The Heavens Opened

Lectio Divina

I see the heavens opened....

Acts 7:56

Library

A new addition, thanks to the friar who was my secret Santa:

Chesterton, G.K. Saint Francis of Assisi. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2009.

At first glance I thought it was a biography of Francis, but I think it's something different. If anything, it might tell me as much if not more about Chesterton than Francis. At any rate, I will read it with interest.

Log

A vacation kind of day on this, the second day of Christmas. Mass and morning prayer combined at eight o'clock, followed by personal time until evening prayer. With six brothers I went to see Les Miserables at the cineplex in Santa Maria. A good way to spend several hours with the fraternity. This film is many things to many people. It's good for fans of musicals and fans of literature. I went not because I am a theater enthusiast, but because I read the Victor Hugo novel years ago and wanted to see how the drama between Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert could be rendered in image and song. I was not disappointed, but then again I have not seen many, if any, modern movie musicals, so I did not really have a baseline by which to measure the art of this picture.

How many Jean Valjeans there are in the world today, crushed by the letter of the law that kills. How tragic that we, who but for the grace of God and innumerable unmerited privileges would share their lot, would close both earth and heaven to them. How right and just when we personally can open the way to heaven for at least one person.

After the movies, took to the treadmill in our exercise shed to work off the energy surging through me since ending my Advent fasting and abstinence. It is a foreign and almost uncomfortable sensation to feel this full again.

No communally enforced prayerful silence tonight, and night prayer is in private this evening; we are still celebrating Christmas, and the schedule is relaxed.

Weather

Feeling quite temperate.