Monastic Vocation

Vocation - Monasticism

At our community pre-Compline Reading we are listening to the book of Abbot Hugh Gilbert OSB, Pluscarden Abbey. Unfolding the Mystery. Gracewing 2007
His Quote on page 26 reminds us of an enlightening monastic document.
John Paul II Orientale Lumen.
“The Monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human co-existence; it is where the human being seeks God without limitation or impediment, becoming a reference point for all people, bearing them in his heart and helping them to seek God”(9). --------------

The whole document is rich in the monastic tradition and makes great Lection Divina. The following excerpts touch on direct references to monks and monasticism.

Monasticism as a model of baptismal life

9. I would now like to look at the vast panorama of Eastern Christianity from a specific vantage point which affords a view of many of its features: <monasticism.>

In the East monasticism has retained great unity. It did not experience the development of different kinds of apostolic life as in the West. The various expressions of monastic life, from the strictly coenobitic, as conceived by Pachomius or Basil, to the rigorously eremitic, as with Anthony or Macanus of Egypt, correspond more to different stages of the spiritual journey than to the choice between different states of life. In any event, whatever form they take, they are all based on monasticism.

Moreover, in the East, monasticism was not seen merely as a separate condition, proper to a precise category of Christians, but rather as a reference point for all the baptized, according to the gifts offered to each by the Lord; it was presented as a symbolic synthesis of Christianity.

When God's call is total, as it is in the monastic life, then the person can reach the highest point that sensitivity, culture and spirituality are able to express. This is even more true for the Eastern Churches, for which monasticism was an essential experience and still today is seen to flourish in them, once persecution is over and hearts can be freely raised to heaven. The monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human coexistence; it is where the human being seeks God without limitation or impediment, becoming a reference point for all people, bearing them in his heart and helping them to seek God.

I would also like to mention the splendid witness of nuns in the Christian East. This witness has offered an example of giving full value in the Church to what is specifically feminine, even breaking through the mentality of the time. During recent persecutions, especially in Eastern European countries, when many male monasteries were forcibly closed, female monasticism kept the torch of the monastic life burning. The nun's charism, with its own specific characteristics, is a visible sign of that motherhood of God to which Sacred Scripture often refers.

Therefore I will look to monasticism in order to identify those values which I feel are very important today for expressing the contribution of the Christian East to the journey of Christ's Church towards the Kingdom. While these aspects are at times neither exclusive to monasticism nor to the Eastern heritage they have frequently acquired a particular connotation in themselves. Besides, we are not seeking to make the most of exclusivity, but of the mutual enrichment in what the one Spirit has inspired in the one Church of Christ.

Monasticism has always been the very soul of the Eastern Churches: the first Christian monks were born in the East and the monastic life was an integral part of the Eastern passed on to the West by the great Fathers of the undivided Church.[26]

The strong common traits uniting the monastic experience of the East and the West make it a wonderful bridge of fellowship, where unity as it is lived shines even more brightly than may appear in the dialogue between the Churches.

Between Word and Eucharist

10. Monasticism shows in a special way that life is suspended between two poles: the Word of God and the Eucharist. This means that even in its eremitical forms, it is always a personal response to an individual call and, at the same time, an ecclesial and community event.

A father in the Spirit

13. A monk's way is not generally marked by personal effort alone. He turns to a spiritual father to whom he abandons himself with filial trust, in the certainty that God's tender and demanding fatherhood is manifested in him. This figure gives Eastern monasticism an extraordinary flexibility: through the spiritual father's intervention the way of each monk is in fact strongly personalized in the times, rhythms and ways of seeking God. Precisely because the spiritual father is the harmonizing link, monasticism is permitted the greatest variety of coenobitic and eremitical expressions. Monasticism in the East has thus been able to fulfil the expectations of each Church in the various periods of its history.[31]

In this quest, the East in particular teaches that there are brothers and sisters to whom the Spirit has granted the gift of spiritual guidance. They are precious points of reference, for they see things with the loving gaze with which God looks at us. It is not a question of renouncing one's own freedom, in order to be looked after by others. It is benefiting from the knowledge of the heart, which is a true charism, in order to be helped, gently and firmly, to find the way of truth. Our world desperately needs such spiritual guides. It has frequently rejected them, for they seemed to lack credibility or their example appeared out of date and scarcely attractive to current sensitivities.

