Sunday, 16 June 2013

St Columba 1450th Anniversary Iona pictures

ALBUM.























































































 



     





















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The Nunnery

Cnoc a' Chalmain: Oratory east window
Prayer House - entrance to oratory

St Oran's Chapel

Street of The Dead

St Columba’s arrival on Iona

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Mennini
presided over the Mass on Sunday


Picture of Nuncio with Crozier.   Oban and Iona: Abbot Mark and four other monks from Nunraw shared in the pilgrimage to St Columba, to mark the 1450th anniversary.  The photos were taken by Br. Seamus.

Pending other photos ..... 
Quote from Bishop Joseph Toal, "Never forget, every saint has a past… and every sinner has a future!"

Disappointing; we do not have the Homily by the Nuncio at the Mass on Iona.



‘Saints’ preserve us still
1450th anniversary of St Columba’s arrival on Iona
marked by national Year of Faith Mass in Oban
 http://www.sconews.co.uk/latest-edition/29160/saints-preserve-us-still/ 

THE Catholic Church in Scotland needs the prayers and support of those in monastic life now as much as it did when St Columba arrived in 563, the Bishop of Argyll and Isles told those gathered for the national Year of Faith Mass in Oban.
Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Mennini presided over the Mass on Sunday, the solemnity of St Columba, to mark the 1450th anniversary of the arrival of 6th century Irish abbot and missionary on Iona. Sunday’s Mass was celebrated by local Bishop Joseph Toal along with fellow members of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland—including Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, president, and his predecessor Archbishop Mario Conti, diocesan clergy and priests from around Scotland and beyond. 
Nuntraw to Oban - pilgrim monks, at place of former Carmel
During his homily Bishop Toal, vice president of the Bishops’ Conference, said it was fitting to honour St Columba, one of the early evangelisers of Scotland, during this Year of
Iona - monks off ferry
Faith and the New Evangelisation of originally Christian countries that was initiated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI when he was Pontiff.
“It was St Columba and other missionaries that brought the Gospel to our shores,” Bishop Toal said in his homily.  
“The Church in Scotland today in the midst of the noise of modern life and the crises which come
Pluscarden monk from Kenya
upon us continues to need more than ever that support of the communal prayer and reflective living of those who have literally ‘left everything’ and followed him,” he said. “We thank our monastic communities and our hermits for their prayerful support especially in difficult times.”
Iona - way to the Abbey/Cathedral
‘Never forget, every saint has a past… and every sinner has a future!’
The bishops thanked the religious present, including those from Nunraw, Pluscarden and Kinnoull. He offered a special vote of thanks to the delegation from Kells, County Meath, Ireland including Bishop Michael Smith of Meath. The delegation brought with them their copy of the Book of Kells, which will remain on display in Oban and the surrounding district throughout the summer.  It includes the Cathach of St Columba, the copy made by Columba of a book loaned to him by St Finnian.
Sunday’s celebrations in Oban began with the blessing and reactivation of the cathedral bells followed by the entrance into the cathedral of young Catholics from Argyll and the Isles Diocese carrying with them the Scottish Youth Cross. The young people were returning from an overnight pilgrimage to Iona.
Young Catholics from South Uist and Barra also took part in the Liturgy, bringing haunting Gaelic melody and voices to the responsorial psalm and hymns. The Gospel was read in both English and Gaelic.
The bishop of Argyll and the Isles also used his homily as an opportunity to praise the active role Christians play in Scottish society.
He said we have ‘a distinctive voice’ but warned of those who would have us silenced.   
The Mass on Sunday preceded Monday’s pilgrimage to Iona. The Apostolic Nuncio, who did not address the congregation at the Sunday Mass, was the main celebrant and preacher at the Mass on Iona.
 
“St Columba faced many challenges in living the Faith and bringing it to others and, recently in Scotland we have faced challenges too, which may well have saddened us and made us all reflect on how we can bring the Gospel and the person of Christ to all those persons we encounter and to a society which is searching, often unawares, for God,” Archbishop Mennini said. “One source, I should like to quote a word or two of, which I believe appropriate, is taken from Oscar Wilde, who said: ‘Never forget, every saint has a past… and every sinner has a future!’


