In the Breaking of the Bread

Every Eucharist is introduced with the reminder that the sacrament of Jesus' self-gift originates "in the same night he was betrayed." Those who eat at Jesus' table are his betrayers, then as now, yet from the death and hell to which our betrayal condemns him, he returns to break bread with us as before. It is no simple fellowship meal.

All meals with Jesus after Calvary speak of the restoration of a fellowship broken by human infidelity: the wounded body and shed blood are inescapably present. We do not eucharistically remember a distant meal in Jerusalem, nor even a distant death, we are made 'present to ourselves' as people complicit in the betrayal and death of Jesus and yet still called and accepted, still companions of Christ - those who break bread with him. When the Church performs the eucharistic action it is what it is called to be: The Easter Community, guilty and restored, the gathering of those whose identity is defined by their new relation to Jesus crucified and risen, who identify themselves as forgiven. What happens in the eucharist is that the Church assembles simply to make this identification in praise and gratitude, and to show in concrete form its dependence on Christ. It is an action which announces what the community's life means, where the activity radically opens to the creative activity of God in Jesus. Every sacrament is a sharing in Easter, in the paschal mystery. All their betrayals are to be understood as betrayals of him, and through that understanding comes forgiveness and hope.

Philippe Rouillard, From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist

Can Doctrine Develop?

When Saint Augustine of Hippo developed the doctrine of original sin in the fifth century, he said that due to the iniquity of our first parents all children who died before they were baptized were destined to hell. In the Middle Ages, this doctrine was soften suggesting that the unbaptized would dwell in a suspended state, neither in hell nor heaven. Their eternal address would be "limbo" coming from the Latin "limbus" meaning 'hem' or 'edge' suggesting that the child would share in a state of natural happiness outside heaven.

For several years the Roman Church has been studying this teaching and fifteen years ago removed it from their catechism. However, this restrictive view of salvation has finally been put to rest under the authority of Benedict VI of Rome. The new study states that there are "serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and brought into eternal happiness."

As a more open and broad understanding of salvation takes hold within the church the critics are complaining that removing the teaching of limbo will discourage the christening of infants, making baptism a formality and not a necessity, and no longer will there be an argument to present to parents who make the agonizing decision to abort the fetus, because without limbo those fetuses will no longer be denied communion with God.

What do we make of this development of doctrine? Do you think it is possible for other doctrine to be developed that would present a more open, inclusive, invitation to salvation and human wholeness?

Mystagogia #2

United in faith and love, through the Paschal Mystery, of our Lord's dying and rising, we may overcome the demonic forces within the world, remain faithful to the gift of grace that we have received being assured of our salvation. May our lives reveal true liberty and enjoy the happiness of heaven that we have already begun to taste and experience on earth, being able to express with our lives the reason for the hope that is within us.

Feast of Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Almighty God, you raised up your servant Anselm to teach the Church of his day to understand its faith in your eternal Being, perfect justice, and saving mercy. Provide your Church in every age with devout and learned scholars and teachers, that we may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 64

On Constituting an Abbot

Once he has been constituted,
let the Abbot always bear in mind
what a burden he has undertaken
and to whom he will have to give an account of his stewardship,
and let him know that his duty is rather to profit his brothers
than to preside over them.
Hhe must therefore be learned in the divine law,
that he may have a treasure of knowledge
from which to bring forth new things and old.
Hhe must be chaste, sober and merciful.
Let him exalt mercy above judgment,
that he himself may obtain mercy.
He should hate vices;
He should love the brethern.

In administering correction
He should act prudently and not go to excess,
lest in seeking too eagerly to scrape off the rust
He break the vessel.
Let him keep his own frailty ever before his eyes
and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken.
By this we do not mean that he should allow vices to grow;
on the contrary, as we have already said,
he should eradicate them prudently and with charity,
in the way which may seem best in each case.
Let him study rather to be loved than to be feared.

Let him not be excitable and worried,
nor exacting and headstrong,
nor jealous and over-suspicious;
for then he is never at rest.

In his commands let him be prudent and considerate;
and whether the work which he enjoins
concerns God or the world,
let him be discreet and moderate,
bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob, who said,
"If I cause my flocks to be overdriven,
they will all die in one day."
Taking this, then, and other examples of discretion,
the mother of virtues,
let him so temper all things
that the strong may have something to strive after,
and the weak may not fall back in dismay.

And especially let him keep this Rule in all its details,
so that after a good ministry
he may hear from the Lord what the good servant heard
who gave the fellow-servants wheat in due season:
"Indeed, I tell you, he will set that one over all his goods" (Matt. 24:27).