2011 Christmas Crib, Capuchin Friars, St. Fiacre's Church, Leichhardt, Sydney

This year’s Christmas crib made by the student friars continues the Franciscan tradition. It followed the idea of finding Christ in St Fiacre’s Parish in Leichhardt. It is the Capuchin mindset which emphasises that Christ can be found in any setting. Having the privilege to experience a white Christmas in the northern hemisphere, the students were inspired to bring the same joy to the parish and school with a snow theme. The Nativity scene is made up of all the main features found in St Fiacre’s Parish from the school to the church and even the Friary. Collectively, the students agreed that the garage was to be the setting for the nativity scene because it was the most obscure of places and a building commonly dismissed by all who passes by. It really emphasises the humility of God.


To see photos and read more....

The Circle of Divine Love

A new addition to the CAPDOX site: the first translation of the The Circle of Divine Love composed by Francesco Ripanti da Iesi, who died in 1549. Bro. Patrick Colbourne is the translator. To see this new work, click here..

Capdox update

A new link has been added to the top menu of Capdox. The [OzCap] tab is a link to the website of the Australian Capuchins. Unfortunately, the company that managed the site template has disappeared, along with administrator access codes. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, and there is talk and thought about a new webpage. Meanwhile the news module of http://www.capuchinfriars.org.au/  is active.

Coming up on Capdox ...

Br. Patrick Colbourne is preparing an English translation of Francesco da Jesi's Circle of Divine Love - another very welcome addition to Capdox. To the best of our knowledge this will  be the first English translation of the work. Br. Patrick has produced fine translations of other texts found already on Capdox, including works by Giovanni da Fano.


The Art of Union and A Small Catechism  (here)
A Short Discourse Concerning the Observance of the Vow of Poverty of the Friars Minor (here)
The Second Dialogue on Salvation (here)
Apart from these works by Giovanni da Fano, Br. Patrick has also translated for Capdox 
Evangelical Love concerning the Rule of Saint Francis (here)


Also in preparation at this time is a translation of Licet ab initio, a Bull of Paul III on 21 July 1542. In this Bull he centralised and unified heresy investigation procedures with the establishment of the Roman Inquisition. Before the Bull, this kind of investigation (inquisitio) and trial (processo) was largely the responsibility of each diocese. .

Capuchin Charism

The Capuchin Friars of the Australian Province celebrate our Provincial Chapter this week (7-11 November). I was asked to make a presentation of the Capuchin Charism. The text of the presentation can be found on the homepage of www.capdox.com  Your comments will be much appreciated.

A new addition to capdox

A new link with liturgy resources has been added to the Liturgy and Lectio Divina section under the LINKS tab on the top menu bar. Parole Nuove is part of www.qumran2.net out of Milan. This site is impressive! The material available in Parole Nuove is diverse and extensive. Though in Italian, you will find a section that contains images to illustrate the Liturgical theme for each Sunday.

These links are updated every Sunday for the following Sunday. They contain liturgy resources (readings, commentaries, liturgical prayer, images, etc) to help prepare for the Sunday Mass.

Other news: Due to illness I have had to return to my home Capuchin Province in Australia. God willing, I hope to be able to add more material now in preparation to the capdox site.

Visit of the Brothers to Palermo

A number of us from the General Curia spent the first weekend of June in Palermo and its region of Sicily.

Palermo Cathedral 

Thanks to the tireless hospitality of fra Enzo (the Minister Provincial) and the friars of Palermo, we were able to visit Salemi, Trapani, Erice, Castelvetrano, Selinunte, Sciacca, Cefalù, Palermo - of course - and Monreale.

Erice

Palermo is only one region of Sicily, yet three and a half days was barely enough for a quick glimpse of its natural and historical beauty.

Erice

Erice

For me, the highlight was our visit to the Cathedral of Monreale just outside Palermo. Its mosaic icon of the Jesus the Pantokrator is well known (see below.)