Whatever path the Spirit has in store for him, the monk is always essentially the man of communion. Since antiquity this name has also indicated the monastic style of coenobitic life. Monasticism shows us how there is no true vocation that is not born of the Church and for the Church. This is attested by the experience of so many monks who, within their cells pray with an extraordinary passion, not only for the human person but for every creature, in a ceaseless cry that all may be converted to the saving stream of Christ's love. This path of inner liberation in openness to the Other makes the monk a man of charity. In the school of Paul the Apostle, who showed that love is the fulfilling of the law (cf. Rom 13:10), Eastern monastic communion has always been careful to guarantee the superiority of love over every law.

This communion is revealed first and foremost in service to one's brothers in monastic life, but also to the Church community, in forms which vary in time and place, ranging from social assistance to itinerant preaching. The Eastern Churches have lived this endeavour with great generosity, starting with evangelization, the highest service that the Christian can offer his brother, followed by many other forms of spiritual and material service. Indeed it can be said that monasticism in antiquity—and at various times in subsequent ages too—has been the privileged means for the evangelization of peoples.

27. With regard to monasticism, in consideration of its importance in Eastern Christianity, we would like it to flourish once more in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and that support be given to all those who feel called to work for its revitalization.[66] In fact, in the East an intrinsic link exists between liturgical prayer, spiritual tradition and monastic life. For this reason precisely, a well-trained and motivated renewal of monastic life could mean true ecclesial fruitfulness for them as well. Nor should it be thought that this would diminish the effectiveness of the pastoral minis try which in fact will be strengthened by such a vigorous spirituality, and thus will find once more its ideal place. This hope also concerns the territories of the Eastern diaspora, where the presence of Eastern monasteries would give greater stability to the Eastern Churches in those countries, and would make a valuable contribution to the religious life of Western Christians.

27. With regard to monasticism, in consideration of its importance in Eastern Christianity, we would like it to flourish once more in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and that support be given to all those who feel called to work for its revitalization.[66] In fact, in the East an intrinsic link exists between liturgical prayer, spiritual tradition and monastic life. For this reason precisely, a well-trained and motivated renewal of monastic life could mean true ecclesial fruitfulness for them as well. Nor should it be thought that this would diminish the effectiveness of the pastoral minis try which in fact will be strengthened by such a vigorous spirituality, and thus will find once more its ideal place. This hope also concerns the territories of the Eastern diaspora, where the presence of Eastern monasteries would give greater stability to the Eastern Churches in those countries, and would make a valuable contribution to the religious life of Western Christians.

For the complete text see
WEB vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters
See also:
'Orientale Lumen' Its Relevance to Liturgy and Monastic Theology. A Joint Symposium at Belmont Abbey. ‘Orientale Lumen’ ... WEB.benedictines.org.uk/theology/2005/index.htm –

The Land Called Holy ASCENSION

Questions on the ASCENSION raise the whole sense of the fact, the place the time.
Answers are more difficult to articulate clearly.
That is what Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap., Preacher to the Papal Household, provides so beautifully in his Homily for the Ascension.
I will try inserting a LINK - a further step in using the potential of the Blog facility.
Below is a Phot0 and Biographical Note from the Cantalamessa Website.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa is a Franciscan Capuchin Catholic Priest. Born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, 22 July 1934, ordained priest in 1958. Divinity Doctor and Doctor in classical literature. Former Ordinary Professor of History of Ancient Christianity and Director of the Department of religious sciences at the Catholic University of Milan. Member of the International Theological Commission (1975-1981).

In 1979 he resigned his teaching position to become a full time preacher of the Gospel. In 1980 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II Preacher to the Papal Household in which capacity he still serves, preaching a weekly sermon in Advent and Lent in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, bishops an prelates of the Roman Curia and the general superiors of religious orders. He is frequently invited to speak at international and ecumenical conferences and rallies. He is has been member of Catholic delegation for the Dialogue with the Pentecostal Churches for the last ten years. He runs a weekly program on the first channel of the Italian state television (RAI) on the Gospel of the following Sunday.

WEB.zenit.org/article-22466?l=english
Excerpt from Fr. Cantalamessa:

It is important therefore to try to clarify what we Christians mean when we say "Our Father who art in heaven," or when we say that someone "went to heaven." In these cases the Bible adapts itself to the common way of speaking (we do it today too, even in the scientific era, when we say that the sun "rises" and "sets"). But the Bible knows well and teaches that God is "in heaven, on earth and everywhere," that he is the one who "created the heavens" and, if he created them, cannot be "contained" by them. That God is "in the heavens" means that he "dwells in inaccessible light," that he is as far beyond us "as the heavens are above the earth."

