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Definitions
- Anawim
- Apatheia (wikipedia)
 (Greek:
ἀπάθεια; from a-
"without" and pathos "suffering" or "passion") in Stoic philosophy refers to a
state of mind where one is not disturbed by the passions. The
term passed into early Christian teaching, whereby apatheia
meant freedom from unruly urges or compulsions. It is still
used in this sense in Orthodox
monasticism. See also: Quies
- means to an end - obedience/Fiat
- Avant-gardist: ideas that are
markedly experimental.
- Translations of Bonitas
- goodness : bonitas,
rectum, benignitas, probitas, virtus
- honesty : probitas,
sinceritas, integritas, frugalitas, fides, bonitas
- justice : iustitia,
ius, justitia, bonitas, rectum, aequitas
- tenderness : mollitia,
mollities, lenitas, mollitudo, lenitudo, bonitas
- rightness : justitia,
bonitas, iustitia, jus, justum, ius
- excellence : excellentia,
praestantia, virtus, nobilitas, bonitas, pulchritudo
- good quality : bonitas,
virtus
- Cenobium / Coenobium: Cenobitic
(or coenobitic) monasticism is a monastic tradition that
stresses community life. Often in the West, the community
belongs to a religious order and the life of the cenobitic
monk is regulated by a religious
rule, a collection of precepts. The older style of
monasticism, to live as a hermit, is called eremitic; and a third form of
monasticism, found primarily in the East, is the skete.The
English words "cenobite" and "cenobitic" are derived, via
Latin, from the Greek words koinos (κοινός), "common", and
bios (βίος), "life". The adjective can also be cenobiac
(κοινοβιακός, koinobiakos). A group of monks living in
community is often referred to as a "cenobium". (wikipedia)
- Desert
Fathers (wikipedia)
- Discernment
(discerning) (wikipedia)
- Discretion
(discretely): all
things must be done with discretion, which is acting solely
in God's Will, who is Agape (wikipedia)
love.
Discretely not
doing or saying what is unnecessary, but discretely always doing
or saying inspiredly, founded in
the Magisterium,
what is necessary for the
edification of the Kingdom
of God.
- "...those who possess the virtue of discretion ...when
they have rendered what is due to Me and to themselves,
they proceed to render to their neighbor their principal
debt of love, and of humble and continuous prayer, which
all should pay to each other, and further, the debt of
doctrine, and example of a holy and honorable life,
counseling and helping others according to their needs for
salvation." The dialogue
of the seraphic virgin Catherine of Siena A treatise of discretion RTFToC17
- Ecumenism
- Gnosticism
(new Advent)
Gnosticism
(wikipedia)
- Hesychasm
(wikipedia) (Greek:
ἡσυχασμός,
hesychasmos, from ἡσυχία,
hesychia, "stillness, rest, quiet, silence")
is an eremitic tradition of
prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic
Churches of Byzantine Rite practised (Gk: ἡσυχάζω, hesychazo:
"to keep stillness") by the Hesychast (Gr. Ἡσυχαστής, hesychastes).
- Integrism (wikipedia)
- Knowledge: "Information
is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is
experience." Albert Einstein. - One can
discuss a task, but discussion will only give an intellectual
understanding of it. We must experience the task first hand to
"know" it; not spend ourselves avoiding experience,
fleeing into speculative information; so we must go out there,
and do it, apply the 5 steps, and gain priceless
knowledge of Quies. In Latin, 'to know' is cognoscere;
the etymology of the word is 'cum nascere', which means
'to be born with'. So, information would transmit
communicable intellectual speculative theory; and practice
transforms us, making us One through experience with
otherwise humanly theoretically incommunicable knowledge:
'cum nascere', which means 'to be born with'. The Quies 5
steps communicable information, based on the 11
guidelines, are a blueprint of a proposed "praxis", or
path of rules to gain knowledge into specifically Saint
Bruno's own ecclesial charism, of Christocentric
contemplative desert fathers experience that he, and
his spiritual sons and daughters, identify as the coveted goal
of Quies.
- "God speaks to philosophers in the language of
philosophers and to simple souls in the language of simple
ones, and only to these last does He reveal truths hidden
from the wise and prudent of this world"
Sister Speranza about the writings of Sister Faustina in
DIARY
of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska Divine Mercy in My Soul
page 5
- Koinonia: is a transliterated form of the Greek
word, κοινωνία, which means communion, joint participation;
the share which one has in anything, participation, a gift
jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, etc. It
identifies the idealized state of fellowship and unity that
should exist within the Christian church, the Body of Christ.
