The Rosary: An Initiation into Silence

Thursday, 19 October 2006

jogues2.jpgSaint Isaac Jogues was known for his long hours of quiet prayer while journeying and for the recitation of the Rosary with his companions. The Rosary is a prayer for our hours of solitude, for times of waiting, for moments of uncertainty and disquiet. In these circumstances the Rosary becomes an anchor of hope tossed into the depths of God’s wisdom and providence.

The Rosary stills the tumult within and allows the soul to hear the “still, small voice” (1 K 19:12) of the Lord. “And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave” (1 K 19:13). The Rosary is an initiation into what Pope John Paul II called, “adoring silence.”

We must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of Him who is adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a

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19 October, Mass of Saints John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and Companions, Martyrs

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

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“My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings” (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he died).
ENTRANCE ANTIPHON
GR
These are they who are come out of great tribulation
and have washed their robes
and have made them white in the Blood the Lamb (Ap 7:14).
V. Praise the Lord, all you nations:
praise Him all you peoples (Ps 116:1).
MR
The blood of the holy martyrs
was poured out upon the earth for Christ;
therefore they have won rewards everlasting.
COLLECT
O God, who, by the work
of Saints John, Isaac, and their companions,
and by the outpouring of their blood,
willed to manifest the blessed hope of your eternal kingdom,
mercifully grant through their intercession,
that, in our own day,

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Saint Luke: A Gospel of Icons

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

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OCTOBER 18
SAINT LUKE, EVANGELIST
2 Timothy 4: 10-17a
Psalm 144: 10-11, 12-13ab, 17-18 (R: cf. 12)
Luke 10:1-9
The Evangelist
Saint Luke comes to us today as the evangelist of the Holy Spirit, as the evangelist of the little and of the poor, the evangelist of the Virgin Mary, and of the holy angels. He comes to us as the iconographer of the healing Christ, the physician of our souls and bodies. He comes to us as the advocate and friend of the women disciples of the Lord, and as the witness of the Acts of the Apostles and of the life of the infant Church. He comes to us as the poet of the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis, as the evangelist of the sacred liturgy, the one who closes his Gospel with the radiant image of a joyful Church semper in templo benedicentes Deum, “continually in the temple blessing God” (Lk 24:52).
Iconographer of the Holy Mother of God
According to an old tradition, Saint Luke, in addition to being a physician (Col 4:14), was

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The Rosary: A Lukan Prayer

Tuesday, 17 October 2006

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I have always thought of the Rosary as a particularly Lukan prayer. So many of the mysteries are drawn from Saint Luke’s Gospel. It is Saint Luke who gives us the Gospel of the Holy Spirit; the Gospel of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Gospel of the liturgical canticles sung by the Church at morning, eventide, and nightfall; the Gospel of the Angels; the Gospel of mercy.
But there is more. According to tradition, Saint Luke was an iconographer. I very much like this painting of Luke painting! He seems to have just completed his image of the Virgin Mother with the Infant Christ. An Angel looks on approvingly. Could it be Saint Gabriel, the Archangel who figures so prominently in the first chapters of Saint Luke’s Gospel? The Evangelist is showing us his painting and inviting us to contemplate the Mother and the Child. The Rosary is just that: a contemplation of the Face of Christ and of the Mother who presents Him to the eyes of the soul.

I was very happy to receive Steven’s comment today on the Rosary and the difficulties

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18 October, Mass of Saint Luke the Evangelist

Tuesday, 17 October 2006

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ENTRANCE ANTIPHON
MR
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
who publishes peace, who announces good,
who preaches salvation (Is 52:7).
COLLECT
Lord God, who chose Saint Luke
to reveal the mystery of your special love for the poor
by preaching and by writing,
grant, that those who, even now, glory in your name,
may continue to be of one heart and one mind,
and that all nations may come to see your salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

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Situated amidst pasture land and forest in the eastern reaches of County Meath, Silverstream Priory was founded in 2012 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, and canonically erected as an autonomous monastery of diocesan right on 25 February 2017. The property belonged, from the early 15th century, to the Preston family, premier Viscounts of Ireland and Lords of Gormanston. In 1843 Thomas Preston (1817-1903), son of Jenico Preston, the 12th Viscount (1775-1860), built what today is Silverstream Priory.

Silverstream Priory is a providential realisation of the cherished project of Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874–1935), who, following the impetus given by Catherine–Mectilde de Bar in the 17th century, sought to establish a house of Benedictine monks committed to ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. The community of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the Divine Office in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” of the Roman Rite. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream keep at heart the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably the development of the land and gardens, hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, scholarly work, and publishing.

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