Clare Melinsky, artist, 1,400th. Commemoration Stamp

Recalling - THE FOURTEENTH CENTENARY of St Columba
At Balmerino Abbey, Fife. 9th. June 1997.

Scotland's Apostolic Age

Abbot Donald McGlynn, Nunraw, East Lothian, gave the following homily during a Mass at Balmerino in Fife, to mark the 1400th Anniversary of the Death of St Columba.

TO MARK THE FOURTEENTH CENTENARY of St Columba, here at Balmerino, we go back much further than the medieval monastery. In fact these celebrations are part of the preparations for the 2nd Millennium which puts it into the wider Christian context. And from that point of view Balmerino gives us an interesting intersection in the historical paths by which Christianity came to this country.

First with regard to St Columba, I have to declare an interest. I have had some kind of a spiritual accompaniment or link with Columba all my days. Historians regard the period as a minefield, but I have wandered down quite unharmed. Not being an historian, I got top marks in secondary school for an essay on Columba.

My first primary school was dedicated to Dallan Forghaill who wrote the great "Elegy of Colum Cille", Amra Choluimb Chille. When I was nine or ten, long before I learned that St Dallan was a chief poet and a classic figure of the bardic class, I had made the pilgrimage to his chapel on the little island of Inniskeel on the Atlantic coast of Donegal. There he had lived until he was martyred by sea raiders.

Dallan's Elegy may have been written before the death of Columba. It is the earliest source and therefore, not surprisingly, my feelings for St Columba respond much more to the image given by St Dallan than to the political figure of the Irish Annals, or to that of the biographer Adamnan upholding the abbatial importance of Iona, or to that of Bede the Venerable writing over 100 years later. The picture of Columba as the man of God living the hidden monastic life, with the occasional missionary foray, rings much more true to his vocation than the high profile semi-political king-maker and nation-builder of the other chronicles.

Dallan's Columba is above all a scholar¹s saint. He emphasised not his miraculous powers but his learning. He also refers specifically to Tayside. "His blessing turned them, the mouth of the fierce ones who lived on the Tay, to the will of the king". I don't know exactly what he means by describing these tribes of the Tay as "fierce mouthed". It is intentionally obscure and difficult because, the story goes, Columba would only agree to Dallan writing about him in that incomprehensible bardic style. The roots of obscure 'Irishism' go a long way back. My guess is that Columba made a notable pastoral visit to Tayside and was welcomed by the Christians already there.

Reputation

I am going to bypass the historical researchers and the literary analysts, who after all have every reason to question the meagre fragments of actual history in contrast to the abundant hagiography. I am going to bypass them or transcend their narrow interest by beginning with a significant question.

If some one had so many miracles and wonders attributed to them as Columba, how did he get this reputation? If some one had so much sanctity and scholarship credited to them as Columba, how did he get this fame?

If someone had his relics carried into battle to guarantee victory as often as Columba, how did he get this influence? If one can find all this and more attributed to St Columba in the hagiography, then one can ask the question what was the spiritual stature of the man? This must have been a mighty man to be placed in the light of so many great deeds and associated with almost every step of progress of evangelisation in Scotland, whether or not he was directly involved! And that surely is the clue.

Spiritually he could well have had a part in the building up of the Body of Christ because of the power of his prayer, because of the merit of his holiness. Because of that inner prowess of soul, which is open to every Christian, his life could go on bearing fruit beyond his death.

Think of another centenary marked this year. The first 100 years of a very different example of that fruits of the inner life, St Theresa of Liseaux, who died in 1897, said she would spend her heaven doing good on earth.

Pre-History

Balmerino's prehistory demonstrates in a special way this inner aspect of things and gives us the opportunity to celebrate this fourteenth centenary of St Columba as being also a time to honour all those named and unnamed saints who implanted the Gospel, bit by bit in the various parts of this land.

It is strange that in Adamnan's 'life' the close colleagues of Columba and his relatives do not get mention; St Catan, St Moluag, St Blane, St Machar, St Donnan. Independent operators, so to speak, are named as friends, St Kenneth and St Cormac and others include St Kessog in the Trossachs with Monk's Island on Loch Lomond, St Serf in the Ochils with his island retreat on Loch Leven. St Ternan probably worked out of Abernethy, St Kenneth at St Andrews, St Adrian on May Island and his Firth of Forth neighbour St Baldred of the Bass Rock. St Regulus, St Fillan, St Mucolinus and so on.

These are only names to most of us, which may be as well in view of the countless anonymous monks, nuns, hermits and servants of God who all shared in the building up of the Body of Christ in these parts. Balmerino is interesting in this regard because the evangelisation of these parts cannot be claimed by either St Columba or St Ninian. Balmerino has always been linked with Abernethy just six miles to the west and the significance of Abernethy is that it became the centre and key to the story of the conversion of the Pictish people of this eastern and northern part of Scotland.

Beginnings

The beginnings of the work of evangelisation from Abernethy are no less obscure than those of Iona or Whithorn, from both of which it was quite independent. But its importance is confirmed by the fact that the King of the Pictish Kingdom moved his capital from near Inverness to Abernethy. Only at later stage was the royal seat and the ecclesiastical centre moved to Dunkeld, and to that place they brought the relics of Columba to reinforce its standing and precedence over Iona.

The whole point of recalling all this is to appreciate the fact that there were a great number of unsung evangelists who had already brought the light Christ into the lives of the people in many places in the east of Scotland. At least eighty men and women have been identified as being actively evangelising the country before Columba left Ireland.

These Christian pioneers literally covered the land with hundreds of churches and chapels before the Iona mission began.

Divisions

In fact, in the debate as to whether Columba or Ninian rightly deserve the accolade of the apostle of Scotland, a very strong case has been made out for a third alternative. It is possible that it is Abernethy, rather than Iona or Whithorn, which is the true cradle of Christianity in Scotland.

