3:43 PM | 
Posted by
Patrick
Our Lady and Lord: Pieta
The power of this image is worth keeping by itself in a post. May the whole world awe at the greatness of Our Lord's sacrifice and Our Lady's sorrow.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Church as body of Christ
Class today focused on images of the Church, especially described in Lumen Gentium of the Vatican II documents. Remembering the importance of the faithful to the head, who is Christ, and also the importance of the head to the faithful, the body. I like to emphasize how like any relationship, but especially the relationship of the body, there is constant care and nutriment that is needed to maintain homeostasis (balance) throughout the body.
Off to another day or reading. Today is about discipleship, a call to religious life. I pray to my heavenly teachers, who are the Divine Teacher, saints Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Bishop Fulton Sheen and Fr. John Hardon, S.J. to assist me in all my learning. I usually say a Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be to give prayers to help me learn. Good to have preparation prayer for important events of our life. How often that has made a difference and how often before I ever learned this were things more miserable. God first, let everything else follow. Praise be my heavenly teachers!
Here are some flowers in the back property of Mercy Grove next to the retreat houses. I've been wanting to get back there and capture those cute little flowers blossoming among an old foundation of a house. The mosquitos take a beating on me while I'm outside at that late part of the evening, but the pictures are always worth the welts. I now know you can get a mosquito bite on top of another mosquito bite...let the record be noted. Thank you Sacred Heart of the Eternal Father for allowing me to take pictures of your beautiful creation. May the whole world come to love your creation knowing it comes from Your Almighty and Benevolent Hands!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Great weather, great reading, great photography
That last few days have been great, hooking up with friends and getting into my novitiate books about the early martyrs, how monasteries came about, how the early Mercedarians figured out how to grow despite challenges of their day. God has also given great weather and photographs these past days, images I'd never image could be had. I'm grateful for Br. David's openness to being my model for shots and sharing conversation while I click my camera and use the last bits of daylight to snatch a shot here and there. Praise God!
St. Maximus early Christian martyr
"From the time that he entered the monastic life in 613, St. Maximus spent most of his time in the defense of orthodox doctrine against the heretics, frequently moving from one monastery to another because of persecution. Ultimately he was arrested in Rome, together with Pope Martin I, and sent into exile. In 662 he was again in Constantinople, where the heretics condemned him to be scourged and to have his tongue and his right hand cut off. He dies in that same year as a result of his sufferings."------Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, Jordan Aumann 1985, pg. 55.
Imagine spending your entire life defending the faith...perhaps we aren't as faithful as we should be to the faith of our fathers, to the true faith passed, cherished and protected by the Holy Spirit? May the whole world have a such a flame of love for Christ to spend their lives living, defending and spreading the faith.
What stands out about St. Maximus's writings is his complete focus on Christ.
"...Having defended orthodox Christology against the heretics, he was thoroughly imbued with love for the Savior. He saw Christ not only as the meritorious cause of our salvation but also the exemplary cause, for which reason the great law of the Christian life is the imitation of Christ. By imitating Christ, the soul can achieve victory over the enemies of the spiritual life, the greatest of which is self-love. This involves a detachment from created things and one's own selfish desires so that egoistic love can be replaced by the love of God and neighbor."------pg. 56.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunset in front of Mercygrove
I nearly missed this great sunset! I didn't have time to shoot on a tripod so had to shoot handheld as fast as I could. If only I had gone out after the rainstorm and not gone wimpy about the wet grass and mud. Never again!
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About Me
- Patrick
- Mercedarian Novice, photographer, humorist, handy-man, fence-builder, prayer warrior, lover of Eucharist and Blessed Mother and Holy Mother Church.