Vous trouverez ici des textes extraits de mes écoutes et lectures "spirituelles". Si un mot, une phrase, une
pensée, touche votre coeur c'est que Dieu vous a fait signe par les mots de ceux qu'Il inspire.
The world is a fallen world because it has fallen away from the awareness that God is all in all.
The accumulation of this disregard for God is the original sin that blights the world.
And even the religion of this fallen world cannot heal or redeem it, for it has accepted the reduction of God to an area called 'sacred' ('spiritual,' supernatural') - as opposed to the world as 'profane'.
It has accepted the all-embracing secularism which attempts to steal the world away from God...
The natural dependence of man upon the world was intended to be transformed constantly into communion with God in whom is all life.
The single chalice used by the Celtic Christians in the eucharistic Mass was a good-sized cup, like a large quaich with handles.
Those which have been found from the period of time that the Stowe Missal comes, such as that found in the Derrynaflan Hoard, are large enough to hold (without filling it too close to the brim) around one and a half modern bottles of wine.
The Stowe Missal also describes dunking the entire loaf of bread into the chalice: 'The submerging of the two halves [of the bread] in the chalice represents the submersion of Christ's body in his blood after his wounding on the cross.
This was enough wine for each person in a group of around 60-70 to have a good-sized mouthful, and it seems that they weren't shy in taking it either - no gentle sips as we are perhaps used to today. Within the Rule of Columbanus, for example, we find written a sanction for 'him who has bitten the cup of salvation with his teeth'!
This perhaps goes back to the final aspect that we looked at yesterday in the taking of the bread, about ensuring you get a good sense of flavour and taste as part of the holistic sacred experience. No tiny individual glasses or gentle lip-wetting for the Celtic Christians when it comes to drinking the wine in the Eucharist.
The Stowe Missal describes the pouring of water into the chalice first before the wine to represent the people in the church, then wine is added later. The wine therefore represents Christ's divinity mixed with his humanity and his coming to be one with the people of earth through the incarnation.
We also find in the Stowe Missal that, when the chalice had been taken by each person and handed back to the priest, the priest would then circle the head of each person with the chalice in a Caim prayer before moving on to the next person.
A Caim prayer is a prayer of encircling protection that was used by the Celtic Christians: the asking of either divine or angelic protection to surround the person, or whatever it was that was being encircled. Ninian of Whithorn in the fourth century famously encircled a herd of cows in a famer's field with a Caim prayer, protecting them from marauders and rustlers. Within the Eucharist, this, in my understanding, is a prayer for each person to be covered in the protective blood of Christ. The power which is in the blood of Christ was seen and expressed in Celtic Christianity.
This act with the bread and wine in the Eucharist was more than just a remembering for the Celtic Christians, as we might see it and present it today; it was a reimmersing of one's self in the blood of Christ as part of the holistic understanding they had of life, and a 'chance to re-enter and be absorbed more completely into this whole Christ [experience]'.
The Stowe Missal (sometimes known as the Lorrha Missal), which is, strictly speaking, a sacramentary rather than a missal, is a small Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin with some ...
There are people I've tried to help, for years.
One man accepted this help for about twenty years, then said: "You're a scoundrel". Well said, I don't argue.
But, you know, I could have said to myself: you cared so much about this person, and he, he didn't hesitate to call you a scoundrel. Instead, you have to be humble enough to say "Yes, thank you, you told me the truth, I forgot who I was". And if I say it sincerely, it's a victory. A spiritual victory.
But usually we're offended: "Observe yourself!"
That's why I say: it's better not to remark to anyone, because if you want to have enemies, start remarking to people. They're not ready to accept criticism.
It's the same in the family. We're not ready to hear the truth about ourselves. And if someone isn't ready, and I tell them the whole truth, there will only be resentment.
That truth won't do any good. A Christian has to be intelligent, he has to reason. He can see his neighbor in a troubled state; however, even bishops are sinful men too.
If a person doesn't live by the Holy Spirit, if their words aren't inspired by God, it's a sickness; we don't judge that person, we pity them, we start to love them even more.
For decades in prison, the residents of our Residential Center have heard that they are complete and incorrigible scoundrels. They're already used to it, but when they're told, "You're good, you're a noble and beautiful person," they begin to change.
The apostle Paul tells us, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
Can you imagine what that means? "Me? God's temple? It's unimaginable! But what if I am that temple? What if the Holy Spirit dwells in me? What if I can free myself from this filth that, unfortunately, accumulates so quickly and clutters my immortal soul?"
If I become a saint, will I enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
I say to our brothers at the shelter: "You have to stop smoking, there won't be any cigarettes there", because we die without cigarettes.
Everything is so simple, everything is clear with God.
If you really live your life with God now, you'll enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Don't scold your loved ones.
Sometimes children are told, "We're ashamed to have raised you. That's horrible and foolish. Never say that for fear of inflicting lifelong resentment on them, lest they enter eternity with him.
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