At a certain level there were rivalries between the different groups. At an important point of change in the Church, as we in the post-Vatican II era can understand, these rivalries became more dramatic, as at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD. Loyalty to St Columba, a virtue in its time and place, became obstinacy against the new ways and the acceptance of Roman adaptations of the old Celtic customs.

Later centuries were to see an even greater exaggeration of these rivalries in sectarian prejudice and the rewriting of the story of our Saints and scholars to support a favoured position. Apart from all this very human context, what should inspire us today is the vision of this extraordinary communion of saints working away quietly under the inspiration of God, according to the special grace and charism of each one, and not as part of any great bandwagon or powerful institution, even as worthy as that attributed to Columba.

The edifying stories of St Columba are no exaggeration when seen as the affirmation of those qualities and gifts given by God to all these hidden saints and on offer to each one of us who believe. All the feats of sanctity, all the heroic dedication to prayer, all the spiritual power of inner life of these Saints are gifts of the Holy Spirit in every age of the Church.

Dedication

These are all the qualities of soul, more often hidden and anonymous, without which there can be no Church of any kind. Here is a spiritual dynamism in the Church which calls each one of us to recognise our indebtedness to God in an absolute manner. There is no other explanation of the course of life of St Columba and those early servants of God. Unless, like them, we feel brought to our knees, at least in mind and heart, several times each day we may wonder if we have any soul, any humanity, any of that sensitivity which is the special character of these saints.

Therefore we are not concerned to romanticise Columba or our Scottish Saints but to venerate their following of Christ, their intensity of prayer, their perseverance in living in God's presence, their practical penance and example of charity. It was because of this genuine hidden dedication of their lives that God blessed their work of evangelisation with such fruitfulness.

Or was it the other way round, that God blessed their lives with an evangelisation which they themselves would never have conceived? We have been inundated with documents and instructions on 'evangelisation' for the second millennium. The early pioneers may never have heard the word.

As for the glory, as for the external applause of Columba that seems to been cultivated by his over-zealous followers. These clerics were not much unlike their present day successors in "not letting the facts get in the way of a good story".

Well we should not let the stories get in the way of the good facts in the case of Columba himself, and go on from there to recognise the potential of the more ordinary, normal experience of the saints and of the faithful. That is the hidden life which is lived so simply and so totally in the presence of God that it begins to be literally, "life hidden with Christ in God".

Challenge

The fruitfulness of the Saints is directly related to their purity of heart, their hunger and thirst for the true, the good and the beautiful, their union with God.

It is the great challenge of evangelisation in today's world. The Church can only bear fruit; can only bring the gifts of God; to all those who desire them if there are souls, convinced of the power of prayer and filled with the love of God and of each person. The challenge today more than ever is like the struggle of "rowing through the infinite storm", to use the graphic imagery which Columba derived from the surrounding sea of Iona.

The hymn "Adjutor Laborantium", (help of those who labour) may well have come from his pen. "I beg that, trembling and most wretched, rowing through the infinite storm of this age, Christ may draw me, a little man, after Him to the lofty most beautiful haven of life".

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Note:
BALMERINO – an historical study of the ancient Scottish Cistercian Abbey has just been published.
Life on the Edge: The Cistercian Abbey of Balmerino, Fife (Scotland) (Citeaux - Commentarii Cistercienses) (Paperback). by Piers J. Dixon (Author), Richard Fawcett (Author), Matthew H. Hammond (Author) Paperback: 150 pages. Publisher: Citeaux (30 Jun 2009)

Clare Melinsky, artist, 1,400th. Commemoration Stamp, used by Royal Mail 1997.

Colum Cille

Feastday of Saint Columba

9 June St. Colmcille

In the Introduction of the Community Mass, I mentioned that the Pope has appointed someone as Special Envoy to Derry, Cardinal K.P. O’Brien.

(Papal Envoy named for Long Tower celebration
VATICAN, April 24, 2009-- Benedict XVI is sending Cardinal Michael Patrick O'Brien as his special envoy to the centenary celebration of the foundation of Long Tower Church in Derry, Northern Ireland. The archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, will preside at the event June 9. Dedicated to St. Columba, the Church is built on the site where Mass has been said since the 12th century. The current structure was first built in 1783, and then remodeled in 1810. Additional changes were made in 1909, including the addition of new stained glass windows, a baptismal font and a new sacristy. The centenary marks 100 years of the present building. (Zenit))

From the Lectern looking towards the Altar Rails, there are 4 Crosses.
The teak wood furnishing originated from the Church of the Royal Naval Base, Rosyth Dock.
Three Crosses are of Andrew, George and David.
The 4th one is the Cross of St. Columba, a Celtic Cross. Andrew, George and David donate to the British & NI flag, the Union Jack.

Columba is the man-out.
Columba was sent to exile and lived on his island.
As a powerful and charismatic character he was better off in Iona.
The source of his amazing reputation was not from politics but from the hidden life of the monastery.
The mighty influence flowed from his prayer, his spiritual and inner life which radiate to the people.

Today as we share in that life of monastic life, we turn to the mystery of Eucharistic adoration and sacrifice.





On the eve of the Feast of St. Columba, I found the Homily, of Monday 9th June 1997. It is interesting to recall and Attach a copy on the next.

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St Robert of Newminster (Solemnity)

A PRAYER CARD 850th Anniversary

St Robert of Newminster, Abbot
Memorial
(Solemnity in Fenham and Morpeth) 7th June

Born at Gargrave in Yorkshire. He spent the early years of his priesthood as rector of his home town, but later joined the Benedictine community at Whitby. In 1132 he helped to establish Fountains Abbey which embraced the Cistercian rule of St Bernard of Clairvaux. Fountains was to have a daughter abbey at Newminster near Morpeth and Robert became the first abbot in 1138/9. Little is known about Robert the man. He died on 7'h June 1159.

