in Faith, with Catholic Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. as Catholic observer, and Orthodox Bp. Kallistos Ware as Orthodox Observer, discussing the theological basis for the opposition to the ordination of women and asking for a new province of the Church of England as a solution to accommodate Anglicans who oppose the ordination of women. The Church of England denied the request for a separate province.

The Vatican today posted the text of the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans becoming Catholic, Anglicorum Coetibus, in English, together with Complementary Norms. The Daily Bulletin's posting included the Apostolic Constitution, Norms, a press release, and also a commentary titled "The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus" by Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J., Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Fr. Ghiranda's analysis explains, among other things, why the Apostolic Constitution provides for Personal Ordinariates, similar in structure to those provided for the military, rather than a Particular Ritual Church or a Personal Prelature:

"These Personal Ordinariates cannot be considered as Particular Ritual Churches since the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral tradition is a particular reality within the Latin Church. The creation of a Ritual Church might have created ecumenical difficulties. Nor can these Personal Ordinariates been considered as Personal Prelatures since, according to can. 294, Personal Prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and, according to can. 296, lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of Personal Prelatures by way of agreements. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life are not even mentioned in the canons concerning Personal Prelatures."

Pope Benedict XVI in Brescia and Conesio

2009-11-08T11:43:53-08:00

Today, Pope Benedict XVI has been in Brescia and Conesio, in northern Italy, paying tribute to his predecessor Pope Paul VI in the place where Paul VI was born and raised.

The Vatican page on the journey provides the program and texts of the Holy Father's homily at Mass, words at the Angelus, and speeches. Now available in Italian, those texts will be available in English translation, and translations to several other languages, from that same page when the translations are ready.

Benedetto XVI Forum has lots of photos. There are articles online at Asia News, Catholic News Agency, Vatican Radio (on the Mass) and Vatican Radio (on the Pope's final discourse of the journey).

KTO French Catholic TV has video on demand of the papal events in Brescia and Conesio (the commentary, of course, is in French). These include full-length videos of the Mass, Angelus, Inauguration of a New Headquarters for the Pope Paul VI Institute, and Visit to the Parish of Saint Antonino.

Benedetto XVI Forum has an English translation of the Pope's homily at Mass and his words at the Angelus. In his homily, the Holy Father spoke about the widow's mite from today's Gospel reading for Mass (Mark 12:38-44). He spoke about the widow in the Temple, as a place of worship, pilgrimage, and rabbinical disputes. Jesus, he said, "showed that he loved the Temple as a house of prayer, and because of this, he wished to purify it." He also spoke of the significance for Jesus' own mystery, "in which he himself would become the new and definitive Temple." Jesus teaches us to pay attention to the teaching in the detail of the widow's action, in which she gave everything, and thus gave herself. The Pope then delivered a meditation on the centrality of the Church, drawing from the Gospel and from the writings of Pope Paul VI. He bega, "The Church is a spiritual organism that prolongs in space and time the oblation (offering) made by the Son of God, a sacrifice apparently insignificant compared to the dimensions of the world and history, but decisive in the eyes of God."

Zenit has an English translation of the Pope's words at the Angelus, in which he spoke of Pope Paul VI's devotion for the Virgin Mary.

Bravo to Our Courageous Bishops and Pro-Life Representatives

2009-11-08T08:40:36-08:00

Deacon Keith Fournier, writing for Catholics Online, applauds the USCCB and faithful Catholic Congressional Representatives for their work toward last night's vote in the House of Representatives. Deacon Fournier writes, "The Stupak/Pitts Amendment was strongly supported by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops who worked with admirable persistence and courageous clarity in order to force its passage." Fournier also mentions "the determined and courageous efforts of Congressman Bart Stupak, a Pro-Life Catholic Democrat".

I appreciate our bishops, who I think have been taking the right position through this national debate, and whose influence for life has been recognized in the national media with the passage of this bill. With their support, pro-life Democrats stood their ground in helping to amend the healthcare bill to remove federal funding for abortion, and then passed the healthcare bill with the pro-life amendment.

Catholic News Agency also has an article about the bill's passage, discussing the celebration by pro-life organizations and the remaining risks in the legislative process.

Bl. Elizabeth of Trinity Books in the Bookstore

2009-11-08T08:07:14-08:00

I updated the bookstore today, adding a few more books about Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity, whose memorial is today. I moved all 9 items about her to page 1 so you can find them easier. Look for the widget in the sidebar or click here for the amazon astore. Three of them are ICS Publications books, which you can also buy directly from the ICS Publications website.