Studies in Rome

Hi everyone,

My Mum and Dad have headed back home after an enjoyable stay here in Rome. I am so grateful for the time to catch up and relax and look at some special places in Rome.

For me, its back to lectures, and we have had an excellent lecturer ever day this week, speaking about "Discipleship, following Jesus who walked on the earth"

Fr John Fuellenbach has given the talks and they are very inspiring. I hope to be able to give a more full summary soon. His talks are based loosely around his new book, "Throw Fire".

A little taste of his book can be found in the following link, although his lectures are more general to the topic of discipleship  and the nature of the God we are called to be follow.

http://www.tere.org/secondary/gcse/index.html


He has also written some classic books:  namely:
*The Kingdom of God: Message of Jesus Today by John Fuellenbach (Paperback - Mar 1996)

 

*Ecclesiastical Office and the Primacy of Rome: An Evaluation of Recent Theological Discussion of First Clement (Studies in Christian antiquity) by John Fuellenbach (Hardcover - 1980)

 

 *Church: Community for the Kingdom (American Society of Missiology) by John Fuellenbach (Paperback - 2 Jul 2002)

 

Having engaged with these excellent talks, it is clear how our discipleship must reveal itself in practical and concrete ways in our lives and actions. So, it is very relevant and timely that the Pope's latest general audience was on the topic of St Ambrose, and particularly how it is often not as much WHAT we say but how we live what we are saying that brings home the truth of Jesus' good news: (see Pope's message below)

cheers everyone,

paul

AMBROSE: CATECHESIS INSEPARABLE FROM LIFE WITNESS

 

VATICAN CITY, OCT 24, 2007 (VIS) - During today's general audience, Benedict XVI continued his series of catecheses dedicated to Fathers of the Church, turning his attention to the figure of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. The audience, held in St. Peter's Square, was attended by more than 30,000 people.

 

  It was from Origen that Ambrose (ca. 340-397), considered to be one of the four greatest Doctors of the Church, learnt to know and comment the Bible. It was Ambrose, the Pope explained, who "brought meditation upon the Scriptures into the Latin world, ... introducing the practice of 'lectio divina' to the West." This practice "guided all his own preaching and writing which flow, in fact, from his listening ... to the Word of God."

 

  With him catechumens "learnt first the art of correct living" in order "to be prepared for the great Mysteries of Christ." His preaching was founded on "the reading of Sacred Scripture" with the aim of "living in conformity with divine Revelation.

 

  "It is evident," the Pope added, "that the preacher's personal witness and the exemplary nature of the Christian community influence the effectiveness of preaching. ... From this point of view, one decisive factor is life context, the reality of how the Word is lived."

 

  Benedict XVI recalled the fact that St. Augustine in his Confessions recounts how his own conversion was not due "chiefly to the beautiful homilies" of Ambrose, whom he knew in Milan, but above all "to the witness of the bishop and of his Milanese Church, who sang and prayed together like one single body." Augustine also tells of his surprise at seeing how Ambrose, when he was alone, would read the Scriptures without moving his lips, because at that time reading was considered as something to be proclaimed out loud in order to facilitate its comprehension.

 

  It is "in such reading, ... when the heart seeks to achieve an understanding of the Word of God, that we catch a glimpse of Ambrosian catechesis," said the Holy Father. "Scripture intimately assimilated suggests what must be announced to convert people's hearts. ... Thus catechesis is inseparable from life witness."

 

  "Those who educate in the faith," he continued, "cannot run the risk of appearing like a clown who plays a role, ... rather he must be like the beloved disciple who rested his head on the Master's heart and there learnt how to think, speak and act."

 

  St. Ambrose died on Good Friday, his arms open in the form of the cross. "Thus," the Pope concluded, "he expressed his mystical participation in the death and resurrection of the Lord. This was his final catechesis. In the silence of words, he spoke still with the testimony of his life."

Roaming around town

Today, I enjoyed another excellent day of wandering Rome with Mum and Dad.

We visited the Church of Saint Clement. This is such a wonderful church because of the fact that the present church is build upon the ancient Church of St Clement, and this in turn is built upon a pagan temple. Three different levels and visitors can go down and look at them. Amazing, and very well preserved. it is also the tombs of Cyril and Methodius and of course St Clement.