Opening Prayer
God our loving Father, you inspired Robert
to establish a new monastery, and to preside as abbot
with gentleness and justice.
As we honour today this man of prayer, may we also learn from his example.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Prayer over the Gifts
Lord,
accept our gifts
as we honour the memory of St Robert.
May they be for us a source of help and salvation. We ask this through Christ our Lord

Prayer after Communion
Father,
you nourish us with the Bread of Life.
Just as Robert gave his own food to the poor, make us eager to help those in need,
that in your mercy
they may welcome us at your table in heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Newminster Abbey Northumberland

Left:

Bishop S. Cunningham, Principal Celebrant, Dom Donald with the Pilgrims.
The Walk from the Church in Morpeth to the Site of Newminster could be describe as the Obstacle Pilgrimage, a long pathway including five or six kissing-gates or styles. I was amazed by the walking of one 90 year old lady with sticks among so many elders and also small children. Quite an achievement marking the historic event.

Right:

Within the cl austral site, only covering was for the group of the Deaf School.

After returning to the St. Robert of Newminster Church of Morpeth, there was a warm welcome to the visitors to the Marque for copious refreshments.
The Church itself is a very interesting building.

There is a glorious collection of Saints in the Church, the twelve and Apostles and the statues of St. Joseph and St. Benedict. My question was to ask everyone where was St. Robert. Eventually, Fr. John Cooper, PP., lead me and two priests from Germany, to show me the treasures of his Church. Saint Robert of Newminster is rather hidden in a colured window in the side of the Apse.

News from RCDHN - Roman Catholic Diocese of
Hexham and Newcastle

WEB VIDEO

On Trinity Sunday two parishes in the diocese whose patron is Robert of Newminster joined together for a Pilgrimage and Celebration at the Ancient Ruins of Newminster Abbey in Northumberland.

This Abbey was established in 1138 and St Robert of Newminster presided over the Abbey until 1159. It was one of the largest Cistercian Monasteries in the north of England. The site, near Morpeth, is now in ruins, with a few stones and walling and foundations remaining.

On June 7th, the Feast of St Robert of Newminster, hundreds of parishioners from St Robert's in Fenham, Newcastle, and St Robert of Newminster in Morpeth joined together with Bishop Seamus Cunningham and visitors for a very enjoyable pilgrimage and celebration of Mass at the ruins of the ancient Abbey.

The mass was also signed for the deaf.

St Robert of Newminster (June 7) 850th Anniversary

George Thornton, author of Newminster Abbey writes, ”
On 7 June the feast of our patron, the Cistercian, St. Robert, our two parishes in Fenham and Morpeth, are celebrating the 850th. Anniversary of the saint by meeting at his \Church in Morpeth at 2pm and then walking to the Abbey site,a distance of less than a mile,to have Mass in the old chapter-house.
The chief celebrant will be our newly appointed Bishop Seamus and the preacher willl be the Redemptorist, Father Johnny.
After Mass, we will picnic on site, weather permitting, of course.
This will be a memorable occasion and I have been asked by the organizing Committee to invite Abbot and any members of your community to join us.
A Cistercian presence would add greatly to significance of the occasion. . .”.
At the kind invitation three of monks from Nunraw will share in the historic event.

St Robert of Newminster (June 7) 850th Anniversary

Robert of Newminster (c 1100-59) was a learned Yorkshireman who recognised that holiness scores far higher than scholarship in the scale of Christian values.
Probably born at Gargrave, near Skipton, into a family which a 14th century biography described as "honourable according to their moderate means", Robert proved so clever that he was sent to Paris to study philosophy.

He came to concentrate on theology, and wrote a treatise, long since lost, on the Psalms.

The lesson which Robert imbibed most deeply, however, came from the Sermon on the Mount:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the king­dom of heaven." Having been ordained he returned to Yorkshire and took charge of the church at Gargrave.

Soon, though, feeling the need for a more ascetic life, he joined the community at Whitby Abbey. Still unsatisfied, in 1133 he attached himself to a group of monks from St Mary's, York, who in the previous year had gone to live in the wilds of Skelldale, near Ripon, and decided to adopt the Cistercian rule.

At first the monks lived in a thatched hut under an elm tree and subsisted on a diet of herbs and boiled leaves. In 1135, thanks to the wool merchants of York, they were able to begin building Fountains Abbey, which would be the largest Cistercian monastery in England.
In 1138, however, Robert left Skelldale with 12 other monks to found Newminster Abbey, near Morpeth in Northumberland. The project was financed by a local aristocrat called Ranulf de Merly.

Robert, as abbot, insisted upon absolute poverty, forswearing not just luxuries but sometimes, as it seemed, necessities. When a noble­man came across him in a field and asked to see the head of the monastery, Robert replied: "When I was at the grange the Abbot was there."

Perhaps his ascetic ways were too much for his companions. There was evidence of resistance to his rule when some of his monks whispered that he was becoming too intimate with a local noblewoman.

To defend himself, in 1147 Robert went to see St Bernard at Clairvaux. Bernard declared there could be no culpability in so upright a figure and gave the visitor his girdle, famed for its curative properties. At Citeaux, Robert met Pope Eugenius Ill, who persuaded the Bishop of Durham to confer land on Newminster Abbey.

It was said that Robert once saw the Devil standing at the entrance to the choir at Newminster before extract­ing one of the weaker brethren with the aid of a three-pronged fork.
In the Chronicle of Fountains Robert is remembered as "modest in demeanour, gentle in companionship, merciful in judgment and exemplary in holy conversation" .

Today the remains of Newminster Abbey are swallowed up in undergrowth.

Pentecost Mass

Abbot Kevin of Roscrea Abbey presided at the Abbatial Election on Saturday, May 30, 2009. And he presided at the Liturgy on Sunday.

