Category Archives: Jewish roots

The Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office or Breviary) by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Church, Holy Orders, Jewish roots, Prayer, Spirituality

liturgy-of-the-hours

The church has given us so many tools to help us to grow in our faith. One of those tools is the Liturgy of the Hours.  This form of prayer is sometimes known as the Divine Office or The Hours or The Breviary.    The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, “The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the Psalms into the age of the church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. More over, the reading from the Word of God at each hour, with the subsequent responses and readings from the fathers and spiritual masters at certain hours reveal more deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the Psalms, and prepare for silent prayer.” (CCC 1177).  As a person who has prayed the Liturgy of the Hours for over 40 years now, I can tell you that it is an extremely good way to grow in our Catholic spirituality.  As an ordained deacon, I am required (just as all bishops, priests, sisters and brothers) to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.  I do not consider it a burden, but rather an extremely uplifting way of Growing In Our Catholic Faith.  Though not required of lay people, it is something that I would highly recommend.

Along with the celebration of the mass, the Liturgy of the Hours is one of the oldest prayer forms in the Church.  As a matter of fact, the reciting of prayers at different hours of the day and evening goes back into our Jewish roots. In the Psalms we find expressions like, “I will meditate on You in the morning”, and “I Rose at midnight to give praise to Thee” and “evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare and He shall hear my voice.”  It also says “seven times a day I have given praise toThee.”  The early Christians continued the practice of the devout Jewish people by praying different hours of the day. As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts we learn that the Apostles prayed at midnight and at mid-morning (Terce) and at midday (Sext) and at mid afternoon (None). The prayers at this time consisted of the reading and chanting of the Psalms, the reading of the Old Testament, and then the Christians began adding readings from the Gospels and Acts and the Epistles.  The prayers we do today are very much like what the Church has done from the beginning.  By the fifth century, the Office consisted of Lauds (Morning Prayer), Prime (first prayers), Terce (Mid-morning Prayers), Sext (Midday Prayer), None (Mid-afternoon Prayers), Vespers (Evening Prayer) and Complin (Night Prayer).  We still have these prayer times with some minor modifications.  See the following list for today’s Liturgy of the Hours.

Current Roman Catholic usage focuses on three major hours and from two to four minor hours:

  • The Officium lectionis or Office of Readings (formerly Matins ), major hour
  • Lauds or Morning prayer, major hour
  • Daytime prayer, which can be one or all of:

* Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer
* Sext or Midday Prayer
* Non or Mid-Afternoon Prayer

  • Vespers or Evening Prayer, major hour
  • Compline or Night Prayer

 

The praying of the Liturgy of the Hours only takes a few minutes (about 15+ for the major hours) but is worth every minute you put in to it.  The Liturgy of the Hours can be prayed individually or in a group.  Usually when in a group it is prayed antiphonally, alternating from left to right sides of the Church.  Parts of it can also be sung.  However, praying it privately can be a real help in your own spiritual growth.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this about the Liturgy of the Hours:  From #1174 “The mystery of Christ, his Incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, “the divine office.”  This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to “pray constantly,” is “so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praise of God.”  In this “public prayer of the Church,”  the faithful (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of the baptized. Celebrated in “the form approved” by the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours “is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father.”

So, you are probably asking yourself, “how do I pray the Liturgy of the Hours”.  It used to be that you had to buy the Four Volume book set, or abbreviated one volume set, but today we have it available on the Internet and through smart phone apps.  I own the Four Volume Set and used to use that continually.  However, about four years ago I started using the Ibreviary app and I love it.  There are also websites to help you pray it on a full sized computer or tablet.  Instead of listing these out, there are so many, I would suggest you search on “liturgy of the hours”.  You won’t be disappointed in what you find.

Prayer is at the heart of our relationship to God.  The Liturgy of the Hours is one of the best forms of Prayer that I have found.  I pray it every day, along with my rosary and attendance at daily mass.  All of these bring us closer to the God who loves us so much and wants us to have an abundant life.  Please try praying this beautiful prayer form.  It isn’t just for the Clergy and Religious.  It is for lay people too.  God bless you in your journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dynamic Duo: St. Peter and St. Paul – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Church, Communication, Early Church Fathers, Evangelism, Holy Orders, Holy Spirit, Jewish roots, Vocation

StPeterStPaulImage of St. Peter and St. Paul (available at www.orthodoxgoods.com)

June 29th marks the Catholic Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Since these two men are usually considered the most important Christians of the apostolic age, you would think that they would each have their own Feast day.  However the Church, in its wisdom, has always celebrated these two men together.  We can learn a great deal about living as a Christian, and about Church structure, by looking at these two fascinating men and their relationship to each other.  They both died in Rome and their bodies remain there to this day.