We Christians also agree that in talking about heaven as God's dwelling place we understand it more as a state of being than a place. When we speak about God it would be nonsense to say that he is literally "above" or "below," "up" or "down." We are not therefore saying that heaven doesn't exist but only that we lack the categories with which to adequately represent it. Suppose we ask a person who is blind from birth to describe the different colours to us: red, green, blue. ... He could not tell us anything since we only perceive colors through our eyes. This is what it is like for us in regard to "heaven" and to eternal life, which is outside space and time.

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The Land Called Holy 2

"HOLY LAND REVIEW"

I see that the regular Franciscan magazine, "HOLY LAND" was dropped in 2006 and now has been re-incarnated as "HOLY LAND REVIEW".

It could be useful for display in the Guesthouse,
and also to encourage the Catholics who are having such a hard time in Israel.
The English and Irish Bishops are on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land this weekend.
There will be two Scottish Pilgrimages during the year.
Prayer is always the greatest need.
Here is the Editorial for the Spring 2008 Issue.

The Holy Land Review
Spring 2008

Insights into the Holy Land
by Father Jeremy Harrington
Welcome to the new Holy Land Review, a Franciscan Journal of Faith, Culture and Archaeology for the English-speaking world. To more effectively offer insights into the many dimensions of the Holy Land, its people and the ministry of the Franciscans, Custos Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., decided to take a new approach. The smaller publication Holy Land was discontinued with the Autumn 2006 issue. The Holy Land Review will be published four times a year from the Franciscan Monastery, Washington, D.C., in close cooperation with the Italian Terrasanta, headquartered in Milan.

It's been 60 years since the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. Scholars from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (the Faculty of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology of the Pontifical University "Antonianum") bring us up to date on what we have learned and on questions that remain. Was Qumran an Essene community? If so, was there any Christian connection? Is the Khirbet Qumran excavation directly related to the Essene community? What have the scrolls revealed about our Old Testament?

We meet personalities like Franciscan Stanislao Loffreda who discovered the village of St. Peter in Capernaum and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, former papal representative in Jerusalem and now papal nuncio to the United States. He tells of his love and hopes for the Holy Land. In addition, you will find in this issue book reviews, columns and important news from the Holy Land.

We invite your readership, your ideas and comments, and your subscription. Peace!

COMMENT
Following the COMMENT on what Jerome Murphy-O.Connor says, "That Luke is the only evangelist to mention the Ascension of Jesus. And that in the two places, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:1-12.”, it seems to me that the compression of an Archaeological GUIDE may tend to become a “Rough Guide”, the trademark of a Series of popular Travel Guides..

Two questions are very different.

1. Luke – “not recording an historical fact”.

2. Luke – using a “literary way of drawing a line between the terrestrial mission of Jesus and that of the apostles”,

In the first Fr. Jerome uses his archaeological scalpel to narrow the focus as to the historical fact. In that case is he entitled to make a theological statement that is tantalising inconclusive?

Regarding the first, A very different view is taken in the parallel, “Guide to the Holy Land” by the Franciscan, Fr. Eugene Hoade OFM.
"The place of the Ascension is determined by the Acts with a mathematical exactitude. In the Acts it is said that the Apostles after the Ascension of the Divine Master "departed from the Mount of Olives, which is distant from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey, and returned to. Jerusalem" (Acts 1, 12).
A Sabbath day's journey, i.e., the walk a Jew could take without infringing upon the law of the Sabbath rest is said by Rabbis to. be 1392 m., which is approximately the distance that separates Jerusalem from the top of the Mount of Olives. A Sabbath day's journey was 2,000 cubits.
Besides, the event of the Ascension was such for the Christians that they could not possibly forget the exact place whence Christ left to go to his heavenly Father. It was on the way towards Bethany.
(Eugene Hoade “Guide to the Holy Land” - Editions 1942-1996

The Scriptural references build up into an integrated body of all that was said about the Ascension by Jesus and others. It is a formidable collection.

“The general and most common understanding of the Christian doctrine of Ascension holds that Jesus bodily ascended to heaven in the presence of his apostles, forty days following his resurrection. It is narrated in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:1-12,[1] and mentioned in John 20:17, Ephesians 4:7-13, Romans 10:5-7, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 3:21-22”.

The Ascension knits together the words of Jesus and of Apostles and Evangelists into a non-simplistic understanding of the sacramental, ecclesial reality of the Ascension.