Abbot Mark preached the Homily.

Pentecost, 2009 11.00am
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles and from then onwards the Church has always been alive. Sometimes, especially through the periods when the Church seemed to go into decline through indifference, persecution, and worse, it appeared to be dead or dying. But even though that tree, which is the Church, looked as if it was on the way out, the sap which is the Holy Spirit has never stopped coursing through its veins. The condition of the Church - of the tree - may have made the Spirit’s work more difficult but the life of the Spirit has always been there. At times of renewal people have been aware of the finger of God touching the Church and giving it new and fresh life. At other periods the Church has been failing and gravely wounded but in truth it has never been dead.

Today is a special day for us at Nunraw because we have come to end of Fr Raymond’s term of office as abbot. We have been forced to begin a new stage of our lives as a community. Needless to say he has been delighted to hand over the baton of his responsibility to another. That other – God help us! - must take it and carry it more like a flame for the benefit of the community.

Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church. It is a time of new birth, new life for all of us. Each of us is called to something new and yet not new. The Spirit comes to us as we are, but in a way that helps to be transformed into something new. We have to change from the old self with its fixed patterns to ones that are open to the Spirit. This doesn’t normally mean that we have to do something radically different but to do the same things in a transformed way. The greatest changes we are called to make are internal. These provide the conditions which produce the fruits of the Spirit more readily and make us ever young in our desire and love for God.

The vision of the early Church living together in a close-knit body living for and with each other, became for the founders of the monastic orders an inspiration and pattern for community life. The reality is that the Acts of the Apostles is describing the life of the ‘ordinary’ Christian, if you can really call someone who tries to live the life that Christ gave us as ordinary.

We are all called to live for others in our prayers and concerns, and in practical ways when we can help them. All of this is not something imposed on us – a burden – a weight too heavy to bear, but something that we are happy to do. To know that we are helping someone in real need is a cause of joy and happiness.

Not that we are necessarily actually feeling good in the course of the deed.
On that first Pentecost there were many people present in Jerusalem. They were astonished when they could understand these Galileans when they spoke to them about Jesus and his risen life. One of the graces of the Holy Spirit is to break down barriers. We all have our different personal ways of looking at life. One of our problems is to see how others understand situations. It is difficult for us to see the diversity of ways that others see life and its problems. With willingness and effort we can appreciate the possible solutions and richness that they can bring to life shared in common. That applies both to monastic life and family life. None of us can appreciate every dimension or aspect of life on our own. Together we see more comprehensively and enjoy more fully. But the cost of the free gifts that the Spirit gives us is the constant effort to understand what God is doing in our lives and in that of each other as we uphold one another in our faith and lives. It is a fact of life that when we look out for each other we make of ourselves a fertile soil for the fruits of the Spirit to flourish. Let us pray for one another that the Holy Spirit come and recreate us to be more truly children of God and faithful witnesses of the gospel. ======================

Abbot Election

At Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw.
Abbatial Election 30 May 2009.

Back: Abbot Augustine (Mellifont), Br. Patrick, Br. Kentigern, Br. Aidan, Fr. Leonard, Br. Philip, Fr. Nivard (Bamenda), Fr. Hugh, Dom Donald, Br. Barry, Fr. Stephen.
Front: Fr. Thomas, Abbot Kevin (Roscrea Mother House), Abbot Mark, Dom Raymond (Emeritus), Fr. Luke.

Pentecost 2009

Homily for Community

PENTECOST 2009.

Br. Barry

‘Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language ‘.

If we were to take these verses from Acts quite literally then the number of devout men who assembled in a bewildered state at the great event of Pentecost would have been around ten thousand. That is the number of languages estimated to have been spoken in the world at that time. Today it is reckoned that there are only half that number – about five thousand languages among the six billion plus people who currently inhabit the globe. Even here in Britain, one native language seems destined to extinction sooner rather than later although another, strange to say, has been revived from the dead, an exception proving the rule. That rule is there is an irreversible trend towards a single, universal language, English being one of the leading contenders to become that world–wide language.

Some see in this trend the influence of the Spirit leading the human race to unity, working through the natural effects of technological development shrinking distances between the peoples of the world. But this drift towards one language for all was not what happened at Pentecost. Then, the disciples began to speak foreign languages – all ten thousand of these languages maybe.

In the language of the Holy Spirit, actions speak louder than words and that includes, on the part of human beings, body language as St. Benedict is at such pains to point out. Actions speak louder than words because words, ultimately, cannot penetrate the mystery of God. They take us so far and then we hit a brick wall. We are left to look to actions and so Luke tells us that it was in the action of the breaking of bread that the disciples recognised the Lord and it is not just in the bread of the Eucharist that we hear the language of God. The blood too, according to the Letter to the Hebrews ‘pleads more insistently than Abel’s’ or as another and better translation has it: ‘ a blood that SPEAKS A BETTER WORD than Abel’s.’

This language of God is a person, the person of Jesus Christ: ‘in these last times he has spoken to us in his Son’. Not so much in the words that the Son preached in the human language of Aramaic but just Christ himself or as the Constitution on Divine Revelation of Vatican Two puts it ‘ the total fact of his presence.’ The same is true of the Church – it is not just the content of its preaching and teaching that makes the Church. Again in the words of the aforementioned document ‘ the Church in her doctrine, her life and her worship perpetuates and hands on to all generations to come, ALL THAT SHE IS and all that she believes.

Human words of course are necessary for God to be known but when they become disconnected from actions then you have the hypocricy of the Pharisees. Words are secondary, as the Evangelist John forcefully points out ‘our love is not to be just words or mere talk but something real and active’. When it comes to the Word of God, however, the distinction between words and actions is a false one for ‘the word of God is something alive and ACTIVE.’ It is an action. It is the opposite of empty words. It is full and it is effective: ‘He spoke and it came into being’.

