How the west was lost

Press on Regardless

2011-11-17T23:33:00.003Z

Press on regardless: unofficial motto of RAF, meant to show "keenness" to fly through adversity to the target - often stupid advice. Many men died "pressing on regardless" of severe icing and "duff" engines and died because of it. Often used in an ironic way to show resignation to keeping on with a task no matter how ridiculous or unpleasant. Also used as an expression to "buck up" those who were depressed about something.

It is hoped that pressing on regardless may at some point lead to some blogging again!

Peter Stanford... sigh......

2011-07-11T16:59:00.005+01:00

Caught bits and pieces of Beyond Belief, yet again more twaddle from P.S. As is often the case with Beyond Belief, my eyeballs remained in the ceiling for the duration.

The programme was on hell, P.S. protested furiously, voice in a high pitch, the idea that a man who repents at one minute to twelve is saved while another at 12:01 (i.e after death) is not "is a man made idea." Protestant guest took him to task.

At the sum up he opined we need to take away hell, take away the devil and think more of what the nature of evil is! Protestant guest took him to task.

This man's Bishop needs to tell him, go on these shows if you must, but do not identify yourself as Catholic.

Divine Office & Liturgy - from a Benedictine monk and a Benedictine Oblate

2011-06-18T11:08:00.008+01:00

I suscribe to two e-mail feeds which have a commentary on the rule of the day. Today's is on the details of the office, whcih both have led both to reflect on the Office and Liturgy generally, interesting thoughts... the white highlighted bit is not highlighted by me or author, just a blip from cut and paste!

+PAX

February 17, June 18, October 18
Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the
Saints

On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals
let the Office be performed
as we have prescribed for Sundays,
except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons
belonging to that particular day are to be said.
Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.

REFLECTION

Without marking certain days
as special, our Office would quickly become a bland and tedious bore.
On the other hand, mark too much as special and people soon get worn
out. Variety itself becomes boring and a chore.

Having lived in a monastery for part of the 1960's and 70's where the
liturgy became the sad equivalent of a revolving door, changing often
and not often well, I can speak from experience. It became dreadful
to wonder what would happen next. It pulled out the necessary
underpinnings of a certain stability (gasp!) and changelessness that
a Benedictine life of prayer requires.

Ah, but in the quest for simplicity carried to unfortunate extremes,
it did, at times, become UTTERLY changeless. Same old same old, every
single day with nothing different but the prayer at the end, if that.
("Oh boy, it must be Tuesday again....!") No antiphons, just psalms
and canticles. No music other than the hymn, same seven each week for
each hour, a few good, many bad.... No Glory be between Psalms, just
one at the end. It was dull and gave even more of an impression
of "let's just get this over with" than the old Office did at its
very worst. One often wondered why we still bothered to go to choir.

A balance between variety and stability is where the virtue truly
lies. I have never heard anyone complain about singing or saying the
same unchanging parts of the Mass every day, because they are set in
the midst of elements that DO change. The same must be true
of the Office to a certain extent. When SO much changes at feasts, as
it did in former days of many octaves and tons of commemorations,
that one longs and pines for a weekday with one book and NOTHING
special, that balance has been missed. On the other hand, the
changeless mundane misses the balance as well. One should never have
to come out of a "simple" Office and think quietly: "Wow, that was
dumb...." (But I'm afraid I have.)

St. Benedict built the necessary change right into his Office for
monasteries. Ignore his bottom line or extend it unduly and you get
into trouble. In this instance, as in so many, he was far wiser than
we are, than people of any age are.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

Petersham, MA

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+PAX

+ Please pray that Divine Mercy will shine upon all those who have taken their
own lives. Please pray that Divine Mercy will end the murder of babies by abortion in America and around the world.+

Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints
Feb. 17 - June 18 - Oct. 18
On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals
let the Office be performed
as we have prescribed for Sundays,
except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons
belonging to that particular day are to be said.
Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.

A FEW THOUGHTS.....

As an enthusiast of the Monastic Diurnal (St. Michael's Edition) I can certainly
vouch for the fact that it is NOT one of the Offices that is changeless! Oh yes,
the Little Hours are fairly repetitive as are the vast majority of other Offices
(I can't honestly think of one that has a lot of variety in the Little Hours)
but the Benedictine Calendar offers a rich variety of Saints and celebrations
that a soul not familiar with the MD is probably not aware of or might possibly
have forgotten in the world's rush to embrace Political Correctness... which in

total religious hegemony. Political Correctness (P.C.) in its beginnings served

a useful purpose and undoubtedly served to make us more sensitive to the feeling of others.

But Political Correctness has now morphed into Political Censorship and is paralyzing us at best and enabling those who have evil intentions for us at worst.

To turn a blind eye to the looming and very real danger posed by those

whose goal in life is to destroy Western Civilization does a disservice to the

original purpose of Political Correctness. Those who chose to ignore this threat out

of a belief in Moral Equivalency or an exaggerated sense of Political Correctness (Political Censorship) display a masochistic tendency as they glide along blissfully in the false belief that

there are no evil intentions working against us. It is quite possible, some might

even say probable, that someday we could be put to that same test that Christians have had to

make several times over the centuries: deny Christ or die. Pray God will give us the strength of Final Perseverance for whatever end He has in store for us!

A short reading from the Martyrology (a couple of paragraphs) normally follows
the Hour of Prime each day. Some have erroneously stated that Vatican II
suppressed the Hour of Prime and the readings from the Martyrology but that is
NOT the fact. Prime was suppressed only in the Roman Office not in the Monastic
Office of which the Monastic Diurnal is a part. The Benedictine Monastic Diurnal
is one of the few remaining Offices of a Religious Order in use. It is possible
Offices of ancient usage will become more accepted due to the Holy Father's Motu Proprio.
Time will tell.

Most Orders have opted for a more P.C. approach (to much more than just the
Divine Office unfortunately). As a matter of fact very many Benedictine Houses
have also chosen more modern Offices but there seems to be a growing
resurgence, a yearning for more traditional Works of God in some Monasteries and
especially among Oblates.

Please notice St. Benedict's Instruction (repeated yet again) in the final
sentence of the Instruction that the number of psalms "shall" be maintained to
ensure the completion of the entire Psalter each week. Even when it is impossible to

pray the whole Hour of Matins one can still pray those specific psalms which

comprise each day's Matins selection.

Once again I must state that obviously not all souls will share my love for the
Monastic Diurnal. And that's fine! And it is certainly no excuse for one to
ignore making some Divine Office (or some part of one) an integral part of one's
Personal Prayer Rule. And if are an Oblate or a Lover of the Holy Rule that is
doubly true.

You Who are All, have given me All, whereas I who am nothing, can give you only nothing! Yet, how slow, indolent and miserly I am in giving you this nothing, how much I try to spare
myself, to give myself with prudence... (Father Gabriel O.C.D.)

Father of Truth, behold Your Son, a sacrifice pleasing to You, accept the offering of Him who died for me... (Saint Charbel Makhlouf)

God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil--for the devil is cold--let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him, but also for our neighbor. (Saint Seraphim of Sarov)

Much Love and Many Prayers.....michael...oblate
michael_oblate@yahoo.

An Atheist view on C of S Vote on same sex relationships and ministry

2011-05-24T21:52:00.005+01:00

Church Votes For More Dialogue

THE General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to continue dialogue on same-sex relationships and the ministry following the Special Commission report today.
After several hours of debate, commissioners voted by 351 to 294 to adopt deliverance 7B, which means a move towards the acceptance for training, induction and ordination of those in same-sex relationships for the ministry.

An atheist (brought up C of S) today opined, "I don't believe in God or the Church, but I have more respect for a religion that sticks to it's principles rather than bending to the social norms of the day. If Paul said all that stuff in the Bible you can't just take the bits you like and ignore the rest.

An evangelical I know is somewhat irked, but not surprised at these developments.

6 Year Old's May Shrine

2011-05-05T20:54:00.003+01:00

Eldest announced she had made a May shrine (no, not suggested by parents and her class does not have one this year, she was very taken with class one last year, suspect that's where idea came from.)

Added icon from her shelf, got a candle and ...voila!

A good confession

2011-04-09T23:11:00.002+01:00

At Cathedral in Edinburgh today, before me were family with three daughters who all went to confession.

First time I have seen such a thing.

2011 Pluscarden Abbey Pentecost Lectures

2011-04-05T20:07:00.003+01:00

2011 Pluscarden Abbey Pentecost Lectures

This year the lectures are to be given by Professor John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs in the University of St Andrews, on the subject:

God, the Soul and the Spiritual Life
1. Tuesday 14th June at 2.45 pm
God and the Soul
2. Wednesday 15th June at 10.15 am
Grace and the Holy Spirit
3. Wednesday 15th June at 2.45 pm
Ethics and the Spiritual Life
4. Thursday 16th June at 10.15 am
Saints and the Love of God

Full details

Unfortunately I have to work, those of you who could miss a few lectures / have won lottery / retired may be able to go.

I hope to follow Christ unto Death

2011-04-01T21:48:00.004+01:00

Now that the term from hell (Jan to Easter, longest term, all the SQA malarky, prelims, continual assessment deadlines etc) is over, will try yet again to update this thing more often.

From the Catholic Herald interview with Bendictine monk Peter Damian

The Catholic Herald

25 March 2011

Page 8

Lent Vatican II Focus

2011-03-18T23:52:00.005Z

The Second Vatican Council shifted the focus in Lent to spiritual preparation for the Paschal Mystery of Easter and broadened the focus to include other forms of penance and prayer and works of charity.

Bishop of Galloway - Link
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CCC540 Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning." By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.

CCC1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).

Discuss.

Christ In the movies

2011-02-21T23:49:00.003Z

As we all know, films like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are popular because they are spiritual, their core is good v evil - they (and regretably a slew of Vampire films / TV) fill the void left by the West's rejection of religion.

So the graph above made me chuckle...

link

The Nazi's - A warning from history

2011-01-31T13:26:00.004Z

The Nazi's - A warning from history is the title of an often repeated programme on Yesterday channel, or as one comedian put it as they show so many Nazi programs, The Nazi's were bad people, we get it channel.

Reading "20th Century History" magazine in the library, the following struck me from an analysis of the fall of the Weimar republic

Chancellor Bruning attempts to control the situation (the economic crisis caused by Wall St crash) by raising taxes and cutting public spending proved extremely unpopular with both the ordinary population and his fellow politicians. As he struggled to maintain the confidence of the Reichstag, people began to look elsewhere for a way out of the situation. It was in this climate that political extremism began to flourish.

Where will people look today? I fear to the BNP and the like, blaming immigrants or to the far right, laisse faire capatalism - 'every man for themselves'.

Preach the gospel in and out of season

2011-01-11T23:15:00.003Z

The parish had a mission last year, the priest leading it being a probably unique fusion of no nonsense orthodox preaching which usually ended with him picking his guitar up and signing at the end. I do remember coming home and saying to the better half " A lot of that will not go down well with some of the parish."

Indeed it didn't.

Three cheers for the PP, his response at a parish meeting.

While he recognised that some of what Fr said might have been termed ‘old fashioned’, it is good to hear what the Church actually teaches rather than what we ‘think’ the Church teaches.

Abortion must not be condemned in court of simplistic opinions - Irish Times

2010-12-31T00:09:00.007Z

Abortion must not be condemned in court of simplistic opinions

DAVID ADAMS

Twenty-six years ago, my wife was carrying a child who could not survive, and we opted for termination

AT THE outset of our marriage, my wife Joycelyn and I struggled to start a family. Three years of false alarms and disappointments had presaged the blood-chilling realisation that we might remain childless: all sorts of tests had been done, and no one was being definite about anything. We had just begun to discuss the possibility of adoption, when she fell pregnant.

