Sea MusicOnly after hearing the world première of Eduardo Soutullo’s Eismeer did I learn that the work was inspired by a painting: Caspar David Friedrich’s canvas bearing the same title. While listening to the music, I kept thinking of this photograph, which Read More
CorrespondenceDipping into the Journal of Alexander Schmemann, I am struck by an entry dated 2 April 1976, struck and somehow heartened by the resonance. Schmemann writes about an experience we can all relate to: ‘Letters from Andronikoff, from Vania Morozov, from Read More
Heridas que sananHealing Wounds was recently launched in Spanish, in a fine version done by Carlos Ezcurra (who translated the English text) and Armando Pego (who translated Arnulf of Leuven’s poem). Professor Pego has reflected on his conversation with the poem here. Read More
IntermissionCoram Fratribus will take an Epiphanytide break. I thank you for your companionship through the site. May 2026 be blessed for you, truly an annus Domini. A good thing to read this season is Nathaniel Peter’s essay on Christmas joy, Read More
A Nuptial HomilyHomily given at the Nuptial Mass for the marriage of Patricia Pauline Jane Boon and Ole Bendik Heggtveit. Ephesians 5.22-23: This mystery is profound. John 2.1-11: You have kept the good wine until now. That grand theoretician of Western civilisation, Mae West, famously declared: ‘Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.’ She was right: marriage has an institutional aspect. Spouses undertake a mutual obligation that has relational, civic, and financial consequence. The Christian understanding of such obligation has been a stumbling block since the days of our Lord. A key factor that caused keen groupies to draw back from discipleship was Christ’s teaching on marriage. The radicality of it was more than they could bear. These days, most people have but foggy ideas of what the Gospel teaches, but they know they’re against it. A recent essay in the TLS argued for the abolition of marriage as an institution, pace Miss West, on the grounds that marriage has been a ‘mechanism for maintaining the gendered division of labour, for regulating men’s access to women’s bodies, and for giving men ownership and control of children’. Well, if that were all there is to it, good riddance! Only, it isn’t, of course. We can be grateful to Patricia and Ole Bendik for recalling us to this fact. They have put before us Paul’s teaching on marriage in his letter to the Ephesians. This text was written when the Apostle was old, imprisoned, and awaiting pretty certain execution. The rhetorical edge of his earlier writings is gone, almost. There’s no time for it; he has essentials to convey. Paul’s great matter is this: he affirms that as Christians we really subsist in Christ. His life is ours. A Christian does not just adhere to certain notions; he or she is being transformed in a communion of love. When we think of ourselves as ‘members of Christ’s Body’, it isn’t by way of metaphor; it is a statement of fact. Apart from him we decompose, we lose our consistency and vitality. He on his part desires our full and vibrant incorporation, for a body, to function with joyfulness and grace, longs to be whole. The Christian union of man and wife is to Paul the embodied sign of this spiritual calling. The institutional aspect of marriage is not its core. Marriage, says Paul, is a mystery, that is, a sacrament. What’s a sacrament? An instance of a concrete procedure that by providential agency becomes a vehicle of sanctifying grace, thereby both remaining and transcending itself. Dear Patricia and Ole Bendik, you now consecrate yourselves to each other until death because you love each other and wish to construct your lives on the basis of that love always. That is magnificent. But it is not all. By administering the sacrament of wedlock to one another, having it blessed by the Church, you open your shared love to Christ’s. You call him into it as fire, to enlighten, warm, and purify. To say you are henceforth one detracts nothing from the genius of each. No, what you are in particular is splendidly enhanced by what in common you become. Together you are to manifest Christ’s love, enabling him, by your fidelity, to make your lives’ water wine, to let your union become a hospitable, festive anticipation of the Kingdom, which for good reason is likened to a wedding feast. ‘Love’ is a big word. The way we tend to use it, we associate it with strong emotion. Yet few relationships, even the happiest, are marked by a continuos ecstasy of sentiment. Paul wisely extends his terminology. Speaking of married love he speaks of reverence, submission, respect, self-giving. These are quotidian articulations of the time-surpassing love to which you pledge yourselves. Love is not least a matter of well-kept promises. ‘Let your yes be yes, your no be no’, says our Lord. The principle holds for all, but is especially important in marriage. Be truthful. Shun deceit. And never take each other for granted. You are getting married on the feast of St Antony the Great, a fourth-century Egyptian hermit. He is at once distant and close. Like you, he decided to structure his existence on Christ’s love. He applied it with coherence in his work, relationships, and spiritual paternity until he died at about 105. On his deathbed he distilled his experience in two counsels. He said: ‘Let Christ be the air you breathe’; then, ‘Live as if you began your consecration today’. The same applies to you. Let Christ be the atmosphere in which your married life unfolds; and receive one another with wonder each day. Be grateful for each other. Remember to say ‘Thank you’, not least for little things. Tend carefully to the regular, institutional commitment you undertake; but never let your love be institutionalised. The preface of this nuptial Mass refers to marriage as blandum concordiæ iugum et insolubile vinculum pacis: ‘A sweet yoke of concord and an unbreakable bond of peace’. It’s a lovely phrase! It represents at once a benediction and a task. God grant you joy as you give yourselves to this task! May you be blessed by it; and may you be a blessing for all those whom your joined, concordant lives touch. Amen. The Marriage at Cana, c. 1495/1497, by the Master of the Catholic Kings, now in the National Gallery of Art.
