Arhivele lunare: martie 2018
O lamentatie din vechime
Improperele, o veche cântare greceasca din primele secole crestine, sunt constituite dintr-un dialog între Dumnezeu si om.
Dumnezeu le aminteste oemenilor binefacerile primite, si… nu cere socoteala, nu reproseaza, dar îsi exprima, „omeneste” consternarea pentru raspunsul primit la rastignirea Fiului.
„Popule, meus, popule meus”:
„Popor al meu, ce ti-am facut, cu ce te-am suparat, raspunde-Mi”. Si nu e vorba numai de cei de acum doua mii de ani…
Iar omul implora:
„Sfinte Dumnezeule, Sfinte tare, Sfinte fara de moarte, îndura-te de noi”
Hagios Theos, Hagios iskiros, Hagios athanatos,
eleison imas”
În latina, Biserica Occidentului a rostit, vreme de secole, si o mai face înca, nu cred ca peste tot. O cântare sacra a devenit un imn care se poate cânta, ori ba, în cadrul liturghiei venerarii Sfintei Cruci.
Santus Deus, Sanctus fortis, Sanctus inmortalis,
miserere nobis.
„The way down is the way up”
The Way of the Cross
by Richard Rohr
Jesus is a person and, at the same time, a process. Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also “the Way”—the way of the cross. He’s the goal and the means.
For all authentic spiritual teachers, their message is the same as their life; their life is their message. For some reason, we want the “person” of Jesus as our “God totem,” but we really do not want his message of “descent” except as a theology of atonement: this is what Jesus needed to do to “save us.” We do not want to see the cross as the pattern of life and a path for our own liberation. We prefer heavenly transactions to our own transformation.
The way of the cross looks like failure. In fact, you could say that Christianity is about how to win by losing, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is descent. We need to be more concerned with following Jesus, which he told us to do numerous times, and less with worshipping Jesus—which he never once told us to do.
The following early Christian hymn describes and honors the Christ journey: a path of kenosis (self-emptying), incarnating in the “slave,” “as all humans are,” and even all the way to the bottom of total “acceptance” and “even humbler yet” (the cross). This allows God to raise Jesus up in God’s time and God’s way, and “name” him anew in a glorious state of transformation. He is the living icon of the whole journey.
If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. . . . In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus:
His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
—Philippians 2:1-2, 5-11, Jerusalem Bible
Un punct de vedere
Sacred Triduum
The conclusion of Holy Week ends with the “Liturgy of all Liturgies,” commonly known as the “Sacred Triduum.” This liturgical event is so important, it spans three days!
It is a beautiful liturgy that is meant to draw us even closer to the great Paschal mystery of Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection.
Below is Benedict XVI’s helpful summary of each day, which he presented in a Wednesday audience in 2007.
Holy Thursday
In the evening, entering the Easter Triduum, the Christian community relives what happened at the Last Supper in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In the Upper Room, the Redeemer wanted to anticipate the sacrifice of his life in the Sacrament of the bread and wine changed into his Body and Blood: he anticipated his death, he freely gave his life, he offered the definitive gift of himself to humanity.
With the washing of the feet, the gesture with which, having loved his own, he loved them to the end is repeated (cf. Jn 13:1), and he bequeathed this act of humility to his disciples as their “badge”: love unto death.
After the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the liturgy invites the faithful to pause in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, reliving Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. And we see that the disciples fell asleep, leaving their Lord on his own.
Good Friday
Good Friday, which commemorates the events between Christ’s condemnation to death and his Crucifixion, is a day of penance, fasting and prayer, of participation in the Lord’s Passion. At the prescribed hour, the Christian Assembly, with the help of the Word of God and liturgical actions, renews the history of human infidelity to the divine plan, which was nonetheless brought about exactly in this way; and it listens once again to the moving narrative of the Lord’s sorrowful Passion.
The Assembly then addresses to the Heavenly Father a long “prayer of the faithful” which embraces all the needs of the Church and of the world.
