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Posts Tagged 'saints'
Posted in Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Christian, education, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Loyola Kids Book of Saints, Loyola Press, Matthew 25, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, Religion, Saints, tagged Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, England, Loyola Kids' Book of Saints, Loyola Press, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints on December 29, 2019|
It's the feast of the Holy Family, of course, but it's also the memorial of St. Thomas Becket.
He's in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints in the section "Saints are people who tell the truth."
Here's the last page of the entry, so you have a sense of the content.
On the feast of Stephen
Posted in Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible Study, Catholic, Joseph Dubruiel, Life, London 2017, Loyola Press, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, Saints, tagged Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Bible Study, Catholicism, history, London 2017, Loyola Press, Michael Dubruiel, saints, travel on December 26, 2019|
First, from my 2020: A Book of Grace-filled Days from Loyola Press.
Tried to embed, but WordPress won't let me. So just go here to access he link to the entry from today. (Just click on the middle entry that pops up)
Of course you can still buy the book – and the devotionals go all the way to 12/31/20 – you could still get plenty of use from it! (And note – I don't make royalties from sales of this book. It was a for-hire project, meaning I'm paid for doing the work, and then that's it – which makes sense for a book that's only going to sell for a few months.)
A piece I wrote for the National Review years ago on these feasts that fall after Christmas, including St. Stephen.
We might forget, we might wrap up Christmas in good cheer, but Christian tradition doesn't. It's striking that the next day–the very next day–after Christmas, the Church remembers not glad tidings, angels, and shepherd boys, but a bloody death by stoning. St. Stephen it is, the first Christian martyr. St. Stephen is followed by St. John on December 27th, who may not have met a violent death, but who, the tradition tells us, died in a prison of sorts, in exile for his faith, far away from the "civilized" powers that had sent him there. December 28th brings us back to babies, but with no relief–it is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, remembering the children Herod ordered slaughtered, according to Matthew's gospel, in his rabid fear of the rival king.
The message is clear and hard: Following this baby, as he reaches to us from the resin manger, looking out at us with the soft-eyed cattle and docile sheep, comes at a price.
From past Angelus addresses by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:
Yesterday, after solemnly celebrating Christ's Birth, today we are commemorating the birth in Heaven of St Stephen, the first martyr. A special bond links these two feasts and it is summed up well in the Ambrosian liturgy by this affirmation: "Yesterday, the Lord was born on earth, that Stephen might be born in Heaven" (At the breaking of the bread).
Just as Jesus on the Cross entrusted himself to the Father without reserve and pardoned those who killed him, at the moment of his death St Stephen prayed: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; and further: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (cf. Acts 7: 59-60). Stephen was a genuine disciple of Jesus and imitated him perfectly. With Stephen began that long series of martyrs who sealed their faith by offering their lives, proclaiming with their heroic witness that God became man to open the Kingdom of Heaven to humankind.
In the atmosphere of Christmas joy, the reference to the Martyr St Stephen does not seem out of place. Indeed, the shadow of the Cross was already extending over the manger in Bethlehem.
It was foretold by the poverty of the stable in which the infant wailed, the prophecy of Simeon concerning the sign that would be opposed and the sword destined to pierce the heart of the Virgin, and Herod's persecution that would make necessary the flight to Egypt.
It should not come as a surprise that this Child, having grown to adulthood, would one day ask his disciples to follow him with total trust and faithfulness on the Way of the Cross.
It is not by chance that Christmas iconography sometimes depicts the Divine Newborn carefully lain in a little sarcophagus in order to indicate that the Redeemer is born to die, is born to give his life in ransom for all.
St Stephen was the first to follow in the footsteps of Christ with his martyrdom. He died, like the divine Master, pardoning and praying for his killers (cf. Acts 7: 60).
Carlo Crivelli, 1476
In the first four centuries of Christianity, all the saints venerated by the Church were martyrs. They were a countless body that the liturgy calls "the white-robed army of martyrs",martyrum candidatus exercitus. Their death did not rouse fear and sadness, but spiritual enthusiasm that gave rise to ever new Christians.
For believers the day of death, and even more the day of martyrdom, is not the end of all; rather, it is the "transit" towards immortal life. It is the day of definitive birth, in Latin, dies natalis. The link that exists then between the "dies natalis" of Christ and the dies natalis of St Stephen is understood.
Dear brothers and sisters, in St Stephen we see materializing the first fruits of salvation that the Nativity of Christ brought to humanity: the victory of life over death, of love over hate, of the light of truth over the darkness of falsehood. Let us praise God, for this victory still enables many Christians today to respond to evil not with evil but with the power of truth and love.
Stephen is also the Church's first deacon. In becoming a servant of the poor for love of Christ, he gradually enters into full harmony with him and follows Christ to the point of making the supreme gift of himself. The witness borne by Stephen, like that of the Christian martyrs, shows our contemporaries, who are often distracted and uncertain, in whom they should place their trust in order to give meaning to their lives. The martyr, in fact, is one who dies knowing with certainty that he is loved by God, who puts nothing before love of Christ, knowing that he has chosen the better part. The martyr is configured fully to the death of Christ, aware of being a fertile seed of life and of opening up paths of peace and hope in the world. Today, in presenting the Deacon St Stephen to us as our model the Church likewise points out to us that welcoming and loving the poor is one of the privileged ways to live the Gospel and to witness credibly to human beings to the Kingdom of God that comes.
This is why the Eastern Church sings in her hymns: "The stones became steps for you and ladders for the ascent to heaven… and you joyfully drew close to the festive gathering of the angels" (MHNAIA t. II, Rome 1889, 694, 695).
After the generation of the Apostles, martyrs acquired an important place in the esteem of the Christian community. At the height of their persecution, their hymns of praise fortified the faithful on their difficult journey and encouraged those in search of the truth to convert to the Lord. Therefore, by divine disposition, the Church venerates the relics of martyrs and honours them with epithets such as: "teachers of life", "living witnesses", "breathing trophies" and "silent exhortations" (Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 43, 5: PG 36, 500 C).
Dear friends, the true imitation of Christ is love, which some Christian writers have called the "secret martyrdom". Concerning this St Clement of Alexandria wrote: "those who perform the commandments of the Lord, in every action 'testify', by doing what he wishes, and consistently naming the Lord's name; (Stromatum IV, 7,43,4: SC 463, Paris 2001, 130). Today too, as in antiquity, sincere adherence to the Gospel can require the sacrifice of life and many Christians in various parts of the world are exposed to persecution and sometimes martyrdom. However, the Lord reminds us: "he who endures to the end will be saved" (Mt 10:22).
On St Stephen's Day we too are called to fix our eyes on the Son of God whom in the joyful atmosphere of Christmas we contemplate in the mystery of his Incarnation. Through Baptism and Confirmation, through the precious gift of faith nourished by the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, Jesus Christ has bound us to him and with the action of the Holy Spirit, wants to continue in us his work of salvation by which all things are redeemed, given value, uplifted and brought to completion. Letting ourselves be drawn by Christ, as St Stephen did, means opening our own life to the light that calls it, guides it and enables it to take the path of goodness, the path of a humanity according to God's plan of love. Lastly, St Stephen is a model for all who wish to put themselves at the service of the new evangelization. He shows that the newness of the proclamation does not consist primarily in the use of original methods or techniques — which of course, have their usefulness — but rather in being filled with the Holy Spirit and letting ourselves be guided by him.
The newness of the proclamation lies in the depth of the believer's immersion in the mystery of Christ and in assimilation of his word and of his presence in the Eucharist so that he himself, the living Jesus, may speak and act in his messengers. Essentially, evangelizers can bring Christ to others effectively when they themselves live in Christ, when the newness of the Gospel is reflected in their own life.
And then, two more, from other occasions. The first from the General Audience of 1/10/2007, in which Benedict discusses Stephen as a part of the series he did on great figures in Christianity (collected in several books):
Stephen's story tells us many things: for example, that charitable social commitment must never be separated from the courageous proclamation of the faith. He was one of the seven made responsible above all for charity. But it was impossible to separate charity and faith. Thus, with charity, he proclaimed the crucified Christ, to the point of accepting even martyrdom. This is the first lesson we can learn from the figure of St Stephen: charity and the proclamation of faith always go hand in hand.
Above all, St Stephen speaks to us of Christ, of the Crucified and Risen Christ as the centre of history and our life. We can understand that the Cross remains forever the centre of the Church's life and also of our life. In the history of the Church, there will always be passion and persecution. And it is persecution itself which, according to Tertullian's famous words, becomes "the seed of Christians", the source of mission for Christians to come.
I cite his words: "We multiply wherever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed…" (Apology 50, 13): Plures efficimur quoties metimur a vobis: semen est sanguis christianorum. But in our life too, the Cross that will never be absent, becomes a blessing.
And by accepting our cross, knowing that it becomes and is a blessing, we learn Christian joy even in moments of difficulty. The value of witness is irreplaceable, because the Gospel leads to it and the Church is nourished by it. St Stephen teaches us to treasure these lessons, he teaches us to love the Cross, because it is the path on which Christ comes among us ever anew.
And then from 2012, as he was discussing prayer in the General Audiences, and in particular the relationship between Scripture and prayer:
Dear brothers and sisters, St Stephen's witness gives us several instructions for our prayers and for our lives. Let us ask ourselves: where did this first Christian martyr find the strength to face his persecutors and to go so far as to give himself? The answer is simple: from his relationship with God, from his communion with Christ, from meditation on the history of salvation, from perceiving God's action which reached its crowning point in Jesus Christ. Our prayers, too, must be nourished by listening to the word of God, in communion with Jesus and his Church.
A second element: St Stephen sees the figure and mission of Jesus foretold in the history of the loving relationship between God and man. He — the Son of God — is the temple that is not "made with hands" in which the presence of God the Father became so close as to enter our human flesh to bring us to God, to open the gates of heaven. Our prayer, therefore, must be the contemplation of Jesus at the right hand of God, of Jesus as the Lord of our, or my, daily life. In him, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we too can address God and be truly in touch with God, with the faith and abandonment of children who turn to a Father who loves them infinitely.
Posted in advent, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Books, Catholic, Christian, Gospels, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Saints, tagged Advent, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholicism, christian, Christianity, history, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, religion, saints on December 4, 2019|
Another great saint.
B16 spoke about him at a General Audience in 2009.
It's very appropriate that John's feast falls during Advent, during our preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation.
(I have re-paragraphed it for ease of reading. Also bolded some key points.)
John, born into a wealthy Christian family, at an early age assumed the role, perhaps already held by his father, of Treasurer of the Caliphate. Very soon, however, dissatisfied with life at court, he decided on a monastic life, and entered the monastery of Mar Saba, near Jerusalem. This was around the year 700.
He never again left the monastery, but dedicated all his energy to ascesis and literary work, not disdaining a certain amount of pastoral activity, as is shown by his numerous homilies. His liturgical commemoration is on the 4 December. Pope Leo XIII proclaimed him Doctor of the Universal Church in 1890.
In the East, his best remembered works are the three Discourses against those who calumniate the Holy Images, which were condemned after his death by the iconoclastic Council of Hieria (754). These discourses, however, were also the fundamental grounds for his rehabilitation and canonization on the part of the Orthodox Fathers summoned to the Council of Nicaea (787), the Seventh Ecumenical Council. In these texts it is possible to trace the first important theological attempts to legitimise the veneration of sacred images, relating them to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
