General Chapter 2014, Opening Mass Homily as Linked below.

Thursday, 11 September 2014  
Nunraw Community Mass: Intro. by Fr. Nivard

Thursday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time

News

• 11/09/2014 11:44

  Homily General Chapter 2014 Opening Mass

  The Gospel of today’s Mass puts us before the magnanimity of God and shows us just how much his...

Read more: http://o-c-s-o-gc-2014-assisi7.webnode.es/

Fw: Mass of Holy Spirit

 Intro of Mass: Fr. Nivard

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)  Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk   domdonald.org.uk 

On Thursday, 11 September 2014, 11:38, 

Nivard ...> wrote: 

www.dailyscripture.net, adapted Copyright © 2014 Servants of the Word

23 Thu 11 Sep 2014
 

Lk 6 7-38

Compassionate as your Father.

    

   In this Mass, we beg the Holy Spirit to bless our General Chapter in Assisi.

    Jesus promised to give his followers the best of gifts, the Holy Spirit as their Counselor and Helper. 

   The Holy Spirit is our Counselor.

   The Holy Spirit is our Advocate and Helper who brings us safely through the challenges and adversities we must face in this life. 

   The Holy Spirit is also the Giver of life -- the life of God -- and the One who guides us in the way of truth.  We can never stop learning because the Spirit leads us ever deeper into the knowledge of God's love and truth.

  

Father in heaven, en-kindle in us the fire of your love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ Jesus our Lord.

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

Abbot General, F. Eamon. Homily

Homily General Chapter 2014 Opening Mass

11/09/2014 11:44

The Gospel of today’s Mass puts us before the magnanimity of God and shows us just how much his thoughts are above out thoughts, his ways above our ways.  It is a message which could discourage us and lead us to give up on ourselves and on God if we focused too much on our own limitations.  We who can find it so hard at times to be kind or patient or forgiving to a brother or sister are called to: love, do good, bless, pray for, lend, be compassionate and this not just to a brother or sister but to an enemy, to those hate us, curse us, treat us badly and even rob us.  In all of this of course we are being introduced rudely perhaps into another way of being, another way of looking at our world, another way of living.  The curtain is being drawn back just a little to give us a glimpse of what God is like, to reveal to us something of the mystery of God’s being. 

Jesus has already in the opening salvo of this discourse proclaimed his disciples the fortunate ones because they are among the poor, the hungry, those who weep and those persecuted for his sake.  God, Israel had been taught, had a preference for the poor and the small, that was how Israel saw itself but the message never quite got through to its rulers and so justice and peace were never something that all God’s people ever enjoyed.   Now in these last times God sent his Son, who as Son shared God’s Spirit, bringing good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight to the blind, liberation for the oppressed and the Lord’s graciousness for all.  The rich of this world, the well-fed, those whose lives are one long party and those who have the acclaim of the world are living a mirage – they have lost the plot and the plot where true treasure is to be found.  For the truth is that we are all poor in the sight of God – and the clearest sign of this is our mortality – naked we came into this world and naked we will depart it. 

Now to us poor who have listened to his words Jesus urges us to follow this heavenly script.    But he not only teaches us, he gives us an example of what God is like in human form, what it is to be truly human as God wishes us to be – to be like God.   We see this blessedness at the moment of death with his: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.  This Spirit is the great gift of his resurrection to his disciples, who form the community that is the Church.  This is the great gift that makes the Christian community Christian as Luke shows in the book of Acts and to which Paul testifies so eloquently in his letters. 

Poor and all as we are we have been baptized in his Spirit and are called to be his witnesses in the world, not to show how good we are but how great God is and how his grace can transform our human weakness and help us do much more than we can ever ask or imagine.  Gathered for this General Chapter we remind ourselves with this Mass of the Holy Spirit of the greatest gift that God has given us, the Spirit of his Son that makes us cry out Abba, Father.  We pray that God may stir up his gift within us so to guide our thoughts and our deliberations, our exchanges and our relationships that together we may come closer to the truth and walk with greater freedom and confidence in the path of life that God wants for us and for the Order that we may be witnesses of goodness and mercy in our world.   