Subsequently, the community adores the Cross and receives the Eucharist, consuming the sacred species reserved from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on the previous day. In commenting on Good Friday, St. John Chrysostom observes: “First, the Cross stood for contempt, but today it is something venerable; before it was the symbol of condemnation, today it is the hope of salvation. It has truly become a source of infinite good; it has freed us from error, it has dispelled our shadows, it has reconciled us with God, it has transformed us from being enemies of God to being members of his family, from being strangers to being his neighbours: this Cross is the destruction of enmity, the source of peace, the casket of our treasure” (cf. De Cruce et Latrone I, 1, 4).
Easter Vigil
Holy Saturday is the day when the liturgy is hushed, the day of great silence, and Christians are invited to preserve interior recollection, often difficult to encourage in our day, in order to be better prepared for the Easter Vigil.
Finally, during the Easter Vigil the veil of sorrow which shrouds the Church because of the death of the Lord will be torn by the victorious cry: Christ is risen and has defeated death for ever! We will then truly be able to understand the mystery of the Cross, “since God also creates wonders even in the impossible,” an ancient writer says, “so that we may know that he alone can do what he wills. From his death comes our life, from his wounds our healing, from his fall our resurrection, from his descent our uplifting” (Anonymous, Quartodecimano).
Jeudi Saint, aujourd’hui
Évangile selon saint Jean (13,1-15)
Avant la fête de la Pâque, sachant que l’heure
était venue pour lui de passer de ce monde à son
Père, Jésus, ayant aimé les siens qui étaient dans
le monde, les aima jusqu’au bout. Au cours du
repas, alors que le diable a déjà mis dans le cœur
de Judas, fils de Simon l’Iscariote, l’intention de
le livrer, Jésus, sachant que le Père a tout remis
entre ses mains, qu’il est sorti de Dieu et qu’il
s’en va vers Dieu, se lève de table, dépose son
vêtement, et prend un linge qu’il se noue à la
ceinture ; puis il verse de l’eau dans un bassin.
Alors il se mit à laver les pieds des disciples et à
les essuyer avec le linge qu’il avait à la ceinture.
Il arrive donc à Simon-Pierre, qui lui dit : « C’est
toi, Seigneur, qui me laves les pieds ? » Jésus lui
répondit : « Ce que je veux faire, tu ne le sais pas
maintenant ; plus tard tu comprendras. » Pierre
lui dit : « Tu ne me laveras pas les pieds ; non,
jamais ! » Jésus lui répondit : « Si je ne te lave
pas, tu n’auras pas de part avec moi. » (…)
Quand il leur eut lavé les pieds, il reprit son
vêtement, se remit à table et leur dit :ujourd’hui
« Comprenez-vous ce que je viens de faire pour
vous ? Vous m’appelez “Maître” et “Seigneur”,
et vous avez raison, car vraiment je le suis. Si
donc moi, le Seigneur et le Maître, je vous ai lavé
les pieds, vous aussi, vous devez vous laver les
pieds les uns aux autres. C’est un exemple que je
vous ai donné afin que vous fassiez, vous aussi, comme je l’ai fait pour vous.”
AMOUR DESARMANT
“Ce que je veux faire, tu ne le sais pas maintenant; plus tard tu comprendras”
Voilà la Pâque de Pierre, des disciples: assister sans comprendre à la Pâque de leur Maître et Seigneur. Jésus au pied de ses disciples, en train de leur laver les pieds, ce n’était pas compréhensible pour eux. Du coup, pour certains, pas acceptable non plus. C’est l’expérience de Pierre. Il ne peut accepter ce qui n’entre pas dans sa logique. Il ne se laisse pas faire. Cela le coupe de Jésus. Pierre doit accepter ce qu’il ne conçoit pas. Difficile abandon de soi pour entrer dans le monde de l’autre. Jésus n’a cessé de les entraîner sur ce terrain. Tout leur vécu commun aurait pourtant dû le préparer à ce nouveau débordement.
