Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple - Pro Orantibus Day -

Although not recorded in Scripture, today the Church celebrates the Consecration of the Infant Mary to God in the Temple of Jerusalem.

The story is related in some of the apocryphal gospels, and is extensively recorded in The Mystical City of God of the Ven. Maria de Jesus de Agreda (book II ch 1). Here are some excerpts (#421-422):

421. The three years time decreed by the Lord having been completed, Joachim and Anne set out from Nazareth, accompanied by a few of their kindred and bringing with them the true living Ark of the covenant, the most holy Mary, borne on the arms of her mother in order to be deposited in the holy temple of Jerusalem. The beautiful Child, by her fervent and loving aspirations, hastened after the ointments of her Beloved, seeking in the temple Him, whom She bore in her heart...

Thus they pursued their journey from Nazareth to the holy city of Jerusalem, and also the parents of the holy child Mary felt in their hearts great joy and consolation of spirit.

422. They arrived at the holy temple, and the blessed Anne on entering took her Daughter and Mistress by the hand, accompanied and assisted by saint Joachim. All three offered a devout and fervent prayer to the Lord; the parents offering to God their Daughter, and the most holy Child, in profound humility, adoration and worship, offering up Herself...

Having offered their prayers, they rose and betook themselves to the priest. The parents consigned their Child into his hands and he gave them his blessing. Together they conducted Her to the portion of the temple buildings, where many young girls lived to be brought up in retirement and in virtuous habits, until old enough to assume the state of matrimony. It was a place of retirement especially selected for the first-born daughters of the royal tribe of Juda and the sacerdotal tribe of Levi.

On this special Marian feast, the Church celebrates also her contemplatives, the lives consecrated to God in a life of prayer. Thus this is also called "Pro Orantibus Day" -the Day For Those Who Pray-

Pope Francis marked the ocassion by visiting the contemplative monastery of the Camaldolese nuns in Rome, and prayed with them Vespers as well as a time of adoration to the Blessed Sacrament. 

Here is a short video of the visit:

Some references for the Pro Orantibus Day: http://www.cloisteredlife.com/pro-orantibus-day/

Silence

The Father uttered 

only one Word

Which was His Son

This Word speaks always 

in eternal silence

And in silence is to be heard 

by the soul.

St. John of the Cross

Today, the feast of St. John of the Cross, was our monthly Day of Adoration at the little chapel near Emmanuel Hermitage.  


We start the Day with an early celebration of the Eucharist which is followed and prolonged by 12 hours of silent prayer before a Host consecrated during mass. People come in and kneel or sit for a few minutes in the silence; most remain for one hour, some for two hours, or even more.  

This prayer time in shared silence is powerful. 

Jesus shows and hides himself to us in the silence of the Host, in a presence so humble and simple that only faith can see Him. 

Each person present in prayerful silence is a witness to their faith, a witness to the Mystery that hosts us in that sacred space, and also a witness to the mystery that we each one are. 

Shared silence is as powerful as it is fragile; it is born when and where there is not only a silent atmosphere but also when everyone present embraces it by giving and receiving simultaneously the gift of prayerful silence in a form of shared intimacy. 

It would take only one person to break the silence of all others present as we see it often happen in our parishes. This is how fragile it is.

Silence has many dimensions and levels, so many that in a way the whole spiritual journey can be considered a journey into deeper and deeper silence.

The first and most obvious level of silence, and the easiest to reach even though not easy, is external silence, which is the absence of words, of music, and of every sound and noise that can be avoided. 

External silence is an avenue that can put us directly in touch with our inner world, which has its own noises and conversations. To bring those inner voices to quiet is the work of a further and much more challenging level of silence that is, actually, as challenging as rewarding because this takes us to the realm of contemplation. 

In the silence of plans, insights, expectations,  concerns, reflections, judgments, guilts, anxieties  ...  we can let go of everything and dwell in Faith, in a wordless, obscure, and paradoxical knowledge that, when we remove the layers that make up our lives, we come face to Face with Mystery in us and around us. And there we know that we don't know, and it's OK.

This encounter with Silence in the sanctuary of our inner silence may seem useless, a waste of life and time (here is again 'judgment' destroying silence) but in Faith we know that it is the most productive idleness if we allow it to be, if we allow Mystery, the Source of everything, to be and pray in us.

We don't create the Silence that dwells in us, but we can create the doorway to it with our inner silence, by letting go of our personal noise. This is the role of some forms of prayer like centering prayer, which is an exercise on befriending silence and quiet in ourselves by not responding to the noises knocking at the door of our inner sanctuary. Centering prayer is not contemplation, but it is a doorway to contemplation. 

Consecrate yourself to the silence of 

Pure Love.

                                    M. Maria Celeste - Dialog IX      

Divine Feeder

Deer have been frequent visitors during our mild Fall season this year, especially at dusk.


A favorite spot for them is the little shrine of Our Lady of Grace on the north side of the Hermitage where, during summer, they feast with the flowers at her feet.

Now that winter has settled spreading a white garment over the landscape, deer have been around again leaving lots of prints in the snow.

