Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose

Monastic Office of Vigils.   

THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  SUNDAY

First Reading

Jeremiah 23:9-17.21-29

Responsory   Lam 2:14; Jer 23:21

The visions your prophets saw for you were false and deceptive.

+They did not expose your sin, so as to reverse your fortunes.

V. I did not send these prophets; I did not speak to them. +They did not ...

Second Reading

From a commentary on Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose
Expositio in Psalmum 118, 19, 36-39: CSEL 62, 440-442

You are near, Lord, and all your commandments are true. The Lord is near to all of us, because he is everywhere. We cannot escape him if we offend him, nor deceive him if we sin, nor lose him if we worship him. God watches everything, he sees every­thing. He is close to each one of us; as he says: I am a God who is close at hand. How can God fail to be everywhere, when you read of the Spirit of God that the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world? For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the Lord God. I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. Where then can he fail to be who fills everything? Or how can we all share in his fullness unless he is near all of us?

So, knowing that God is everywhere, and fills the sky, the earth, and the sea, David says: Where can I escape from your Spirit, where flee from your face? If I go up to heaven you are there; if I go down to Sheol you are there; if I take flight before dawn to dwell at the sea's furthest end, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand hold me fast. In what few words he has shown that God is everywhere, and that wherever the Spirit of God is, there is God, and where God is there is his Spirit! The union of the indivisible Trinity is portrayed here, since it is the Son of God who pro­nounced these words through the mouth of the prophet. He spoke in his human nature, for he descended to earth in the incarnation, ascended to heaven in the resurrection, and through his bodily death went down to the underworld to free the prisoners. Or if you prefer to ascribe these words to the

prophet, you notice it is clearly shown that wherever God the Father and God's Holy Spirit are, Christ is near as the hand, and the right hand of God.

Since we know that the sun shines everywhere, can we doubt that the splendor of God's glory and the image of his being shines everywhere? What could the Word of God, the eternal splendor, not penetrate, when he illuminates even the hidden mind, which the sun itself cannot penetrate?

He penetrates the soul, then, and illuminates it as with the brightness of eternal light. But although his virtue is poured out among all and into all and over all, since he was born of the Virgin for the sake of all, both good and bad, just as he com­mands his sun to rise over good and bad, nevertheless he warms only those who come near to him. For just as people shut out the sun's brightness when they close the windows of their houses and choose to live in darkness, so those who turn their backs on the Sun of Righteousness cannot see its splendor. They walk in darkness, and it is plain to everyone that they them­selves are the cause of their blindness. Open your windows, then, so that your whole house shines with the brightness of the true Sun; open your eyes so that you can see the Sun of Righteousness rising for you.

Responsory   Jer 23:23-24; Ps 139:7

Am I a God when near at hand, and not a God when far away? Can anyone hide in a dark corner without my seeing him? + Do I not fill heaven and earth?

V. Where can I escape from your Spirit? Where flee from your face? + Do I not fill ...

Mother Antonia Brenner, born December 1 1926, died October 17 2013

 'Madre Antonia' in the chapel at the La Mesa prison in Tijuana

COMMMENT:
A friend passed on this cutting from The Daily Telegraph. The story will go far with blessing.

Mother Antonia Brenner

Mother Antonia Brenner was a twice-divorced socialite who renounced Hollywood glitz to live as a nun in a Mexican prison

6:30PM BST 23 Oct 2013

Mother Antonia Brenner, who has died aged 86, was a twice-divorced former Hollywood socialite and mother of seven who, in 1977, gave away most of her possessions, put on a homemade nun’s habit and went to live in a Mexican prison.

At first the Roman Catholic Church declined to give her its support; indeed for many years, as a divorcée she had been unable to take Holy Communion. Nothing daunted, she left her home in Ventura, California, packed in her job, made her vows in private and moved into a bunk in the women’s wing of La Mesa Tijuana, a prison housing 7,500 male and 500 female prisoners, later moving to her own 10-by-10-ft concrete cell.

