Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Easter week

THE LORD IS RISEN!


Such a little phrase, such an immense event! I must confess I've not posted for a few days because the old noodle is trying to unwrap itself from the awesome Passion week, a Triduum to be remembered, a dear bishop, visibly suffering, who begged us to make a holy Triduum, preached on the Real Presence to the assembled C&E visitors, and was overheard to decry a Holy Friday post communion OCP "hymn" set to the Gilligan's Island theme song, glorious polyphony still the remembered impression.

This Easter scriptural passage will not stop bouncing in my head: Why do you seek the living among the dead? This is such a metaphor for the search for truth which attempts to exclude Truth, a Person, not a set of facts. Yet without faith, we are still driven by the impulse which God has built into us, to seek truth, for that is the image we are made in. So many imposters to be found among the dead; those not born again to life and living the life of grace. And yet, our Gracious Lord, St. Paul tells us, uses even this, for all things work to good for those who love God. And that even this search in the wrong places, will not open for us without heavenly intervention, for those who sought the Lord on that first Easter morning, found the stone rolled back for them. This is the action of grace, in revealing the Author of Life to the seeker who has made the committment of heart to find the truth, even if it leads where he does not want, to Truth.

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen O.C.D., in today's Divine Intimacy meditation, points out that Mary Magdalen was so consumed with our Lord, and that she simply assumed everyone else was as well. That is why she asked (a perceived) gardener, "I don't know where they have taken him" - Who? Mary assumes that we all think of nothing else but our Lord. This is quite profound. She makes an assumption, not to be confused with presumption.

Jesus saith to her: Mary. She turning, saith to him: Rabboni
My sheep know me, and I call them by name, He had said.
Let us be turned unto the Lord.
It is said that St. Dominic admonished his friars to speak only of or to God.
methinks he knew what Mary Magdalen had found.

I will soon resume the posts from Lacordaire, but in the meantime, thanks to the book recommend of Catholic Church Music at The New Liturgical Movement, here's a page with some awesome pre-reformation English music; in particular, the Ave Maria:

Robert Parsons Project: The Latin Works

We also have an exceptional Third Order Chapter meeting coming up; we will be hosting the Divine Mercy at 3PM Sunday, and have as a guest speaker Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, of Wyoming Catholic College. Peter and his wife are the only Third Order Dominicans in Wyoming!

1 comment:

  1. I didn't hear about any comments about OCP hymns, but we have noticed that the bishop appears to be under the weather. Yet he still managed to chant the nearly entire Easter Vigil Mass.

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