After what, to me at least, felt like another eternity, we were eventually delivered of a beautiful healthy son, Kevin. Within 12 months, Joycelyn was pregnant again – it seemed we had at last gotten the hang of this procreation business.

I remember wondering how Kevin would take to the new arrival, and feeling guilty at the idea of us suddenly confronting him with a competitor for our attentions. Would he think we had betrayed him in some way, by arriving home with another baby? Joycelyn told me not to be so daft.

Six months in, she attended hospital for what I presumed was a routine pre-natal check-up – it never crossed my mind that anything could be amiss. I’ll never forget the phone-call to work that day: Joycelyn was so upset, at first I could hardly make out what she was saying. She needed me to come home, because the hospital had told her there may be a problem with the baby.

Over the next few days, I clung to the hope there was some mistake, but in her heart Joycelyn knew different. As it turned out, something indefinable had been worrying her. She had gone to see her family doctor, and though he could find nothing wrong, as a precaution he had referred her to an obstetrician. A series of tests followed the obstetrician’s initial examination, and within a few days we were being told that our little unborn was anencephalic. It was explained to us that this meant the child had no brain, and could not possibly survive outside the womb.

We were distraught (which is hardly the word for it) but had to try desperately to maintain a front for Kevin, so as not to confuse and upset him. Some well-meaning friends told us we should take comfort in already having a child, and that, being so young, we had plenty of time. There was something in what they said; it just wasn’t the time for them to be saying it.

On top of everything else, Joycelyn and I had a decision to make: does she carry the child for another three months, knowing that it cannot survive beyond birth, or should we terminate the pregnancy now? The doctors and nurses were wonderful, answering all our questions without ever pressuring us in either direction.

We eventually decided on termination. It was a little girl, Claire, perfect in every other respect. The weight of grief nearly destroyed us – not as a couple, but each in the inescapable isolation of our own hearts and minds. Joycelyn, then only in her early 20s, was almost crushed by it: the loss of a child, giving birth to no end, post-natal depression, multiplied tenfold by the absence of a baby in a cot – the sheer bloody unfairness of it all.

I was numb with grief, feeling totally helpless as a man and as a partner, my own pain magnified by my inability to ease hers. Up to a point, the well-meaning friends were proven right, the fact that we already had Kevin, and went on to have David and Deborah was of enormous help (our children are all now older than Joycelyn was then). We couldn’t have been blessed with better youngsters if we’d been allowed design them ourselves.

Still, this only goes so far, human beings aren’t inanimate objects; one isn’t directly replaceable by another. Yet you just have to find a way to push on, or grief can become habitual, a self-indulgence.

Over the years, the pain has receded, but not disappeared. There will always be a void. The memories of that time, the what-ifs and the if-onlys, have been buried but not entirely. Claire would have been 26 this coming year, and though Joycelyn agreed to me writing this, she’ll never read it – she couldn’t bear to.

More heartache was to come. Joycelyn suffered a miscarriage a couple of years after Deborah was born, it would have been our youngest child. In truth though, it happened in the very early stages of pregnancy, and the pain was not comparable to what had gone before.

I see the abortion debate is set to take off again in the Republic. I detest the word “abortion”: with its harshness, and its sleazy, backstreet connotations. I prefer termination

, (the nazi's are perhaps the most famous user of termination as a euphanism - i.e. murder)

though it is much too imprecise for general usage.

Do I have a position on abortion? No, I have lots of positions, one for every set of circumstances that drives a woman, or a couple, to choose to terminate a pregnancy.

It isn’t a simple black and white issue.

Wrong. It is a black and white issue.

If it were, no doubt Joycelyn and I would stand condemned in the court of simplistic opinions.

It's not about condemnation, it's protection of the unborn from being murdered.

Suffer the little children..

2010-12-20T23:14:00.002Z

The Cellarer has been 'voluntered' to do children's liturgy and was unaware his recent debut was being critiqued by two teenagers in the kitchen.

Is he a teacher? they apparently asked. Whether it was the formative / summative assessment, active learning etc or simply my voice hitting the back of the hall and therefore also kitchen that gave the game away is unconfirmed.

Followed the instructions pretty much but drew the line at the 'Frere Jacques' Alleluia.

That was said.

Mentioning aforementioned Alleluia to someone who quite likes modern hymns even they said "They are children but they have not been lobotomised"!

Press On Regardless

2010-12-19T20:53:00.004Z

In most lives, I suppose there comes a time when one has to make a supreme effort that calls for every morsel of more and more endeavour and more than not that effort has to be sustained.

Squadron Leader Geoffrey Wellum

Tories join culture of death

2010-10-04T19:53:00.003+01:00

Country facing demographic timebomb, pensions crisis.

So cut child benefit and make it even harder for those with children (most of whom have factored child benefit into their budget) and make it less financially viable for those considering having a child / adding to their family.

Well done.

*Those thinking, well you must be well off being a higher tax rate payer - I earn a squeak over it and my wife has small part time earnings -a total less than two average skilled workers combined salary.*

(North American readers should note that 'Well done' is not in fact, well done, but employed sarcastically.)

Prayer Meme

2010-07-25T23:50:00.005+01:00

Mac's (Mulier Fortis) meme has finally caught me via catholic teuchtar Both the teuchtar and Joe against the Volcano have got in there first with choices 1 and 2!

1 - Trisagon Prayers

Part of this Byzantine Catholic Morning Rule of Prayer I usually use.

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth,
You are everywhere present and fill all things.
Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life,
come and dwell within us,
cleanse us of all stain,
and save our souls, O gracious Lord.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal,
have mercy on us. (3 times)
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us;
O Lord, cleanse us of our sins;
O Master, forgive our transgressions;
O Holy One, come to us and heal our infirmities for Your
Name's sake.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Our Father, Who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ
our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Lord, have mercy (12 times)
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

2 - Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner

I have a short book by Bishop Kallistos Ware - The Power of the Name

The invocation of the Name if a prayer of the utmost simplicity, accessible to every Christian, but it leads at the same time to the deepest mysteries of contemplation....
No specialized knowledge or training is required before commencing the Jesus Prayer. To the beginner it is sufficient to say: Simply begin. ‘In order to walk one must take a first step; in order to swim one must throw oneself into the water. It is the same with the Invocation of the Name. Begin to pronounce it with adoration and love. Cling only of Jesus himself. Say his Name slowly, softly and quietly.’ ...
more...

It embraces the two chief 'moments' of Christian devotion: the 'moment' of adoration of looking up to God's glory and reaching out to him in love; and the 'moment' of penitence, the sense of unworthyness and sin.

Any article or book that mentions the prayer almost always carries a caution, such as this and it would probably be remiss of me not to point this out

Cautions
There are some cautions that are in order when practicing the Jesus Prayer.
• First, you should not practice this method of prayer unless you are regularly attending worship services, participating in the Sacraments of the Church, and reading the Scriptures.
• Second, you should not force yourself into the discovery within yourself of the action of the prayer of the heart.
• Third, you should not connect this practice with breathing exercises or other yoga techniques unless you are directed by your spiritual father.
Remember, delusion is your enemy. “An insignificant, unnoticed hope or trust in something outside God can stop the advance of progress... Faith in God is leader, guide, legs and wings.”35 If you begin to think that it is by your efforts that you will find unity with God, you are being deluded and in great spiritual danger.

3- Irish Cemetary Prayer

Go mbeannaí Dia daoibh, a fhoireann,
Go mbeannaí Dia daoibh agus Muire.
Bhí sibhse tamall mar atá sinne,
Beimidne fós mar atá sibhse.
Go rabhaimid go léir fé (faoi) mhaise
Ag Rí geal na cruinne.

May God bless all the company of souls here,
May God and Mary bless you.
You too spent a while here just as we are now
And we too will join you soon.
May we all be adorned in the beauty
of the bright King of heaven

from The Glenstal Book of Prayer

I will tag Infused Knowledge and Cursor Mundi...

Dá fhada an lá tagann an tráthnóna.

2010-07-19T21:22:00.003+01:00

Dá fhada an lá tagann an tráthnóna.
(However long the day, the evening will come.)

St Benedict (Not this year!)

2010-07-11T23:57:00.004+01:00

July 11 is the Memoria of St Benedict, however, as it was the World Cup Final today, to use football terminolgy, this is 'relegated to the sub's bench' this year, 15th Sunday of Ordinary time taking it's place in the starting 11!

To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,
whoever you may be,
who are renouncing your own will
to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,
and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.

St Benedict

Liturgical Entertainment - Theo Hobson (Guardian) would approve...

2010-07-10T10:15:00.006+01:00

What is "emerging church"?...t is above all a presentation style - of openness, of scepticism towards the old fusty-dusty forms, of irreverence, of irony, of artiness, of political and environmental engagement...This is where I would place the emphasis, on the need for a new relationship with the festive arts – music, theatre, spectacle. We need a new paradigm of worship in which participatory public performance eclipses the church service. How might it emerge? We need some events that are big and bold enough to put this paradigm shift on the cultural map. For example, what about a large participatory public art event in London at Easter? It could be the centrepiece of a wider festival. For obvious reasons the bishops aren't going to organise this for us.

A New model Christianity

"For obvious reasons the bishops aren't going to organise this for us."

They already have.....Ugh! Papal Visit - "Litugical Entertainment"

I had an email from our diocesan visit coordinator, it had this terrifying sentence in, which I am sure originated not from her but some other source.

The Park [Hyde Park] will open from 2pm and liturgical entertainment will be running through the afternoon - dance acts, videos etc (it promises to be an enjoyable event). The Pope will arrive to conclude the prayer vigil and benediction and the whole event will be finished by 9.00pm. I am told that the Pope will be there for the latter half of the event.

Boston Bishop Elect - Interesting Photos

2010-07-08T21:37:00.007+01:00

Whispers in the Loggia, which comments on appointments simply notes these are 'intreging' appointments.

Couple of photo's caught my eye on Cardinal Sean O'Malley's Blog.

'A large number of our staff and family and friends of the bishops-elect were on hand for the announcement'

The priest on the bottom left looks like he'd rather be anywhere, absolutely anywhere, than where he is sitting.

Unless there is an earthquake, one of the bishop elect looks like he is raising his hands to stop everything as it slides off the altar.

Seriously, prayers for the Bishops Elect as they prepare for their consecration.

Closure of St Francis' parish in Dundee

2010-07-08T14:16:00.003+01:00

Closure of St Francis' parish in Dundee - Fr Geoffrey G. Attard, Victoria

Tears in the Friary after closure revealed - Dundee Courier

The parish has played an important part in Dundonian life since it was established in the 1930s.

As well as being a place of worship for the local Catholic community, its hall has hosted many social and fund-raising events.

Under the leadership of Father Eugene O'Sullivan, it quickly became the heart of the city's Irish student community in the 1990s.

Today it is home to Father Krzysztof Frost, who provides spiritual guidance to the city's Polish population.

He will move to St Joseph's parish on Blackness Road...

The last masses in the parish will take place on Sunday, August 15, which is the feast of the Assumption, the reception of the Virgin Mary into heaven.

St Teresa of Avila

2010-07-07T18:43:00.002+01:00

Those of you looking for some wisdom I'm afraid are to be disappointed, I'm simply looking for help from Spain's patron saint for their match against Germany.

The wife and I picked a team to win the World Cup, I went for Spain, she went for Germany, so tonight's match matters... the bet winner was to be whoever's team went furthest so if Germany win... for me there will be consequences...

Come on España!

The active and the contemplative life

2010-07-06T10:42:00.002+01:00

A person consists of a soul and body, and therefore his life’s path should consist of both physical and spiritual activities — of deeds and contemplation.

