From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Resurrection   
      
   One thing is certain, if Jesus had not risen from the dead and   
   appeared to his disciples, we would never have heard of him. Nothing   
   else could have changed sad and despairing men and women into people   
   radiant with joy and courage. The reality of the resurrection is the   
   central fact of the Christian faith. Through the gift of the Holy   
   Spirit, the Lord gives us "eyes of faith" to know him and the power of   
   his resurrection. The greatest joy we can have is to encounter the   
   living Lord and to know him personally. Do you celebrate the feast of   
   Easter with joy and thanksgiving for the victory which Jesus has won   
   for you over sin and death?   
      
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   26 April – Saint Paschasius Radbertus   
      
    Monk, Abbot, Theologian: born 785 at Soissons, France and died in 865   
   of natural causes. St Paschasius was a Carolingian theologian and the   
   abbot of Corbie, a monastery in Picardy founded in 657 or 660 by the   
   queen regent Bathilde with a founding community of monks from Luxeuil   
   Abbey. His most well-known and influential work is an exposition on   
   the nature of the Eucharist written around 831, entitled De Corpore et   
   Sanguine Domini.   
      
   Paschasius was an orphan left on the steps of the convent of   
   Notre-Dame de Soissons. He was raised by the nuns there and became   
   very fond of the abbess, Theodrara. Theodrara was sister of St Adalard   
   of Corbie (C 751-827) and St Wala of Corbie (c 755–836), two monks   
   (and both abbots prior to Paschasius) whom he admired greatly. At a   
   fairly young age, Paschasius left the convent to serve as a monk under   
   Abbot Adalard, at Corbie.   
      
   Through the abbotship of both Adalard and Wala, Paschasius focused on   
   the monastic life, spending his time studying and teaching. When   
   Adalard died in 826, Paschasius helped ensure Wala would become Abbot   
   in his place. Wala’s death in 836 brought yet another abbot to Corbie,   
   Ratramnus, who held opposing views to Paschasius on a number of   
   ecclesiastical issues. Ratramnus wrote a refutation of Paschasius’   
   treatise on the Eucharist, De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, using the   
   same title.   
      
   By 844, Paschasius himself became abbot, however he resigned his title   
   ten years later to return to his studies. He left Corbie for the   
   nearby monastery of St Riquier, where he lived in voluntary exile for   
   some years. Why he resigned is unknown, however, it is likely that his   
   actions were motivated by factional disputes within his monastic   
   community, misunderstandings between himself and the younger monks   
   were likely factors in his decision. He returned to Corbie late in   
   life and resided in his old monastery until his death in 865.   
      
   St Paschasius’ body was first buried at the Church of St John in   
   Corbie. After numerous reported miracles, the Pope ordered his remains   
   to be removed and interred in the Church of St Peter, Corbie. He was   
   Canonised in 1073 by Pope Gregory VII.   
      
   St Paschasius has an extensive collection of works, including the   
   “Vitae” or Lives of St Adalbert and St Wala and many exegeses on   
   various books of the Bible. He wrote commentaries on the Gospel of   
   Matthew, Lamentations, a commentary on Revelations and an exposition   
   of Psalm 45, which he dedicated to the nuns at St Mary at Soissons. De   
   Partu Virginis, written for his friend Emma, Abbess of St Mary at   
   Soissons and daughter of Theodrara, describes the lifestyle of nuns.   
   He also wrote a treatise, titled De Nativitae Sanctae Mariae,   
   regarding the nature of the Virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ.   
   Paschasius probably wrote much more but none of it has survived   
   through the centuries.   
      
   The most well-known and influential work of St Paschasius, ‘De Corpore   
   et Sanguine Domini’ The Body and Blood of Christ (written between 831   
   and 833), is an exposition on the nature of the Eucharist. It was   
   originally written as an instructional manual for the monks under his   
   care at Corbie and is the first lengthy treatise on the Sacrament of   
   the Eucharist in the Western world. In it, Paschasius agrees with St   
   Ambrose (340-397) in affirming that the Eucharist contains the true,   
   historical body of Jesus Christ.   
      
   According to Paschasius, God is truth itself and, therefore, His words   
   and actions must be true. Christ’s proclamation at the Last Supper   
   that the bread and wine were His body and blood must be taken   
   literally, since God is truth. He believes that the transubstantiation   
   of the bread and wine to be used at the Eucharist occurs literally.   
   Only if the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ can a   
   Christian know it is salvific.   
      
   Paschasius believed that the presence of the historical blood and body   
   of Christ allows the partaker a real union with Jesus in a direct,   
   personal and physical union by joining a person’s flesh with Christ’s   
   and Christ’s flesh with his. To Paschasius, the Eucharist’s   
   transformation into the flesh and blood of Christ is possible because   
   of the principle that God is truth, God is able to manipulate nature,   
   as He created it.   
      
   The book was given to Charles the Bald, the Frankish king, as a   
   present in 844, with the inclusion of a special introduction. The view   
   Paschasius expressed in this work was met with some hostility.   
   Ratramnus, who preceded Paschasius as Abbot of Corbie, wrote a   
   rebuttal by the same name, by order of Charles the Bald, who did not   
   agree with some of the views Paschasius held. Ratramnus believed that   
   the Eucharist was strictly metaphorical, he focused more on the   
   relationship between faith and the newly emerging science, while   
   Paschasius believed in the miraculous.   
      
   Shortly thereafter, a third monk joined the debate, St Rabanus Maurus   
   (c 780–856), which initiated the Carolingian Eucharist Controversy.   
   Ultimately, however, the king accepted Paschasius’ assertion and the   
   physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which had already been   
   believed for centuries, was cemented by St Paschasius' book and   
   cleared the way for a precise understanding of Transubstantiation.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/04/26/   
      
      
   “…only the Cross of Christ   
   sheds light on the path of this life….   
   God is in the detached heart,   
   in the silence of prayer,   
   in the voluntary sacrifice to pain,   
   in the emptiness of the world and its creatures.   
   God is in the Cross and,   
   as long as we do not love the Cross,   
   we will not see Him, or feel Him….   
   If the world and men knew….   
   But they will not know,   
   they are very busy in their interests,   
   their hearts are very full of things   
   that are not God.”   
      
   “How good God is, I thought!   
   There is peace everywhere   
   except in the human heart.   
   …God is so good to me that,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)