I thought it might be good to pray the rosary together, through the Mysteries, as we do so sharing meditations and thoughts we have as we go through it. Lets start with the Sorrowful Mysteries: The Agony in the Garden: Luke 22:39-46 39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." I used to think ,when I was young that the Agony Christ suffered here was in worry about the terrible things that were to happen to Him later that same day. However it seems to me that the essence on the Darkness and suffering in my own life has always been this: That what I am going through seems meaningless and without purpose, with no reason and no good effect. In reading of the sufferings of Saint Therese of Liseaux for example as she suffered on her death bed there is the awful darkness this sense of meaning less of lack of purpose. “Either the Little Flower is looked upon (perhaps because of her nickname) with sentimentality, or, as one gets to know her better, with dread. On that frail battleground of her flesh were fought the wars of today. . . She was tempted against faith and said that for the last years of her life she forced herself to believe with her indomitable will, while a mocking voice cried in her ears that there was neither heaven nor hell, and she was flinging away her life for nothing”. - Dorothy Day (1949). “Having known the painful ordeal of religious doubt and even the night of faith, Thérèse united herself in mysterious solidarity with non-believers. Convinced that all human beings have the right to know themselves loved by God, she wanted to reach them all”. - Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State (1991). One of the things I like most of trying to follow our Catholic Faith is that when I wake up in the morning ,when I look in the mirror I can at look myself in the mirror and not be afraid. For we are all engaging in a perpetual judgement of ourselves and our lives. This is why folks often flee from this judgement, to sex, to drugs, to drink, to the 'good life' anywhere but looking in the mirror of self. In a real way then I believe in utter darkness Jesus gazed , not in the mirror of His own sins, for He was the Lamb of God and utterly without sin, but in the mirror of the value of His own Sacrifice, that the mirror held before His eyes was a vision of whether of not His Sacrifice had value and meaning and purpose. The bottom line was, 'Is it all worth it?' 'Are these people worth it?' 'Is it all a waste of time?' ......and the one who brought this Dark Mirror to hold before Christ's eyes was Satan himself, the dark angel: .... and so it seems to me that the very dark doorway through which we enter the Garden of Gethsemane and join Jesus there is through the our own very dark Gardens. In as much we have borne the Cross and cling to the Cross so we are enabled to empathise with Christ..... BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN THERE OURSELVES So that the price of our admission to this terrible Garden of Darkness is the coin of our own blood, we are able to walk into this terrible, terrible darkness because for us we are no strangers to this Darkness no newcomers to this Garden of grief and pain. We look into the Mirror that is held before us, because each day we look in this mirror, through grace, through prayer.
Wonderful Padraig, We all face our own 'garden of Getsemane' moments in our lives and this is painful but the umbilical cord of faith can lead us through. In fact the darkness is not to be feared rather it can be embraced with faith, hope and love. Then there are what I call the desert moments on interior desolation and abandonment when God appears to have hidden but in reality we are like a butterfly on his hand and he takes delight in us. These are [spiritually] beautiful moments when we run, no race to the feet of our father and implore his mercy and we seek his face with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, all our will and our tears The key to heaven lies in the maxim 'seek 1st the kingdom of God' and all of these things shall be given unto thee.
Thanks for this Padraig. I find myself very distracted in praying the rosary at the moment so I think this might help give me focus. I just wanted to add that I remember reading somewhere (it could have been in the divine mercy or maybe in one of Anne the lay Apostles books) that when Jesus was suffering in the garden while He saw all the souls that he would suffer to save, He could also see all those that would refuse to avail of His sacrifice and would choose eternal death rather than accept them, and as you were saying this was the greatest source of pain for Him. He also told Anne that she could think of it as though Satan offered to give Him every soul that would ever exist except yours. That if He would simply agree not to suffer this agony and death every soul would be saved except your soul. But being so in love with you and not wanting to be without you He chose God's cup of suffering.
Jesus in the garden also saw all the sins that would be committed throughout all time, right up to the very end.
