Christmas PAST 2002

2002 for the Record.
Christmas PAST

An old copy of an article on Nunraw's Christmas five years ago was handed in for our archives. The East Lothian Courier (www), December 20,2002

Meat on the menu and ‘Harry Potter’ for entertainment the monks of Nunraw prepare for Christmas

The festival of Christmas is upon us once again, but as we run around the crowded streets, desperately trying to buy multi-pack gift sets and enough food to last a lifetime, there is generally a nagging feeling that there is something perhaps forgotten.

So often the very reason for Christmas - a celebration of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ is lost among the mountains of wrapping paper and glittering decorations, But there will be many who take time to reflect that Christmas means much more than trinkets and baubles. And none more so than the monks at the Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw, near Garvald.

Yet, although Christmas is naturally a special time of year for them, it changes remarkably little with regard to their routine of daily life. The community of Cistercian (Trappist) monks was established in 1946 and between 1952-69 they constructed the Abbey itself, with the help of volunteers from the village. An impressive yet simple structure, the building was designed by architect Peter Whiston RSA, who drew inspiration from many of the beautifully kept ruins of Cistercian monasteries which dot the British countryside.

"'When I first arrived here 50 years ago there was little more than. a hole in the ground," said Abbot Donald McGlynn. "I am actually reminded of it when I see the site of the Scottish Parliament. Whenever anyone comes to visit me in Edinburgh I take them to see it, telling them all about our history and how this is a symbol of our new democracy - but it's just a great big hole in the ground!"

Quadrangle

The foundation stone of the Abbey was laid in 1954 by Archbishop Gray and over the following years it was shaped into the simple retreat it is today. The main part of the building, the cloisters, are a convenient quadrangle of passages- surrounding a garden, the cloister garth which connect the living. studying and worshipping areas. The chief purpose of the design is to join the monastery as a whole to the church, the 'heart of the community, but over the years they have come to be respected as places of silence for reflection and prayer.

The library is another important aspect in the life of the abbey. A monk, almost from his first days in the monastery, is put "in touch with the Bible, liturgical books. monastic writings. theology and philosophy, and the library has accumulated an astonishing range of literature.

The monks always welcome new people into their order, but anyone thinking of joining should perhaps be told a little of what their lives entail. The Abbot is the leader and the teacher of the community. His burden is to lead his brethren in living out as fully as possible the ideal of the Christian community.

The chief ·activity of the monastic day is the celebration of Mass and its extension, the Divine Office. Cistercians have always treasured the hours before dawn for communal and private prayer, and the community rises 15 minutes before starting Vigils in the Church at 3.30am. After Vigils there is a half-hour's private prayer, leading into the community Mass which starts at 4.40am. After breakfast there is another interval for private prayer or study closing with the dawn office of Lauds.

Working day

At the end of Lauds comes the start of the ‘working day’, which entails the normal house-keeping chores - the running of the farm, the guesthouse and the shop by which the community earns its keep. The rest of the Divine Office accompanies these labours - three prayer sessions ending with the Compline which begins the Great Silence, strictly kept until Lauds the following day. The monks do not take a vow of silence but during the day they are well minded by the advice of St Benedict: 'The wise man is known by the fewness of his words'. Then at 8pm they are off to bed.

Reporter Gareth Edwards left the festive rush and push behind to take stock and contemplate the true meaning of Christmas in the company of the monks at the Sancta Maria Abbey. Here he describes how they plan to spend Christmas with Fr. Randolph in charge of cooking lunch, and the possibility of a special treat, a video movie, to roung off the working day

With so much to occupy them during every day of the year it is small wonder that little changes at Christmas.

"Our days are all so special anyway that to add anything more to them would be almost impossible," said Fr McGlynn. "Over Christmas we might start the day a little later than normal. On Christmas Eve we hold a midnight Mass, and a few of us usually attend the celebrations in the Village Kirk. There is normally a nativity service with the children of the village, and after that we have a procession through the village led by a brass band."

Sleeping

Of the 17 monks at the Abbey, those who do not attend the village celebrations are understandably, sleeping. On Christmas morning, after their usual morning prayers and worship, it is the job of Father Hugh Randolph to prepare the Christmas lunch, while the other monks attend to the daily tasks. Father Randolph is also the head tailor, making all the traditional robes for the monks, which remind them of their consecration to God and help them to maintain a close community spirit.

And he has no problem about being stuck in the kitchen, as it is sure to be one of the warmer places in the monastery.

"It is quite cold in parts of the monastery." he said. "The church is very warm, as is the library, because we can only afford to heat certain parts of the building.- When we built the place 50 years ago we had oil burning heaters installed as that was the cheapest way of heating it at the time. Of course because of the Gulf War, and other things; gas is a lot cheaper, but· we cannot really get it out here.”

The Library-at Nunraw Abbey is one of the most important parts of the building, with monks such as Father Hugh Randolph able to access a wide range of literature on theology, monastic writings and philosophy.

Although the monks maintain a large herd of cattle, providing a substantial source of income when the beasts are sold to market, beef rarely features in their diet.

"It is quite a treat as we are normally vegetarian and it is only on very special days that we eat meat," said Abbot McGlynn. "The cows are raised and cared for from birth to slaughter and we pass them on to the butchers for money. It is a natural organic beef as there are no chemicals or pesticides used. We do not eat them ourselves however, and ill fact a lot of the food we eat at Christmas is given to us as a gift, or purchased from a wholesale grocers."

Vegetarian

The vegetarian diet, maintained throughout the year except on special community occasions or for any sick members of the order, is part of the teachings of the Cistercian monks and is rooted in their history.

Monks first emerged as a special type of Christian in Egypt and Syria towards the end of the third century. One stream of monasticism later flowed into the Celtic tradition and is associated chiefly with such famous monks as Brendan, Columbanus and Columba of Iona.

Another flowed into Italy and it was here that St Benedict wrote his Rule for Monks which in time supplanted all other rules in the West. St Benedict saw monks’ daily-life as a prudent balance between prayer, work and prayerful reading, with the community to be a school of charity.

