Didn’t know Richard Rohr was suspended…I’ve never read that. This is not the Richard Rhor who is suspended from the Franciscans, is it?
Go with both. They’re great.
Nowen - The Beloved
Merton - The Seven Story Mountain
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
I left the imitation of Christ at work by mistake.
I know how you feel. Peace.It is available to read online for free at CCEL. In time parts will be in your heart and this will ease your sadness. As you read when you get to the part that says …‘your path is not easy, but it is the one that will gift the world with Jesus.’ Stay with Him awhile.I left the imitation of Christ at work by mistake.
Since I left my IOC at work, I started reading The Journey of the Mind to God. It was intimidating at first, but it’s not bad actually.
TL, how about starting a thread on The Journey of the Mind to God?
Have you read it? Do you think enough people have? Feel free to start one.
I’ve been thinking about this post a great deal, even during mass this morning. There is a lot here. If one reads the admonitions of our Holy Father Francis without the background, one will miss most of the meat of the matter.
How gracious Our Lord to give us such joyous work in His vineyard. Lead the way.I’ve been thinking about this post a great deal, even during mass this morning. There is a lot here. If one reads the admonitions of our Holy Father Francis without the background, one will miss most of the meat of the matter.
You have to know the historical context in which this was written, the target population, why he wrote it, where he grounds his theology and how it fits into the Tradition of the Church. You also have to know how Francis implemented his own admonitions. You cannot implement them with your 21st century vision. They don’t work. Francis wrote each of the admonitions in response to very specific situations.
This particular admonition is covered in the formation of the friars and nuns over a period of six years. That’s how much there is here. Clare, Bonaventure, Anthony of Padua, Lawrence of Brindisi, Lawrence of Port Maurice and Francisco of Osuna did a great deal of work on this piece of writing based on the testimony of the early friars, nuns and secular Franciscans who were alive when Francis had these written.
Let’s see if we can unpack parts of it. The whole of it requires a great deal of reading from Franciscan theology and the Franciscan masters.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
I just read this part today!
We have to stop right here and pay attention to what was happening at the time. For the first time in Church history, the term “transubstantiation” was used at the Lateran Council, at which Francis was present. Francis is speaking to this. He is driving home the point that the bread and wine actually becomes the Body of Blood of Christ. He leans on the scriptures to remind us that those who see the Eucharist, actually see Christ in his glorified body.
Here, he is speaking to Catholics, not to non-Catholics. He never applied this rule to the Muslims or to the Jews in his missionary travels nor allowed his brothers to do so when he sent them to take over the Custody of the Holy Land. It was the Catholics of his time that were calling into question transubstantiation. Jews, Muslims and pagans were not involved in this debate. They were not Christians; therefore, they didn’t even understand the debate, other than to know that Catholics wanted to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. To them, this was just Catholic superstition, because they did not know the theology behind it and the revealed truths concerning the Eucharist. Catholics, on the other hand, new the Tradition. Francis pronounces an anathema directed at those who having been raised in the truth faith concerning the Eucharist rejected it. Do not use this against non Catholics, because it does not work. Francis was not speaking to them, not did he communicate the truth about the Eucharist to them through anathemas. He led them to it beginning by presence. He first got the non-believer to accept the presence of his brothers and things moved forward from there.
This is extremely important. Francis is setting up the stage to present his own theology of the Trinity, which is grounded in scripture. He is pointing to the fact that the Father is present where ever we find the Son, because they are consubstantial. To know the divinity of the son is to know the divinity of the Father. While they are different and autonomous persons, they are one divine substance. To share in the Eucharist is to share in the humanity of the son and in the divinity of the God-head. This is where Francis is leading.
This is a very interesting part of Church history. Even though Bonaventure was a bishop and a cardinal, he never really executed either office. At the time that he was named a bishop he was elected the Minister General of the order. The brothers commanded him to leave Paris, where he was working with Aquinas on the Summa and not to return to his diocese, but to go on retreat and write the definitive biography of St. Francis. Bonaventure obeyed. He dedicated his life, until he died, to the affairs of the order. It seems that he was an absentee bishop. He would come and go between the diocese and the friars.
This is something that Franciscans have been commanded to introduce into the spirituality of the laity where ever we are. Every prayer is prayed with the Blessed Mother and Francis. If you belong to a Franciscan run parish, attend a school run by Franciscans, you will always pray with the Blessed Mother and St. Francis.
This is an important statement. Bonaventure is setting up the groundwork for his writing. He introduces something new into Catholic Tradition. Francis of Assisi is the “renewer”. He renews Christ’s preaching. Francis does not teach anything new. What he does for the Church is to preach what Christ preached in the manner that Christ preached it, through word, deed and thought.
I am going to try to get a copy…