John Damascene was also among the first to distinguish, in the cult, both public and private, of the Christians, between worship (latreia), and veneration (proskynesis): the first can only be offered to God, spiritual above all else, the second, on the other hand, can make use of an image to address the one whom the image represents. Obviously the Saint can in no way be identified with the material of which the icon is composed. This distinction was immediately seen to be very important in finding an answer in Christian terms to those who considered universal and eternal the strict Old Testament prohibition against the use of cult images. This was also a matter of great debate in the Islamic world, which accepts the Jewish tradition of the total exclusion of cult images. Christians, on the other hand, in this context, have discussed the problem and found a justification for the veneration of images. John Damascene writes, "In other ages God had not been represented in images, being incorporate and faceless. But since God has now been seen in the flesh, and lived among men, I represent that part of God which is visible. I do not venerate matter, but the Creator of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to live in matter and bring about my salvation through matter. I will not cease therefore to venerate that matter through which my salvation was achieved. But I do not venerate it in absolute terms as God! How could that which, from non-existence, has been given existence, be God?… But I also venerate and respect all the rest of matter which has brought me salvation, since it is full of energy and Holy graces. Is not the wood of the Cross, three times blessed, matter?… And the ink, and the most Holy Book of the Gospels, are they not matter? The redeeming altar which dispenses the Bread of life, is it not matter?… And, before all else, are not the flesh and blood of Our Lord matter? Either we must suppress the sacred nature of all these things, or we must concede to the tradition of the Church the veneration of the images of God and that of the friends of God who are sanctified by the name they bear, and for this reason are possessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not, therefore, offend matter: it is not contemptible, because nothing that God has made is contemptible" (cf. Contra imaginum calumniatores, I, 16, ed. Kotter, pp. 89-90).
We see that as a result of the Incarnation, matter is seen to have become divine, is seen as the habitation of God. It is a new vision of the world and of material reality. God became flesh and flesh became truly the habitation of God, whose glory shines in the human Face of Christ. Thus the arguments of the Doctor of the East are still extremely relevant today, considering the very great dignity that matter has acquired through the Incarnation, capable of becoming, through faith, a sign and a sacrament, efficacious in the meeting of man with God. John Damascene remains, therefore, a privileged witness of the cult of icons, which would come to be one of the most distinctive aspects of Eastern spirituality up to the present day. It is, however, a form of cult which belongs simply to the Christian faith, to the faith in that God who became flesh and was made visible. The teaching of Saint John Damascene thus finds its place in the tradition of the universal Church, whose sacramental doctrine foresees that material elements taken from nature can become vehicles of grace by virtue of the invocation (epiclesis) of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by the confession of the true faith.
John Damascene extends these fundamental ideas to the veneration of the relics of Saints, on the basis of the conviction that the Christian Saints, having become partakers of the Resurrection of Christ, cannot be considered simply "dead". Numbering, for example, those whose relics or images are worthy of veneration, John states in his third discourse in defence of images: "First of all (let us venerate) those among whom God reposed, he alone Holy, who reposes among the Saints (cf. Is 57: 15), such as the Mother of God and all the Saints. These are those who, as far as possible, have made themselves similar to God by their own will; and by God's presence in them, and his help, they are really called gods (cf. Ps 82[81]: 6), not by their nature, but by contingency, just as the red-hot iron is called fire, not by its nature, but by contingency and its participation in the fire. He says in fact : you shall be holy, because I am Holy (cf. Lv 19: 2)" (III, 33, col. 1352 a).
After a series of references of this kind, John Damascene was able serenely to deduce: "God, who is good, and greater than any goodness, was not content with the contemplation of himself, but desired that there should be beings benefited by him, who might share in his goodness: therefore he created from nothing all things, visible and invisible, including man, a reality visible and invisible. And he created him envisaging him and creating him as a being capable of thought (ennoema ergon), enriched with the word (logo[i] sympleroumenon), and orientated towards the spirit (pneumati teleioumenon)" (II, 2, pg 94, col. 865a). And to clarify this thought further, he adds: "We must allow ourselves to be filled with wonder (thaumazein) at all the works of Providence (tes pronoias erga), to accept and praise them all, overcoming any temptation to identify in them aspects which to many may seem unjust or iniquitous, (adika), and admitting instead that the project of God (pronoia) goes beyond man's capacity to know or to understand (agnoston kai akatalepton), while on the contrary only he may know our thoughts, our actions, and even our future" (ii, 29, pg 94, col. 964c).
Plato had in fact already said that all philosophy begins with wonder. Our faith, too, begins with wonder at the very fact of the Creation, and at the beauty of God who makes himself visible.
The optimism of the contemplation of nature (physike theoria), of seeing in the visible creation the good, the beautiful, the true, this Christian optimism, is not ingenuous: it takes account of the wound inflicted on human nature by the freedom of choice desired by God and misused by man, with all the consequences of widespread discord which have derived from it. From this derives the need, clearly perceived by John Damascene, that nature, in which the goodness and beauty of God are reflected, wounded by our fault, "should be strengthened and renewed" by the descent of the Son of God in the flesh, after God had tried in many ways and on many occasions, to show that he had created man so that he might exist not only in "being", but also in "well-being" (cf. The Orthodox Faith, II, 1, pg 94, col. 981).
With passionate eagerness John explains: "It was necessary for nature to be strengthened and renewed, and for the path of virtue to be indicated and effectively taught (didachthenai aretes hodòn), the path that leads away from corruption and towards eternal life…. So there appeared on the horizon of history the great sea of love that God bears towards man (philanthropias pelagos)"…. It is a fine expression. We see on one side the beauty of Creation, and on the other the destruction wrought by the fault of man. But we see in the Son of God, who descends to renew nature, the sea of love that God has for man. John Damascene continues: "he himself, the Creator and the Lord, fought for his Creation, transmitting to it his teaching by example…. And so the Son of God, while still remaining in the form of God, lowered the skies and descended… to his servants… achieving the newest thing of all, the only thing really new under the sun, through which he manifested the infinite power of God" (III, 1, pg 94, col. 981c-984b).
We may imagine the comfort and joy which these words, so rich in fascinating images, poured into the hearts of the faithful. We listen to them today, sharing the same feelings with the Christians of those far-off days: God desires to repose in us, he wishes to renew nature through our conversion, he wants to allow us to share in his divinity. May the Lord help us to make these words the substance of our lives.
More from Ellyn von Huben at Word on Fire
Posted in Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bambinelli Sunday, Bible, Catholic, Catholicsim, Christian, history, Holy Week, Joseph Dubruiel, Loyola Kids Book of Saints, Loyola Press, Mexico, Michael Dubruiel, Religion, Saints, tagged Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, Christianity, faith, Loyola Kids' Book of Saints, Loyola Press, Mexico, Michael Dubruiel, saints on November 23, 2019|
Blessed Miguel Pro is in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints under, "Saints are people who create."
(Click on images for readable versions)
From our 2018 visit to Mexico City and Puebla – the church where Miguel Pro's relics can be found – except it was Holy Thursday morning that we stopped by, so while the church was open, the museum was not:
St. Martin of Tours…and rabbit trails
Posted in Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Bible Study, Catholic, Catholicism, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Matthew 25, Michael Dubruiel, Music, november, Pope, Saints, tagged Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, Christianity, history, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, saints on November 11, 2019|
Repost from a previous year. New stuff coming soon…from Honduras…
My search for material to share with you on today's feast naturally led to other interesting places which ate up too much time but also reminded me of how much good stuff is out there to read, and how limited our sense of the past is, and how we suffer for that narrowness.
Anyway. To start where I like to, if possible – with the pastoral and clear catechesis of B16, from a 2007 Angelus talk:
Today, 11 November, the Church remembers St Martin, Bishop of Tours, one of the most celebrated and venerated Saints of Europe. Born of pagan parents in Pannonia, in what is today Hungary, he was directed by his father to a military career around the year 316. Still an adolescent, Martin came into contact with Christianity and, overcoming many difficulties, he enrolled as a catechumen in order to prepare for Baptism. He would receive the Sacrament in his 20s, but he would still stay for a long time in the army, where he would give testimony of his new lifestyle: respectful and inclusive of all, he treated his attendant as a brother and avoided vulgar entertainment. Leaving military service, he went to Poitiers in France near the holy Bishop Hilary. He was ordained a deacon and priest by him, chose the monastic life and with some disciples established the oldest monastery known in Europe at Ligugé. About 10 years later, the Christians of Tours, who were without a Pastor, acclaimed him their Bishop. From that time, Martin dedicated himself with ardent zeal to the evangelization of the countryside and the formation of the clergy. While many miracles are attributed to him, St Martin is known most of all for an act of fraternal charity. While still a young soldier, he met a poor man on the street numb and trembling from the cold. He then took his own cloak and, cutting it in two with his sword, gave half to that man. Jesus appeared to him that night in a dream smiling, dressed in the same cloak.
Dear brothers and sisters, St Martin's charitable gesture flows from the same logic that drove Jesus to multiply the loaves for the hungry crowd, but most of all to leave himself to humanity as food in the Eucharist, supreme Sign of God's love, Sacramentum caritatis. It is the logic of sharing which he used to authentically explain love of neighbour. May St Martin help us to understand that only by means of a common commitment to sharing is it possible to respond to the great challenge of our times: to build a world of peace and justice where each person can live with dignity. This can be achieved if a world model of authentic solidarity prevails which assures to all inhabitants of the planet food, water, necessary medical treatment, and also work and energy resources as well as cultural benefits, scientific and technological knowledge.
Let us turn now to the Virgin Mary so that all Christians may be like St Martin, generous witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless builders of jointly responsible sharing.
St. Martin is also mentioned in the 2005 encyclical, Deus Caritas Est:
Finally, let us consider the saints, who exercised charity in an exemplary way. Our thoughts turn especially to Martin of Tours († 397), the soldier who became a monk and a bishop: he is almost like an icon, illustrating the irreplaceable value of the individual testimony to charity. At the gates of Amiens, Martin gave half of his cloak to a poor man: Jesus himself, that night, appeared to him in a dream wearing that cloak, confirming the permanent validity of the Gospel saying: "I was naked and you clothed me … as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:36, 40).[36] Yet in the history of the Church, how many other testimonies to charity could be quoted! In particular, the entire monastic movement, from its origins with Saint Anthony the Abbot († 356), expresses an immense service of charity towards neighbour. In his encounter "face to face" with the God who is Love, the monk senses the impelling need to transform his whole life into service of neighbour, in addition to service of God. This explains the great emphasis on hospitality, refuge and care of the infirm in the vicinity of the monasteries. It also explains the immense initiatives of human welfare and Christian formation, aimed above all at the very poor, who became the object of care firstly for the monastic and mendicant orders, and later for the various male and female religious institutes all through the history of the Church. The figures of saints such as Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, John of God, Camillus of Lellis, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Giuseppe B. Cottolengo, John Bosco, Luigi Orione, Teresa of Calcutta to name but a few—stand out as lasting models of social charity for all people of good will. The saints are the true bearers of light within history, for they are men and women of faith, hope and love.
And then I spent some time with The Life of St. Martin written by a contemporary and defender, Sulpitius Severus:
ACCORDINGLY, at a certain period, when he had nothing except his arms and his simple military dress, in the middle of winter, a winter which had shown itself more severe than ordinary, so that the extreme cold was proving fatal to many, he happened to meet at the gate of the city of Amiens a poor man destitute of clothing. He was entreating those that passed by to have compassion upon him, but all passed the wretched man without notice, when Martin, that man full of God, recognized that a being to whom others showed no pity, was, in that respect, left to him. Yet, what should he do? He had nothing except the cloak in which he was clad, for he had already parted with the rest of his garments for similar purposes. Taking, therefore, his sword with which he was girt, he divided his cloak into two equal parts, and gave one part to the poor man, while he again clothed himself with the remainder. Upon this, some of the by-standers laughed, because he was now an unsightly object, and stood out as but partly dressed. Many, however, who were of sounder understanding, groaned deeply because they themselves had done nothing similar. They especially felt this, because, being possessed of more than Martin, they could have clothed the poor man without reducing themselves to nakedness. In the following night, when Martin had resigned himself to sleep, he had a vision of Christ arrayed in that part of his cloak with which he had clothed the poor man. He contemplated the Lord with the greatest attention, and was told to own as his the robe which he had given. Ere long, he heard Jesus saying with a clear voice to the multitude of angels standing round — "Martin, who is still but a catechumen, clothed me with this robe." The Lord, truly mindful of his own words (who had said when on earth — "Inasmuch as ye have done these things to one of the least of these, ye have done them unto me"), declared that he himself had been clothed in that poor man; and to confirm the testimony he bore to so good a deed, he condescended to show him himself in that very dress which the poor man had received. After this vision the sainted man was not puffed up with human glory, but, acknowledging the goodness of God in what had been done, and being now of the age of twenty years, he hastened to receive baptism. He did not, however, all at once, retire from military service, yielding to the entreaties of his tribune, whom he admitted to be his familiar tent-companion.[11] For the tribune promised that, after the period of his office had expired, he too would retire from the world. Martin, kept back by the expectation of this event, continued, although but in name, to act the part of a soldier, for nearly two years after he had received baptism.
The whole thing is fairly short and quite interesting to read – as I read this ancient documents, what I am always looking for is commonalities – of human nature, of belief, of human choices and reactions. Consider the reactions of the bystanders described in the passage above.
Has anything really changed?
Underneath all that is "new" for us…has anything fundamental about who we are and the redemption for which we yearn really changed?
Well, anyway.
Traditions of Martinmas.
More from Cooking for Christ, a cookbook published by the Catholic Rural Life Conference, which I wrote about here.
A partial list of subsequent burrows that ate up this evening:
Priscillian. More Priscillian.
A poem:
Martin of Tours
By Charles L. O'Donnell
"AS I today was wayfaring"—
Holy, Holy, Holy!—low—
Said Christ in heaven's evening—
The Holies yet more hushed and slow—
"I met a knight upon the road;
A plumed charger he bestrode.
"He saw the beggar that was I—
Holy, Holy, Holy!—long—
Head and foot one beggary—
Holy, Holy, Holy!—song—
One that shivered in the cold
While his horse trailed cloth of gold.
"Down he leaped, his sword outdrawn—
Holy, Holy, Holy!—swells—
Cleaved his cloak, laid half upon—
Holy! now a peal of bells—
Shoulders that the cross had spanned;
And I think he kissed my hand.
"Then he passed the road along,
Holy, Holy, Holy!—laud—
Caroling a knightly song—
Holy! in the face of God.
Yea, Father, by Thy sovereign name,
Begging is a goodly game."
So who is that? Charles O'Donnell? Probably should look him up.
Ah…he was a priest, and not only a priest and a poet but a scholar and president of Notre Dame. Well.
A collection of his poems. And here, online, another collection of sorts. I will be spending some time with these later.
From these dead leaves the winds have caught
And on the brown earth fling,
Yea, from their dust, new hosts shall rise
At the trumpet call of Spring.
Thus may the winds our ashes take,
But in that far dusk dim,
When God's eye hath burnt up the worlds,
This flesh shall stand with Him.
One of the places I ran across O'Donnell's name was in a review of one of his poetry volumes in a 1917 issue of Catholic World, so naturally I had to peruse more reviews, which led me to learn about:
John Muir's book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.
A book on The Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn.
Devotionals and Mass prayer books by one Fr. Roche, SJ, particularly those for youth and children. Even though no one understood they were supposed to spiritually participate in the Mass until maybe mid-way through 1965 or so.
In one of those hundred-year old journals, the spiritual writings of a 19th century married mother of five, known anonymously as Lucie Christine were discussed. A modern account has been written by Fordham philosopher Astrid O'Brien – called A Mysticism of Kindness – it looks quite interesting. From a review:
It is the merit of O'Brien's study to illuminate this long-hidden context. Boutle's profound experiences of purgation, illumination, dark nights, union, and the prayer of simple regard are now rooted in her distinctive vocation as wife and mother. Her experience of the cross is tied to her struggles with an alcoholic and increasingly violent husband. The cultivation of patience proved difficult in the presence of a mother-in-law, who externally was considered a living saint due to her generosity toward the poor, but who became venomously sarcastic in the privacy of the home. Boutle's hope of eternal life became fused with the certitude that she would be reunited with her beloved daughter, Elisabeth, who died at the age of 14. Her growing union with Jesus is a union marked by experiences shaped by gender and marital status.
O'Brien also highlights the stormy social and ecclesiastical context of Boutle's life. Boutle's devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of a piece with the piety of French Catholicism in the late 19th century. Already wounded by the anti-Christian campaigns of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune of 1871, the French church witnessed with apprehension the growing anti-clericalism of the Third Republic. Catholic schools were abolished, and religious orders expelled. Practicing Catholics soon learned that they could not hope for promotion in a hostile public school system, civil service, and officer corps. Boutle's prayer is increasingly marked by intercession for a France which was quickly renouncing all traces of her Catholic heritage. Her experience of a supernatural peace rests uneasily with bewilderment over the virtual disappearance of Catholic belief among her nation's urban elite. Controlling her anger at the anti-clerical remarks made by relatives and acquaintances over the dinner table became a serious ascetical task. Her close affiliation with the Parisian convent of the Adoration Reparatrix nuns also reflects the spirituality of the period. The emphasis on reparation during the perpetual adoration practiced by the nuns, and their lay associates, was very much a social reparation for the apostasy and persecution represented by a newly secularized France.
O'Brien's scholarly biography of Mathilde Boutle provides a distinctive spiritual guide for those called to the office of wife and mother, especially in moments of suffering related to spouse and children. It is also a very modern guide for dealing with Christian bewilderment arising from a powerful religious indifference in a society where a once-vital church has quickly collapsed.
New Saints
Posted in Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Be Saints, Bible, Bible Study, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Michael Dubruiel, Pivotal Players, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, prayer, Saints, tagged Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholicism, history, Jesus, John Henry Newman, Michael Dubruiel, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, saints on October 13, 2019|
Image: Zenit. Article here.
Today, four women and one man were canonized as new saints – we all know about the man (more about him at the end of this post) – how about the women?
Dulce Lopes Pontes
Not long after joining the missionary sisters, Dulce became determined to shelter the many ill people she encountered on the streets of Salvador. She would house them in abandoned buildings and bring them food and medical care.
Eventually she and her more than 70 patients were kicked out of the building. Left with nowhere to take them, she asked her mother superior for help, and was given the convent's chicken yard to turn into an improvised hotel.
As part of the agreement, Sr. Dulce was asked to care for the chickens, which she did by butchering them and feeding them to her patients.
This eventually became the site of the Santo Antonio Hospital, which continues to serve Brazil's poor and disabled.
Bl. Dulce founded the Sao Francisco's Worker's Union, the first Christian worker's movement in the Brazilian state of Bahia, which she later transformed into the Worker's Center of Bahia.
She also founded the Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce (Obras Sociais Irma Dulce) in 1959, which continues to be one of the most well-known and well-respected charitable organizations in Brazil.
In 1988, Sr. Dulce was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the President of Brazil, Jose Sarney.
She died in 1992, at the age of 77, after battling lung problems for 30 years.
From the homily at her 2011 beatification Mass, by Cardinal Geraldo Majella:
Thus today we contemplate the holy life of Sister Dulce, with all the fruits in favor not only those lacking everything, especially health, but also as witness of her union with God, across the hearing and contemplation of his Word and of daily communion of his Body and his Blood in the celebration of the Eucharist that is the offering of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ the celestial Father.
But dear brothers and sisters, living holiness as I have already said not is the privilege for some person, but it is the duty of all baptized Christians. In the first Letter of Peter 1:15-16, the apostle tells us: "As he is holy that calls you, making you saints, also you in your conduct. For it is written: 'Be holy because I am holy' (Lv 11:44ss; 19:2)". The Word of God does not say some, but all that hear the Word of God, converted themselves in following Jesus.
Some stand out more clearly by a special gift to become an example and challenge to society that lives without caring about the disadvantaged and needy. Sister Dulce was privileged in thisrespect, not to put limits on the Love of God and neighbor.
Marguerite Bays:
In 1853, when she was 35, Marguerite was operated on for intestinal cancer. The treatments were very invasive, and she prayed to Our Lady for healing and for a different understanding of suffering.
When Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on 8 December 1854, both of her prayers were answered. From then on, Marguerite was forever bound to the figure of the suffering Christ on the cross.
She developed the stigmata, the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, on her hands, feet and chest. At first she kept it secret, but the news soon leaked out. On Fridays and during Holy Week, she would fall ill or experience moments of ecstasy. Gradually the pain became more and more intense, and on 27 June 1879, Marguerite died.
John Paul II's homily at her 1995 beatification:
Some of her contemporaries found that her long moments in prayer were a waste of time. But, more her prayer was intense, more she approached God and more she was devoted to serving her brethren. For, only he who prays really knows God and, by listening to the heart of God, he is also close to the heart of the world.
Thus we discover the important place of prayer in secular life. It does not drive one away from the world. On the contrary, it enlarges the internal being, it opens one to forgiveness and fraternal life.
The mission lived by Marguerite Bays is the mission which behoves to each Christian.
In catechism, she endeavoured to present to the children of her village the message of the Gospel, using words that the young could understand. She devoted herself generously to the poor and the sick.
Without leaving her country, she had nevertheless an open heart towards the dimensions of the universal Church and the world. With the missionary spirit which characterised her, she implanted in her parish the Propagation of the faith and of the Holy Childhood.
In Marguerite Bays, we discover what Our Lord did to make her achieve saintliness: she walked humbly with God, in accomplishing each action in her daily life with love.
Giuseppina Vannini
Giuseppina Vannini is a 19th century religious sister from Rome known for founding the congregation of the Daughters of St. Camillus dedicated to serving the sick and suffering. She is the first Roman woman to be canonized in more than 400 years, according to ACI Stampa.
Vannini spent much of her childhood in an orphanage near St. Peter's Square after losing her father when she was four, and her mother when she was seven. She grew up among the Daughters of Charity sisters, who ran the orphanage. On the day of her first communion, young Giuseppina felt that she was called to a religious vocation.
This desire was not realized until 1892 when she was 33 because she was rejected by the Daughters of Charity after her novitiate due to her poor health.
Despite her own health problems, Vannini went on to found the Daughters of St. Camillus, whose charism is to serve the sick, even at the risk of their own lives. However she did not live to see the congregation fully recognized by the Vatican. She died at the age of 51 in 1911.]
Here's the Italian text of John Paul II's homily at her (and others') beatification. Can't find an English text.
Mother Mariam Thresia
Mother Mariam Thresia (1876-1926) was an Indian mystic and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family. Her prayer life was characterized by frequent ecstasies in which she would sometimes levitate above the ground. In 1909, Thresia received the stigmata, after which she also suffered from demonic attacks.
Mother Thresia cared for the poor, sick, and dying in Kerala, visiting those with leprosy and measles. She also preached to the poor and the rich alike the importance of happy, healthy families to uplift all of society. In 1914 Thresia founded the Congregation of the Holy Family, which has grown to have 176 houses around the world with 1,500 professed sisters.
Cardinal Newman is featured in Bishop Robert Barron's Pivotal Players series. I wrote a prayer/meditation companion book for the series Praying with the Pivotal Players. Below are pages from a chapter on "The Idea of the University." Note that this book is designed to aid the reader in personal reflection, so the chapter leads from Newman's general points to suggestions on how his thought in this area might lead and challenge us in our spiritual growth.
Here is a website dedicated to Mother Mariam Thresia
John Paul II's homily at her 2000 beatification.
"Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest" (Jn 12: 24). From childhood, Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan knew instinctively that God's love for her demanded a deep personal purification. Committing herself to a life of prayer and penance, Sr Mariam Thresia's willingness to embrace the Cross of Christ enabled her to remain steadfast in the face of frequent misunderstandings and severe spiritual trials. The patient discernment of her vocation eventually led to the foundation of the Congregation of the Holy Family, which continues to draw inspiration from her contemplative spirit and love of the poor.