La Mesa was a notorious hellhole where rich drug lords ruled the roost while hundreds of their poorer brethren lived in the cold and squalor amid rats and raw sewage, with no beds, food or even lavatory paper unless their relatives brought supplies. Brutalised prison guards contributed to the misery, mistreating the mentally ill and administering cruel interrogations.

Over the next 30 years “Madre Antonia”, as she came to be known, transformed the atmosphere. Armed with a Bible, a Spanish dictionary and her own unassailable moral authority, she waded into riots and gun battles; shamed prison authorities into improving conditions and brought human rights violations to the attention of newspapers.

'Madre Antonia' with a statue of St Paul outside the La Mesa prison chapel (AP)

She persuaded doctors and dentists to hold free clinics, got local bakers to donate bread to supplement the meagre prison rations, rescued lavatories from junk yards and insisted on their being installed, prayed with prisoners and guards and got to know their families. She taught offenders to acknowledge they had done wrong, and many would later testify that her example had persuaded them to mend their ways.

She also took on the Mexican legal system, raising money to pay fines to keep petty offenders out of prison and accompanying inmates to court in order to force judges to justify the wildly different sentences they handed out to rich and poor. One Tijuana judge acknowledged that she had convinced him that class should not be a factor in the administration of justice.
After a year her service came to the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities, and 18 months into her ministry the Bishop of Tijuana, Juan Jesus Posadas, made her an auxiliary Mercedarian, an order which works among prisoners. Subsequently her work came to the attention of Pope John Paul II who gave her his blessing. In 1991 Mother Teresa visited Tijuana to see her work.
In 1997 Antonia began the process of forming the Eudist Servants of the Eleventh Hour, a religious community of women who serve the poor and downtrodden. She bought a house near the prison to serve as a refuge for women leaving the prison, for women and children visiting family members, and women and children in Tijuana for cancer treatment. In 2003 the community, many of them older women who had been turned away by other religious communities because of their age, was formally accepted by the Bishop of Tijuana.
The second of three children, she was born Mary Clarke on December 1 1926 in Los Angeles, to Irish immigrant parents. Her mother died when she was pregnant with her fourth child, leaving her 24-year-old husband to raise his children on his own.
During the Depression he struggled to keep food on the table, but in Mary’s teenage years he became a successful businessman, supplying carbon paper and other office items, and moved his family to a luxurious new home in Beverly Hills, where neighbours included Hedy Lamarr, John Barrymore and Dinah Shore. Weekends were spent at a beach house overlooking the Pacific and, as she moved into the Hollywood social scene, Mary Clarke’s wardrobe filled with mink coats and ball gowns.
Yet her father never allowed his children to forget their duty to the less fortunate and with her father’s encouragement she became involved in projects to send medical supplies to people in need in Africa, India, Korea, the Philippines and South America.
A vivacious and attractive blonde, Mary had no shortage of male admirers, and at the age of 19 she married a former serviceman. They had three children (one of whom predeceased her), but her husband’s addiction to gambling left the family in debt. Five years later she divorced him and went to work to support her children. In 1950 she married Carl Brenner, with whom she had five more children. When her father died in 1956, she took over his business. All the time she continued to do charity work.
In 1965 she accompanied a priest on a mission to deliver medicine and other supplies to Tijuana, Mexico, where they ended up at La Mesa prison. She was so haunted by the plight of the inmates, she could not stop thinking about them. “When it was cold, I wondered if the men were warm; when it was raining, if they had shelter,” she recalled in an interview in 1982. She began visiting the prison on a regular basis, bringing in carloads of medicine, food and clothes, and attending to the material and spiritual needs of both inmates and guards.
From early on in her second marriage Mary Brenner realised that she and her husband had little in common, and as time went by they lived almost completely separate lives. By 1966 she had come to believe that her prison work was her true vocation, inspired by a dream in which she was a prisoner awaiting execution and Christ came to take her place. In 1970 she closed her father’s business and two years later divorced her husband.
In 2005 Mother Antonia was the subject of a book, The Prison Angel, by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan.
She remained in regular contact with her seven children, who survive her.

