Monday 31 December 2012

Contemplative Prayer, Intercession and the Liturgy of the Hours


Contemplative Prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours and the Ministry of Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours


Relying on the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical documents, I wish to offer some reflections on the Liturgy of the Hours as intercession. What is happening in the Liturgy of the Hours? How do the psalms fit into this happening? Then I would like to offer some suggestions to help when praying the psalms.

A Happy and Holy New Year to one and all!



Monday 24 December 2012

Wishing you a Grace-filled and Holy Christmas 2012!



Br. Paul Hanbridge ofm cap
96 Catherine Street
Leichhardt, NSW 2040
Australia


Monday 10 December 2012

Cardinal Gasparo Contarini - a transcribed collection of published correspondence


Go to Capdox to download (6.6 Mb in PDF read/print only.)
Unless you may be an insomniac, I would not recommend this monumental volume as bed-time reading.

Should you wish to have a bound hard copy (approximately AUS$150 plus postage), please contact me for a more precise quote and other details.

This annotated assembly of letters is accidental, a side-effect - the unintended consequence (at first) of another project. As a student of the beginnings of the Capuchin Friars, a need to understand those beginnings within a broader social and ecclesial setting has become ever more apparent. The testimonies of other contemporary witnesses  and participants in the times help contextualised the turbulent, early years of the Capuchin fraternity. My reading focussed upon a specific question: What was happening in the church and in Italy in the decade up to 1542 which so decided or polarised approaches toward church reform? The observations made by protagonists in this drama are especially valuable. At least one representative sample might help profile that situation. Numerous publications of some of his letters are available.  With the experience and contacts he gained as a non-cleric Venetian envoy, and as a papal legate; his involvement in official attempts at Church reform; his association – if not friendship – with such reform minded persons as Vittoria Colonna and Bernardino Ochino (just to mention a few) made Cardinal Gasparo Contarini an ideal candidate. And so, I began to read his published letters, and to transcribe them for later reference.  Thus this project was born.

This volume may be a unique research tool. It assembles in chronological order, for the first time, most of the published epistolary of the Venetian Cardinal, Gasparo Contarini (1487-1542).

The Selection of texts

The compilation is not a ‘register’ of Contarini’s known letters, a task undertaken by others some years ago. Using the bibliographies of his various modern biographersI have tried to locate and transcribe Contarini’s published correspondence, a small percentage of his actual output.

The various collections of letters relate to time periods (his time at the court of Carlo V; Regensburg, 1541; Bologna, 1542) or to persons (Giustiniani and Querini, Reginald Pole, Ercole Gonzaga). Some letters exist in various copies or versions. Some have been published more than once. Editors have wanted to present their material under various aspects, while attempting a more accurate transcription by correcting the errors of earlier editions in their selection and deciphering of the manuscripts.

The collection assembled here is not a critical edition of Contarini’s letters.  None of the letters in this volume is direct transcription by me from any manuscript. As copies of published versions, I have reproduced inevitably flawed transcriptions and am confident I have contributed my own errors also.  Even after proof reading I probably did not identify, and therefore remedy, all my mistakes. 

In many cases, editors of some of his published correspondence chose to summarise letters, in part or in full. This often resulted in extracts - sometimes fragmentary with snippets from the letters heavily punctuated by editorial comment and summaries. And sometimes the commentaries are punctuated by snippets from the letters. Since I wish to let the letter writers to speak for themselves, I have tried to reproduce texts in their integrity and to omit hybrid renditions by supplementing text from an available version published prior. In the footnotes I alert the reader to these amalgamations. Unfortunately sometimes only the large extracts are available.
The collection is not an opera omnia of Contarini’s works, just letters, to him or by him. Some of the passages, though, are not letters. The long reports he gave to the Venetian senate of his embassies to the court of a young Carlo V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and that of Clement VII take up a a number of pages.  Since these reports are not always easy to come by, I have included them here.  There is also a version of his treatise on justification by faith produced when he was Legate to the Colloquy at Regensburg in 1541. One of his later instructions for good preaching is here too. The temptation to include more material from Regensburg, material not written by him, was strong. My only concession to the impulse is the inclusion Carlo V’s declaration to close the Regensburg Colloquy. An appendix contains a few letters regarding Ascanio Colonna’s rebellion in 1541.