The path of an active life consists of fasting, abstinence, vigilance, kneeling, prayer and other physical feats, composing the strait and sorrowful path which, by the word of God, leads to eternal life (Mt. 7:14).

The contemplative life consists in the mind aspiring to the Lord God, in awareness of the heart, focused prayer and in the contemplation of spiritual matters through such exercises.

Anyone desiring to lead a spiritual way of life must begin with the active life, and only later set about the contemplative, for without an active life it is impossible to lead a contemplative one.

Seraphim of Sarov

Let the children come to me... with incense

2010-06-28T21:10:00.003+01:00

HT Byzantine, Texas, from Ad Orientem

I am visiting the family back in upstate New York for a little bit and today went off to the 9:30 AM divine liturgy at one of the eight(!) local Orthodox parishes that are within a convenient drive of my father's house. The liturgy was reasonably well attended for midsummer and was unremarkable until the time came for the last major censing by the deacon. The priest was at the altar with the doors open when suddenly a small boy, not more than four or five years old, broke loose from his parents and ran up towards the altar and... charged right through the doors and started tugging on the priests vestments.

I can now relate that the sudden and simultaneous intake of breath on the part of a couple of hundred people creates a very distinctive sound. But the silence that followed was almost painful. The parents... visibly horrified seemed not sure of whether or not to rush up and add to the chaos in the sanctuary. This was coupled with a deep silence from everyone else frantically trying to avert their eyes from what was at the least surely going to prove a terrible embarrassment if not a major catastrophe.

Then in a few seconds the crisis was ended. The priest looked over his shoulder and after a moment of visible (and understandable) shock, smiled and I thought he was going to laugh. With a quick motion of his hand he called over the deacon who had been in the process of censing and calmly relieved the deacon of his censor. He then bent over and handed the censor to the little boy, showing him how to hold it and swing it, and then directed him to finish censing the iconostasis and assorted icon stands.

Off went the overjoyed little boy, with the deacon hot on his trail, happily censing everything that looked even remotely like an icon. OK OK he almost knocked over a candle stand but the deacon saved the day. After he was done the deacon relieved him of the censor and quietly guided the happiest child in the city back to his parents.

I have no idea how many church canons or liturgical rubrics were violated today. But I can tell you that there was not a dry eye in the church.

I can relate, having grabbed one of my boys by the ankle as he crawled onto the sanctuary heading for the altar...

Church vandals break arm from crucifix

2010-05-15T21:47:00.005+01:00

Quick post as I know the parish.

Vandals have torn the right arm from a figure of Christ on the cross outside a Catholic Church.

Human excrement was also smeared on the doorstep of St Mary's RC Church in Stirling some time between 0900 BST on Thursday and Friday morning. Click for full story)

You do have to watch yourself if up 'the top of the town' at night but I've not heard of this before.

Pray for the parish and the misguided vandals.

5 years turns into one week

2010-05-04T21:08:00.007+01:00

When I said...
I'm going to say I don't think this is right, now, because if Labour get back in I reckon it will be illegal to say this by the end of the next parliament.

Wow, somebody arrested and bailed not even by end of next parliament, 4 days before it kicks off! - Christian preacher arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin

CBeebies joins Culture of Death

2010-04-27T22:07:00.005+01:00

Quick break from Blog fast.

Enjoying making a video card on CBeebies with the kids. Option for 'from' to be entered. Lots of options, including 'your mummies' and 'your daddies'.

No, I don't think this is aimed at Mum and Step mum...

I'm going to say I don't think this is right, now, because if Labour get back in I reckon it will be illegal to say this by the end of the next parliament.

That's all folks!

2010-04-09T22:40:00.004+01:00

For now anyway.

I just don't have time between family and work to do justice to doing a blog. There are plenty of blogs that cover quotes, scottish catholic news and benedictine stuff better than here out there.

I'll still be lurking and commenting, and no I won't delete the blog as I know how much that annoys certain people out there!

(refering to The Cellarer) - Let him keep watch over his own soul, ever mindful of that saying of the Apostle: He who serves well secures a good standing for himself (1 Tim 3:13). RB Ch31

Clean

2010-04-04T17:02:00.001+01:00

Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen

Now that I'm clean
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean

Holy Thursday's Challenge

2010-04-01T17:15:00.003+01:00

And each year, as we immerse ourselves into the unfathomable light and depth of Holy Thursday, the same decisive question is addressed to each one of us: do I respond to Christ's love and accept it as my life, do I follow Judas into the darkness of his night?

Fr. Alexander Schmemann

HT Byzantine, Texas

Cafe Hmmmmmm Pt 2

2010-03-30T20:38:00.006+01:00

After Cafe Hmmmmmm,

I've gone to the subsequent sessions, partly as I say to expose myself to something different in the Church, but sub-conciously I reckon expecting a substantial purgatorial credit!

Anyway, ended with people coming up to leaders on DVD to be 'prayed with' and hands laid on, though David Payne very clear to point out not a blessing. Parish groups invited to do same. The lady organising it came accross and asked would I like to be prayed with. I declined and again we discussed just how uncomfortable this stuff again had made me feel, to each their own.

The whole thing again just made me feel very uneasy. Not in a way that being uneasy is sometimes an invitation to do something difficult which can lead to something good, but the same sort of uneasyness that I felt again today when watching those LA RE Congress liturgical abuse videos.

I'm not saying no good comes from the Charasmatic Movement - see this article, but it's not for me - suum cuique pulchrum est

Eastern Advice for Holy Week

2010-03-29T20:21:00.006+01:00

10 tips for holy week and Pascha - from Charming the Birds from the trees

H/T to Byzantine, Texas

1. Make participation at the Services a priority

2. In our homes we should strive to “keep out the world” and enter into the peace, solemnity, and theology of the events of the last days of our Lord.

3. Be sure to read the last chapters of the Holy Gospels that speak of the Passion, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ.

4. If you are visiting another parish and wish to receive Communion, make sure that the priest knows who you are and that you are prepared. This should be done in advance by phone, email, or any other way.

Shows the emphasis Eastern / Catholic / Orthodox place on the Eucharist. I have read that it is said "priests will have to account for their care of the Eucharist at their judgement", hence why they are so careful!

5. Last year’s palms and pussy willows should be placed outside in an area to decay where they will not be disturbed. They are holy and should not be simply thrown out with the garbage.

EC;s & EO's do not do Ash Wed, this one is for them!

6. Before venerating Holy Objects, such as the Cross, the Chalice, Icons, or the Winding-Sheet, make sure to wipe off your lipstick or chapstick. Reminder: we do not kiss the face of our Lord, His Mother, or the Saints; in-stead kiss the hands or feet.

7. If you haven’t yet made your Confession during Great Lent, try to make it during the beginning of Holy Week. Speak with your priest to arrange a time.

8. Try to make amends with those we may be upset with or those who are upset with us, so that on Pascha we can joyfully sing, “Let us call brothers, even those that hate us, and forgive all by the Resurrection!”

9. Try to stay after the “Midnight Service” on Pascha morning for the blessing of baskets and festive meal. Let us share in the joy of the Lord’s Resurrection with fellowship and love.

None of this 4pm still light malarky!

10. During Bright Week, sing or read the Paschal Hours instead of your “normal” morning and evening prayers. Let the joy of praising the Lord’s Resurrection accompany you throughout Bright Week, the Paschal season, and your whole life.

Taken from Fr John's Sunday Bulletin

Strike Hard. Strike Sure. - The Great Ingratitude

2010-03-26T17:55:00.013Z

On 26 March 1944 at 1944hrs Lancaster Bomber LL749 of 166 Sqn took off for Essen from RAF Kirmington. It FTR (Failed to Return)

Strike Hard. Strike Sure.

Flt Sgt John McInroy was 21, a Lancaster Bomber Flight Engineer. He had said to his aunt (my great grandmother) that he did not expect to return from his next op. Rather than a premonition, this was probably recognition of Bomber Command's heavy losses at this time - operational expectancy of crew was 16 operations in early 1944, i.e you statistically would not complete your 30 operation tour of duty.

He was particularly unlucky on this raid as the sudden switch to Ruhr target surprised the Luftwaffe, only 6 lancs were lost and 1 of those was a crash landing on return to base. My father recalls the family were told he was shot down on the way back. One member of the crew got out and spent the rest of the war as a POW.

A book called 'The Great Ingratitude' sums up our legacy of Bomber Command. No memorial, aside from a statue of Bomber Harris, exists.

The following is from an account of a fellow flight engineer whose lanc was lost on the same raid.

The Raid on Essen 26-27th March 1944:
At Linton-on-Ouse, all Lancasters of 426 ‘Thunderbird’ Squadron in flying condition were checked at their dispersal points. Aircraft DS711/OW "B" regularly flown by P/O Olsson was in repair having been badly shot up several days earlier. This was taken as a bad omen by four of the crew, including Tom who individually spoke to Sgt Hughes-Games the NCO in charge of servicing that night. One of the mess staff who had just become engaged to Vic Jones the mid-upper gunner was in tears and said, “She just knew they weren't coming back”. Tom's Lancaster DS789/OW “A” was bombed up with one 8,000 lb High Explosive ‘Cookie’ and 426 Incendiaries, loaded with over 2,000 gallons of high octane fuel and checked by ground crew. All aircrew flying that day attended a morning briefing when details of the targets in Essen, the bomb loads, rallying point, route, predicted weather conditions and specific problems were discussed. The Essen area was well defended; it contained Krupp armament factories and an oil refinery at nearby Gelsenkirchen.

In the afternoon, the crews rested and then collected their flying gear, ate a traditional meal of bacon and eggs and were taken to the dispersal points by motorised transport as they were weighed down by flying kit, parachutes and the breathing apparatus for high altitudes. The transports were often driven by WAAFS, which must have been traumatic for them knowing that they might not see these men again.

The aircraft was checked by ground crew and by Tom as Flight Engineer. It taxied from dispersal to the main runway, taking off with nine other Lancasters of 426 Squadron at 19.58 and rendezvoused over the East Coast with the main bomber stream.
The stream flew at 18,000-20,000 ft for the raid on Essen, avoiding areas of high flak and enemy fighters by ‘dog legging’ to the target. The target area was clearly marked by Oboe-equipped Mosquitoes and bombs were released at 20,000- 23,000ft through cloud....

705 bombers had taken part; 476 Lancasters, 207 Halifaxes, and 22 Mosquitoes. Six Lancasters were lost, almost the lowest total during that spring. Considerable damage was inflicted on Essen: 48 industrial premises and 1756 houses hit, 550 people killed including 74 slave workers and 138 concentration camp inmates. By the end of the war, it is estimated that 28% of industrial buildings, 24 % of housing and 20% of all facilities had been severely damaged.

Looking back:
It is impossible for us to appreciate the full horror of flying over occupied Europe in a Lancaster. The crew was in continuous darkness for six to nine hours, in cramped conditions, enduring deafening engine noise, using breathing equipment, at temperatures well below freezing and mainly in radio silence.

They knew that mechanical failure, fire, damage from anti aircraft fire and night fighter attack could cause injury or death and that the plane could be brought down over hostile country. The chances of escape from the plane were slim and even if they landed safely, capture on the ground and imprisonment for the rest of the war was almost inevitable. They were well aware too that the chance of surviving thirty raids, the normal tour of duty, was probably less than 50% at that period of the war.

It is for these reasons I feel it is essential not to forget the sacrifices of these men and many thousands more for our freedom today.

The Flight Engineer:
Flight Engineers tended to be the oldest in the crew. They normally came from an engineering background and would have worked as apprentices in civilian life becoming ground crew first, then aircrew. Tom would have been exceptional, joining the regular RAF at the age of 28. Training took about two years and as in Tom's case, was often in Canada where over 10,040 men were trained.