Mother Antonia Brenner, born December 1 1926, died October 17 2013

Scotland: St Ninian's Institute

Archbishop Mennini, Bishop Logan and VIP guests at inauguration - image: Paul McSherry

Scotland: St Ninian's Institute inaugurated by Papal Nuncio

By: Harry Schnitker

Posted: Friday, October 25, 2013

Scotland’s first Catholic higher education institute in modern times, was inaugurated yesterday. The Papal Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, presided at the official opening of the new Saint Ninian’s Institute in Dundee yesterday (Thursday 25 October). His Excellency also was chief celebrant at Mass in the Institute’s chapel afterwards. The new institute has been named after Scotland’s first saint, and was inaugurated by Bishop-Emeritus Vincent Logan of Dunkeld to commemorate the visit of Emeritus-Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland on St Ninian’s Day 2010. It is based at St Joseph’s, Lawside, Dundee. St Ninian's will offer long-distance learning modules in Catholic theology and culture, and provide opportunities for ecumenical initiatives. Personal learning will be augmented by residential weekends and lectures. The first annual lecture series, marking the Year of Faith, has set the standard, with national and international academic contributors. There will be a strong emphasis on the arts, with courses in sacred music, history and art, which will appeal to a Catholic and non-Catholic audience alike. In conjunction with the Maryvale Ecclesiastical Institute, Birmingham, research PhDs may be undertaken at St Ninian’s.

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Tags: Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Bishop-Emeritus Vincent Logan of Dunkeld, Dundee,Saint Ninian’s Institute, Scotland’s first Catholic higher education institute

Monastic life at Nunraw Abbey 2 - Abbot Mark

FRIDAY OCTOBER 4 2013

SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER

REFLECTION

Roots are the firm foundation for our lives,
and for our Faith.

ABBOT MARK CAIRA of NUNRAW writes
in this week’s SCO spirituality section.

The New Abbey, construction 1952-1970

Roots

It’s common enough nowadays to want to go back to our family roots, to see where we came from.  We need to feel that we belong to someone or we like to become identified with something.   We want to get to the truth of our history.  So much of what we believe about ourselves and our past may have become oversimplified and maybe distorted.  The truth can often be more interesting than what we first believed.  It would be surprising if some of our personal history or anything that we are associated with did not have a degree of fiction about it.  However, we are told that the truth will set us free.  To be someone we don’t have to be larger than life, like some of the mega stars in today’s world.

Beginnings

Like all religious Orders, Cistercians have been looking at their early history.  Contrary to a popular belief, St Bernard was not their founder.  That popular assumption may have arisen because Bernard wrote so much about the life and times of the Order, or perhaps from the influence he undoubtedly had in his own lifetime.  Before he appeared on the scene, it was a small group of monks who founded the monastery of Cîteaux in 1098 in northern France. This was the seed that grew into the Cistercian Order.

This little band of monks was led by Sts Robert, Alberic and Stephen Harding, an Englishman.  Each one of them no doubt had their own strengths and weaknesses of personality.  But together they put down their roots in the wooded area of Cîteaux.  There they set about creating a suitable environment in which they could continue their search for God.  There are different reasons given as to why they left their monastery to make this new foundation.  The one that lies nearest the truth is that they wanted to live the Rule of St Benedict more strictly according to what they believed St Benedict intended when he wrote his rule for monks in the sixth century.

It used to be claimed that these first Cistercians were reacting against a decadent monasticism.  That is far from the truth.  The eleventh and twelfth centuries were periods of enormous change in Church and society.  People were being challenged with new ideas and ways of doing things.  There were obvious risks involved but peoples’ lives did become more meaningful.

In the Church itself at this time, men and women were being drawn by charismatic and holy figures who were setting up new forms of community life.  What they were offering was different from what went before. This upsurge of interest threw up new forms of monastic life some of which still exist today.  Perhaps the best known of these are the Carthusians under the inspiration of St Bruno.

The Benedictine monks of this period were themselves far from decadent.  One accusation against them was that they were lax or had lost their vision.  But it wasn’t entirely a case of White Monks (Cistercians) rejecting the loose living of Black Monks (Benedictines).  Around this time, for example, there were the Benedictine monks of Cluny who lived edifying lives.   These were headed by a number of very holy abbots over a period of 200 years.  The feast day of these Holy Abbots of Cluny is kept on 11 May.