“Even within the pious Christian tradition, the language used by the Evangelists to describe the Ascension must be interpreted according to usage. To say that he was taken up or that he ascended, does not necessarily imply that they locate heaven directly above the earth; no more than the words "sitteth on the right hand of God" mean that this is his actual physical posture, but rather denotes his equality with the Father, according to Trinitarianism. In disappearing from their view "He was raised up and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9), and entering into glory he dwells with the Father in the honour and power denoted by the scripture phrase. It is something in which our lives are part”

If Shakespeare could say, ‘Death is the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’, his tongue was equally adept in finding the words that lift the mind to another plane, “There are more things in heaven and earth Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Coming to the second question, a more theologically grounded speaker takes us into the Ascension of Jesus and of each of us,

“This day, in which for the first time I may sit in the chair of the Bishop of Rome, as Successor of Peter, is the day in which the Church in Italy celebrates the feast of the Lord's Ascension. At the center of this day, is Christ. And only thanks to him, thanks to the mystery of his Ascension, are we able to understand the meaning of the chair, which in turn is the symbol of the authority and responsibility of the bishop. What, then, does the feast of the Lord's Ascension tell us? It does not say that the Lord has gone to a place far away from men and the world. The Ascension of Christ is not a journey into space to the most remote heavenly bodies, because in the end, heavenly bodies, like the earth, are also made up of physical elements.

The Ascension of Christ means that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death, which conditions our life. It means that he belongs completely to God. He, the eternal Son, has taken our human being to the presence of God; he has taken with him flesh and blood in a transfigured form. Man finds a place in God through Christ; the human being has been taken into the very life of God. And, given that God embraces and sustains the whole cosmos, the Lord's Ascension means that Christ has not gone far away from us, but that now, thanks to the fact he is with the Father, he is close to each one of us forever. Each one of us may address him familiarly; each one may turn to him. The Lord always hears our voice. We may distance ourselves inwardly from him. We can live with our backs turned to him, but he always awaits us, and is always close to us”. (Benedict XVI's MAY 9, 2005)

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The Land Called Holy

Ascension 1 May 2008
Chapter Homily - and further thoughts.
Donald

On the 40th day after his resurrection Our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven.

I got a jolt when I opened a Daily Commentary for Thursday 1st May. The commentary was not on ASCESNSION THURSDAY but on May Day and St. Joseph the Worker.

In Scotland we keep to the 40 days.
What could be more appropriate than to celebrate Ascension Thursday on May Day. The swallows have appeared around the monastery building. Br. Patrick has given the lawns their first spring trim. All is set for a good Ascensiontide.

Someone I know was at the place of the Ascension on the summit of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast.

He wrote: “To celebrate Ascension, I attended Vespers at the shrine on the summit of the Mount of Olives, and the dawn Mass next morning.

The Chapel/Mosque/Ombomon (neither Cross or Crescent showing) is owned by the Muslims but on the Annual Feast of the Ascension the Armenian, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Syrian Churches are each allowed to hold their Liturgies.

Although not in the Koran, the Muslims believe in Jesus’ Ascension but not in his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The shrine is now but a tiny aedicule, Chapel, which is but a remnant from the Byzantine period Church and of the later Crusader octagonal reconstruction. The Muslim guides like to point out to the Pilgrims/Tourists the mark of the footprint of the ascending Jesus in rock embedded in the floor. Jerusalem Christians in the pre-Constantine period venerated the Ascension in a cave on the Mount of Olives. Fuller details are given by the Irish Dominican, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, who has spent most of his life in Jerusalem, has just published his 5th Edition of his archaeological guide, ‘The Holy Land’. Oxford 2008.

Vespers, led by the Franciscans, extended into a procession, three times round the small octagonal building. As we passed along we were flanked by the canopies or tents erected by the non-Latin Churches. I regret that I did not stay for the rest of the morning and day. It was a golden opportunity to participate in this array of Eastern Liturgies.

To attend the early morning Mass of the Ascension we had to start off at 4.30 am from Via Dolorosa. As we crushed in around the Altar it got very hot. Not surprisingly, some of the group felt faint in the confined space and had to go outside for fresh air. They could then later joke that they almost completed their Ascension.

Vespers and Mass of the Ascension at the summit of the Mount of Olives gave me a sense of how the monastic life itself pivots around the Holy Places. On this aspect of things, it was interesting to hear Prioress Christine, of the Benedictine Convent almost next door, say how impressed she had once been by a paper given by a Bursar of Stanbrook precisely on the theme of St. Benedict’s sense of the sacredness in the monastic milieu. As one theologian has demonstrated, the growing importance of the Holy Land in Christian thought during the first centuries A.D. was associated with the emergence of a SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY, one that saw the presence of God in his creation, particularly in the land and places made holy by the prophets and, most importantly, by the Incarnation.”

