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
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
EpiphanyThe protagonists of today’s feast are the wise men from the East and the Child in the manger. Their encounter has been so amply developed in poetry and art that it seems to us deeply familiar. The Magi’s oriental majesty, their splendid capes and headgear and precious gifts, lend extravagance to Christmas. We are right to rejoice in all this loveliness. God has assumed our nature. He takes it seriously, also in its sensuous and imaginative aspects. Everything kan become praise. The scene from Bethlehem fulfils the vision of Isaiah: ‘The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.’ This promise is realised before our eyes. It is wonderful: God prepares our salvation by means of a scenography conceived in minute detail so as to give us reliable signs by which we may ascertain its accomplishment. Now the hour has come. We rejoice in the radiance that issues from the manger. Full daylight, however, is more than we can bear. John says it categorically: ‘The light came into the world, but men preferred darkness to the light.’ That remains the case to this day. Through the gentleness and sweetness of Christmas blows a cold wind of rejection. God knew it would be like this. The same Isaiah who prophesied Christ’s epiphany foresaw all that the Lord’s Suffering Servant would have to endure to enact his mission: ‘He was rejected, despised by people, a man of sorrows; one before whom people hide their faces, despised. And we counted him for nothing.’ The Child in the Manger is the Lamb of God. Above the stable roof we see the outline of a Cross. It is a noble tradition that the Church, on this thirteenth day of Christmas, proclaims the date of Easter. We are reminded that God became man, not to create an atmosphere, but to engage, on our behalf, in battle against sin and death. We know what it cost him. Let’s be mindful of that when we kneel, alongside Melchior, Balthasar and Casper, before Mary’s Child. In the gifts offered by the three, the Church recognises mystical signs of Jesus’s passion and death. In a hymn by Thomas Kingo we sing of ‘Joy and grief proceeding hand in hand‘. In the face of Jesus the two are one. We are reminded that life is like this. We needn’t fear the admixture. We needn’t rebel against it. What matters is to know that all has been born by our loving Saviour in order, next, to assume our part in his bearing, each of us according to our own special call. The dawn Isaiah foresaw points towards the day. Let us choose what is of the day, putting behind us all that belongs to the night. God, who is Light, has come to make us light. That, too, is part of what Isaiah saw. After worshipping the Son of God, the Magi returned to their homeland ‘by another way’. Their choice was pragmatically motivated: the angel had warned them of Herod’s plots. However, there is also deep symbolic truth in their new itinerary. An encounter with Jesus is transformative. One isn’t the same afterwards; it no long seems right to keep on walking the way one walked before. We yearn for something else on which we may struggle to put our finger. To be a Christian is to live in this state of otherness, constantly looking for the right way. The Way, of course, has a name, a face. It reveals itself to us to us on Mary’s lap and here on this altar. Let us follow the Way with joy, faithfully, grateful for the fellowship we have in one another. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi.
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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 3 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 16 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