According to Roman legend, Rome was founded by twin brothers, Romulus and Remus.  Their background and early raising was quite tumultuous and their decision to found together a new city proved fatal for Remus.  Ambition and sibling rivalry reared its ugly head, but the city of Rome was founded.  Rome became one of the most powerful cities (and Empire) in the world, but it lost its worldly power about 400 years after Jesus was born.  About 25 years after Jesus died and resurrected, two new brothers (in the Lord) founded a new spiritual city of Rome which to this very day maintains its spiritual power throughout the world.  St. Peter and St. Paul have been considered the new co-founders of this spiritual city of Rome.  Early Christian writers made this comparison many times.  We know St. Peter as being the first Pope and St. Paul as being the greatest evangelist, and scripture writer.  Let us take a look at their relationship.

St. Peter was hand chosen by Jesus to lead the Church.  Peter had known Jesus and followed Jesus for many years.  He was a true disciple of Jesus.  St. Paul, on the other hand, never met Jesus until after Jesus died and rose again.  In actuality, St. Paul was an arch enemy of the early Christians because of his zeal to remove the followers of the Jesus sect from his most loved Judaism.  St. Paul was even there for the first martyrdom of St. Stephen.  St. Peter fervently loved Jesus, and St. Paul fervently loved Judaism.  When St. Paul met the Resurrected Jesus, on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, St. Paul was literally knocked to the ground.  This one time meeting with the resurrected Jesus was enough to totally change St. Paul from persecutor of the Church to evangelizer for the Church.  The early Christians, including St. Peter, were quite skeptical but came to see the change in St. Paul and his zeal for building the Church.

We don’t know for certain how many times St. Peter and St. Paul met, but scriptures tell us of three incidents.  The first one seems to occur around the year 51 when in Galatians 1:18 Paul tells us that he went to visit St. Peter in Jerusalem for 15 days.  The interesting part of this is that the word that St. Paul uses for the visit is historeō which has a very rich meaning.  It implies meeting to gather data, to learn, observe and inquire.  Our word history comes from that root.  That must have been an interesting meeting.  St. Peter was probably still somewhat skeptical of St. Paul, and St. Paul was probably trying to learn as much as possible about Jesus and His followers.

In Galatians 2:1 St. Paul tells us of another meeting he had with St. Peter 14 years after the first meeting.  St. Paul came to Peter and James and John, the pillars of the Jerusalem Church, to present to them his form of evangelization and to verify the fruits of his evangelization.  He seems to have been checking with them to make sure he was doing it well.  St. Paul records that they found nothing to add to what he had been preaching and that they recognized him as being the evangelizer to the Gentiles.  They gave him their right hand of fellowship and encouraged him to keep preaching to the Gentiles while they preached to the Jews.  He ended by saying, “They only asked us to remember the poor– the very thing I also was eager to do.”

The third time that scriptures (again Galatians) mention the two meeting is at Antioch.  This some people play up as a confrontation between the two.  However, it appears that it is a great example of collegiality, and fraternal correction.  The background for this meeting goes back to the Council of Jerusalem where St. Peter made the judgment that Gentile converts to Christianity did not have to observe the Jewish kosher laws.  Now when St. Peter was in Antioch, he was staying with many Jewish Christians who felt that new Gentile converts should keep the kosher laws.  Peter even followed the kosher laws when he was with them.  St. Paul brought to the attention of St. Peter that he was being hypocritical.  It appears that St. Paul really did this out of love and for fraternal correction and that the bond of love that they each had for Jesus triumphed.  Later scriptures and tradition show that these two men kept their fraternal love for each other.