Words of a monk at Latroun, Fr. Augustine’s Homily at the community Mass, brought this thought to the specific feast of the Ascension in the Holy Place of Mount of Olives. He spoke of how, “To grasp the moment of both the Ascension and the Parousia is to contemplate the mystical ladder seen long ago by the Patriarch Jacob, the mystical ladder which has inspired so many commentators including St. Benedict in Chapter 7 of his Rule.(After ascending all these steps of humility, the monk will quickly arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear. RB 7:6).

On my way up Mt. Olivet, I was diverted by my interest in the Place where Jesus Wept, Dominus Flevit, but in fact this is on the direct way of ascent to the Place of the Ascension. There could not be a more dramatic expression of the sorrow of Jesus over the destruction of Jerusalem and the joy and glory of His Ascension. There is a great raising of mind and heart in the vision of St. Stephen, “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. Act 7:55

The Ascension, while it is the complement of all our Lord’s feasts, it is the fount of our sanctification. As the Preface of the older Mass proclaimed, “He was lifted up into heaven so that He might make us partakers of His Godhead”. “It is not enough” says Dom Gueranger, “for a man to rest on the merits of our Redeemer’s Passion,
not enough to unite to his memorial of the Resurrection as well.
Man is saved and restored only by the union of these two mysteries with a third: that of the TRIUMPHANT ASCENSION OF HIM WHO DIED AND ROSE AGAIN”.

The powerful attraction of the Holy places still exercises its magnetism. Whether it be example of Egeria reverencing the exposed space of the Ascension in her time, 384, its destruction by the Persians in 614, with the massacre of1207 victims of whom 400 were Nuns of the monastery of Mt. Olivat, or the disincentives of the terrorist age in the Middle East of today, Pilgrims, professed or anonymous, keep coming. The physicality of Incarnation is inseparable from a sense of the sacredness of the place. "No matter how many centuries have passed, no matter where the Christian religion has set down roots, Christians are wedded to the land that gave birth to Christ and the Christian religion." Essential to the living witness of this Middle Eastern (not European) religion, claims Wilken, is the vitality of Christian communities in the land of Jesus' birth. (see, “The Land Called Holy”, R. L. Wilken).

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Catherine of Siena

Tuesday 29 April
St Catherine of Siena (Patron of Europe) (Feast)

We were celebrating Mass today for my special friend St. Catherine of Siena. For some reason she is my favourite. She is a Doctor of the Church but she never wrote a line. All her teaching was dictated. By comparison St. Therese of Liseaux wrote with ease not to say poetically, and piously. Catherine’s teaching is so theological and so Trinitarian. There seems more of a masculine strength in her words. Her style is not that of the Little Flower. Catherine would rather say , “Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things”.

Thumbnail sketches of Catherine’s career tend to journalistic reporting of society and politics with a veneer of spirituality, not the stuff of mysticism.

It is her own words that are more powerful. The Reading from the Prayer of the Church (The Breviary) from The Dialogue is an example. When I hear her words and the ongoing flow of her thought, one paragraph is enough. My mind goes into ‘grid lock’ just to get my head around the shear mysticism in her spirit.

Our guests at the Mass fastened their ears to some of the quotes;
“'You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love'. . . . 'Love transforms one into what one loves.'

'The soul cannot live without love. She always wants to love something because love is the stuff she is made of, and through love he created her.'

In a vision she shared that God the Father spoke to her and said:

'Do you know, daughter, who you are and who I am? If you know these two things you have beatitude within your grasp. You are she who is not, and I am he who is.'

- - - “St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism. In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430”. (catholic.org)

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SCAM de-activated

SCAM EMAIL DE-ACTIVATED.
I am happy to say I went through the Yahoo Help Maze, and eventually got to a human voice. The Rogue Email in domdonald's name has now been DE-ACTIVATED.
The compensation for loosing Email Address Book and other Stored Files is that I have not had a single SPAM since I began using this new Address. It will be temporary until I get on to an entirely different platform.

It is a good spring cleaning exercise.
A friend saw TWO SWALLOWS yesterday.
One swallow does not make a summer but two is a good sign.

I am so grateful to all who recognised the Scam as such, and for the many kind phone calls.
Thank you.

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HACKER SCAM

Archive
see Post 24/04/08 above

East Lothian News, May 2, 2008
By Craig Finlay Reporter

Ex-Abbot victim of internet scam

Former Abbot of Nunraw Abbey, Dom Donald McGlynn, has been left to pick up the pieces after internet fraudsters hacked into his email account and set up a scam to con thousands of pounds from his online friends and contacts.

Describing himself as a "very vexed victim," the Benedictine monk and Guestmaster of Nunraw Guesthouse, near Garvald, told the News of his frustration over the apparent impotence of fraud investigators.