Saturday, 15 June 2013

Pope Francis's first Roman Corpus Christi - a poem

House Martins - nesting

Dear Edward,
Thank you
We look forward to your preview of the first Encyclical of Pope Francis.
In spite of his very full tireless weeks it seems he has been hatching inspiring Papal chick.
I have been contemplating the House Martins, the daily hours from the window above my breakfast. In the nest, all is still while the birds are  sitting on the eggs. Then they awake and as ‘swallows’ they make their swift exercise, and hurry back with feeding for the hatching mother.
Maybe it is in perfect May/June timing  for Francis too.
We will enjoy your “Quelques lines”; Pope Francis's first Roman Corpus Christi - a poem
In Dno.
Donald

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.  


Our very best wishes with thanksgiving for all your blessed days.
With prayer and offering Mass.
D.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr. Edward ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Friday, 14 June 2013, 22:46
Subject: Fwd: Quelques lignes 
Pope Francis's first Roman Corpus Christi - a poem

Dear Donald,

I thought you might like this poem.
It is late because, having written it I feared I had landed on the wrong Piazza,..............
.....

I hope that it arrives in good order Let me know about any problems.

Blessings in Domino,

fr Edward O.P.
Iceland.


Pope Francis's first Roman Corpus Christi

Those enormous crowds his Wednesday General Audience have evoked:
they hear much shorter discourses than before,
yet their depth is greater
as is their personal touch.
His presence has the characteristic of self-withdrawal:
all a display of essential priestliness,
The charism has adjusted him to all displacements,
his presence must be defining itself at the promptings
of a sensitive spirit.
After his Holy Communion at the Mass
he retired to his throne-space in Saint John Lateran's porch:
virtually motionless, his body inclined in contemplation
till the distribution of Sacred Hosts was complete
and the procession of lay and clerics
formed a double roadside line, both three abreast, through via Merulana.
Those bound to the leading part of the procession itself  hurried to their places:
the sodalities with their wind-blown banners,
held with strong arms and coloured ropes
holding  firm the billowing pictures raised above,
and the innumerable flashes of spiritual growth
of so many young Sisters.
The ordering came to its proper place,
but Francis was not in the perspexed display box
on the motor-driven dray:
two deacons knelt before the Monstranced Sacrament
as it took central place,
phalanxed to left and to  right by Cardinals new crimson tailored and millinered.
It moved off with Pope Francis walking behind
cappa'ed in undecorated cream-white:
no identifying white zucchetto and mitre-less
until his final salutation to
"Mary, Salvation of the People of Rome":
he touched its frame after long gazing, received the mitre,
and disappeared into the Basilica.
The procession began  with the setting sun,
passing into the streets
the bars, shop-fronts and apartment windows
diffusing a furtive light,
refracted by the ample street lights in tasteful concentration -
an original juxtaposing of tree-crowns protectingly
and shieldingly, homely-wise bringing comfort-giving greenery
as a continual awning over the procession,
in itself massive more in the
concentration of recollected piety
and ecclesial liturgy:
with incense rising, and
myriad candles some in acolytes' holders,
thousands more held in pious hands,
extensive more than intensive,
and appropriately so.
Blessed John Paul revived this procession,
carrying the Monstrance himself
accompanied by sodalities living on,
some centuries long after founding,
yet not quite welded into the intensity of the following years.
Christ's Body is carried through Rome.
Eucharistic Joy subdued by intensest recollection
accompanies the pouring out of praising
from outpoured souls in public:
supporting each other
around the illumined dray and monstrance
with the paired deacons,
followed briskly on foot by Pope Francis
continuing a contemplation begin at Saint John Lateran
and ending in the Piazza San Maria Maggiore
before Saint Mary Major's.
The column bearing the Immaculate Conception
pointing heavenward as Mary disappears into shadows
whilst Francis walks unostentatiously,
authoritatively none the less,
leading mediatingly and with quiet intensity
the recollected, variegated crowd by
the presence together in Jesus Christ of Blessed Sacrament and Pope,¶
and carried as Bread from Heaven.

__________

¶  With a conscious recollection of a pregnant insight of Pope Blessed John XXIII, who, still as Cardinal Roncalli and Nuncio in Paris, was (incredibly!) asked to write among a collection of articles in a new French Catholic periodical with the theme of "Présences", on "La présence du Pape dans le Monde". He did not refer to theologians, but to the Bible (with a strong reference to the precedent of "the seat of Moses") and the poets - Dante and Claudel. In the midst of which  we find this gemstone: "Christ is in the world through the Blessed Sacrament and through the Pope."

Fr. Edward OP
Stykkishólmur
2 June 2013

Pope Francis's first Roman Corpus Christi - a poem