November 22

St Cecilia of Rome

(Roman Latin Catholic Rite. Mozarabic Latin Catholic Rite. Greek Byzantine Catholic Rite. African Latin Catholic Rite)

*St Philemon and St Apphia

(Husband & Wife mentioned in the Holy Writ- Antiochian Rites. Latin Rites)

St Cecilia 

(The Virgin Martyr. Greek Byzantine Catholic Rite. African Latin Catholic Rite)

St Elias Gromoglasov of Tver

(Hieromartyr. Greek Byzantine Catholic Rite.. African Latin Catholic Rite)

Prince St Michael of Tver

(Prince of Tver. Greek Byzantine Catholic Rite. African Latin Catholic Rite)

St Yaropolk of Vladimir

(also known as St Peter in Volhynia. Greek Byzantine Cathilic Rite. Russian Byzantine Catholic Rite. African Latin Catholic Rite)

Our Lady of La Vang

(Marian feast in Vietnam. African Latin Catholic Rite)

AGNUS DEI Lyrics

~~~by Fanny Magnificat ~~~

Agnus Dei 
qui tollis peccata mundi
misere nobis

Agnus Dei 
qui tollis peccata mundi
misere nobis

Agnus Dei 
qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona nobis pace

ABBA DEUS Lyrics - Mozarabic Chant

~~~~~ by Fanny Magnificat, MZRB ~~~~~~

Chorus: 

Aaleluya Pater noster Abba. Aaleluya Abba El Shaddai.

Aaleluya Maranatha Abba. Adonai.

El Shaddai Maranatha Notre Pere.

Maranatha Abba Padre Nuesto. Our Father Elohim Maranatha.

Aaleluya Aaleluya Abba.

Verse I:

1      Ego sum fortissimus Deus Patris  

                             Chorus

     Verse II

     Credimus in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem

                             Chorus

     Verse III

     And he said: I am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, of Jacob

                            Chorus

     

    Verse IV

I  Il leur dit: Lorsque vous priez dites: Père, que ton Nom soit sanctifié; que ton règne vienne.

                           Chorus

     

    Verse V

    Gloria et honor Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

                          Chorus

On Dei Verbum - part II

I wondered if there was something else to their dancings. Meanwhile, it seems out there some of their behaviors were also not fully understood yet. I came across people who've been studying them for years and still are. I thought I don't have that long though I love them much. Then reconciling knowledge from The Theology of the Body and Dei Verbum, it seems that we have certain things in common. They have the ability to stand on one leg. Surely, this show the power of their body, but then it seems that for those who do Ballet, it is a move that is part of their dancing routines. Of course, it was not obvious at first until I browsed through the scenes of one of my favorites movies Step Up.

Then, I carried on to the next thing that seemed to be a puzzle about them for the past few years: their migration to Siberia in Russia. I mean no one goes to a place to voluntarily die. News reporters, experts have expressed both their concerns and their opinions at the unexpected arrival of the flamingos in the coldest part of Russia, a trajectory said to be opposite to their regular route. What caught my attention was one comment as seen in the news report below mentioning how the wind led in such direction, or to be more direct fooled them...

So I paused for a moment and directed my focus to the wind, thus approaching it this theologically. I mean I'm on a quest to attempt to look at creation through the eyes of God. In the Holy Writ, there are different passages of God manifesting Himself through the Wind either with God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, there is this one particularly in the Old Testament where "... Yahweh changed the wind into a west wind, very strong, which carried the locusts away and swept them into the Sea of Reeds. There was not one locust left in the whole of Egypt..." - Exo 10:19 (NJB)
Could the Father Almighty, the creator of Heaven and Earth, be the one who behind-the-scenes interfered with the flamingos annual routine? Could it be that what He did millenias ago, He repeated but our eyes have so far away from perceiving the signs of time as Pope Benedict XVI would advise that the only pausible explanation was to say that there is been a failure in their orientation mechanism? Could it be that He, the maker of Heaven and Earth, whispered in their ears through the wind? And if it is they had become deaf to the voice of God, He chose to turn their attention back to Him by detaching from what we have come to see in them; experts dancers who seduce one another through dancing. Not that there is anything wrong in that! In fact, I could not help but think that maybe their dancing are also a mean for them to praise the Lord. Who knows? Of course, I am writing from a hypothetical approach as well. If so, then like the rest of us called to go and make disciples of all nations, He dare to pick those He thought would be missionaries by surrendering to His Holy Will. And so as the New Jerusalem Bible narrates about the apostle Paul and his friends' ship in the book of Acts 27:15 "... the ship was caught and could not keep head to wind, so we had to give way to the wind and let ourselves be driven...", then we could suggest that the same for them, missionary flamingos for Siberia, the wildest and coldest place on Earth as described by BBC. Missionaries in a new land who drew attention, caused stirs who will learn to use what they have to conquer the new land like the rest of the species who had to do so. However, not just on their own but by turning to their maker their creator who by the power of the Holy Spirit will inspire them what to do to fill this place for the glory of God.  Throughout time and history, the law of Darwin finds its way again and again applying to creatures that they who can adapt to their environment will better survive. Some species have multiplied, and some winter after winter have decreased in number. So, through the eyes of Faith, I must say that their presence there will and could make a difference to that habitat, just as it would change them as well hopefully for the better as they learn all about that land meanwhile establishing themselves. Now how? Time will tell... They've conquered lands where they've reached the million, so let be attentive to the Lord moving through them...
So... does divine revelation (Dei Verbum) makes our reasoning less? or does it prove to be complementary to science, philosophy and else...? Pope Paul VI  affirms to us that "... God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human race." - Dei Verbum, Par 6.


