John Cassian: prayer without ceasing

Today is the feast of St John Cassian (c. 360-435) - to whom we owe two extensive accounts (the Institutes and the Conferences) of the teaching of some of the great desert fathers. Cassian played a significant role in the establishment of monastic life in Gaul, and was an influence on both St Benedict and St Dominic. (The fact that it falls on the same day as that of St Bridget of Sweden means that, certainly in Europe, his memoria is generally not observed).

The following is an extract from his Conferences which discusses a theme central to monastic life - unceasing prayer.

And so for keeping up continual recollection of God this pious formula is to be ever set before you: “O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 69:2).

For this verse has not unreasonably been picked out from the whole of Scripture for this purpose.

For it embraces all the feelings which can be implanted in human nature, and can be fitly and satisfactorily adapted to every condition, and all assaults.

Since it contains an invocation of God against every danger, it contains humble and pious confession, it contains the watchfulness of anxiety and continual fear, it contains the thought of one’s own weakness, confidence in the answer, and the assurance of a present and ever ready help.

For one who is constantly calling on his protector, is certain that He is always at hand.

[...] This thought in your heart may be to you a saving formula, and not only keep you unharmed by all attacks of devils, but also purify you from all faults and earthly stains, and lead you to that invisible and celestial contemplation, and carry you on to that ineffable glow of prayer, of which so few have any experience.

Let sleep come upon you still considering this verse, till having been moulded by the constant use of it, you grow accustomed to repeat it even in your sleep.

When you wake let it be the first thing to come into your mind, let it anticipate all your waking thoughts, let it when you rise from your bed send you down on your knees, and thence send you forth to all your work and business, and let it follow you about all day long.

This you should think about, according to the Lawgiver’s charge, “at home and walking forth on a journey” (Deut. 6:7), sleeping and waking.

This you should write on the threshold and door of your mouth, this you should place on the walls of your house and in the recesses of your heart so that when you fall on your knees in prayer this may be your chant as you kneel, and when you rise up from it to go forth to all the necessary business of life it may be your constant prayer as you stand.

John Cassian (c. 360-435): Conferences 10, 10.

I have assembled further extracts from Cassian's writings here on my other blog.

The Real Presence and Christ's healing power

Elijah, Our Lady, and the Eucharist

The Elijah narratives in the Book of Kings are rich in content which the Church has traditionally understood as prefiguring Our Lady and the Mass. Some of these are discussed in the following (very short) addresses produced by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.


Types of Our Lady: Mary and the Cloud of Elijah




Types of the Eucharist: Elijah's Hearth Cakes

Feast of the Prophet Elijah

In the Carmelite calendar July 20th is the feast of the Prophet Elijah. I imagine that it is no coincidence that this falls within what used (presumably) to be the Octave of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

I'd be interested to know what the Carmelites have selected for the patristic reading in the Office of Readings. In the modern monastic office, the Elijah cycle occurs in week 17 of Ordinary Time (that is, next week), and includes the following commentary by St Chromatius of Aquileia (an Italian bishop who died early in the fifth century) on the episode of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath

Elijah was sent to a widow in the Sidonian village of Zarephath to give her food and save her from starving.

Let us consider how perfectly this woman prefigures the Church.

Before Elijah came to her, she and her children were suffering from hunger.

Undoubt­edly she suffered also from the worst kind of hunger, because Christ the bread of life had not yet descended from heaven; the Word of God had not yet taken a body from the Virgin.

Listen to the Prophet’s saying: I shall send famine on the land; not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.

Any who suffer hunger for lack of the divine word do indeed risk dying of starvation.

There is a great difference between being deprived of earthly bread and being deprived of the divine word.

Lack of earthly bread can kill only the body, but lack of the divine word ruins the soul as well as killing the body.

Unsatisfied hunger for earthly bread removes us from this present life; but unsatisfied hunger for the divine word excludes us from eternal life.

Such was the peril faced by the Church before she received Christ, but when she received him she escaped the danger of everlasting death.

Before the coming of Christ, this woman did indeed have a little flour and oil, that is, the teaching of the Law and the Prophets, but that could not have saved her if the grace of Christ had not fulfilled the Law and the Prophets.

Hence the Lord’s saying in the Gospel: I have come not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them.

The Law and the Prophets were powerless to save us from death, except through the Passion of Christ.

So it was that when the Church received Christ, flour, oil, and wood began to abound; flour signifying the bread of the word; oil the gift of divine mercy; and wood the mystery of the venerable Cross through which the ­heavenly rain is given to us.

For this is what Elijah says to the woman: You shall not lack flour or oil until the Lord brings rain upon the land.

Our Lord and Saviour brought us rain from heaven, that is, the teaching of the Gospel, and by it he refreshed human hear­ts, dry as a thirsty land, with the waters of eternal life.

Chromatius of Aquileia (d. 406/7): Sermon 25, 5-6 (SC 164:84-88); 3) from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Following on from here and here, this is another thought-provoking homily on the Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary. This particular reflection focuses on the defining characteristics of devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel (whose feast was celebrated a few days ago on July 16th).

St Arsenius the Great

Today is the feast of St Arsenius the Great, who was born in around 350 A.D. in Rome to a Christian, Roman senatorial family. He was made a deacon by Pope Damasus I who recommended him to Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I the Great as a tutor for his sons. After spending several years living in luxury in Constantinople with the imperial family, he retired to the desert to pursue a life of prayer, solitude and repentance. Known for his often-repeated saying “Many times I spoke, and as a result felt sorry, but I never regretted my silence”, he died in 445 at the age of nearly 100. There is an engaging bigraphy on the Coptic Orthodox Church Network.

St Camillus de Lellis

Today is the feast of St Camillus de Lellis in the EF calendar. St Camillus is a patron saint of the sick and of those who care for them. A short biography can be found here, and a longer one here. And this post by Richard at Linen on the Hedgerow is well worth reading. Below is a short homily from Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary (Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate).

“Who seeks entry?”

I warmly recommend the post about the obsequies for Otto von Hapsburg on Tea at Trianon. The post (aptly entitled The Passing of an Age) includes a description of the moving ceremony in Vienna in which Otto von Hapsburg is admitted to the Imperial Crypt in the Capuchin Church where most of the Hapsburg emperors and empresses are buried. The short video shown below can also be seen (with others) at the engaging Mad Monarchist blog.

Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Scenes from Mass (EF) and Devotions in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (today's feast) from Campos in Brazil in 2005, with the Flos Carmeli and Agnus Dei chanted by the Traditional Carmelite Monks of Ancient Observance from Wyoming.

The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Benedict on Benedict

Some words of Pope Benedict on St Benedict (whose feast was yesterday)...

St Benedict

This video features a prayer by St Benedict, whose feast day it was on July 11th.