November Course: Ensuring Steady Growth

A new forthcoming course by the School of Mary will be held this autumn.

What is this course about?

God invites each person to co-operate with Him from the moment they have made the commitment to put Him first in their life and to follow Him in a closer way. This course looks in detail at the practicalities of what this means for both our prayer and daily life in order to ensure our relationship with the Lord steadily grows deeper and richer .

What topics are covered:

            The course focuses on three key areas: 

• Finding our bearings: understanding how this stage fits within the overall spiritual journey.
• What it all means: exploring the specific characteristics of this stage and its meaning.
• Understanding what to expect and how to respond: looking at this stage through the lens of Scripture, the Doctors of the Church and spiritual classics such as The Imitation of Christ. This will help us understand what is happening and the new part we are being invited to play in order to ensure steady growth towards union with Christ, with the help of Mary.
  
  
  
  Where and when will the course be taking place?
  
  The course will take place at St Mary of the Angels, Moorhouse Road, Bayswater, London, W2 5DJ on Saturday 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th November from 10am to 4:30pm.
  
  

  
  

  Who will teach the course?
  
  The course will be taught by Jean Khoury, a theologian who has studied and taught Spiritual Life in the Church for over 20 years. As well as lecturing world-wide on spiritual life and meditation, Jean is the author of several books, articles and studies on spiritual life and the founder of the School of Mary, a 3 level formation in spiritual life (www.amorvincit.com). Jean obtained a degree in Philosophy and a Masters in Spiritual Theology from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (France) and holds a Licence in Theology from the Teresianum (Rome). He is currently completing his PhD in Spiritual Theology at the Angelicum (Rome) with Monsignor François-Marie Léthel. Jean is based in the Archdiocese of Westminster, London, UK.
  
  
  How much will the course cost?

  
  The cost for the course is £25 per day / £100 for the full course. As the venue has limited capacity and we expect demand to be very high, participants will need to register and pay a deposit of £50 in advance with the remaining balance to be paid on 7th November.

  
  

  
  

  HOW TO REGISTER

  
  

  Please email schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com to register your interest and we will send details of how to make payment by bank transfer or cheque.

  
  

  Should you have any questions about the course then please don’t hesitate to contact us by email at schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com or call 07908513762.

99: Reading the Scriptures "in the Spirit"

The following text (see below) is a commentary of the Parable of the Good Samaritan made by one of the Fathers of the Church, Severus of Antioch. I chose it because it exemplifies how we are supposed to read the Bible, how we can read it and understand it "in the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is the Main Author of the Bible - this doesn't cancel the human authors but it gives a different quality to each word in the Bible. The central work of the Fathers of the Church was to comment the Scriptures "in the Holy Spirit". The majority of their works are Commentaries of different books of the Bible, and Homilies made during the Mass.

During the first 6 centuries of Christianity God gave us these great Masters that we call "the Fathers of the Church" in order to show us how to read the Bible "in the Holy Spirit". Their way of reading of the Bible respected the literal sense of the text: they always tried to be sure that they had a good translation of the Bible, and often tried to know the exact meaning of what they were reading. But as well - like Jesus shows it in Luke 24 and St Paul in 1 Co 10:6 - God's Spirit opened their minds so they became able to see what the naked eye of a plain reading and analysis of the text wouldn't see. What the Holy Spirit made them "see" is essentially Jesus present in the Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testament. We all need to go at the school of the Fathers of the Church and learn from them how to read the Bible. The Bible is the Bread of our Soul, and the Fathers of the Church opened wide for us the Bread-box of God.

Once our personal relationship with Jesus starts, we start to grow and the Bible - like Jesus - walks at our side and grows with us, giving us, day after day, a more substantial food. This is why, at a certain point, when Jesus opens our Soul in order to purify it, He deepens in the same time our understanding of the Bible, and He starts to feed us with the deeper meanings He enclosed and hid in it.

