SHROUDed Mystery

I personally tend to think the Shroud of Turin is authentic. Unfortunately I won't be among the millions(?) who will gather in Turin later this year to view it when it goes on public display - something which happens rather infrequently. CNS has the low-down on it.

The Legionaries of Christ in Rome have a wonderful exhibition on the Shroud which is very informative (and quite convincing I'd say). I've seen it a number of times during my time in Rome. It's in their University Building - the name of which escapes me at the moment.

Marmion on Death

This is a little word of advice from Blessed Columba Marmion on how we should treasure each day and end each night with a good examination of conscience. He is speaking to priests, but it can equally apply to everyone:

“When evening comes, never lie down to rest without the intimate conviction that you are ready to appear before God.”

Putting on the Mind of Christ

St. Paul places before us some important criteria for what should dictate the direction of our lives and our actions.

“Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise.”

Imagine if we filled our minds, our lives, our home, our world with things which fit that bill. Imagine how much better off we would be. Imagine how much the peace of God would reign in our souls if we were to make a concerted effort to avoid all that is not true, not noble, not good, and downright impure.

But in today’s world that would mean making quite some effort to avoid these things totally. So I ask you – are you up to it. It’s certainly worth the effort – we all want to be at peace with God, we all want to lead the kind of existence that St. Paul places before us. But what are we willing to do to achieve it? Well a good start might be to ask ourselves a few questions:

Will the newspaper I read this day fill my mind with what is good and pure, will it present me with honourable and virtuous things, or will it corrupt my mind and steal my peace? There’s nothing wrong with reading the news, but what about all the stuff that comes with it? The intimate tell-all stories from the life of some star or other, the very impure and almost pornographic portrayal of the great gift of sexuality? Somehow the excuse – I only buy it for the sport – doesn’t seem to justify allowing that kind of thing sit on your coffee table, never mind filling your mind.

Another question: Are the programmes I will watch on Television this day wholesome viewing which promotes Christian values? Once again, will they fill my mind with what is good and pure? Would the values (or lack of them) promoted by these shows be acceptable to Christ? Will I switch off in disgust or will I allow it to fill my mind with what is so obviously not of God?

If the honest answer to these two simple question is that they do more harm than good, then maybe it’s time we bought a more reputable paper or that we changed our viewing patterns.

Thank God: Ireland is Pro-Life

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could. This took place right after the Angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to give birth as a Virgin to the Saviour of the world. It would have taken Mary, at the very least I'd say, a few days to get to Elizabeth’s house and so we can guess that when she arrived there, Jesus was no more than a couple of weeks old, quietly growing in her womb, at a stage of the pregnancy when many women wouldn’t yet know they were pregnant. And – small and all as he was – his presence; the presence of the Lord clothed in flesh, is felt by the six month old baby – John the Baptist - who leaps for joy in the womb of his mother. And Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit recognises as her ‘Lord’, what many in our world would class as a mere bunch of cells.

But this pregnancy and every pregnancy is much more than a bunch of cells – it is a living human being, growing and developing along the great path of life that we all have taken from the first moment of our conception to this day. Science tells us it is human life – that every pregnancy – no matter how conceived – means a human being is present and living.

And if it is a human being, and he or she is a human being, then it stands to reason that he or she has certain human rights which cannot and should not be overlooked – the most important being the right to exist – the right to life itself. As scientific progress advances our knowledge of the mechanics of life, and as the consciences of this generation and those of the future are awakened to the great evil of abortion, how will future generations judge our generation on how we treat human life at its most vulnerable, on how we stand up for the rights of living human beings at this most delicate stage of development. How will those future generations judge our world’s treatment of so many mothers who tragically feel they have to make the decision for abortion? Is that the best solution we have to offer them in difficult situations? A solution which leaves one dead and another seriously wounded on so many different levels. In Ireland, thankfully we haven’t yet completely sold out on our fellow citizens in the womb, although their brothers and sisters stored as excess embryos in labs fare less well.

Up and down this country in every parish, a high percentage of the baptism carried out are of children whose parents are not married. That’s not great news, it’s far from ideal, but I thank God that we live in a country that by and large cherishes the unborn – because in other countries, those same children have less of a chance of making it out of the womb alive, never mind being brought to the baptismal font. We are overwhelmingly a pro-life country and indeed our Catholic faith means that we can be nothing other than pro-life, because to be pro-choice (as benign and well-meaning as that title seems to be) is to be pro-death; pro the death of innocent human beings at their most vulnerable. Long may Ireland hold firm to its convictions and be a beacon of light – a sign of contradiction - to virtually the whole world. And when the world finally comes to its senses with regards to abortion – may history record that Ireland - and very few other places – was a place where that madness, that great evil, could find no inroads.