Padraig wrote: .... and so it seems to me that the very dark doorway through which we enter the Garden of Gethsemane and join Jesus there is through the our own very dark Gardens. In as much we have borne the Cross and cling to the Cross so we are enabled to empathise with Christ..... I believe Jesus in the Garden was assaulted by the fact that in spite of his tender mercies and impending sacrificial death, millions, perhaps billions, would embrace satan's motto, I will not serve! The Love of Christ compels Him to be vulnerable for our sake. The true test of discipleship is the call to be vulnerable for the sake of others, out of love for Jesus! This path is one of sacrifice, suffering, and even persecution. I know that when months pass and I fail to see any plausible fruit resulting from my efforts at discipleship, my heart is tempted to despair and ask, Why bother? At such times, I cling to the hem of Jesus waiting for him to turn and ask, Who touched my garments? (Mark 5:30) Without fail, his mercy follows! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
I think that there are times in our lives when we are faced with the 'Bottom line' a kind of minor judgement of real darkness when we weigh ourselves up about the sin in our lives a kind of accountants reckoning. I think the bottom line in the Garden of Gethsemane was not Christ's own sins but our sins, the sins of the world. I suspect that the bottom line Satan presented ChrIst with was, 'Is it all worth it?...are THEY WORTH IT?' I also like to think that the Angel of Consolation in order to give Jesus courage and hope pointed to us, to us who say this most sorrowful mystery and so in a very real way stand with Jesus to keep Him company while the Apostles...the Early Church slept. But Mary stayed awake and prayed and so we stand with Mary, Mother of the Church to comfort Jesus. We ourselves are little angels of Consolation.
THE SECOND SORROWFUL MYSTERY; The Scourging at the Pillar. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. (John 19,1) On a very,very hot and blazing day I found myself on the Via Dolorsa in the old city of Jerusalem where I had come to join the stations of the Cross through the crowded streets . I was happy enough while I waited to find the cool darkness and peace of a very beautiful marbled little chapel there in off the street. I discovered that this was the Church of the Flagellation which, according to mistaken ancient tradition the church enshrines the spot where Jesus Christ was flogged by Roman soldiers before his journey down the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. I remember one time hearing a talk from an old very holy Passionist priest on the scourging at the pillar . He talked of the soldiers at the Praetorium at the Roman Barracks and how bored and angry they must have been, Here they were stuck in a hot and alien city were the locals detested them and were always brewing up trouble. So bored were they ,he pictured them walking round kicking the stones in their frustration. They one thing they wanted, really . really wanted was to get their hands on a Jew and take things out on him. In the person of Jesus they had their big chance. I have always felt frustrated in viewing art regarding the Passion of Christ. So very,very few of them, it seems to me ever gets anywhere close to the terrible violence associated with something like the Scourging. One person who did was Mel Gibson in his film, the Passion of the Christ and I suspect he achieved this by basing it on the Visions of a Catholic Mystic, Catherine Emmerich. But why all this brutality, the agony, the horror of this death? Could Jesus not have saved us with a single drop of blood. But this I think goes to the heart of an event like the Scourging. It is essentially a cry of love. God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. Not only to save us but to join with us in our salvation. He is the lamb of God. He stoops to us in deepest love and joins us in our sorrows. So the Scourging at the Pillar is an act of the deepest compassionate love, for as we suffer so He has suffered too. He has borne our afflictions. He not only loves us in our sorrows, He, the sinless one had joins us in them. He has bent, bloodied to raise us up. But the deep sadness for us as we watch these Roman soldiers laugh and mock and wield the whip, as they place the Crown of thorns on Christ's head and spit in His face that we are no distant spectators from this scene. No for we are sinners and so we have joined with these brutal soldiers and scourged Jesus with our sins. We share the guilt for we have crowned Christ with our sins and spat in the face of God. Such sorrow, Such guilt. Such unbearable grief. My sins have done this. But convicted of my sins I have this for comfort. I stand here too in love, my God. I am deeply sorry for my sins which have brought you to this pass. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, Bring me to a true and lasting repentance for my many sins. See me standing here today in faith and with love and compassion for your pain and let this be an ointment to heal these many wounds. Oh my Jesus, forgive my many sins! See my tears!! Lead me in the path of your true love.
