Subida al Monte Carmelo / Notte Oscura

San Juan del Cruz / San Giovanni della Croce

En una noche oscura,
Con ansias, en amores, inflamada,
¡Oh dichosa ventura!
Salí sin ser notada,
Estando ya mi casa sosegada;

A oscuras y segura,
Por la secreta escala, disfrazada,
¡Oh dichosa ventura!,
A oscuras y celada,
Estando ya mi casa sosegada;

En la noche dichosa,
En secreto, que nadie me veía,
Ni yo miraba cosa,
Sin otra luz y guía
Sino la que en el corazón ardía.

Aquesta me guiaba
Más cierto que la luz del mediodía,
Adonde me esperaba
Quien yo bien me sabía,
En parte donde nadie parecía.

¡Oh noche que guiaste!,
¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada!,
¡Oh noche que juntaste
Amado con amada,
Amada en el Amado transformada!

En mi pecho florido,
Que entero para Él sólo se guardaba,
Allí quedó dormido,
Y yo le regalaba
Y el ventalle de cedros aire daba.

El aire de la almena,
Cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía,
Con sus manos serena
En mi cuello hería,
Y todos mis sentidos suspendía.

Quedéme y olvidéme,
El rostro recliné sobre el Amado,
Cesó, y dejéme,
Dejando mi cuidado
Entre las azucenas olvidado.

†††††††

1. In una notte oscura
anelante e d’amori infiammata
- oh felice ventura!-
uscii senz’essere vista
la casa mia essendosi acquietata.

2. Al buio riparata
per la scala segreta, travestita,
- oh felice ventura!-
uscii senz’essere vista
la casa mia essendosi acquietata.

3. Nella notte felice
in segreto e da nessun notata,
senza nulla guardare,
senz’altra guida o luce
fuor di quelle che nel cor mi riluce

4. Essa mi conduceva
più certa della luce a mezzodì
là dove mi attendeva
chi bene io conosceva
e dove nessun altro si vedeva

5. Notte che m’hai guidata,
notte più dell’alba incantata!
Oh notte che riunisti
L’Amato con l’amata,
l’amata nell’Amato trasformata!

6. Sul mio petto fiorito
che intatto per lui solo si serbava
egli trovò riposo
ed io lo compiacevo
e la chioma dei cedri ventilava

7. Dagli alti merli ‘aura,
mentr’io i suoi capelli carezzavo,
con la mano leggera
il collo mi feriva
e tutti i sensi miei in sé rapiva

8. Dimentica rimasi
il volto reclinato sull’Amato
tutto cessò e ristetti
obliando ogni premura
tra i gigli abbandonata

The Crucifix

Holy Monday Procession in Guatemala

Concistory - 1946

Pope Pius XII creating new Cardinals in 1946. (Great stuff!)

Consistory of 1946<---- click="" here="" p="">

Envy

Envy: Its Malice and Destructiveness

*******

There is nothing like envy for spreading sickness of mind and heart thoughout the whole body, until it eats into the very marrow of the bones. Envious people, we may say, adapting a quotation from Shakespeare,

... like serpents are, who though they feed

On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.

... if I envy you for the good you have done, my envy not only misses the opportunity of making that good my own, it is fain to destroy whatever good you possess. Envy would rather your good did not exist, did not give glory to God or service to the neighbor; it begrudges you the merit of climbing a step higher up the path of moral goodness and perfection. And yet everyone else rejoices at the good you have done: God, His holy Angels, the Just, the sound of mind and the upright of heart. Only two beings are sad, only two people fret and consume with anguish -- the devil and envious me! What blindness! To perish by what brings health to others! To waste away on the strength of what imparts life and joy! What a dreadful calamity: another's gain, my loss; the good tidings of others, my sentence of doom!

Envy is a fire devouring and destroying every germ of life. Envy, by its very nature, is death and deals with death, being born of Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44). It was envy that instigated him to bring about the fall of our first parents, and by the envy of the devil death came into the world.

Envy was the evil genius which inspired the first human murderer to assassinate his own brother, on the noble score that this brother of his was a better man than he. It is envy that has put weapons into the hands of man, and so blinded man as to make him commit the foulest crimes that have ever stained the face of this earth. It was envy which challenged God Himself, persecuted Him, calumniated Him, nailed Him to the wood of the Cross --

For he (Pilate) knew that for envy they had

delivered Him.-- (Matt. 27:13)

No other passion could go to such an extreme; only in envy does there remain not a trace of common humanity... In order to defend its own interests, envy would sweep everything away, would annihilate even God Himself.

