Blog by-the-Sea

St. Gregory of Nyssa on Elijah and Mt. Carmel as Prefiguring Baptism

"The water flowed around the altar, and the trench was filled with the water." [I Kings 18:35]

"The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God." [Isaiah 35:1-2]

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"I find that not only do the Gospels, written after the Crucifixion, proclaim the grace of Baptism, but, even before the Incarnation of our Lord, the ancient Scripture everywhere prefigured the likeness of our regeneration; not clearly manifesting its form, but fore-showing, in dark sayings, the love of God to man. And as the Lamb was proclaimed by anticipation, and the Cross was foretold by anticipation, so, too, was Baptism shown forth by action and by word. Let us recall its types to those who love good thoughts—for the festival season of necessity demands their recollection. . . .

"Again, that marvellous sacrifice of the old Tishbite [I Kings 18]  that passes all human understanding, what else does it do but prefigure in action the Faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and redemption? For when all the people of the Hebrews had trodden underfoot the religion of their fathers, and fallen into the error of polytheism, and their king Ahab was deluded by idolatry, with Jezebel, of ill-omened name, as the wicked partner of his life, and the vile prompter of his impiety, the prophet, filled with the grace of the Spirit, coming to a meeting with Ahab, withstood the priests of Baal in a marvellous and wondrous contest in the sight of the king and all the people; and by proposing to them the task of sacrificing the bullock without fire, he displayed them in a ridiculous and wretched plight, vainly praying and crying aloud to gods that were not. At last, himself invoking his own and the true God, he accomplished the test proposed with further exaggerations and additions. For he did not simply by prayer bring down the fire from heaven upon the wood when it was dry, but exhorted and enjoined the attendants to bring abundance of water. And when he had thrice poured out the barrels upon the cleft wood, he kindled at his prayer the fire from out of the water, that by the contrariety of the elements, so concurring in friendly cooperation, he might show with superabundant force the power of his own God. Now herein, by that wondrous sacrifice, Elijah clearly proclaimed to us the sacramental rite of Baptism that should afterwards be instituted. For the fire was kindled by water thrice poured upon it, so that it is clearly shown that where the mystic water is, there is the kindling, warm, and fiery Spirit, that burns up the ungodly, and illuminates the faithful. . . .

"And “the excellency of Carmel” [Isaiah 35:2] is given to the soul that bears the likeness to the desert, that is, the grace bestowed through the Spirit. For since Elijah dwelt in Carmel, and the mountain became famous and renowned by the virtue of him who dwelt there, and since moreover John the Baptist, illustrious in the spirit of Elijah, sanctified the Jordan, therefore the prophet foretold that “the excellency of Carmel” should be given to the river."

St. Gregory of Nyssa, from A Sermon from the Day of Lights (Epiphany)

These lamps of fire are living waters of the spirit

"O marvelous thing, that the soul at this time is flooded with divine waters, abounding in them like a plentiful fount overflowing on all sides!  Although it is true that this communication under discussion is the light and fire from these lamps of God, yet this fire here is so gentle that, being an immense fire, it is like the waters of life that satisfy the thirst of the spirit with the impetus the spirit desires.  Hence these lamps of fire are living waters of the spirit like those that descended on the Apostles [Acts 2:3]; although they were lamps of fire they were clear and pure waters as well.  The prophet Ezekiel referred to them in this fashion when he prophesied the coming of the Holy Spirit: I will pour out upon you, God says there, clean waters and will put my spirit in the midst of you [Ez. 36:25-27].  Although it is fire, it is also water.  For this fire is represented by the fire of the sacrifice that Jeremiah hid in the cistern: While it was hidden it was water, and when they drew it out for the sacrifice, it was fire [2 Mac. 1:19-23]."

- St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love 3:8, from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, ICS Publications.

Photo: A waterfall on the Rogue River, southern Oregon, photo by me, May, 1995.

River Videos

From the movie "A River Runs Through It":

A river video with Allison Krause's song "River Prayer":

A short film about prayer (drawn in part from the Psalms and a message in a bottle on a river):

Source of the Rio Cuervo, Spain, as water emerges from moss covered caves and falls down rocks to form a pool:

Beside Springs of Water

Another reference to water in today's daily readings for Mass (NAB):

"For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted."

- Isaiah 49:10-13

Photo:  Klamath River, northern California.  Photo source.

A Comment to "A Place of Broad Rivers and Streams"

Clare Krishan sent me a comment by e-mail because Typepad would not post it.  Probably because of the number of links, the website seems to mistake it for abuse.  I couldn't post it in comments either, so I am posting it for her as a separate post.  It has many good sources and images.  (I looked last night for a good video of a river that I could use and was surprised to find nothing of the kind I was hoping to find.  So I added a photo to the earlier post today similar to the type of river video I was looking for.).  Here's Clare's comment and the images she found (click for full size images):

Beautiful post to reflect on the early scrutinies of the living water (the Samaritan woman and the man born blind healed at Siloam) and encourage us to pray for those folks being received into the Church this Easter! As Ezra interpreted the scriptures for the exiles on their return from Babylon amongst the ruins of the city walls at the Water Gate.

We too drink from the source when we have occasion to participate in a Liturgy of the Word, where the scriptures are unpacked for us in the homilist's preaching. Chapter 8 of Nehemiah tells of the Israelites reinstating the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth, commemorated in rites involving four species of plants, all known as being "thirsty" ie only grow in sufficiently irrigated places, a prefigurement of the New Covenant evangelists...

Our Byzantine forefathers represented this aspect of exegesis in visual form in their mosaics and frescoes (conceived as what we now call the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, she who is full of grace, ie the channel in which the spring is brought to the surface for us to drink) in the theme of the Annunciation to Anna and Joachim, the names of Mary's parents tradition records in the apocryphal canons:

(a) in the Daphni mosaics, near Athens, of the Comnene period (1025-1204)

(b) Kariye Camii mosaics, Istanbul, of the Paleologan period (1261-1453)
(c) Panagia tou Kikko mosaics, Cyprus
(patient, Quicktime movie slow to download)

(d) modern Greek Orthodox icon (on right)

A later interpretation ties Exodus's four rivers of Eden to the four Gospel evangelists, to Jesus through Mary as vessel of grace (a model of Mother Church ministering to our parched exile in sin outside Eden).

(same idea also featured in the earliest Cross in the Vatican's collection, a gift to a Pope of the 6th Century, known as the  Crux Vaticana from Emperor Justin II in Constantinople, with four teardrop jewels representing the four rivers of grace of the New Testament Gospels.