Monreale

Monreale

Monreale

Without any exageration, standing (- and sitting with a dropped jaw-) within that space was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had. Even apart from the excellent catechesis of the cathedral dean. I was surprised at the silent impact the interior of the church had upon me. I cannot imagine that anyone would be unaffected by the light and compelling beauty of the icons and their interrelation. That, and the catechesis of the parish priest, have compelled me revise my earlier opinions about such texts as "The Divine Liturgy" by Germanus the Confessor, or "The Hierarchies" by the Pseudo-Dionysius, and the like. Personally, until seeing inside Monreale cathedral - which does constitute an integrated liturgical space (even with its later modifications) - I have thought of the "allegorical" commentaries on the Sacred Liturgy to be pius exaggerations empty of content. Now it feels as though my own view has been very  limited without this experience. The intuition of the transcendent dimension of the Sacred Liturgy has been more present to me in the Liturgy of the Hours. In Monreale, though, that dimension to the entire Sacred Liturgy (Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours) is made tangible and visible on a cosmic scale. I have to admit now how beauty can enhance active participation (but not just any beauty, and not just any participation it must be said .) The transcendent dimension of the Eucharist has been less visible and less accessible to my conscious and unconscious self than I could have been aware of without this visit, a visit that will remain one those milestones of rare significance in my own vocational journal.  Below are some images. Without comments.  Words seem inadequate, and a few words - banal. The Cathedral in Monreale could be a place of universal pilgrimage if it isn't already. (Again, apologies for the rotated view.)

See    http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Sicily%20&%20S%20Italy/Montages/Sicily/Palermo/Monreale%20Cathedral.htm

The Lost Michelangelos

Antonio Forcellino, The Lost Michelangelos, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2011. Translated by Lucinda Byatt. (Original title: La Pietà Perduta, Milano, R.C.S., 2010).  pp.181 (10 plates, 5 in colour); ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5203-0.

The author, an Italian professional art restorer/conservator, reports the detective story that led to his identification of what he believes to be an original Michelangelo panel previously unknown to the academic world. (He also revises the provenance of a second panel with evidence to strongly suggest that it too is an original by the master.)

Far from a dry, technical report, the author also tells the personal story of his search and conscious fidelity to a sceintific methodology - a fidelity that does not extinguish his infectious enthusiasm and that of his collaborators.

Part of his account expresses Michelangelo's relationship with the Italian spirituali, including Vittoria Colonna and Reginald Pole - an historical and documented context in which the Pietà was produced, and which testifies to the existence of the panel painting. Forcellino's detective work establishes a plausible line of provence of the panel. Combined with corroborated analysis of the Pietà's underlying drawing leads to a positive identification of the panel's author.

The translation is a smooth read.

Post script:
The following article has since appeared in the International Herald Tribune (26 May 2011): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/design/the-pieta-behind-the-couch.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=michelangelo&st=cse

I first became aware of this story from an article by Melissa Klein (NewsCore on 11 October 2011) published in the International Herald Tribune and various other news services, including The Australian:
 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/historian-convinced-family-has-found-a-michelangelo/story-e6frg6so-1225937058195

Beatification of John Paul II 2 May 2011

Pope Benedict's Homily 

(English tranlsation) at the Beatification of John Paul II.
 

 Scroll down for images from the Liturgy.

Click on each image to see it in its original size.













The images below are from the Maranatha website. 

Other reads this year ...

In chronological order ....
1. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
3. La Verità del Papa, Aldo Maria Valli
4. The White Tiger, Avarind Adiga
5. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
6. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
7. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Fraternity of the Capuchin General Curia, Rome

Click on the pic!

Just finished reading...

1. Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicut McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion?, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-281-05927-0)
2. Alister McGrath, Why God won't go away. Engaging the New Atheism, 2011 (ISBN 978-0-281-06387-1)
3. Alister McGrath, Surprised by Meaning. Science, Faith, and How We make Sense of Things, 2011 (ISBN 978-0-664-23692-2)

Overall, I enjoyed reading these and am glad I did. Stimulating, they outline and critique the fundamental tenets of the "New Atheism" clearly, simply, persuasively. I would have liked to see a recognition of metaphysics as a legitimate science with its own degree of abstraction and certainty, with its capacity for deductive proof distinct from that of mathematics. Such a discussion may have been beyond the scope of these volumes and disrupted the accessibility of the text.  Nonetheless, it would be regrettable if a reader were left with the impression that the philosophy of science trumps other philosophical sciences, and that mathematics alone enjoys an a relatively unassailable degree of certitude.  In short, I am left wondering about some epistemological pre-suppositions in the books. Having expressed that one, personal un-ease I have, I must say again that the books are a great read, and I would recommend the second one the most of all.