To look into the suffering face of Jesus is to be very conscious of my own sins. I think of this as very much the salt of spirituality, this gazing into my own failings and shortcomings. It is grounding myself to the reality of my own guilt. Guilt is not a popular word in the West, especially amongst apostate Catholic comedians and talking heads. Here the war cry is to 'shake off guilt' like a bad dream as though it were some fault or failing. But how can anyone who has sinned not feel guilt for we are all sinners and; Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and Proverbs 24:16 ;For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief But the general corrupt feeling in the West has led people to cast of the sense of evil and of good, life is just a series of decisions for one thing and another, some better some wrose , the general feeling being if it 'feels good' do it. That we are all Gods with the freedom to choose. The Christian way is very,very different, realising that the only path to true freedom is to do God's Will. Any other choice is sin. That true freedom lies only in acknowledging that we were created by love, through love for love, to become love.
The Third Sorrowful Mystery; The Crowning with Thorns {Do you notice in this painting that even the dogs is barking at Jesus, showing how completely things have turned against Him. I just mention this because it makes me sad as a Dog lover...or maybe the dog is trying to protest Jesus? Nice thought.} I can't help thinking back, to the period when I was converted in 1981 back to the Catholic Faith. My prayer life then was very devotional , I used to carry I load of little books of Devotions with me when I visited Churches to read and pray with. Devotionalism is one of the cornerstones of the Church, though one that I am afraid many modern Catholics tend to look down their noses at , especially when they are connected with the visions and apparitions of the saints. One saint who is to be the Queen of Devotional prayer connected with the Passion is Saint Bridget of Sweden. I have always been so fond of her because of her graphic descriptions of the Passion and the most beautiful prayers she wrote, but also because of the promises. the wonderful promises attached to such prayers and Devotions. The most celebrated saint of the Northern kingdoms, born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373. Early life She was the daughter of Birger Persson, governor and provincial judge (Lagman) of Uppland, and of Ingeborg Bengtsdotter. Her father was one of the wealthiest landholders of the country, and, like her mother, distinguished by deep piety. St. Ingrid, whose death had occurred about twenty years before Bridget's birth, was a near relative of the family. Birger's daughter received a careful religious training, and from her seventh year showed signs of extraordinary religious impressions and illuminations. To her education, and particularly to the influence of an aunt who took the place of Bridget's mother after the latter's death (c. 1315), she owed that unswerving strength of will which later distinguished her. Marriage In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was united in marriage to Ulf Gudmarsson, who was then eighteen. She acquired great influence over her noble and pious husband, and the happy marriage was blessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the great charity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. She was acquainted with several learned and pious theologians, among them Nicolaus Hermanni, later Bishop of Linköping, Matthias, canon of Linköping, her confessor, Peter, Prior of Alvastrâ, and Peter Magister, her confessor after Matthias. She was later at the court of King Magnus Eriksson, over whom she gradually acquired great influence. Early in the forties (1341-43) in company with her husband she made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. On the return journey her husband was stricken with an attack of illness, but recovered sufficiently to finish the journey. Shortly afterwards, however, he died (1344) in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastrâ in East Gothland. Widowhood Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religious undertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her, and she wrote down the revelations she then received, which were in great repute during the Middle Ages. They were translated into Latin by Matthias Magister and Prior Peter. St. Bridget now founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour, whose chief monastery, at Vadstena, was richly endowed by King Magnus and his queen (1346). To obtain confirmation for her institute, and at the same time to seek a larger sphere of activity for her mission, which was themoral uplifting of the period, she journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. In August, 1370, Pope Urban V confirmed the Rule of her congregation. Bridget made earnest representations to Pope Urban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She