Convinced that "God will give eternal life to those who convert sinners and bring them to the right path" (Letter 4 to her Spiritual Father), Sr Mariam devoted herself to this task by her visits and advice, as well as by her prayers and penitential practice. Through Bl. Mariam Thresia's intercession, may all consecrated men and women be strengthened in their vocation to pray for sinners and draw others to Christ by their words and example.
7. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jer 31: 33). God is our only Lord and we are his people. This indissoluble covenant of love between God and humanity was brought to its fulfilment in Christ's paschal sacrifice. It is in him that, despite belonging to different lands and cultures, we become one people, one Church, one and the same spiritual building whose bright and solid stones are the saints.
Pope Francis' homily from today:
To cry out. To walk. To give thanks. Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession. Three of them were religious women; they show us that the consecrated life is a journey of love at the existential peripheries of the world. Saint Marguerite Bays, on the other hand, was a seamstress; she speaks to us of the power of simple prayer, enduring patience and silent self-giving. That is how the Lord made the splendour of Easter radiate in her life. Such is the holiness of daily life, which Saint John Henry Newman described in these words: "The Christian has a deep, silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not… The Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, unassuming; has no pretence… with so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing, that he may easily be taken at first sight for an ordinary man" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, V, 5).
Let us ask to be like that, "kindly lights" amid the encircling gloom. Jesus, "stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as Thou shinest: so to shine as to be a light to others" (Meditations on Christian Doctrine, VII, 3). Amen.
As I've mentioned before, Cardinal Newman is featured in Bishop Robert Barron's Pivotal Players series. I wrote a prayer/meditation companion book for the series Praying with the Pivotal Players. Below are pages from a chapter on "The Idea of the University." Note that this book is designed to aid the reader in personal reflection, so the chapter leads from Newman's general points to suggestions on how his thought in this area might lead and challenge us in our spiritual growth.
There are four more chapters on Newman in the book.
More Newman in a book I've had a hand in:
My book Be Saints! – illustrated by the artist Ann Engelhart – was inspired by a talk to young people that Pope Benedict XVI gave on his visit to England in 2010.
Benedict XVI's homily at the beatification Mass for Newman:
While it is John Henry Newman's intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: "Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you" ("Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church's solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:
Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!
(The Dream of Gerontius). .…more
Posted in 7 Quick Takes, advent, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Be Saints, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, christmas, Christmas gifts for Catholics, Church, Faith, Gospels, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Michael Dubruiel, Pivotal Players, Pope, Religion, rome, Saints, tagged Advent, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catechism, Catholic, Catholicism, history, Michael Dubruiel, Pivotal Players, saints, St. Nicholas on October 11, 2019|
In case you missed it, I have some thoughts on the post-Vatican II era, riffing off the novels of David Lodge, here at Church Life Journal from Notre Dame.
Please to read and share.
Writer/Film Guy Son has been working through Kubrick, as he did through Bergman and Marvel. Go here to see what he thinks.
Canonization of Cardinal Newman coming on Sunday – more on him from me here.
Images from Praying with the Pivotal Players and Be Saints!
Yah, by the time you read this, El Camino will either be ready for viewing on Netflix, or close to it. I'm staying away from SpoilerLand all day and seeing it Friday night in the theater (unless I look at the traffic in the afternoon and it's a mess around Talladega – it's the big racing weekend, and I-20 goes right by the track. A couple of times over the past few years, I've forgotten that it was race weekend, and gone either to or from Atlanta, and gotten stuck. )
So, in any case, if you are interested, come back here late Friday night for my thoughts. I'll have them, I'm sure.
Heroes of the Fourth Turning is a play I would very much like to see – and if I did, indeed live in Atlanta and could hop Spirit Airlines to NYC for a hundred bucks, I'd probably do it. But since I don't and life is fairly busy here, I'll have to pass and read about it instead. From Chad Pecknold:
The play often works around internal conservative disputes — Bannonist, Benedict Option, Traditionalist — but the deeper undercurrents are those 'dark and complicated' mysteries of Catholicism. It is a strength of the play that the conservative and Catholic themes intermingle but never merge into one.
Theologically, the play is ambitious, covering everything from the nature of evil — inexplicable and meaningless disruptions which deprive us of goodness — to the Virgin Mary, to the Eucharist, to pulling human suffering into Christ's sacrifice. Emily, a character racked by the pain of Lyme Disease, speaks about how each of us is a gift, akin to Christ himself who was "begotten not made." And in a very important monologue in the play Teresa the young Bannonist tells her friend Kevin that he doesn't understand the Virgin Mary because he's "afraid of the scandal of particularity."
"This is the thing about God. He makes us work out our salvation through other people."
"We're not meant to structure our society according to every freakish chosen 'right.' We're supposed to strive for the good," Teresa fervently implores in her Marian speech, "The particular, written, incarnate, natural Christian good. Otherwise, what are we? A throbbing mass of genderless narcissists. There's no 'thisness' in the liberal future. There's no there there. It's empty. What's really radical is sacrifice."
Teresa's political speeches are always theological, and her speech about the scandal of particularity above is precisely in the place of the deer's blood, which Justin occasionally wipes down throughout the play to remind the audience of the presence of a sacrifice. For Teresa, however, "thisness" seems to keep her on the surface of things. It takes Emily, the Lyme Disease suffering woman whose body she describes as a "prairie of pain," who breaks into the substance of things, who near the end of the play drags herself across a figure of Christ's sacrifice, brings her suffering into contact with something real.
The play is remarkable for managing to make progressives and conservatives think about the parts we are playing in history – less Plato's historical determinism and more Augustine's "we are the times". Fundamentally it's a play which asks about the moral thinness of our present crisis, our "fourth turning," and asks the audience to break into a bigger conversation about a "terrible beauty which sustains us."
One of the long blog posts I have up my sleeve is, of course, about gender. Yes, another one. To tide you over, here's a philosophical primer from Public Discourse.
Notwithstanding all the talk of people being "born that way," the gender construct means to release us precisely from the way we were born. This is particularly evident in the most prominent representative of gender theory, Judith Butler, who adamantly rejects the need for any justification for being at variance with one's bodily sex. For Butler, "gender" is not something we observe in ourselves, whether in our bodies or in our "deep-seated feelings." It is something we do to ourselves. It is a groundless deed "performed" on ourselves, a sort of self-creation ex nihilo.
Indeed, it is noteworthy that despite the many "naturalistic" references to the lifelong deep-seated feelings of the respondent in the Harris Homes case, they are not used in the Sixth Circuit decision in his favor. On the contrary, there, only the most voluntarist definition of "gender" is used: something "fluid, variable, and difficult to define . . . [having] . . . a deeply personal, internal genesis that lacks a fixed external referent." What in the end does it matter if someone has a "deep-seated feeling"? Why can it not be just a choice? It is enough that the employee has declared himself to be a woman for him to be one and to be treated as such. "Gender" has effectively vaporized the "fixed external referent," all the evidence of our birth.
Benedict XVI summed up this final stage of the new philosophy of sex, saying:
Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will. The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned. From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be.
This might interest you. I'm just tossing it out here and will do a deeper dive later.
The Experience of Worship Project – an fascinating project to recreate various medieval liturgies in situ.
What was it like to be in a church in the Middle Ages? What did you see around you? What did you hear, sense and feel? At one level at least, these are unanswerable questions, because the lost past is irrecoverable. But imagination has always been a crucial tool for historians seeking to understand the past – imagination combined with the evidence that can be garnered from what does survive. That is what this research project is about. But in asking these questions, and in combining imagination with evidence in seeking to answer them, it goes beyond the written narrative of historical study: it seeks to address the questions directly by active participation in the processes of making and enacting: enriching a medieval space with the furnishings, artefacts, vestments and books; filling it with the sights, sounds and sensory experience of medieval worship; and populating it by being the people performing and attending medieval liturgies.
A thorough exploration, complete with video, glossaries and explanations of artifacts. As I said – meriting a deeper look.
An article about the project:
Pragmatism and practicality had inevitably to be exercised. This was particularly true in the preparation of texts and ritual directions for both clergy and singers. Apart from limited time for rehearsal, there was no hope of achieving the accumulated memory, mores, habits and conventions that medieval clergy and singers took for granted in their recitation of 60 or more liturgies each week. Recitation and singing in Latin may have been attainable, but rubrics had to be adapted and in English. In the Mass, a medieval priest or singer was used to turning to at least three parts of the Missal or Gradual to find the necessary texts; these needed to be placed in sequence. Even so, the three clergy, the four assisting servers, and the singers all have their own ritual narrative to follow; and only the priest and the singers have constant access to a text. Furthermore, up to five different actions may be taking place simultaneously.
In all, three liturgies took place in Salisbury Cathedral, including a major procession around the cathedral and cloisters; and nine in St Teilo's Church at St Fagans. The audio-visual recordings provide a record not of polished performances but of a fluent working through of these rituals. The procession and two Masses were enacted in both buildings, and revealed some of the challenges faced by local parish clergy, who lacked both the space and human resources of Salisbury Cathedral. The ritual of Salisbury (the so-called Use of Sarum) was used in over 7,000 churches by the end of the Middle Ages, all varying from the cathedral and from one another to a greater or lesser extent in configuration and resources. St Teilo's is about an eighth of the length of Salisbury Cathedral, yet the same texts and ritual directions were to be followed in both buildings. Where did the priest of St Teilo's go in procession in a church without the choir aisles and cloisters that are part of the directed route on great feast days? Where, on days when the Gospel was to be recited from the pulpitum above the choir screen, did the two clergy and three servers specified undertake this ritual when the only access to the top of the screen was a ladder – bearing in mind that they were processing formally, wearing vestments and carrying either book, candlestick or thurible? The texts recited and the chants sung may have been identical, but, notwithstanding the directions of the rubrics, the ritual had to be adapted.
Clergy, singers and the furniture, vestments and artefacts they required, formed one dimension of medieval worship at the east end of the church. The people formed the other dimension, unspecified in number, and largely unscripted, in the nave. Most of the participants in the enactments were either engaged in master's or higher degrees or were research-active staff, and most were practising Christians, Newly constructed great lectern in use, with the 15th-century Ranworth Antiphonal. Photo: Mark Cator. 65 British Academy Review Spring 2019 though from a variety of denominations, traditions and spiritualities. Freed from expectations to follow a book text or to participate actively, they found themselves alert to a richer mix of the sensory, emotional, spiritual and intellectual qualities of worship, including long periods of silence during the Canon of the Mass; to use images or memorised devotional text as a focus, and to be enveloped by the whole experience of worship, thereby discovering new means of participation. Certain moments of engagement proved especially significant, like the kissing of the Pax Board by each person present, often the nearest that medieval laity came to contact with the consecrated bread and wine of the priest's sacrifice. These were experiences of 21st-century individuals, but they have offered new insights on the artefacts, decorative elements, and devotional texts of late medieval religion
Are you in parish/school or diocesan ministry? Advent is coming! Consider these resources – for Advent 2019, a family devotional I wrote for Creative Communications
More samples – pdf
Also this pamphlet on St. Nicholas, from Creative Communications as well:
And this 2020 daily devotional – useful (I hope) for anyone, but, as I understand it from the publisher, a popular choice for Catholic institutions to share with employees and volunteers. It goes from the beginning of Advent 2019 to the December 31, 2020.
Note: None of those links go to Amazon. Also, these were each written for a stipend, paid and delivered, in some cases (the Nicholas pamphlet), years ago. No royalties come to me from their sales. I'm just happy to share them and hope they help.
For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum!