He said: "Sadly, advice is that the fraud-quad cannot do anything unless they have actual tangible evidence of fraud.

"I can only hope that anyone contacted will immediately recognise this fraudulent use of a hitherto reliable facility."

The News received an email from someone pertaining to be Dom Donald (73) on an "important trip" to Canada.

Refund?
In the communication, the 'victim' claimed to have been robbed of all his belongings and return ticket.
It read: "I just want to plead with you if you can loan me $2800 so I can re-arrange myself and I promise to make refunds to you once I get back. "Please help me have the money sent via Money Gram money transfer. Below is my information you would require in sending the money."

When we caught up with the real Donald McGlynn later that day, he confirmed our suspicions that the circular was, in fact, fraudulent.
Fraud
He said: "It is a scam. Someone has stolen my email address and is asking for money all over the world."
According to Detective Inspector James Gilchrist, of the Musselburgh-based Lothian and Borders Police specialist fraud unit, internet fraudsters are using every trick in the book to remain one step ahead of the authorities.

He said: "These types of crime are extremely difficult to solve."

Full report in East Lothian News, May 2, 2008

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Children's Hospital

Charles McNeil - Past Resident at Nunraw known for his work in the Children’s Hospital, Edinburgh.

Abbot Raymond received this interesting inquiry regarding the late Professor Charles McNeil.

“I wonder if you might be able to help with some information on the above who had, I believe, some links with Nunraw Abbey? I have the specific task of tracking down information on Prof McNeil, who was appointed to its first Chair [the first to be devoted to the study of the child in health as well as in sickness] in 1931, a post he held until retirement in 1946. The fairly brief biographical information which I have obtained so far indicates that, in the years following his retirement, Prof & Mrs McNeil lived in the Gifford area and had contact with the Abbey, certainly until the former's death in 1964. We are keen to obtain some information
about this time in his life. To this end, I wonder if the Abbey and its Community might be able to furnish some information which could assist us in our task”.

The response to this inquiry is that “All you wanted to ask about Charles McNeill and were afraid to ask”, can be readily found – or at least a good part of it.

To begin at the end, I have just taken a photo of the memorial stone, (the boulder brought from a Galloway river bed at the wish of Charles), in the cemetery at old Nunraw House. At that time of the evening the view was rather remarkable, showing the long shadows of the tree overhanging the grave. The story of the stone is that one of the requests in Charles’ Will was to have this bolder brought from one of the many stream beds in Galloway. This mission was carried out by Adam, driver and gardener at Nunraw Barns, and Seamus, stone worker at the Abbey, who made the long drive to bring home this link with his forebears in the Rhinns of South West Scotland.

Engraved on the chosen monument are the exact dates of birth and life, 1881-1964.

His wife, Alice Workman McNeil, was also buried here.

In the Nunraw library the most helpful record for the purposes of research must be the privately printed, “A Scottish Physician, Charles McNeil, An Appreciation by George Scott-Moncrieff”. It is an illustrated 23 page monograph.

Extract from George Scott-Moncrieff’s “A Scottish Physician”.

An original member of the British Paediatric Association, Charles McNeil was elected its President in 1941, and was also President of the Scottish Paediatric Association. He was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, 1940-1943, and was made a Fellow of the London College in 1943. He became a member of the Governing Board of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and on his retirement in 1946 the University conferred the title of Emeritus Professor on him and gave him an LL.D. in 1953. During the war years, 1939-1945, Professor MeNeil was engaged in helping with the plans then going ahead for the National Health Service.

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Charles McNeil died at Nunraw Barns on April 27th, 1964, peacefully, after receiving the Last Sacraments.

Many tributes, both public and private, were paid to this "true physician and erudite scholar" as the obituary in the British Medical Journal described him, adding the singular praise "he was incapable of a mean or unkind thought." Intellectually "he had a gift for the rapid assessment of a clinical problem," but perhaps even more important was the gentle loving approach that gave him the immediate confidence of children. A young man remembered meeting him as a child, the warmth and ease with which the Professor spoke to him, and the humility and perception that made an elderly man capable of seeing a child's problems as they appear to the child himself, so that he was able to offer acceptable advice and encouragement. His gracious manner, radiant smile and delightful sense of humour, remain fresh in the memories of many of us who knew him and who would not hesitate to describe Charles McNeil as a saintly man.

Charles McNeil was given the rare tribute of burial amongst the Cistercian monks in the monastic cemetery. In his funeral oration Abbot Columban Mulcahy of Nunraw said that this was a man who might have made his own the words, " Look for me in the nurseries of heaven." (Francis Thomson).

The portrait of Charles McNeil was painted in 1948 by his cousin Murray Urquhart. It would be interesting its final location.