In 1908 a group of Benedictine 'reformers' founded the monastery of Citeaux. After a difficult beginning the austere life of Citeaux flourished, particularly after the entry of St Bernard in 1113. He became the most celebrated monk of the 12th century and his many writings have an enduring value.

The golden period of the first centuries suffered decline as wars, the Black Death, the reformation and the French Revolution all took their toll. The monastery of La Trappe, however, maintained the strict observance and eventually gave rise to the Trappist Congregations, which in 1892 were united in the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappists.

The Cisterclans first came to Scotland in 1136, founding an abbey at Melrose. They subsequently set up another ten abbeys and nine convents of nuns, the largest of which was at Haddington. In 1560 the monastic life in Scotland was suppressed. It was re-established in Ireland at Mount Melleray in 1832. From there Roscrea Abbey was founded in 1878 and it, in its turn, sent a colony of monks to found Nunraw in 1946.

The guest lodge run by the monks is also part of the Benedictine tradition. St Benedict said: "Let all guests be received like Christ himself, for He will say: 'I was a stranger and you took me in”. Over Christmas it is generally very quiet. with most people spending time with their families, The busiest part of the season at the Lodge is the annual party held for residents of·the village.

"The whole of the village helps organise the party and come along to enjoy themselves," said Father Randolph. "It started off as something for the OAPs. who still get in free. Everyone else is asked for just a small amount and we had a lot of youngsters and a."lot of new faces to the village this year. It is a very good community effort and it helps us keep up a good relationship with the village."

In contrast to Christmas, however, New Year is one of the busiest times of the year for the Lodge, with more than 40 people staying there and many more asking for rooms. The Millennium New Year was booked out almost a year in advance, although whether that had anything to do with end-of-the-world paranoia is not known.

Quiet carols

"People come here at New Year to find a bit of peace and quiet, to get away from it all," said Fr McGlynn. "The city offers the biggest party in Europe, I think and it is such a binge of excess. What we offer is, in effect the complete opposite, with some quiet carol singing at a midnight Mass. I think more and more people are looking for an alternative to partying at New Year and certainly we are always busy."

The -amazing views offered from the hillside Abbey certainly provide peace and tranquillity in abundance, and the annual fireworks display in Edinburgh can be seen if it is a clear night.

Father Raymond Jaconelli admires the nativity scene at the entrance to the guest lodge at the Sancta Abbey, Nunraw. While the lodge is normally quiet during Christmas it is full almost every New Year, as an alternative to the endless parties.

Whine the monks have given up: most of the needless trappings of everyday modern life, they are not completely isolated from life. They have a website, nunraw.org.uk, through which they receive queries about their life from around the world. There have even been requests for a webcam allowing people to join in their services, although Fr McGlynn thinks this might be a step too far,

This year, after saying a prayer of thanks for the bountiful feast prepared by Father Randolph, the monks will have free time to do what they wish. Father McGlynn is thinking about a video.

"We might watch a movie in the evening this year, but we are so far behind in these things”, he said. “I was going through the airport recently and they had all these videos and DVDs. I saw two, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' and 'The Lord of the Rings", so I bought them and we might watch one. It will certainly make a nice change. I heard about all these people who denounced both of the films for promoting black magi, but I think myths and legends have an important place in society, so I don't have a problem with them”.

Even Abbot Donald McGlynn leader of the community of Cistercian monks at the Sancta Maria Abbey Nunraw, has to get his hands dirty helping out with the variety of jobs which fill up their daily lives including looking after the farm.

Retreat Sunday 14 Oct 2007

Retreat Sunday 14 Oct 2007

On the second Sunday of the month we observe a Day of Retreat.
This includes Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon.

A quiet walk along the barley stubble beside the enclosure tree shelter belt and against the Lammermuir background conveys the completion of the harvest season.
Thanksgiving in the Liturgy and in the Sunday Mass Homilies focussed on the Leper who came back to give thanks.
With the Samaritan we celebrated the Eucharist in gratitude for all the gifts of God.
"Father, all powerful and living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord"

Abbot Raymond - Morning Chapter Talk

REMEMBERING

ST Paul tells us to “Remember the Good News” that he brought to us. This, ‘Remembering’ of the Good News is a very apt phrase to use to describe a good Christian Soul. It was used of Mary herself – “She kept all these things and pondered them in her heart."

But just what is this “Good News” that we are to remember? What is it that we are to ponder in our hearts? St Paul goes on to tell us it is “Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and sprung from the race of David”. It is all the mysteries of the birth and life, passion and death of our Saviour. These are things that should never be far from our minds and hearts. Otherwise we can be compared to the nine ungrateful lepers who never returned to give thanks. “Where are they – the other nine?” Jesus asked. Unless we keep these things regularly in our hearts we grow cold in our appreciation of them and in our gratitude for them.

The mysteries of the birth, life and death of Christ are to our souls like the air and the sunshine and the rain are to our bodies. Our soul lives and breathes in their atmosphere; It is warmed by their sunlight, it is nourished by the moisture of their rain.

For the monk it is principally by living the daily liturgical life of the Church through the Divine Office and the Mass that he is kept in constant touch with the mysteries of Christ. Their memory is always fresh to him. The lay-person is, in his own measure, kept in memory of these same mysteries by his Sunday Mass and by such devotions as the Rosary.

In such ways, the true Christian, whether priest, religious or lay, always has something of the joy of Christmas in his life; he always has something of the triumph of Easter; he always has something of sorrow and courage of Christ’s Passion to see him through life. Let us always then “Remember the Good News”. Let us always keep it and ponder it in our hearts like our Blessed Lady herself.

Footprints of the Northern Saints

Footprints of the Northern Saints

En route to the North we made the short diversion to visit Holy Island, Lindisfarne.
Returning by the Great North Road, the A1, after our visit to from Mt. St. Bernard Abbey, we paid our respects to St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert the great Saints of Holy Island, Lindisfarne.

It was a first time experience for our Brothers from Africa, Dom Charles and Br. Celestine whose has experience has been of the Young Churches. For them it was as much a time-voyage as of visiting a holy place. The dates alone impressed them; Cuthbert was born in North Northumbria in about the year 635 - the same year in which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne.

