BachHow would the official broadcaster of a state committed to dialectical materialism portray the Fifth Evangelist? With curiosity I approached the four-part series Bach made as a DDR-Hungarian coproduction in 1985. It is remarkable: carefully researched, humanely written, splendidly acted. Read More
St Sigrid?‘One can imagine the response of Sigrid Undset, had she been told that the Church would one day consider her a possible subject for a cause of beatification. She would have chortled. She might even have permitted herself a well-chosen Read More
Inkling of a CallThe latest chronicle of St Cecilia’s Abbey in Ryde features an obituary of Sr Marie Bernard Eckhardt, who died in March after 68 years of monastic life. This intelligent woman of deep prayer, a native of Switzerland, was to the Read More
CollianderThe fact that Tito Colliander has not, apart from Way of the Ascetics, been translated into English puzzles me. I consider his seven-volume suite of memoirs a work of exceptional significance. It is also very beautiful. Colliander was a consummate Read More
How Grace WorksA conversation with Mark Makowiecki was an opportunity to talk about what makes a good teacher and about the impact good books can have, about how God’s grace works in ordinary people’s lives, about monasticism – and about Catholic life in the North. You can listen to the whole conversation here. On Sigrid Undset: ‘In addition to the great medieval cycles there are her so-called conversion novels, The Wild Orchid and The Burning Bush, both re-published in English, alongside many other Undset titles, by Cluny Media, that heroic enterprise which does so much to bring out excellent literature in new editions.’ The witness of a perseveringly faithful community is a strong incentive not to despair of one’s own circumstances. At a time when so many boats are being burnt and portcullises are lowered and walls are being built (unfortunately all these metaphors correspond to facts), it is really important to have places where there is an unconditional welcome. I saw this wall-painting recently, in Zurich, and liked it. I wouldn’t over-interpret, but it does convey something about life in the Spirit.
BachHow would the official broadcaster of a state committed to dialectical materialism portray the Fifth Evangelist? With curiosity I approached the four-part series Bach made as a DDR-Hungarian coproduction in 1985. It is remarkable: carefully researched, humanely written, splendidly acted. Ulrich Thein makes a credible JSB. He looks uncannily like him. Franziska Troegner is excellent as Anna Magdalena. A scene towards the end of Part One shows the famous incident when Louis Marchand left Dresden in stealth to avoid facing Bach in a public contest, having heard what Bach was capable of: ‘He knows’, says Marchand, ‘a different kind of music. He knows the circle of fifths the way people in the Antipodes know the backside of the moon, and strolls within it delightedly.’ This man oppressed by the stuffy air of small provincial towns has ‘made a new musical universe’. (Parts I, II, III, IV). The DDR production acknowledged that Bach was devout. It does though say little, it is true, about what devotion means. Supplement it with the account of Marie-Claire Alain.
St Sigrid?‘One can imagine the response of Sigrid Undset, had she been told that the Church would one day consider her a possible subject for a cause of beatification. She would have chortled. She might even have permitted herself a well-chosen expletive. Certainly, she is no plaster-cast saint. Her Christian trajectory was marked by struggles. She knew the complexities of life and love. That is why she speaks to us the way she does. And when we consider her life at a distance — she died in 1949 — we see that she did embody heroic virtue. She was one of the twentieth century’s foremost Catholic intellectuals, who used her creative gifts to proclaim Christ’s gracious truth. She was a fearless advocate of justice: this she showed to the full during World War II when, rushed into exile, she thundered against Nazism. She was an exemplary mother, not least in the way she cared for her handicapped daughter. She was a woman of prayer. I have been struck for years by signs emerging here and there, all over the world, of spontaneous devotion to Sigrid Undset, devotion sprung not only from love of her literary work but from a sense that she truly was, and remains, a friend of God. Her witness of unsentimental devotion and intelligent integrity is just what we need, I’d say, here and now.’ From an exchange with Luke Coppen on the launch of a causa for Sigrid Undset.
Inkling of a CallThe latest chronicle of St Cecilia’s Abbey in Ryde features an obituary of Sr Marie Bernard Eckhardt, who died in March after 68 years of monastic life. This intelligent woman of deep prayer, a native of Switzerland, was to the end ‘courteous, interested in everything and everybody, sometimes quite blunt in her opinions, always full of kindness’. The seed of her monastic calling was sown early. In an account written when she was just shy of 80, she traced her vocation back to an experience entertained when, aged four, she had asked her father why she had no grandfather: ‘My father explained that he had died and then went to heaven where he would remain for ever. This was called eternity and I remember lying on my bed, closing my eyes for a minute or two and then saying to myself: “No, eternity is much longer than this.” It gave me a great thrill to “play eternity”.’ How natural eternity is for a child whose mind and sensibility have been quickened by baptism. How convoluted life can become when this quickening has not taken place and the child, growing up, lacks coordinates by which to understand the infinite longing of which the human soul is by nature possessed.
CollianderThe fact that Tito Colliander has not, apart from Way of the Ascetics, been translated into English puzzles me. I consider his seven-volume suite of memoirs a work of exceptional significance. It is also very beautiful. Colliander was a consummate stylist. His language, Torsten Kälvemark has written, is ‘that of the burning beeswax-candle’s flame’. Asked whether he was devout, Colliander answered: ‘I don’t really know what that means. The tradition to which I belong doesn’t corral people, doesn’t set them apart and say, that’s a devout man, that is not; that fellow’s a Christian, that one isn’t. After all, we all stand together carrying our failures. No one can judge and condemn. The Thief had blood on his hand, yet in old Russian icons it is he, not Peter, who stands ready to receive us into Paradise.’ We can only pray, ‘Lord have mercy’. The precondition is a sense of our insufficiency. It is the only appropriate attitude we can have before Christ Jesus, ‘for we don’t give away all we possess, our faith is weak, we cannot move mountains. Yet even if our faith is weak, or we seem to have no faith at all, we can call out, ‘Lord, have mercy’. The call itself may bestow upon us the gift of faith.’
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Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Benedict. He was a sixth-century abbot who gave Christian monasticism its lasting foundation in Western Europe. St. Benedict was declared a co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). St. Benedict is also Read More 2 Comments
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Kilian. He was an Irish missionary bishop and the Apostle of Franconia, where he began his labours in the latter half of the 7th century. 3 Comments
Today we celebrate the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle. He is the patron saint of architects. St. Thomas is best known for his role in verifying the Resurrection of Jesus. Thomas' unwillingness to believe that the other Apostles had Read More 2 Comments
Cloyne Diocese Eucharistic Adoration Holy Hour of Directed Adoration Led by Fr. John Keane , Director of Eucharistic Adoration Holy Hour Glengoura Church, Conna Parish - Friday July 10th at 7pm All very welcome 14 Likes
Today we celebrate the feast day of St Oliver Plunkett. Saint Oliver Plunkett (1st November 1625 - 1st July 1681) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised Read More 4 Comments