For further reference, see also Lectures as, e.g. BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, LONDON SATURDAY MARCH 6 1954, YESTERDAY AND TO-MORROW IN CHILD HEALTH. BY CHARLES McNEIL, MD., LL.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.P.Ed. Professor Emeritus in Child Life and Health, University of Edinburgh. WWWeb. pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=2084750&pageindex=1

The story of Alice Workman-McNeil is on a par with that of her husband. They met through their heroic work in Rouen during the 1914-18 War. Charles was in command of the hospital, mostly under tent, which at one time saw forty thousand casualties brought in.
“Alice was one of two sisters from Northern Ireland who arrived in France, bringing their own money to initiate voluntary help to the troops. Alice Workman started four canteens for Servicemen in Rouen and managed them throughout the war. In January, 1919, Charles McNeill and she were married in St. Helen’s Bay Presbyterian Church in county Down”.

The loveliest comment on the life’s work of Charles McNeil is his own sense of wonder in the first smile of the child. This humble Pediatrician appreciated to the full his privileged profession expressed in his key direction in the Children’s Hospital. “He always regarded the first smile of a sick child as a matter of major importance, and a large red S had to be written on its chart to record the occasion”.

What is the glorious experience of parents in that first smile is something to move everyone to thank God for the wonder of our being.

Ps. 138(139).
For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

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I am the good shepherd

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

It is hard not to think that Jesus has got his metaphors a bit mixed up when we consider what he tells us in today’s Gospel. (“I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11).

He starts with the image of a Sheepfold. Then he speaks of the Gate of the Sheepfold; then of the Shepherd who enters through the Gate; then of the Gatekeeper who lets the Shepherd in.

He then switches back to the image of the Shepherd who leads the flock but, in his explanation to his uncomprehending listeners, he suddenly jumps back again to the image of the Gate: “I tell you solemnly, I am the Gate of the sheepfold.” “Anyone who enters through me will be safe: He will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.”

It is only after all this that Jesus explicitly applies the image of the Shepherd directly to himself. He finally says: “I am the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep….I know my own and my own know me.”

In summary, the Lord would seem to be implying that the basic picture is of His Heavenly Father being the Gatekeeper; He himself being the Gate, and his ministers down the centuries being the Shepherds who pass through the gate but who do so only as his own representatives, for ultimately he alone is both the Gate and the one and only True Good Shepherd.

This brings us to consider this morning the tremendous privilege we have in knowing Him and being called to follow Him who is the only true Gate to eternal life.

All other faiths have their own image of God; their own attitude towards God, more or less true. But no other Faith can give the knowledge of God that comes to us through our Faith in the Son of God incarnate; Jesus, our Brother in the flesh. What a difference that makes. We can hardly imagine what it must be like to have no other image of God and of our relationship with him than the image that still persists in Islam or even in Judaism. And how many millions, and indeed billions, of souls does that include!

We can only cry out with St Paul to the Philippians:

“Because of Christ, I have come to consider all these advantages I had as disadvantages. Not only that, but I believe that nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him, I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him.

Abbot Raymond. Morning Chapter Talk

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Good Shepherd Sunday

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Cardinal Keith O’Brien takes his queue from
POPE BENEDICT XVI’s Message for the 45th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 13 APRIL 2008,Fourth Sunday of Easter.

Theme: “Vocations at the service of the Church on mission”

The Cardinal quotes, “The Church is missionary in herself and in each one of her members. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, every Christian is called to bear witness and to announce the Gospel”, and he goes on to view the local panorama of the Church embodying the Vocations of his people in the Archdiocese.

The Holy Father himself extends the spiritual and ecclesial horizons of the Christian community.

It is worth reading his whole text,

He begins his message by recalling Jesus’ Great Commission to the Apostles (Mt. 28:19-20) to take the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He then traced this mission back to its origins in the call of God to the prophets. The way the Gospel is transmitted today remains the same as in the time of the Apostles. “In the beginning, and thereafter, what ‘impels’ the Apostles is always ‘the love of Christ’. (...) In fact, the love of Christ must be communicated to the brothers by example and words, with all one's life.”

This double loop, from the Apostles near ground level to the heights of the love of Christ, seems to be the Pope’s style, as in the next double loop. For example, on the occasion of the multiplication of the loaves, he said to the Apostles: “You give them something to eat” (Mt 14: 16), encouraging them to assume the needs of the crowds to whom he wished to offer nourishment, but also to reveal the food “which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6: 27).