accomplished the greatest good in Rome, however, by her pious and charitable life, and her earnest admonitions to others to adopt a better life, following out the excellent precedents she had set in her native land. The year following her death her remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena. She was canonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX. In one of visions, Bridget says Our Lady described her son as follows: "Such as my Son is in Heaven you cannot behold. But hear what He was in body in the world. He was so beautiful of countenance that no one looked Him in the face without being consoled by His aspect, even if heartbroken with grief. The just were consoled with spiritual consolation; and even the bad were relieved from worldly sadness as long as they gazed upon Him. Hence, those in grief were wont to say: 'Let us go and see Mary's Son; we shall be relieved for that time.' In His twentieth year He was perfect in manly strength and stature. Amid those of modern times He would be large—not overmuch—but of considerable frame and build. His hair, eyebrows, and beard were of a light brown; His beard a hand's width long; His forehead not prominent or retreating, but erect. His nose moderate, neither small nor large; His eyes were so pure that even His enemies delighted to look upon Him. His chin was not prominent or over long, but graceful in beautiful moderation; His cheeks modestly full, His complexion clear white and red. His bearing was erect, and His whole body spotless." (Lib. iv, c.70) St. Bridget of Sweden leaves us no account of the actual crowning with thorns, but she tells us that when the Crucifixion was completed, the crown of thorns was again placed on Our Lord's head: "This done, they replaced on His head the crown of thorns which they had taken off while affixing Him to the Cross, and fastened it on His most sacred Head. It so wounded His venerable Head that His eyes were filled with the blood that flowed down." (Rev. Bk. 7) The Venerable Maria of Agreda, the famous Spanish mystic, sees the Crowning with Thorns in her vision as follows: "The executioners brought Our Savior to the guardhouse, where they again stripped Him of His clothes in a most cruel and insulting manner. They put upon His shoulders a dirty torn purple mantle in order that thus clad as a mock King He may serve as an object of mockery and derision for them. On His Sacred Head they placed a network woven with thorns to represent a crown. This network was composed of big strong thorns with very sharp points and was pressed down with such force that many of the thorns pierced the skull. The pain from the crowning with thorns was one of the greatest that the Son of God suffered in His Passion." Her account then relates how the whole cohort of Roman soldiers then came and took part in the cruel mockery. The accounts of the German mystics, Venerable Anna Katherine Emmerich and Teresa Neumann, while corresponding with the Gospel account, add many details. Sister Emmerich tells us: "The executioners were about fifty in number, mostly slaves or servants of the jailers and soldiers. A mob that gathered round the building was displaced by a thousand Roman soldiers who were drawn up in order and stationed there. The executioners tore off the garments of Jesus, thereby re-opening all His wounds. They threw over His shoulders an old scarlet mantle. They dragged Him to the seat prepared, having first placed the crown of thorns on His head. The crown of thorns was made of three branches plaited together, the greatest part of the thorns being purposely turned inwards so as to pierce Our Lord's Head. Having first placed these twisted branches on His forehead, they tied them tightly together at the back of His head... They put a reed in His hand. They then seized the reed from His hand and struck His head so violently that His eyes were filled with blood; they knelt before Him; derided Him; spat in His face and buffeted Him, saying at the same time, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'" Teresa Neumann's account of the crowning with thorns is similar to Ven. Anna Katherine Emmerich's: "The crown of thorns which is now ready is placed on Our Lord's head like a helmet; it is not just a crown as we see it depicted in our pictures. One of the soldiers presses the crown of thorns firmly on His Head. The blood flows down His whole Face which shows signs of intense pain during this terrible treatment. Then the executioners put something like a staff in the hands of our dear Savior, on the upper end of which is a natural knob, very much like a corn cob, like those I have seen at Fockenfeld, only smaller. They now amuse themselves with it, making mock genuflections before Him. I was specially indignant about the contempt implied by this mockery of bowing the knee before Our Savior. They spit in His Face and give themselves up to uncontrollable laughter over the defenselessness of the Prisoner." I mention these accounts because I always found them great doorways into meditating on the Passion.