Nor does it seem necessary to restrict the word of God in its broadest sense to Scripture . This is what Blessed Guerric of Igny says on this matter: ‘ I reckon as God’s own word whatever the Holy Spirit in his mercy sees fit to speak within you – every single word which avails to build up faith, stirring up love.’ And he goes on to speak of ‘words that build up faith, gracious words for all who hear, words that make you give grateful thanks’. So Guerric, like all the Cistercian Fathers is given to quoting the Classical pagan authors when it is useful for him to do so.

In a modern context, the words of a popular song, for example, and not necessarily explicitly religious words, might be the trigger that produces the repentance that leads to faith, the music too playing its part in preparing the ground. It does happen.

On Pentecost day there was a great tumble of words but this was only the Holy Spirit playing in the manner recorded in the Book of Proverbs ‘at play everywhere in this world delighting to be with the sons of men’. St.Paul would point out to the Galatians the real language of the Holy Spirit: ‘what the Spirit brings is……..love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control’.

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Robert of Newminster 850 pending

Pictures associate the memories of one long ago canonized Saint, Robert of Newminster, and the all too vivid recalling the assassination of the Seven Atlas martyrs.

Parishioners from St. Robert of Newminster being on an outing.

They were reminding us of the 850th Anniversary of Saint Robert on the 7th June.

This occasion is being celebrated by the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.There will be an outside Mass at the old Newminster Abbey site lead by the Bishop.

Details from OCSO MENOLOGY

JUNE 7

St Robert of Newminster + 1159

Born in Yorkshire. After studying in Paris, he returned to England, became a parish priest and then a Benedictine at the abbey of Whitby. In 1132 he joined the monks of St Mary's, York, and participated with them in the founding of Fountains.

Seven years later he founded New Minster near Morpeth, Northumberland and became its first abbot. Under his administration, the house prospered so much that it was able to establish three daughter-houses: Pipewell, Roche and Sawley.

Robert wrote a commentary on the Psalms and a book of meditations no longer extant. He "was strict with himself, kind and merciful to others, learned and yet simple."

(MBS, p. 162; NCE, vol. 12, p. 534).

Westminster Archbishop

The BBC gave us the COPY of the words of Archbishop Vincent Nichols in his Installation in Westminster yesterday, May 21, 2009.

The Sermon is a treat, and I could read it with the greatest ease and giving me great heart.

It is too late for the Catholic Weaklies so, for the moment, it is well to place the great Sermon in the Blog.

Archbishop of Westminster:
Full sermon

The Archbishop of Westminster called for true dialogue between faiths
Here is the text of the homily given by the Most Rev Vincent Nichols at his Mass of installation as Archbishop of Westminster.
My brothers and sisters, I welcome you and I thank you all for coming to Westminster Cathedral today. I appreciate the presence and the prayers of each of you.
I greet and thank the Apostolic Nuncio, here representing the Holy Father. Through him, I thank Pope Benedict for the confidence that he has placed in me in making this appointment and for his blessing as I take it up.
I thank the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal, for his presence and Lord Guthrie for representing the Prince of Wales. We are honoured that you are here.
I am grateful also to Mr Paul Murphy, here representing the prime minister. I appreciate too the presence of politicians and civic leaders.

"Faith in God is the gift that takes us beyond our limited self, with all its incessant demands. It opens us to a life that stretches us, enlightens us, and often springs surprises upon us."

I salute all the bishops, priests and deacons who are here, especially Their Eminences Cardinal Mahony from Los Angeles, Cardinal O'Brien of St Andrews and Edinburgh and Cardinal Sean Brady from Armagh. I am so glad to see so many fellow church leaders and leaders of other Faiths, from the West Midlands and, of course, from London.
I thank Archbishop Rowan for his gracious words of welcome, too. I thank the BBC for broadcasting this ceremony live on television and I greet all those joining us at home.
May I also express my deep appreciation to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor for the very warm welcome that he has given to me and for his unfailing encouragement and support.
Much more importantly, on behalf of so many, I want to salute the tremendous contribution he has made both to the Diocese of Westminster and to the Catholic Church nationally and internationally in his years as Archbishop of Westminster.
His leadership has been unflinching and often very courageous, and I know that he will always have a special place in our affections and prayers.
The readings of the Scriptures that we have heard today centre on the figure of St Paul and we have heard Paul's own account of his dramatic conversion to Christ on the road to Damascus. It is a story of great power and one from which we can draw much encouragement.

"This is a vision of true social cohesion, a promise which lies ahead and a signpost of which churches construct, Sunday by Sunday, with their communities of unity in diversity."

In the first place, we learn that Paul was, 'a zealous believer in God'. His conversion then was not to belief in God but to belief in God's full presence in Jesus Christ.
This fact is important to us all. Through life-long belief, Paul was already open to the things of God, ready to recognise the touch of the Divine in the unexpected.
This is the true nature of the belief in God: it opens us to all that lies beyond. It's a constant invitation to go beyond our immediate knowledge and awareness, and even our current commitments. Faith in God is not, as some would portray it today, a narrowing of the human mind or spirit.
It is precisely the opposite. Faith in God is the gift that takes us beyond our limited self, with all its incessant demands. It opens us to a life that stretches us, enlightens us, and often springs surprises upon us. Such faith, like love, sees that which is invisible and lives by it.
From Paul, then, we learn that the inner life of each one of us is crucial for our wellbeing. In our hearts we need the same openness to God as he had.
This is expressed in daily moments of tranquillity and prayer when we regain a true sense of proportion, recognising afresh that God alone fulfils our deepest yearnings. Without such moments we quickly lose a sense of who we truly are.
It is before God that we gather here today, that he may touch and heal us.
But let us return to the Damascus road. Paul hears remarkable words: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He recognises the voice of the Lord.
Now he has to embrace the real identification between the risen Christ and the community of Christians he is persecuting. This is a troubling identification and it remains so today.

