ODE TO THE CHURCH

[AURA CID L F FERREIRA DE BRITTO]

ODE     TO     THE     CHURCH

"How much must I criticize you, my Church, and yet how much I love you.

 

How you have made me suffer much and yet owe much to you.

 

I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

 

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.

Never in this world have seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, and yet never in this world have I touched anything more pure, more generous and more beautiful.

Many times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face - and yet how often have I prayed that I might die in your sure arms.

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even though not completely you.

Then, too, where would I go? 

To build another church? 

But I cannot build another without the same defects, for they are my own defects I bear within me.

 

And again, if I build one it will be my church and no longer Christ’s.

 I am old enough to know I am no better than others.

I shall not leave this Church founded on so frail a rock, because I would be founding another one on an even frailer rock. 

And then, what do rocks matter? 

What matters is Christ’s promise, what matters is the cement that binds the rocks into one; the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit alone can build the Church with stones as ill-hewn as we are."

 

by      Carlo Carretto

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Hymn 
The first verse of the following hymn is said genuflecting.
Creator Spirit, all Divine,
Come, visit every soul of Thine,
And fill with Thy celestial flame
The hearts which Thou Thyself didst frame.

...

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Hymn 
The first verse of the following hymn is said genuflecting.
Creator Spirit, all Divine,
Come, visit every soul of Thine,
And fill with Thy celestial flame
The hearts which Thou Thyself didst frame.

...

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Hymn 
The first verse of the following hymn is said genuflecting.
Creator Spirit, all Divine,
Come, visit every soul of Thine,
And fill with Thy celestial flame
The hearts which Thou Thyself didst frame.

...

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Hymn 
The first verse of the following hymn is said genuflecting.
Creator Spirit, all Divine,
Come, visit every soul of Thine,
And fill with Thy celestial flame
The hearts which Thou Thyself didst frame.

O gift of God, Thine is the sweet
Consoling name of Paraclete
And spring of life and fire and love
And unction flowing from above.

The mystic sevenfold gifts are Thine,
Finger of God's right hand divine;
The Father's promise sent to teach
The tongue a rich and heavenly speech.

Kindle with fire brought from above
Each sense, and fill our hearts with love;
And grant our flesh, so weak and frail,
The strength of Thine which cannot fail.

Drive far away our deadly foe,
And grant us Thy true peace to know;
So we, led by Thy guidance still,
May safely pass through every ill.

To us, through Thee, the grace be shown
To know the Father and the Son;
And Spirit of Them both, may we
Forever rest our faith in Thee.

To Sire and Son be praises meet,
And to the Holy Paraclete;
And may Christ send us from above
That Holy Spirit's gift of love.
Amen.

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Sequentia, ...

Amen.

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Sequentia 
Holy Spirit! Lord of light!
From Thy clear celestial height,
Thy pure, beaming radiance give:

Come, Thou, Father of the poor!
Come, with treasures which endure!
Come, Thou light of all that live!

Thou of all consolers best,
Visiting the troubled breast,
Dost refreshing peace bestow:

Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal! Light divine!
Visit Thou these hearts of Thine,
And our inmost being fill.

If Thou take Thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay;
All his good is turn’d to ill.

Heal our wounds - our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on those who evermore
Thee confess and Thee adore,
In Thy sevenfold gifts descend.

Give them comfort when they die;
Give them life with Thee on high;
Give them joys which never end.
Amen. Alleluia.

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Happy birthday, Church!

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

To God be glory now and forever.