(no subject)
Hey Marg, Ang and Suzanne
I found something out about St. Anthony......How old was he in the movie when he went to become an Augustinian???? Because in the 1st book written about him he was 15 years old.. Which had me thinking about that whole girlfriend thing and if they put it in the movie to make it more dramatic??? Look at this website and read more about St Anthony
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun2005/feature3.asp#top
Then, at age 15, according to the First Life, Ferdinand withdrew from the world and entered the Augustinian monastery nearby-another clear sign of his early longing to seek the face of God before all else. After living in this monastery for two years, he sought to find an even better climate for his contemplative search. Ferdinand still found that his search for God in Lisbon was compromised because his old friends kept trying to visit him at the monastery.
As a result, and as if to reinforce his desire for a “more fruitful tranquility,” Ferdinand asked his superiors to transfer him to the Augustinian monastery in the city of Coimbra, the capital of Portugal at the time, 100 miles north of Lisbon.
In Coimbra, he cultivated his inner life with frequent meditation and the reading of Scripture, “examining...the deep sense of God’s words,” as well as “the words of the saints with diligent inquiry. And, indeed,” the First Life adds, “he entrusted to his tenacious memory whatever he read so that in short time he was able to acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures that no one else hoped to possess.”
Letter from St Francis to Br. Anthony:
Another thing that motivated Anthony to keep his contemplative search alive, even in the midst of his busy life, was a letter St. Francis sent to him around 1224. It was a letter granting Anthony permission to teach theology to the friars-but with the caution that Anthony not get so caught up in lofty intellectual pursuits as to neglect humility and the inner life of the spirit.
The very succinct and rare letter reads thus: “Brother Francis sends his wishes of health to Brother Anthony.... It pleases me that you teach sacred theology to the brothers, as long as-in the words of the Rule-you ‘do not extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion’ with study of this kind.”
I like to imagine Anthony holding this special letter close to his heart as a spiritual reminder that, like Francis himself, he must never allow his burning need to seek the face of God in prayer to get snuffed out by the distractions of the active life.
I found something out about St. Anthony......How old was he in the movie when he went to become an Augustinian???? Because in the 1st book written about him he was 15 years old.. Which had me thinking about that whole girlfriend thing and if they put it in the movie to make it more dramatic??? Look at this website and read more about St Anthony
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun2005/feature3.asp#top
Then, at age 15, according to the First Life, Ferdinand withdrew from the world and entered the Augustinian monastery nearby-another clear sign of his early longing to seek the face of God before all else. After living in this monastery for two years, he sought to find an even better climate for his contemplative search. Ferdinand still found that his search for God in Lisbon was compromised because his old friends kept trying to visit him at the monastery.
As a result, and as if to reinforce his desire for a “more fruitful tranquility,” Ferdinand asked his superiors to transfer him to the Augustinian monastery in the city of Coimbra, the capital of Portugal at the time, 100 miles north of Lisbon.
In Coimbra, he cultivated his inner life with frequent meditation and the reading of Scripture, “examining...the deep sense of God’s words,” as well as “the words of the saints with diligent inquiry. And, indeed,” the First Life adds, “he entrusted to his tenacious memory whatever he read so that in short time he was able to acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures that no one else hoped to possess.”
Letter from St Francis to Br. Anthony:
Another thing that motivated Anthony to keep his contemplative search alive, even in the midst of his busy life, was a letter St. Francis sent to him around 1224. It was a letter granting Anthony permission to teach theology to the friars-but with the caution that Anthony not get so caught up in lofty intellectual pursuits as to neglect humility and the inner life of the spirit.
The very succinct and rare letter reads thus: “Brother Francis sends his wishes of health to Brother Anthony.... It pleases me that you teach sacred theology to the brothers, as long as-in the words of the Rule-you ‘do not extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion’ with study of this kind.”
I like to imagine Anthony holding this special letter close to his heart as a spiritual reminder that, like Francis himself, he must never allow his burning need to seek the face of God in prayer to get snuffed out by the distractions of the active life.