The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery; Jesus Carries His Cross. They seized him, put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23,26) When I was a child I recall, more than anything else Christmas morning. There were ten of us kids, seven bus and three girls and shockingly early on Christmas morning we all dived downstairs to see what presents we had. We pored into our front room to an Aladdin's cave each of us knowing were to run to find our own toys. Thinking back on it , there was always more than a sidelong glance to see that no one got a present we liked more or wanted more. It cannot have been easy for my parents to get just the right stuff and stop jealousy and infighting. They did this of course by realising that all their children were different and by carefully noting all their wishes and catering for them. Catholic devotionalism is a bit like this. All God's children are different and are attracted to differing devotions and different aspects of Christ's Life. Some fall for angels, some are full of compassion for the Holy Souls, some pray strongly to the Holy Spirit and so on..... I have watched for several years, with grave respect a young woman who has a wonderful devotion to the Stations of the Cross. Again and again in different Churches I have watched her slowly walk round the Stations praying and have recognised a life time love of this devotion. Each devotion, like each present on Christmas day bringing its own rewards. I think more than anything else a conviction and deep sorrow for our sins. As we walk with Jesus to Calvary there is a real variety of images to draw us and each of us is drawn to differing events that occurred there. For me the event that draws me is when Jesus met His mother and they stared into each others eyes. Some times in life things happen, so deep and powerful that life seems to stop and all of us, our very souls and poured into those few moments. Its as though everything that has come before and everything that flows from that moment come together. It as though our lives were robes and they all tie together in that moment. I suppose for some it will be the day we got married, for others the birth of our first child, for others the day we first fell in love, for others the day our mother died...and so on... Mary one time walked into the Temple in Jerusalem with her little baby Jesus and heard a prophesy...... Luke 2:35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul-- to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." These were the first steps on a great journey that marked the very soul of Mary and Jesus a journey that led them to Calvary...and so for them both not a day went past that was not lived in the Shadow of the Cross and this story is shown so well in the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour when the infant Jesus runs to His mother for comfort when an angel shows forth a vision of the Cross...... But this was not a one way street, a story of pain and sorrow , yes, but a story of hope too, for they knew that from the Passion would dawn the Resurrection, not only of Jesus but Resurrection for the whole world. Jesus spoke of a thirst for the Passion, His thirst is now being slaked in the blood of His death. So for Jesus, so for Mary. We too must share this thirst too. The thirst for God's love, for ourselves and all poor sinners.
The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery. The Crucifixion After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. John 19:28-30 ] Many years ago I was talking with my father about God and I said to him that God is love and that all the Teachings of the Church and all Scripture and that all the lives if the saints can be summed up in one word, 'Love'. My father rolled his eyes at this and shook his head. Since then ,so many years ago my father has come back to me and talked about this conversation. He said when he first heard me saying this he thought I was being sentimental and simplistic...that what I was saying was 'Mushy'. He was always a very good father and a very devout Catholic, a buisnessman a man of the world who brought up a large family and himself went away for the religious life when he was young. He always had an interest in theology and spirituality and I suppose in many ways was the ideal Catholic father, husband and man. For instance I could never, ever picture him telling a lie or stealing or being in anyway dishonest and the same went for my mother. As far as either of them being in the least way unfaithful...well I could no more consider it than him sprouting antenae and turning into a Martian alien. I remmeber one time encouraging my mother to go to confession more often more often and her telling me, somewhat forlornly that she could never think of any sins to tell the priest!! I also remember telling her that a pot could never be scrubbed hard enough. So they were both people of great rectitude, very much people of their generation. Neither of them ever smoked or drunk and they would no more miss mass than burn down their house and both of them were very much people of prayer, their faith like rocks ,deep and simple, God as much a reality to them as the sun in the sky. But I think for my father God had a certain severity and strictness, rather like an Old Testament figure, rather as he himself was, a black and whiteness a concern for rules that embued his faith with a harshness, a starkness that could be off putting. In the last few years after the death of my mother , his wife of 50 years he has come to me several times and said that he now realised that what I said was right and that he, himself has come to discover that God is all about love . I notice in him, that rather like very bitter a cup of of coffee, sugar and cream has been poured into his soul and he has a much greater sweetness and light about him and that the dark, black and white shadows in his heart are resolving more and more into light. Why is this? Well I think more than anything else it came about after the death of my mother. For someone who has been married for 50 years loosing my mother was, for him like loosing both arms and legs, it was as though he had been cut in half and he really hung on the Cross. Like all Irish wives of that time she did pretty well everything for him. But in his case she was a great listener, he loved to talk, she loved to listen. But when she went home to heaven , there was no longer anyone to listen, at least at such great length to his utterances. He was alone. It seems to me that hanging on the Cross for any length of time has this effect, it sweetens us and fills us with light. So when we stand beneath the Cross with Mary staring at the dying Christ and joining with Him their we too are filled with light and love . The doorway through which this light and love enters our soul and sweetens us is the great doorway of suffering. The grapes of our little souls are crushed so that the wine of love is formed. When Jesus taught us to pray the very first thing He taught us to do was to call God , 'Father' and in this He taught us , as we approach God in prayer that the relationship we are to have with God is one of children to a loving Father. We are to know that GOd loves us. The path of prayer then is simply to become little so that we would be small enough for God to pick up and hug in His arms. This is the path of prayer, to love and become little enough so we can open our hearts to love, to become children.