The doors were open to the Catholic Church of St. Aidan. To the rear the SVDP Summer Camp for the children was closed for the winter. That gave no warning as to the large numbers on the island, a crowded car park before walking to the village, buses and cars for the disabled nearer the centre.

Coming to the Priory, the famous statue of St. Aidan looking out to sea. He carries the torch of faith.

English Heritage has care of Lindisfarne Priory. Entrance begins with the Museum presentation of the detailed history. Its bookshop is well stocked. I had been searching for Bede’s life of St. Cuthbert. On the shelves I found a Penguin Classic, “The Age of Bede”, and only on a closer look I found it contained the Life of Cuthbert.

The island is extremely well provided with other heritage and religious centres. Admission to the ruins is for a fee but access to the Church Yard and the Anglican Church is free. The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin is reputed to stand on the site of the original monastery founded by Aidan.
I was attracted by the reredos behind the altar showing Icons of the ‘northern saints’, Aidan, Cuthbert, Oswald, Columcille, Wilfred, . . . eight of them I think although I could not get close enough to see the names, nor could I get a postcard of that attractive reredos. Can anyone give me the 3 missing names?

The thought reminded me of the book, “Footprints of the Northern Saints”, by Basil Hume, and I was fortunate enough to get a copy of that book at the Lindisfarne Electronic Bookshop. Cardinal Hume was the anchor man in the Channel 4 series entitled “Return of the Saints”.

This was at the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre which also has 4 interactive exhibits the main one being the Lindisfarne Gospels in electronic interactive turning-pages form.

This was the eve of St. Francis of Assisi so there was morning healing service. In the evening there was to be Vespers of the Transitus. As the lady in charge of the United Reformed Church, the St Cuthbert's Centre said, “We are awash with prayer”.

In more ways than one Holy Island, Melrose and Nunraw are linked. Historically Aidan and Cuthbert stared their training in Melrose, centuries later to become a Cistercian monastery. The distances separating the three location is roughly the same thus forming a equilateral triangle.

The associations are many in this summary.

Born in 635, Cuthbert’s life as a shepherd in the hills around Melrose was uneventful until the age of 16. Bede in his Life And Miracles of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne describes an amazing vision that came to him while he was out with his sheep:

“On a sudden he saw a long stream of light break through the darkness of the night, and in the midst of it a company of the heavenly host descended to the earth, and having received among them a spirit of surpassing brightness, returned without delay to their heavenly home.”

Holy Island, is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England, which is connected to the mainland of Northumberland by a causeway and is cut off twice a day by tides — something well described by Sir Walter Scott:

For with the flow and ebb, its style
Varies from continent to isle;
Dry shood o'er sands, twice every day,
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandelled feet the trace.

EDIT Posrscipt 19 Jan 2008.
In the post of 4 Oct 2007 I asked, if anyone could give me the 3 missing names in the Reredos Panel of St. Mary the Virgin. Holy Island?
Happily, Sr. M.C., has been so good to supply the information and the picture. She writes,
"I noticed that you were asking if anyone could give you the names of the Saints depicted on the reredos in the church of Si Mary the Virgin, and I also noted that you were unable to get a postcard. Please find enclosed a copy of a photograph of the reredos, plus a diagram to identify the Saints thereon, and I hope this will be of help.
As I am under the patronage of Si Cuthbert and have made many visits to the island, and indeed go every year for a retreat, I could not let your plea for help go unanswered."
Thank you, Sister. for your help and for the photograph which I am pleased to add.

_______________________

Visiting Mount Saint Bernard Abbey

Visiting Mount Saint Bernard Abbey.
28 Sept – 3 Oct 2007

We were most grateful for the kind hospitality extended to us by Abbot Joseph and the community.

Fr. Nivard, Br. Celestine and myself as driver, did the round trip, 600 miles, to Mt St Bernard Abbey, Leicester.
On the return journey the Abbot-elect of Bamenda, Dom Charles, accompanied us for his first visit to Nunraw. En route to the North we made the short diversion to visit Holy Island, Lindisfarne.

Fr. Nivard, at present at Nunraw, was making his ‘ad limina’, as it were, visit to his Mother House. He entered MSB in 1952 and in 1964 was sent on the Foundation in Bamenda, Cameroon, where he made his Stability.

Br. Celestine, from Nigeria, is a member of the community at Nunraw. He has commenced the Distance Learning Course on Theology at the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham. He attended a weekend session at the Institute and then came to join us at Mt St Bernard to meet his compatriot Br. Laurence, recently Ordained Deacon, who also did the Maryvale Course of Theology.

So I also had the blessing of a relaxed four days the Abbey.
A Break - Luxury of Lectio
In the extensive Library I found the Lectio Divina just right for the occasion. Following on the recently published, “Mother Teresa – Come Be My Light”, the seven-page review in Time Magazine and the article of Fr. Cantalamessa of the Papal Household, entitled, “The Atheism of Mother Teresa”, I had time for a follow up and dipped into Urs vonBalthaser on the inner darkness of the saints and the mystery of the Cross. Mother Teresa did not have vonBalthaser’s mastery of the words to express the “dark night” and the cry of her heart, “Come be my light”. Writing of that burning point of the place where God and humans meet and cross he speaks of the experience of the soul, “It is always the point of being in fundamental agreement with the embodiment of all God's will and therefore a place of death (of the death of Jesus naturally: 2 Cor 4:10), whether this death
is now expressed as "dark night" (John of the Cross),
as "dying to be able not to die" (Teres a of Avila) ,
as readiness to let oneself be shared in any way (the Little Flower),
as love without reason (Eckhart), or in various other ways.
Certainly an elementary love of neighbour will always grow from this attitude, but the important thing is that it does not set the standards for itself, that the fruitfulness of the life given to God for the world and for humanity is, in the end, controlled by God alone”. (The vonBalthaser Reader, p. 165).

Heraldry at Mt. St. Bernard

Someone with an interest in heraldry asked me for Cistercian Heraldic Coats of Arms. To photograph the various shields at the abbey is to discover the history of Mt. St. Bernard.