“The promises made to our fathers were fulfilled entirely in Jesus Christ. In this regard, the Second Vatican Council says: “The Son, therefore, came, sent by the Father. It was in him, before the foundation of the world, that the Father chose us and predestined us to become adopted sons … To carry out the will of the Father, Christ inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. By his obedience he brought about redemption” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium,”

This same heavenly grid is evident where Benedict XVII quotes his two predecessors.

“My venerable predecessor John Paul II wrote: “The special vocation of missionaries ‘for life’ retains all its validity: it is the model of the Church's missionary commitment, which always stands in need of radical and total self-giving, of new and bold endeavours”. (Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, 66)

This multitude of men and women religious, belonging to innumerable Institutes of contemplative and active life, still plays “the main role in the evangelisation of the world” (Ad Gentes, 40). With their continual and community prayer, contemplatives intercede without ceasing for all humanity. Religious of the active life, with their many charitable activities, bring to all a living witness of the love and mercy of God.

The Servant of God Paul VI concerning these apostles of our times said: “Thanks to their consecration they are eminently willing and free to leave everything and to go and proclaim the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. They are enterprising and their apostolate is often marked by an originality, by a genius that demands admiration. They are generous: often they are found at the outposts of the mission, and they take the greatest of risks for their health and their very lives. Truly the Church owes them much” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 69).

“Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated. Mission, as a witness of divine love, becomes particularly effective when it is shared in a community, “so that the world may believe” (cf. Jn 17: 21).

The Church prays everyday to the Holy Spirit for the gift of vocations.”

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Nunraw trial Video

This is a trial in using the Video facility of this BLOG

Adam, where are you?

A TALE OF TWO GARDENS

The Books of Holy Scripture are full of twin stories, Diptychs; sometimes with one story in the Old Testament relating to one in the New, e.g. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac vis-à-vis God the Father’s sacrifice of Jesus; sometimes with both stories in the same Testament; e.g. The two miraculous catches of fish in the Gospels, or the Deliverance of Israel, first from Egypt and then from Babylon in the O.T. Sometimes the two stories are thousands of years apart e.g. The Passion and Death of Samson in the O.T. and the Passion and Death of Christ in the N.T.;

Sometimes the stories are immediately one after the other as with the stories of the Annunciation and Birth of John the Baptist and the Annunciation and Birth of Jesus.

In every case, however, the first story is a key to the understanding of the second. The second story is coloured and enriched by its association with the first.

So, with this in mind, let us take one of these Diptychs and try to draw all we can of the Divine Author’s meaning from it. God is, after all, the supreme dramatist. Before him all the Cicero’s and Dante’s and Shakespear’s of the world pall into insignificance.

Moreover, where these great human authors can only write with words on paper or parchment God can dip his finger into the ink-well of his creative power and write real historic scenes with real live characters on the pages of history itself in order to convey his message to us.

The great Diptych I would like to consider here is the Diptych which places the story of the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Fall, and the story of the Garden of Christ’s Tomb, the Garden of the Resurrection, side by side.

In the Garden of the Fall, God appears as the Heavenly Father, the Creator of Mankind.

In the Garden of the Resurrection, God appears as Christ, the Redeemer of Mankind.

In the Garden of the Fall God calls out to his fallen creature: “Adam, where are you?” Now, it becomes apparent as we study the parallels of this Diptych, that this is no angry cry of an offended Deity, but rather the heartfelt cry of a Father who has lost his son.

God’s cry of “Adam, where are you?” in the Garden of the Fall is contrasted with Magdalene’s cry in the Garden of the Resurrection: “Where is he? They have taken away my Lord!”

In the first Garden it is God who is seeking man; in the second Garden it is man who is seeking God. The balance is at last restored.

And how fitting it was that it should be Mary Magadalene who represents fallen man seeking his God; she who was sin personified, as it were; she, out of whom seven devils had been cast. She had seen it all, done it all. How beautiful that the Risen Christ should therefore first appear to her – she who was first, the personification of sinful man, and then, the personification of the repentant sinner.

In the first Garden it is man who is hiding from God, in the second Garden it is God who is hiding from man.

Jesus plays a game of ‘hide and seek’ with Magdalene and by his questioning: “Why do you weep? Who are you looking for?” he draws from her the expression of her desire for him: “They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where the have laid him.”

Then finally, and so beautifully, the scene climaxes in Jesus calling her by her name: “Mary” and at this she recognises him and clings to him with unspeakable joy. In this, so beautiful way, calling her by name, Jesus gives us a sign and a symbol of the utter love with which he forgives and takes us back to himself.

And so the scene of the First Garden is reversed and all things are restored to what they ought to be – Repentant Man seeking and finding his God again.

Abbot Raymond

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