We prayed especially for blessings for my uncle, Clem, whose patron saint is this saint. We also prayed for my parish priest i had as a child, Fr Cyril Shand, who died not long before I was ordained.

We then visited the amazing church of St Peter in Chains where the chains believed to have been used to hold St Peter are kept. Also, the famous tomb of Julius II including the statue of Moses by Michaelangelo is in this church.

After lunch we visited the ancient civic centre of Rome, the Roman Forum. Mum, Dad and I walked through the ruins and looked at the buildings and monuments that are all that remains of the centre of the ancient Roman empire. The one I like the best is the ancient Rostri, the stage where public citizens could come and speak to the people, and this is where Marc Anthony gave his famous speech after the assassination of Julius Ceasar.

We also went to see the church of Mary and the Martyrs and Angels. You may remember that we tried to go there the other day but were unable to because of an enormous state funeral there, which also blocked the streets.  

Today we tried again, but excitement seems to be following us, because AGAIN the streets around this church were entirely blocked to traffic. Thousands of people waving red flags were having a rally and march in the streets around there. It was a peaceful march from what we saw and in fact the march, although crowded, allowed us to moved more easily across the streets by foot. When we came to the church, there were protesters holding an enormous banner. We just walked past them and they let us in. When we came out, there was someone holding up a sign saying something in Italian like 'the church should give justice" or words to that effect. I just gave a friendly smile and moved on. The person holding the sign looked a bit surprised, perhaps they were expecting a less friendly reaction?

We went to mass at a local church which has English language mass for the weekend. St Susanna's. They had children's liturgy and excellent music. It reminded me of home.
I have uploaded some more photos of our days together at www.mysteriousthree.com

Also, the college whereI am staying has published a few photos of the recent diaconate they had at St Peter's. Somehow I ended up in a few photos, (just to prove that I was there and didn't sleep in and miss it!) so if you would like to visit the site of these photos, it is at :

http://www.pnac.org/resource/public/photoload.aspx?domain=PUC&id=2007.10.04%20-%20Diaconate%20Ordination

cheers and God bless

Paul

St Pauls outside the walls, Therese and Anselmo

The other day we paid a visit to the Basilica of St Paul "outside the walls" of the old Roman City. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint_Paul_Outside_the_Walls)

 

 Here is where St Paul was buried, his tomb is regarded to be directly under the main altar. St Paul is my patron saint and I have a special devotion to him. He was a lawyer who was zealous in the letter of the law and believed that by complete adherence to the religious law of his time as interpreted by the legalistic establishment of his time, one was righteous. In this overzealousness Paul set about persecuting this new group of disciples of a man called Jesus, whom he misguidedly believed to be corrupting the true worship of God. On his way to damascus to capture more of these people later to be known as Christians, he was struck to the ground by an unseen force and saw a vision of blinding light. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Caravaggio-The_Conversion_on_the_Way_to_Damascus.jpg )

He heard a voice which he later realised was Jesus saying 'saul, saul why do you persecute me?' . He realised with horror that his blind obedience to the rigid and inflexible letter of the law had actually led him to go against God's will revealed in and through Jesus God the son. From then on Paul became the most bold of all disciples fiercely proclaiming the love of Jesus and the life of discipleship in The Holy Spirit. Paul knowingly warned about reliance on the letter of the law- it cannot save, only Jesus and his grace does that. He spoke graciously about the freedom and responsibility that came from a new law - that written by the Spirit upon our hearts.

 

I have always been deeply impressed by Pauls writings and his constant message to us. I have in some small way known the meaning of putting God's spirit before legalism, having come myself from legal training at university. I have never seen visions but at times in my life I have been 'spiritually knocked off my horse' in realisation that Jesus does not desire rules and regulations but grace and Spirit, and above all love.  I love having Paul as my patron saint.

 

I have wanted to visit this basilica the last two times I was in Rome but circumstances prevented me. I was content though because I always believed that one day I would return and visit this place. That day finally came on October 1st and it lived up to expectations. It was not just the absolute beauty of the building, it was not only the fact that something really special and joyful seemed to bouy up our whole group as we took a tour through this church, celebrated Mass at the Martyrs chapel there and got to pray and the newlyexcavated front of the tomb of Paul in front of the main altar.

