Feast of the Visitation May Thu 31st

P.S. Only last day of May brings to mind both the the Artwork of the front cover of MAGNIFICAT and the Dominican article.

THE VISITATION

Front cover: The Visitation, Pietro di Francesco degli Orioli (1458- 1496), Pinacoteca, Siena, Italy. © La Collection / Domingie & Rabatti. (For more information on this painting, please see the commentary on p.432.)  MAGNIFICAT,May 2012

Leap For joy!

Artwork of the front cover.

In the fifteenth century, the representation of the Visitation becomes much more than a simple pictorial narration of the Gospel of Luke (1: 39ff). It serves as a window through which to contemplate the mystery of God who visits and redeems his people. On the surface, the Visitation by Pietro Orioli depicts a touching family reunion, based on the apocryphal gospels. Here we see Zechariah and Elizabeth, first cousins of the Virgin Mary (An ne, the mother of Mary, had a sister, Esmeria, who was Elizabeth's mother), who greet Mary of Nazareth in the courtyard of their home. Our Lady is accompanied by two of her sisters (or sisters-in-law), Mary Salorne (blonde), wife of Zebedee, and Mary of Clopas (brunette). All four women are visibly pregnant, with, respectively, John the Baptist, Jesus, lames the Greater, and lames "the brother of the Lord" (and first bishop of Jerusalem). However, as a clear sign that Mary's pregnancy is incomparable to that of any other woman, the artist has clothed the Mother of God in an immaculate white dress, symbol of both the baptism she received in advance and her virginity.

Beyond these anecdotal allusions, this family encounter conveys a profound symbolic meaning: the intertwined hands of Elizabeth, the elderly woman, and of Mary, younger than sin, enact the transition from the Chosen People to the Church, from the old Covenant to the new and eternal Covenant. At right in the painting, the Old Testament is represented by Zechariah the high priest, by Elizabeth who bears John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, and by a servant who personifies the Law that withdraws before the Word made flesh. At left, the New Testament is represented by the Virgin Mary. Present within the tabernacle of her womb, the Saviour of the world announced by the prophets is authenticated by the leaping of John the Baptist. And here we see the two other Marys, pregnant with apostles, future pillars of the Church. They will remain standing, faithful, at the foot of the cross, and at the tomb they will be among the first witnesses to the Resurrection.

• Pierre-Marie Dumont

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

A Lesson of the Visitation

When Mary was greeted in this way by her elderly cousin Elizabeth, she at once sang her Magnificat, that great song of joy and of self-knowledge in God: "My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in the Lord God, my Saviour!" Mary was not able to respond in this way when she was greeted by the angel Gabriel. No - what in the end occasioned her joy were words spoken to her by Elizabeth, her elderly relative, very simple and very humble words of delighted recognition: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" There is here, if I'm not mistaken, an important but unexpected lesson. Sometimes we might be inclined to think that, without the confirmation of some interior vision or some deep experience in prayer, we cannot hope to know the joy of God's love for us. But Mary's experience at the Visitation reminds us that such a deep and joyful realisation can be the result of a simple good deed or act of generosity done to someone in need. Again and again, to our astonishment, we discover that it is in the poor, in those who need our help, that the Lord is waiting to fill us with the knowledge, the joyful knowledge that we are loved. And this knowledge is knowledge that heals. If we, who know ourselves to be wounded in some way, make an effort to help others who are suffering, if we "share our bread with the hungry" and try to "shelter the homeless poor" or make a visit to someone in need like Mary, then, according to the prophet Isaiah, not only will we experience enlightenment of some kind, but "[our] wound will quickly be healed over" (Is 58: 6-8) . And why? Because in those who are most in need of help we will meet Christ himself: "Whatever you do to one of these, the least of my brothers, you do to me."

Door into the Sacred: a Meditation on the Hail Mary 2011.By Father Murray OP. Also his books include T S Eliot and Mysticism and A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment.  

Nunneries are on the rise. -The Times

MEDIA MONITORING

Why more women are becoming nuns

1 May 2012

Tuesday May 1 2012 - THE TIMES

After years of falling numbers of women taking religious orders, applications to nunneries are on the rise.

Ruth Gledhill investigates why

Until recently, nuns in Britain had fallen out of the habit. In parts of the country, years went by without any women seeking to get themselves to a nunnery. Then, suddenly, convents have reported a spike in interest.