The Flight Engineer’s job was complex and involved liaison with ground crew to identify and solve problems. Before a sortie he was responsible for checking all electrical, hydraulic and mechanical systems were working correctly, the fuel tanks in the wings were balanced and that the engines were running at the correct temperatures and oil pressures, and that there was no outstanding damage to be repaired. This included over forty outside checks on flaps and mechanical linkages, including checking for oil, hydraulic and fuel leaks and checking his own and the pilot's control panels.

During take-off and landing he assisted the pilot with control of engine speeds, monitoring all systems and rectifying minor problems. During the flight he would monitor the balance in the fuel tanks and transfer petrol from one to the other to ensure even flight. He would look out for flak and enemy fighters, go forward into the nose and help the bomb aimer to drop ‘window’ to confuse enemy radar. If the plane were damaged, resulting in loss of control, he would make every effort to rectify the problem and assist the pilot to keep the plane flying correctly. The flight engineer would also help keep the plane straight and level during the bombing run. If the pilot was killed or injured, then Tom could take over and fly the plane, having been trained for this eventuality during basic training and on conversion to operational duties on Lancasters.

In Memory of
Sergeant JOHN JOSEPH McINROY

1820970, 166 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
who died age 21
on 27 March 1944
Son of James and Annie G. McInroy, of Dunblane, Perthshire.
Remembered with honour
CHOLOY WAR CEMETERY

In blessed repose, grant, O Lord, eternal rest to the soul of Your servant, John, and remember him forever. Eternal memory; eternal memory, grant, O Lord, to Your servant, John, blessed repose and eternal memory.

166 Squadron Memorial

ON PRAYER(2)

2010-03-25T22:28:00.001Z

How hard it is to win such a victory! Adam broke only one of the Lord's commandments; daily and hourly you break them all, says St. Andrew of Crete. From your position as a hardened, constant criminal your prayer must go forth, in order to reach the heights.

ON PRAYER

2010-03-21T19:44:00.001Z

The spider may be another example for you. In the middle of his web he sits and feels the smallest fly and kills it. Likewise prayer watches in the middle of your heart: as soon as a trembling makes it known that an enemy is there, prayer kills it.

ON HUMILITY AND WATCHFULNESS

2010-03-20T08:13:00.001Z

The impulse is the beginning, the saints explain. Then intercourse* follows, when we enter further into what the impulse brings with it. The third step is already consent, and the fourth is the committed sin. These four stages can succeed each other instantly, but they can also give way by degrees so that one can manage to separate them. The impulse knocks like a salesman at the door. If one lets him in, he begins his sales talk about his wares, and it is hard to get rid of him even if one observes that the wares are not good. Thus follow consent and finally the purchase, often against one's own will. One has let himself be led astray by what the evil one has sent.

ON PROGRESS IN DEPTH

2010-03-18T22:35:00.001Z

THE external rudiments lead us now to the welfare that goes on in the depths. As when one peels an onion, one layer after another is removed, and the innermost core, out of which growth reaches up toward the light, lies revealed. There, in your own innermost chamber, you will glimpse the heavenly chamber, for they are one and the same, according to St. Isaac the Syrian.

ON OBEDIENCE

2010-03-16T21:54:00.001Z

God does not need our fasting. He does not even need our prayer. The Perfect cannot be thought of as suffering any lack or needing anything that we, the creatures of His making, could give Him. Nor does he crave anything from us, but, says John Chrysostom, He allows us to bring Him offerings for the sake of our own salvation.

Latin heard at Mass!

2010-03-15T22:26:00.004Z

Up seeing parents at weekend and took opportunity with better half to go to Mass in old traditional Church - St Mary's Stirling, as a break from the architectural purgatory (as always, great priest, great parish, dreadful church building - before I get into trouble!)we have to endure. St Mary's does not have a website, will have to take camera next time. The rederos behind the main altar have been removed at some point and a divine mercy Christ painting added, which has gold glitter around Him, which I'm afraid reminded me of the type of finish we get when my kids and I put pritt stick on a page and pour glitter over it!

Fr Owens (away this week) has a good choir going, and they did the Kyrie, Agnus Dei etc in Latin. The hymns were either penetential or at least not joyful, in keeping with the season. It was uplifting, if you can say that in Lent.

Cardinal O'Brien responds to Pope on Lay Apostolate and Lay Ministry

2010-03-12T20:56:00.006Z

Archdiocese of St. Andrews & Edinburgh
Pastoral Resources

E-bulletin for Pastoral Resources Feb 2010 No.2

Since my last message via the E Bulletin, the major event which has occurred for me has been my ad Limina visit to Pope Benedict XVI in the company of my brother Bishops of Scotland. As President of the Conference, it fell to me to address the Holy Father and then in the company of my brother Bishops to listen to the Pope‟s response to us on this visit. These speeches are on my website.
I am sure that of particular interest to all of the readers of the E Bulletin will be what the Pope said about lay apostolate and lay ministry. The full text of his words is available on my own website but perhaps I could quote them in full: “Hand in hand with a proper appreciation of the priest‟s role is a correct understanding of the specific vocation of the laity. Sometimes a tendency to confuse lay apostolate with lay ministry has led to an inward-looking conception of their ecclesial role. Yet the Second Vatican Council‟s vision is that wherever the lay faithful live out their baptismal vocation – in the family, at home, at work – they are actively participating in the Church‟s mission to sanctify the world. A renewed focus on lay apostolate will help to clarify the roles of clergy and laity and so give a strong impetus to the task of evangelising society”.
I am speaking about this on my visits around the diocese at the Lenten Station Masses, emphasising that the lay apostolate is incumbent on each and every member of the lay faithful by virtue of the Sacraments of Initiation. We must practise this as the Pope has said for all living out their vocation „in the family, at home, at work‟.

The Cardinal quite rightly backs up the Pope's comment on the distinction between lay apostolate and lay ministry.

While emphasising this invaluable lay apostolate, we must also remember the importance of lay ministry in our Church at this present time. One would wonder just where we would be without that great army building up the Church in our Archdiocese in so many wonderful ministries open to them. I take this opportunity of thanking all involved in the life of our Church in whatever way in our Archdiocese at this present time and pray that the lay faithful be ever more aware of both their lay apostolate, as well as the opportunity of lay ministry in so many and varied ways.

The Cardinal also quite rightly notes the importance of lay ministry but the crucial point is it's justification. 'Where would we be without...' In severe trouble operating would be the answer with ever diminishing numbers of priests and religious. What I believe Cardinal O'Brien is saying is the Lay Apostolate is most important, but in the times we face just now lay ministry is necessary.

I was a 'lay chaplain', yes I know that may grate for some, but it was what the diocese called me, for a school in the diocese. Why did I do it? Someone needed to carry out the role as the school chaplain had two parishes, two schools, national and diocesan responsibilites and was in his seventies. If (when, God willing) we get a burst of priests and religious I would have stepped aside in a second, gladly, for those more qualified and called to do it.

The problem comes, I think when lay people think they have 'right' to a certain ministry and / or the priesthood is 'not important.'

CaFE. Hmmmmm.

2010-03-11T22:21:00.005Z

Our parish has been showing the 'Life to The Full' (click the Life to the Full tab) (NB Those with an aversion to praise music are warned to turn volume down now!) CaFE series.

I've gone along as I'm fairly new to the parish, good way to meet people and also to expose myself, challenge I suppose, to something different, I've seen some CaFE stuff before - to make a change from the Benedictine / Eastern Catholic & Orthodox books that line my shelves.

I found the first one interesting, but the third one just grated. Maybe it was the praise music, sounded the same as my oldest friend's Baptist Church, maybe it was relentless over the top charismatic happiness, maybe it was the stand up and put your hands out prayer at the end. That did grate. But I came home feeling spiritually uneasy. I know (as they often do) my eyeballs rolled into the ceiling at some points.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

ON THE INNER WARFARE AS A MEANS TO AN END

2010-03-11T22:14:00.001Z

BY throwing off the outer bonds, you throw off the inner as well. While you are freeing yourself from external concerns, your heart is freed from inner pain. It follows from this that the hard warfare you are compelled to wage with yourself is exclusively a means. As such it is neither good nor bad; the saints often liken it to a prescribed cure. However painful it may be to follow out, it nevertheless remains only a means to regain health.

Headmaster regrets loss of 'Catholic world'

2010-03-04T22:35:00.005Z

THE head of one of Scotland's leading Catholic schools has said the religious world he and others grew up in "is gone".
John Stoer, headmaster of St Aloysius' College in Glasgow, said it was quite painful that a joined-up "Catholic world" of school, parish and home was no more.Click for full article in The Herald

For all but a few it's gone. In my wife's day (she went to a Catholic school) the majority of staff were religious sisters. The Parish Priest had assistants and there would usually be a curate kicking about. Most would be in and out of the school regularly. Most pupils would go to Mass on a Sunday.

Now priests have three or more parishes and struggle to do more than celebrate sacraments in schools. Many are older and have lost that ability to relate to children, i.e. in past would have had the asst / curate do this. No religious brothers or sisters in schools. Low percentage of pupil's attending Mass.

My analogy is that we have currently been pushed back into the trenches and are pinned down. Not time to give up, time to dig in until times get better and go over the top and reclaim lost land...

ON THE SINS OF OTHERS AND ONE'S OWN

2010-03-04T22:03:00.004Z

"I feel a great calm in my soul: a peace which no words can express." - from a story about St Seraphim of Sarov in a Pluscarden Letter - click link.

He has made peace with himself, as Isaac the Syrian says, and heaven and earth have made peace with him. He is gathering the fruit of humility. But this takes place only on the narrow way, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:14).

ON THE CONQUEST OF THE WORLD

2010-02-26T21:23:00.003Z

What is the world, then? You ought not to imagine it as something sinful and tangible. The world, explains St. Macarius of Egypt, is the veil of dark flames that surround the heart and shut it out from the tree of life. The world is everything that holds us and satisfies us sensuously: that within us which has not known God (John 17:25). To the world belong our desires and impulses. St. Isaac the Syrian enumerates them: Weakness for wealth and for collecting and owning things of different kinds; the urge for physical (sensuous) enjoyment; the longing for honour, which is the root of envy; the desire to conquer and be the deciding factor; pride in the glory of power; the urge to adorn oneself and to be liked; the craving for praise; concern and anxiety for physical well-being. All these are of the world; they combine deceitfully to hold us in heavy bonds.

ON GUARDING AGAINST THE RE-ENTRY OF VANQUISHED EVIL

2010-02-25T23:36:00.002Z

Take remarks without grumbling: be thankful when you are scorned, disregarded, ignored. But do not create humbling situations; they are provided in the course of the day as richly as you need. We notice the person who is for ever bowing and fussily servile, and perhaps say, How humble he is! But the truly humble person escapes notice: the world does not know him (I John 3:I); for the world he is mostly a "zero."

(After her death, one of the nuns in her convent wondered what they would say about her as to her she had done nothing notable. A Doctor of the Church was seen as a 'zero'

ON THE TRANSFER OF LOVE FROM THE SELF TO CHRIST

2010-02-24T22:09:00.000Z

Refrain from busying yourself, therefore, with charity bazaars, sewing meetings and other such occupations. Busyness over many things is, in all its forms, chiefly a poison. Look within, examine yourself accurately, and you observe that many of these apparently self-giving deeds spring from a need to deafen your conscience: that is, from your uncontrollable habit of satisfying and pleasing yourself (Romans 15:1).

Cardinal O'Brien - a "systematic and unrelenting attack on family values".

2010-02-23T20:36:00.009Z

The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has accused the Labour government of conducting a "systematic and unrelenting attack on family values". The attack came as Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, a practising Catholic, claimed religious faith has a role in British politics. Mr Murphy said in a lecture that Labour best represents people of faith.