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text:
\section{Introduction}

Grw$+70^\circ8247$ \cite{Kuiper1934} was the first magnetic white
dwarf (MWD) discovered. This object exhibits a strongly circularly
polarised spectrum that is nearly featureless except for broad shallow
features that became known as ``Minkowski bands''.  Computations of H
transitions in strong magnetic fields in the mid-80s revealed that
these features are Zeeman shifted H lines in a field of $100-320$\,MG
\cite{Wickramasinghe1988}. From just a handful of objects that were
known in the early 80s, the number has increased to $\sim 300$
isolated MWDs and $\sim 170$ MWDs in binaries \cite{FMG2015}.

The modelling of Zeeman spectral lines is the best way to determine
the field strength and structure of isolated MWDs. The detection of
cyclotron lines in the optical to IR bands offers an additional method
for the study of MWD fields in interacting binaries
\cite{Ferrario92,Ferrario1993,Ferrarioetal93,Schmidt2001}.  Whilst
research on these enigmatic objects has led to a better understanding
of stellar magnetism, it has also raised a number of unanswered
questions regarding the pre-MWD evolution and the origin and structure
of stellar magnetic fields.

In this brief review I will report the latest thoughts on the origin
and evolution of MWDs and I will highlight their importance as
possible progenitors of supernova events, millisecond pulsars,
and as hosts of first and second generation planets.  More
comprehensive reviews on all aspects of this subject are available in
the literature \cite{FMG2015,FMZ2015}.

