Catherine of Siena

Tuesday 29 April
St Catherine of Siena (Patron of Europe) (Feast)

We were celebrating Mass today for my special friend St. Catherine of Siena. For some reason she is my favourite. She is a Doctor of the Church but she never wrote a line. All her teaching was dictated. By comparison St. Therese of Liseaux wrote with ease not to say poetically, and piously. Catherine’s teaching is so theological and so Trinitarian. There seems more of a masculine strength in her words. Her style is not that of the Little Flower. Catherine would rather say , “Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things”.

Thumbnail sketches of Catherine’s career tend to journalistic reporting of society and politics with a veneer of spirituality, not the stuff of mysticism.

It is her own words that are more powerful. The Reading from the Prayer of the Church (The Breviary) from The Dialogue is an example. When I hear her words and the ongoing flow of her thought, one paragraph is enough. My mind goes into ‘grid lock’ just to get my head around the shear mysticism in her spirit.

Our guests at the Mass fastened their ears to some of the quotes;
“'You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love'. . . . 'Love transforms one into what one loves.'

'The soul cannot live without love. She always wants to love something because love is the stuff she is made of, and through love he created her.'

In a vision she shared that God the Father spoke to her and said:

'Do you know, daughter, who you are and who I am? If you know these two things you have beatitude within your grasp. You are she who is not, and I am he who is.'

- - - “St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism. In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430”. (catholic.org)

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SCAM de-activated

SCAM EMAIL DE-ACTIVATED.
I am happy to say I went through the Yahoo Help Maze, and eventually got to a human voice. The Rogue Email in domdonald's name has now been DE-ACTIVATED.
The compensation for loosing Email Address Book and other Stored Files is that I have not had a single SPAM since I began using this new Address. It will be temporary until I get on to an entirely different platform.

It is a good spring cleaning exercise.
A friend saw TWO SWALLOWS yesterday.
One swallow does not make a summer but two is a good sign.

I am so grateful to all who recognised the Scam as such, and for the many kind phone calls.
Thank you.

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HACKER SCAM

Archive
see Post 24/04/08 above

East Lothian News, May 2, 2008
By Craig Finlay Reporter

Ex-Abbot victim of internet scam

Former Abbot of Nunraw Abbey, Dom Donald McGlynn, has been left to pick up the pieces after internet fraudsters hacked into his email account and set up a scam to con thousands of pounds from his online friends and contacts.

Describing himself as a "very vexed victim," the Benedictine monk and Guestmaster of Nunraw Guesthouse, near Garvald, told the News of his frustration over the apparent impotence of fraud investigators.

He said: "Sadly, advice is that the fraud-quad cannot do anything unless they have actual tangible evidence of fraud.

"I can only hope that anyone contacted will immediately recognise this fraudulent use of a hitherto reliable facility."

The News received an email from someone pertaining to be Dom Donald (73) on an "important trip" to Canada.

Refund?
In the communication, the 'victim' claimed to have been robbed of all his belongings and return ticket.
It read: "I just want to plead with you if you can loan me $2800 so I can re-arrange myself and I promise to make refunds to you once I get back. "Please help me have the money sent via Money Gram money transfer. Below is my information you would require in sending the money."

When we caught up with the real Donald McGlynn later that day, he confirmed our suspicions that the circular was, in fact, fraudulent.
Fraud
He said: "It is a scam. Someone has stolen my email address and is asking for money all over the world."
According to Detective Inspector James Gilchrist, of the Musselburgh-based Lothian and Borders Police specialist fraud unit, internet fraudsters are using every trick in the book to remain one step ahead of the authorities.

He said: "These types of crime are extremely difficult to solve."

Full report in East Lothian News, May 2, 2008

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Children's Hospital

Charles McNeil - Past Resident at Nunraw known for his work in the Children’s Hospital, Edinburgh.

Abbot Raymond received this interesting inquiry regarding the late Professor Charles McNeil.

