ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI FRATERNITY NEWSLETTER |
The Incarnation of Jesus forms the basis of our Christian faith and the actions of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) form our decisive participation in this mystery. During this time of Advent, we reflect on how Secular Franciscans can use their active faith to make Christ present in the world. |
From Article 15 of our Rule: Let them individually and collectively be in the forefront in promoting justice by the testimony of their human lives and their courageous initiatives.
Since Vatican II, an important role of laity has been the task of ministry. No longer are the laity charged with just the threefold adage of “pray, pay, and obey”. The lay person has become the most effective evangelizer for the Church. This role of ministry for laity is not just about doing “churchy” things like proclaiming the Word as a lector, serving as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, or teaching catechetics, as important as these may be. It is a more dominant, out-front role of saturating the secular milieu with the message of the Lord. The laity’s pulpit becomes the platform of politics and business, family life and social issues. Almost 60 years later, the words of the Vatican II document on the Church in the modern world (# 43) still ring true: “One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of it in their daily lives.”
• What justice am I showing to those living around me?
• What am I doing to assist the settlement of refugees or minorities in my area?
• How am I involved in securing fair assistance for those in need in my community?
• Do I use my voting power and my correspondence with legislators to shape domestic and foreign policy with principles of Christian justice?
Let us use the season of Advent to think of ways in which we can activate our faith to fulfill the meaning of Christmas.
(Submitted by the JPIC team with excerpts from Called to Proclaim Christ (Short Reflections on the SFO Rule), Benet A. Fonck OFM, Franciscan Press, 1998)
Since Vatican II, an important role of laity has been the task of ministry. No longer are the laity charged with just the threefold adage of “pray, pay, and obey”. The lay person has become the most effective evangelizer for the Church. This role of ministry for laity is not just about doing “churchy” things like proclaiming the Word as a lector, serving as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, or teaching catechetics, as important as these may be. It is a more dominant, out-front role of saturating the secular milieu with the message of the Lord. The laity’s pulpit becomes the platform of politics and business, family life and social issues. Almost 60 years later, the words of the Vatican II document on the Church in the modern world (# 43) still ring true: “One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of it in their daily lives.”
• What justice am I showing to those living around me?
• What am I doing to assist the settlement of refugees or minorities in my area?
• How am I involved in securing fair assistance for those in need in my community?
• Do I use my voting power and my correspondence with legislators to shape domestic and foreign policy with principles of Christian justice?
Let us use the season of Advent to think of ways in which we can activate our faith to fulfill the meaning of Christmas.
(Submitted by the JPIC team with excerpts from Called to Proclaim Christ (Short Reflections on the SFO Rule), Benet A. Fonck OFM, Franciscan Press, 1998)
0 Comments
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
There between an ox and a grey donkey Sleep, sleep, sleeps The Little Son One thousand divine angels, a thousand seraphim (They) fly around this great God of love.
I imagine that if a children's choir began to sing this very old Christmas hymn: There between an ox and a gray donkey having before their eyes this Nativity of Giotto, they would easily discover the main illustrations of these words of children that abound in this Christmas hymn composed on the model of a childish folk melody. It seems to me that these little singers would immediately see in the center of the painting of the crib "an ox and a donkey" near the baby Jesus with Mary at his side. Surely they would ask the question: Why are these animals in this place in front of "the little son, between the two arms of Mary."
We know that the presence of an ox and a donkey in the manger of Bethlehem is not mentioned in the Gospels but is inspired by the prophet Isaiah who reproaches Israel and its people for not knowing its God unlike the ox and the donkey: "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib, Israel knows nothing, my people understands nothing. (Is, 1: 1-3).
In this Nativity of Giotto we notice that "the little son" of this scene of the nativity scene is not at all sleeping (as the words of the hymn indicate) but that he is perfectly awake! In fact, he has his eyes open and they are fixed on the face of Mary who also looks him in the eyes for the first time. Mary's head bows slightly, a slight smile forms on her lips and her little boy seems to smile at her in return.
(Perhaps she is singing to him tenderly: Sleepy, sleep, the child will sleep The child’s gonna quickly fall to sleep Sleepy, sleep, the child will sleep The child soon’s gonna fall to sleep!...)
It is quite likely that our little singers would not have noticed this detail "of the little son" who does not sleep or this other detail that is at the very bottom of the crib: Another presentation of the Child Jesus in the arms of a midwife who is about to make him take his bath with the help of another companion.
The images of the two choirs of angels bearing these charming names of "a thousand divine angels, a thousand seraphim" would certainly have attracted the attention of our little singers who would have seen them first and admired them at length. It is quite rare, however, to find in a Nativity two choirs of angels, one inside the nativity scene and the other outside as Giotto does here.
We see in this painting that the angels arrive hastily from all sides. Twelve of them represent the celestial choir of the "thousand divine angels" who fly above the Mother and Child. These angels have half-celestial and half-earthly faces and their hands are joined together for prayer, but they wear robes that curve with a flower resembling musical notes. So they would be singing.