Then and Now

Robert, Alberic and Stephen and their companions left their original monastery because they sought to live more simply and strictly than their monastery allowed.  They didn’t leave to follow some charismatic figure.  With St Robert and his companions it was a matter of doing things together.  When Robert was asked to return to his previous monastery, Alberic was elected Cîteaux’s next abbot and when he died Stephen was chosen to replace him.

It was only later that the first monks of Cîteaux began to develop and organise their lifestyle so that their first spirit would be protected for the future.  They adapted to the times.  Because of that they became the most influential and popular of the new monastic groups of the twelfth century.

These early Cistercians were responding to changed times in which uncertainty and experiment were part of the spirit of the time.  God was still calling people to leave their ordinary ways of life but the manner was different.  The characteristics of the Cistercian way were the call to simplicity and authenticity, without giving up beauty in their liturgy or pleasing forms to their buildings. 

Religious communities today are facing reduced numbers.  This does not necessarily mean that the days of religious communities are over.  But we do need to be more alert in today’s world to what God is asking of us.  People are still searching for God, seeking how to tune into his wavelength.  It is the vocation of everyone to make time and space in their lives to receive the message God is sending out.  Not all of us are good at this but we can all pray that those who do have this gift from God may help us become more attuned to it.

The men and women of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were called to serve God in the new ways that their society both offered and needed.  God didn’t stop calling them to give themselves to the needs of the Church and society then.  It’s not likely that he has stopped doing that now. 

Through the ages every religious order has had to take stock of itself.  Everyone in fact needs to do that.  Those who do this well will find peace in their lives.  Those who do not are likely to wither.  It is the old call of the Gospel for renewal and transformation.  When we let God into our lives we get to know what the love of God is.  If we don’t make an effort to do this or simply ignore God, it doesn’t mean that he will leave us alone – just that it will take God a little longer to show us what is best for us.

 

South Cloister, sunset window reflections  

Monastic life at Nunraw Abbey - Abbot Mark

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2013

SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER

REFLECTION

Jesus lies at the heart of spiritual life and prayer

In the first article of a new series on spirituality, ABBOT MARK CAIRA from Nunraw Abbey explains the many benefits of monastic life.

Nunraw Abbey - community

The general reader may be forgiven for wondering what the monastic life has to offer them.  They probably see that there is a place for the monastic life in the Church and that monasteries may even be somewhere they may want to go to visit and perhaps even stay for a few days to unwind and recharge their batteries. But monasteries seem to have no immediate link with ordinary life in the world.  Monks and nuns, after all, are people who ‘leave the world’ to follow their vocation.  They live a life that is totally different from the rest of mankind and they should be left alone to get on with it.  - Is it as simple as that?

The Church is, in the main, immersed in ordinary society.  Christians are meant to live out their calling from God and to make the world a better place for their being a part of it.  It is true that we all don’t always live up to our calling. but Christ’s call is not to give up.  When we do fall down we need to see ourselves as we are, get up after each failure and walk more humbly before God.  Whatever befalls us we are called to continue anew following the Gospel through all the twists and turns of our lives.  That applies to monks and nuns as well as the rest of the Church and society.

We are all human.  We all receive the gift of life in Christ through our baptism.  Monks and nuns have a great deal in common with the rest of the Church for they bleed like the rest of mankind.  They get tired and hungry like everyone else.  And, as with everyone else, they have a need to know and love God.  It is good to remember these basic truths in this time of renewal in the Church as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Vatican II.  Pope Francis has also been encouraging us in these months after his election to take up the challenge offered us by Christ and to joyfully engage in the life he offers us.

What is the point then of going to live in a monastery when God can be loved and served in ordinary everyday life in the Church and society?

One way of answering that question, perhaps, is take a closer look at the makeup of society in general.  In everyday life people choose to live in different ways.  They take different jobs, they make different choices in how and where they live.  They choose to marry one person and not another or they may decide to live singly.  We who believe that God is present in all of our lives know that he actively helps us to decide where our greater happiness in life lies.  