What's really neat is that the image the ancients depicted perhaps was based on real places that pilgrims would perhaps have been familiar with before the Arab conquests. I posted a response along these lines to Mike Aquilina's blog back in January, when he reported on excavations to aqueducts along the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Here's the source of the water carried in the aqueducts:
Solomons Pool near Bethlehem, in an old etching, and modern snapshots (scroll down to latter half).  More here.  And here's a page describing the destination, the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem.

And note the direction of water flow - like an arrow pointing north through the temple, to Golgotha, where the font of mercy poured forth on the cross. Neat, eh? Let us pray fervently for peace in the Holy Land that these holy places may be made more widely known through pilgrimage tourism, and serve a deepening appreciation for the four senses in Catholic exegesis: two addressing "things below" or man's relation to man (history in real spatial relationships of place, and tropology the moral of the tale); and two "divine and heavenly things," or man's relations with God (allegory, mystical themes of unveiling deeper meaning as in flow of water in rivers, wells and vessels etc, and anagogy our final end post-eschaton) that may bring our Separated Brethren closer in common understanding, ut unum sint!

God Bless

A Place of Broad Rivers and Streams

This is a collection of somewhat related Scriptures about a river flowing through the City of Jerusalem or below the threshold of the temple.  There is no river in Jerusalem.  The river in Ezekial 47 (which is in tomorrow's daily readings), like the living water in Psalm 46 and other prophecies, symbolizes God's presence as the source of life and echoes the description in Genesis of the river in Eden.  The "river of the water of life" (Revelation 22) flowing from the throne of God, the "living waters" flowing out of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14), the water flowing down from the threshold of the temple (Ezekial 47), symbolize the dwelling place of God and His presence there as the source of all of life.  In John 10, Jesus told the woman at the well that He would give people "living water," and they would never thirst.

Ezekial 47:1-9, 12 (From the readings for March 20):

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side. Going on eastward with a line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the loins. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes . . . . And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing."

Genesis 2:10-14:

"A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."

Psalm 46:1-5:

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. [Selah] There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her right early."

Isaiah 33:20-22:

"Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king; he will save us."

Zechariah 14:8-9:

"On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter. And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one."

Revelation 22:1-5:

"Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever."

John 4:10-14:

"Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.""

(All Scripture quotations in this post are from the Revised Standard Version.  (See also the footnotes to Psalm 46 and Ezekial 47 in the New American Bible.)

Photo: Smith River, near Crescent City, northern California.  Source.

The Baptism of Christ and Our Own Baptism

Today, the last day of Christmas celebrations, Pope Benedict XVI baptized 13 newborn babies in the Sistine Chapel in a Mass to celebrate the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.  It is the second oldest feast of Christian tradition, following Easter.  Afterward, he again mentioned baptism in his meditation before praying the Angelus with a crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square.

In his homily, he spoke about the symbols of baptism, including water, a sign of maternity in many religions, and the fire of the Holy Spirit.  He distinguished the sacrament of baptism from magic.  In his meditation before the Angelus, he spoke about the effect of the sacrament of baptism.

An article about the homily is available from Asia News.  Full translations are available from the Vatican and Zenit.  Here is an excerpt from Asia News:

"In all religions, water is a sign of maternity. And for the Fathers of the Church, water became a symbol of the maternal womb of the Church.” In baptism, we are united “to the heavenly Father” in “God’s family” and this link with Him is expressed in the relationship with the Mother-Church: “In Baptism, we are adopted by the heavenly Father but in this family there is also a mother, the Mother Church."

An article about the Angelus is also available from Asia News.  Full translations are available from the Vatican, Zenit and from Teresa Benedetta at Papa Ratzinger Forum (scroll down).  Here is an excerpt from Teresa Benedetta's translation:

"There is a close relationship between the Baptism of Christ and our own Baptism. At the Jordan, the heavens opened (cfr Lk 3,21) to indicate that the Savior has opened to us the way of salvation and that we can walk along it, thanks precisely to our new birth 'in water and the Spirit" (Jn 3,5) which is realized in Baptism."

Picture: The Baptism of Christ, by Paolo Veronese, 1580-1588 (museum information).

RIvers of Living Water: Man's Most Precious Good

"Gathered this morning in this house of prayer consecrated to the Lord, how can we not evoke the other fine image that Saint Paul uses in speaking of the Church, the image of the building whose stones are closely fitted together to form a single structure, and whose cornerstone, on which everything else rests, is Christ? He is the source of the new life given us by the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Saint John has just proclaimed it: "out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water". This gushing water, this living water which Jesus promised to the Samaritan woman, was seen by the prophets Zechariah and Ezechiel issuing forth from the side of the Temple, so that it could make fruitful the waters of the Dead Sea: a marvellous image of the promise of life that God has always made to his people and that Jesus came to fulfil. In a world where men are so loath to share the earth’s goods and there is a dramatic shortage of water, this good so precious for the life of the body, the Church discovers that she possesses an even greater treasure. As the Body of Christ, she has been charged to proclaim his Gospel to the ends of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19), transmitting to the men and women of our time the Good News which not only illuminates but overturns their lives, even to the point of conquering death itself. This Good News is not just a word, but a person, Christ himself, risen and alive! By the grace of the sacraments, the water flowing from his open side on the Cross has become an overflowing spring, "rivers of living water", a flood that no one can halt, a gift that restores life. How could Christians keep for themselves alone what they have received? How could they hoard this treasure and bury this spring? The Church’s mission is not to preserve power, or to gain wealth; her mission is to offer Christ, to give a share in Christ’s own life, man’s most precious good, which God himself gives us in his Son."

- Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Istanbul, December 1, 2006.

The Contemplative Life: Draw from the Springs of the Spirit

In his reflections before praying the Angelus today, Pope Benedict XVI remembered the upcoming observance of  the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple and Pro Orantibus Day, dedicated to cloistered religious communities.  Both observances are on the Church calendar for November 21.  The Pope's words spoke of people today who leave sometimes promising professions to seek the cloistered life, and its importance to the Church and the world today.

An article is available from Asia News.  Translations are available from the Vatican, Zenit and Papa Ratzinger Forum (scroll down).

Here is an excerpt from Papa Ratzinger Forum:

"In effect, these brothers and sisters of ours silently bear witness that in the midst of daily events, which can sometimes be quite convulsive, the only support that never vacillates is God, the unshakeable rock of faith and love.
 