In the central boss of the Church are the three heraldic shields marking the dedication. For me it would have been difficult to get a good picture. Fortunately Br. Martin had a brilliant picture of the boss of the three heraldic shields which is at the meeting point of the arches above the hanging tabernacle, above high altar; quite a unique feature. This seems to be the only decoration inside the simple pure Cistercian lines of the Church, i.e., apart from the lovely Rose Window of Mary in the Lady Transept. The Missa de Beata, Mass of Our Lady, is celebrated every day in the Lady Transept in the uninterrupted tradition of the Brothers.

I joke with our Church of Scotland friends that Cistercian architecture follows the Presbyterian style in stark austerity. In the typical C of S Church of the Canongate in Edinburgh there are no stained glass windows. The only exception was a Crucifixion scene by Scottish artist Douglas Strachan which was donated it to Nunraw by Rev Selby-Wright who had it in the Canongate Manse.

The Boss above the altar contains the three Coats of Arms, that of Pius XI, the reigning Pope at the completion of the Church, the Shield of Citeaux, and that of Mt. St. Bernard/Abbot Malachy.

In the shop I discovered the stained glass window of the Mt. St. Bernard Abbey Coat of Arms and Motto, Fides et Constans, and over the entrance, the window with the Coat of Arms of Abbot Malachy Brasil. After retiring in 1959 Dom Malachy came to Nunraw and is buried in the cemetery of the present Guesthouse, (see his Obituary at Nunraw website).

The shop at MSB is very busy, except on Sundays when it is closed. There is a large book selection, including the complete stock of Cistercian Publications. I missed the opportunity to check for newer volumes for Nunraw. Fr. Mark explained that there are plans for an extension of the shop space by utilizing the present structure to form a split-level upper floor, suggesting the mezzanine coffee bar popular in some bookshops. Br. Gabriel is one of the oldest monks and still serves at the shop till.

Browsing the shelves, I asked for a favourite holy card from the MSB printed cards. There was consternation. Everyone was sure it was available but where to find it was the question. Fr. Bede, now Abbot in Calvaire, Canada, did the printing for a number of years. Now it was Br. Thomas who knew where to put his hand on the text of Cardinal Newman and kindly gave me a fistful of them,

“God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me

which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

A number of heraldic Coats of Arms are on display in Guesthouse refectory. All are related to the main Cistercian lineage. In the mantle piece of the front lounge there is another series of the shields of the main patrons of the abbey. In the centre of the Chapter House, doubling as Library, there is a small heraldic shield of Abbot Bartholomew. The octagonal Chapter House was erected in his time. He was one of four brothers in the community and was Abbot 1862-90. During his time the noted heraldic artist, Br. Anselm Baker was well known. It would have been interesting to see some of his work in the archives. Unfortunately the archivist was unwell during our visit. Most directly in view, however, are the 20 Coats of Arms on the lead rain water-heads along the outside eves of the Church. These 20 Cistercian Abbeys of England include some of the most important foundations of the Order in medieval England.

Autumn in Charnwood Forest

On a beautiful autumn day the view of the Abbey from the orchard and vegetable garden spoke of peace and timelessness. The trees were laden with large rosy apples. On the ground nearby were the remaining rows of large onions.

Access to the farm was obstructed by newly laid areas of concrete. Once inside, evidence of intensive dairying and all that goes with it filled every nook and cranny. Some of the younger monks are fully occupied on the farm. Plentiful calves and filled straw barns and silage clamps are ready for the winter.

Fr. Nivard was contemporary with a number of the senior monks. In his time he learned the art of pottery making. Together we met up with Fr. Luke in the book bindery. Fr. Luke, now in his 80s, was the founding Superior of Bamenda before coming back to the Mother House. The oldest monk is a Scot, Fr. Peter. He also served some years in Bamenda and trained five of the young Cameroonians for the priesthood.

Monos Workshop - making coracles

My visit to Mt. St. Bernard Abbey happened to coincide with the interesting Workshop on Coracle Making. This is a project of “Monos; A Centre for the study of monastic culture and spirituality”.

On the grassy court between the west door of the Church and the Guesthouse a canopy, opening to the windows of the reception lounge, had been erected. The participants constructing several coracles were busy at it when I met the co-ordinator, Anthony Grimley, whose Website, Monos, gives some idea of the inspiration of this lay organization that is concerned with the current engagement between monastic culture and spirituality and contemporary society.

A series of such Workshops has already taken place, (Desert Spirituality & Basket Making, Celtic Spirituality & Celtic Cross Making, Landscape of the Heart – Monastic Spirituality and the Human Condition), and will be followed by forthcoming Workshops on, e.g., Spirituality of Work, Icons of a New/Secular Monasticism. (For details Google MONOS).

WORKSHOP at MSB – September 28^th-30^th 2007. Coracle Making - Pilgrimage, as a Metaphor for Christian Living at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, Leicester. Includes building your own full size Coracle. Cost: £190 (full board including coracle material).

A Coracle is a form of ancient boat that has been used by a variety of cultures over centuries for fishing and transportation. During the early medieval period Irish monks used a form of coracle, or its Irish equivalent curragh, to travel on the ocean in search of a ‘desert place' or ‘hermitage' in which to commune with God. Some of the monks found their way onto the continent and established monastic houses of prayer, focusing their attention on God whilst serving the local population.

‘Dear God be good to me the sea is so wide and my boat so small'. (Breton fisherman prayer).

Feast of St Francis

Visitors from Bamenda.
Fr. Nivard, Abbot Raymond, Dom Charles, Abbot Elect of Bamenda.
Fr. Nivard has been 43 years in the monastery of Bamenda, Cameroon. At present he is working on the liturgical books for the communities of Nunraw, Bamenda and Nsugbe.
Dom Charles has been five years in Rome acting as a member of the Councillors of the Abbot General. He will receive the Abbatial Blessing in Bamenda on the 12th December.

Fwd from Abbot Raymond:
A Snippet for the feast of St Francis and his "Lady Poverty"

POVERTY AND THE LAWS OF PHYSICS

One of the laws of Physics which, like the law of Gravity itself, holds the world together, is the law which states that: To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

For example the harder you strike the table with your fist, the harder the table strikes your fist.