Everyone has a vocation be it to marriage or the single life.  Within either state of life they may feel called to other things as well, like nursing or teaching.  The monastic life in its various forms is one such option that some feel God is calling them to follow.  As in other vocations it needs prayer and enough time and space to discover if that is what God is really asking of them.

Being a priest or a religious has often been described as being a ‘higher’, or ‘better’, vocation than others.  The natural temptation was to seek this ‘higher’ vocation, according to that way of thinking, rather than what it was that God was offering. 

The understanding of Martha and Mary in the gospel gives a good insight into the question of vocation.  We are often told quite clearly that, to quote the Gospel, ‘Mary had chosen the better part’.  That seems to put Martha in her place.  But, it is interesting to note that in the calendar of saints, on the 29 July, the feast of St Martha, the Cistercian Order celebrates not just Martha but also that of her sister, Mary, and Lazarus her brother.  In a commentary on this feast, St Bernard tells us that a monastic community can profitably learn from all three of these saints and not just from the ‘contemplative’ Mary.  In a monastery monks need to work and they suffer illness, as much as to pray and to do other things that are necessary for the normal organising of life lived together..

There are many God-given vocations in the Church.  The only perfect one for us is the one that God calls us to live.  Often we find it difficult to find out what that means for ourselves. 

Life in a monastery is different from what most would regard as normal.  And yet, when you put aside the fact that monks live mostly within the confines of the monastery and with a set pattern to their life, what they do from day to day is what most people already do outside the monastery.   Besides their time for prayer, they work and rest.  There is the daily upkeep and cleaning of the abbey to be seen to; there are meals to be prepared.  Newcomers to the community need training into the spirit and understanding of this life they have chosen and to be shown when necessary the practical day to day organising of the community life.  There are also the physical needs of those who are unwell and the elderly to be taken care of.  So, monks may be ‘out of the world’ in one sense but they are very much grounded in the needs and realities of everyday life. 

The early Cistercians, in the twelfth century used their energies and talents to build their monasteries and set about reclaiming the uncultivated land around them.  Their ingenuity was put to good use in all of this.  Their lives were very much rooted in the world that God created.  Their minds and hearts were centred on God.  But it was Jesus, the Word made man, that lay at the heart of their lives and prayer.  That is the lifestyle that has been handed down to the present day Cistercians.  Perhaps we can consider that in some detail at a future date.

Nunraw New Abbey - South Cloister sunset window reflections

Monastic life at Nunraw Abbey - Abbot Mark

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2013

SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER

REFLECTION

Jesus lies at the heart of spiritual life and prayer

In the first article of a new series on spirituality, ABBOT MARK CAIRA from Nunraw Abbey explains the many benefits of monastic life.

Nunraw Abbey - community

The general reader may be forgiven for wondering what the monastic life has to offer them.  They probably see that there is a place for the monastic life in the Church and that monasteries may even be somewhere they may want to go to visit and perhaps even stay for a few days to unwind and recharge their batteries. But monasteries seem to have no immediate link with ordinary life in the world.  Monks and nuns, after all, are people who ‘leave the world’ to follow their vocation.  They live a life that is totally different from the rest of mankind and they should be left alone to get on with it.  - Is it as simple as that?

The Church is, in the main, immersed in ordinary society.  Christians are meant to live out their calling from God and to make the world a better place for their being a part of it.  It is true that we all don’t always live up to our calling. but Christ’s call is not to give up.  When we do fall down we need to see ourselves as we are, get up after each failure and walk more humbly before God.  Whatever befalls us we are called to continue anew following the Gospel through all the twists and turns of our lives.  That applies to monks and nuns as well as the rest of the Church and society.

We are all human.  We all receive the gift of life in Christ through our baptism.  Monks and nuns have a great deal in common with the rest of the Church for they bleed like the rest of mankind.  They get tired and hungry like everyone else.  And, as with everyone else, they have a need to know and love God.  It is good to remember these basic truths in this time of renewal in the Church as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Vatican II.  Pope Francis has also been encouraging us in these months after his election to take up the challenge offered us by Christ and to joyfully engage in the life he offers us.