Franciscan Ascetical Writings

A "must see" page. Fr. Campion Murray OFM has, over the years, made English translations of early Franciscan ascetical texts. The texts can be downloaded in PDF format. Excellent! Go to http://www.franciscans.org.au/spirituality/campion/index.htm

Corrections to capdox

Until a 'reader' wrote today, I was unaware that Short Discourse Concerning the Observance of the Vow of Poverty of the Friars Minor had not been linked to its PDF file. The problem is fixed and the English translation of Giovanni di Fano's text is now available. Four or five more photographs have been added to the collection of header images too.
If you know of other difficulties with the capdox site, I would be grateful to hear about them.

That's it. No more tweeking of the site for the time being ... well, not much. Some adjustments happen routinely. The Sunday liturgy links (La Chiesa, Maranatha and the Carmelite Lectio Divina) usually get updated every Sunday morning around 8am, GMT - more or less.

Very positive comments on the photographs dispalyed on the capdox homepage. Thankyou. The camera used for most of the pics is a little Olympus FE-20. Photo editing with PhotoImpact version 6. This programme has been in my service since 2000 and more than meets my needs.

Hopefully, capdox may have some new content soon. One or two projects are in the works.

Roller coaster

Visitors to the capdox site have had a roller-coaster ride with all the live changes happening to the site yesterday and today. Probably a bit annoying. Brighter and easier to navigate, CAPDOX looks better.

Apart from a slightly wider page and a better menu, capdox presents some quality images from a few Franciscan and Capuchin places. (Smart Flash Header by ProJoom manages and displays these images. This Joomla extension has a number of useful functions and settings. My only concern is the time needed to download the home page.)

Later, captions will identify the locations.

Huddled in a little valley below the town of Cupramontana is the former Camaldolese monastery of the Grottoes of Massaccio (left). With an previous, long history of eremitical life lived in various way, the site was taken up by Paolo Giustiniani. Seeking refuge, Ludovicio Fossombrone and his brother Raffaele came here briefly shortly at the beginning. Ludovico would have known about this monastic site from the days of his novitiate in the Franciscan friary are short distance away, outside Cupramontana itself.

In recent years the building has been beautifully restored by various owners.

A recent study

Bernardino Ochino, the general superior of the Capuchins at the time, left Italy for Switzerland in August 1542. News of the "flight" of the famous preacher spread rapidly throughout Italy and was a great scandal. The existence of the Capuchins, a new branch within the Francsican family, was still the matter of debate. The behaviour of its superior cast a shadow of doubt over the new congregation.

Shortly after his departure, within a few weeks, Pope III received a startling letter from his former friend Bernardino. The harsh contents of the letter startled and angered Paul III and that shadow lengthened over the future of the Capuchin Friars.

Another letter was published later, and circulated in manuscript form also. That letter was attributed explcily to Bernardino. As that letter had some circulation it was probably the one that the first Capuchin chroniclers knew about when, from 1565 onwards, they began to compose their accounts of the first years of the Capuchin reform. It is quite plausible to believe that this published letter shaped the image of Ochino transmitted in these Chronicles. In turn, that poor image was underlined by Capuchin apologia within the context of the Counter-Reformation.

After some indecision - and waiting for replies from possible publishers - I present the study on the capdox.com site for the first time today.

"Fixing a footnote" - as a title for this work- would adequately situate scale of the importance of the study. Nothing earth-shattering, yet one significant tile in the mosaic of Church and Capuchin history.

Capdox - another new face...

Earlier posts mention an sister site to capdox - the same content, different format. A tentative experiment. With the great PC crash of 13 December 2010 the time came to farewell the original capdox site.

Using a different content management system (CMS), the alternative site has been linked at "Capuchin Saints and Blessed" on the old home page. It came on line in early March 2009. The new CMS has a different structure (cascading style sheets). This 'old dog' has had to learn some new tricks. But the effort has been worthwhile. Now capdox looks very different.