In the past three years the number of women entering the religious life has nearly tripled from 6 to 17 and there are also many more who have entered convents but have not not yet taken their initial vows. This influx is thought to be a result of the Pope's visit to Britain last year. Such has been the sudden surge in inquiries that religious orders have had to ask bishops how to cope, so unused to receiving new vocations have they become, and so accepting of the received wisdom that, with many convents closing and being sold off, their way of life was likely to be coming to an end.

Now, if these inquiries result in more women taking their vows and becoming novices, numbers could edge back up to where they were in the early I980s, when more than a hundred women a year took vows as sisters in enclosed and other religious orders.

This week, the media have reported that even a former girlfriend of the Prime Minister has become a nun called Sister John Mary. "I thought of marriage ... then God called," Laura Adshead,44, a former pupil of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, told a television documentary about the Benedectine orders he joined, the Abbey of Re gin a Laudis in the Connecticut hills in the US.

Her documentary tells a story of heartbreak and addiction before finding God in recovery. The documentary, God is the Bigger Elvis, shows photographs of her smoking, posing in a leopard-print top and drinking a glass of wine.

She says: "I feel like I tried most things in life that are supposed to make you happy. That journey took me down into alcoholism and drug addiction."

She felt called to the religious life in 2008.

"I remember having to tell my mother, 'I'm going to join the abbey,' and she said, 'Yes, I can see this world has no real meaning for you any more'." I looked at this place and saw women who had what I wanted. You make a decision here to surrender your life to God."

The documentary's title is inspired by the convent's prioress, a former actress who starred with Elvis Presley in two of his films, Loving You and King Creole, before becoming a nun in 1963.

Sister John Mary's journey seems to reflect a new trend in parts of the world, including the UK, where, after years of apparently relentless decline, vocations to the religious life are on the increase.

Take the Congregation of Jesus in York. After years of no activity at all, six women have sought to enter the order in the space ofl2 months. At the Society of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton there has also been a rise, with three women due to join the novitiate later this year.

Many young British women have also gone to New York to join the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal after meeting Franciscan friars from Canning Town, East London, who are active at Catholic youth events. The Franciscan Sisters have a house in Leeds, although novices still go to New York for their formation.

       

Sister Hazel Buckley, novice directress at another order, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood at Clapham Common, London, says she had no novices for 12 years but now has a first-year novice, a woman born in the Philippines but who lived in England for 20 years before joining the order. Two more are due to arrive from Singapore this summer.

"One noticeable thing is that people who are thinking about religious life now are much farther on in their lives than when I started," she says.

"That was 1958. I was 23 and T was considered a late vocation.

"At that time, people entered on the whole at 18. Now they are making their life choices much later."

Sister Buckley says that many women were reaching their thirties and forties wl.th deep feelings of insecurity. "They

might not have had secure relationships or a secure home. They start to think about what really matters."

Father Christopher Jamison director of the National Office for Vocation, and former abbot of Worth Abbey, West Sussex, Who on Friday announced a new national vocations framework for the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, said the three-year-project was a response to the call by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Britain last year

for young people to ask themselves what kind of person they would really like to be.

Father Jamison said: "Many people today,: especially the young find : It difficult to listen to their deepest spiritual desires, so the Church needs to offer a structured approach to vocation if the call of Christ is to be heard by more people."  He continued: "It's against a background that's surprisingly upbeat given the general perception of the state ofthe clergy and religious life in this country. In the last few years, the number of people applying to seminaries has been gradually increasing and, in more recent years, just in the last couple of years, ever since the Papal visit, the number of women approaching women's congregations has also been increasing."  It was not fully reflected yet in the figures because i t takes time from an initial approach to become a novice, said Father Jamison, "But it is certainly more than anecdotal. There are congregations of wo men who have been contacting us to say, 'Could you help us because it's been a while since we've had this sort of response: and so we are now happily supporting them in dealing with an increase."  Judith Eydmann, development co-ordinator of the National Office for Vocation, says: "For young women itis not j ust the life that is attractive. They 

One of the things

that is checked

is a person's

motivation

feel that it is what Christ has called them to, the total dedication of their lives to the service of God. We have moved away from a model of recruitment to one of discernment and that gives people a safe environment in which they can make safe choices."

