God who always brings new things to birth

Today started with free time in Siena. It was a time where we were able to visit a number of the churches in this beautiful hilltop town. These are a selection...

From the very simple and austere San Pietro Alla Magione whose origins to back to the year 998. The church belonged to the Knights Templar in the 12th century who ran a hospice for pilgrims there ("la Magione"), from which the church took its name. With the suppression of the Templars in 1312, the church passed to the Knights Hospitaller , who subsequently assumed the title of Order of the Knights of Malta . From the Order of Malta, the church later passed to the diocese, becoming a parish church. The church features the remains of ancient frescos...

To the more modest Church of St Andrew, which was founded in 1175, and has undergone a number of reconstructions, including a major reconstruction in the 18th-century. 

It features a bronze statue of the Baptism of Christ by Bruno Buracchini. The main altar has a polyptych of the Coronation of the Virgin with Saints Peter and Andrew (1445) by Giovanni di Paolo. 

...to the beautiful Basilica of St Francis which was built in c. 1228-1255 and later enlarged in the 14th-15th centuries, the original Romanesque edifice being turned into the current large Gothic one. 

It features magnificent paintings and old and modern stain glass windows, with 25 new ones after the older ones were destroyed during World War II. The church keeps its silence and sanctity

A eucharistic miracle took place involving communion hosts stolen from the church in 1730, which were later found and remain to this day are incorrupted as described by the Carlo Acutis site... see : https://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/Liste/scheda.html?nat=italia&wh=caterinadasiena&ct=Siena,%201730

St Anthony preaching to the fish at Rimini

And finally the smaller chapels at the home of St Catherine of Siena where the art work depicts some of her incredible life...

and finally another glimpse of the Duomo showing its size

We then made our way from Siena to Assisi

Prayer on the bus

Luke 2:1-14

Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census - the first - took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David's House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn. In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified, but the angel said, 'Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.' And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing:

'Glory to God in the highest heaven

and peace to those who enjoy his favour.'

Now when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.' So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

Reflection

Today, as we journey to Assisi, our theme is God who always brings new things to birth. We see this in St Francis of Assisi, the man, the saint, who renounced his family wealth becoming captivated in the poor Christ and his love for the poor, in his love for the creation, and in his reaching out to the Sultan during the Crusades in an act of inter-religious dialogue.

But there is another thing Francis is famous for... In 1223 he staged the first ever nativity play in a cave in Greccio... Francis reflecting on what was God was bring to birth in the birth of his Son as one of us wanted to share this with the people of Greccio in a way that they could connect the events of Bethlehem with what they celebrated that holy night...

Darleen Pryds writes, In one of the most poignant passages in Christian literature, Celano writes: “The night is lit up like day, delighting both man and beast. The people arrive, ecstatic at this new mystery of new joy. The forest amplifies the cries, and the boulders echo back the joyful crowd. The brothers sing, giving God due praise, and the whole night abounds with jubilation.” Within this energized setting in which people, animals, forests, and boulders are all active participants, Francis, the poor man from Assisi who so frequently sought solitude, stood before the manger and uttered “heartfelt sighs.” Mass was celebrated, and a spirit of joy replaced Francis’ habitual “contrite piety.” 

Forsaking his habit of solitude, in his pain and suffering, Francis began to preach to all who had gathered. Taking up that common trait many of us have when in the presence of a baby, Francis used words and mannerisms that surely made people smile and laugh. Standing by a sheep, he blurted out “bebebeBabe of bebebebeBethlehem.” His bleating was met with the bleating of the nearby sheep. The donkey brayed in the familiar “hee-haw” sound.  

And the babe? The baby at the center of all this woke up. I like to think the baby cried a little and then gurgled as babies do. The crowd that had been so hushed swooned over the baby as the donkey and the sheep looked over to see what little being was making this new noise. 

This may sound a little chaotic to us, but for the people of Greccio, this scene would have offered a sense of fresh familiarity: their daily, mundane realities were made sacred through the Incarnation. After all, the people would have been used to living in close proximity to one another and with their animals, which were brought into their living quarters on frigid nights for shared warmth and well-being. 

Solitude was an experience most people did not experience in the Middle Ages. While vowed religious, such as Francis, could experience the novelty of seclusion, in which they prayed, reflected, and generally turned inward to experience God, most laity prayed in community, reflected in community, and practiced faith in community through acts of charity. 

We can see at Greccio that, two years before he began composing the “Canticle of the Creatures,” Francis was already moving more deeply into a spirituality of interdependence that allowed him to experience his discomforts and distress, pain and frustrations, just as the Christ Child did: in raw vulnerability and in simple honesty of the realities of lived experience.  

