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!