The journey of purification in us is a journey from the senses to the spirit, through the soul. It is like crossing the sea of Galilee. Jesus opens in us a way, that will lead us to the inner room where he - the Groom - dwells. A journey from the outer world to the inner world, in the centre of our heart. In this journey we need food, a spiritual food, for our soul and spirit; the Fathers of the Church and the Mystics show us how to grow in the reading of the Bible in the Spirit, and show us many new levels of richness hidden in the Bible. This is a unique experience. While we read the Father of the Church we are involved in a unique Experience of the Holy Spirit, where He opens our mind and heart to show us these new depths in the Bible, nourishing us with amazing new types of food. Like Moses, the Fathers of the Church hit our heart of Stone, so Jesus opens it, the the Waters of the Holy Spirit flow from it giving us a New Life in Jesus. Blessed are the ones who go at the School of the Fathers of the Church and the Christians Mystics!

It would be good first to read the Good Samaritan, at Luke 10: 30-37, then read this beautiful spiritual reading of it. Just remember that since the Bible is the Word of God, there is no one interpretation, we could have many. Though they always have to respect the literal sense of the text and the Truths of our Faith.

Please do not hesitate after that to dive in the reading of the Fathers of the Church. You can start with something easy to read like:

- "The Lord's Sermon on the Mount", Saint Augustine.

- Saint Augustine’s "Homilies on the First letter of John".

The Good Samaritan Commented by Severus of Antioch[1]

_______

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho." Christ used the denomination of gender correctly: he did not say: “someone was going down”, but “a man was going down”. Indeed this passage concerns humanity as a whole. After the prevarication of Adam, humanity left its elevated and calm environment, where there was no suffering and the marvels of paradise, rightly named Jerusalem – which means peace of God – and went down to Jericho, a hollow and lowly place, where the heat is stifling. Jericho is the feverish life of this world, the life separated from God, which drags us down and brings on suffocation and exhaustion through the flames of the most shameful pleasures.

So, once humanity had turned away from the good route and toward this life, it was dragged downhill from above and carried away on the slope; a savage troop of demons came and attacked it, like a band of thieves. They stripped it of the clothing of perfection, leaving its soul deprived of all strength, of purity, of justice, of prudence, of anything that characterised the divine Image; but by striking it in this way, with the repeated blows of various sins, they struck it down and finally left it half-dead.

The law given by Moses went by; it looked at humanity lying there in agony. The priest and the Levite of the parable in fact symbolise the Law, since it introduced the levite priesthood. But, although the Law looked at humanity, it had no power: it was not able to procure the complete healing of humanity, it did not raise up the one who was prostrate. Because it lacked energy, it finally had to go away after a vain attempt. For the Law made sacrifices and offerings, as Paul said, “which are not able, in regard to conscience, to make perfect him who is serving“, because “it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”.

Finally a Samaritan came by … Christ gives himself on purpose the name Samaritan. For speaking to the doctor of Law, who made lovely discourse on the Law, he show by his words that neither the priest nor the Levite nor, in short, any of those expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the Law of Moses, did so, but that he himself came accomplishing the Law and showing by his acts themselves “who is our neighbour” and how to “love him as we do ourselves”, him whom the Jews, to outrage him, had said: “You are a Samaritan and you are a demon”.

The travelling Samaritan, who was Christ himself - because he really did travel - saw the man lying on the roadside. He did not pass him by precisely because the aim of his voyage was to “visit us”, he came to earth for us and dwelled among us. For not only did he appear, but he also conversed with men in truth.

He poured wine on his wounds, the wine of the Word; and because the seriousness of the wounds did not support this, he mixed oil with it, and so attracted, by his meekness and his “philanthropy” the criticism of the Pharisees, to whom he had to answer: Go and learn what this means: Mercy I will, and not sacrifice”.

Then he placed the wounded man on a beast of burden, - which means that he lifts us up above the beastly passions, he who also carried us himself, making us into “the members of his body”.