 F. Eamon

Assisi, September 11, 2014

Read more: http://o-c-s-o-gc-2014-assisi7.webnode.es/news/homily-general-chapter-2014-opening-mass/ 

Cistercian ocso General Chapter 2014. COMMENT; William

 2014 September A-2 Thursday

Weekday [Opening of the General Chapter]

Conventual Mass: of the Holy Spirit Gl (Cr ad lib)

Proper pf of the Holy Spirit I or II.

Mary Mother of Citeaux

  General Chapter 2014 Assisi

Tuesday, 09 September 2014 21:06

The link to the Blog of the General Chapter 2014 at Assisi:

http://o-c-s-o-gc-2014-assisi7.webnode.es/

O.C.S.O. GC – 2014 Assisi

At fixed times all the abbots/abbesses come together. They discuss there the salvation of their own souls and of those committed to them. They take measures regarding the observance of the Holy Rule and of the Order where there is something that needs to be corrected or added. They foster anew among themselves the benefit of peace and charity. They devote themselves to maintaining the patrimony of the Order and safeguarding and increasing its unity. (C.77)

Aula - Assisi

Visitors notice

Let your visitors know about news and events on your website as often as possible. You need to keep...

·         29/08/2014 12:46

Website launched

Our new website has been launched today. Tell your visitors why you have started a new...

COMMENT: ack. from Donald

Fw: The OCSO Chapter - and its adventure

 

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)    
Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk |

domdonald.org.uk 

On Wednesday, 10 September 2014, 17:16, William ...> wrote:

Dear Father Abbot Mark and Father Donald,

WHAT A GREAT JOY it is for me to receive your emails, Thank you: Fr Mark telling of his preparation and departure for Assisi, and Fr Donald giving me insight of the Chapter's considerations - a very fine 94 page document - enlightening me as to the tremendous organisation and INTEGRITY at the heart of the Order - I am quite in AWE at its presentation! And I am so thrilled that you have, through your kindness, invited me to share in these events. Reading the main document, I am quite sure that all that Fr Mark has achieved and has set in motion, will essentially receive nothing but acclaim in the relevant Commission, and that many present will wonder at the courage-in-faith that has achieved so much! .....

....the Cistercian contemplative life that I discovered, witnessed and [through your kindness] have shared in at Nunraw, that holds the Key to the lived life in Christ entrusted to Peter. I often think that MARY MAGELENE should be the patron saint of the Order, always listening to the Incarnate Word and living entirely within His love, with the entire Order living at His feet.

You give me, so generously, so much happiness - thank you, most sincerely.

With my love in Our Lord,

William 

23rd Sunday (A) 2014 Mt. 18: 15-20 'Discourse on the Church', 'reconciliation with God and others' Fr. Aelred

St. Bernard, earlier portrait came to Nunraw 1946,
with the founders from Roscrea Abbey
inset Fr. Aelred

 

23^rd Sunday (A)

Homily by Fr. Aelred.

1. The 18^th chapter of Mathew’s Gospel, from which today’s Gospel passage is taken, is often called the ‘Discourse on the Church’, because it collects together Jesus teachings that directly apply to the life of church communities. Today we have the teachings on fraternal correction and prayer in common; next Sunday, on the forgiveness of offences. 

And today’s Responsorial Psalm, ‘O that you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts’, show the close connection between fraternal correction and forgiveness.

2. In countries that experience long droughts, say in the Middle East or Africa, you see what the absence of rain does. The ground turns into desert. Sometimes when the rain eventually comes, the ground is so hard that it can’t penetrate, and so it runs away causing flash flooding. So it is with the human heart when ot becomes hard. To be heart-harded is the worst of all conditions. A hard heart is invulnerable to sorrow, but neither can it experience joy. It is a closed heart, so can’t receive. Hard heart is a barren heart.

3.Jesus came to purify our hearts, not to soften them, to make them more supple human. To sow the seed of God’s word in them, and to turn them from wastelands into fertile ground.

4. In the Christian tradition many of the spiritual masters emphasise the role of the heart in attaining to a deeper prayer life and coming closer to God. To give one example, St. Bernard tells us when he was visited by the divine word: ‘As soon as he enters in, he awakens my slumbering soul; he stirs and soothes and pierces my heart, for before it was hard as stone. He begins to build up and to plan, to water dry places and illuminate dark ones; to open what is closed and to warm what was cold. To make crooked straight and rough places smooth. It was not by any of my senses that I perceived he had penetrated to the depths of my being. Only by the movement of my heart did I perceive his presence’.