"'Todo pasa, nada se muda'- 'Everything passes, God does not change'- wrote the great spiritual teacher St. Teresa of Avila in a celebrated text. For the widely felt need that many have to get out of their daily routine in great urban agglomerations to seek spaces that are favorable for silence and meditation, the monasteries of 'contemplative llfe' are 'oases' in which man, a pilgrim on earth, can draw from the springs of the Spirit and quench his thirst along the way."

There Is Within Me a Living Water

October 17 is the memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch.  Here is a short quote from his letter to the Church at Rome, written as he was on his way to his martyrdom, modernized from the 19th century translation on Christian Classics Ethereal Library (This quotation is also a part of the reading from the Hours for tomorrow, although it is taken from a different translation):

"My love has been crucified, and there is no fire in me desiring to be fed;  but there is within me a living water that is speaking, saying to me inwardly, 'Come to the Father.'  I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life.  I want the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I want the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life."

Retrospective on München: Living Water

This is the fourth post in a series on the homilies of Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Bavaria, setting the lecture at Regensburg in context.  This post is about his homily at vespers at the Cathedral of München on October 10.  It is perhaps my favorite from the trip to Bavaria, partly because it considers a Scripture relevant to our parish design, and partly because it seems to take up the theme of living water similarly to the homily of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin on October 2 for the funeral Mass of Father Marie-Dominique Philippe (click the link to watch the video of that Mass, which is still well worth watching even if only for the music).  Cardinal Barbarin mentioned during his homily that he had spoken with the Pope a few days earlier, so it is hard to say whether Cardinal Barbarin's mention of living water drew from something the Pope said, whether the Pope drew from Cardinal Barbarin's homily, or whether the similarity is purely coincidental since both used passages from the same Scriptures for different reasons.

In any event, I have had several posts on the theme of "Living Water" over the past month or so, and I added it as a new category to put them together, especially because part of the source for this part of my blogging now lies in these two homilies by the Holy Father and Cardinal Barbarin, which might not otherwise be apparent.

Here is the Pope's homily in its entirety (in dark blue) with my few comments (in black).  Where quoted, Cardinal Barbarin's homily is in light blue-green for clarity of distinction.

"Dear First Communicants!
Dear Parents and Teachers!
Dear Brothers and Sisters!

"The reading we have just heard is from the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. The seer is helped to lift his eyes upward, towards heaven, and forward, towards the future. But in doing so, he speaks to us about earth, about the present, about our lives. In the course of our lives, all of us are on a journey, we are traveling towards the future. Naturally, we want to find the right road: to find true life, and not a dead end or a desert. We don't want to end up saying: I took the wrong road, my life is a failure, it went wrong. We want to find joy in life; we want, in the words of Jesus, "to have life in abundance".

"But let us listen to the seer of the   Book of Revelation. What has he said to us in this passage which was read to us a moment ago? He is talking about a reconciled world. A world in which people "of every nation, race, people and tongue" (7:9) have come together in joy. And so we ask: “How can this happen? What road do we take to get there?” Well, first and most important: these people are living with God; God himself has "sheltered them in his tent" (cf. 7:15), as the reading says. So we ask ourselves again: “What do we mean by ‘God's tent’? Where is it found? How do we get there?” The seer might be alluding to the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, where we read: "The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us" (1:14). God is not far from us, he is not somewhere out in the universe, somewhere that none of us can go. He has pitched his tent among us: in Jesus he became one of us, flesh and blood just like us. This is his "tent". And in the Ascension, he did not go somewhere far away from us. His tent, he himself in his Body, remains among us and is one of us. We can call him by name and speak at ease with him. He listens to us and, if we are attentive, we can also hear him speaking back."

The Pope's references to John 1:14 and its literal meaning that God "pitched his tent among us" evokes the Scriptural basis for the design of the tabernacle at Church of the Nativity, pictured here from this past Easter Sunday, with the light from the nearby hidden window surrounding it.  (As an aside, I have thought jokingly since then, what did those people think who only go to church on Easter and did not know about the hidden window?)

But notice the Pope's speaking of a wish for "a world in which people "of every nation, race, people and tongue" (7:9) have come together in joy."  This is consistent with the wish for peace that he has expressed repeatedly in the context of political conflict in the Middle East.  It is consistent with his statements that he respects the Muslim people.  It also reflects his belief in the nature of God as loving and as peaceful.  The homily continues:

"Let me repeat: In Jesus, it is God who "camps" in our midst. But let me also repeat: Where exactly does this happen? Our reading gives us two answers to this question. It says that the men and women at peace "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14). To us this sounds very strange. In his cryptic language, the seer is speaking about Baptism. His words about "the blood of the Lamb" allude to Jesus' love, which he continued to show even up to his violent death. This love, both divine and human, is the bath into which he plunges us at Baptism - the bath with which he washes us, cleansing us so that we can be fit for God and capable of living in his company. The act of Baptism, however, is just a beginning. By walking with Jesus, in faith and in our life in union with him, his love touches us, purifies us and enlightens us. We heard that, in the bath of love, our clothing becomes white. For the ancient world, white was the colour of light. The white robes mean that in faith we become light, we set aside darkness, falsehood and every sort of evil, and we become people of light, fit for God. The baptismal gown, like the First Communion robes that you are wearing, is meant to remind us of this, and to tell us: by living as one with Jesus and the community of believers, the Church, you have become a person of light, a person of truth and goodness - a person radiant with goodness, the goodness of God himself.

"The second answer to the question: "Where do we find Jesus?" is also given by the seer in cryptic language. He tells us that the Lamb leads the great multitude of people from every culture and nation to the sources of living water. Without water, there is no life. People who lived near the desert knew this well, and so springs of water became for them the symbol par excellence of life. The Lamb, Jesus, leads men and women to the sources of life.  Among these sources are the Sacred Scriptures, in which God speaks to us and tells us the how to live in the right way.  But there is more to these sources: in truth the authentic source is Jesus himself, in whom God gives us his very self.  He does this above all in Holy Communion.  There we can, as it were, drink directly from the source of life: he comes to us and makes each of us one with him.  We can see how true this is: through the Eucharist, the sacrament of communion, a community is formed which spills over all borders and embraces all languages - we see it here: there are present Bishops  of every language and from throughout the world – through communion the universal Church takes shape, in which God speaks to us and lives among us.  This is how we should receive Holy Communion: seeing it as an encounter with Jesus, an encounter with God himself, who leads us to the sources of true life."