What is the point then of going to live in a monastery when God can be loved and served in ordinary everyday life in the Church and society?

One way of answering that question, perhaps, is take a closer look at the makeup of society in general.  In everyday life people choose to live in different ways.  They take different jobs, they make different choices in how and where they live.  They choose to marry one person and not another or they may decide to live singly.  We who believe that God is present in all of our lives know that he actively helps us to decide where our greater happiness in life lies.  

Everyone has a vocation be it to marriage or the single life.  Within either state of life they may feel called to other things as well, like nursing or teaching.  The monastic life in its various forms is one such option that some feel God is calling them to follow.  As in other vocations it needs prayer and enough time and space to discover if that is what God is really asking of them.

Being a priest or a religious has often been described as being a ‘higher’, or ‘better’, vocation than others.  The natural temptation was to seek this ‘higher’ vocation, according to that way of thinking, rather than what it was that God was offering. 

The understanding of Martha and Mary in the gospel gives a good insight into the question of vocation.  We are often told quite clearly that, to quote the Gospel, ‘Mary had chosen the better part’.  That seems to put Martha in her place.  But, it is interesting to note that in the calendar of saints, on the 29 July, the feast of St Martha, the Cistercian Order celebrates not just Martha but also that of her sister, Mary, and Lazarus her brother.  In a commentary on this feast, St Bernard tells us that a monastic community can profitably learn from all three of these saints and not just from the ‘contemplative’ Mary.  In a monastery monks need to work and they suffer illness, as much as to pray and to do other things that are necessary for the normal organising of life lived together..

There are many God-given vocations in the Church.  The only perfect one for us is the one that God calls us to live.  Often we find it difficult to find out what that means for ourselves. 

Life in a monastery is different from what most would regard as normal.  And yet, when you put aside the fact that monks live mostly within the confines of the monastery and with a set pattern to their life, what they do from day to day is what most people already do outside the monastery.   Besides their time for prayer, they work and rest.  There is the daily upkeep and cleaning of the abbey to be seen to; there are meals to be prepared.  Newcomers to the community need training into the spirit and understanding of this life they have chosen and to be shown when necessary the practical day to day organising of the community life.  There are also the physical needs of those who are unwell and the elderly to be taken care of.  So, monks may be ‘out of the world’ in one sense but they are very much grounded in the needs and realities of everyday life. 

The early Cistercians, in the twelfth century used their energies and talents to build their monasteries and set about reclaiming the uncultivated land around them.  Their ingenuity was put to good use in all of this.  Their lives were very much rooted in the world that God created.  Their minds and hearts were centred on God.  But it was Jesus, the Word made man, that lay at the heart of their lives and prayer.  That is the lifestyle that has been handed down to the present day Cistercians.  Perhaps we can consider that in some detail at a future date.

Nunraw New Abbey - South Cloister sunset window reflections

You Tube 'FIRST LIGHT', Michael

COMMENT:

First Light, Michael.

http://youtu.be/457NRQdw0K0

Michael . . . 

To Me

Today at 12:46 AM

Dear Fr Donald

Something for your blog....maybe

I have been coming to Nunraw for over thirty years, we have spoken on the odd occasion. I recently came across this video on VHS format and was able to transfer it to DVD.

Prior to me sorting out my life I often turned up at the doors of Nunraw in what can only be described as my darkest hours, the Brothers at Nunraw are very much an integral part of my recovery.

The video was made by the BBC over 17 years ago, when I was three years clean and sober, a day at a time I surpassed the twenty year mark earlier this year.

Here is the link...http://youtu.be/457NRQdw0K0

God Bless

Michael

Facebook:

First Light

    http://youtu.be/457NRQdw0K0   

 Mick McAndrews·9 videos

•  
  Donald McGlynn 1 second ago

  Surprise, a joyful surprise. Thank you, Mick. In a minute I will need to learn again and see how best to put it on the Blog.

  God bless,

  Donald