We know that towards the end of their lives, both St. Peter and St. Paul move to Rome.  All of the early Christian writers talk about them being the new brothers who formed the new Rome.  This time, however, there was no ambition or rivalry to separate them; quite the contrary.  Tertullian, an early Christian writer born in 155 tells how both St. Peter and St. Paul were imprisoned together during Nero’s persecution and both were martyred by Nero.  He recalls that they spent many hours together in jail sharing their stories of spreading the Gospel and he added that they blessed each other for their upcoming martyrdom.  St. Peter was crucified upside down (he said he was not good enough to die the same way as Jesus) in the Vatican square and immediately buried in a nearby cemetery, now below St. Peter’s in Rome.  St. Paul was beheaded with a sword.  He was a Roman citizen and due a quick death.   He was beheaded at quae Salviae, which is now known as Tre Fontane (three fountains).  According to legend, when the sword cut off St. Paul’s head, it bounced three times and at each spot where it landed, a spring of water sprung forth from the ground.  His body was taken away and buried nearby.  The beautiful Church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls stands over his burial place.  It is interesting to note that the Tiber River flows through Rome.  St. Peter was martyred and was buried on one side of the Tiber, and St. Paul was martyred and buried on the other side.  Early Christian writers see this as both “founders” having given their blood to bless both sides of the city.  Though these two dynamic men were individuals, they were seen as a major force of  a unified two.

St. Peter was a simple Jewish fisherman with probably little education.  St. Paul was well educated (taught by the best rabbi in the land) and a Roman citizen.  They both were good Jews.  St. Peter was married and St. Paul was a celibate.  St. Peter was impulsive and St. Paul was enthusiastic.  They certainly had their differences.  They both have in common that when they met Jesus their lives were totally changed.  They both loved Jesus and His Church.  Even though both were quite dynamic men with great leadership skills, they learned how to work with each other for the good of the Church.

For us today, we should see that when we truly love Jesus, we change for the good.  When we truly love the Church that Jesus founded, we learn to work together with each other, even when we don’t always agree with each other.  It is almost incomprehensible to understand how these two men accomplished so much in such a short time.  The only way we can understand that is to see them as lovers of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, who respond to “go forth” and spread the good news and build up the body of Christ.  I can only imagine the great time the two of them are having with Jesus right now.  I look forward to meeting them some day.  St. Peter and St. Paul pray that we too can love Jesus with all that we are.

 

Holy Orders in the Church – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Church, Diaconate, Early Church Fathers, Holy Orders, Holy Spirit, Jewish roots, Liturgy, Sacraments, Vocation

OrdinationZoomHR098My ordination by Bishop John R. McGann on October 4, 1980 in Sacred Heart Chapel in Brentwood, NY.  I am kneeling and my wife is standing behind me.

Most Dioceses have their ordinations in the month of June, so I thought this would be a good time to look at Holy Orders in the Church.  The word ORDER comes from the ancient Roman language and means an established civil body, or governing body.  All organizations need some form of hierarchy, and the Church is no exception.  However, the Church is not like any other organization, it is supernatural in nature, established by Jesus himself.  When the Spirit came upon the apostles at Pentecost it made a significant change in them.  It empowered them to spread the good news and to develop the church.  Our modern design of Holy Orders (Bishop, Priest and Deacon) dates back to the very beginnings of the Church.  Since the Apostles were all good Jews, as Jesus himself was, and since God was at work from the very beginnings with the Jewish nation, it is not surprising that our Holy Orders closely resemble the Jewish priesthood.

In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), the chosen people were constituted by God as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  He even chose one of the twelve tribes, Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service.  The priests were “appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”  Our present day liturgy reflects that close relationship to the Jewish priesthood of Aaron and the Levites.  Here is a sample from the Church’s liturgy:

The Church prays in the consecratory preface of the ordination of bishops:

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . .
by your gracious word
you have established the plan of your Church.

From the beginning,
you chose the descendants of Abraham to be your holy nation.
You established rulers and priests
and did not leave your sanctuary without ministers to serve you. . . .

At the ordination of priests, the Church prays:

Lord, holy Father, . . .
when you had appointed high priests to rule your people,
you chose other men next to them in rank and dignity
to be with them and to help them in their task. . . .

you extended the spirit of Moses to seventy wise men. . . .
You shared among the sons of Aaron
the fullness of their father’s power.

In the consecratory prayer for ordination of deacons, the Church confesses:

Almighty God . . .,
You make the Church, Christ’s body,
grow to its full stature as a new and greater temple.
You enrich it with every kind of grace
and perfect it with a diversity of members
to serve the whole body in a wonderful pattern of unity.

You established a threefold ministry of worship and service,
for the glory of your name.
As ministers of your tabernacle you chose the sons of Levi
and gave them your blessing as their everlasting inheritance.