Then he brought the man to an inn – he calls the Church inn, which has become the dwelling-place and the receptacle for all people. Indeed, we do not hear him say, in a restricted sense, with a legalistic shadow and with a figurative worshiping way: “The Ammonite and the Moabite shall enter into the Church of God”, but rather: “Go and teach all the nations”. And once they had arrived at the inn, the Samaritan asked that even greater kindness be shown to the one he had saved: indeed, when the Church had been formed by the reunion of the peoples who had died to polytheism (or: who were dying in polytheism), Christ was in her giving every grace. And to the innkeeper - a figure of the Apostles and the pastors and doctors who came after them - he gave - when he ascended into Heaven - two denaries, so that he might take great care of the sick man. We see in these two denaries the two Testaments, the Old and the New, that of the Law and the Prophets, and the one given to us by the Gospels and the Constitutions of the Apostles.[2] Both are from the same God and bear the image of the one God on high, by the means of the holy words, since one and the same Spirit pronounced them. Let Manes therefore take flight, as well as Marcion, that very impious man who attributed these two Testaments to two different gods! These are the two denaries of one king, Christ gave simultaneously and in the same way to the innkeeper. Now, according to the pastors of the holy Churches who received these two denaries and who increased them through their teaching, with work and labour, after also having payed for their own needs - for the spiritual money, when one spends it, does not diminish but augments, since it is the word of doctrine -, each one of them will say to the Master at his return on the last day: “Lord, you gave me two denaries; while spending them for myself, I earned two more”, with which I augmented the flock. And the Lord will answer, saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in little things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord”.

[1] Homily 89. Quoted in Henri de Lubac, Catholicisme (Paris: 1947⁴), pp. 377-379.

[2] Saint Augustine explains that these two denaries are the two commandments of the love of God and the love of our neighbour. His interpretation is close to Severus’, for the two commandments sum up the Law and the Prophets as well as the Gospel.

84: "our actions", growing in love & witnessing Jesus

Question: While working on my plan for a pilot project here in C. for Forming Intentional Disciples last night, I came to a question that made me ponder. Reading Sherry Weddell's book, "Forming Intentional Disciples", she points to some fundamental principles, including a need for a personal relationship with God and the need for us to witness to others. My question is: Is it our witnessing that is changing others... or is the fact they see genuine love and Jesus in our actions?

My conclusion is the latter. Consequently, it will take 2-5 years (as Sherry says in FID) for the parish to see the fruits of our efforts… because it will take that long to move from the initial ID's stage to truly living the way God wants us to. In a recent talk, Deacon P. calls it "Experiential knowledge vs Cognitive knowledge". When only 60% of Catholics believe in a personal God... what will it take to get the "Experiential knowledge" with God. We should spend some time talking about how to witness when you don't have the experience.

Answer: I would like to clarify the meaning of: "our actions".

First, it is very important when we deal with Jesus' things to do it with humility, understanding that God is the one who calls us, not us who call Him and that God is the one who guides us in everything (if we allow Him to do so). We are NOT in charge of anything, or going on a mission. We humbly try to reply, daily, to His Call. The Grace of God comes before anything else. It is not by "doing" that we will change the world but by "following the Grace of God".

The "go get" mentality, or the "dower" allegedly "practical" mentality can play very nasty tricks to the person who becomes Christian (you call it "Intentional Disciple", I call it: "becoming more Christian"). So we need to be very careful not to play the gods here. This could be an the modern world mentality and tendency. But the norm remains the Gospel, not our mentalities/tendencies.

Therefore the tendency will be to consider "that book", or "that formula", or "that experience" and so forth as a "winning formula" and forget the Grace of God. We do not control God. We are free to love Him, to reply to His love and He is free to love us (first). He loves us… indeed, He never ceases. This is why, by receiving humbly his Love, we try to let it flow to the outside world.