I had to read the above several times before moving on. Murphy cannot possibly believe this can he? Before anyone sees this as a right wing endorsement, I'm no fan of any party, Thatcherite laisez faire capitalism has been hugely damaging and laid the foundations for our current financial crisis

But Scotland's most senior Roman Catholic accused the government of "undermining religious freedom". And a spokesman for the Scottish National Party said Mr Murphy was guilty of "crude electioneering" by trying to "corner the market regarding people's faith".

Albeit Mr Salmond has done a fair bit of wooing the Catholic vote saying nice things about Catholic schools, but SNP voting on issues such as abortion is as bad as the rest.

A tangible example by the government over the last decade that it acknowledged or endorsed religious values would also have been welcomed. Mr Murphy focused on the key part "values voters" can play in the election when he delivered the Progress lecture in London on Tuesday evening. He argued that faith values have always been "at the very foundations of the Labour Party".

I went to some trouble to go home to try and get Forsyth out (an arch Thatcherite) in the days when Labour had a concern for social justice and society. Those days are long gone and even hardcore Labour supporters here are finally realising this.

In his lecture, the Scottish secretary said: "In the US, faith has long played a central part in politics. Not surprising for a country where 60% of people say that God plays an important part in their lives. "But it's wrong to think that it plays no role in British politics." The MP for East Renfrewshire added: "Faith voters massively outweigh 'Motorway Men' or 'Worcester Woman' or any other trendy demographic group identified by marketeers."

'Firm foundations'

He also told the audience that like faith, the family was "another force for good" and "the most important thing in our country".

Why aren't your party supporting it then?

The minister added: "As well as providing a supportive intellectual environment, it's a potential source of financial support in difficult days."

Supportive intellectual environment, the intellectual bit is the most important is it? True colours shown, like the Thatcherites before them, it's money that counts.

His comments were in contrast to the stated attitude of former Labour communications chief Alastair Campbell. Despite former prime minister Tony Blair's strong religious faith, Campbell famously said: "We don't do God". Mr Blair himself said he had avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled "a nutter".Jim Murphy said religion was at the "very foundations" of the Labour party. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, welcomed Mr Murphy's "recognition of the role played by faith and religion in society".

But he added: "A tangible example by the government over the last decade that it acknowledged or endorsed religious values would also have been welcomed.

There aren't any.

"Instead we have witnessed this government undertake a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values. This is a charge I personally put to Gordon Brown when we met in 2008 and I have seen no evidence since then to suggest anything has changed."

English Bishops take note....

Ironically, Mr Murphy had been due to mention the Cardinal by name in his speech by saying: "When the Cardinal speaks, people listen."

Conservative leader David Cameron recently spoke of the importance of his Christian faith, while acknowledging that it grew "hotter and colder by moments". He said he did not have a "direct line" to God and did not pray for guidance from the almighty. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said he did not believe in God. However, he later added he had "enormous respect for people who have religious faith", that his wife is Catholic and that his children are being brought up Catholic.

Faith voters

A spokesman for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Politicians are fully entitled to declare their personal testament, as the first minister has done and indeed would encourage others to do so. "However, it is quite a different matter to make any suggestion that a political party should seek to corner the market regarding people's faith."To do so would be absurd, unreal, and bear the hallmarks of crude electioneering, which would backfire rather badly. "The reality is that people of all faiths and none support the different parties in Scotland, and that forms part of the vibrant political system we have."

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "Jim Murphy is taking the Labour Party into dangerous territory when he calls on it to make a special play for the religious vote.

It wouldn't be a BBC article without Terry. Who was that dreadful Rabbi on BBC with Ed Balls this morning?

"His personal religious enthusiasm may be blinding him to the facts. It is no longer the case that clerics can dictate the way their congregations vote.

Until very recently most of their congregation could not vote. Now most of them cannot be bothered, see no choice or see the governements like this one ram through legislation most of the electorate do not agree with.

People are too independent-minded now to be herded into the voting booth by religious considerations alone."

Oh give me a break...

ON THE DENIAL OF SELF AND THE CLEANSING OF THE HEART

2010-02-23T20:30:00.001Z

The explanation is to be found precisely in our unwillingness to persecute ourselves. We overcome after a fashion, perhaps, our serious and dangerous vices, but there it stops. The small desires we freely let grow as they will. We neither embezzle nor steal, but delight in gossiping; we do not "drink," but consume immoderate quantities of tea and coffee instead. The heart remains quite as full of appetites: the roots are not pulled out and we wander around in the tanglewoods that have sprung up in the soil of our self-pity.

ON THE DENIAL OF SELF AND THE CLEANSING OF THE HEART

2010-02-22T22:01:00.004Z

The holy Fathers' counsel is to begin with small things, for, says Ephraim the Syrian, how can you put out a great fire before you have learned to quench a small one? If you wish to set yourself free from a great suffering, crush the small desires, say the holy Fathers. Do not suppose that the one can be separated from the others: they all hang together like a long chain or a net.

Enjoy the Silence

2010-02-20T10:47:00.004Z

In December I managed to see Depeche Mode, who I had wanted to see since my twenties! A lot of their material is on the big stuff of life, love, life, death, regret, redemption

Enjoy the Silence -(Video here, as embedding disabled)

Words are very unecessary, they can only do harm

The video has imagery with a nod to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince.

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." ("It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")

ON THE SILENT AND INVISIBLE WARFARE

2010-02-19T22:39:00.001Z

Still another piece of information the saints offer on the way: you should see yourself as a child who is setting out to learn the first sounds of letters and who is taking his first tottering steps. All worldly wisdom and all the skills you may have are totally worthless in the warfare that awaits you, and equally without value are your social standing and your possessions.

ON THE GARDEN OF THE HEART

2010-02-18T21:40:00.002Z

THE new life you have just entered has often been likened to that of a gardener. The soil he tills he has received from God, as well as the seed and the sun's warmth and the rain and the power to grow. But the work is entrusted to him.

If the husbandman wishes to have a rich harvest, he must work early and late, weed and aerate, water and spray, for cultivation is beset by many dangers that threaten the harvest. He must work without ceasing, be constantly on watch, constantly alert, constantly prepared; but even so, the harvest ultimately des wholly on the elements, that is, on God.

The garden that we have undertaken to tend watch over is the field of our own heart; the harvest is eternal life.

ON THE INSUFFICIENCY OF HUMAN STRENGTH

2010-02-17T20:58:00.002Z

THE holy Fathers say with one voice: The first thing to keep in mind is never in any respect to rely on yourself. The warfare that now lies before you is extraordinarily hard, and your own human powers are altogether insufficient to carry it on. If you rely on them you will immediately be felled to the ground and have no desire to continue the battle. Only God can give you the victory you wish.

This decision not to rely on self is for most people a severe obstacle at the very outset. It must be overcome, otherwise we have no prospect of going further. For how can a human being receive advice, instruction and help if he believes that he knows and can do everything and needs no directions? Through such a wall of self-satisfaction no gleam of light can penetrate. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight, cries the prophet Isaiah (5:21), and the apostle St. Paul utters the warning: Be not wise in your own conceits (Romans 12:16). The kingdom of heaven has been revealed unto babes, but remains hidden from the wise and prudent (Matthew 11:25).

Lenten Book - Way of The Ascetics

2010-02-16T20:43:00.005Z

Way of the Ascetics for Lenten reading.

IF you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make the sign of the Cross and say:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be our example. He arose and came (Luke 15:20).

However weighed down and entangled in earthly fetters you may be, it can never be too late. Not without reason is it written that Abraham was seventy-five when he set forth, and the labourer who comes in the eleventh hour gets the same wages as the one who comes in the first.

Nor can it be too early. A forest fire cannot be put out too soon; would you see your soul ravaged and charred?

In baptism you received the command to wage the invisible warfare against the enemies of your soul; take it up now. Long enough have you dallied; sunk in indifference and laziness you have let much valuable time go to waste. Therefore you must begin again from the beginning: for you have let the purity you received in baptism be sullied in dire fashion.

Ignatian spirituality is my second love following a wise Irish priest's spiritual direction just before being recieved into the Catholic Church so I'm going to do this as well.

Christian airline employee loses cross ban appeal

2010-02-14T22:37:00.004Z

Despite BA changing it's policy, the court case has run longer than 'Friends' (the TV series) and the new missal translation saga put together. As usual, the winners are the lawyers who have run up fees not that far short of RBS's losses. The losers, are of course you and me, the courts having decided to give the green light to other companies who fancy following BA's lead.

Christian airline employee loses cross ban appeal

A Christian British Airways (BA) employee has lost her appeal against a ruling which allowed the airline to stop her wearing a cross at work.

Nadia Eweida, 58, wanted the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling that she had not faced discrimination.

In 2006 she went home after failing to reach a compromise with managers over the visible display of the plain silver cross on a chain around her neck.

The following year the airline changed its uniform policy.

Lord Justice Sedley, giving the ruling of the court, said her case of indirect discrimination was defeated by BA's case on justification.

'Startling judgement'

He said: "This case has perhaps illustrated some of the problems which can arise when an individual asserts that a provision, criterion or practice adopted by an employer conflicts with beliefs which they hold, but which may not only not be shared but may be opposed by others in the workforce.

"It is not unthinkable that a blanket ban may sometimes be the only fair solution."

Lord Justice Sedley said Miss Eweida is a devout practising Christian who worked part-time as a member of check-in staff since 1999.

She made complaints about incidents between 2003 and 2006 which she claimed showed anti-Christian bias on the part of BA.

Human rights group Liberty said in a statement that the appeal court had upheld the Employment Appeal Tribunal's (EAT) "startling" judgment of November 2008.

It found that banning Ms Eweida from wearing a cross was not discriminatory because Christians "generally" do not consider wearing a cross as a requirement of their religion.

'Religious tolerance'

Corinna Ferguson who represented Miss Eweida, said: "This is a disappointing judgment that will do little to build public confidence in equality laws protecting everyone.

"But this is just the sort of case that a Supreme Court is for and we have every hope that the highest court in the land will put Britain's long tradition of religious tolerance into modern legal practice."

A spokesman for the airline said: "British Airways is very satisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal, which yet again confirms that British Airways has acted appropriately and lawfully in relation to Ms Eweida."

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, said the failure of the appeal would lead to further cases of religious discrimination.

He said: "I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that people of faith are facing particular hardship in a period where different freedoms and rights are being tested against each other."

In 2004, the airline scrapped a high-necked uniform and introduced a new one, which could be open neck and prohibited the wearing of any visible item of adornment around the neck.

It introduced an amended policy in 2007 which permitted staff to display a faith or charity symbol with the uniform.

Septuagesmia , Triodion

2010-01-31T23:42:00.002Z

While Septuagesmia may have started relatively recently, our Eastern brothers and sisters are well into the Triodion period.

All Saints of Scotland Icon

2010-01-28T20:24:00.003Z

Icon or Statue?

Icon? Me too.

In which case you will want to check out Western Saints Icon Project

HT Byzantine, Texas

St Frances de Sales on Devotion

2010-01-24T20:49:00.003Z

From the introduction to the ‘Devout Life’ by St Francis de Sales.

At the creation God commanded the plants to bear fruit each according to its kind and he likewise commands Christians, the living branches of the vine, to bear fruit by practising devotion according to their state in life.

The practice of devotion must differ from the gentleman and the artisan, the servant and the prince, for widow, young girl or wife. Further, it must be adapted to their particular strength, circumstances and duties. Is the solitary life of the Carthusian suited to a Bishop? Should those who are married practice the poverty of the Capuchin? If workmen spent as much time in church as religious, if religious were subjected to the same pastoral calls as a bishop, such devotion would be ridiculous and cause intolerable disorder.