5. ‘O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts’. In these words God is calling us from the error of our ways into a closer relationship with him and with one another. And today’s Liturgy provides us with an opportunity to head them.

6. Softened by the rain of God’s grace, and warmed by the sun of his love, the human heart can be turned from a desert into a garden. A place where reconciliation with God and others becomes possible.

 + + + + 

The following introduction to and selection from St. Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs was done by Prof. Katherine Gill for her courses at Yale Divinity School and Boston College. The page is reproduced here with permission.

Bernard of Clairvaux

  http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN413/bernard_sermons.html  

Sermon 74
6. You ask then how I knew he was present, when his ways can in no way be traced? He is life and power, and as soon as he enters in, he awakens my slumbering soul; he stirs and soothes and pierces my heart, for before it was hard as stone, and diseased. So he has begun to pluck out and destroy, to build up and to plant, to water dry places and illuminate dark ones; to open what was closed and to warm what was cold; to make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth, so that my soul may bless the Lord, and all that is within me may praise his holy name. So when the Bridegroom/ the Word, came to me, he never made known his coming any signs, not by sight, not by sound, not by touch. It was not by any movement of his that I recognized his coming; it was not by any of MY senses that I perceived he had penetrated to the depth of my being. Only by the movement of my heart, as I have told did I perceive his presence; and I knew the power of his might cause my faults were put to flight and my human yearnings brought into subjection. I have marvelled at the depth of his wisdom when my secret faults have been revealed and made visible the very slightest amendment of my way of life I have experience his goodness and mercy; in the renewal and remaking of the spirit of my mind, that is of my inmost being, I have perceived the excellence of his glorious beauty, and when I contemplate all these things I am filled with awe and wonder at his manifold greatness.

Feast of Nativity of Mary Community Mass 8 Sept. 2014

Mass Introduction by Fr. Raymond  
THE WOMAN 

Nativity of Mary  - Procession
Malta - Public Holiday  

    

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)  
Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk |

domdonald.org.uk 

  

On Monday, 8 September 2014, 10:24, Raymond ...> wrote:

THE WOMAN

Mary has three great titles:  Virgin, Mother, and Woman.

The last of these is in a way the most fundamental.  Jesus underlines it for us at two different important junctures in his life on earth:  At the marriage feast at Cana and on Calvary itself.  On each of these occasions he, very significantly addresses her, not as Mother, which one would expect, but as WOMAN. 

There must be some great significance in this choice of address.   Surely he is here indicating to us that she is the great Woman of the primordial prophecy of Eden; the Woman who was to be joined with himself as Saviour of the world in crushing the ancient serpents head.

At Cana Mary urges him to begin his saving work, even though it was not yet time: “Woman, My hour has not yet come!”

On Calvary he appoints her as mother of us all in the person of John “Woman, Behold your son!”

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-N0rv5cOuU

23rd Sunday – Gospel Illustration - Matthew 18:15–20 – Written in Stone

   

23rd Sunday – Gospel Illustration - Matthew 18:15–20 – Written in StonePresentation Transcript

• Written in Stone Contributed by: A. M. Berry
• Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other on the face. The one who was slapped was hurt but without saying anything wrote in the sand, “Today my best friend slapped me in the face. They kept on walking until they found an Oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mud and started to drown but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning he wrote on a stone, “Today my best friend saved my life.” The friend who had both slapped and saved his life asked him: ‘After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now I helped you wrote in stone, why?’'
• The friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it in the sand so the winds of forgiveness can erase the hurt.” But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.” We should learn to write our hurts in the sand and carve our benefits in stone. The winds of forgiveness are a beautiful thing. Ask the Holy Spirit to blow away the hurts, our sins, and carve into the Book of Life the good that we do. When we deal with other humans it is good to remember, To err is human to forgive Divine. If God can forgive us, who are we not to forgive others (1 John 1:9)?