(wikipedia)
- Lectio Divina
- Among the many fruits
of this
biblical
springtime I
would like to
mention the
spread of the
ancient
practice of
lectio divina
or "spiritual
reading" of
Sacred
Scripture. It
consists in
pouring over a
biblical text
for some time,
reading it and
rereading it,
as it were,
"ruminating"
on it as the
Fathers say
and squeezing
from it, so to
speak, all its
"juice", so
that it may
nourish
meditation and
contemplation
and, like
water, succeed
in irrigating
life itself. Pope
Benedict XVI
Nov 2005
- Note what Saint Jerome
said in this
regard:
"Ignorance of
the Scriptures
is ignorance
of Christ" (PL
24,17; cf Dei
Verbum, 25). A
time-honoured
way to study
and savour the
word of God is
lectio divina
which
constitutes a
real and
veritable
spiritual
journey marked
out in stages.
After the
lectio, which
consists of
reading and
rereading a
passage from
Sacred
Scripture and
taking in the
main elements,
we proceed to
meditatio.
This is a
moment of
interior
reflection in
which the soul
turns to God
and tries to
understand
what his word
is saying to
us today. Then
comes oratio
in which we
linger to talk
with God
directly.
Finally we
come to
contemplatio.
This helps us
to keep our
hearts
attentive to
the presence
of Christ
whose word is
"a lamp
shining in a
dark place,
until the day
dawns and the
morning star
rises in your
hearts" (2 Pet
1:19).
Reading, study
and meditation
of the Word
should then
flow into a
life of
consistent
fidelity to
Christ and his
teachings.
Pope
Benedict XVI
April 2006
- Lavra / Laura: In
Orthodox Christianity and certain other Eastern Christian communities, Lavra
or Laura (Greek: Λαύρα;
Cyrillic: Ла́вра) is type of
monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and
sometimes a refectory at the center; the term in Greek
initially meant a narrow lane or an alley in a city. (wikipedia)
See
also: Skete
- The Magisterium
(wikipedia)
is the teaching authority of the Church. (Links)
- Metanoia It is
not a question
here of a
common
anthropological
conversion,
but of
supernatural
life itself.
- Modernism (wikipedia)
- A theory about the origin and nature of Christianity,
first developed into a system by George Tyrrell
(1861-1909), Lucien Laberthonnière (1860-1932), and Alfred
Loisy (1857-1940). According to Modernism, religion is
essentially a matter of experience, personal and
collective. There is no objective revelation from God to
the human race, on which Christianity is finally based,
nor any reasonable grounds for credibility in the
Christian faith, based on miracles or the testimony of
history. Faith, therefore, is uniquely from within. In
fact it is part of human nature, "a kind of motion of the
heart," hidden and unconscious. It is, in Modernist terms,
a natural instinct belonging to the emotions, a "feeling
for the divine" that cannot be expressed in words or
doctrinal propositions, an attitude of spirit that all
people have naturally but that some are more aware of
having. Modernism was condemned by Pope St. Pius X in two
formal documents, Lamentabili
and Pascendi,
both published in
1907. (Etym. Latin modernus, belonging to the present
fashion.) reference
- Modernism
- Modesty:
A modest person does not draw attention to their own
real or supposed accomplishments and desirable attributes.
Terms related to "modesty" (wikipedia)
in this sense include "humility" (wikipedia) and "simplicity" (wikipedia)
.
- Polemic (controversy):
Unlike debate, which may seek a common ground between the two
disputants, a polemic (wikipedia)
is intended only to
establish the truth of a point of view while refuting the
opposing point of view.
- Prayer of
the heart
- Quies
- Quietism (wikipedia)
- General name for any view of spiritual life that minimizes
human activity and moral responsibility. But more
properly it refers to the theories of Miguel de Molinos
(c. 1640-97) and François Fénelon (1651-1715), Archbishop
of Cambrai. Its basic position is that, to become perfect,
one must be totally passive, annihilate one's will and so
totally abandon oneself to God that one cares for neither
heaven nor hell. In prayer, the perfect soul make no acts
of love or petition, nor even of adoration. Such total
passivity makes mortification or the sacraments useless.
Sin becomes impossible to perfect souls. Quietism was
condemned in the person of Molinos by Pope Innocent XI in
1687, and Fénelon by Innocent XII in 1691. (Etym. Latin
quietus, quiet, at rest, peaceful.) reference
- In Catholic teaching the soul
indeed, assisted by Divine grace can reach
a high degree of contemplation, of detachment from created
things and of spiritual union with God. But
such perfection, far from leading to Quietistic passivity
and Subjectivism, implies rather a more earnest endeavour
to labour for God's glory, a more thorough
obedience to lawful authority and above all a more
complete subjugation of sensuous impulse and tendency. reference
- Remedy to quietism is thus Confession. Adrienne
Von Speyr Confession
Hans Urs von Balthasar calls this "one of her most
central works". She discusses the moral and practical
aspects of the sacrament in great depth. Some of the many
areas covered include conversion, scruples, contrition,
spiritual direction, laxity, frequency of confession, the
confessions of religious and lay people, even the
confessions of saints. One of the most complete spiritual
treatises ever written on confession.