For 'On Dei Verbum - part I', click here...

Fanny Magnificat, MZRB...
Find me as well on Google, Youtube and Twitter

On Dei Verbum - part I

      This time, what angle to cover this subject from was really really hard. There were so many options that at last I approached it from God revealing himself through creation. And the outcomes did demonstrate that when God did create us, he meant it when he said we would have dominion over the earth. This could only be done if we strove to seek deeper communion with Him by seeing what surrounds us through His eyes. The sounds of our equipment at times echo the sounds of certain creatures, when we open our ears to listen. Then we comprehend the Scripture where our Lord speaks of hearing and understanding. St John Paul II in his theological approach to the body challenges us in making us realize that failure to accept one’s body is failure to accept creation. Pretty daring one would say, but truth is once we start diving in the world of fashion not in a superfluous manner, but truly with in mind a sense of holiness, we might marvel at how we become companions of the Heavenly Father, Abba, in the Garden whom He consults just as He did with Adam when He sought to name the different creatures. Filled by the Holy Spirit, when we look at the works of our hands through the eyes of Christ, we are either becoming allies of God’s work or we are on the other side, and we simply miss out on discovering the very depths of one of the gifts bestowed upon us when we were being confirmed: the gift of Wonder and Awe…  
Now when it comes to be filled with wonder, I could count on my fingers key creatures that from a tender age caught my attention, and whenever I would see them I would just be mesmerized before the Holy Trinity blesses me to know more and more the works of the Father's hands. Among these are the Flamingos. I think it all started when I started learning how to dance Salsa, and then I discovered all these other types of dances that had influence my land and ancestral line such as Samba. But then, there was Flamenco. So I remember often times confusing Flamenco and Flamingo when identifying these birds growing up, because both these names are pretty similar. During my pilgrimage in 2016 (a combo destination of WYD in Poland and other destinations for me such as the Czech Republic), I was encouraged to visit Praha Zoo; the Zoo of Prague. While making my way through this vast territory getting acquainted both with creatures I knew, creatures I had encountered and knew not their names and creatures I had never seen nor even thought existed, I ran into the Flamingos. For the first time in my life, I was seeing them face - to - face. Obviously, I brought back memories home with me as you see here: I was only at the Zoo for that day, and just that in itself was a pilgrimage for the numerous creatures that filled this space. It definitively felt like visiting another kingdom, and you want to see it all before you leave: you can't afford to be tired. I might have the privilege to introduce more of them to you in my Botanical Theology series.

Two years later when finally answering the call to dive into the knowledge of what God the Father took the time to create, what my maternal grandmother and some of my ancestors studied without books, and what in my readings on the Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she herself devoted time while being raised in the temple to the study of creation through the angels dispatched to be her tutors and countless other saints and holy ones on my path, I decided to call it Botanica Theologia. So obviously, came the time to cover the Flamingos. And as I got to know them through readings and videos over the weeks, I noticed an emphasis was put on their dancing: it seemed renowned as an approach to find a mate. However, discovering that their colonies can reach the million, and seeing how easy it is to lose them. Hypotheses began to broom in me. 

To be continued...

Fanny Magnificat, MZRB.
Remember to stop by my Holy Emporium and 
find me on Google, Twitter and Youtube...