In recent days they haven't come anymore to this spot, probably because they have very little to feast on here and they keep moving on searching for food in other places.


A week ago a friend explained to me that deer need salt, and brought a block of salt to be strategically placed by the shrive.









Apparently deer can smell the salt so this blue brick is meant to lure them into the area where a feeder is also waiting for them with nourishing and favorite seeds - all courtesy of the same good friend.

More than a week later the deer have not yet discovered or touched the salt or the feeder.

And yet I've seen deer prints even inside the carport of the Hermitage where they have taken good care of the few seeds fallen from the bird feeder.

This is puzzling because the prints show that they have been as close as three feet from their own feeder without noticing or using it.

This little feeder story makes me reflect on the Divine Feeder that God has set for us as the nourishment for our Journey home.

At the Incarnation, Emmanuel [God-with-us] is put to lie on a manger [feeder] in Bethlehem [House of Bread].

How, when do we come to the Divine manger to feed our deepest hunger?

How do we pray for our daily Bread during this season of Advent when we prepare anew for the Birth of Christ in us and in the world?

The Memorial of Christ death and resurrection, the Eucharist, is made from a piece of ordinary bread.

Christ is always waiting for us as the Bread of Life on the table of the Eucharist.

We can eat Divine Life in holy communion every time we attend mass.

We can feed ourselves through prayer from the Bread gathered in the tabernacle of our churches or exposed for prayer and adoration.

Jesus is there, day and night, waiting for me, for each one of us, calling me by name, expecting and waiting to give His very Self and Life to me.

How come that I am oblivious to the Divine Feeder?

Where do I go to satisfy my hunger? What do I feed myself with?

Rule of Life as a Hermit

Fall season at Emmanuel Hermitage

Another "stand alone page" has been created under the title Rule of Life.

It can be accessed directly in the menu below the heading of this blog.


The post includes the complete text of the initial personal Rule of Life that served this Diocesan Hermit to step into the path of a contemplative solitary, and live it out for five years until first profession of canonical eremitical vows for the Diocese.

There are some comments on specific aspects of the Rule, and the page also touches on the identity as a Redemptoristine Hermitess.

Eremitic Life: An Overview

A new "stand alone page" with this title is in the menu under the heading of this blog.

With the help of some pictures I'm publishing a little introduction to the Eremitic Life and the Diocesan Hermit Vocation, which I prepared some time ago as an attempt to present some general aspects of this lifestyle and its connection to a wider tradition.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Pope Benedict is visiting Cyprus. The event is getting attention from the Media as crowds gather and special celebrations mark the importance of this exceptional visit.

It would make world news if the Pope, the Vicar or representative of Christ and the head of the Church on earth, were to visit my humble Hermitage and grant me a private audience. And yet as significant as that would be, it would not be even close to the privilege I enjoy every day of my life: several hours of private audience with Christ Himself, our Risen Lord and Savior, present in the tabernacle of the Hermitage.

Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, handed over to his apostles a divine invention to allow every human being of every time and place to get in direct contact with Him in that decisive moment and event in human history in which all power on heaven and on earth was given to a human being. (Cf. Mt 28:18)

The power of Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead is so complete, absolute, total, universal, and perfect as is the power of God. This ultimate power is utterly humble and self effacing, self-giving. It is the power of Love, the power of Humility.

In the mystery of God's Humility, Christ gives his real human-divine person in sacrifice of love for us in this invention called the Sacrament of Thanksgiving, the Eucharist. By uniting through faith our intention and willingness to his power at work in the sacrament, we can be part with Christ in his sacrifice, which happened at a given time and place in human history but belongs in the eternal "now" of God. This is the priestly privilege of our Christian baptism.

But the Eucharist is even more. God's Humility made this sacrament the means to God's becoming food for the insatiable hunger of the human soul. A small piece of bread, a wafer, is at the same time the most ordinary and the most extraordinary -and Divine- of things, it is the Body and Blood, the Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself, of God. As any piece of bread, this Bread too is for us to eat, and as we eat the Body of Christ in the form of bread or drink his Blood  in the form of wine they don't become "us" as it happens with any other food or drink we take, but rather it is us who become Christ, not in a figurative but in a real way. This is, par excellence, the sacrament of our Divine transformation. It is here where the power of God is most available to us in our choice to grow and to mature into the full stature of our nature and our calling. It is up to us to unleash in ourselves and in the world the power of this Gift from potential to operative, from invitation to response, from God's desire to our reality.

God is Love. As a Lover, and as a human (and Divine) Lover, there is still more to the Eucharistic invention. The little piece of Bread is also the place of encounter, of Presence, where Christ is with us [Emmanuel = God-with-us] always, even to the end of the Age (Mt 28:20). The tabernacle of our churches, the Eucharistic celebration and communion, the silent adoration before the Monstrance with the Sacrament of Love is the trysting place where we meet the Beloved and are fed into greater hunger and desire. We don't learn this through readings though; we only get this by direct experience.

Let us respond to this and so much more that God has for us in this Mystery of Presence and Union, and as we drink from the Well let us become what we contemplate, let us be living Eucharist for our brothers and sisters. And let's give God THANKS as we rejoice in the Lord, always.