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Celebrating At Home - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Prophet’s anguish
(Luke 12:49-53)
Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by life. Feelings of fear, uncertainty and anxiety bubble away beneath the surface. Sometimes, those feelings reach the surface in an explosion of words and actions.
In this Gospel passage we encounter the startling image of Jesus in distress and anguish over his mission and what he is yet to face. His statement that he, the Prince of Peace, has not come to bring peace, but division, is confronting.
Right at the beginning of this passage, Jesus says he has come to bring fire to the earth and wishes it were blazing already. The ‘fire’ Jesus talks about is the fire of the Holy Spirit; the fire that melts away all that is not of God. But the Holy Spirit won’t be given until after Jesus has faced and endured his destiny (passion and death) in Jerusalem. Perhaps we, who now live with the presence of the Spirit, need to ask, ‘What has yet to be melted away so that only the real presence of God remains in us, purified of greed, ambition, selfishness, and so on? We could also ask, ‘Where is the passion of God in my life?’
Jesus also speaks about a ‘baptism’ he must yet receive. It is not the sacrament of baptism he means. ‘Baptism’ was a biblical word used to describe turbulent and potentially overwhelming events which, like a roiling sea, threaten to engulf us. Again, it is a reference to his approaching suffering and death. Jesus is distressed and clearly wishes it was already over.
Following from last Sunday’s Gospel, the disciple is called not only to stand ready and stay faithful to his employment (call), but also to stand firm in the face of opposition. Peace is not to be won at any price (e.g. compromising God’s word).
Christians should never expect that discipleship makes life easy. Far from delivering us from the difficulties of life, our discipleship is more inclined to plunge us into the difficult and confronting issues which affect us and those around us. There will be division and discord an account of the Word that is preached and the values that we hold – sometimes even among those who are closest to us.
To share Jesus’ baptism is to share with him in his passion and resurrection. It carries significant responsibilities (remaining faithful to God’s word) and sometimes means that we are misunderstood or even punished for meeting those responsibilities.
To follow Jesus is to speak God’s word, in what we say and in our actions.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] (3.07 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - 20 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (558 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XX Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (558 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em Família - 20 Domingo do Tempo Comum (560 KB)
Lessons from His Life
Lessons from Titus Brandsma’s Life
Chronology of His Life
Timeline of Titus Brandsma’s Life
5. A Poet of the Cross
Early Studies
Fr Titus Brandsma did his doctorate in philosophy in Rome in 1909. In addition, he used his “Roman years” to study sociology and make contact with the new currents of Christian social thought and with the social doctrine of the Church. Following this, throughout his academic life, many of his studies and courses were centered on topics of spirituality and mysticism.
Since becoming part of the cluster of professors at the recently created Catholic University of Nijmegen in 1923, our Carmelite was a professor of “History of Mysticism” and, in addition, taught various courses on stages or concrete authors of that history.
Areas of Research
There are three specific areas in which Fr Titus developed his research work. The first was the translation and dissemination of the work of Saint Teresa of Jesus. For him, the fact that there was no full translation of the works of the saint that was done according to scientific criteria presented a grave lacuna for the religious culture of the Netherlands.
Together with a group of Carmelite enthusiasts, they were able to translate several volumes, but were unable to finish the project. While in prison in Scheveningen, Fr Titus continued working on a spiritual biography of the Saint, and although he did not complete it, it would have been completed and published in 1946, at the end of the war.
In the second place, Professor Brandsma studied much of the thought and doctrine of the authors typical of the so-called devotio moderna, the rhenish-flemish mysticism, and includes that of the beguines, that is, of the spiritual literature of central and northern Europe (fundamentally the Netherlands) toward the end of the Middle Ages. Among the authors whom our Carmelite studied, we can highlight Jan Van Ruusbroec, Gerard (Geert) Groote, and Hadewijch of Antwerp.
Finally, one should note his interest in the figures of Saint Willibrord and Saint Boniface, the evangelizers of Friesland, his region of origin. He highlighted, in many articles and sermons, their apostolic life and missionary generosity, something that Fr Titus called attention to because he himself wanted to go to the missions in Java in the 1920s, but was not given permission by his superiors.
Via Crucis
From these three influences Father Titus developed a profound piety for the passion of the Lord and for the cross. In addition, throughout his life, he wrote two commentaries on the stations of Via Crucis. The first of them, written in 1921, emerged in very peculiar circumstances. The Belgian expressionist painter Albert Servaes had painted a Via Crucis somewhat unusual to the tastes of that period, which provoked a great deal of debate. Finally, the Holy Office of Rome ordered that it not be displayed in places of worship.
Fr Titus told Servaes to obey the order, but, at the same time, wrote a beautiful commentary on each of the stations that was published in Opgang magazine.
The second commentary was written in more dramatic circumstances (in the Scheveningen prison), and was intended to accompany the images of each of the stations in the St Boniface Chapel (Bonifatiuskapel) in Dokkum, in whose construction Fr Titus had played an important role. In this Via Crucis, there is no reflection on the fourteenth station. Perhaps he had not time to write it; or perhaps he would write with his own testimony, a few months later in hell in Dachau.