This is the reference to living water that reminded me of Cardinal Barbarin's homily, which also drew from the Book of Revelation and the Gospel of St. John.  The Pope spoke of "springs of water" and "sources of life."  (People who lived near the desert knew this well, and so springs of water became for them the symbol par excellence of life. The Lamb, Jesus, leads men and women to the sources of life.)  In Cardinal Barbarin's homily, his reference to "the Source" is a reference to Christ as the Source (the wellspring) of living water.  The word "Source" means both points of origin and the spring or fountain from which a stream first comes out of the ground.  The French word "Source" is used more commonly than the English in the latter sense of the word, and Cardinal Barbarin used it in his explanation of Christ as the Source of living water.  Here is an excerpt from Cardinal Barbarin's homily, speaking of Father Philippe as a "man of the Source," meaning a man of Christ:

"Father Marie-Dominique Philippe was the man of the Source.  Contemplating Jesus on the cross, he saw in that love that went on to the end, to the extreme, the summit of all wisdom.  He wanted unceasingly to go up to that Source, and he invited us, us his students and you his brothers and sisters, to not “go with the flow,” to never leave the demanding and joyful path that goes up. Men, in the beauty of their existence created in the image of God, in the nobility of their intelligence, the Lord’s disciples will only be truly refreshed with living and vivifying water.

"For him, the water of the Spring had a name: truth.  Veritas, a word that Jesus chose to define Himself: “I am the truth.” (John 14:6)"

The Pope's homily at Vespers speaks of "sources" of life and of the right way, including Sacred Scriptures, and he adds a reference to Christ as the "authentic source . . . in whom God gives us his very self."  He then offers the specific example of the Eucharist, in which we "drink directly from the source of life." 

The Pope's homily continues with admonition to parents, catechists and teachers:

"Dear parents! I ask you to help your children to grow in faith, I ask you to accompany them on their journey towards First Communion, a journey which continues beyond that day, and to keep accompanying them as they make their way to Jesus and with Jesus. Please, go with your children to Church and take part in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration! You will see that this is not time lost; rather, it is the very thing that can keep your family truly united and centred. Sunday becomes more beautiful, the whole week becomes more beautiful, when you go to Sunday Mass together. And please, pray together at home too: at meals and before going to bed.  Prayer does not only bring us nearer to God but also nearer to one another.  It is a powerful source of peace and joy.  Family life becomes more joyful and expansive whenever God is there and his closeness is experienced in prayer.

"Dear catechists and teachers! I urge you to keep alive in the schools the search for God, for that God who in Jesus Christ has made himself visible to us. I know that in our pluralistic world it is no easy thing in schools to bring up the subject of faith. But it is hardly enough for our children and young people to learn technical knowledge and skills alone, and not the criteria that give knowledge and skill their direction and meaning. Encourage your students not only to raise questions about particular things - something good in itself - , but above all to ask about the why and the wherefore of life as a whole. Help them to realize that any answers that do not finally lead to God are insufficient.

"Dear priests and all who assist in parishes! I urge you to do everything possible to make the parish an "spiritual community" for people - a great family where we also experience the even greater family of the universal Church, and learn through the liturgy, through catechesis and through all the events of parish life to walk together on the way of true life.

"These three places of education - the family, the school and the parish - go together, and they help us to find the way that leads to the sources of life, and truly all of us, dear children, dear parents and dear teachers, want to have "life in abundance". Amen!"

St. Catherine of Siena: The Fountain of the Water of Life

"On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, 'Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'  He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified."

- John 7:37-39 (NAB)

"An exposition on Christ’s words: “Whosoever thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”

“You were all invited, generally and in particular, by My Truth, when He cried in the Temple, saying: ’Whosoever thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, for I am the Fountain of the Water of Life.’ He did not say ’Go to the Father and drink,’ but He said ’Come to Me.’ He spoke thus, because in Me, the Father, there can be no pain, but in My Son there can be pain. And you, while you are pilgrims and wayfarers in this mortal life, cannot be without pain, because the earth, through sin, brought forth thorns. And why did He say ’Let him come to Me and drink’? Because whoever follows His doctrine, whether in the most perfect way or by dwelling in the life of common charity, finds to drink, tasting the fruit of the Blood, through the union of the Divine nature with the human nature. And you, finding yourselves in Him, find yourselves also in Me, who am the Sea Pacific, because I am one thing with Him, and He with Me. So that you are invited to the Fountain of Living Water of Grace, and it is right for you, with perseverance, to keep by Him who is made for you a Bridge, not being turned back by any contrary wind that may arise, either of prosperity or adversity, and to persevere till you find Me, who am the Giver of the Water of Life, by means of this sweet and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son. And why did He say: ’I am the Fountain of Living Water’? Because He was the Fountain which contained Me, the Giver of the Living Water, by means of the union of the Divine with the human nature. Why did He say ’Come to Me and drink’? Because you cannot pass this mortal life without pain, and in Me, the Father, there can be no pain, but in Him there can be pain, and therefore of Him did I make for you a Bridge. No one can come to Me except by Him, as He told you in the words: ’No one can come to the Father except by Me.’

“Now you have seen to what way you should keep, and how, namely with perseverance, otherwise you shall not drink, for perseverance receives the crown of glory and victory in the life everlasting.”

- St. Catherine of Siena, "An Exposition on Christ's Words: 'Whoever Thirsts, Let Him Come to Me and Drink", from The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, translated by Algar Thorold, available online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

St. John Chrysostom: Christ the Source of Living Water

September 13 is the memorial of St. John Chrysostom.  From last year, here is a link to a biographical post "About St. John Chrysostom."  From St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Gospel of John, concerning John 7:37,38:

"In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

They who come to the divine preaching and give heed to the faith, must manifest the desire of thirsty men for water, and kindle in themselves a similar longing; so will they be able also very carefully to retain what is said. For as thirsty men, when they have taken a bowl, eagerly drain it and then desist, so too they who hear the divine oracles if they receive them thirsting, will never be weary until they have drunk them up.  For to show that men ought ever to thirst and hunger, “Blessed,” It saith, “are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. v.6); and here Christ saith, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” What He saith is of this kind, “I draw no man to Me by necessity and constraint; but if any hath great zeal, if any is inflamed with desire, him I call.”

