Skip to main content

Mystagogy Reading: The Cross: Word and Sacrament


Reading The Cross: Word and Sacrament is a continuation of my reading the Bibliography from Stratford Caldecott's The Seven Sacraments: Entering the Mysteries of God as personal mystagogy.

Adrienne von Speyr's The Cross: Word and Sacrament (Ignatius Press 1983) is a profound reflection on Jesus’ Last Words after he is Crucified. She connects each saying from the depths of his suffering sacrifice to one of the Sevens Sacraments. These reflections connect the Paschal Mystery to the sacramental life and mission of the Church bringing new fruit to meditation on both.

The book is very short (63 pages) and could be read in a single sitting, but each chapter deserves at least a day of reflection and prayer each. I see myself returning to this time and time again in the week leading up to Good Friday, devoting each day to the sacramental fruits of these mysteries. With an RCIA group sufficiently Catechized, I would also consider using this as the primary guiding text for a Holy Saturday retreat before the Easter Vigil as well ... a kick start to their season of Mystagogy.

This book Caldecott cited as a prime inspiration for his Seven Sacraments which itself set me on this whole adventure of focused mystagogical reading. Of the works cited in his Bibliography which is guiding my reading, this is the work that's given me the key to unlocking what I'm hoping for: finding a unity among the elements of Faith. As to the compartmentalized separate aspects of the Catholic Faith—scripture, doctrine, basic theology, morality, prayer, (Creed, Code, Cult) etc—I feel my intellectual grasp is fair to middlin'. But they tend to feel disconnected. That's not true, they feel connected like roads between cities on a map (I can show you how to get from this scripture citation to this moral teaching) but not connected like the members of a Body. Caldecott and von Speyr are starting to give me some arteries and ligaments ...

This book isn't a road map of scriptural source of each sacrament's origin, it's how these seven last words of Jesus are living expressions of the sacraments in the climatic moment of his saving mission. The reflections are then heart-centered not intellect-centered, and thus, for me, approach Wisdom in contrast to Apologetics, which is how I feel most of my reading and understanding has been focused.

Two ideas from this book really grabbed me; the first was this passage:


which with my recent addition of the Examen into my regular spiritual practices rang true as what I'm  hoping to accomplish through such practice. The second was relating Christ's forsaken-ness to the Sacrament of Holy Orders which I want to explore more in-depth in a later post.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing The Good Reverend Pudgemuffin

My favorite gentleman in the blogosphere is currently the Good Reverend Pudgemuffin at Are You There God? It's me, Atheist. He is a wonderful and impassioned seeker of Truth with regards to the existence of God, and from his blog's title, you can guess what side of the fence he falls. He is a fellow Ashevillain, and I highly regard his thinking and enjoy his irreverent skepticism which is humorous and critical without being snarkily polemical. Inspired, I wrote a lengthy reply to one of his entries, and he in turn devoted a whole entry in response to my response . Not to be outdone, I composed a response to the response's response, which I planned to keep hidden within his comments, but it far exceeded (more than double) the character limits. So thus ....
2 comments
Read more

The Rather Unextraordinary Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By tradition August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the 22 was once celebrated as the feast of her Immaculate Heart before it was moved to correspond with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. The feast thus would have been celebrated as the octave of her Assumption (Aug 15). Scripture connects these feasts, for Christ told us Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be, and Mary’s greatest treasure was the Kingdom of her Son. With her treasure firmly in Heaven, Mary’s human heart—along with the rest of her body—could not but be drawn up by God into the celestial abode. Even the little insight into Mary’s inner life the Gospels offer reveals untold depths of love for God and a soul loved by God. Mary’s heart is full of grace and perfectly conformed to the will of God: I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word . Her heart ever proclaims the greatness of the Lord and exults in God her Savior . The events of her son’s life, s
1 comment
Read more

Prayer to John the Baptist

 After composing the prayer to St Joseph , in the style of Mary's Angelic Salutation, pulling Biblical language as much as possible, I turned to St John the Baptist. Here is my modest attempt: Hail John the Baptist, in the spirit and power of Elijah [ Lk 1:17 ], the hand of the Lord is with you [ Lk 1:66 ]. Greatest of those born of woman [ Mt 11:11 ], you are the friend of the bridegroom [ Jn 3:29 ], Jesus. Voice crying out in the wilderness [ Mt 3:3, etc ], pray for us that we Repent and make straight His paths [ Mt 3:2 & 3 ], now and at the hour of our death.
Post a Comment
Read more