Above the roof, other angels (the " thousand seraphim?") converge to the star of Bethlehem, located at the central top of the painting and the golden rays descend on the
Newborn Child: "this great God of love". The Word became Flesh and suddenly from the heavens burst the songs of praise of the many seraphim who are "myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands" (Rev 5:11). "And suddenly", as St. Luke writes (Lk 2:13-14), "with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host praising God and singing, Glory to God, in the highest heaven and on earth peace to people of good will."
To express in colour this Glory of God appearing in the sky of Bethlehem, Giotto uses a shade of fine stone of an unparalleled azure blue. A Franciscan from Assisi, Enzo Fortunato, writes about this colour: "Everything is both so powerful and so quiet. Giotto eliminates special effects and uses that blue colour, unprecedented, 'so captivating, so moving' that no one can resist... The pigment has the same brilliance as gold, but more real: the starry vault is blue, the sky of (the Nativity) is blue. Mary's coat is blue. A deep, luminous but above all 'royal and real' colour."
Wishing you all the best for Christmas 2021 here is a short excerpt from the Christmas Psalm of St. Francis of Assisi: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it. For the most holy beloved child is given to us, and he was born on the way and placed in a manger because he had no place in the inn. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will. Let heavens rejoice and earth exult, the sea and all that is in it be moved, let fields and all that is in them be glad. Sing to him a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! "
Georges Morin, o.f.m.
I imagine that if a children's choir began to sing this very old Christmas hymn: There between an ox and a gray donkey having before their eyes this Nativity of Giotto, they would easily discover the main illustrations of these words of children that abound in this Christmas hymn composed on the model of a childish folk melody. It seems to me that these little singers would immediately see in the center of the painting of the crib "an ox and a donkey" near the baby Jesus with Mary at his side. Surely they would ask the question: Why are these animals in this place in front of "the little son, between the two arms of Mary."
We know that the presence of an ox and a donkey in the manger of Bethlehem is not mentioned in the Gospels but is inspired by the prophet Isaiah who reproaches Israel and its people for not knowing its God unlike the ox and the donkey: "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib, Israel knows nothing, my people understands nothing. (Is, 1: 1-3).
In this Nativity of Giotto we notice that "the little son" of this scene of the nativity scene is not at all sleeping (as the words of the hymn indicate) but that he is perfectly awake! In fact, he has his eyes open and they are fixed on the face of Mary who also looks him in the eyes for the first time. Mary's head bows slightly, a slight smile forms on her lips and her little boy seems to smile at her in return.
(Perhaps she is singing to him tenderly: Sleepy, sleep, the child will sleep The child’s gonna quickly fall to sleep Sleepy, sleep, the child will sleep The child soon’s gonna fall to sleep!...)
It is quite likely that our little singers would not have noticed this detail "of the little son" who does not sleep or this other detail that is at the very bottom of the crib: Another presentation of the Child Jesus in the arms of a midwife who is about to make him take his bath with the help of another companion.
The images of the two choirs of angels bearing these charming names of "a thousand divine angels, a thousand seraphim" would certainly have attracted the attention of our little singers who would have seen them first and admired them at length. It is quite rare, however, to find in a Nativity two choirs of angels, one inside the nativity scene and the other outside as Giotto does here.
We see in this painting that the angels arrive hastily from all sides. Twelve of them represent the celestial choir of the "thousand divine angels" who fly above the Mother and Child. These angels have half-celestial and half-earthly faces and their hands are joined together for prayer, but they wear robes that curve with a flower resembling musical notes. So they would be singing.
Above the roof, other angels (the " thousand seraphim?") converge to the star of Bethlehem, located at the central top of the painting and the golden rays descend on the
Newborn Child: "this great God of love". The Word became Flesh and suddenly from the heavens burst the songs of praise of the many seraphim who are "myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands" (Rev 5:11). "And suddenly", as St. Luke writes (Lk 2:13-14), "with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host praising God and singing, Glory to God, in the highest heaven and on earth peace to people of good will."
To express in colour this Glory of God appearing in the sky of Bethlehem, Giotto uses a shade of fine stone of an unparalleled azure blue. A Franciscan from Assisi, Enzo Fortunato, writes about this colour: "Everything is both so powerful and so quiet. Giotto eliminates special effects and uses that blue colour, unprecedented, 'so captivating, so moving' that no one can resist... The pigment has the same brilliance as gold, but more real: the starry vault is blue, the sky of (the Nativity) is blue. Mary's coat is blue. A deep, luminous but above all 'royal and real' colour."
Wishing you all the best for Christmas 2021 here is a short excerpt from the Christmas Psalm of St. Francis of Assisi: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it. For the most holy beloved child is given to us, and he was born on the way and placed in a manger because he had no place in the inn. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will. Let heavens rejoice and earth exult, the sea and all that is in it be moved, let fields and all that is in them be glad. Sing to him a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! "
Georges Morin, o.f.m.
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2021!
St. Mary of the Angels Fraternity,
Montreal, Québec
Welcome and Congratulations to the new Council members of St. Mary of the Angels Fraternity from Montreal, Québec for the term from 2021 - 2024.