"But why hath the Evangelist remarked that it was “on the last day, that great day”? For both the first day and the last were “great,” while the intermediate days they spent rather in enjoyment. Wherefore then saith he, “in the last day”? Because on that day they were all collected together. For on the first day He came not, and told the reason to His brethren, nor yet on the second and third days saith He anything of this kind, lest His words should come to nought, the hearers being about to run into indulgence. But on the last day when they were returning home He giveth them supplies  for their salvation, and crieth aloud, partly by this showing to us His boldness, and partly for the greatness of the multitude. And to show that He spake not of material drink, He addeth, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” By “belly” he here meaneth the heart, as also in another place It saith, “And Thy Law in the midst of my belly.” (Ps. xl.10; Theodotion.) But where hath the Scripture said, that “rivers of living water shall flow from his belly”? Nowhere. What then meaneth, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith”? Here we must place a stop, so that the, “rivers shall flow from his belly,” may be an assertion of Christ.   For because many said, “This is the Christ”; and, “When the Christ cometh will He do more miracles?” He showeth that it behooveth to have a correct knowledge, and to be convinced not so much from the miracles as from the Scriptures. Many, in fact, who even saw Him working marvels received Him not as Christ, and were ready to say, “Do not the Scriptures say that Christ cometh of the seed of David?” and on this they  continually dwelt. He then, desiring to show that He did not shun the proof from the Scriptures, again referreth them to the Scriptures. He had said before, “Search the Scriptures” (c. v. 39); and again, “It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be taught of God” (c. vi. 45); and, “Moses accuseth you” (c. v.45); and here,“ As the Scripture hath said, rivers shall flow from his belly,” alluding to the largeness and abundance of grace. As in another place He saith, “A well of water springing up unto eternal life” (c. xv.14), that is to say, “he shall possess much grace”; and elsewhere He calleth it, “eternal life,” but here, “living water.” He calleth that “living” which ever worketh; for the grace of the Spirit, when it hath entered into the mind and hath been established, springeth up more than any fountain, faileth not, becometh not empty, stayeth not. To signify therefore at once its unfailing supply and unlimited operation, He hath called it “a well” and “rivers,” not one river but numberless; and in the former case He hath represented its abundance by the expression, “springing.” And one may clearly perceive what is meant, if he will consider the wisdom of Stephen, the tongue of Peter, the vehemence of Paul, how nothing bare, nothing withstood them, not the anger of multitudes, not the risings up of tyrants, not the plots of devils, not daily deaths, but as rivers borne along with a great rushing sound, so they went on their way hurrying all things with them."

- St. John Chrysostom, Homily LI, from Homilies on the Gospel of John, A Selected Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., Vol. XIV, available online from Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 

Cardinal Barbarin's Homily for the Funeral Mass of Father Marie-Dominique Philippe

Here is an English translation of the homily given by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin at the funeral mass of Father Marie-Dominique Philippe on September 2, 2006:

CARDINAL BARBARIN’S FUNERAL HOMILY FOR FATHER PHILIPPE
SEPTEMBER 2, 2006 AT THE PRIMATIAL CHURCH OF SAINT-JEAN IN LYON

The readings of the funeral mass for Father Philippe were the following:

First reading: Rev. 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Psalm 115
Second reading: I John 1:1-4
Gospel: John 17:6, 14-23

“Yes, I am coming, and will not delay.  I am coming soon.”

That word of the Lord, we heard it two times, in the passage from the book of Revelation, which was our first reading.  It resonates within us in a strange manner on this day on which we entrust to God the life of a man whom the Lord has just called to Himself, just short of his 94th birthday.  Since mid-July, this preaching friar who had spoken and taught so much, was silent, he had entered into silence!

“Yes, I come without delay.”  I receive that sentence much as the Lord’s answer to the questions that Father Marie-Dominique Philippe asked Him all through his life, as a child, as a religious, as a professor, and as a founder.  A disciple with a burning heart and intrepid intelligence, he questioned his Master about everything: the world, people, mission . . . He was a seeker, who wanted to understand, to receive the understanding of things and people.  Yet Jesus’ answer is never a reflection or an analysis; it is His own self who approaches and who gives Himself: “Yes, I come without delay!”

From his youth, Father Marie-Dominique learned from his Dominican uncle, Father Dehau, to consider the book of the Apocalypse as a fountain of hope, a comfort, a support in times of testing.  He who “will come to judge the living and the dead” approaches us each day.  By the Word of Life and by the sacraments that the Lord left us, eternity comes to pass nearby each one of our days.

*

Father Marie-Dominique Philippe was the man of the Source [The French word "source" means both "source" and "spring", as in a spring of running water.].  Contemplating Jesus on the cross, he saw in that love that went on to the end, to the extreme, the summit of all wisdom.  He wanted unceasingly to go up to that Source, and he invited us, us his students and you his brothers and sisters, to not “go with the flow,” to never leave the demanding and joyful path that goes up.  Men, in the beauty of their existence created in the image of God, in the nobility of their intelligence, the Lord’s disciples will only be truly refreshed with living and vivifying water.

For him, the water of the Spring had a name: truth.  Veritas, a word that Jesus chose to define Himself: “I am the truth.” (John 14:6)

Truth, which is the Dominican family’s currency.  Truth, a supreme good, which holds an essential place in the prayer of Jesus, as we just heard: “Consecrate them in the truth.  Your word is truth.”  (John 17:17)  Between man who seeks with sorrow and God who gives Himself generously, the meeting point is the sanctuary where we meet to prostrate ourselves and to enter into worship.  That is the interior attitude to which the first commandment invites us: “Word of life”: “You will worship”  There, all the charity of God is communicated to us.

Worship and charity, for Father Philippe, are without doubt two of the most precious words of the spiritual life.  Charity is like a river of kindness which comes from God and goes down onto men.  That vision made Jesus thrill with joy, through the working of the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21).  It is living in the present, remaining available in a concrete way, in relationship with those near to us.  It begins with the splendid experiment of friendship, a subject so dear to Father Philippe’s heart.  Friendship, for him, was “the pearl of the human heart.”  God knows if he was himself admirable and faithful in his friendships, even in difficult circumstances.

Life did not spare him, and he knew suffering.  With a very fine humanity, a sharp sensitivity, he knew how to live those moments that, most often, dumbfound us completely.  With courage, with nobility of heart, he set out again, despite testings, in search of a truth that one can find only by charity.  He looked at the world, he listened to people, he loved all he knew, with a particular affection for the young!  He even said that he had the impression of understanding them better at the age of 90 than at 50.  Youth, “I see in it,” he said, “a great desire for light and truth, like a new enthusiasm.”  The young were for him a source of inner joy.

*

Father Philippe was truly indwelled by hope in his search for truth.  He was convinced that one can always go deeper, to the origin of the philosophical question.  Philosophy, for him, begins with the observation of the world that provokes astonishment and leads to amazement.  Like a child, the philosopher poses his questions and must never fear to go to the essential.  One could say that his philosophy is ambitious.  He does not intend to stop with commentary on texts, with analysis or with description of situations.  Ardently, he seeks truth.  Metaphysics is for him neither a luxury, nor a superior science.  And he is happy to see that “a poor country woman,” as he said, Marthe Robin, encouraged him to continue this difficult work, rather than to go to preach retreats in monasteries.  The Church needs it.  With a great interior energy – that is the thumos of truth – he continues his search and asks still and always.