Sea MusicOnly after hearing the world première of Eduardo Soutullo’s Eismeer did I learn that the work was inspired by a painting: Caspar David Friedrich’s canvas bearing the same title. While listening to the music, I kept thinking of this photograph, which I saw in an exhibition recently: Herbert George Ponting’s shot from a grotto within an iceberg, captured while he accompanied Scott on his expedition to the Antarctic in 1911. Soutullo’s composition is forceful and very beautiful. I can’t think of any musical work, other than Debussy’s La Mer, that evokes the sea with such immediacy.
CorrespondenceDipping into the Journal of Alexander Schmemann, I am struck by an entry dated 2 April 1976, struck and somehow heartened by the resonance. Schmemann writes about an experience we can all relate to: ‘Letters from Andronikoff, from Vania Morozov, from a reader of Cabasilas. Why am I totally unable to answer letters as they arrive, and why do I have to wait until they pile up in order to invest, despairingly, a whole day in doing so? Surely because each missive requires that one surrenders a portion of one’s heart to it, and we are sparing in this respect.’ The same entry reflects on the impossibility of reducing ‘faith’ to ‘religion’ or to ‘ideology’. ‘Religion and ideology subjugate us. Only faith liberates.’
Heridas que sananHealing Wounds was recently launched in Spanish, in a fine version done by Carlos Ezcurra (who translated the English text) and Armando Pego (who translated Arnulf of Leuven’s poem). Professor Pego has reflected on his conversation with the poem here. The launch was noted in various media: El Debate, Omnes, InfoVaticana, and others. After the launch I had the opportunity to visit the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales. I was fascinated to find there this mural, which corresponds exactly to the type of the Crucified Monk I discuss in the book: ‘Our wounds will finally heal when they have become so one with Christ’s, so fully surrendered, that we no longer know where his passion ends and ours begins. We are caught up, then, in the inexorable victory of his life over our death, of his light over our darkness, of his wholeness over our fragmentation.’
IntermissionCoram Fratribus will take an Epiphanytide break. I thank you for your companionship through the site. May 2026 be blessed for you, truly an annus Domini. A good thing to read this season is Nathaniel Peter’s essay on Christmas joy, which also takes you to some wonderful music. Nathaniel cites Pieper: ‘For man cannot have the experience of receiving what is loved, unless the world and existence as a whole represent something good and therefore beloved to him.’ There is a task for all of us in that observation. Below you can hear the Carmelites of Tromsø sing a wonderful carol. ‘Sic nos Amantem, quis non redamaret?’ Happy new year! +fr Erik Varden https://coramfratribus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01-A-kom-alle-kristne.mp3
Home
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲 📝 The Annual Cloyne Lourdes mass celebrating the Feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick will take place in the 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 in 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐤 on 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐅𝐞𝐛. Read More 5 Likes
Monsignor James O’Donnell, Macroom to Celebrate Platinum Jubilee in Castlelyons Castlelyons Community Council, together with Fr. Coleman, has extended a warm invitation to Monsignor James O’Donnell to return to his home parish for a very special occasion. Monsignor O’Donnell will Concelebrate Read More 6 Likes
Special Day of Prayer in Midleton - 10th January 2026 Midleton parish invites parishioners from all parishes of the Deanery to participate in a Special Day of Prayer in Holy Rosary Church, Midleton, on Saturday January 10th 2026, to mark the closing of Read More 17 Likes
Today we celebrate the solemnity of The Epiphany of our Lord. 6th January 2026 👑 Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord 👑 The visit of the Wise men from the East to the stable in Bethlehem to visit the Christ Child Read More 4 Comments