"Respectful dialogue is crucial today and I salute all who seek to engage in it. In this the media have such an important part to play, not by accentuating difference and conflict, but by enhancing creative conversation."

Those who embrace belief in Christ Jesus are bound together in Him, in a real yet incomplete way, in his Body, the Church.
Faith is never a solitary activity nor can it be simply private Faith in Christ always draws us into a community and has a public dimension.
This community of faith reaches beyond ethnicity, cultural difference and social division, opening for us a vision of ourselves, and of our society, as having a single source and a single fulfilment.
Indeed this vision of faith is expressed powerfully by St Paul when, in his letter to the Galatians, he says that in Christ, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus".
This is a vision of true social cohesion, a promise which lies ahead and a signpost of which churches construct, Sunday by Sunday, with their communities of unity in diversity.
Faith builds community and it expresses itself in action.
As a society, if we are to build on this gift of faith, we must respect its outward expression not only in honouring individual conscience but also in respecting the institutional integrity of the communities of faith in what they bring to public service and to the common good.
Only in this way will individuals, families and faith communities become whole-hearted contributors to building the society we rightly seek.

"At the heart of Paul's effort in Athens was an appeal to reason. He did not seek to impose his beliefs, nor exploit anxiety or fear. Rather he had learned that his faith in Christ was compatible with the mind's capacity for reasoned thought "

Paul's conversion on the Damascus road has a third aspect to it. His life is now centred on Christ and the Church. But he also grasps a truth about all creation. And he wants to share it.
In Christ his mind is now open, even to pagan philosophy. He now has the courage and the determination to go, for example, to the Areopagus in Athens and engage with the Greek philosophers.
He struggles to find the language in which the insights and light of Christian faith can be brought into dialogue with the finest minds of his age.
As we know, his attempts at the Areopagus were not very successful. Yet this is a reminder of the task facing us all: that of the intense dialogue across faiths and our contemporary world.
At the heart of Paul's effort in Athens was an appeal to reason. He did not seek to impose his beliefs, nor exploit anxiety or fear. Rather he had learned that his faith in Christ was compatible with the mind's capacity for reasoned thought.
Indeed it complemented it. Some today propose that faith and reason are crudely opposed, with the fervour of faith replacing good reason.
This reduction of both faith and reason inhibits not only our search for truth but also the possibility of real dialogue. In contrast, as Pope John Paul memorably said: "Faith and reason are the two wings on which the human spirit soars." (Fides et Ratio n.1)
This dialogue needs to go beyond the superficial and the slogans. Respectful dialogue is crucial today and I salute all who seek to engage in it. In this the media have such an important part to play, not by accentuating difference and conflict, but by enhancing creative conversation.
Let us be a society in which we genuinely listen to each other, in which sincere disagreement is not made out to be insult or harassment, in which reasoned principles are not construed as prejudice and in which we are prepared to attribute to each other the best and not the worst of motives.

"We human beings are not plasticine figures, to be moulded into shape at the hands of a political ideology, or under economic demands. Nor, at the end of the day, can we shape ourselves as we please, according to fashion or our untutored desires. We are not self-made. "

In these matters, we ourselves in the Churches have so much to learn and do.
Yet we also have much to contribute.
Paul's experience of the Risen Christ fired him with a new enthusiasm, a powerful commitment to the truth of humanity made clear in Christ. It was this experience that enabled Paul to face all the challenges of life with what he called "the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus".
This knowledge, which is of love, discloses the true worth of our humanity, our real dignity.
This is its supreme advantage. For we human beings are not plasticine figures, to be moulded into shape at the hands of a political ideology, or under economic demands.
Nor, at the end of the day, can we shape ourselves as we please, according to fashion or our untutored desires.
We are not self-made. Our humanity, thankfully, is more deeply rooted and therefore resilient.
Indeed our humanity is a gift to be respected not only from its beginnings to its natural end, but also in the other ethical demands it places on us all.
Tragically this humanity is often corrupted and distorted, by the misuse of power, by every evil and disaster.
But so often we see that the miracle of love is stronger than such corruption. Love has the power to reveal again the depth and truth of our humanity.

"The paradox of faith is that when we conform our lives to Christ then we gain our true freedom. And its fruit is profound and lasting happiness."

This is achieved in the enduring love of parent for a wayward child, in the love of friend or spouse faithful through every crisis, and in the unconditional love given by the saint, often to the poorest and most forgotten.
This is the love given supremely in Christ, and in him crucified. In Him we find an unambiguous declaration, a manifesto, of our humanity in its full stature.
And this manifesto is not a pamphlet but a person. It is, therefore, an invitation to know Him and be known by Him, to love Him and be loved by Him and so with Him find the fullness of life.
In Christ we see a maturity of love that flowers in self-sacrifice and forgiveness; a maturity of power that never swerves from the ideal of service; a maturity of goodness that overcomes every temptation, and, of course, we see the ultimate victory of life over death itself.
In Christ our true destiny is proclaimed in the resurrection of the dead and his promised eternal fulfilment of life in the new heaven and new earth.
The paradox of faith is that when we conform our lives to Christ then we gain our true freedom. And its fruit is profound and lasting happiness.
This is the testimony of the true disciples of Jesus, great and humble alike. It is a testimony which shines across the ages and still in our day.

"As St Paul tells us: "Be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind."

As I take up this new office, I ask for God's blessing. May we be deeply rooted in the Lord, and, at the same time, open to every prompting of the Holy Spirit.
As St Paul tells us: "Be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind... think of other people's interests first... in your minds be the same as Christ Jesus."
May this be the experience of every family, in all of our schools, and in our parishes.
From this wellspring emerges a profound desire to reach out to all, to engage in the work of building a world that reflects a little more closely the compassion, the justice, the tender mercy of God.
This is the inspiration of Christian faith and one that serves our society well. This is the vision to which I readily commit myself today and for which I ask for your prayers and cooperation.