For him, philosophy is a via inventionis, a road of discovery.  One goes out, one seeks, one hesitates, then one perceives the order of things, relations are established, and it is a wonder to share with others what one has discovered.  Such is the joy of one who teaches philosophy.  All that, of course, closes nothing, stops neither with a circle of friends nor with a school.  Father Philippe surprised by the diversity of his contacts: he maintained fruitful relationships with intellectuals from diverse disciplines and philosophies very different from his own.  He spoke often of his meetings with artists, for whom he had a real admiration and perhaps a wisp of envy.

How beautiful is intelligence open to a variety of cultures, expanded by the observation of the world and the broad love of all those whom He has given to us to be near!  It is ready to welcome the revelation, with a real breadth.  In theology, St. Thomas was very quickly given as master to Father Philippe, by Father Dehau and by the Dominican order.  Theological work is a rational path in which all of spiritual life is engaged.  It is a mysterious adventure, for the revelation is a love that gives itself and leads us in its vigor.  In reading what Father Philippe wrote of the “three wisdoms”, I have often thought that the last two, theology and mysticism, are so dependent that they merge.  For him, surely, as for the great cantors “practiced in divine music” who have carried the Christian message to us since Antiquity, “theology is written on the knees.”  That is the Apostle John who tradition calls “o theologos”, the theologian.  And, in fact, when Father Philippe gave conferences or courses, his audience perceived a grace which invited them to enter into prayer.

*

The texts that we have heard in the liturgy of the Word are all clearly Johanine: Saint John, whom he loved, and who Saint Thomas taught him to love more.  St. John, whom he gives as a model for his proximity to the Lord.  St. John, who can do so much, according to him, to clarify the Church’s present and future.  “In the renewal of the Church,” he said, “it is necessary that there should be that perspicacity of intelligence, that purity of heart, and that youth which, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, characterize the holiness of St. John.”  But if I stopped there, I would have the impression of having said nothing yet.

For Father Marie-Dominique Philippe was first of all a priest.  His ministry and all his life are situated by the Cross of Jesus.  It was enough to see him celebrate Mass to understand that the Eucharist was not for him a treatise of theology, but first of all a mystical adventure that leads to the source of salvation.  Entirely given to his mission, he was always accessible to those who addressed themselves to him, patient to listen to them.  In his attention to their regard, his proximity with the mystery of the Cross and his intimacy with Mary showed through.  He wanted to invite them into the love of communion that united Mary and John, the image of the incipient Church, at Golgotha.  His compassion was for him the source of an immense hope, sometimes excessive.  He was convinced that, whatever his misery, a man is awaited by God’s mercy.  From any wound, he could be cured, be raised, reappear.  Sometimes this fatherly heart trusted, trust too much, beings so fragile that he should have had more closely accompanied, and perhaps tested more, brothers to whom he should have listened more, for a fairer discernment.  If he searched for all paths to healing, it was especially with the intention that the testimony of the Father’s love be close to each one.

This mystery of compassion finds, for him, an exceptional model in the presence and silence of Mary at the foot of the Cross.  It is the moment when Jesus trusts his mother to the care of the beloved disciple: “Woman, behold your son. . . behold your mother.”  (John 19:26-27)  Several among you would have liked, I was told, for this passage of St. John to be read, as it is foundational for your community and in the whole life of the Church.  Finally, you chose to contemplate the sacerdotal prayer, the Lord’s long and precious message, on the vigil of His passion.  That prayer helps us to understand the depths of the mystery of compassion.  When we understand the words by which Jesus evokes his union with the Father, “That they may be one, as you, Father, you are in me, and I in you (17:21), we understand what the unity can be that He proposes that we live with each other, in our communities, in the Church or in the family.  The source is in the Trinitarian communion, and the first example of it is offered to us by Mary, the All Holy, and John, the beloved disciple, at the foot of the Cross.

In the history of the Church, Father Marie-Dominique rightly loved those in whom he recognized that mystery of compassion.  You know their names:  St. Dominic, who often exclaimed: “My mercy, what are sinners going to become?”  St. Catherine of Siena, John of the Cross, “my old friends,” as he called them.  Of St. Thérèse and her “little way,” he said: “She touches what is deepest.”  Then, we must mention Marthe Robin, who lived the Passion of the Lord each week and who mattered so much to him, St. Faustina, and Mother Teresa very indwelled by the cry of Jesus on the Cross: “I am thirsty!”  But always, and first of all, St. John and the very holy Virgin Mary.

One among you told me, “Never have I heard anyone speak of Mary like Father Marie-Dominique Philippe.”  For him, in the company of this Mother, one grows in the spiritual life, which is to say that one becomes little again, until being only a little one like the Beloved Son nestled at his Mother’s breast, “the fruit of her womb.”  Mary invites us too to learn the path of the Source, the Source of a love that Jesus alone knew and that, by the Incarnation, he came to reveal to us:  “No one has ever seen God: the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, it is He who has revealed Him.” (John 1:18).  For him, it was more important to form his students’ spirit and heart in this mystery of the compassion than to write books for them.  He especially loved to communicate to them the thirst to receive God’s gifts directly.

I would like to address myself most especially to you, the sisters and brothers of the “St. John family.”  On April 8, 2001, some bishops were brought together with the bishop of Autun to tell Father Philippe of the French Church’s recognition, and to listen to him reflect on its charism and its foundations.  He had come with some brothers, chosen from his close collaborators.  He explained to us his profound attachment to the successor of Peter and spoke to us of the exchanges that he had had with the Holy Father.  One day, he told us he had received from him a clear message: “Tell your brothers that the true founder of the Congregation of St. John is St. Dominic.”  His bull of canonization, he explained to us, presents St. Dominic not as a monk or an apostle, but as a vir evangelicus.  In that, he follows Christ.  It is not a question of knowing if he is contemplative or active, since Christ was both at the same time:  a being turned toward the Father and entirely given to his brothers.  “Vir evangelicus, there it is for us, in the Congregation of St. John, the essential expression.”  That sheds an additional light on Marthe Robin’s view of Fr. Philippe: “He is a man who profoundly saw the Gospel.”  And, so that the word vir does not imply any isolation (!), he added: “A little contemplative who gives himself totally to God . . . putting all his confidence and his hope in Mary, is there anything more beautiful?