There is no doubt that this deep piety encouraged and consoled the prisoner Brandsma in his personal Via Crucis, whose stations were various prisons and concentration camps. Fr Titus felt deeply united to the passion of Christ and felt that the crucified God was very close to his sufferings. This is how it would be presented, as much in the beautiful poem “Before a Picture of Jesus In My Cell”, as in the conference he gave to the other prisoners on Good Friday, 1942, in the camp at Amersfoort.
Prayer
We ask you, Lord,
that, in the imitation of Saint Titus Brandsma,
we may know how to be close to you, near to the cross,
and that we may always feel you near to us in our crosses, both large and small,
as our Friend, our Companion on the journey, and our Redeemer.
May the cross always be for us a sign of love,
of generous and total surrender to the cause of life,
of solidarity and compassion for all.
May we always say, in all the circumstances of life, with joy and full confidence in you…
Ave Crux Spes Unica…
Amen.
Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us.
Titus Brandsma, Carmelite martyr, intercede for us.
Download the Leaflet 5. A Poet of the Cross pdf here (4.03 MB)
6. Adoro Te - Hidden God
Many of us experience God as hidden. There is nothing new in this. It is not something unique to our time. Already, two and a half thousand years ago, Isaiah sighed in exile: “Truly, You are a hidden God”. (Is 45:15).
3. Eucharist
‘In the Blessed Sacrament He gives us Himself again, and not only Himself as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, no, He tells us that all three Persons will take up their residence in our hearts, if we are united with Him.’
4. Witness of Forgiveness
Throughout his life, Fr Titus Brandsma was a man of forgiveness and reconciliation, including in the most complicated situations and contexts.
1. A Brief Biography
Anno Brandsma was born to Tjitsje and Titus Brandsma on February 23rd 1881 at Wonseradeel in Friesland, a province in the very north of Holland.
Celebrating At Home - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gracious and generous love
No doubt, many will find this Sunday’s Gospel difficult reading.
One of the great themes of Mark’s Gospel is that, in Jesus, all things are being restored to God’s original purpose. That gives us a bit of context for the words of Jesus.
Among Jewish scholars and rabbis of Jesus’ time there was often fierce debate about the grounds for divorce permitted by Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 24:1). As the Gospel recalls, a man could draw up a ‘writ of dismissal’, give it to his wife and they would be considered divorced. At least one line of thought allowed the husband to do this for almost any reason whatever. In a way, the writ was meant as a kind of protection for the woman lest she be accused of infidelity.
When the Pharisees approach Jesus, they already seem to be aware of his teaching about divorce and may be trying to trap him into saying something against Moses and the Law. Something they could use against him.
Jesus, however, talks not about the Law, but about God’s original intention for marriage using quotes from the Book of Genesis.
The words of Jesus make clear that marriage is part of God’s design for human beings. The rich imagery of the husband being so drawn to his wife that he leaves home and family and the two become ‘one body’ implies great love, warmth, intimacy and companionship. When God draws human beings together like this, man must not divide them.
Later, the disciples question Jesus about his teaching. It is important to understand that Jesus’ reply is about a situation in which one party in the marriage divorces the other in order to marry someone else. It is not talking about a person fleeing an abusive relationship or one which has failed for some other reason. So, it is important not to take these words of Jesus and use them as a judgement on those who have divorced, or who have remarried some time later.
It is also worth remembering that the Church itself has a process to assist people whose marriages fail, often enabling them to marry again.
The reply that Jesus gives recognises husband and wife as equal partners in marriage. No longer, according to Jesus, is it permissible for a husband to divorce his wife ‘because he finds something displeasing about her’ (Deut 24:1) and neither can the wife.
Jesus does the same thing in the following story about the little children. When people (probably their mothers) bring the little children to Jesus for a blessing, he disciples, acting as minders, shoo them away. Once again, the disciples have got things wrong, and Jesus rebukes them. They seem to have forgotten already Jesus’ teaching in last week’s Gospel about welcoming the little child.
Jesus astounds the disciples by insisting that the Kingdom of God belongs to those who welcome it like little children, who open-heartedly embrace the Kingdom as sheer gift from a gracious God. The Kingdom cannot be earned, or bought, or bargained for. It is ours for the taking. All we need is the conversion of heart to believe in a God who is so good and so gracious as to give us the Kingdom freely and without measure.
In both parts of the Gospel today, Jesus teaches that married women children and are not to be treated as possessions or objects, but with dignity and respect. As well as recalling God’s initial intention for marriage, Jesus also recalls God’s initial intention about the treatment of other people including those thought to be of lesser or no account.
The disciples need to learn that only those who receive the kingdom of God with the openness and receptivity of a child will be able to enter into the mystery of God’s gracious and generous love.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] (2.19 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub] (3.42 MB)
- pdf Celebrando En Familia - 27 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (323 KB)
- pdf Celebrando In Casa - 27 Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (346 KB)
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Celebrating at Home is a Liturgy of the Word centred around the Gospel reading for each Sunday. It includes a reflection on the Gospel and prayers.
It can be used personally or with your family. Parts for all to pray are given in bold print and all the other parts can be shared among those present.
We hope that Celebrating at Home will be a source of nourishment and strength for all who use it.
In the room you decide to use for this prayer you could have a lighted candle, a crucifix and the Bible. These symbols help keep us mindful of the sacredness of our time of prayer and can help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities.
Lectio Divina October 2021
Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness. Continue to fill us with your gifts of love. Help us to hurry towards the eternal life your promise and come to share in the joys of your kingdom. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