RESONSE:

How wonderful to have obtained the text of Archbishop Vincent Nichols' homily! - and what a superb homily.... I have saved numerous extracts, not least: "Faith in God is the gift that takes us beyond our limited self... It opens us to a life that stretches us, enlightens us, and often springs surprises upon us. Such faith, like love, sees that which is invisible and lives by it." I very much hope that we may often hear his voice in the years to come. I note that Cardinal O'Brien was present. Perhaps you might fill me in as to his background when I come - on my list to ask!

William W.

Ascension Thursday

Ascension Thursday 21 May 2009 –

Homily, Fr. Aelred

When the time came for Jesus to finally leave this world, he took his Apostles up to the top of the Mount of Olives. He was returning to the Father. He was going to glory. As he ascended he directed their eyes upwards, towards the place where he was going.

But he also pointed their eyes outwards. He showed them that there was a great world out there waiting to hear the Gospel. He gave them the task of bringing the Gospel to that vast world, and promised to send them the Holy Spirit to equip them to that task.
The apostles liked it on the hill, so much so that they wanted to remain there. But a voice called them back to reality: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the heavens?” Even though they had to go back down into the real world, their lives would never be the same.

This feast is as much about us as about Jesus. His ascension shows us where the goal of our earthly journey lies. It is a goal and a destiny which is beyond our imagination. It pushes out our horizons beyond the boundaries of this world. It gives an eternal dimension to our lives.

Jesus went back to the source, the Alpha and the Omega. This is the meaning of his Ascension. It is not a journey into an outer space, but a journey home. His Ascension does not represent his removal from the earth, but his constant presence everywhere on earth. During his earthly ministry he could only be in one place at a time. But now that he is united with God, He is present wherever; and that is everywhere.

We live in the hope that the words of Jesus will come true for us :’Where I am, you too shall be’. Meanwhile we have a task to do: to preach the Gospel and to be his witness in the world.

That’s a task that we fulfil principally by the way we live our daily lives.
The Gospel may speak of some of the marvels associated with believers in the early days of the Church, such as healings, and casting out of devils and speaking with tongues. But we too, in our own small, less dramatic way – by our patience, our little acts of kindness, our concern for others, our readiness to forgive, our joy, our humble living out to the Gospel – we too are bearing witness to our Lord’s message, we too are living signs confirming that Jesus has risen.

Jesus has ascended.

Jesus is Lord.

Monks of Tibhirine 21 May 1996

We are grateful to our friend William for the annual memorial in Red Roses and in writing as we remember the martyrdom of our Seven Brothers of Our Lady of Atlas of Tibhirine.
The meditation and poem of William reflect how deeply he has been influenced by the story and life of the Atlas Martyrs.

The "Martyrdom"of charity
Christian de Chergé
Maundy Thursday 31 March 1994

- - We did not ask how or why. We leave it to God to decide how this gift will be used, its destination day after day, right to the end. Alas, we have all lived long enough to know that it is impossible to do everything out of love, and so to be able to claim that our life is a witness to love, a “martyrdom” of love. “What takes genius is to love”, writes Jean d’Ormesson, “and Christianity is a thing of genius”. This is absolutely true, but I am no genius! From experience we know that little things often cost a lot, particularly when we have to go on doing them day after day. It’s all right to have to wash ones brothers’ feet on Maundy Thursday ... but how about doing it everyday? or washing the feet of anyone who turns up? When Fr. Bernardo (Abbot General) told us that the Order has more need of monks than martyrs, he was not, of course, referring to this type of martyrdom, which is in fact what shapes the monk through so many little things. We have given our heart to God once and for all, and we find it hard when he takes it piecemeal. Taking up an apron, as Jesus did, can be as serious and solemn an act as to lay down ones life ... and conversely, laying down ones life may be as simple as taking up an apron. We should tell ourselves this when the everyday tasks or deeds of love weigh on us with this threat which also has to be shared with all. We know from our own experience that it is easier to give to one person than to another, to love one brother or sister more than another, even in community.

Heritage Too Big
Vol ii 1. Maryrdom of charity
Maundy Homily of Christian

A Particle of Love
The apostles and the martyrs, amidst much personal pain and anguish, bore the message of faith in their lives for all to see, and today the apostolic spirit continues to bear witness in the life of the Church. A few are called to heroic service and sacrifice, but many more are chosen to become hidden martyrs of love in their daily lives. We all can offer our ordinary lives to Our Saviour in total selflessness wherever we may be, the faith that we have being our own conviction before God, bearing witness that we have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in us; that the life we are living in the body we live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved us and gave Himself for us, and thus become, in evidence to the faith we profess, a particle of love. Rom 14:22 Gal 2:19-20

A Particle of Love

I love to hope that the little that I am
May fall as a grain upon the ocean sands,
Unseen by man as he walks the shore
Hidden evidence of love beneath his feet.

To suffer swirling tides and battering gales,
Amid tossing seas and crashing waves,
Between vast boulders and jagged rocks
To fall and there be finely crushed.

On winter flood-tides to drift unseen
Amidst watery plant and debris torn,
In summer heat to lie baked and dry
There lost with every semblance gone. *

And then within the Hand that strains
Each grain of finely sifted sand,
Freely through the fingers of eternity
To fall in evidence as a particle of love.

* Mat 16:25 Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for Me will find it

Monks of Tibhirine of Algeria

Memories of the Seven Atlas Martyrs come to mind at 21 May each year.
During this month our Chapter community reading, before Compline, has been from the Ten Monastic Journeys in the book, “Touched by God”. The chapter, “The Most Unexpected Places” contributed by Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, monk of Work Abbey, tells us of how the story of the Monks of Tibhirine of Algeria has been a powerful inspiration in his monastic life.