Yet this foolish mistake is often made. True devotion never causes harm, but rather perfects everything we do; a devotion which conflicts with anyone’s state of life is undoubtedly false.

The bee sucks honey from the flowers without injuring them, leaving them as whole and fresh as when it found them. Devotion goes further, not only is it unharmful to any state of life, it adorns and beautifies it. Precious stones of all kinds when steeped in honey become more brilliant thereby, each one according to its colour, so every one becomes more loveable ad more perfect in his vocation if he combines it with devotion.

It makes the care of family peaceful, the love of husband and wife more sincere, the service of one’s king more faithful, and every task more pleasant and a joy. It is not only erroneous, but a heresy, to hold that life in the army, the workshop, the court, or the home is incompatible with devotion. Purely contemplative, monastic or religious devotion cannot be practised in these callings; yet these are not the only kinds of devotion; there are many others more suitable for those who live in the world and capable of leading them to perfection.

Wherever we find ourselves we may not only may, but should, seek perfection.

Baptism of Ice

2010-01-18T20:34:00.005Z

I'm wondering how many parishes took advantage of the recent chill to do this...

(Click on image to see at readable size)

HT - Byzantine, Texas

Courage of Scots nun revealed as death squad attacks her African hospital

2009-12-15T23:14:00.004Z

A hero Scots nun kept her terrified patients calm yesterday as a gang of machete-wielding thugs attacked her AIDS hospital in Kenya.

Sister Placida McCann’s priest, Father Gerry Roach, had been murdered by the same gang just days earlier.

But despite still being in mourning, Sister Placida kept her cool when the raiders returned. And she and the patients barricaded themselves inside the hospital until help arrived and the gunmen fled.

A Visit to Kenya

Kenya Diary

Both above from Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh Website

Please pray for all affected and those who have been killed in Kenya.

Late Christmas Present?

2009-12-15T23:01:00.005Z

Blogging Demotivator

Yet another Quiz...

2009-12-11T21:29:00.005Z

I would have had a tenner on being Grumpy Smurf...

Take The Test

REQUIEM AETERNAM

2009-12-08T23:13:00.003Z

"Run whilst you have the light of life, that the darkness of death overtake you not" (Jn 12:35).
(Prologue to the Rule)

Ch 4 - Instruments of Good Works
47 - To keep death before one's eyes daily.

Anglican Spotting

2009-12-06T15:18:00.007Z

SUB TUUM has produced a High and Hazy, Low and Lazy, Broad and Crazy - guide to anglican churches.

You could use it to identify Episcopal / C of E churches you know, go to a wedding at or even try to work it out from say your local 'piskie / C of E website.

So for example, where I was baptised would be High liturgy and a progressive parish - An old Anglo Catholic parish which retains a very high liturgy but has gone down the 'inclusive' road. They used 'Affirming Catholicism' publications as well.

Up the road in Balerno the thriving evangelical St Mungo's are a Low & Conservative parish.

As always, it's not always that simple. St Michael and All Saints in Edinburgh look almost off the scale for tradition, their 'Mystery Worshipper' review noted the Mass was celebrated facing East...but they have a lady assistant priest. So do they get a High and Conservative rating or a high and progressive rating...

My local episcopal parish here would be as for my baptism parish, albeit not as high up the candle liturgically, though they do reserve their sacrament, probably enough to get a High as opposed to Broad / Middle rating!

Holiness - St Martin of Tours & Abba Anthony

2009-11-25T20:55:00.006Z

It was a while back (11 Nov) but in the Office of Readings, St Martin of Tours, when about to die;

He saw the devil standing near and cried out, 'Blood stained beast, what are you doing here? You will find nothing of yours in me, you living death. I go to the arms of Abraham. These were his last words. Then he surrended his soul to God.

I thought, imagine being able to say that at the hour of your death! But then, fine for him, a Bishop, a saint.

But immediately came to mind

It was revealed to Abba Anthony in his desert that there was one who was his equal in the city. He was a doctor by profession and whatever he had beyond his needs he gave to the poor, and every day he sang the thrice-holy hymn with the angels. (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers)

The bar has been set pretty high for us all

The Black Art of Minute taking

2009-11-23T23:02:00.003Z

A colleague of mine has not taken minutes before, so I have offered to give a lesson in 'The Black Art of Minute Taking'

I'm tempted to use this...

Archbishop of Tuam on recent 'event' at Knock

2009-10-26T20:59:00.004Z

I'll be going at Christmas as Cellarer clan going to Mayo to spend Christmas with the inlaws. I'm not expecting to see any apparitions...

ARCHBISHOP
Most Rev. Michael Neary DD LSS,
Tuam, Co. Galway.

News

Statement by Archbishop Michael Neary
on the Shrine of Knock
The Meaning of Knock

Knock is a much loved place of pilgrimage and prayer. Ever since the apparition in 1879, believers from home and abroad have made the pilgrimage there in increasing numbers. The most renowned of all pilgrims to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock was his Holiness, Pope John Paul II, who came for the centenary of the shrine in 1979, thus reaching ‘the goal of his journey to Ireland’ where he was able to ‘make yet another pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Mother of Christ, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of Peace.’ (Homily at Mass in Knock, 30 September 1979).

The great gift of Knock consists in a particular way in prayer and the celebration of the sacraments, in penance and the conversion of life. ‘All those who have come to Knock have received blessings through the intercession of Mary…The sick and suffering, people handicapped in body and in mind, troubled in their faith or their conscience, all have been healed, comforted and confirmed in their faith because they trusted that the Mother of God would lead them to her Son Jesus’ (Pope John Paul II). It is this trust in the Mother of God, this turning to her divine Son borne out in the practical care of the sick, and in the celebration of the sacraments of reconciliation, anointing and Eucharist that lie at the core of the Knock pilgrimage.

For one hundred and thirty years now the pilgrims to Knock have been pilgrims in faith. They ‘walk by faith and not by sight’ to quote the words of St Paul (II Cor 5:7). This is their great blessing, the blessing in fact that Jesus mentions to the doubting Thomas: they have not seen and still they believe (Jn 20:29).
The Authentic Identity of the Shrine

Such faith makes Knock pilgrims firm in hope and active in love for the sick and suffering. They do not expect visions or seek further apparitions. God has manifested Himself in Jesus Christ and His people have responded ever since. It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and certainly is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena.

The apparition of 1879 was neither sought nor expected by the humble, honest people who were its astonished witnesses. Their faith reveals the patience and humility that characterises true belief. The Shrine of Knock is living witness to that faith.

Unfortunately, recent events at the Shrine obscure this essential message. They risk misleading God’s people and undermining faith. For this reason such events are to be regretted rather than encouraged.

The Shrine of Knock will be best served by retaining its authentic identity.

ENDS

Orthodox thoughts

2009-10-25T12:02:00.008Z

The spotlight is on the Personal Ordinariates initative at the moment, however relations with the Orthodox certainly appear to be on the move as well.

Strong public condemnation of protests by group of Orthodox opposed to talks.

Protests of radical Orthodox opposed to dialogue with the Catholic Church interrupted the work of the weeklong meeting. The country's police arrested four citizens and two monks of the monastery of Stavrovunio, confirmed Amen.gr.

The Orthodox representatives called the protests "totally unjustifiable and unacceptable, as they present false information which creates confusion," the communiqué stated. "All the Orthodox members of the commission re-affirmed that the dialogue continues with the decision of all the Orthodox Churches and advances with fidelity to the truth and to the Tradition of the Church."

Archbishop Hilarion on recognition of orders and communion.

Most Orthodox responses to questions about Catholic orders I have seen are vague, or some would say yes, others no, or, we do not know.

“To all intent and purposes, mutual recognition of each others Mysteries already exists between us. We do not have communion in the Mysteries, but we do recognize each others Mysteries”, declared Archbishop Hilarion (Alfeev) on the air during a broadcast of the program “The Church and the World” on the television channel “Russia”, on October 17th (video and text, http://vera.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=237432).

“If a Roman Catholic priest converts to Orthodoxy, we receive him as a priest, and we do not re-ordain him. And that means that, de facto, we recognize the Mysteries of the Roman Catholic Church”, explained Archbishop Hilarion.

Responding to the question of whether Roman Catholics can receive Communion from the Orthodox, or Orthodox Christians from the Roman Catholics, Archbishop Hilarion said that such giving of Communion should not take place, inasmuch as ”eucharistic communion has been broken”� between the Orthodox and Roman
Catholics. But, at the same time, he made clear that in some cases such
Communion is possible: “Exceptional cases occur, when, for example, a Roman Catholic is dying in some town where there is no Roman Catholic priest at all in the vicinity. So he asks an Orthodox priest to come. Then in such a case, I think, the Orthodox priest should go and give Communion to that person.”

Until recently, this sort of talk would have had you soundly rounded upon by a large number of senior Orthodox

A Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church.

At the end of Wednesday’s general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, stated to the Pope, “We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together,” L’Osservatore Romano reported.

“People don’t understand our divisions and our discussions,” the bishop stated. He affirmed that he will “not spare any efforts” to work for the quick restoration of “communion between Catholics and Orthodox.”

Bishop Tichon said that “the theological dialogue that is going forward in these days in Cyprus is certainly important, but we should not be afraid to say that we must find as soon as possible the way to celebrate together.”

“A Catholic will not become an Orthodox and vice versa, but we must approach the altar together,” he added.

The prelate told the Pontiff that “this aspiration is a feeling that arose from the works of the assembly” of his diocese, held in Rome, in which all the priests and two delegates from every Bulgarian Orthodox parish took part.

“We have come to the Pope to express our desire for unity and also because he is the Bishop of Rome, the city that hosted our assembly,” he stated.

EWTN in Scotland

2009-10-23T10:52:00.008+01:00

EWTN have been in Scotland filming. Commentary with photo's here. Use the archives posts in the side bar on the right to see all posts of trip.

They have been to Pluscarden Abbey, interviewed James MacMillan, Sr Rosanne Reddy of the Sister of the Gospel of Life and Cardinal O'Brien of St Andrew and Edinburgh Archdiocese, among others.

The majority of this weeks tapings are intended for a new EWTN series slated to air in 2010, entitled "My country, My Faith". His eminence, Cardinal Keith O Brien, is among this days guests, although he will appear on another series entitled "Catholic lives Scotland"

There is a great need for the Gospel in Scotland, the only Scottish seminary has closed, the Pro Life movement is small and Catholicism is under siege culturally. Nethertheless, there are many who have 'lit one candle' and who can use our prayers.

Culture of Death works in many ways

2009-10-22T12:05:00.004+01:00

Call to end middle class benefits

Benefits for the middle classes should be taken away to avoid higher taxes, a centre-right think tank has suggested.
Reform says payments including maternity pay, child benefit,

Labour has spent years discouraging people to have children with a range of anti family policies, now the biscuit tin is empty there are calls (from the right, here, but they will all be looking at it) for variety of benefits to be halted. Were we to lose maternity pay and child benefit this would be big disincentive to many people either having children at all or having any more.

Standard Political Caveat - No Party Bias here - I can't be doing with labour - p.c. secular agenda. I cant be doing with the liberals. Anti Life Policies. I can't be doing with the Tories. Me, Me, Me laissez faire capitalism. Really struggling to vote for anyone next election!

Any chance of a building swap?

2009-10-19T11:29:00.011+01:00

This is St John's. Before the injury, when I could, I stopped in on the way home. It is a beautiful church in which to stop and pray.

Unfortunately it is St John's Episcopal Church. Full photo tour here

My parish, and before I get into trouble, is a great parish with a great priest, is unfortunately in a building sense, this.