For many readers the largest obstacle to an effortless comprehension may be the fact that I have left all the letters in their original languages, either Latin or Italian from the sixteenth century.

So many limitations - and given that the source material for this collection is already published in various earlier editions, why bother to present them again here?

First of all, for a few letters, it has been possible to identify their authors more accurately. There is the case of the letter dated 17 May 1541 and written from the French court to Contarini. In the published version, the eighteenth century editor has Ercole Gonzaga as its author. Gonzaga, in Italy, could not have been the author. The letter was from the pen of Girolamo Dandino. Another example: Morandi’s edition includes letters dated 2, 9, 12 and 29 June 1541 – also from the French court to Contarini. Morandi names Niccolò Ardinghelli as the author. Ardinghelli, still en route to the French court, was not the author, but Girolamo Capodiferro. These corrections were aided by the ability to compare letters in one published collection with those in other collections. In this way, a compilation of all the published letters in chronological sequence enables the letters to shed factual interpretative light on each other. A more comprehensive collection can be more useful than a smaller collection, given that there are so many editions that target a particular period in Contarini’s life and output. Like tiles in a mosaic, each edition fills its space in the overall picture: whether the picture be a portrait of the person (Contarini and his correspondents), or a panorama of the rapid, profound and unprecedented change in the European social landscape in the first half of the sixteenth century. 

(Excerpt from the Preface)

Monday 12 November 2012

Presentation of a New Translation

Bonaventure's De perfectione vitae ad sorores

As prayer is the spiritual teacher of the friars, and so that the spirit of devotion not grow cold in the friars but burn continuously and ever more intensely on the altar of their heart, and indeed just as the Seraphic Father desired that the true spiritual friar to pray always...

The substance of this passage from chapter three of the Capuchin Constitutions of 1536 recurs in all the versions of the Constitutions down to modern times prior to 1968. The Constitutions of 1968 (n.40) and 1975 (n.41) have instead:

In order to keep the spirit of prayer in us from becoming lukewarm and rather have it grow steadily in fervour, we need to apply ourselves daily to the practice of prayer.

Then in 2002, taking up the 1968 text,  the Constitutions restore the reference prayer as the spiritual teacher:

52.3 Moreover, that the spirit of prayer may never grow cold within us but be ever more inflamed from day to day, we must give ourselves to its exercise in our daily lives...

52.6 Mental prayer is the spiritual teach of the brothers who, if they are true and spiritual lesser brothers, prayer ever more interiorly.

Perhaps it could be argued that the content of this particular passage has been somewhat impoverished since 1968.


A connection exists between the earlier version of this passage and Saint Bonaventure's accommodation of the text of Leviticus 6,12-16 in De perfectione vitae ad sorores, presented here, and De sex aliis seraphim.


As one source used in the formulation of the first Capuchin Constitutions, and as an authentic work of Bonaventure, one rarely translated to English, capdox offers a new English translation completed in November 2012. Go to capdox.




Sunday 12 August 2012

General Chapter of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars



The General Chapter of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars is about to celebrated in Rome, 20 August - 22 September. Please remember the brothers in your prayer. Goto to the Chapter website.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Jerome of Molfetta and Rules for Mental Prayer

Translated by Bro. Patrick Colbourne ofm cap (July 2012)


Jerome Spinazzola of Molfetta who came from the Province of Apulia took part in the General Chapter at Santa Eufemia in Rome from 1535-1536 where he also received fifteen votes for the office of definitor. He was a Capuchin preacher and Mattia da Salò relates that “he was a tall fine man with a long red beard with the capacity to make his audience cry by his manner of speaking. He was a pupil and admirer of Bernardino Ochino, whose lot he sadly shared. Among other things, when preaching, he often promoted devotion to the “rosary of the Name of Jesus” among the people. He composed a short appealing tract on this subject and attached it to the Dialogue of Union by Bartholomew Cordoni which he republished in Milan at the beginning of 1539.

The Italian introduction, footnotes and transcription of the Ms of the Regule de la orazione mentale are by Costanzo Cargnoni OFM Cap in I Frati Cappuccini. Documenti e testimonianze del primo secolo, a cura di Costanzo Cargnoni, III/1, Edizione Frate Indovino, Perugia, 1991, pp.429-445

Sunday 17 June 2012

Lawrence of Brindisi on Francis of Assisi

Three Sermons for the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, translated from the Latin.  These translations were among my very first and were translated these in 1979, then soon forgotten. Recently returned to the light of day, Capdox now presents a revised translation. An introduction is in preparation should be completed soon (once I find my notes!)

