Occupy Faith

Occupy Faith
Click thru to site

LECTIONARY

LECTIONARY
Click thru to site

Monday, December 25, 2006

Rejoice - It's Christmas!


For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,
to order it, and to establish it
with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7, King James Version)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Saturday


the Expected of the nations and their Savior.
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

*************
O Lord Jesu Christ,
Who wast foretold as the king
in whom God would manifest his presence,
Who should reign in righteousness,
bringing peace and happiness to all peoples;
Thou art Thyself indeed Emmanuel,
the very Son and Word of God made man:
Come, we pray Thee, by Thy grace, and reign over us,
so saving us from our spiritual enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us,
that we may serve Thee without fear
in holiness and righteousness
all the days of our life.
By A.C.A. Hall, Bishop of Vermont.Milwaukee:
The Young Churchman; London: A.R. Mowbray & Co., n.d. but c. 1914

Friday, December 22, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Friday



you are the cornerstone that binds two into one.

Come, and save man whom you fashioned out of clay.
**************
O Lord Jesu Christ, for Whom all peoples yearn,
even though they know not whom they seek;
Thou hast made of one blood all nations
to dwell on the face of the whole earth;
and Thou dost bind together Jew and Gentile
in the one body of Thy catholic Church:
Come, we pray Thee, and by Thy truth and grace
raise man whom Thou didst make out of the dust of the earth,
from his low condition,
and set him in Thy holy Church with the princes,
even with the princes of Thy people.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Thursday


come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
+++++++++++++++++
O Lord Jesu Christ,
Who art the outshining of Thy Father's glory,
Light streaming forth from Light:
Thou didst come in the incarnationto our poor darkened world
as the Sun of Righteousness
bringing healing in Thy beams,
dispelling noxious influences,
and gladdening men's hearts with the good news
of their Father's kindness and love for man:
Come, we pray Thee, now by Thy grace,
and through Thy Church let Thy truth and love shine forth to all that are in the darkness
of sin or ignorance or error;
penetrate the hidden recesses of our hearts,
and enlighten the cruel habitations of the earth.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Wednesday



you open and no man closes;

you close and no man opens.

Come, and deliver from the chains of prison

those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

++++++++++++++++

O Lord Jesu Christ,

to Whom is given the throne and sceptre of David Thy father over the house of Israel,

that Thou mighest extend his kingdom over all peoples:

Thou didst come in our nature,

as the Son of man forgiving sins,

dispelling sickness and loosing bonds:

to Thee now is committed all authority in heaven and on earth,

and the powers of hell cannot withstand Thy word:

Come, we pray Thee, by Thy grace, and through the instrumentality of Thy Church,

to loosen the prisoner from the chains of sin,

to enlighten with the glad tidings of Thy word all who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

that they may rejoice in the deliverance which Thou hast wrought.

The Advent AntiphonsWith Scripture references and paraphrases.
By A.C.A. Hall, Bishop of Vermont.
Milwaukee: The Young Churchman; London: A.R. Mowbray & Co., n.d. but c. 1914
.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Tuesday



you stand as a sign for the peoples;

before you kings shall keep silence

and to you all nations shall have recourse.

Come, save us, and do not delay.
+++++++++++
O Lord Jesu Christ, the new shoot from the hewn down stump of Jesse's line,
in whom all the promises should be fulfilled;
the champion of Thy people,
to whom the Gentile nations should turn in submission and obedience:
Thou hast come of the seed of David according to the flesh,
being born in obscurity of a maiden of the royal line;
Thou hast set up Thy holy catholic Church,
commanding Thine apostles to make disciples of all nations
and to train all peoples in obedience to Thy holy commandments:
Come now, we pray Thee, by Thy grace, and tarry not,
hasten the manifestation of Thy kingdom;
grant that Thy Church may continually be increased
by the gathering in of new children to Thee,
and perfected by the increasing devotion of those who have been regenerated.

Monday, December 18, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Monday

Oh, how great are your works, Adonai! (Psalm 93)

O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel,

you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and on Mount Sinai gave him your law.

Come, and with outstretched arm redeem us.
++++++++++++++++++
O Lord Jesu Christ,
Who as the Angel of the Lord
didst rule and guard God's people of old;
Who didst appear to Moses in the burning bush,
that told of Thy presence hallowing but not consuming,
and of Thy people's preservation through fiery trials;
Who didst give the Law in Sinai and majesty and awe;
Thou didst come to visit mankind oppressed
and didst redeem us therefrom
by the victory of Thy Passion:
Come, we pray Thee, now by Thy grace,
and with Thine outstretched arm deliver us
from the bondage of evil habits
from the crafts and assaults of Satan,
from the tyrrany of the world,
and the disorder into which our nature has fallen
Write in our hearts by Thy Spirit
the law in obedience to which we shall find our true freedom,
Thy law of truth and purity and love.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

To-day's O Antiphon - Sunday



you came forth from the mouth of the Most High

and, reaching from beginning to end,

you ordered all things mightily and sweetly.

Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
+++++++++++++++++
O Lord Jesu Christ,
who art the very Wisdom of God most high,
by whom He made the world, impressing on His creation
the reflexion of His own power and goodness;
Who dost uphold the world in its being and harmony,
as Thou reachest from one end to the other
mightily and sweetly ordering all things;
Who didst visit God's prophets and servants of old,
giving them ever fuller knowledge of His mind and will;
Thou in the fulness of time didst come forth in the incarnation,
clothing Thyself in our nature and living amidst our conditions,
to teach us the way of prudence--how to use the complex nature Thou hadst framed,
how to escape the snares and temptations by which we are surrounded,
how to attain the blessedness which Thou hast prepared for us.
Blessed be Thy Name for Thy teaching by word and by example,
for the testimony of Thine Apostles and the record of the Scriptures,
for the continual guidance of Thy Spirit and the witness of Thy Saints.
Come now, we pray Thee, by Thy grace
to Thy Church and people,
and teach us in our day and need
the way of prudence--how best to promote Thy Father's glory,
and extend Thy kingdom,
and win our perfect life,
as we so pass through things temporal
as not to lose the things eternal.

Friday, December 15, 2006

The O Antiphons are coming

Beginning this Sunday, 17 December, the final week of Advent is enriched with the traditional 'O' Antiphons. You haven't heard of the 'O' Antiphons? They are part of the rich heritage leading up to the traditional Christian celebrations of Christmas. Poetry, art, prayer. They express this spiritual heritage in the deepest way. Read about them here.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Social consciousness and contemplative prayer. Part 2

….I have dealt mainly with mysticism, the stress has fallen on silence, darkness, negation, unknowing and the rest. But the point I want to make now is that silence and darkness, negation and unknowing need to be complemented by words and light, affirmation and knowing. If you concentrate on one to the exclusion of the other you become horribly one-sided. Biologists might say that you are using one side of your brain to the exclusion of the other. Let me again put it schematically:

Silence needs works
Darkness needs light
Negation needs affirmation
Unknowing needs knowing
Intuition needs reason
Mysticism needs theology
Timelessness needs time
Non-objective prayer needs objective prayer
Existence needs essence
The feminine needs the masculine
Yin needs Yang

No one can spend his or her whole life in a cloud of forgetting. Human consciousness is, indeed, in constant flux. It floats from silence to words, from darkness to light, from negation to affirmation.

Related reading: 


On Social Justice: St. Basil the Great (Popular Patristics) 

  Great Mystics And Social Justice: Walking On The Two Feet Of Love

Contemplation in Action


Sunday, November 26, 2006

Social consciousness and contemplative prayer. Part I


Mentors, spiritual guides, and spiritual direction come in various guises. Miss Eagle is much indebted to a person she has never met: William Johnston SJ. One of Johnston's books that is a must read for the person interested in prayer is Being in Love: the practice of christian prayer. Below is Part I of two parts of an edited chapter from Being in love.

*****************

SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS


Modern people are very conscious of the social problems of our day. .

…There are always some good people who shake sad and cynical heads with the comment: “And while the world is in such a mess you sit in wordless silence. Yes, you enter your little cloud of forgetting! You extol being above doing. You glorify imageless prayer and abandon discursive thinking. And you enter your dark night. How can you do such a thing? How can you be indifferent to the plight of millions of your brothers and sisters on this earth – millions of your brothers and sisters who are also God’s children?”

…I have said that silent and imageless meditation leads to a profound conversion like that of the Good Samaritan who picked up the poor traveller lying bleeding by the roadside. It opens our hearts to compassion for every single human being who suffers in the whole world. Through authentic compassion you suffer with (and the word “compassion” means just that); and you are never far from the one who is in agony and pain.

…Again I have said that prayer will liberate you from the discouragement, the sadness, the depression that so often settle on people who undertake great tasks for the world and for God. It will liberate you from the consuming anger that leads to violence and destruction. Prayer will give you joy in difficult enterprises and peace in the midst of failure.

…Criticism of silent prayer is not always without foundation. …wordless, mystical contemplation, however deep, will not put you in touch with the actualities and concrete problems of our day. It needs to be complemented by study, by observation of the world, by attentiveness to the signs of the times, by reading, by what I have called essential prayer. In short, existential prayer does not stand alone. And if we think it does, we shall be in trouble.

This points to something of the greatest importance for those who enter the mystical path. …put schematically..There is –


A way of silence and a way of words
A way of darkness and a way of light
A way of negation and a way of affirmation
A way of unknowing and a way of knowing
A way of mysticism and a way of theology
A way of no object and a way of object
A way of being and a way of doing
A way of existence and a way of essence
A way of timelessness and a way of time
An apophatic way and a kataphatic way.

 ~~~~~~~~~

Related Reading:
The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing 
The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing 

Mystical Journey: An Autobiography 
Mystical Journey: An Autobiography 

Mystical Theology: The Science of Love 
Mystical Theology: The Science of Love 

The Still Point: Reflections on Zen and Christian Mysticism 
The Still Point: Reflections on Zen and Christian Mysticism 

The Cloud of Unknowing: and The Book of Privy Counseling (Image Book Original) 
The Cloud of Unknowing: and The Book of Privy Counseling (Image Book Original) 

Arise, My Love: Mysticism for a New Era 
Arise, My Love: Mysticism for a New Era 

Being in Love: A Practical Guide to Christian Prayer 
Being in Love: A Practical Guide to Christian Prayer