Father Philippe thus leaves you the figure of St. John as a treasure.  One could say that he went up from St. Dominic to St. John to touch the Lord more closely.  He wishes the renewal of your theological life by the perspicacity of intelligence, to serve faith, by the purity of heart, to serve charity, and with the vigor of youth, to serve hope.

*

I would like to close with some words of St. John himself.  Which ones to draw from the readings of this Mass?  There are those that join our prayer with that of the Church: “The Spirit and the Bride say: “Come!” (. . .)  Let the one who thirsts come forward”  (Rev. 22:17), and those that invite us to mission: “That which we have contemplated (. . .) we testify to it.  We announce to you that eternal life.”  (I John 1:1-2).  “Bring to others the fruit of our contemplation,” here is what the apostolate is, according to St. Thomas.  While the deacon proclaimed the Gospel, did you not have, as I did, the impression that those words came to us at the same time from Jesus and from Fr. Philippe?  They evoked the work of your founder among you and his view of your future: “I have made your name known to them . . . I do not ask you to take them out of the world . . . Consecrate them in truth.”  The prayer of Fr. Marie-Dominique is based on that of the Lord for all of his disciples: “That they may be one.”  It also includes the vast range of all those who will be touched by your apostolate or who populate your prayer.  “I do not pray only for those who are here, but also for those who will hear their word and will believe in me.”  (v. 20)

May the power of that prayer be a great comfort for you in the accomplishment of your vocation and of your mission.  As Pope John Paul II invited us in entering into the new millennium: “Let us go forth in hope, with the support of Christ, with love for men.”  Duc in Altum!

Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus

"You, King of glory,know how to give great gifts, and you have promised them; there is nothing greater than you, and you bestowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.

"Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us yourself.  For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and our drink, our God.  Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul's desire, for I am wounded by  your love.

"These are the wounds I wish for, Lord.  Blessed is the soul so wounded by love.  Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks.  Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing.  In the same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound -- the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.  Amen."

- From an instruction by St. Columbanus, an excerpt from the second reading for Thursday of the twenty-first week in Ordinary Time, Liturgy of the Hours,

Picture: The icon and altar from the abbey church of Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, California.  The icon is copyright protected by Prince of Peace Abbey.  My photo of the icon here is posted by permission of Prince of Peace Abbey.

The icon's title is "Christ the Prince of Peace, the Universal Ruler," based on the Gospel of St. John and the Revelation of St. John.  The wounds of Christ's passion are shown as stars on Christ's wrists, based on Scripture describing the "Lamb standing, yet slain."  The facial proportions were taken from the Shroud of Turin.

Drink of the Fountain of Life

"It is right, brothers, that we must always long for, seek and love the Word of God on high, the fountain of wisdom.  According to the Apostle's words all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him, and he calls the thirsty to drink.

"If you thirst, drink of the fountain of life; if you are hungry, eat the bread of life.  Blessed are they who hunger for this bread and thirst for this fountain, for in so doing they will desire ever more to eat and drink.  For what they eat and drink is exceedingly sweet and their thirst and appetite for more is never satisfied.  Though it is ever tasted it is ever more desired.   Hence the prophet-king says: Taste and see how sweet, how agreeable is the Lord."

- From an instruction by St. Columbanus, an excerpt from the second reading for Wednesday of the twenty-first week in Ordinary Time, Liturgy of the Hours,

Picture: Stained glass window "Blessed Host" by Debora Coombs  for St. Mary's Cathedral, Portland, Oregon.  Used by permission of Debora Coombs.

Rivers of Living Water

Thoughts on prayer and contemplation from the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

1.  Prayer is a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, and it is urgently needed in the struggle against poverty.

"Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed.  People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone.  Piety does not undermine the struggle against the poverty of our neighbours, however extreme.  In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service." (Encyclical 36)

2.  Prayer is a means to an encounter with God, seeking His presence with the consolation of the Spirit to ourselves and our work, which is needed in the face of activism and secularism.

"It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work.  Clearly, the Christian who prays does not claim to be able to change God's plans or correct what he has foreseen.  Rather, he seeks an encounter with the Father of Jesus Christ, asking God to be present with the consolation of the Spirit to him and his work.  A personal relationship with God and an abandonment to his will can prevent man from being demeaned and save him from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism." (Encyclical 37)

3.  In the Church's liturgical prayer, we experience God's love and learn to recognize His presence in our daily lives, and we can then respond in love.

"In the Church's Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives.  He has loved us first and he continues to do so; we too, then, can respond with love.  God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing.  He loves us, he makes us see and experience his love, and since he has 'loved us first', love can also blossom as a response within us." (Encyclical 17)

4.  When we cannot understand why God does not intervene in suffering, we should ask God in prayerful dialogue, not to challenge God, but to affirm our faith in His sovereign power as when Jesus on the Cross cried out.

"Often we cannot understand why God refrains from intervening.  Yet he does not prevent us from crying out, like Jesus on the Cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mt 27:46).  We should continue asking this question in prayerful dialogue before his face: 'Lord, holy and true, how long will it be?' (Rev 6:10). . . .Our protest is not meant to challenge God, or to suggest that error, weakness or indifference can be found in him.  For the believer, it is impossible to imagine that God is powerless or that 'perhaps he is asleep' (cf. I Kg 18:27).  Instead, our crying out is, as it was for Jesus on the Cross, the deepest and most radical way of affirming our faith in his sovereign power." (Encyclical 38)

5.  No one can live always giving from agape love without also receiving love as a gift.  In order to become a source from which rivers of living water flow, it is necessary to constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ.

"The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature.  On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone.  He cannot always give, he must also receive.  Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift.  Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 19:34).  Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn  7:37-38)."   (Encyclical 7)

6.  The Song of Songs is an expression of faith that people can enter into union with God: a unity in which both God and man remain themselves and yet become fully one.

"Thus the Song of Songs became, both in Christian and Jewish literature, a source of mystical knowledge and experience, an expression of the essence of biblical faith: that man can indeed enter into union with God -- his primordial aspiration.  But this union is no mere fusion, a sinking in the nameless ocean of the Divine; it is a unity which creates love, a unity in which both God and man remain themselves and yet become fully one."  (Encyclical 10)

7.  The imagery of marriage between God and Israel came to mean the union with God through sharing in Jesus' self-gift, sharing in his body and blood, a sacramental 'mysticism' grounded in God's condescension to us.