We might apply this analogy to Poverty on this feast of St Francis:

The Word of God struck the world, impinged on the world, with a great blow of Poverty, emptying himself of his glory and taking on himself the form of a servant.

The effect of that almighty blow on the human race is incalculable in the way it has shaped and formed our relationship with him.

Just imagine what a different idea we would have of Jesus if he had come as one born in a gilded palace with vast legions of servants to wait on his every need and unlimited riches at his disposal and the power of great armies at his command!

But no! It is his littleness and poverty that give us such intimate access to him and mould and shape our relationship with him.

So, just as this great force of his coming in poverty and littleness to us has such an effect on us, we can dare to hope that approaching him likewise in a spirit of littleness and poverty will have, in some way, an “equal and opposite effect” on him, drawing him irresistibly to us.

LET PRAYERS BE OFFERED

Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham

Feast Day: 24th September

______________________________________________________________________

Mass Homily for 25th Sunday Yr.3.

LET PRAYERS BE OFFERED……

The essential lesson of the parable of the unjust steward is that we should know how to cultivate friends for ourselves who will be able to intercede for us before the Lord when we are in need of his mercy. Jesus’ lesson is stark and simple. He doesn’t elaborate on how we are to cultivate these friends beyond telling us one of the ways viz to be generous with our money in helping others.

But there are, of course, many other ways we can help our neighbour in his need. We can be generous with our time, and our compassion, for instance. Especially can we help others with our prayers. And so often it is the only thing we can do for them.

For so many people religion is just a matter of treating others as one would have others treat oneself. That includes a bit of alms giving of course, but the concept of prayer doesn’t even enter into their heads.

St Paul, however, in today’s first reading instructs the new Bishop Timothy on this very important aspect of the life of the Church. He tells him that: first of all, prayers must be offered for everyone – petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving – and especially for kings and others in authority.

Paul teaches here that the Church must not only teach her children to pray but must recognise herself as the officially appointed Mediator and Organ of Prayer for the intentions of all of God’s People.

There is much more to prayer than just entering into our chamber and praying in secret, praiseworthy and recommended by the Lord himself though that be. But this same Lord also said that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

I would like to use this teaching of St Paul to take a closer look at the place of the monastic life in the Church. The whole Church is, of course, a praying Church. But how many individual members of the Church play much of a role in this praying-life of the Church? Therefore it is most fitting and most spiritually beautiful that the Church search among her children for those who will dedicate their whole lives in a very special way to a life of prayer, of thanksgiving and of intercession. The Church finds such souls in those who feel called to the monastic life particularly. She commissions them to undertake the solemn obligation of the daily choral Office in her name and on behalf of all her children.

This is a great calling indeed and is well described in that lovely hymn we have at Thursday Vespers. I will just conclude by reading it for you.

The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended.

The darkness falls at thy behest;
To thee our morning hymns ascended,
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping
While earth rolls onward into light,
Through all the world her watch is keeping
And rests not now by day or night,

As o’er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.

The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ’neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high.

So be it, Lord! Thy throne shall never
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away
Thy Kingdom stands and grows for ever
Till all thy creatures own thy sway.

In listing the intentions for which the Church must pray, Paul mentions particularly “Kings and those in authority”. We might be tempted to think: “What good are my prayers going to be when it comes to influencing men in positions like Vladimir Putin of Russia or George Bush of the United States”? But our faith must persuade us that the world is not governed by Putin or Bush. Even such powerful men are merely pawns in a hidden struggle between the evil powers of the upper air, as Paul terms it, and God’s own angels of light.

God bless.

Fr Raymond

MASS of Healing for the Elderly

End of Harvest.

It is the first day of Autumn. The 23rd of September is Equinox - equal hours of day and night. Now the days get shorter until the Winter Solstice.
The barley harvest is in.
Br. Aidan is happy that the calving is almost over. This year just a few sets of twin calves.
Autumn skies can be astonishing. In the dusk, during Compline, as I look through the windows there appear fast flitting streaks against the sky. I am assured they are bats on the evening flights.

Saint Gregory the Great (1972)
Walter Scott Avenue, Edinburgh
MASS of Healing for the Elderly.
St. Gregory’s – Group of the elderly and house bound. Three times a year the SVDP organise an event for the Seniors of the Parish. On 23^rd September they came to Nunraw. They asked to
Sacrament of Anointing. “They must anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and pray for him” (James 4.14. In the Catholic Church we recognise this anointing in the name of the Lord as “the sacrament of the sick”. It is not always clear what is meant by a Mass of Healing. Someone who focuses very clearly on the perception and purpose of Mass with the Anointing of the Sick is Fr. Jim McManus. He refers to one person's testimony to healing through the Sacrament. “All I remember clearly is Jim saying he would use the prayers of the anointing of the Sick and anoint me and that is simply what he did”. She makes it very clear that the healing came through the sacrament of anointing. (Healing in the Spirit, DLT 1994, p. 133). The folk from St. Gregory’s had come for a Mass of Healing in this sense, to have a Mass of Healing, i.e. a Mass with the Anointing of the Sick. The other outward sign of their determination was their expert use of the aids and supports they had for the journey.

Even keeping on the one level at the Abbey Church, and the Guesthouse, Tea Room and Shop it was quite an obstacle exercise with the number of the wheel-chair and Zimmer equipped persons. There was no hurry. They took their stride, so to speak, the for the Mass and anointing, the time for negotiating steps and doors, and the enjoying of tea and shopping at leisure. You could not ask for a more cheerful people making little of their various kinds of disability and age.