Padraig, I don't think any of us can fathom the cross of bereavement that your father has carried. Jesus told us that in sacramental marriage the two become one. There is like an unspoken telepathy and bond. It must be like getting ripped in half to lose your soul-mate. You are a great son but then you had great parents!
Padraig such a rich background you have. No wonder you love to pray! You came from praying parents. I can't help but think that your parents devotion has somehow trickled down to this forum. How blessed we all are to receive it!
Bobby and Gail; It seems to me that when we talk of grace we are talking of sharing. This sharing is love. One of the great door ways through which this grace, this sharing comes to us is through our parents, they love us and so we share in God's love. Just so we are Christ to others when we share our love. I read a good thing last night; instructions on things we should do everyday. One of them was that we should make at least three people smile every day!! This is just another way of saying we should reach out and touch three people with our love every day. It was , I think St Therese of Liseaux who was concerned, whilst she was dying, at the trouble she was giving the other nuns who cared for her. But Jesus told her not to be concerned, for He said, 'When they nurse you, they nurse me',....and this relieved Therese of her concern. How wonderful is this, that others are doorways of God's grace; more wonderful yet, that we might be such door ways. Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's compassion to the world Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now. Teresa of Avila
The First Glorious Mystery. The Resurrection. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead ... even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:19, 20, 22 In the Western Church we tend to kneel at the foot of the Cross, while in the Eastern Churches they contemplate the Resurrection and the Transfiguration, Light, and Transformation. When I think of the Resurrection then I often recall stories of the Russian Hermit/ Monk Saint Seraphim of Sarov and how , whilst the other monks wore black, he always wore white in remembrance of the Resurrection. {St Seraphim was declared a Saint by the Orthodox Church but Pope John Paul 2 referred to him as a Saint in his book, 'Threshold of Hope'. Born July 19, 1759, he was baptized with the name of Prochor, after Saint Prochorus, one of the first Seven Deacons of the Early Church and the disciple of John the Evangelist. His parents, Isidore and Agathia Moshnin lived in Kursk, Russia. His father Isidore was a merchant, but Seraphim had little interest in business. Instead, he began a life that was very devout to the Orthodox Church at a young age. According to Orthodox tradition, as a small boy he was healed by a Wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), Our Lady of Kursk. During his life he experienced a number of visions. In 1777, at the age of nineteen, he joined Sarov Monastery as a novice (poslushnik). In 1786 he was officially tonsured (took his monastic vows) and was given the religious name of Seraphim, which means "fiery" or "burning" in Hebrew. Shortly afterwards, he was ordained a hierodeacon (monastic deacon). He was ordained again in 1793 as a hieromonk (monastic priest), and became the spiritual leader of the Diveyevo convent, which has since come to be known as the Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent. Soon after this, he retreated to a log cabin in the woods outside Sarov monastery and led a solitary lifestyle as a hermit for twenty-five years. During this time his feet became swollen to the point that he had trouble walking. Nicholas Motovilov, one of St. Seraphim's most well-known disciples. One day, while chopping wood, he was attacked by a gang of thieves who beat him mercilessly until they thought he was dead. Seraphim never resisted and was beaten with the handle of his own axe. The thieves were looking for money, but all they found in his hut was an icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary). The incident left Seraphim with a hunched back for the rest of his life. However, at the thieves' trial he pleaded to the judge for mercy on their behalf. After this incident Seraphim spent a thousand successive nights on a rock in continuous prayer with his arms raised to the sky, an almost super-human feat of asceticism, especially considering the pain he was already in from his injuries. In 1815, in obedience to a spiritual experience that he attributed to the Virgin Mary, he began admitting pilgrims to his hermitage as a Confessor. Seraphim soon became immensely popular due to his apparent healing powers and clairvoyance. He was often visited by hundreds of pilgrims per day, and was reputed to have the ability to answer his guests' questions before they