Feast of Nativity of Mary 8 Sept 2014 Malta Youtube

Malta-Naxxar: Feast of Nativity of Mary 2011

Uploaded on 10 Sep 2011

You'll see highlights of the procession held at Naxxar on September 8, 2011.

Naxxar is one of the first parishes in Malta. It may have already been a parish in 1400.

The existing church was built in 1628. It is thought to have been designed by Tumas Dingli but others think it's the works of Vitor Cassar, son of Ġlormu. Its sides, the facade and the belfry towers were built in early 20th Century.

The wood statue of "Il-Bambina" was brought from Rome at the beginning of the 20th Century. The canopy and crown over the statue were made in 1923.

There are two Band Clubs in Naxxar: The Ġħaqda Mużikali Vittorja, Est 1916 and the Peace Band Club. Both are very active in the Parish.

Victory Day, September 8, is a national holiday in Malta. It is locally known as "il-Vitorja" (the Victory) and "il-Bambina" (Baby Mary), commemorating three events:

1. The birth the Virgin Mary
2. The victory of the Great Siege by the Knights of St. John against the Turks of 1565.
3. Italy surrendered during World War II in 1943 and turned against its former German ally.

We used the following as background music:

Music: "Innu Marċ" of the Vittorja Band Club - Music by Mro John Ivan Borg, lyrics by Ġorġ Bianchi

O Tfajla Mmakulata by Ferdinando Camilleri played by the Peace Band.

Nghannulek bil-Hlewwa by Ferdinando Camilleri played by the Peace Band.

Is-Sliem ghalik Marija by G Camilleri played by the Peace Band.

Antifona "Gloriosae Virginis", composition of Mro Paolo Nani

Choir Jubilate Deo.

Archpriest of the Naxxar Parish is Rev. Can Evan Caruana

Video/Editing by Choy Hong (Jasmine) Grech

Video production by Alfred & Choy Hong (Jasmine) Grech, Mosta, Malta.

----------------------------------------­-------------------
Our Youtube Channels are: 

MALTA, MALAYSIA & OTHER (Jasmine's Videos)
jasalf5959 Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/JasAlf595...

MYCHOICE MUSIC VIDEOS
mychoicegrech1 Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/mychoiceg...
mychoicealfred2 Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/mychoicea...
mychoicealfred3 Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/mychoicea...
mychoicealfred4 Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/mychoicea...
mychoicealfred5 Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

MALPEN04 MUSIC VIDEOS (Older Channel)
malpen04 "My Choice" series MASTER Links: (Music videos)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

MALPEN04 MISCELLANEOUS (Non music video)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

• Category

  • Travel & Events

• Licence

  • Standard YouTube Licence

St. Cuthbert, child of God (Bede). Youtube, Lindisfarne, (Holy Island) Northumberland

Lindisfarne causeway to the Island

COMMENT:

St. Cuthbert is referred as to ‘child of God’ by St. Bede in his Life of the Miracle of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.

Rerences in the quotations below.

Very usful is the On-line Forham University souce.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-cuthbert.asp

Medieval Sourcebook:
Bede: The Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne (721)

---

Author

Bede was born in 673, in Northumberland, became a monk and died at Jarrow in 735. His modern feast day is May 25. He was one of the most important intellects, and most prolific writers of his time. Among his other accomplishments was in becoming the only Englishman in Dante's Divine Comedy. His most important work his isHistory of the English Church and People, but he wrote many others - biblical commentaries and hagiography in particular.

Saint

Bede's Life of St. Cuthbert, given here complete in the translation by J.A. Giles, recounts the life of Cuthbert, famed in his time as a miracle worker. Cuthbert was probably born in Northumberland circa 634. He was educated by Irish monks at Melrose Abbey. At various times in his life, Cuthbert was a monk, a solitary, and - briefly - a bishop. He died on Farne Island in 687. His feast day is March 20. An early anonymous Life of Cuthbert was written about 700, but the discovery of Cuthbert's uncorrupt body gave a new impetus to the cult, and Bede used the earlier Life to write his own verse Life, around 716, and this, longer, prose Life around 721. This includes ten chapters of new material, derived from Herefrith (3, 6, 8-9, 19, 23, 31, 35, 43, and 46). Both the anonymous (in 7 manuscripts) and Bede's life (in 38 manuscripts) survive. Bede's version was used for two famous 12th-century illuminated [Oxford, Univ. Col MS 165, and Brit. Mus. Yates Thompson MS 26]. [Farmer, 16-17].