St. Gregory's is now part of a Cluster of Churches.
The structure and a brief history of the Cluster of the four churches in the south of Edinburgh. Cluster History The Inch was originally part of St John Vianney's and St Columba's Parishes and after years of celebrating Sunday Mass in the Liberton annexe school in Walter Scott Avenue we purchased the former Scout Hall and became our own parish in 1972. In September 2003 the Parish entered into a clustering arrangement with St John Vianney's Gilmerton and St Catherine's Gracemount. Follwed by the addition of St Ninian’s to form the cluster as it is today

No Man is an Island - Abbot Raymond

24th Sunday Ordinary Time
Abbot Raymond’s Homily in Community
No Man is an Island
God’s revelation to us of just who he is and just what he is; his revelation of his love and mercy; his revelation of his promises; of the destiny he holds out to us; all these things took a long, long time, not because of any inadequacy on God’s part but because of our hardness of heart, our dullness of understanding. Inevitably then this long drawn out process of revelation meant that things would become clearer as time went on and we would be led gradually, bit by bit, to an ever fuller understanding of God’s message.
This means that whatever is revealed in the Old Testament will always be put more clearly and more strongly in the New. Take for example the increasing revelation of God’s mercy: It goes from the deliverance of the innocent Maid Susannah in the Old Testament to the deliverance of the guilty adulteress in the Gospels. It goes from the "eye for eye and tooth for tooth" in the OT to the "love your enemies" of the NT, and so on. Always there is a progression, an advance in our understanding of God and the things of the spirit. It is all the more surprising then, in today’s readings, to find that the Old Testament seems to give us a stronger and clearer and richer and fuller picture of God’s patience and mercy than we find in the Gospel story.
The Gospel story tells us about God’s mercy for this or that individual; the lost sheep, the prodigal son etc. But the OT story is about the forgiveness of a whole wayward people, a whole nation. It speaks about God’s patience and loving forgiveness for a whole people; a people for whom he had done such amazing signs and wonders; it speaks about their incredible forgetfulness of all he had just done for them. It shows their ingratitude; their downright apostasy, worshipping a golden calf; hailing it as their deliverer.
The OT story also reveals a dimension of this mercy that was, perhaps, much better appreciated in the OT than in the NT:
The Israelite felt a great security in the fact that he belonged to God’s chosen people. He felt that, no matter how he sinned he had a special call on God’s mercy that others didn’t have…..he was one of God’s favourite people.
Equally, of course, he realised that ‘noblesse oblige’ and he had a greater obligation to keep God’s Laws; Laws which had been specially assigned to his people; Laws in which they glorified. But nevertheless, he knew that if he should sin, he had a special call on God’s loving forgiveness.
Today it is we who are God’s chosen people. It is we to whom he has entrusted the fullness of knowledge of his Laws and Promises. It is we who belong to his One True Church and who are specially obliged to holiness. But, should we sin, have we lost this sense of trust and confidence in God’s mercy that comes from belonging to his chosen people. Must we look back in envy at that ‘sense of belonging to his people’ which was, and still is, so much a mark of the true Israelite?
Truly for the Israelite "No Man is and Island"
However, as Christians of the NT we have this great advantage over our OT brothers: As we stand shoulder to shoulder with God’s people we know that the ultimate cause of our confidence is that we stand shoulder to shoulder with that Greatest One of our Brothers, with him who said to his heavenly Father "Behold, I and the Brethren thou hast given me!"

Chronicle Today 18 September 2007

Chronicle Today 18 September 2007

Morning at Lauds “To him who conquers I will give the morning star, and I will confess his name before my Father “Ant Song of Zach).

During the dawn, the Morning Star was Venus, so my brother, Fr. Nivard, was able to tell me. The star was brilliant. He said that through his telescope in his monastery in Cameroon, Venus appears as big as the Moon. That was the view across the Lammermuir Hills to the East. At Vespers that same evening, as I looked out the Church Window looking West on the enclosure I was riveted by the sight of a beautiful Roe-dear grazing peacefully near the Memorial Grove of the Atlas Martyrs.

Stigmata of Francis.

Yesterday, according to my sister Patricia it was the Franciscan Memorial of the vision of St. Francis about to receive the Stigmata on Mount Alvernia. Traditionally it was the day on which the FMMs celebrated their Clothing as Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. It was Sr Patricia’s Golden Anniversary of the occasion.

“The Little Flowers of St. Francis, tr. by W. Heywood, [1906], at sacred-texts.com” provides the moving background of Francis’ Forty Days Fast beginning on the Feast of the Assumption ending at Michaelmass in THE SECOND CONSIDERATION OF THE MOST HOLY STIGMATA.

“Thereafter, when the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady drew nigh, St. Francis sought to find a fitting spot, more secret and remote, wherein in greater solitude he might keep the forty days’ fast of St. Michael the Archangel,”

Prior’s Driving Test.

A first requirement of Fr. Mark, now the Bursar as well as Prior, was to be able to do shopping, bring Brothers to various medical appointments, etc. This morning at Mass a special prayer was voiced that he would succeed in gaining his Driving Licence. This was his second attempt. Charles reminded us that St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of teacher, had said, if a student failed the third time he could be regarded as unfit for the task. So we were on tenterhooks waiting for the outcome. Mark was deposited at the test venue and then had to make his own way back by public transport. He might have been thinking, before, that this might be his only means of transport in the future. Eventually, as the grapevine spread the news, there was rejoicing. We were even anticipating a special supper to mark the event. Some splendid Pizzas were prepared. Entering the kitchen I instinctively opened the windows to let out the smoke.. Displayed for our delicate palates were the shrivelled up burnt offerings of what had been large Pizzas. A day to remember!

Dom Basil Pennington ocso

Dom Basil Pennington OCSO

NOT Amazon Review. The limits of an Amazon Review meant severe reduction in summarizing Fr. Basil’s account of his trip(s) to the Holy Land. Personal reminiscences became redundant. This fuller version of the Review follows from the
Nunraw Chronicle 4-7 Sept 1982.

4^th Saturday – Fr. Basil Pennington arrived in here for lunch, he is staying for 2 or 3 days.
6^th Monday – He took the Community Mass, celebrating that of Labour Day. . . He has a lot to give: the brethren have enjoyed his talks very much; Spencer’s Cottage program, Spiritual Paternity and Maternity, Opus Dei, the Constitutions, Contemplation,, Centring Prayer, Cistercian Fathers –on all of which he spoke, informatively and entertainingly.
Fr. Basil took the community Mass again on the 7^th for Vocations. He left us shortly after breakfast. His visit was better than any Retreat, it was like a breath of fresh air for many of us.”

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Fr. Basil Pennington; at Nunraw 4^th-7^th of September 1982; standing under the inn sign “The Pennington Arms” in the town of Ravensglass, Cumbria, not very far from the Pennington seat at Muncaster Castle.