The original Church, which had been the diocesan Cathedral, burnt to the ground in 1961 and was replaced by the above. You can see more photo's here. - Need to click photo tab.

On my travels in Scotland and England my shoulders usually drop as we drive past a medieval / Victorian Church on the way to Mass in a late 20th Century box.

At the end of the day, It is a small price to pay though.

A wee thought. Where a C of E / C of S parish folds with a good Church building, should we actively be trying to get a hold of them to use? The 'old buildings are expensive' argument does not always hold, some 60's / 70's buildings were so poorly designed and / or constructed they eat money as fast as older properties.

Anyone know of any examples where a RC parish has taken over a folded C of S / C of E parish Church?

Benedictine Monastery to move after 148 years

2009-10-15T12:22:00.002+01:00

The community at Ramsgate Abbey have decided to move after 148 years. Please pray that they find the right property to move to and the right buyer for their current one.

Latest News From The Monks of St. Augustine's

Click here to view our news photo gallery »»

Press Release
News Release

Embargoed until Thursday 15th October 2009

Benedictine Monks of St Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate, Seek New Home.

The Benedictine Monks of St Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate, Kent, have voted to vacate the monastery in which they have lived for 148 years, and to relocate the Community. This follows a long process of discussion and discernment, and after taking professional advice.

The present Abbey, built in 1861, designed by Edward Pugin, the son of renowned Gothic-revival architect Augustus Pugin, can house 40 monks. The Community, which currently numbers eleven monks between the ages of 24 and 88, is no longer able to meet the Abbey’s considerable running and maintenance costs. The monastic Community, therefore, is now actively looking for a new property and location better suited to its size and requirements.

Dom Paulinus Greenwood OSB, the Abbot of St Augustine’s, commented: “We are united in our search for a new site which will enable us to live an authentic, balanced, monastic life of prayer, work, and study, according to the spirit of the sixth-century Rule of St Benedict, and to share that way of life with others who feel truly called to it. This is traditionally characterised by the daily celebration of Mass and the seven Liturgical Hours of the Divine Office, the reception of guests, manual work, and various intellectual pursuits. We look to promote the enduring values of Benedictine monasticism and plan to extend and develop our existing guest ministry to offer residential and non-residential hospitality to groups and individuals, both men and women. We also hope to offer structured retreats, educational courses and spiritual and intellectual study days.”

A new Abbey will need adequate provision for a church, land for market gardening, and other dedicated work areas, especially for producing the Community’s successful range of ‘Sanctuary’ products (honey, beeswax furniture polish, organic lip-balms and skin creams), and a shop in which to display and sell them. There is also a pressing need for a practical, user-friendly structure in which to house the Community’s large monastic library. Moreover, given that all these changes will involve considerable cost, the Community will shortly be launching a public appeal to help raise the necessary funds.

The Abbot and Community sincerely hope that whoever acquires the Abbey property will show sensitivity to its historical and architectural significance, and be mindful of its importance locally as part of the cultural heritage of the wider Pugin family legacy.

Further information will be posted on the ‘News’ page as and when it becomes available.

Registered Charity No. 245415 – Trustees of St Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The first monks arrived in Ramsgate from the Italian monastery of Subiaco in 1856, and successfully evangelized much of the coastal region of Kent, establishing and, for many years administering, all but one of the existing Catholic parishes on the Isle of Thanet, whilst acting as chaplains to the locality’s numerous convents of nuns and Religious Sisters.

The monks also provided independent preparatory and secondary Catholic education in the area for 130 years from 1865 until the closure of The Abbey School and St Augustine’s College in 1995.

On 1st January this year the monks officially withdrew from all responsibility for the running of parishes.

Thousands wait for Knock apparition

2009-10-13T01:02:00.005+01:00

UPDATED - SEE ARCHBISHOPS STATEMENT CLICK HERE

From memory, apparitions of Our Lady have tended to be to poor pious folk and not publicised in advance via 'clairvoyants' from Ballyfermot. Notably the local Bishop has not even deemed this 'event' worth commenting on.

Irish Times Article

The Longest Week

2009-10-07T22:09:00.006+01:00

As an addition to my assault on Mark I've read ( in 2 days!) The Longest Week by Nick Page which aims to put the last week of Christ into historical perspective for both believer's and non-believers, e.g the politics behind the actions of Pilate, High priest and others, the lives of soldiers and ordinary people, why what Jesus did upset the Roman's / Jewish Authorities and often the disciples. I believe he's a protestant but getting any further info from his website or google drew a blank. Found it fascinating but couldn't find a Catholic review of it on the web. Anyone know of one or read it for themselves?

Assault on Mark

2009-10-03T10:13:00.004+01:00

As I'm laid up, I'm going to launch an assault study on the gospel of Mark.

My guides will be

Bible, Catholic RSV version. An old 1966 version, imprimatur is Archbishop Gordon Joesph with nihil obstat by (now Canon) T Hanlon, both of my old St A&E stomping ground.

Bible, CTS New Catholic Bible - Jerusalem version, also the notes

A new Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture Editorial committee had 4 OSB's on it...Interestingly, Cardinal Heenan notes in the foreward reading of the Bible was being encouraged two generations before VII.

What was Mark at? - A commentary - Wilfrid Harrington OP

How to read the New Testament - Etienne Charpentier

Any other suggestions? Particularly online one's!

Ouch.

2009-09-27T22:21:00.005+01:00

I have managed to rupture my achilies. 9 weeks in plaster, another 4 after that on crutches. Please pray for a swift recovery as my wife has not only me but three under five to look after as well. Everyone has been great and rallied around.

Be careful what you ask for. Recently been really craving an end to million mile an hour lifestyle between work and kids. (Health has been rough, I was third member of family in A&E inside a week!) Not really what I was looking for though...

Vista. Grr.

2009-09-17T23:55:00.002+01:00

Vista decided to stick in config updates loop. Some photo's not backed up so hard disc out to haul files off. Vista reinstall. Drivers reinstall. Auto update switched off..

Think I'm going to put XP on after the following liturgy

Do you reject Vista?

I do.

And all it's works?

I do.

And all it's empty promises...

What is that? (Τι είναι αυτό;)

2009-09-10T21:21:00.004+01:00

It is a few years old and may, or may not be, I don't know, on every other blog in Christendom - but if you have not seen it, well worth a watch.

What is that? (Τι είναι αυτό;)

New Deacon to Be Blog

2009-09-10T20:29:00.003+01:00

Cursor Mundi

Even Eastern Catholics have ugly Churches

2009-09-09T20:14:00.005+01:00

Thought it was just the west that suffered architecturally? Well No7 in Bored Panda's list of 50 Extraordinary Churches shows you were wrong.

Some really attractive Churches in the list and some... well...

Any of the 50 anyone particularly loves / hates or actually visited?

QI Fact of the Day

2009-09-08T23:09:00.003+01:00

The BBC really just don't like religion... Link will only work today, as it's fact of the day. I'm sure tomorrow you will get something denigrating Islam. Or maybe not.

Of the 13 uses of the word 'laughed' in the Bible: 9 involve people being 'laughed to scorn' (usually accompanied by mocking and/or despising); two are bitter or ironic laughs; and one involves someone being frightened to admit to having laughed ironically. Only one of the 13 references can be reasonably described as cheerful, and that is in Job, one of the most miserable and dispiriting books in the Bible, as he recalls his former happiness before God and Satan conspired against him.

279 Descendants

2009-09-07T22:27:00.003+01:00

I thought I had my hands full with 3...

"Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

H/T The Divine Life

VERNON, Texas — Gregoria Martinez, 94, might seem like your typical grandma. She made quilts for her grandchildren, encouraged them to go to church, prayed for them, and gave advice.

Except the Vernon grandma didn't have just a handful of grandchildren when she died Tuesday.

She had nearly 300.

Ninety-eight were grandchildren; 164 were great-grandchildren and 16 were great-great-grandchildren — all descendants of her own 11 offspring.

That's without counting her three stepchildren or any of their descendants — or the three great-great grandchildren currently on the way. The family purposely underestimated the total count, but felt if all were included it could be as high as 500.

Actually, they have been losing track. Now, with nearly half the family attending the funeral Wednesday, family members passed out index cards to update names and phone numbers while they had their chance.

Martinez's survivors packed the 500-seat St. Mary's Catholic Church in Quanah.

"Her numbers are pretty astounding," said Jesse Jalomo of his mother-in-law. "It's not no misprint."

The devout Catholic woman, whose husband, Ponciano, died at the age of 94 sometime after their 50th wedding anniversary, "could fill up our elementary school in Quanah with all the great-grandchildren and the great-great-grandchildren," Jalamo said.

And she knew practically all of them.

"If one of my sons would come up to see her, she'd say, 'Are you JJ?' He'd say, 'It's JJ, Grandma.' And she'd say, 'Are you doing right? Are you taking care of your family?'"

Family and faith were her two priorities — and she insisted on talking about both with everyone. But not by telephone. "She'd say, You come to see me, face to face. You want to speak to me, you come to my house, and you drink a cup of coffee with me."

She didn't preach about the benefits of large families, but did believe she was brought into the world to multiply.

"You know Catholics," said daughter Elva Jaloma.

When Gregoria was raising her children, she and her husband were migrant workers, traveling to Wisconsin to pick tomatoes and cucumbers, then back to Texas to pick cotton.

"They had 11 kids, and raised 14, and not one time did (they) draw a food stamp, a welfare check, or an unemployment check," Jaloma said of his in-laws. "They didn't believe in that. They said, 'If you want something, you work for it.'"

Elva, the youngest of the 11 children, said her mother believed a wife should have a meal cooked when the family returned at the end of the day. "Then you wait on your husband hand-and-foot when he returns home."

Only in later years did both Gregoria and her husband work as custodians at a nearby hospital.

Long marriages run in the family, with many grandchildren logging 20-, 30- and 40- year anniversaries.

"They planted something very nice, very family oriented," Jaloma said.

Nearly three-quarters of the family live in Quanah or nearby, but the rest are spread as far away as Arizona and Missouri.

Quanah's Percilla Montes, 20, said she remembers picking pecans off the tree at her great-grandma's house and going to church with her.

"She always said that family was the most important thing, next to God."

Great-grandchild Montes said she knows about half of her family members.

"I'm part of a big crowd," she said. "I'm used to being in a big family."

She spent time listening to her great-grandma. Listening, not talking.

"She was kind of stubborn. What she said, goes."

Rick Martinez, the oldest grandchild at 50 and the oldest of 10 children in his family, remembers childhood visits to her home when she took him into her bedroom to give him a piece of fruit or a dollar to spend at the nearby convenience store.

He took more than 800 photographs at her funeral. A manufacturing operations manager in Tuscon, Ariz., with Raytheon, he will compile them into a life celebration DVD, then distribute them to family members.

The theme of her life was clear to all, he said.

"Look, this is what it's got to be," she would say to each one. "You've got to have God in your life, and then have peace between you."

Benedictine Charism

2009-09-04T22:46:00.004+01:00

Right. Moved house, getting hang of new job, must get into this blogging malarky again.

An interesting article from Sub Tuum. Love the last line.

....In short, we have no charism. We're not practicing the spirituality of X while doing work Y and wearing the habit of Z. We have no distinct spirituality, though it can sometimes look as if we do since we have maintained the office while it has gone by the wayside to varying degrees elsewhere. We have no manuals or exercises. We have no distinctive apostolate. We wear a basic habit free of distinctive trinkets. In 1500 years the Benedictine family has produced preachers, teachers, mystics, and theologians, but the first task was always simply to seek God and try to try to save our own souls. A Benedictine monastery is just a place to try to live out the Christian life. It ultimately has no other purpose or mission....