Rather than withdrawing into solitude, Francis chose this moment to embrace what it means to be human: to depend on others and to be surrounded by all of creation. Right there, all of nature showed up to be authentically present without artifice or pretense—braying, bleating, singing, gurgling, smiling, giggling, crying, echoing these sounds—in short, celebrating the divine made incarnate. 

Source : https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/greccio-and-the-first-live-nativity-800-years-of-tradition/

In the same way today, let us pray for open hearts that God might bring to new things to birth in us as we journey with Francis of Assisi and we consider all God brought to birth through him.

Mass today was celebrated at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli - St Mary of the Angels... The basilica was constructed between 1569 and 1679, enclosing the 9th-century little church, the Porziuncola, the most sacred place for the Franciscans. This small, humble chapel was originally a dilapidated structure in the woods near Assisi, which St. Francis of Assisi lovingly restored in the early 13th century. 

It was here that St. Francis experienced pivotal moments in his vocation, including the vision that led him to embrace a life of poverty and service. It is also the place where he died in 1226, making it a site of pilgrimage and deep reverence. It became the cradle of the Franciscan Order, where Francis founded the community and received his first followers.

In the 16th century, to protect and honor the chapel, Pope Pius V commissioned the construction of the grand basilica that now envelops it. Despite the basilica’s imposing size, the Porziuncola remains the spiritual heart, symbolizing humility, simplicity, and divine grace.

Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of St Clare

Ecclesiasticus 24:1-4, 16, 22-24

Wisdom speaks her own praises,
in the midst of her people she glories in herself.
She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,
she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One.
‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High 
and I covered the earth like mist. 
I had my tent in the heights 
and my throne and a pillar of cloud.
I have spread my branches like a terebinth 
and my branches are glorious and graceful.
Whoever listens to me will never have to blush, 
whoever acts as I dictate will never sin. 
All this is no other than the book of the covenant 
of the Most High God, 
the Law that Moses enjoined on us, 
an inheritance for the communities of Jacob.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.
This poor one called, the Lord heard 

and rescued them from all their distress.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.
They are happy who seek refuge in him.
Revere the Lord, you his saints.

They lack nothing, those who revere him.

The Lord turns his eyes to the just
and his ears to their appeal.
They call and the Lord hears

and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save.

Galatians 4:4-7

When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons and daughters. 

The proof that you are children is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, 'Abba, Father,' and it is this that makes you a child, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you child, then he has made you heir.

Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.  

He went in and said to her, 'Rejoice, so highly favoured!  The Lord is with you.'  She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid, you have won God's favour.  Listen!  You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.'  

Mary said to the angel, 'But how will this come about, since I am a virgin?'  'The Holy Spirit will come upon you,' the angel answered, 'and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.  And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.  Know this too: Your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.'  'I am the handmaid of the Lord,' said Mary, 'let what you have said be done to me.' And the angel left her.

Reflection

The spiritual life is a reflection of embracing the life of Christ, that is, his Incarnation, his Death and Resurrection and the life of Christ in the communion of the Holy Trinity.

Throughout our lives this is happening over and over again to the extent we allow God to work in our lives... He is always wants to bring new things to birth in us, and as does something has to die within us as we leave behind limited or distorted visions of God or ourselves and our world as he raises us to newness of life in Christ leading us to a deeper communion with him and one another. 

This work is God is always the work of each of the persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father who created us for himself, the Son who become one with us and offered himself for us and the Holy Spirit who fills us with the divine life.

And we see this in the readings... in Ecclesiasticus, the mysterious figure of "Wisdom", an early understanding of the Holy Spirit calling us ever into God's one, holy people, in the Gospel, God the Father's favour and will being being revealed to Mary by the angel Gabriel, her being told the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and through her consent she conceiving in her womb the Son of God who assumes our human flesh so becomes true God and true man.

These dynamics we see working in the life of Francis of Assisi as God did great things in him... who sought always obedience to the will of God, who sought to conform himself to the Christ, and in particular the poor Christ, and whose life was Spirit led and Spirit filled. 

And we think of the fruits of his spiritual life in the Franciscan family and their works throughout the world, fruits that have helped people in their own spiritual journey. We think of the Franciscans working in New Zealand, the first Franciscan friars that Bishop Pompallier brought to Auckland and their later return to New Zealand along with the Capuchin friars.

All these are the stories of a God who always brings new things to birth just as the seasons of spring and summer must pass to the death of autumn and winter to be born again in new spring.

Like Mary and like Francis, may we say yes to God bringing new things to birth in us.