Jésus dépasse l’entendement. Il n’est pas dans ce qui se laisse comprendre, il est dans la profondeur et la gravité d’un geste qui vient de plus loin que lui et qui va au-delà de lui.
Son geste regarde le Père qui l’inspire. Il est au pied du Royaume qui ne veut laisser personne en dehors de son amour. Même Judas est pris dans son geste déconcertant. Le Royaume c’est quand on ne refuse pas ce qui est en train de se passer.
Et que se passe-t-il ? Jésus aime. Jusqu’au bout. Tous. Nous aussi nous assistons sans comprendre à ce qui est en train de se passer. Tant et tant d’événements
déconcertants. Et pourtant, Dieu continue d’aimer. Jusqu’au bout. Tous. Nous en sommes les signes. Pauvres, ignorants, mais aimés et institués par Jésus à notre baptême pour laver les pieds des autres. Plongés dans son amour, nous avons fait dans notre chair et continuons de faire l’expérience de Jésus à nos pieds. Nous savons maintenant
ce qu’il voulait faire: nous rendre aptes à le suivre, à le vivre en son nom, à faire exister ce Royaume pour tous dont Dieu rêve depuis que son amour créateur nous a posés dans la vie. Dieu continue de créer les gestes et les paroles qui ne s’éteindront pas malgré la mort qui n’est jamais loin de ceux qui sont devenus libres dans l’amour. L’heure, c’est à chaque instant, parce que c’est à chaque instant que la vie réclame l’amour qui se tient à nos pieds.
Laissons- le faire. Ne résistons pas à ce qui est en train de nous gagner peu à peu: le désir de vivre jusqu’au bout.
Marie-Dominique Minassian
Equipe Evangile@Peinture
Sanctus
Doi întelepti si o binecuvântare împartasita
E vorba de Fr Thomas Keating, monah cistercian, si de rabinul Zalman Schachter Shalomi.
O întâlnire în spirit între doi contemplativi care împartasesc aceeasi revelatie.
O revelatie care ajunge la om prin natura, prin Scriptura, si prin actiunea directa a lui Dumnezeu asupra unui suflet deschis, receptiv, doritor.
Arta fotografica
http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-43472907
„The winners of this year’s Sony World Photography Awards Open competition have been revealed, with Britain’s Nick Dolding’s portrait of Emile (above) being voted the best in the Portraiture category.
All the category winners will now compete for the Open Photographer of the Year award, which will be announced on the 19 April.”
What exactly does it mean to “hold space” for yourself?
„We seem to do it naturally for others, but what does it mean to do it for ourselves? For me, holding space means becoming the container to experience myself; to grow, to feel, to express, to test out, to live. It is being present, treating yourself with care, consideration, kindness, compassion and love. Hearing the needs of your body and mind, feeling your emotions, and listening to the yearning of your soul. It’s a way of being, a lifestyle, a profound choice and a stand you take. It’s not a belief system, but is rather a way of being with yourself and meeting your own needs.This can be lifesaving in intimate relationships, where we can ruin a good thing by trying to make the other meet all our needs.We spend every minute of the day with ourselves. How much of it is good, supportive, and kind?
Holding space is like a great pilgrimage home to your own soul. A key to holding space for yourself is to see yourself with all your faults and without judgement and criticism. To see yourself with kindness and love, just as you would a friend. It’s making friends with your fear, inviting Cousin Self-Doubt, Mrs Perfectionist, Brother Criticism, and Sister Putdown, in for a cup of tea around the fireplace.
Treat yourself with care, consideration, kindness, compassion and love.“Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.” Nathaniel Brand
Holding space for yourself gives you a place to check your direction, to see who or what is in the driver seat of your life, and to adjust your course when you need to. It brings space and awareness into your life, ensuring your life reflects your soul and your longings, so you don’t have to wake up at age 45 and realise you don’t like who you’ve become.”
Source https://upliftconnect.com/hold-space-for-yourself/
By Azriel Re’Shel
Blog de albina 