On Lawrence of Brindisi

For the three Sermons


Francis and Clare Early Documents

Francis and Clare - Early Documents, presented by The Center for Digital Theology of Saint Louis University. This material came online this week (15 June).
You may also be interested in this new edition.


Sunday 10 June 2012

Upcoming ordination of four Capuchins to the Diaconate

Planned for 3 August 2012, the diaconate ordination of four Capuchins Brothers Ben, Dean, James and Thomas is to be celebrated in the parish of Saints Peter and Paul, South Melbourne.

Deo gratias!



Sunday 27 May 2012

Saint Felice da Cantalice


The 300° Anniversary of the Canonisation of Saint Felice da Cantalice

The General Minister of the Capuchins, Br. Mauro Johri, recently wrote a letter on the life and significance of Saint Felice da Cantalice. You can find this letter on the website of the Capuchin General Curia here or on Capdox here. For more on Saint Felice on Capdox, here.


Sunday 6 May 2012

New Link update

  On 23 April (2012) I added a link to CAPDOX for the homily notes in Italian on the site of the Congregation for the Clergy. Well, CAPDOX now has a link to the English version of these notes. Under the links tab in the top menu, choose Liturgy and Lectio Divina. Now you'll find there  Congregation for the Clergy - Homily Notes and Congregazione per il Clero-Suggerimenti Omiletici.

Monday 23 April 2012

New Link

Squirrelled away in a recess of CAPDOX are a few links that I use to prepare for the Sunday Liturgy. (Click on LINKS on the top menu on the home page. Then click on the first option "Liturgy and Lectio Divina" ... and there you are!)
There is a new link there now .... 'Congregation for the Clergy'. When that page opens you will find homily recommendations for the Sunday Mass. I am not sure when the homily appears for the next Sunday. The page is in Italian.
Back on the Liturgy and Lectio Divina list, and immediately below the "Congregation for the Clergy" link, is the link to "Biblia Clerus", also published by the Congregation for the Clergy. With a variety of useful resources, and available in different languages, this site offers a lot to the explorer.

Friday 6 April 2012

Happy Easter! Buona pasqua!


La morte è stata ingioata per la vittoria! Alleluia!
Per una gioiosa e santa Pasqua!

Death is swallowed up in victory! Alleluia!


Tuesday 13 March 2012

A spiritual summons to devout meditation on the Passion of Jesus - a spiritual summons to devout meditation on the Passion of Jesus

Brother Patrick Colbourne has recently completed an English translation of the Invito Spirituale composed by the Sixteenth Century Capuchin non-cleric friar Battista of Faenza. (Go to capdox page).
The introduction reads:


Battista da Faenza, who was a member of the Galli Castelli family, was a military officer in localities which were under the control of Francesco della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino, and captain of infantry in the regiment of the brutal mercenary Ramazzotto de’ Ramazzotti. He was a ferocious man of untamed appearance and imposing build, concerning whom Colpetrazzo wrote:” he possessed such severe eyes that when he stared into your face he frightened you”. In fact he was known as “Big Battista from Faenza”. After being converted in Florence by the preaching of Bernardino Occhino, probably in 1537, he exchanged his military uniform for the severe garb of the Capuchin friars choosing to be a penitential lay brother. By means of continual mortification, humility and most severe penance he succeeded in modifying his violent character. The love of the Cross, which became his daily meditation in accord with the ascetical school of the Capuchins, enabled him to overcome all obstacles and transformed him into a new man.
There is a tradition that before he died he wrote a letter to his fellow citizens of Faenza based on his penitential experiences to exhort and encourage them to meditate on the Passion of the Lord every day. This letter has not been preserved. However, biographers within the Order state that it was published in 1775 forty years after his death and was reprinted many times in the eighteenth century. To at least preserve an echo of this tradition which is linked to popular devotion to the most holy Crucifix in the Capuchin friary of Faenza an edition that has come down to us from 1757is reproduced here. Even though the content is not verifiably original in its style it  reflects at least the substance of the message of Brother Battista da Faenza and is the perfect equivalent of the seraphic spirit of the Capuchin Reform in its love for Christ Crucified.


Thank you, Brother Patrick