Wisdom of the Desert - Turning Points
The Love God Lavishly Bestows on Us
The man most recognized among the hermits is St. Jerome.
St. Jerome was born Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus in Stridon in the Roman Province of Dalmatia around 342-347 AD. He was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian.
As a young man, he reveled in escapades and sexual experimentation in the streets of Rome. He later converted to Christianity and went into the desert of Chalcis, southeast of Antioch. Later in Jerusalem where he had gone to study Hebrew, and from 382 to 390 he corrected the existing Latin-language New Testament the Vetus Latina.
By 390 he turned to translating the Hebrew Tanakh into the Latin Vulgate. Until that time the bible in Latin had only been translated using the Septuagint or Greek Bible. Jews at the time considered the Septuagint invalid. This task took him from 390 to 405 AD. The story of Jerome is interesting not just due to his importance in world history but the Wikipedia article helps understand the times in the 3rd Century.
You can obtain a free online version of the Vulgate at this link.
I beg your patience for a few minutes.
I consider this one of the best books I have read. It was written by Charles de Foucauld. Text in italics by Carl Arico
One of the prayers I used to prepare my heart and spirit for Centering Prayer:
The Prayer of Abandonment
Father
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you;
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures - I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart;
for I love you Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
and I consent to your divine
presence and action
in my life,
for you are my Father.
Charles de Foucauld
Charles Eugene de Foucauld (Viscount or Vicomte of Foucauld) September 15, 1858 - December 1, 1916) Vicomtes were appointed to administer and at times tax collectors of French regions. The titles were not hereditary so as to prevent gathering power that could be used against the king.
He was a cavalry officer, then an explorer and geographer, and finally a Catholic priest and hermit. He lived among the Tuareg in the Sahara desert in Algeria. He was martyred by assassination in 1916. His writings and teachings led to the founding of the Little Brothers of Jesus.
This is a short article. I really want to emphasize this prayer as it is one of my favorites. Also, I think there will be two or three more preparatory articles before we did in. Centering Prayer is a weighty subject if we were doing this face to face. How well it coming across remotely I do not know. I sure can understand teachers for the last years with remote teaching.
As we gather for continued study…Shalom.