- Relativism
(wikipedia)
- Reparation
(repaired): Making amends
for sinful
action that
has
scandalized
others. A
person is
obliged to
make
reparation as
far as he or
she can. In
some cases it
would be
impossible to
make direct
reparation to
the people
scandalized
because they
are too
numerous or
are unknown.
Nevertheless
the
responsibility
remains.
Making
reparation by
good example,
implicitly
and
explicitly
renouncing the
objects of
scandal,
amending our
ways in view
of
unequivocally,
publicly and
privately,
practically
even, undoing
the harm
we cause(d)
others by
scandal;
with the help
of God,
through the
supernatural
help of
sacraments (Confession
and The
Eucharist),
prayer
and spiritual
direction, in
a continuous
spirit of
conversion or
"metanoia";
is a prominent
feature of the
Christian
meaning of
penance, in
expiation for
sin, and in
our filial and
sponsal
participation
in the
Redemption of
all mankind.
- Every offense committed against
justice and
truth entails
the "duty of
reparation",
even if its
author has
been forgiven.
When it is
impossible
publicly to
make
reparation for
a wrong, it
must be made
secretly. If
someone who
has suffered
harm cannot be
directly
compensated,
he must be
given moral
satisfaction
in the name of
charity. This
duty of
reparation
also concerns
offenses
against
another's
reputation.
This
reparation,
moral and
sometimes
material, must
be evaluated
in terms of
the extent of
the damage
inflicted. It
obliges in
conscience. Catechism
of the
Catholic
Church 2487
- Miserentissimus
Redemptor
- Short prayers
- We are exhorted to have constant recourse during work
to short and, as it were, ejaculatory prayers. It
sometimes happens also that the very weight of our work
acts as a sort of anchor to the ebb and flow of our
thought, thus enabling our heart to remain fixed on God
without mental fatigue. Carthusian
Statutes 1.5.3
- Interior recollection during work will lead a brother
to contemplation. To attain this recollection it is always
permissible while working to have recourse to short and so
to speak, ejaculatory prayers, and even sometimes to
interrupt the work for a brief prayer (2.15.10).
The
Wound of Love
- In
addition, at a practical and ordinary level, but
realistically and effectively, the monastic
tradition teaches the use of short prayers,
ejaculations, whose repetition does not require a
lot of intellectual effort, but is enough, during
the tasks of the day, to nourish the flame of our
love and to keep our heart turned towards God.
The
Way of Silent Love By a Carthusian
- "During the day when you read, work,
walk to
church, etc.,
a spark of
love for the
Lord will en-kindle
at times in
your heart. It
is good to
cultivate the
spontaneous
uplifting of
the heart by
brief prayers,
which,without
need for
discursive
thought, can
awaken a deep
attitude of
the heart and
nourish it."
- A
Carthusian "First
Initiation
into
Carthusian
Life" p. 39
- “We should make our occupations a continual prayer, by
our purity of intention and by the practice of ejaculatory
prayers. We should profit by all that happens to raise to
God our hearts…” A Month with Mary, A
Carthusian, Burns and Oates, 1964
- Silence and contemplation: ...silence and
contemplation have a purpose: they serve, in the
distractions of daily life, to preserve permanent union with
God. This is their purpose: that union with God may always
be present in our souls and may transform our entire
being. Silence and contemplation, characteristic of St
Bruno, help us find this profound, continuous union with God
in the distractions of every day. - Eucharistic
Concelebration with the members of the International
Theological Commission. Homily of his Holiness Benedict XVI,
Redemptoris Mater Chapel, Apostolic Palace, Friday, 6
October 2006.
- Pastoral
visit to Lamezia Terme and Serra San Bruno. Liturgy of
Vespers, Homily of his Holiness Benedict XVI. Church of the
Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno, Sunday, 9 October 2011.
- Skete: (from Coptic
ϣⲓ(ϩ)ⲏⲧ via Gk. σκήτη) , is a monastic
community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative
isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and
the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of
three early monastic orders along with eremitic and coenobitic that became popular
during the early formation of the Christian Church. Skete
communities usually consist of a number of small cells or
caves that act as the living quarters with a centralized
church or chapel. These communities are thought of as a bridge
between strict hermetic lifestyle and communal lifestyles
since it was a blend of the two. These communities were a
direct response to the ascetic lifestyle that early Christians aspired to live. Skete
communities were often a bridge to a stricter form of
hermitage or to martyrdom.
