"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
I first visited Rome at the start of 2009 to celebrate my Mum’s birthday. I returned again at the end of that year on pilgrimage with friends from Washington DC. Both of these trips were wonderful and secured a fondness in my heart for both Italy in general, and for its historic capital in particular.
I recently came across this website by Chris Carter where he outlines St. Ignatius of Loyola’s approach to Spiritual Growth. The strategy offered here is not only effective, but also applicable outside the realm of spiritual growth:
If you’re fortunate enough to live in San Diego this summer, you will have been able to attend the Catholic Answers “Summer Series”, a collection of talks offered by Catholic Answers speakers at different churches around the Diocese. For those of you not living in that part of the country (or world!) those talks are available online by clicking the link below:
The other day I was sitting in a church which I normally don’t visit, the Immaculate Conception in Old Town, San Diego. After communion I was looking at the crucifix behind the altar and saw the words “Resurrexit Sicut Dixit” written above it. Rather embaressingly, it occurred to me that I couldn’t say for certain what the English translation of these words should be. I’m always amazed at the number of times I come across things while visiting an unfamiliar church building. Good to see all that money spent on my Catholic education didn’t go to waste!
This post isn’t going to be a thoroughly formed article, but I need to get over my writer’s block and get into the habit of writing again…
I didn’t go to Divine Liturgy this week and instead went to a Roman Mass. During the Readings, something jumped out at me. The passage in question was the First Reading from Isaiah:
Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations…
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD…
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.
– Isaiah 66:18-21
It does sound like the Prophet Isaiah is foretelling a situation whereby the Children of Israel will go out to the nations to proclaim the Lord’s glory and, as a result, bring these Gentiles into relationship with the God of Abraham. Christians obviously find a fulfillment of this in the mission of the Church.
I haven’t done much research on it, but the bit which peaked my interest was the final sentence. The language is a little ambiguous but Isaiah appears to say that, of those Gentiles who believe, the Lord will choose a subset to be “priests and levites”, Gentile priests! This fits very well with the Coptic, Catholic and Orthodox Church’s understanding that, although like Israel we have a priesthood of all believers (Exodus 19:6), some members of that people are set aside for ministerial priesthood…
Whether it’s turning twenty-one, forty, or sixty-five, whether it’s losing your health or your hair, your books or your beauty, your money or your memory, a person you love or a possession you prize, yesterday’s rapture or today’s applause, you have to move on. Essential to the human’s pilgrimage to the Christian journey is the self-emptying more or less like Christ’s own emptying. Time and again, from womb to tomb, you have to let go. And to let go is to die a little. It’s painful, it can be bloody; and so we hang [on], clutch our yesterday’s, like Linus’s blanket, refuse to grow
– Walter Burghardt
Happy Feast of the Assumption/Dormition 🙂