\section{Origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs}

According to the fossil field scenario, magnetic fields present in the
interstellar medium (ISM) at the time of star formation freeze into
the radiative regions of proto-stars. Fluctuations in the ISM field
strength would explain the field spread observed in main sequence (MS)
stars.  In this picture the magnetic flux is then conserved as the
star evolves off the MS to the compact star phase.  Since the peculiar
Ap/Bp stars are known to have large-scale ordered fields, these stars
have been proposed to be the progenitors of the MWDs \cite{Wick05}.
However, one should expect that MWDs ought to occur as often in
detached binaries as in single stars.  The Sloan Digital Sky Survey
has identified thousands of WD+M dwarfs in detached spectroscopic
binaries \cite{Rebassa13}.  The peculiarity is that none of these
systems harbours a MWD.  The sample of WDs within 20 pc has revealed
that 19.6$\pm$4.5\% of them have MS companions \cite{Holberg2009}. The
magnitude limited Palomar Green (PG) Survey has shown
that $23-29$\% of hot WDs have cool companions \cite{Holberg2005}.  Thus, the current MWD
sample of about 300 stars should contain at least $40-90$ objects with
a non-degenerate companion \cite{Liebert05,Liebert2015}, but instead
it does not include any.  This incongruity suggests that the origin of
magnetic fields in WDs may be linked to their duplicity
\cite{Tout2008}. Spiralling stellar cores during common envelope (CE)
evolution give rise to differential rotation. Differential rotation
and a seed poloidal magnetic field in the envelope of the primary star
would produce strong toroidal and poloidal fields which would
stabilise each other and limit field growth.  The final poloidal field
strength has been found to be proportional to the initial amount of
differential rotation, but independent of the initial seed field
\cite{Wick14} (see left panel of Fig. \ref{Bs_Mass}).