 

Ironically the celebrant of the mass, which we all concelebrated here did not mention St paul once! Ha ha. No matter- all around us and in fact all around Rome and the world we can see and experience reminders of this great Apostle to the Gentiles.

 

There was another unexpected surprise awaiting me here though.  I am speaking about  Saint Thérèse of Liseux, not only a very popular saint but since 1997 the church has declared her  a 'doctor of the church' given the significance of her writing and influence. It was her feast day on the day of our visit to St Pauls and the mass and homily made several significant and meaningful mentions of her and her spiritual writings. For some time I had been feeling drawn to read more on her life and writing and had not yet done so, and so here I was at St Pauls hearing more about her than my patron. It ended up being a perfect if unexpected combination. It was a bit like going to a dinner party to see a longtime friend  and finding not only them but also another unexpected extra guest who has also been invited, and then striking up a new level of friendship with the guest. That is what it felt like as I reflected not only on Paul but also Therese as I experienced this tour.

 

I had not realised until I went and found her works that Thérèse had an enormous respect for and quoted st pauls words often. Thérèse had a special sense of mission to pray for and spiritually sustain in prayer priests. She particularly wanted to pray for missionaries and since she was too ill to be  a missionary herself, she would be a spiritual missionary by offering her prayers and everyday actions to God as an act of love whichshe trusted would bear enormous fruit in the lives and ministry of others. It was later revealed that this turned out to be more effective in the lives of countless people than we could have imagined. St Thérèse also lived St Pauls words to the full- "if I had faith so as to move mountains but did not have love I am nothing whatsoever." Therese, wanting to be missionary, teacher, martyr, priest, warrior for Christ and so much more finally realised in prayer that she was called to be all of these (in a sense) by finidng her vocation to be 'love in the very heart of the church' thus being united in faith so closely to God who is love until she positively exuded love to anyone she met or wrote to or prayed for.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_de_Lisieux

 

Sorry to be so gushing about this but I cannot describe effectively what an impact this day and following days have had on me as i reflected on these things and went and read as much as I could on this saint . Even though some of her words and expressions are firmly couched in terms of piety of the 19th century, her thought is still relevant and is in fact essentially timeless. I had known previously and felt particularly attracted to her concept of  'the little way of holiness' which fits with one of my favourite themes of making the events, chores and challenges of our everyday life and action the very substance of our sanctification and holiness of daily life. I believe that even the most mundane of chores if done with love is connecting us to the love and transforming grace of God, which cannot fail to produce enormous fruitfulness even if we don't always see it.

 

Occasionally Thérèse and her writing has been accused of being overly sentimental or pietistic. However again I was amazed to read that in the last 18 months of her life (and her death from tuberculosis was reportedly dreadfully protracted and horrific right up to the end) she experienced no consolation and a kind of endless dark night of the soul. But this ongoing sense of desolation reminded her that even Jesus felt no consolation on the cross and even cried out "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me". For her critics, not that she was trying to justify herself, Thérèse did not equate discipleship of Jesus or closeness to God with feelings of warmth, consolation or comfort. A closer look reveals a person who held on in trust through times of doubt and emptiness, and used these times to show love, kindness and graciousness to others when she could have been forgiven for 'biting people's heads off' with irritation because of her illness and pain.

 

This is all a long way of saying that this visit to St Pauls opened my eyes even wider and was a deeply moving moment of renewal for me. We went out in the cloister garden after mass at St Paul's and there in the garden were a couple of the most beautiful roses in full bloom. What a wonderful day.

 

It appears that Paul has once again been knocked flat off his horse. It was certainly not a bad feeling!

 

In that chapel where we had mass was an ancient crucifix where it is believed a saint prayed and the head of Jesus on the crucifix turned toward her. Interestingly the head does seem at a very odd and unnatural angle to the body!

 

One last amausing thing. As we were going into the sacristy of the Basilica of st paul's, to vest for mass, I got an unexpected surprise.  A cute little puppy dog came bounding out of the sacristy ( I have never seen a dog in a basilica before - it apparently belonged to the sacristan). It bounded up and came over for a pat. It was very cute. I laughed and said  to it ' st Francis says to say hello!'  I joked with the other priests "maybe this is the hound of heaven?"

 

Another stunning feature of this church is its windows. They appear to be made of a kind of opaque golden glass but amazingly they are actually made of highly polished, very thin and translucent stone  - alabaster - giving a pleasing golden light to the inside.