Excerpts from “The Most Unexpected Places”:

. . .Who could ever have imagined that almost a half-century later I would, as a monk and priest of Worth Abbey, look out of an aeroplane window on Thursday, 7 April 2005 and, with growing excitement, see the Algerian coastline for the first time just as a brutal civil war was petering out. On my return to Worth I wrote to Mgr Henri Teissier, Archbishop of Algiers, to thank him for la plus belle semaine de ma vie - the best week of my life. How could that be, you may ask? Was this sentence an example of my Celtic tendency to exaggerate? I am not sure that a clear answer can be given. As a Francophile, the love-hate relationship of the French people with Algeria had drawn me to that country. Above all, however, I had been drawn there by the 19 Christian martyrs who had offered their lives (1994--96) out of love for a Muslim people. In a sense I was on a pilgrimage to discover the source of this love which ultimately flows from Jesus' love for us, a love which impelled him freely to offer his life on our behalf So perhaps here was to be found the deepest motivation for my strange interest and journey, and also my motivation for becoming a monk. . .

A Growing Fascination with Algeria
. . . The missionary instinct has always been part of the English Benedictine Congregation since its re-foundation on the Continent in the seventeenth century. In a rather unexpected way my missionary instinct has found in recent years an outlet through contact with the Algerian Church. The kidnapping of the seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine, a monastery located about 60 miles south of Algiers, in March 1996 by the CIA, an Islamic armed group, made media headlines throughout the world. Strangely enough, I can't recall following the story. In fact the plight of the Christian remnant in Algeria only gradually gripped my imagination, and the person responsible for this was Mgr Henri Teissier, Archbishop of Algiers. On 12 January 1997 The Tablet carried an interview with Mgr Teissier which deeply impressed me. I sensed something of his love for the Algerian people and his conviction that the Gospel was truly Good News, something of ultimate importance. The journalist wrote that he ‘was moved by [his] visit to a priest of such dedication and fortitude'. Algeria at this time was caught up in a ruthless civil war between the Islamic fundamentalists who wished to impose the Sharia, or Islamic law, and a military-backed government. Mgr Teissier’s courage and desire to stay alongside the Algerian people in their hour of need touched me.
I then forgot about the article and got on with the demands of being school chaplain and living the monastic round. During the school holiday's I suddenly felt inspired to write a word of support to Archbishop Teissier. I didn't have his address and just sent my short letter to the Archeveque d' Alger, Alger, Algeria and promptly forgot all about it. To my surprise a few months later a reply arrived written on behalf of the Archbishop by Fr John MacWilIiam, a former student of Worth School. I didn't know that Fr John, a White Father, was in Algeria so this added another twist to the plot.
Discovering this unknown link with Algeria whetted my interest. John came to visit Worth School and monastery on a few occasions and so my interest grew. In the summer of 2004 I visited the Tibhirine community which had regrouped in Morocco after the beheading of seven of their members in 1996. Worries about travelling on my own to the unknown world of North Africa were lessening and, encouraged by some of my monastic brethren, I decided that the time was ripe for a visit, or rather a pilgrimage, to the Algerian Church. So I emailed two people in Algiers, putting out feelers about the possibility of spending some time there. The first request received no reply. The second, sent a few weeks later, also drew a blank. The silence was ominous. I decided that I would have to give up this dream as it wasn't meant to be. The Lord wasn't in it. Shortly after resigning myself to not going to Algeria, I received an email horn Mgr Teissier inviting me to come and stay with him at the Diocesan House: 'We will welcome you with great joy'. The second person whom I had emailed had forwarded my letter to the Archbishop. So my prayers had been answered but only after I had first accepted an apparent 'No'.
I made my first visit to Algeria in April 2005, and in meeting Mgr Teissier, the people and clergy, I was energized by their love far and warm relationships with their Muslim brothers and sisters. I had drunk at the pure fountain of the Gospel message in all its wonderful simplicity. A second and more demanding visit followed in March/April 2006. At Archbishop Teissier’s suggestion I have written a book about the 19 martyrs, (Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People. Paulist Press, forthcoming), 19 lives freely given out of love for their Muslim brothers and sisters. This contact with a Church of martyrs, a Church which loves and is greatly loved by her Muslim friends, has been a deep source of inspiration for me. I have no idea where this interest will lead as visiting Algeria isn't easy. At the very least my three short visits to North Africa have given mc the ability to sec Muslims as fellow believers and as brothers and sisters made in the image and likeness of the one God. A monastic vocation can lead you to the most unexpected places!

“Touched by God: Ten Monastic Journeys”,

includes Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, monk of Work Abbey.
Edit L. Johns OSB,

Continuum International Publishing Group – Burns & Oats 10 April 2008.

Book:

“Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People” is written by Father Martin McGee, an English Benedictine monk of Worth Abbey.
(Publisher: Paulist Press, Publication Date: 2 September 2008)

Tells the moving story of the nineteen priests and sisters who were assassinated in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 during a reign of terror by Islamic fundamentalists

Synopsis
In the mid 1990s, Algerian society was terrorized by the GIA (The Armed Islamic Group), a fundamentalist organization that had given an ultimatum to all foreigners : depart or die. At the time, the beheading of seven Trappist monks at the Tibherine monastery was widely reported in the world press. This book tells their story, but also tells the story of twelve other priests and religious sisters who, like the Monks of Tibherine, had courageously chosen to stay in Algeria despite the threat, and who ultimately paid for their dedication with their lives. Drawing on letters, journals, and his own interviews with people who knew the nineteen religious, the author shows how they operated schools, performed vital medical assistance, sponsored community gardens, taught trades, prepared students for state examinations, and maintained libraries mainly in poor neighborhoods and rural villages. By witnessing Christ in their actions without ever attempting to make converts, the nineteen martyrs won the love of the Algerian people, a love that did not cease with their deaths.