MWDs in non-interacting double degenerate systems (DDs) and in the
magnetic cataclysmic variables could form via a similar mechanism
during CE evolution.  The closer the stellar cores get before the
expulsion of the envelope, the stronger the magnetic field of the
proto-MWD emerging from the CE will be\cite{Tout2008}.

It has been known since 1988 \cite{Liebert1988} that high field MWDs have masses that are
on average higher than those of their non-magnetic or weakly magnetic counterparts
($\sim 0.78$\,$M\odot$ \cite{FMG2015} versus $\sim 0.66$\,$M\odot$
\cite{Tremblay2013}). Binary population synthesis calculations are
consistent with the scenario that MWDs arise from stars that merge
during CE evolution \cite{Briggs2015} and predict that MWDs formed
through this channel are on average more massive than non-magnetic
white dwarfs, as required by observations (see right panel of Fig. \ref{Bs_Mass}).
\begin{figure}
\centering
  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{Bs_Mass.eps}
\caption{Left panel: Evolution of $B_{\rm p}$ (poloidal field) and $B_\phi$
  (toroidal field, $\zeta = \sqrt{\eta}\approx B$) during a star
  merging event is shown on the left hand axis. Here,
  $B_\phi$ reaches a peak and then decays till equilibrium with the
  poloidal field is reached. The decay of differential rotation
  $\Delta\Omega$ is shown on the right hand axis \cite{Wick14}. Right
  panel: Mass distribution of observed MWDs (blue histogram) compared
  with the computed sample (grey histogram) \cite{Briggs2015}. The most common
  predicted progenitors are Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB)/MS star
  (61\%), AGB/M-dwarf (17\%) and RGB/WD (14\%) mergers. Other
  routes comprise less than 1 per cent of the total.}
\label{Bs_Mass}
\end{figure}

In an alternative scenario, seed fields in the accretion disc formed
by the debris of a low-mass star tidally disrupted by its companion
during CE, are augmented by turbulence and shear and transferred on to
what will become a MWD \cite{Nordhaus2011}. 3-D hydrodynamic
calculations of merging double WDs have also been carried out
\cite{garcia2012}. These studies show that a differentially rotating,
hot, convective corona forming around the more massive star during the
merging process produces strong magnetic fields (see left panel of
Fig. \ref{Garcia-Berro2012}). Population synthesis computations of
double WD mergers appear to be consistent with observations (see right
panel of Fig. \ref{Garcia-Berro2012}).
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{Dynamo_Masses_Berro.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Left panel: Dynamo configuration in the merger of two stars
  of 0.6\,M$_\odot$ and 0.8\,M$_\odot$. The temperature profile (solid
  line) is shown on the left hand axis and the rotational velocity (dashed line)
  on the right axis as a function of the radius of the resulting WD. Right
  panel: Mass frequency of merger channels \cite{garcia2012}. Black
  histogram: white dwarf-white dwarf mergers; dashed histogram: red
  giant-white dwarf mergers; shaded histogram: red giant-red giant
  mergers.  The solid line represents the total mass distribution.}
\label{Garcia-Berro2012}
\end{figure}

On the other hand one should not completely dismiss the fossil field
scenario for the formation of MWDs \cite{Tout2004,Wick05}, since it is
feasible that MWDs could exist in binaries although hidden in the
glare of a brighter non-degenerate companion \cite{Ferrario2012}
(Sirius-type systems).  Thus, the lack of MWD+M dwarfs in detached
binaries could perhaps be attributed to the manner in which magnetic
Ap/Bp stars (the progenitors of the MWDs in the fossil field
hypothesis) are paired with their secondary stars.  If a sufficient
number of Sirius-type systems hosting a MWD is discovered, this
finding could support the view that there is more than one formation
channel for MWDs. In this context, I wish to draw attention to the
atmospheric modelling of cool MWDs \cite{Rolland2015} showing that the
spectral characteristics of 10 out of the 16 objects under
consideration in this study can be best modelled as unresolved
magnetic DDs (see section \ref{DoubleDeg}) whose progenitors could
indeed have been (magnetic) Sirius-type systems.

\section{Double degenerate systems}\label{DoubleDeg}

Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), which are used as standard candles to
determine the expansion history of the universe, are caused by
accreting white dwarfs which undergo thermonuclear explosions.  Since
different SNIa progenitors may lead to different peak luminosities or
different light-curve width-luminosity relations, their
characteristics as a function of redshift could imitate the behaviour
of a time-varying dark energy equation of state
\cite{Linder2006}. Since we still know very little about the origin of
SNeIa, this is known as the ``SNIa progenitor puzzle''.

The thermonuclear disruption of a WD could occur through the merger of
two WDs (also called the DD route).  On the other hand, a DD merger
may also lead to the formation of a millisecond pulsar via accretion
induced collapse \cite{Hurley2010,Ferrario2007}. If one of the two WDs
has a strong magnetic field, a collapse could lead to the formation of
a high field pulsar or a magnetar \cite{Ferrario2006,Ferrario2008}.
What causes a collapse rather than an explosion is still being
strongly debated. The presence of an intense magnetic field has only
very recently been included in simulations of the post-merger
evolution of DDs \cite{Ji2013}. A list of the currently known magnetic
DDs is given in Table \ref{tab_DD} below.

LB\,11146 was identified in 1993 \cite{Liebert1993} as a DD binary
consisting of a non-magnetic and a strongly magnetic ($\sim 670$\,MG)
WD. The WD masses were estimated to be about $0.9 M_\odot$ and thus,
LB\,11146 was considered to be a potential SNIa progenitor. However,
further observations of LB\,11146 \cite{Nelan2007} revealed the
presence of a long orbital period ($\sim 130$\,days) and a separation
of $\sim 0.6$\,AU.  Since the size of the orbit is smaller than the
size of its AGB progenitor, this indicated that the two stars went
through at least one CE phase. The long orbital period of LB\,11146 is
at odds with those of most other known DDs \cite{Nelan2007}, whose
periods vary from a few hours to a few days \cite{Nelemans2005}.

Another remarkable DD is NLTT\,12758, whose MWD component has a polar
field of $\sim 3$\,MG. This DD exhibits variations at the rotation
(spin) period of the MWD ($\sim 22$\,mins) and at the orbital period ($\sim
11$\,hrs) \cite{Kawka2012,Kawka2016}. The best fit model gives masses
of $\sim 0.9$ and $\sim 1$\,M$_\odot$ for the non-magnetic and
magnetic components respectively. As for LB\,11146, the total mass
exceeds the Chandrasekhar's limiting mass, so in principle this DD
could be a potential SNIa progenitor. However, its orbital parameters
also place this DD on a merging timescale comparable to the Hubble
time \cite{Kawka2016}.

Follow-up observations of EUVE\,J1439+750 \cite{Vennes2015},
G\,183-35\cite{Brinkworth2013}, and G\,141-2 \cite{Brinkworth2013}
have shown that there is no evidence for variability in any of these
objects, at least within the given observational limitations. More
observations are needed to establish the orbital parameters of the
remaining magnetic DDs.

\begin{table}
\tbl{Currently known magnetic DDs }
{\begin{tabular}{@{}llll@{}}
\toprule
Name & Other name &Variability/Periods   &  Notes \& References \\
\colrule
0040+000 &SDSS\,J004248.19+001955.3 &$\cdots$ &\refcite{Schmidt2003}\\
0121-429  & LHS\,1243                           &$\cdots$ &\refcite{Rolland2015}\\
0239+109 &G\,4-34, LTT\, 0886              &$\cdots$ &\refcite{Gianninas2011}\\
0325-857 &RE\,J0317-853, EUVE\,J0317-855 & $P_{\rm spin}\sim725$\,s, $P_{\rm orb}\sim 2092$\,yrs & \refcite{Vennes2003,Farihi2008,Lawrie2013}\\
0410-114 &G160-51, NLTT\,12758&$P_{\rm spin}\sim 23$\,min, $P_{\rm orb}\sim 0.6$\,d & \refcite{Kawka2012,Rolland2015,Kawka2016}\\
               &SDSS\,J092646.88+132134.5  &$\cdots$ &CPM, \refcite{Dobbie2012}\\
0512+284& LSPM\,J0515+2839               &$\cdots$ &\refcite{Rolland2015}\\
0745+303& SDSS\,J074853.07+302543.5 & $\cdots$ &CPM, \refcite{Dobbie2013}\\
                & SDSS\,J092646.88+132134.5& $\cdots$& CPM, \refcite{Dobbie2012}\\
0945+246& LB\,11146                            & $P_{\rm orb}\sim 130$\,d& \refcite{Nelan2007}\\
1026+117& LHS\,2273                            &$P_{\rm spin?}\sim35-45$\,min& \refcite{Brinkworth2013,Rolland2015}\\
1300+590& SDSS\,J130033.48+590407.0 &$\cdots$ &CPM, \refcite{Girven2010}\\
1330+015& G\,62-46                              &$\cdots$& \refcite{Rolland2015}\\
1440+753 &EUVE\,J1439+750                  &$\cdots$ & \refcite{VennesFerrWick1999}\\
1503-070 &GD\,175                                &$\cdots$& \refcite{Rolland2015}\\
               &SDSS\, J150746.80+520958.0  &$\cdots$&CPM, \refcite{Dobbie2012}\\
1506+399 &CBS\,229, SDSS\,J150813+394504 &$\cdots$& CPM, \refcite{Dobbie2013}\\
1514+282& SDSS\,J1516+2803               &$\cdots$& \refcite{Rolland2015}\\
1713+393& NLTT\,44447                       &$\cdots$& \refcite{Rolland2015}\\
1814+248& G\,183-35                          &50\,min--yrs?&Double MWDs, \refcite{Putney1997,Brinkworth2013,Rolland2015}\\
1818+126 &G\,141-2                            &yrs? & \refcite{Brinkworth2013,Nelan2015,Rolland2015}\\