 

It was an excellent day and I have a lot of photos of my visit on my website www.mysteriousthree.com

 

++++++

 

this week has been a free week for traveling. "Some of our group went on an optional tour to the Holy Land but I stayed home in Rome to wander about, rest, I have a small cold, and read up on Thérèse and other reflective books. One day I hope to go to the Holy Lands but I do not feel the time is right.

 

I did get to go to Saint Anselms University, San Anselmos, a benedictine college and monastery. It is beautiful. http://www.santanselmo.org/images/dott_hc_mons_valenziano/index.htm

 I got to have lunch with one of the staff and also met a young Jesuit from Sydney who was completing a thesis on images of Mary in the Chinese church. I mentioned that I had been to China many times and my brother Ben lived there.

 

I got invited to visit there after a lecturer from San Anselmo did a class for us at our college.  I got to talking with him in the break and mentioned that my uncle Clem studied at this college in the sixties. This college tends to specialise in aspects of Liturgy. Also Fr Clem took me to visit this place (Anselmos) and we got to concelebrate with the community of monks when I was  here with him in 1999. It was a wonderful day. I had lunch with the community, got a tour of the chapel and cloister and the excellent library. I also got to see and talk about the new Roman Missal (sacramentary) that was issued in 2002. I saw a latin version of it, it is still being carefully translated into English but we don't know how long this process of translating, review, episcopal and Vatican approval will take. Nothing secret and confidential here though, anyone can buy a latin version in Rome now, if they can read it, but my Latin is fairly basic. I was shown some of the changes that the New Missal for the mass will make. They are not huge, there are clarifications of ambiguities, changes of a few words, a simplification of the options in the penitential rite and things like this. YOu may have heard of various controversies arising about early confidential drafts of the translation to English of this latin text but really I suspect that speculation arising from leaked drafts is full of misunderstanding and is probably unhelpful. I just commented, well when it comes out I will take the view that 'just give it to us and I will implement it' I don't believe in causing a fuss and jumping up and down, the liturgy is bigger than one person, certainly bigger than me and my whims.

 

If you are wanting to read a bit more about the updated roman missal we have a foretaste of it because the introductory General instruction to the 2002 Edition has been translated into English but has not fully been implemented everywhere until different bishops conferences around the world adopt it. It is a complex and consultative process.

 

The new english version of the missal could possibly still be years off being fully issued. Basically they are aiming at a translation that is very faithful to the latin text version, simple, clear, unambiguous. It will also focus on preserving ancient versions of the oepning and closing prayers and deleting those wordy alternative opening prayers that were basically created anew for the previous edition. Some of the translations of the present opening and closing prayers of the mass (whilst not wrong) are very loose and general echoes of what the actual original text is saying so this new version aims to be more precise and literal to the text. Also the new translation is apparently open to the concept that as well as our 'everyday' english there is room for using words that are more 'formal' more liturgical and distinct from casual speech so as to highlight some aspects of the special and sacramental nature of liturgy. This is why we might not use words such as 'hallowed' in everyday speech -probaby we would use the word 'holy' in daily speech, but the church is suggesting that more this more formal and less everyday vocabulary could still be fitting in a liturgical setting to convey the mystery and majesty of what is happening. At least that is my take on some of the aspects under consideration, but it won't be wholly foreign to us, it seems to be structurally very recognisable as the forms we have become used to.

 

I got to pop into a church just near the Anselmo college. This church is a 4th century church called Santa Sabina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Sabina  It is an excellent and untainted version of any early Christian Basilica, simple, uncluttered with beautiful vertical lines, classic columns and a simple timber ceiling with stars painted on it. The floors are of geometic patterns. A paneled door (5th century) in the side portico outside features on the top left of the door the earliest depictions of the crucifix . Prior to this depiction which became popular after this, the shame and horror of the crucifixion was too recent, to scandalous too real a possibility of being their fate too, so images of a fish or a jewelled victory cross etc were common. By the 5th century, Christianity was legal and the church was now more settled in its public position and appeared to need to remind itself of the reality of Christs cross and suffering F before this time suffering and martyrdom were so real they needed no reminding but rather needed strength to remember the glory they were called to and promised.

 

Cheers and I hope this reflection has been interesting. I enjoyed my visit.

 

Paul