She says new Catholic movements such as Youth 2000 have been key to the increase. Among the general Catholic population of more than five mi Ilion across the UK, aboutlO per cent have had contact with new movements but among those entering monasteries, convents and seminaries, the proportion is 50 per cent.

In a further new development, one in five of the new vocations are converts to Catholicism, compared with the 1970s when nearly all those seeking to become cradle Catholics. In spite of Sister John Marys story of recovery from addiction, Eydmann says this was not the norm.

"Most people entering a congregation

or religious seminary are given a detailed psychological assessment over a whole weekend," she says. "One of the things that is checked is a person's motivation. Going to a monastery or religious life cannot be an escape from things such as addiction because a person is confronted with them self in a very profound way when they enter formation."

It might not be an escape, but in seeking a spiritual path away from the stresses and pressures of modern life and towards a closer relationship with God, it is once more being seen as an option – one that is more than just another lifestyle choice.

Whether these newly formed nuns are finding God, or God is finding them, the religious life is coming back into fashion as one that offers not so

, much riches, but a way of life exemplified by courage, wisdom and serenity - not bad for women who might be tempted to think they haven't a prayer.

Why more women are becoming nuns? The Times

Fr. T. was the Reader in the Pulpit of the Refectory Wednesday 2nd May.
The community picked up their ears to some news from THE TIMES.

Why more women are becoming nuns

Until recently, nuns in Britain had fallen out of the habit. In parts of the country, years went by without any women seeking to get themselves to a nunnery. Then, suddenly, convents have reported a spike in interest. In the past three years the number of women entering the religious life
May 01 2012 12:01 AM.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Ruth-Gledhill

Ruth Gledhill

FURNESS ABBEY - RARE MEDIEVAL TREASURES FOUND

---- Forwarded Message -----
From: Trevor . . .
To: Donald. . . . 
Sent: Monday, 23 April 2012, 8:47
Subject: Furness Abbey crozier

Attach an image of the abbot's crozier discovered last week at furness abbey, cumbria. alice leach has taken some phots of the crozier which i'll forward when i receive them.

  [Edit: high-light]

the next issue will be what english heritage may decide to do with the skeletal remains of the abbot (and others????). will they be re-interred at furness or would a "live" cistercian abbey take the remains?

should the remains be re-interred at furness would nunraw and msb be interseted in sending representatives to sucha service?

will keep you updated as english heritage investigations continue.

regards.

trevor.

_____________________________________________________________

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/rare-medieval-treasures-found-at-furness-abbey/

19 APRIL 2012

RARE MEDIEVAL TREASURES FOUND AT FURNESS ABBEY

An extremely rare medieval silver-gilt crozier and bejewelled ring discovered during emergency repairs to the ruins of Furness Abbey in Cumbria – one of the great monasteries of England and in the care of English Heritage – will go on display at the Abbey over the May bank holiday weekend (Friday 4 - Monday 7 May 2012). The head of the crozier or staff is particularly beautiful and is decorated with gilded silver medallions showing the Archangel Michael defeating a dragon.

Curator Susan Harrison with the Furness Abbey crozier

Founded in 1124 by Stephen, later King of England, the monastery was originally located at Tulketh, near Preston but the monks moved to Furness in 1127. Furness Abbey was one of the richest and most powerful Cistercian Abbeys in the country. By 2010, the “antique walls” which had once inspired poet William Wordsworth and painter J M W Turner, had started to crack as their rotting medieval wooden foundations gave way.

EXCAVATION AND DISCOVERY

During excavations, led by Oxford Archaeology North, to investigate the seriousness of the problem, the undisturbed grave of an abbot – one of the heads of the monastery – was uncovered. An initial examination of his skeleton, which is currently in the care of Oxford Archaeology North, indicated that he was probably between 40 and 50 years old when he died.  Like many monastic burials of middle-aged and older men, he had a pathological condition of the spine often considered to be associated with obesity and mature-onset (Type II) diabetes. The grave – which could date to as early as the 1150’s – also included the decorated crozier and a gemstone ring. The grave was situated in the presbytery, the most prestigious position in the church and generally reserved for the richest benefactors.  Most Cistercian abbots were buried in the chapter house.