\botrule
\end{tabular}
}
\label{tab_DD}
\end{table}

According to the merger scenario for magnetic field formation
\cite{Tout2008}, in non-interacting WD-MWD binaries that have gone
through CE evolution, the non-magnetic WD would form first following a
CE phase that would bring the two stars closer to each other. The
absence of a magnetic field implies that there must be additional and
as yet unknown conditions that need to be satisfied for a magnetic
field to be generated during a CE (e.g. stellar separation, mass
ratio). It is during a subsequent CE phase that the companion star
would develop a magnetic field and would evolve into a MWD. Those DDs
with large binary separations (e.g. common proper motion pairs) that
did not undergo CE evolution would be the results of triple systems
where the MWD formed via a CE merger. There is at least one DD,
G\,183-35, where both WDs are magnetic. This system could have formed
following two CE phases each producing a MWD. If this is the case, the
implication is that the components of G\,183-35 form a close binary
system and that further observations may be needed to search for very
short orbital periods.

Finally, one needs to address the question why not all DDs,
particularly those at small binary separations, harbour at least one
MWD. The answer could be that either (i) the WD precursor entering CE
evolution did not already have a degenerate core \cite{Briggs2015}; or
(ii) convective nuclear burning in the core of the WD precursor took
place after it emerged from CE evolution, thus destroying any
generated frozen-in magnetic field \cite{Briggs2015} or, as already
mentioned above, (iii) there are additional factors that come into
play for the generation of a magnetic field when two stars enter a CE
phase.

According to the alternative fossil field hypothesis, magnetic DDs
would be the descendants of Sirius-type systems \cite{Ferrario2012}
where the MWD in the binary would the progeny of a magnetic Ap/Bp star.

\section{Planets around MWDs}\label{planets}

The accretion of planetary debris by WDs could explain the existence
of DZ WDs\cite{Zuckerman2003} which are characterised by strong metal
lines (e.g. Ca, Si, Mg, Na and sometimes Fe, Ti and Cr) in their
spectra (see Fig. \ref{DZ_MWD}).
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{MagDZ_Kawka.ps}
\end{center}
\caption{Linear Zeeman splitting of Ca II (H and K) and
  H$\alpha$ in NLTT\,10480\cite{Kawka2011} and NLTT\,53908
  \cite{Kawka2014}. }
\label{DZ_MWD}
\end{figure} Interestingly, the incidence of magnetism among
cool ($< 9,000$\,K) DZ WDs is about 13\%, which is considerably higher
than among the general population of WDs \cite{Kawka2014,Hollands2015}
(magnitude-limited samples indicate that only $\sim 2-5$\% are
magnetic \cite{Kepler2015}). In order to explain this peculiarity, it
has been suggested that the progenitor AGB star underwent a CE phase
with a giant gaseous planet, which led to the formation of a MWD
\cite{Farihi2011}. The atmosphere of this MWD would then become
polluted due to the accretion of rocky planets and/or asteroid
rubble\cite{Farihi2010,Zuckerman2010}. The CE formation channel for DZ MWDs could be
strengthened if the incidence of magnetism among DC (featureless) WDs,
which belong to the same stellar population as the DZ's
\cite{Farihi2010}, were found to be considerably different.  In this
picture, the MS progenitors of DZ MWDs could have been intermediate
mass stars that had planetary systems composed by Earth-like planets
and at least one close-in gaseous giant responsible for the WD's
magnetic field \cite{Farihi2010}.

It is still rather unclear what the incidence of magnetism among DZ
WDs with $T_{\rm eff}\ge10,000$\,K is \cite{Kawka2014}, although
preliminary studies seem to indicate that there is a dearth of warm DZ
MWDs. This may indicate that magnetic fields in WDs with first or
second generation planetary systems could be created a few Gigayears
after the formation of the WD \cite{Farihi2011}. The problem with this
scenario is that the incidence of large gaseous planets with short
enough orbital periods to cause a merger and thus field production in
the WD, may be far too low to explain the high percentage of magnetism
among DZ WDs.

Another unique object that cannot be forgotten when discussing planets
around WDs is GD\,356 with a field strength of $\sim13$\,MG. GD\,356
exhibits Zeeman triplets of H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ in emission. The
modelling of the spectral features of this star has shown that the
emission lines are formed in a region covering a tenth of the stellar
surface where the stellar atmosphere has an inverted temperature
distribution \cite{Ferrario1997_GD356}. Radio observations have failed
to provide arguments in support of a magnetic active corona and IR
observations to search for a low-mass stellar companion have also
given no results \cite{Wickramasinghe2010}. In order to explain these
observations, it has been argued that this MWD may have a planetary
companion in a close orbit that was stripped-down to its iron core
\cite{Li1998} during the post-MS evolution. Electrical currents
flowing between the MWD and the planet would cause the heating, via
ohmic dissipation, of the upper layers of the MWD's atmosphere. The
loss of energy due to Ohmic dissipation would then cause the orbit to
decay \cite{Li1998}. The model's prediction was that GD\,356 should
exhibit periodic variations of several hours. Such a variability was
indeed detected in 2004 \cite{Brinkworth2004} and found to be
consistent with the modulation of a spot located near the spin axis
and covering $\sim10$\% of the stellar surface. This electric current
model is also known as ``the unipolar inductor model''
\cite{Willes2005}.
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{GD356_combined.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{Left panel: Observed intensity (lower panel) and polarisation
  (upper panel) spectra of GD\,356 showing its characteristic emission
  features. The calculated spectra are superimposed to the data. Right
  panel: Electric currents are generated by the highly conductive iron
  core of a planet around the MWD. The electric circuit that is setup
  heats the MWD's atmosphere in a region near its magnetic pole causing
  temperature inversion and the formation of emission lines. }
\label{GD356}
\end{figure}

Thus, WDs can be effectively used to gain insight on how planets form
around Sun-like stars, which are their progenitors. In this
context, I draw attention on new research on Earth-like planets around
cool WDs \cite{Agol2011,Fossati2012}. The authors theorise about how
planets could stay in the habitable zone of a cool WD for as long as
8\,Gyr. They also discuss how planets could end up in such a zone and
propose that they could form from material orbiting the WD, possibly
as a result of binary interaction or merger events
\cite{Livio2005,Wickramasinghe2010}. This process would be similar to that invoked to
explain the presence of planets originating from accretion discs
formed after supernova events around neutron stars.
\cite{Wolszczan1992,Phinney1993}. These planets are often called
``second generation planets''. Alternatively, planets may end up
orbiting the WD via capture or through migration from outer to inner
orbits \cite{Debes2002}. This kind of formation scenario would be
applicable to any planet found in a close orbit around a WD star.

\section*{Acknowledgments}

The author wishes to thank her collaborators, Dayal Wickramasinghe,
Chris Tout, Stephane Vennes and Adela Kawka for many long and
stimulating discussions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
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+(NSAttributedString *) attStringFromTextForInputView:(NSString *) aInputText;

@end

@interface EMTextAttachment : NSTextAttachment

@property(nonatomic, strong) NSString *imageName;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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