Leo the Great

 Today´s reading from a sermon by Pope Leo the Great (5th century) struck me: enshrining what is, for me, the most telling in Catholic doctrine:

"Jesus,  born true man without ever ceasing to be true God, began in his person a new creation and by the manner of his birth gave man a spiritual origin. What mind can grasp this mystery, what tongue can fittingly recount this gift of love? Guilt becomes innocence, old becomes new, strangers are adopted and outsiders are made heirs. Rouse yourself, man, and recognise the dignity of your nature! Remember that you were made in God’s image; though corrupted in Adam, that image has been restored in Christ.

  Use creatures as they should be used: the earth, the sea, the sky, the air, the springs and rivers. Give praise and glory to their Creator for all that you find beautiful and wonderful in them. See with your bodily eyes the light that shines on earth, but embrace with your whole soul and all your affections the true light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. Speaking of this light the prophet said: Draw close to him and let his light shine upon you and your face will not blush with shame.(Psalm 34). If we are indeed the temple of God and if the Spirit of God lives in us, then what every believer has within himself is greater than what he admires in the skies.

  Our words and exhortations are not intended to make you disdain God’s works or think there is anything contrary to your faith in creation, for the good God has himself made all things good. What we do ask is that you use reasonably and with moderation all the marvellous creatures which adorn this world; as the Apostle says: "The things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal."

 

I noticed the window in the local church when I was at mass the other day and it struck me that the most important element in Christian stained glass is the people.  Stained glass windows are all filled to overflowing with people. Saints, angels, and the rest of us as well. . . . the Kingdom is, above all, filled with people!
"You take delight in your people." 

 

filioque

Leo is in Turkey and I discovered the reason for the Schism in 1054: filioque. 
"who proceeds from the Father and the Son . . ." 
or does it mean "who proceeds from the Father through the Son . . ." 
Either way it makes me so cross that such subtle matters of interpretation split the church.
And once the cracks appear they only widen: like faults in concrete. 
Language: our greatest gift but, at the very same time, a tower of Babel.

kyrie eleison 

psalm 26

 while reading psalm 26 this morning: 

"Lord hear my voice when I call." 

Suddenly it was the other way around!
 
"Hear my voice when I call. Of you my heart has spoken: seek his face.
It is your face that I seek." 

but it was not I speaking this but you! and for some moments I was stunned . . . .

It occurs to me again how short my memory of your presence is: seconds? perhaps a minute?
If tomorrow or even later today. I cease to think of you you of course are still there and present but I have no recollection whatever!  

St John Chrysostom

 "Do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honour him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said: This is my body, and made it so by his words, also said: You saw me hungry and did not feed me, and inasmuch as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me.
 What we do here in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments; what we do outside requires great dedication."

Thomas Merton

"I cannot discover God in myself and myself in Him unless I have the courage to face myself as I am, with all my limitations, and others as they are, with all their limitations."

seeing myself as you see me. 
only possible when we know that you still love us despite all of those limitations.

but actually it isn't a question of  "despite" but "with".
so . . . .
only possible when we know that you still love us with all of those limitations. 

it's still wrong because . . .
you love us with all our limitations. 
Therein lies the fundamental problem: 
failing to accept our own limitations we will almost certainly fail to accept those of others.
knowing that you love us anyway is the only way we are pulled out of this cycle.