 

The Church today has, just as the early Church had, three main offices of ordination.  The first, and highest, is the Bishop.  The second, and closely related, is the Priest.  The third is the Deacon.  The Bishop and Priest are together seen as Sacerdotal (priestly) while the deacon is seen as helpers to the Bishops first, and Priests second.  Usually the Bishop is seen as a Pastor of a diocese and is often needed as a teacher.  The Priest offers the mass in local churches and the Deacon is called to serve where He is directed to by the Bishop.  All three are ordained.  You can see how early this structure was by looking at a quote by St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was born only 17 years after Jesus died.  He said, “Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters (priests) as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church.”

The Ordination of Bishops, Priests and Deacons are done only by Bishops who are in the line of apostolic succession.  That means that when Bishop John R. McGann ordained me, back in 1980, I know that he was ordained by a Bishop who was ordained by a Bishop who was ordained by a Bishop…..going back all the way to the Apostles.  This is called Apostolic Succession.  The Church keeps records to ascertain that this occurs.  The power of ordination has thus been passed down by the Apostles to all of us who are validly ordained.  So what is this power?  Quite simply, it is the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is a permanent grace given to allow the ordained minister to carry out his mission within the Church that Jesus himself formed.

We know that no Bishop or Priest or Deacon is perfect, indeed they are human, but the grace of the Holy Spirit still works through them for the building up of the Church.   It is Jesus, and His Spirit that ultimately works through the ordained minister.  The unworthiness of the minister does not keep Jesus from working through him.  St. Augustine states this quite strongly when he says, “As for the proud minister, he is to be ranked with the devil. Christ’s gift is not thereby profaned: what flows through him keeps its purity, and what passes through him remains dear and reaches the fertile earth. . . . The spiritual power of the sacrament is indeed comparable to light: those to be enlightened receive it in its purity, and if it should pass through defiled beings, it is not itself defiled.”

The man who is ordained must go through a substantial training and preparation program.  At the heart of it has to be his own conversion to Jesus and His Church.  St. Gregory of Nazianzus says it so beautifully, “We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find ourselves and to where we strive. I know God’s greatness and man’s weakness, but also his potential. [Who then is the priest? He is] the defender of truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ’s priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God’s image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is divinized (make divine) and divinizes.”  And the Cure of Ars says, “The priest continues the work of redemption on earth. . . . If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die not of fright but of love. . . . The Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”

Being a Bishop or a Priest or a Deacon is not an easy thing.  However, it is a great thing.  I thank God for calling me and giving me the strength and power to minister as a Deacon.  God knew what he was doing when he set up the Church.  The call to ordained ministry is an important call.  We should all do what we can to encourage men to look in to the ordained ministry.  We should also say a “thank you” to those who serve us now.  God is good.

 

The Visitation of the Ark of the New Covenant – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Blessed Virgin Mary, Church, Eucharist, Holy Spirit, Jewish roots, Scripture

Israel 369Statue of Mary and Elizabeth at Ein Karem in Israel, the place of the Visitation.  Plaques of the Magnificat, in various languages, are on the wall behind them.

I know, the title of today’s Feast is The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  But in all actuality, scripture and the Church see the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant.  You have to really appreciate the links between the New Testament and the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) to fully understand this.   I won’t go in to the full explanation of TYPOLOGY, but suffice it to say that many things in the New Testament point to the Old Testament.  Many things in the Old Testament are better understood because of the New Testament.  Saint Augustine said that “the Old Testament is the New concealed, but the New Testament is the Old revealed” (Catechizing of the Uninstructed 4:8).  One easy example of TYPOLOGY is when Jesus himself refers to the bronze serpent of Moses (that was hung on a pole to bring life to the Israelites) as a type of his own crucifixion.

If you remember the stories from the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was seen as God’s own presence to his people.  It was carried forth in battle to assure victory and was kept in the Holy Temple to be worshipped.  It was so holy that no one could touch it.  When Uzzah, the son of Abinadad touched it, he immediately died.  The Ark of the Covenant contained three items; the tablets on which God wrote the ten commandments, a piece of manna from when God fed the Israelites in the desert, and the rod of Aaron, the symbol of priesthood of the first priest of Israel.  This ark was prominent in the life of David and Solomon and many others until it was hidden when invaders came in to Israel.  It was never found and is still hidden somewhere in Israel.  Just in case you are wondering, Indiana Jones did not find the Ark of the Covenant; that was just fiction.