Relics

CHAPTER I

HOW CUTHBERT, THE CHILD OF GOD, WAS WARNED BY A CHILD OF HIS FUTURE BISHOPRIC

THE beginning of our history of the life of the blessed Cuthbert is hallowed by Jeremiah the prophet, who, in exaltation of the anchorite's perfect state, says, " It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth; he shall sit alone, and shall be silent, because he shall raise himself above himself." For, inspired by the sweetness of this good, Cuthbert, the man of God, from his early youth bent his neck beneath the yoke of the monastic institution; and when occasion presented itself, having laid fast hold of the anachoretic life, he rejoiced to sit apart for no small space of time, and for the sweetness of divine meditation to hold his tongue silent from human colloquy. But that he should be able to do this in his advanced years, was the effect of God's grace inciting him gradually to the way of truth from his early childhood; for even to the eighth year of his life, which is the first year of boyhood succeeding to infancy, he gave his mind to such plays and enjoyments alone as boys delight in, so that it might be testified of him as it was of Samuel, " Moreover Cuthbert knew not yet the Lord, neither had the voice of the Lord been revealed to him. " Such was the panegyric of his boyhood, who in more ripened age was destined perfectly to know the Lord, and opening the ears of his mind to imbibe the voice of God. He took delight, as we have stated, in mirth and clamour; and, as was natural at his age, rejoiced to attach himself to the company of other boys, and to share in their sports: and because he was agile by nature, and of a quick mind, he often prevailed over them in their boyish contests, and frequently, when the rest were tired, he alone would hold out, and look triumphantly around to see if any remained to contend with him for victory. For in jumping, running, wrestling, or any other bodily exercise, he boasted that he could surpass all those who were of the same age, and even some that were older than himself. For when he was a child, he knew as a child, he thought as a child; but afterwards, when he became a man, he most abundantly laid aside all those childish things.

CHAPTER II

HOW HE BECAME LAME WITH A SWELLING IN HIS KNEE, AND WAS CURED BY AN ANGEL

BUT because to every one who hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; that is, to every one who hath the determination and the love of virtue, shall be given, by Divine Providence, an abundance of these things; since Cuthbert, the child of God, carefully retained in his mind what he had received from the admonition of man, he was thought worthy also of being comforted by the company and conversation of angels.

Melrose Abbey to

Lindisfarne

St. Aidan Catholic Church

Lindisfarne, (Holy Island) Northumberland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfyClgRzsSM

Holy Island Lindisfarne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIihw1Dem4

Just in Time https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMvwgGBy-4o

The St. Cuthbert's Way ©

Rucksack Rose

Subscribe125

647 views

Add to

Share

More

40

Published on 8 Apr 2013

http://rucksackrose.com

This is a 62 mile (100km) walk from Melrose in the Scottish Borders to Holy Island (or Lindisfarne) off the Northumbrian coast. It forms part of the European E2 route and was created in 1996 to commemorate the life of Saint Cuthbert who lived and worked in the borders. I walked the route in 4.5 days staying over at Melrose, Mounthooly near Bonjedward, Kirk Yetholm, Wooler and Fenwick. I had all four seasons during the walk but it didn't rain or snow. For information I used the new and useful Cicerone guide to this route by Rudolf Abraham and the Harvey strip map.

Wikipedia describes Cuthbert as "a 7th century saint and native of the Borders who spent his life in the service of the church. He began his work at Melrose Abbey. He achieved the status of Bishop, and when he died he was buried on Holy Island. He was called a saint eleven years after his death, when his coffin was opened and his remains found to be perfectly preserved".

Wherever you go stay safe, plan ahead, let people know where you are going, take maps & compass with your gps and follow the country code. It is best to ask permission to camp outside of official campsites although the law for campers is different in Scotland and England.

Soundtrack: Rooks recorded near Maxton in the Scottish Borders.
A full trip report of the walk can be found at: http://rucksackrose.wordpress.com

·         Category

·          

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)    

Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk |

domdonald.org.uk