The specific answer to your question is: neither nor. What we need to do is to listen every day and every second, in our heart, to Jesus who calls us and do His will. In the Gospel, we see that sometimes Jesus asked people, healed by Him (who therefore became his disciples), to remain silent and not to say anything; other times He asked them to witness to Him; other times He sent them back to their daily life. Each person is different, each need is different, each time in the Journey with Jesus is different, each mission is different. This is what matters. The general rule is the need for all for growth, but it doesn't happen the same for everybody. The general rule is as well the need to witness to Him, and spread the Gospel. But when and how, we need to see with the Holy Spirit that works in the Church and through the Church.

If He asks me to witness, I have to do it. At any time! Immediately after meeting Him, or years after that. As many times as He asks! If He doesn't, then I need to the other things He asks me to do (according to my state: married, work, family,.. this as well is a mission and a witness to Him.). There are different trees, different type of heights, depths (roots) for these trees.

Now, after that, if He asks me to witness and I do so, will this bear fruits? Not always. St Paul in the big city of Athens had to speak. Did it work? Well it was a big fiasco. Only 2 or 3 persons followed him. Had St Paul known that he wouldn't have fruits, would he have had to consider that it was better not to bear witness to Jesus? Of course not! He had to. When Jesus asks us to do something He doesn't guaranty the success. Obedience remains the highest virtue of the Apostle.

Some soils are good, some others are hard. Some soils allow us to see the fruits of our labour, others need years and others will see the fruits. What a sower has to do, with a detached heart, is: to sow, with a detached heart, obeying to His Master and trusting in Him, and Him only.

On the other hand, the more a person matures in Christ, the more the old man's influence on him/her diminishes, and the more the Grace of God works and make the new man grow in him/her. We are like pregnant women with twins, the old man and the new man, and the food we give (by our acts) either feeds one or the other.

So the more we are purified, the more we are transformed in Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit moves us with greater ease, the more our acts gain in efficiency (they bring more and better results). No doubt at all about that. One act made by a purified person bears infinitely much more fruits for the Church than thousands of acts made by a whole crowd. A saint asked Jesus how many souls He would give her (He would save because of her act) for something she did for Him. She said: 10? He replied: 10.000.

But still, you have saints who preached in places, and never got any result: starting by the Lord Himself in Jerusalem. That was tough. But still, God recompenses them anyway. And they have to do it anyway, so people can't say: we never heard of that, so God's justice is preserved. And you have "devils", who work a lot for the Gospel, preach, make miracles, and still hear Jesus in the end say to them: "go away, evil doers, I don't know you". Why? They were doing their own will, not Jesus' will (Doing a "good thing" is not enough for the apostle; one has to do God's will. This is why Obedience comes first.). If He sends me, then I have to go. If He doesn't send me, then better for me to shut up and stay still, and work on bettering myself (we have to do it anyway), by the Grace of God. This is why Jesus says: spend time removing the big log that pierces your eyes, and then, purified, you'll be able with the Love of God, to remove the straw in the eyes of your brother.

I am not sure I got your question, but this is what comes to mind.

The experience of Jesus, the personal relationship with Him, is a long journey anyway. It usually takes years of growth until one reaches the Union with Jesus, or at least the Spiritual Betrothal. Therefore it is important in each step to discern His will and do it, with the help of His Grace.

Father Marie Eugene, in the end of his book "I want to see God" (the second volume) wrote a small treatise on the relationship - in us - between the Growth of Love and Apostolate/Ministry. Remember, his book is a master piece commentary of the book of St Theresa of Avila: "The Interior Castle". This little study he makes is moved by a genius intuition, which is the need to understand the relationship between the fruitfulness of our actions and our spiritual growth.

He goes through all the stages of growth and explains the risks, the fruits, what we should focus on.

Fr François Regis Wilhelem did pick up this intuition and deepened it in a book (only in French, Italian or Spanish). Excellent work, that should transform our understanding of ministry in the Church.

I hope that helped.

Please pray for me

Jean