So why do we consider the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant?  There are many reasons, but I will list a few.  First of all, when Mary was told that she would give birth to Jesus, the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her.  This word overshadow is the same word that the Old Testament used for God’s Spirit overshadowing the Ark of the Covenant.  The only place this word is used in the New Testament is here, overshadowing Mary.  This shows the parallel of the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Ark of the Covenant and that same Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant.  Today’s Feast shows another very good example of TYPOLOGY.  Mary comes to visit Elizabeth when both of them are carrying child.  Mary is pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist.  As soon as Mary greets Elizabeth, we are told that John the Baptist leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth.  This makes us look back to King David when he danced before the Ark of the Covenant and leapt for joy.  The words, “cried out for joy” here for both Mary and the King David before the Ark of the Covenant are the words used for liturgical dance and joy.   The readers of that day would have understood this.

Another interesting thing is that when King David was able to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant he said, “How can the Ark of the Covenant come to me?”  Elizabeth said to Mary, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  See how close these are.  Luke also tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months in the hill country.  The Old Testament tells us that David kept the Ark in the hill country for three months.  There are other parallels, but I would like to end with one final thought.  Let us compare what the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant contained and what the New Testament Ark of the Covenant (Mary) contained.

The Old Testament Ark of the Covenant had within it the very Word of God, written on stone.  The New Testament Ark of the Covenant had within it the Work of God, made flesh.   The Old Testament Ark of the Covenant had within it the Manna that God sent to feed the Israelites.  The New Testament Ark of the Covenant contained the Bread of Life, Jesus, who feeds His people with the Eucharist.  Finally, the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant had within it the rod of Aaron, the first high priest of Israel.  The New Testament Ark of the Covenant had within it the New High Priest, Jesus.  Isn’t God AWESOME?

A Most HOLY room, the Ark of the NEW Covenant, the Holy Spirit, the Sequence and a little bit of Typology by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Blessed Virgin Mary, Church, Holy Spirit, Jewish roots, Uncategorized

Israel 624 Israel 628 Israel 629 Israel 630In these pictures of the Upper Room, you see first, the interior; second signs of the Muslim Mosque; third,  a brass olive tree donated to Israel by the Catholic Association, and lastly, a column showing a Pelican feeding its young by taking blood from its side.  This was an early Christian symbol of the Eucharist.  When the Ottomans took over Upper Room, they removed all Christian symbols but this one.  They did not understand its meaning.

In Jerusalem there is a building known as the Upper Room (or Cenacle).  The present day structure is in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and dates to the 1200’s.  It is a reconstruction made by the Crusaders using three out of the four original walls of the original structure from the time of Jesus.  There were earlier reconstructions as well.  It is a very HOLY building since it was used by the disciples for The Last Supper, The Washing of the Disciple’s feet by Jesus, Several Resurrection Appearances by Jesus, and the Election of Matthias as an Apostle to replace Judas.  Lastly, it was the place where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Disciples on the Feast of Pentecost.  It is such a Holy place that the early Christians used it as a place of worship, a synagogue (remember the Early Christians in Jerusalem practiced Judaism).  In 384 the first large Christian Church was built right next to it and was known as the Church of the Apostles.  The traditional Tomb of David is right below it.  The Church of the Apostles, next to the Upper Room, was torn down by the Muslims in 1009 but Crusaders later took back the area and built the present reconstruction of the Upper Room.  The Franciscans kept custody of it until 1552 when the Ottomans overtook it and they turned the Upper Room in to a Mosque.  You can still see signs of the Muslim usage.  In 1948 the government of Israel took it over and gave the Franciscans administrative control again.

This Holy room, the Upper Room is where our Church first began.  The Disciples were unable to do much of anything after Jesus Ascended in to Heaven.  They seem lost and powerless.  However, with the Blessed Virgin Mary amongst them, the Power of the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost and they were given the power to go out and form the Church.  It is interesting here to throw in a little typology.  In scripture study, we use the term typology to show the way that the Old Testament (Hebrew scriptures) and the New Testament are related.  I would like to point out one thing about Pentecost regarding this.  In yesterday’s post, Dan Gonzalez showed how Pentecost is a Jewish feast day.  We, as Christians, see it as the birthday of our church.  In looking at this we should look back to the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles where we hear the story of the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem that Solomon built.  In this account, the scriptures tell us that 120 priests gathered for the dedication and a sacrifice was put on the altar.  We are told that when the Ark of the Covenant was brought in to go in to the Holy of Holies, God sent fire from the sky to burn the sacrifice on the altar.  When we look at the New Testament book of Acts we hear that the disciples and other followers, totaling 120 people, gathered in the Upper Room.  The mother of Jesus, Mary, who is known as the New Ark of the Covenant gathered in the center of them all.  God sent down the Holy Spirit upon them all as tongues of fire.  In both accounts of the beginning of the Temple and the beginning of the Church, 120 people gathered with the Ark of the Covenant and God sent down fire.  Our Lord is awesome.