....We pray for our own ongoing conversions and growth in compunction. We sing the psalms, read the fathers, and assist at Mass. Monks and nuns are generally not given to dramatic revelations and those who are generally don't blab about them. Most of our superiors would probably agree with a famous 20th Century abbot who, when asked what he would do if he had a mystic in his house, said he'd drive him out. When asked what if the visions were genuine, he said that then he'd be sure to drive him out. Monks and nuns aren't given to the sudden and the novel. Our forebears generally believed that this suspicion of extremes of sensation is one of the most important ways of breaking ourselves of worldly attachments....

....In summary, if you're looking for a rather pedestrian life, don't mind a boring outfit, think repetition is cool, and can't keep up with trends, the Benedictine charism may be just the ting for you.

(With apologies to St. Dominic, not that he was particularly nice to us.)

How the South will be lost

2009-07-31T10:02:00.004+01:00

There has been no posting for a while as we moved to the South West of Scotland at the beginning of June and were in packing hell and unpacking hell until last week. I had to prepare for an interview in the last week of term as the school as I was working in moved from old building to new one (something I have been involved in for the last two years). I was succesful in getting the P.T's post so have had to sort out my old school affairs as I only had two and a half days before term ended. Archdiocese have posted guards with pitchforks on main arterial routes back to St A&E. Laptop died. Broadband took ages to connect. Both sons had chickenpox. Wife got shingles.

So it's been busy.

The really bad news is have new, fast, p.c. so posts may be more frequent.

There's a moose loose about this hoose.

2009-04-20T22:46:00.002+01:00

All been a bit nuts recently but we are on the move shortly, hopefully get a chance to detail more soon.

However right now, there is a moose loose about this hoose, however his lair has been rumbled and a humane trap set (spring trap would traumatise the 4 year old and the two year old would almost certainly get hands on any poison. So hopefully tomorrow our little friend is about to move house (to the countryside), his days of stealing bananas and scratching in the walls at 2:00am over!

Blog Resurection

2009-03-13T21:39:00.004Z

Fellow teacher Jackie Parkes is back, and my link to it is now fixed, I suspect her new blog stats will pass mine by next Thursday!

All Change!

2009-03-06T20:10:00.002Z

Hopefully.

The better half is from, as ex PP put it, 'Holy Catholic Ireland' ( ex PP said with eyes buried in forehead!) and as we now have 3 small children we have decided to move to somewhere closer to the ferry home.

As luck would have it at the same time a job in the Catholic school for the area has come up and have managed to get an interview. Prayers from either of you readers appreciated.

It's been madly busy at work between Lent organisation, retreats and work on new school- with interview looming the internet will be pretty much for swotting up for interview.

Graham Coupethwaite RIP

2009-02-18T16:56:00.002Z

Central Scotland Police have released the name of the man who died when his car crashed into trees.

Graham Coupethwaite, 34, from Gargunnock, was killed in the accident on the A811, near his village.

Road crash victim named by police

My brother use to kick about with him for a few years at school. Please pray for him and his family. R.I.P.

Life & Strathcarron Hospice, SPUC, Cardinal O Brien.

2009-02-16T16:48:00.006Z

John Smeaton advises that the time is now for campaigning for pro - life issues for the next general election.

Cardinal O'Brien, who is quoted in the SPUC article, was at the school in Jan. Given the attacks on life and the Cardinal's continual public defence of it, I put together a presentation on the work of the school's Life group and Strathcarron Hospice fund raising efforts which was shown before Mass. The Cardinal then preached on Life before presenting cheques to these two organisations.

Our Life group, run by a colleague has over 70 active pupils involved. Please pray for this groups continuing work.

You can see more pics here, though you won't see me, I don't do photo's!

Cardinal O'Brien on the Holodomor

2009-01-27T21:47:00.004Z

COMMEMORATION OF HOLODOMOR – UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE IN 1930s
TALK BY CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O’BRIEN
SATURDAY 1st DECEMBER 2007
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW AND OUR LADY OF POCHAEV

INTRODUCTION:

I appreciate being asked by the Ukrainian Community here in Edinburgh and gathered from different parts of Scotland to commemorate with you the Holodomor – the Ukrainian Genocide which took place in the early 1930s.

Initially I know that you fully understand what happened at that time some 70 years ago now. In the early 1930s, in the very heart of Europe, in a region considered to be the Soviet Unions bread basket, Stalin’s Communist Regime committed a horrendous act of genocide against millions of Ukrainians. An ancient nation of agriculturists was subjected to starvation, one of the most ruthless forms of torture and death. This is the tragedy which has been called by the Ukrainian peoples ‘Holodomor’ – a name based on two Ukrainian words meaning killing by starvation.

PURPOSE OF HOLODOMOR:

Your peoples over the past decades have understood more and more about what exactly happened.

The Soviet Government of the time imposed exorbitant grain quotas, in some cases confiscating supplies down to the last seed. The territory of Soviet Ukraine and the predominantly Ukrainian populated Kuban Region of the Soviet Russia were isolated by armed units so that people could not go in search of food to the neighbouring Soviet Regions where it was more readily available. The result in the Ukraine was quite simply extermination by famine.

Looking back on history the purpose of the Holodomor seems very clear. In 1932 Stalin decided to vanquish the Ukrainian farmers by means of starvation and thus break the Ukrainian national revival that had begun in the 1920s and was rekindling Ukrainian aspirations for an independent State.

Enforced starvation reached its peak in the winter and spring of 1933 when 25,000 people died every day. As a result of the Holodomor from 20 to 25% of the population of Soviet Ukraine were exterminated. Children were especially badly hit. Many children were sneaked through the closed borders guarded by the Soviet Secret Police and abandoned by their parents in areas where they thought there was less starvation. However since orphanages and children’s centres were already overcrowded most of these children died in the streets of starvation and disease.

The genocide that killed millions of people crippled Ukraine’s development as a Nation for many generations.

IS HOLODOMOR REALLY A GENOCIDE:

It is clear that the Holodomor was genocide. It conforms to the definition of the crime according to the United Nations Convention on Genocide. The Communist Regime targeted the Ukrainians, in a sense of a civic nation, in Soviet Ukraine, and as an ethnic group in Soviet Russia, especially in the predominantly Ukrainian Kuban Region of the Northern Caucasus.

In a joint statement by 65 United Nations Member States, adopted by the 58th United Nations General Assembly on 7th November 2003 we read:

“The great famine of 1932 – 1933 in the Ukraine (Holodomor), which took from seven million to ten million innocent lives, became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people”.

In our own country we have a letter from Gareth Jones the former secretary of David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922 who wrote in March 1933 informing the British Politician about the devastating starvation witnessed by Jones during his trek through Ukrainian villages. He lists those whom he met and states: “the situation is so grave, so much worse than in 1921, that I am amazed at your admiration for Stalin”.

And up to the present time the legislative bodies of Australia, Canada, Estonia, Georgia, Hungry, Lithuania, Poland and the United States of America refer to the 1932 – 1933 Holodomor as Ukrainian Genocide.

The Late Pope John Paul II in an address to the Ukrainian peoples on 23rd November 2003 on the 70th Commemoration of the Holodomor wrote:

“I speak of a horrendous crime that was committed in cold blood by the rulers of that period. The memories of this tragedy must guide the feelings and actions of Ukrainians”.

CONCLUSION:

One might ask why should we continue to think about the past, the past of some 70 years ago in the Ukraine.

I suggest that we recognise the Holodomor as genocide for two reasons:

1. The bringing of the Holodomor as genocide to international attention is to pay tribute to the millions of innocent victims of that time and to condemn the crimes of the Soviet Communist Regime thus restoring historical justice and obtaining international recognition of the Ukrainian Genocide;

2. In this way by acknowledging the Holodomor as genocide the Ukrainian peoples seek to increase the international communities awareness of the fact that engineered famines are still being used as a weapon and through this awareness help prevent such deplorable acts elsewhere in the world;

It is Viktor Yushchenko the President of the Ukraine who himself stated; “We insist that the world learn the truth about all crimes against humanity. This is the only way we can ensure that criminals will no longer be emboldened by indifference”.

Consequently, I am happy to join you at this Commemoration – not only to grieve over the past but to ensure that nothing similar will ever happen again. Tragedies have indeed taken place with very much suffering and loss of life. In our world at this present time we must indeed be aware of those horrors of the past while living in the present and doing our best to ensure a world that is free from such evils ever in the future again.

May God indeed grant eternal rest to all those who have suffered so grievously in the past and strengthen us at this present time to work for a better world in the years which lie ahead.

Holodomor.org

Suffering World

2009-01-03T15:41:00.003Z

New Blog here, which appears to be looking, like myself, at how the west (world) was lost and how to win it back, but with a more intellectual approach than my low brow ramblings. Worth a look.

Resolutions...

2009-01-02T22:09:00.003Z

Well, basically to try and do important things well instead of trying to do 'everything', which invariably meant that 'everything' got done o.k / badly in 2008. Hopefully this will reduce stress levels which quite frankly currently will have me dropping dead by 40.

A Happy New Year to both readers!

Eastern & Western Christmas

2008-12-26T16:51:00.005Z

No it's not the weegies drinking buckie with their dinner nor the edinbuggers informing you 'you'll have had your tea', (that's all my Scottish readers offended then) its

Broadcast 221 - Father Loya discusses the respective emphasis of the Eastern and Western Catholic Churches during the Christmas season. Host, Father Thomas J. Loya.

Click above to open, you need to click broadcast 221 if it's not the most recent.

As with many issues, it's both / and, not either / or.

Scottish Christmas Messages

2008-12-24T14:12:00.004Z

Christmas Messages links below.

I know which wins the Cellarers Prize!

Cardinal O'Brien - Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh
Church of Scotland
Scottish Episcopal Church
Salvation Army Scotland

(S)he who saves a life, saves the world entire

2008-12-24T14:00:00.003Z

Jane Haining's story of personal sacrifice and bravery is emerging only now, nearly 65 years after her death. She is among a list of British people whose selfless heroism during the Second World War should be recognised posthumously in the honours list, campaigners say.

A Presbyterian missionary, Miss Haining is one of only 10 Scottish people believed to have been killed in a Nazi death camp. After the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944, she was ordered to leave the school in Budapest where she worked and return to Scotland.

But the 47-year-old refused, saying: "If these children need me in the days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in the days of darkness?"

Ben Helfgott, a Holocaust survivor, today Chairman of Yad Vashem Committee of Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: 'When the children were taken away she went with them to Auschwitz. She was not able to save them, but she looked after them. What she did was a supreme act of mercy and kindness.'

Outraged!

2008-12-23T21:21:00.006Z

Image - Issues

I'm just off to express my outrage that anyone would dare to sing this song. It offends me.

I'll also be lobbying for all fireworks to be banned on Nov 5. It offends me.

Please note the 'Sarcasm' Label for this post...

Glasgow 'scarier than Third World'

2008-12-17T15:31:00.002Z

Glasgow 'scarier than Third World'

The Church of Scotland’s first Asian minister has said he fears more for his safety living in Glasgow than in his native Lahore in Pakistan.

The Rev Peter Gill, who was appointed minister for Ferguslie Park and Wallneuk North in Paisley in September, said he was more afraid to walk the streets in the west of Scotland at night than in Pakistan.

He talks about crime and gangs, none of which will raise many eyebrows.

But this

The minister said youngsters lacked respect for authority and blamed single-parent families, which he said denied children positive role models and made them vulnerable to the corrupting influence of gangs.

will probably get him a bit of flack. It's just not P.C. to say this or that the two parent family is the best environment to raise children.

Nativity Heaven

2008-12-14T10:17:00.003Z

Making a cup of tea, eldest runs into kitchen,

We're playing a game, I'm Mary, (middle) is God and (Baby) is Jesus...

Cellarer wipes tear from eye...