SAINT GEORGE, Martyr

Saint George, Patron of Christian Chivalry, pray for our Order, 

and give a true heart to all faithful knights.

St George. Rubens, 1605 - Prado

O GOD, who didst grant to Saint George strength and constancy in the various torments which he sustained for our holy faith; we beseech Thee to preserve, through his intercession, our faith from wavering and doubt, so that we may serve Thee with a sincere heart faithfully unto death. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

ADSUMUS, DOMINE SANCTE SPIRITUS

This ancient prayer is enjoined upon all those who hold the Order of Malta dearly in their hearts.  It has been used for many centuries at Councils, Synods, and other deliberative gatherings of Holy Mother Church.  It is taken from the Roman Pontifical, and carries a partial indulgence under the usual conditions. (Raccolta §682)

All readers of this blog are encouraged to say it daily in the coming week.

ADSUMUS, Domine Sancte Spiritus, adsumus peccati quidem immanitate detenti, sed in nomine tuo specialiter congregati. Veni ad nos et esto nobiscum et dignare illabi cordibus nostris; doce nos quid agamus, quo gradiamur et ostende quid efficere debeamus, ut, te auxiliante, tibi in omnibus placere valeamus. Esto solus suggestor et effector iudiciorum nostrorum, qui solus cum Deo Patre et eius Filio nomen possides gloriosum.

Non nos patiaris perturbatores esse iustitiae qui summam diligis aequitatem; non in sinistrum nos ignorantia trahat, non favor inflectat, non acceptio muneris vel personae corrumpat; sed iunge nos tibi efficaciter solius tuae gratiae dono, ut simus in te unum et in nullo deviemus a vero; quatenus in nomine tuo collecti, sic in cunctis teneamus cum moderamine pietatis iustitiam, ut et hic a te in nullo dissentiat sententia nostra et in futurum pro bene gestis consequamur praemia sempiterna. Amen. 

WE have come, O God the Holy Spirit, we have come before Thee, hampered indeed by our many and grievous sins, but for a special purpose gathered together in Thy name. Come to us and be with us and enter our hearts. Teach us what we are to do and where we ought to tend; show us what we must accomplish, in order that, with Thy help, we may be able to please Thee in all things. Be Thou alone the author and the finisher of our judgments, Thou who alone with God the Father and his Son dost possess a glorious name.

Do not allow us to disturb the order of justice, Thou who lovest equity above all things. Let not ignorance draw us into devious paths. Let not partiality sway our minds, nor respect of riches nor persons pervert our judgment. But unite us to Thee effectually by the gift of Thy grace alone, that we may be one in Thee and never forsake the truth; inasmuch as we are gathered together in Thy name, so may we in all things hold fast to justice tempered by mercy, so that in this life our judgment may in no wise be at variance with Thee and in the life to come we may attain everlasting rewards for deeds well done. Amen.

OREMUS PRO CONCILIO

Members of the Order of Malta, Companions, Volunteers, friends, and those associated in any way with the works of the Order, are invited by His Excellency the Prelate of the Order, Monseigneur Jean Laffitte, to pray in the coming week for the Council Complete of State as it prepares to elect the new leader of our Sovereign Order.  There is no need to rehearse in the this place the disturbing news which has been dragged across the Internet in recent weeks, our readers are rather invited to join themselves in prayer with the heart of the Order, so that the sacred work of the service of Our Lords the Poor and the Sick, and the sanctification of individual members of the Order may continue into the future as it has for 900 years.

Those wishing to assure the Electors on the Council of their prayers may inscribe their names at this link: https://www.oremusproconcilio.orderofmalta.int/en.  An option is present for participation in various languages. 

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Blessed Gerard, pray for us.

Blessed Raymond du Puy, pray for us.

Servant of God Andrew Bertie, pray for us.

Click to enlarge

MEDITATION ON THE CROSS III

The third and final part of Fr Hemer's magnificent conferences.

The Son of Man Must be Lifted Up

Eager students...

In his conversation with Nicodemus Jesus says something rather strange. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life. (John 3: 14-15) It's strange because Jesus is talking in a fairly straightforward way about the effect that his crucifixion will have on believers, but he uses a rather odd and obscure incident from the Old Testament to shed light on it. We would expect something like: "Just as Moses led our ancestors from slavery to freedom, so my death will set you free." So let's take a closer look. 

Jesus refers to the incident in Numbers 21:4-9 when the people accuse Moses AND GOD of bringing them into the wilderness to die. Note their resentment is towards God, they accuse him of being a murderer, of wanting bad not good for them. They are plagued by poisonous serpents who bite and kill many of them. So God instructs Moses to make a model serpent out of bronze and set it on a pole so that anyone who is bitten can look at this serpent and live. God is telling them that despite their blasphemies and doubts, he does have their good at heart. To drive the point home he takes the thing that they fear and despise the most, a snake, and makes that the source of their healing. He is saying something like: "You doubt my ability to look after you; not only can I look after you but I am so powerful and so creative that I can work my miracles through the thing that you find most horrible, the thing that you reject and loathe."