News or Views?

Zadok the Roman has an interesting post on the kind of media coverage which the Vatican and the Holy Father receive and how it is very often skewed and with a particular agenda - which unfortunately is often quite strongly anti-Catholic.

Can I Live

This Music Video could be an anthem of sorts for the pro-life cause. It tells the true story of a mother who changes her mind about abortion at the last minute. The mother in question is the artist's own mother. The video is powerful and a powerful affirmation of the dignity and potential of every life.

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Fr. Schnippel over at Called by name tells the tale of a similar case, but with a very different outcome.
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We should pray daily for the many women who consider abortion for whatever reason, that the Lord will send them someone to speak his word to them, to change their hearts and minds, and to choose life - no matter what.

What is Our Daily Bread?

When I was doing my studies I had one lecturer who insisted that every day we, as a class would pray the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, however the text we used differed slightly from what we were accustomed to in that, rather than speaking of the usual, ‘panem nostrum cotidianum’ (our daily bread) - the version used in the liturgy and in personal prayer when praying the prayer in Latin - we spoke of ‘panem nostrum supersubstantialem’ (more on this term below).

It is important to know that there are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the New Testament: One in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 6:9-13) and the other in the Gospel of Luke (Lk 2-4). Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer has 5 petitions, while Matthew’s account has 7 petitions. In the liturgy it is essentially Matthew’s version, as it appears in the Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible, prepared chiefly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century, and used as the authorized version of the Roman Catholic Church), that is used. However, in the petition regarding the daily bread, the version used in Latin is that from the Vulgate translation of Luke which speaks of ‘panem… cotidianum’, rather than Matthew’s version which speaks of 'panem... supersubstantialem’.

Looking at the Greek text, however, we see that the word describing the bread in both gospels is the same: 'epiousion'. Nowhere else in Ancient Greek literature do we have this term, so there was much debate as to the exact meaning. The Fathers of the Church gave many interpretations, but seem almost unanimous that the bread referred to in the Lord’s Prayer is not solely the bread for bodily existence, but the heavenly bread of the Eucharist. St. Augustine added a third interpretation: that the bread was the Word of God as it is heard and lived daily by the faithful.

“We must take all three meanings conjointly; that is to say, that we are to ask for all at once as daily bread, both the bread necessary for the body, and the visible hallowed bread, and the invisible bread of the word of God.” St. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount.

Pope Benedict XVI has the following to say on this petition:

"Today there are two principal interpretations. One maintains that the word means “what is necessary for existence”. On this reading, the petition would run as follows: Give us today the bread that we need in order to live. The other interpretation maintains that the correct translation is “bread for the future”, for the following day. But the petition to receive tomorrow’s bread today does not seem to make sense when looked at in the light of the disciple’s existence. The reference to the future would make more sense if the object of the petition were the bread that really does belong to the future: the true manna of God. In that case, it would be an eschatological petition, the petition for an anticipation of the world to come, asking the Lord to give already “today” the future bread, the bread of the new world — Himself. On such a reading, the petition would acquire an eschatological meaning. Some ancient translations hint in this direction. An example is Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, which translates the mysterious word epiousios as supersubstantialis (i.e., super-substantial), thereby pointing to the new, higher “substance” that the Lord gives us in the Holy Sacrament as the true bread of our life."
Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Doubleday, New York 2007, pg.154

The different translations of this same word, epiousion, show that the Church would not confine itself to one single understanding of the multiple meanings which this phrase could have. The fact that the liturgy felt free to borrow the text of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew’s version while using the translation of epiousion, as found in the Vulgate version of Luke’s account, shows that the Church and her liturgy, while listening to, serving and drawing upon the scriptures, also has the responsibility and power to present those scriptures to the faithful in a way that she feels is better suited to them.

However, in choosing the term ‘daily’ for the Lord’s Prayer the Church does not mean to exclude the other deeper meanings connoted in this term, and a sound catechesis is needed to ensure that this is understood by the faithful. The Catechism does just this, and explains the multiple senses of the term (CCC 2828 -2837). The fact that the Lord’s prayer is prayed at the moment in the Mass immediately prior to the distribution of the Eucharist should reinforce the eschatological or other-worldly dimension of those words regarding our daily or super-substantial bread. We pray that the Father may grant us now a foretaste of that heavenly banquet to which we are called in Christ. And his response is to feed us with the body and blood of his Son.

"In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's Prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church and there reveals its full meaning and efficacy. Placed between the anaphora (the Eucharistic prayer) and the communion, the Lord's Prayer sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates." CCC2770