Kevin Booth, Senior Curator at English Heritage, said: “This is a very rare find which underlines the Abbey’s status as one of the great power bases of the Middle Ages.While we don’t yet know the identity of the abbot, he was clearly someone important and respected by the monastic community. Given that the crozier and ring have been buried for over 500 years, they are in remarkable condition. Further research is required but before that, we are inviting the public to come to Furness Abbey on the early May bank holiday and see these wonderful finds.”

The head of the crozier is made of gilded copper and decorated with gilded silver medallions showing the Archangel Michael defeating a dragon. The crozier’s crook or end is decorated with a serpent’s head.  It may have been the Abbot’s own crozier or commissioned specially for his burial. An abbot or bishop usually held a crozier with his left hand, leaving his right hand free to bestow blessings. Remarkably a small section of the painted wooden staff survives as do remains of the cloth designed to prevent the abbot from touching the crozier with his bare hands. The ring is gilded silver and set with a gemstone of a white rock crystal or white sapphire. It is possible that a hollow behind the gemstone contains a relic, part of the body of a saint or a venerated person.

The Abbot’s Ring is set with a gemstone of a white rock crystal or white sapphire

Set in the “vale of nightshade”, the red sandstone ruins of Furness Abbey were celebrated by Wordsworth in his Prelude of 1805 and Turner produced several etchings of the site. Wordsworth described the Abbey as a “mouldering pile with fractured arch” and was so charmed by the song of a single wren that he professed, “I could have made my dwelling-place and lived for ever there.”

To prevent further fractures from the sinking foundations and ensure that the abbey continues to inspire future poets, artists and visitors, English Heritage installed a temporary steel frame to support the cracking walls. Over the next few years, the Abbey will be underpinned and stabilised so that its future will be secured for generations to come. 

Furness Abbey

The crozier and ring will be on display at Furness Abbey from Friday 4 until Monday 7 May 2012, 10am-5pm

Also of Interest:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/furness-abbey/

Melrose (Abbey) Heart of Bruce

Melrose Abbey - heart and crown symbolising Bruce's heart

Archie, KCT, and a friend  Alex, visited us this afternoon.

One event recently was the discovery of an exciting
memorial of the Heart of Bruce at Melrose Abbey.

^{In the manner of the BBC Antique Roadshow, Archie, in a Melrose shop,
found a wrought moulded commemoration of Robert Bruce's heart.} 

^{He is an enthusiast for the like of this antique.} 

^{He aimed to get back to purchase it only it was already bought - so disappointed!}

^{Before Christmas, a package was delivered at home for his wife.} 

^{To their amazement the object was the 'sculpture' of Heart of Bruce.} 

^{It was an even more surprising Christmas gift - it was won by Joan in a Raffle.}

^{The photographs show the size of the model. It is already used in cermonial events of the Knights.}

The Knights Templars of the Preceptory and Priory of St. Bernard De Clairvaux prepare to celebrate the Feast of Pentcost, Sunday 7th. May. at Nunraw

^{Local school history fills out the details regarding the motto of the Bruce's rallying cry, 'DOE OR DIE'.} 

Table-top dimensions of Robert Bruce's memorial.

The Kelso High School - School Badge
www.kelso.scotborders.sch.uk » Information
The Kelso High School badge was adopted when the school was opened and is based on the Coat of Arms of Douglas of Springwood, an estate just across the River Tweed from Kelso.
The leader of the Scots, King Robert the Bruce, having successfully gained Scottish independence from England, was keen to go on the crusades to the Holy Land. However, ill health prevented this and he died in 1329. He made his close ally, Sir James Douglas, promise to take his heart to the Holy Land after his death.

After he died, Bruce's heart was wrapped in lead and placed in a silver casket. Douglas, together with some followers, set off to fight in the crusades. They landed at Seville in Spain and joined the fighting there. Douglas was killed in battle at Zebas de Ardales on 25th March 1330. His body and Bruce's heart were brought back to Scotland and Bruce's heart was buried at Melrose Abbey.
In recognition of this deed, the Douglas' were awarded the Coat of Arms with the heart and crown symbolising Bruce's heart. The motto 'Doe or Die' commemorate Bruce's rallying cry to his troops "let us do or die" before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and immortalised by Robert Burns in his famous song Scots Wa' Hae. The badge was adopted by Kelso High School when it was founded.