MEDITATION ON THE CROSS II

This is the second of the Retreat Conferences by Fr John Hemer MHM.

Gethsemane

The gardens at Douai Abbey

I’m sure many of us have seen Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ.” It was I think profoundly moving and rather harrowing. Lots of Christian commentators criticized it for the extremely graphic display of violence and brutality. I personally think that there is room for a straightforward historical account of how awful crucifixion is and the film certainly achieves that. But of course the gospel writers are not nearly as gory, the say very little about the awful physical suffering, John hardly anything. There is a reason for this. People have always found the suffering of others a form of entertainment. In the Roman Empire it was gladiatorial contests, people being thrown to the lions. In modern times there are many films which for various reasons portray suffering and violence. Think of Papillon or midnight express, 12 years a slave. Think of roots, both the original and it’s recent remake. Think of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, the Godfather, Slumdog Millionaire and many more, and we haven’t even touched the genre known as the Horror Film. The gospels don’t go there because that’s not the point. The evangelists want us to not just to observe the event but understand the deeper significance, so for instance we get a glimpse into the heart of Jesus at the scene in Gethsemane. It would be easy to concentrate on the physical suffering – which was dreadful and ignore the mental and spiritual suffering, which for the Son of God, being victim of the most dreadful injustice, must have been worse. The passion is not just another story of an innocent man being brutalised.

MEDITATION ON THE CROSS I

This is the text of the first conference given by Fr John Hemer MHM at the Douai Retreat for Knights last month.  While this formed part of the Lenten retreat, it is relevant at any season, and provides, within the Easter Octave, a fitting reflection for our thanksgiving for our Salvation through Our Lord's Passion and Resurrection.

The second part, upon Gethsemane, will follow later.

Why did we need the Cross?

I began my priestly life as a missionary in Pakistan. At first I was very impressed by the call to prayer. Five times a day, from every mosque in the land you hear this chant, allah hu akbar, God is great, there is no God but God. As a Christian I can go along with that much and coming from a secular country like this where you don’t mention the name of God in polite society I found it enormously moving to hear his name invoked so publicly so often and for it to be so normal. But I soon realised that it’s true as far as it goes, but it’s nothing like enough to make the human race want to love God, to be with him. It doesn’t have anything to say to people who suffer, to people who question, to people who are oppressed by religious power. I had to go somewhere else to learn about that.

ANNUAL RETREAT MEDITATION 2

This is the second part of Dr Conlon's talk.

Lively discussion

The Power and the Glory

In the second temptation Jesus is conveyed to the pinnacle of the Temple. This most magnificent of many buildings that arose under the governance of Herod the Great, stood on a plateau. There was a corner at which the portico of Solomon met the Royal Gate and from there was a sheer drop of 450 feet into the Kedron valley. This might well have been the location for the spectacular stunt suggested by Satan. Quoting psalm 91, which was intimately connected with the Temple as a place where protection is assured to the believer, Jesus is to demonstrate the veracity of that prayer in an obvious and unmistakable manner.  He responds by a biblical dispute with the Devil. Pope Benedict, in his scholarly way sees a contemporary resonance in this outcome. The interpretation of scripture is ultimately one about the image of God that it demonstrates. And that image is formed by how Christ is interpreted. What kind of Messiah is he? We apparently have so many from which to choose. But only one is genuine; the one that recognises his complete identification with the will of his heavenly Father on the one hand, and the other, the trusting abandonment of his bodily survival to the extremes of physical destruction.

ANNUAL RETREAT MEDITATION 1

The Order's Annual Retreat for Knights was held at Douai Abbey from 31st March to 2nd April.  There follows below the texts of the first of two conferences given by the Chaplain to the Grand Priory, The Reverend Dr Antony Conlon, Two reflections based on the Bible commentaries of Prof William Barclay and Pope Benedict XVI’s book Jesus of Nazareth.  The second will follow in another post, as will the later conferences of the Retreat.

  The Spirit and the wilderness

The first thing that we need to get to clear is the meaning of the word tempt in this context. The Greek word perezein used in the Gospels should be translated as “test”. It means to entice someone to do wrong or to take the wrong way. This is a familiar theme in the Old Testament. Abraham and Moses are classic examples of it. The Jews had a saying, “The Holy One, blessed be his name, does not elevate a man to dignity till he has first tried and searched him ; and if he stands in temptation then he raises him to dignity.” The aim is not to weaken us but to make us stronger through overcoming the ordeal. It is the test which comes from God to those whom he wishes to use. Jesus is tested in his humanity as the prophets and patriarchs were. It is another example of how he submitted to every contingency of weakness to which our human nature is subject. He was not spared that mental turmoil which accompanies the moral choices that risks personal calamity and hardship by rejecting the safer path of convenience, compromise and evasion. The second thing to notice is the place of the testing: the wilderness. Again, it is the biblical setting that strips away all the props and disguises that can be used to counterfeit righteousness and virtue. There’s no possibility of escape from the stark choices that have to be faced and resolved. Jesus is about to confront his mission and the consequences that flow from it and his human resolution must be forged in the fierce isolation from material comfort that the desert represents.