could ask. As extraordinarily harsh as the Saint often was to himself, he was kind and gentle toward others—always greeting his guests with a prostration, a kiss, and exclaiming, "Christ is risen!" He died while kneeling before an icon of the Theotokos at the age of seventy-three}. I think for me, Saint Seraphim teaches me that the Resurrection is not a kind of one off event that we recall once a year, that it should fill our whole lives. As a Western Catholic , I always have the Cross before my spiritual eyes, the Cross has been carved on my heart from child hood. But the light and joy and wonder of Easter, no not so much. One of the most wonderful stories in all Mystical Literature was when a disciple visited St Seraphim and asked for a little Sign . 'The miraculous transfiguration of the starets’ face was described by a close admirer and follower of St. Seraphim — Motovilov. This happened during the winter, on a cloudy day. Motovilov was sitting on a stump in the woods; St. Seraphim was squatting across from him and telling his pupil the meaning of a Christian life, explaining for what we Christians live on earth. "It is necessary that the Holy Spirit enter our heart. Everything good that we do, that we do for Christ, is given to us by the Holy Spirit, but prayer most of all, which is always available to us," he said. "Father," answered Motovilov, "how can I see the grace of the Holy Spirit? How can I know if He is with me or not?" St. Seraphim began to give him examples from the lives of the saints and apostles, but Motovilov still did not understand. The elder then firmly took him by the shoulder and said to him, "We are both now, my dear fellow, in the Holy Spirit." It was as if Motovilov’s eyes had been opened, for he saw that the face of the elder was brighter than the sun. In his heart Motovilov felt joy and peace, in his body a warmth as if it were summer, and a fragrance began to spread around them. Motovilov was terrified by the unusual change, but especially by the fact that the face of the starets shone like the sun. But St. Seraphim said to him, "Do not fear, dear fellow. You would not even be able to see me if you yourself were not in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Thank the Lord for His mercy toward us." Thus Motovilov understood, in mind and heart, what the descent of the Holy Spirit and His transfiguration of a person meant.' cf: http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets ... phim_e.htm So, for us as Christ has risen we too are rising, from sin to light.
The Second Glorious Mystery. The Ascension; Luke, chapter 24, verses 46-53. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Then he led them (out) as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God. I had a very sleepless night last night and slept in a lot so cannot write much, but what I can I will!! Someone once wrote that life is a series of endings and beginnings and this is so true of the Ascension, one of my favourite Mysteries of the Rosary. Jesus leaves so that the Holy Spirit comes and the Church can be founded with the Descent of the Holy Spirit. I foten think of this Mystery because of something I often experience in prayer. I am curious to know if anyone else has this feeling? For when I pray I am so often conscious that I am praying to an unseen God, a God I can neither see, feel or touch; nor indeed One I can hear with earthly ears. So there is this longing this sense of loss of being with God yet not with God. Does anybody else get this feeling, a real pang of longing? Sometimes so strong it is really painful. Yet there is a paradox in this , in that with this longing for the presence of Jesus there is also the richness of the wine of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So that I am Filled with the Spirit. I am not alone , I am never, never alone. Yet at all times there is this crying in the Spirit, 'Maranatha', come Lord Jesus, come'. So powerful was this feeling of loss amongst the apostles that an angel had to be sent down from heaven to shake them out of their daze. Someone once asked me if I was ever lonely as I live alone. But I can honestly say I never am, for the Spirit of God is always present and I feel the angels and saints always near. But there is this pang for Jesus, for the heavenly homeland, the New Jerusalem in which we have our natural, Eternal home.
In prayer I sometimes encounter what I would call a 'deafening silence' so to speak, a real tangible silence and a longing for heavenly home. At times I feel that I am a stranger here on earth and long to go home to the Father. But the Father seems a long way off, heaven seems so far away and I am like a home-alone child, orphaned yet I know I have a real home to go to. But I can't go home yet. I am on my way home. It is a mystery that I am on my way home, long for home but cannot yet reach home.