The term Skete is most likely a reference to the Scetis valley region of Egypt
where Skete communities first appear, but a few scholars have
argued that it instead is a stylized spelling of the word
ascetic. (wikipedia)
See
also: Lavra / Laura
- Sobriety: seriousness,
gravity, austerity, discretion,
frugality, measure,
moderation, balance, restraint, hardiness, simplicity, temperance.
- Solitude and community: We are called to be
"contemplative", also while engaging others in life's natural
communial activities. Beginning in our childhood and family,
we naturally work and relate with people, during all our
lives; but we experience also a call to solitude,
continuous prayer, thanksgiving and silence conducive to a
better contemplative attention to God. We have, maybe,
something to ponder in regard to solitude, contemplation and
action; as we read more about the saints, over the years, we
will be amazed to discover that every soul that has been sent
into the solitude of the desert has also been recalled from
it, at least for a time. St. John the Baptist is called out to
preach the coming of the Messiah. St. Anthony of the Desert
returns to the city to help St. Athanasius fight the heresy of
Arius. St. Benedict is called out of his cave at Subiaco. St.
Bruno is ordered to Rome to assist the pope. Saint Philip
Neri, Saint Francis of Assisi. The list goes on and on. None
of these great saints spent their entire lives in solitude.
Our Lord Jesus had a hidden and then public life. Does this
say something fundamental about the mysterious nature of
eremitical experience..? Perhaps time in solitude is
sometimes meant to benefit Christ's flock's, in an unfolding
that requires encounters with others; then perhaps it is the
others who benefit from the hermit, or maybe the hermit from
the others -- or both. It's all rather mysterious to us.
We suspect it is why, even in a Charterhouse, community
life, and in a Quies skete, while not seemingly emphasised,
engaging others in balanced community encounters is very
important. Thus for disciples of Saint Bruno living in the
open world, solitude is balanced with community life, our duty
of state frequently and regularly calls us engaging others in
life's natural communial activities. Flee
distraction; search only God
- Sophism (wikipedia)
A sophism is a statement to deceive someone in a
debate or conversation. It might be made to seem to make sense
when really being wrong, or it might use difficult words and
complicated sentences to intimidate the audience into
agreeing. An argument ad hominem (wikipedia)
is an example of sophistry, but ad hominems are not
wrong every time; for example, when people think that someone
can't be trusted, things that they have said previously can be
doubted. A sophist is a person who uses sophisms.
Sophistry means using sophisms for subtly deceptive reasoning
or argumentation. See also Sophistry
- Syncretism
  Tabula: tabula f (genitive tabulae); first declension
- tablet, sometimes a tablet covered with wax for writing |
board or plank | (by extension) map, painting, document or other
item put onto a tablet.
- The term tabula rasa is Latin for what the
ancient Romans did with a tablet filled with wax. The
tabula or tablet contained wax for note taking. Using a
stylist, they could write on the wax. It was their version
of our paper or an iPad. When they no longer needed the
data instead of deleting it as we do today, they would
heat the wax or scrape it flat resulting in a tablet that
was erased or deleted.
- "Quid ad missam, lectiones aut tractus dicturi
sunt, in tabula cerea primitus recitentur."
- from the Ordinary of the Priour of St. Lo at Rouen,
printed at Rouen, written about the year 1250, page 261.
Source
- "(To know) what mass,
lessons or extract (you) will say; first, read the wax
board (tabula)".
 The
Carthusian's tabula, installed just outside the
church access, has as function to indicate the various
liturgical tasks that need to be accomplished; testimony
to the lifestyle of the Carthusians, punctuated by prayer,
who live in solitude and silence. "La
tabula, est le témoignage même du mode de vie des
chartreux rythmé par la prière, qui vivent dans la
solitude et le silence. L’objet a pour fonction de
signaler l’accomplissement des diverses tâches
liturgiques." Tabula
restaurée Chartreuse Villefranche Fr- tabulate: verb (third-person
singular simple present tabulates, present
participle tabulating, simple
past and past participle tabulated)
- Arrange in tabular form; arrange into a table.
- To list.
- Veniam: A humble prostration (bending low to touch
the floor, kissing the floor; or kneeling in choir, holding
and kissing the railing that holds the liturgical books in the
choir stall; or kneeling in cell, holding and kissing the
railing that holds the liturgical books in the oratory) made
for several reason, such as devotion. Some forms of veniam
are also made by individuals who, make a fault, interrupt
community prayer, etc. In the Carthusian books, the liturgical
instruction for this often begins "Hic accipimus
veniam". Source
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