And all these horrors, the natural outcome of envy, arise when I am not guided by the principles of faith, when I care not a straw for God's glory and the welfare of souls; that is, when I foster but one love, self-love; the cruel idol at whose altar I have slaughtered every other love.

~Fr. Escribano

Hatred

Oh, when hatred enters your heart so as to govern it completely, be silent, flee, hide yourself, disappear, play dead, or be ready in advance to forswear all that you hold most precious, with honor in the lead! ~Fr. R. L. Bruckburger

The History of Jesus Christ

THE HISTORY of a man is the inscription of his personality on his time, and the deciphering of that inscription. Most men barely have a history; they leave on the sands of time the faint tracings of an insect. But some go deeper, reach the rock, rend it, hollow it out, shape it, and their course is indelible.

A history of Napoleon exists. We also have Napeloen's memoirs. No one interested in the subject could neglect Napoleon's own point of view about himself and his life. Jesus Christ left no memoirs, but an idea of His personal view of Himself can be formed from what the Gospels tell us about His actions, gestures, and words.

One peculiarity strikes us at once. All through the Gospels a single question keeps returning to Jesus again and again like the flood tide recurrently seeking a cliff. "Who are You? Who do You say that You are? Are You He that is to come, or must we wait for another? Explain what You mean about Yourself." Friends, enemies -- everyone, at one time or another, puts this question to Him; He Himself sometimes puts it to others: "Who do you believe that I am?" Not Socrates, not Alexander, not Napoleon was asked who he was; men thought they knew, and, in effect, they did.

It seems that Jesus took pleasure in evoking and maintaining this atmosphere of interrogation about His origins and His true mission. His replies were not always clear, sometimes they sidestepped the question, somtimes He replied in riddles or in parables, but He made sure the question would be repeated.

One day He gave an astounding reply. "Before Abraham was," He said, "I am." A speech with which no utterance of any other man can be compared, a speech impossible for an Evangelist to invent if it had not been said by Him Who had the right to say it. A speech in which without warning eternity erupts into time. A false evangelist, wishing to magnify his hero to the dimensions of eternity, would have made the tenses agree; he would have written: "Before Abraham was, I was." The tranquil affirmation of that solemn present, prior to Abraham, I am, has an authority that takes one's breath.

"Before Abraham was, I am." That present tense, which breaks the sentence, that present, all alone, agreeing with nothing but its subject, must have evoked in the minds of its hearers the famous sentence in which God defines Himself outside of time: "I am He that am." Therefore, when St. John in his old age returns in memory to what he has seen and heard, it is quite natural for him to choose a starting point outside time. "In the beginning," he says "was the Word. And the Word dwelt with God. And the Word was God.... And the Word was made flesh. And He pitched his tent among us. And we saw His glory."

Sacred Chalices

These pictures were taken from the forum http://www.cattoliciromani.com/ and are used here with the permission of the user who posted them (whose nickname is Pius XII). Enjoy them!

*******

Pastor Angélicus

If you have 1 hour and 24 seconds and you enjoy watching clips of Pope Pius XII, then I recommend you watch this video: Pastor Angélicus (Click on link).

The video is about the life and pontificate of Pius XII - It is completely in Italian, but you get to see a lot of things that we do not get to see today.

Raising a Heathen

13 Ways to Raise a Heathen

1) Never talk about God to the child, or while he's around.

2) Make your life, your conduct, and your behavior indistinguishable from the pagan world around you.

3) Never teach your child about religion... let the school do it for you!

4) Show good heathen example: never go to church on Sunday, and never arrange that someone take your child to church.

5) Do nothing to instill Christian values or devotions in the child.

6) Never teach your child prayer, especially morning and night time prayer.

7) Make sure NOT to have a Bible in your home.

8) Use inappropriate language within ear range of your child, especially blasphemy.

9) Never receive the Sacraments, especially Confession and Holy Communion.

10) Let television and the mass media baby-sit your child.

11) Never say graces before and after meals.

12) Have little or no Chrisitan literature around the house.

13) Pretend God, the devil, Heaven, and Hell do no exist.

††† ††† ††† ††† ††† ††† †††

"If a child goes to Hell because of the neglect of the parents teaching them their Faith, you can be sure the parents will follow." ~ St. John Baptist Vianney

"But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged around his neck and that he should be drwoned in the depths of the sea." ~ St. Matthew 18:6

Tiaras (again)