"The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation.  More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.  The imagery of marriage between God and Israel is now realized in a way previously inconceivable: it had meant standing in God's presence, but now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus' self-gift, sharing in his body and blood.  The sacramental 'mysticism', grounded in God's condescension towards us, operates at a radically different level and lifts us to far greater heights than anything that any human mystical elevation could ever accomplish."  (Encyclical 13)

8.  It is part of love's growth that it seeks to become exclusive and eternal.  Love is "ecstasy", not in the sense of a moment of intoxication but rather as a journey toward self-giving and toward the discovery of God.

"It is part of love's growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being 'for ever'.  Love embraces the whole of existence in each of its dimensions, including the dimension of time.  It could hardly be otherwise, since its promise looks towards its definitive goal: love looks to the eternal.  Love is indeed 'ecstasy', not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God. . . ."  (Encyclical 6)

9.  By contemplating the pierced side of Christ, we can understand that God is love.  It is from there that our definition of love must begin, and there we find the path of Christian life and love.

"His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him.  This is love in its most radical form.  By contemplating the pierced side of Christ (cf. 19:37), we can understand the starting point of this Encyclical Letter: 'God is love' (I Jn 4:8).  It is there that this truth can be contemplated.  It is from there that our definition of love must begin.  In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move."  (Encyclical 12)

10.  The intimate union with God, through which the soul is totally pervaded by Him, enables those who have drunk from the fountain of God's love to become in turn a fountain from which flows rivers of living water, as shown by Mary, Virgin and Mother.

"Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. . . . The testimonials of gratitude, offered to her from every continent and culture, are a recognition of that pure love which is not self-seeking but simply benevolent.  At the same time, the devotion of the faithful shows an infallible intuition of how such love is possible: it becomes so as a result of the most intimate union with God through which the soul is totally pervaded by him -- a condition which enables those who have drunk from the fountain of God's love to become in their turn a fountain from which 'flow rivers of living water' (Jn 7:38)." (Encyclical 42)

Photos: Prayer walk at Prince of Peace Abbey (Benedictine), Oceanside, California; the altar of the Parish church of Solesmes, France; the crucifix from Church of the Nativity, Rancho Santa Fe, California

Carmel, Living Water, and the Mantle of Elijah

From October 7, 2005 (originally posted on this blog's original aol blog site; modified 3-15-07):

The Carmelite Orders of priests, monks and nuns date their origin back to the twelfth century.  Then, during the Crusades, a certain group of western Europeans began to live as hermits in the Holy Land, on Mount Carmel.  They wanted to imitate the life of Christ, living where he had lived. 

One of the Old Testament figures who is particularly appreciated by the Carmelites is the prophet Elijah.  It was on Mount Carmel that the prophet Elijah challenged Ahab and said to the people, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Ba'al, then follow him."  (I Kings 18:21 RSV). 

In the Biblical account of Elijah's challenge to the prophets of the false god Ba'al, the prophets of Ba'al offered one bull to Ba'al, and Elijah offered another bull to the Lord, each of them laying it on the wood and putting no fire to it.  The bull offered to Ba'al did not burn.  Elijah called the people to come near to him, built an altar,  and had four jars of water poured on the offering and the altar.  And he prayed, "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it  be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant . . . ." and the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the offering.  (I Kings 18:36)

Another story of Elijah that may figure in Carmelite thinking, perhaps including the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, is in I Kings 17.  There, God told Elijah to hide himself "by the brook Cherith, that is east of the Jordan.  You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." (I Kings 17:4). There, for a while, God provided a torrent of water for Elijah in the brook, and God provided food for him each day, brought to him by the ravens. 

The brown scapular worn by Carmelites is a symbol of their ideal of intimacy with God and friendship among His disciples.  It is a sort of mantle, as when the prophet of Elijah was taken up to heaven, and his mantle fell on his disciple Elisha, passing on to Elisha the spirit of Elijah, as Elisha had asked to have a double share of Elijah's spirit (II Kings 2:9-10).  As a chariot of fire took Elijah up by a whirlwind into heaven, his mantle fell from him.  Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah and struck the water, saying "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"  And the water was parted, and Elisha went over (II Kings 2:11-14).

St. Teresa of Avila became a Carmelite nun in sixteenth century Spain, where the order had lost much of its original emphasis on prayer, frugal living, and dependence upon God to provide.  She worked to reform the Carmelite order and wrote books that are still treasured for the richness of their teaching about God and prayer. 

Water is one of the images from Scripture that figures heavily in her writings, especially the living water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well, and perhaps also the brook of water from the Old Testament account of Elijah. 

The woman at the well is pictured in an enormous painting that now hangs in one of the monasteries where Teresa once lived in Avila.  The painting once hung in her parents' house near there, another building that is also still standing from the sixteenth century.  Teresa must have thought about that painting and the living water as a child growing up in that house, until it came to be symbolic to her of the abundant grace that Jesus gives as He draws us closer to Him in prayer.

From The Life:

"I call to remembrance—oh, how often!—that living water of which our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman. That Gospel has a great attraction for me; and, indeed, so it had even when I was a little child, though I did not understand it then as I do now.  I used to pray much to our Lord for that living water; and I had always a picture of it, representing our Lord at the well, with this inscription, "Domine, da mihi aquam [Sir, give me this water]."

- The Life of St. Teresa of Avila, Chapter 30, quoting John 4:15.

In her writings, water is a symbol of the spiritual blessings that God gives as we draw closer to Him in prayer.  In her first book, The Life, she wrote about the "first water", the "second water", the "third water" (flowing from a spring or stream), and a series of waters providing for a garden, as symbolic of deeper states of prayer. 

In contemplative prayer described in The Life as the prayer of union, Teresa combined symbols of fire and water.  This fire and water is symbolic of the presence of the Holy Spirit and of the inner fire and grace of drawing close to God in contemplative prayer, and symbolic of tears of joy that can follow this prayer.  Perhaps it brings to mind the fire from God that consumed Elijah's offering although it was covered in water, thus showing the Lord to be the true God, and showing the idol Baal to be nothing. She wrote of the soul being bathed in tears of joy:

"There remains in the soul, when the prayer of union is over, an exceedingly great tenderness; so much so, that it would undo itself—not from pain, but through tears of joy it finds itself bathed therein, without being aware of it, and it knows not how or when it wept them.  But to behold the violence of the fire subdued by the water, which yet makes it burn the more, gives it great delight. "

- The Life of St. Teresa of Avila, Chapter 19

Over the coming week, I will try to choose a quotation from one of her books, a discussion of some them within them, a list of biographies and resources, or a list of weblinks about her life and works.  I won't write a biographical sketch as I have done for some other saints but will try to write more personally, some of my impressions of being in Avila and thoughts about her life and writing.