____________________________________

Journey in a Holy Land

A Spiritual Journal

M. Basil Pennington 2006 ISBN 1-55725-473-7

I was attracted by the title of this book, as I am by any book about the Holy Land.
From Nunraw to Latroun
In the 80s, early one morning I can see Basil Pennington and myself climbing over the railings at Melrose Abbey. The ancient ruins is in the care of Scottish Heritage. It was like Basil to be jumping fences. At that early hour the grounds men were not pleased to see us intruders. It would have been pointless to tell them that we Cistercian monks had more right than anyone to be there. We were in a hurry. Basil had come to give a course on Centring Prayer to our monks – something of a coals-to-Newcastle for contemplatives - during which he himself dozed off. Otherwise his talks on the Order were “like a breath of fresh air”. I was driving him in a search for his forebears, the Penningtons, in the Lake District, Cumbria. When we got to the village of Pennington, true to character, Basil had to go straight to the Lord of the Manor at Muncaster Castle. Disappointingly his Lordship was away.

But that was typical of the direct simplicity of Basil on his many searches on many journeys, without which he would never have travelled so far. His “Journey in a Holy Land” was no different, nor was his genre of writing in all his books any different from the subtitle, “A Spiritual Journal”.

On the cover blurb he is described as “a monk of Spencer Abbey, Mass., who was perhaps the most widely travelled Cistercian monk in history”, an attribute not much favoured in monastic eyes. Our paths crossed in other unforeseen places as, e.g., at a Centenary Symposium in the Augustianum in Rome in the 90s.

En Route to his “Journey in a Holy Land” he tells how he was jetted into Istanbul where he had to give a practical session on Centring Prayer and later gave a paper on monasticism which, he says, “proved to be a rather unique contribution”.

The book itself consists of his day to day jottings about the Holy Places he has visited, his reflections and considerable passages from the Scriptures seemingly aimed for the use of participants in guided Pilgrimages. He sets off from Tel Aviv and Joppa up the coast to Caesarea and Lavra Netova. The pace seems rushed but the choice of this very remote monastery, Lavra Netova, indicates the bent of his interest. Here, he says, he felt he was on Mount Athos again.

Spiritual Journal or Holy Baedeker
At one point in the book, his musings focus on his monastic obedience and on whether he is called to the desert vocation. Most of those who knew him would smile at the thought. His actual lone ranger travels have a hermit on the move quality. To have the hermit and the lone ranger cohabit in the community could only be possible with a discerning Abbot and a humble and open hearted monk. That personal monastic inner search fits in oddly with his long travelogue but that is the nature of the book. As the journey proceeds, apart from the Pilgrimage framework, his momentum springs from his own inner reflections on his many interests as well as from the Scriptural, archaeological and religious terrain that he encounters. As the publishers explains, “When Pennington died June 3 2005 from injuries suffered in an auto accident, the manuscript of what has become his last book was found on his desk”. His journal is based on his first trip, but also incorporates three later tours. One can surmise that if he had had the opportunity, the author might have applied his undoubted editorial and organisational skills to more consistency. At times the narrative seems disjointed, jumping from the catching of a plane at Tel Aviv back to attending Vespers at the monastery. His observations, at time general, at times personal, at times of the tourist guide, at times of the monk, fall into the frame of his journeys elsewhere: India, China, Mount Athos, and suffer a levelling effect in the process. Because he touches lightly on so many Holy Places, he can also be out of touch at other levels.

Sacramentality of the Land Called Holy

He unerringly finds the trail to the very remote monastery of Lavra Netova. He does not mention the significance of the founder, Father Ya'aqov Willebrands drawn from the Dutch Trappist monastery of Zundert to dedicate his life in the land of Palestine. His aspiration of 1945, after hearing of the horrors of the Shoah, was realized eventually in 1961. “I want to share the adventure of the Jews returning to their old homeland. I will go to Palestine." From that moment the idea awoke: "I must go in his place, preferably with a group of monks from our abbey". (Typicon of the Lavra Netofa).

Here the insertion in the Melkite Church, love of the Jewish people and a sense of the quasi-sacramentality of the “The Land called Holy”, (Wilken, “Palestine in Christian History and Thought”), gives dimensions of the reality missed by the passing Pilgrim.

On the hills above Haifa he encountered a nun from Salt Lake City Carmel. He asked her why she, as an archaeologist, became a Carmelite. She said she had studied archaeology and that so confirmed the Bible for her that she wanted to get as close as possible to God. In his role as observer, Basil was not one to get his hands dirty, so to speak, at that earthly level.

Nor does he pay much attention to Geographical details. It is difficult to visualize the location he is describing. Way back in the Lake District, I took a photo of him standing under the inn sign of the Pennington Arms. He was holding his camera. He was never without it on his travels. He would be the first to say the virtue of a camera is that it is pointing away from yourself. The book is not enhanced by some unflattering black and white pictures centres on the author – the publisher’s choice?. The next Edition could be transformed from the collection of his own colour photos.

Even so his narrative can be graphic, as, e.g., talking through the Stations of the Cross. He does not give Scriptural exegesis, but describes the “powerful experience of the crowding through the streets getting jostled this way and that in the Via Dolorosa, rather than distracting from prayer only made it more real”.

Some times the narrative is leisurely, dwelling on Christ’s mysteries. At other times it is cumulative; piling one disparate thing after another in the manner of a journalist hard pressed by his Editor, or compressing the information of many Guidebooks into smaller bites.

Latroun Abbey
At last he comes to visit his Trappist Brothers at Latroun Abbey. Here his flair for detail shows. Although his style is marked by the absence of dates one can work out, from the Blessing of Abbot Paul, that he visited Latroun in 1985. His account is very full and he makes this monastery the last stage of his journey. Ten years later I made an extended Sabbatical stay at Latroun Abbey and found the same welcoming spirit and benefited even more than Basil, I think, by being able to get more rooted in the Holy Land. (See my “Monastic Presence in the Holy Land Today”, Benedictine Yearbook UK 2005, pp. 27-31. Also “Holy Land Chronicle”, Link: nunraw.org.uk).