As we celebrate this Holy Feast of Pentecost, let us give thanks to God for giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit and for the gift of the Church.  Our Pentecost liturgy has a Sequence put in along with the normal scripture readings.  This really should be read at every mass of Pentecost, but is quite often skipped over.  Here is a copy of this Sequence.  Read it over and see the precious gift that God has given to us in the Holy Spirit.

 

Sequence — Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.

 

Note: Veni Sancte Spiritus is a true masterpiece of Latin poetry. In rhyme scheme, it is complex and gorgeous; lines one & two rhyme with each other, and line three always ends in the syllable –ium. In meter, the sequence is a very faithful example of trochaic dimeter. In content, it is a magnificent meditation on the Spirit’s guidance through consolation & desolation. So much is lost when this sequence is not sung in its original Latin.

 

Happy Shavu’ot! by Dan Gonzalez

Church, Jewish roots

Israel 419Model of Jerusalem as it appeared at the time of Jesus, in the Israeli Museum, Jerusalem

For six years I was fortunate enough to design for a graphics firm that specialized in creating calendars for the Jewish market. After designing over 50 of them, I’ve acquired first-hand knowledge of how they differ from international calendars (also known as Gregorian, Western or Christian calendars). To begin with, rather than starting on January 1 with New Year, Jewish calendars begin in September with Rosh Hashanah—the Jewish New Year. Jewish calendars list the candle lighting times for Shabbat & holidays as well as the assigned weekly Torah readings (Parashat ha-Shavua). In a Jewish calendar (for the U.S. market) you’ll also find, right along side the familiar holidays of Labor Day and Presidents Day, some unfamiliar ones such as Tu B’Shevat, Lag B’Omer and Tisha B’Av.

My boss was a kind Orthodox Jewish Rabbi who had a love of teaching. His extensive knowledge of Judaism, coupled with my thirst for it, proved my stint at the firm to be incredibly edifying. I learned about the roots and reasoning for each and every holiday I placed on the calendar. And, if I had a question that needed clarification, I had a mentor who was more than willing to share what the Scriptures, Mishnah‎, Talmud or sages had to say about that particular holiday.

This weekend we celebrate one of the three most important festivals on the Jewish calendar, Shavu’ot (The Festival of Weeks or Pentecost)—the other two being Pesach (Passover), and Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles).

At the time of Jesus, pilgrims would travel to the temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice on these three festivals. In fact, as we will hear in the first reading this Sunday, that’s why all of Jesus’ followers were gathered together in the upper room, to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavu’ot:

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” —Acts 2:1–5

To some it may come as a surprise to learn that Pentecost is not of Christian origin. The roots of Shavu’ot—both agricultural and historical—lie in ancient Israel.

Agriculturally, it celebrates the wheat harvest—the most important grain for the ancient Jewish people. Some historians suggest that wheat, in all its forms, provided nearly 80% of the daily caloric intake for the Israelites. It’s no wonder that a holiday to commemorate it’s gathering would be celebrated.

 

Historically, it marks the giving of the Torah to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai. After the exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people wandered the desert before arriving at the foot of Mt. Sinai 7 weeks later. The Hebrew word Shavu’ot means “weeks.” In Jewish tradition 7 is the perfect number (the number of creation) and 7 times 7, even more so. It is a week of weeks or 7×7 which is 49 days. The Ten Commandments were given by God on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, which was 50 days from the crossing of the Red Sea.

Greek Jews gave the festival the name Pentecost or fiftieth day. The same Greek prefix pente, meaning 5, is in the words:

  • Pentagon: A five-sided polygon
  • Pentagram: A five-pointed star
  • Pentameter: A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet
  • Pentathlon: A contest with five different events

Shavu’ot commemorates the time when God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments, the way by which they were to live their lives. It is on that day that the Hebrews became a nation.

For the first Christians, Pentecost was the day they received the Holy Spirit, which dwells in the hearts of all believers, commanding the way they are to live their lives. Pentecost celebrates the unity of the first Christians and the birth of the Church.

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