Unique Experience

At the end of his journey he comments that the visit to the Holy Land has been a unique experience and then adds, with the self effacing asides that pepper his reflections, that in conjunction with too many other experiences some of its impact will be lost. At heart he reveals a simple Catholic love and dedication. I like his musing as he commutes between Tabgha, the place of the multiplication of the loaves and at Capernaum as ponders the words of Jesus in the synagogue John 6, “Your forefathers ate manna and died, but those who feed on this bread will live for ever”. He prays, “How often have I eat this divine manna, yet I still hunger for it! It is daily bread and I hope I shall never have to live through a day without it”.

His publishers have simply taken the manuscript “Journey in a Holy Land” where it is at. And at that cut off point, it may be that we get the truest picture of Basil.

The understanding of that picture is something else. Essential to the book is the Preface by Dom Thomas Keating, a former Abbot of Basil. Dom Thomas was able to give utterance to words that transformed the tragedy of Basil’s accident and the agony of his last days. “Basil invites us into the depths of purification, which is especially intense for very talented people, but which frees their gifts and enables their fullest possible expression in what we call eternal life and resurrection”.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of Sorrows
Abbot Raymond's talk at Guesthouse 15th Aug 2007

Mother of the Maccabees

The Mother of Jesus invites us all to help her to accompany her Divine Son on his way to Calvary. She wants to reveal to us the sentiments that were in her heart. And we should be very eager to enter into them and share them with her.

Some of these sentiments are obvious. For instance, the sentiments we find expressed in that wonderful hymn, the Stabat Mater .

"At the Cross, her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Oh how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blessed.......etc

These sentiments of grief, pain and compassion are all familiar to us as is her sense of appreciation of his work of atonement and redemption by his Cross. But there is another sentiment of great importance which we must become aware of and participate in, and this sentiment is not so obvious.

The Old Testament prepares us for this understanding of the heart of Mary on the way to Calvary by giving us the story of the Mother of the Maccabee Martyrs of ancient Israel, (cf. 2 Mac 7:1-41). In this story she is a prototype and foreshadowing of Mary accompanying the passion of her Son, (cf. Lk 2:35; Jn 19:26-27).

The Mother of the Maccabees was made to witness her seven sons being tortured to death for their faith, one after another, before her very eyes, from the eldest down to the youngest. They had their tongues cut out, their scalps torn off, their hands and feet cut off and, through it all, the brave Mother stood encouraging them to be faithful no matter what they had to suffer.

In this we can understand that one of the most important sentiments of Mary on the way to Calvary was one of encouragement for her Son to carry on bravely to the end. When Jesus would fall, far from Mary asking the soldiers to leave him be as he had already suffered enough; instead she was in her heart praying that he would have the courage and the strength to rise again and carryon to the bitter end. In her heart she was praying "Rise up Jesus! Rise up in the strength of your love for us! Rise up Jesus, keep going for the sake of our great need for your sacrifice! Rise up again Jesus! What will happen to us if you fail to go through with it?" These sentiments of encouragement are, I am sure, a great support to Jesus in his Passion.

The Seven Sorrows:

1 * at the prophecy of Simeon;
2 * at the flight into Egypt;
3 * having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem;
4 * meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary;
5 * standing at the foot of the Cross;
6 * Jesus being taken from the Cross;
7 * at the burial of Christ.

Holy Name of Mary FEEDBACK

Holy Name of Mary Feedback:

One rather robust feedback from SMP.
“Just read your holy writ. Can you beef it up a bit and give me something I can use for the winter Jottings (Newsletter)?”
In reply I suggested:
“Talking of BEEFING IT UP, the weB Log is only for sensitive souls, rather than for the knock-about of a Newsletter.
Anyway see what you make of some of the FEEDBACK I have had”.

Brian had come to the Guesthouse from Hull. “Thank you for the Homily”, he said speaking from beside his over powered BMW motorcycle. “That is what I have been trying to do all my life, keeping it simple”. His story was that from childhood he wanted to have a motorcycle. His mother was dead against it. He looked after her to the great age of 90. From the legacy she left he was able to get a superb motorcycle and has travelled the country – at times with his wife on the pillion!

Email from Jane MacM . . .: Thank you for your lovely Blog on the Holy Name of Mary.

Another Email response was more reflective:

Dear Father Donald,
I love your introduction to the "memorial of the Most Holy Name of the Virgin" that you will be celebrating on 12 September. I knew nothing of this, either from my St Paul Liturgical Calendar, or from the Divine Office Proper of Saints. I have found a very brief mention in the 'Benedictine Daily Prayer - A Short Breviary' ["Holy Name of Mary, optional memorial, from the Common of the Blessed Virgin".
And I enjoyed your directional pointer...leading us.

"....it can be seen as a revolutionary feminist Proclamation... Elizabeth the expectant mother of John the Baptist, Mary the expectant mother of Jesus, leading us, in the most human approach, the birth of the Child Jesus, to the greatest Mystery, to the Incarnate the Son of God."
I hardly dare comment (!), but would love to say...
And that is 'as God intended'... the women in the Gospel present to the world (of men) moments of great import, Mary, Elizabeth, Magdalene. They leave the men to run hither and thither on hearing, undertaking great deeds... and the women say little: they do not need to, for they have said it all.
The prayer of the Mass is quite beautiful...for tomorrow - Thank you.
And so is "There is only the NOW of the Divine Presence".
Yours….. WW

Subject: Re: [Dom Donald's Blog] The Holy Name of Mary
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:18:27 +0100
It was wonderful to read what you wrote about Mary our Mother. I love to meditate on the Visitation of Our Lady, meeting her cousin. The meeting is so beautiful it draws you in. In fact It's almost tangible.
What exactly is a blog Father Donald? I can see that you have one, and I presume that the information I receive when it comes from you, and addressed to you, has been written on your blog. Forgive my stupidity but I know I' get a straight answer from you. I'm waiting patiently now for my new computer and hpefully that will be me settled for a while, developing a little more knowledge in this very technological world we live in.
Yours, BC
Answer suggested by fellow writer; A "Blog" is a reflective journal in which all are invited to share. (WeB Log = Blog for short).