“I wonder if you might be able to help with some information on the above who had, I believe, some links with Nunraw Abbey? I have the specific task of tracking down information on Prof McNeil, who was appointed to its first Chair [the first to be devoted to the study of the child in health as well as in sickness] in 1931, a post he held until retirement in 1946. The fairly brief biographical information which I have obtained so far indicates that, in the years following his retirement, Prof & Mrs McNeil lived in the Gifford area and had contact with the Abbey, certainly until the former's death in 1964. We are keen to obtain some information
about this time in his life. To this end, I wonder if the Abbey and its Community might be able to furnish some information which could assist us in our task”.

The response to this inquiry is that “All you wanted to ask about Charles McNeill and were afraid to ask”, can be readily found – or at least a good part of it.

To begin at the end, I have just taken a photo of the memorial stone, (the boulder brought from a Galloway river bed at the wish of Charles), in the cemetery at old Nunraw House. At that time of the evening the view was rather remarkable, showing the long shadows of the tree overhanging the grave. The story of the stone is that one of the requests in Charles’ Will was to have this bolder brought from one of the many stream beds in Galloway. This mission was carried out by Adam, driver and gardener at Nunraw Barns, and Seamus, stone worker at the Abbey, who made the long drive to bring home this link with his forebears in the Rhinns of South West Scotland.

Engraved on the chosen monument are the exact dates of birth and life, 1881-1964.

His wife, Alice Workman McNeil, was also buried here.

In the Nunraw library the most helpful record for the purposes of research must be the privately printed, “A Scottish Physician, Charles McNeil, An Appreciation by George Scott-Moncrieff”. It is an illustrated 23 page monograph.

Extract from George Scott-Moncrieff’s “A Scottish Physician”.

An original member of the British Paediatric Association, Charles McNeil was elected its President in 1941, and was also President of the Scottish Paediatric Association. He was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, 1940-1943, and was made a Fellow of the London College in 1943. He became a member of the Governing Board of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and on his retirement in 1946 the University conferred the title of Emeritus Professor on him and gave him an LL.D. in 1953. During the war years, 1939-1945, Professor MeNeil was engaged in helping with the plans then going ahead for the National Health Service.

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Charles McNeil died at Nunraw Barns on April 27th, 1964, peacefully, after receiving the Last Sacraments.

Many tributes, both public and private, were paid to this "true physician and erudite scholar" as the obituary in the British Medical Journal described him, adding the singular praise "he was incapable of a mean or unkind thought." Intellectually "he had a gift for the rapid assessment of a clinical problem," but perhaps even more important was the gentle loving approach that gave him the immediate confidence of children. A young man remembered meeting him as a child, the warmth and ease with which the Professor spoke to him, and the humility and perception that made an elderly man capable of seeing a child's problems as they appear to the child himself, so that he was able to offer acceptable advice and encouragement. His gracious manner, radiant smile and delightful sense of humour, remain fresh in the memories of many of us who knew him and who would not hesitate to describe Charles McNeil as a saintly man.

Charles McNeil was given the rare tribute of burial amongst the Cistercian monks in the monastic cemetery. In his funeral oration Abbot Columban Mulcahy of Nunraw said that this was a man who might have made his own the words, " Look for me in the nurseries of heaven." (Francis Thomson).

The portrait of Charles McNeil was painted in 1948 by his cousin Murray Urquhart. It would be interesting its final location.

For further reference, see also Lectures as, e.g. BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, LONDON SATURDAY MARCH 6 1954, YESTERDAY AND TO-MORROW IN CHILD HEALTH. BY CHARLES McNEIL, MD., LL.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.P.Ed. Professor Emeritus in Child Life and Health, University of Edinburgh. WWWeb. pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=2084750&pageindex=1

The story of Alice Workman-McNeil is on a par with that of her husband. They met through their heroic work in Rouen during the 1914-18 War. Charles was in command of the hospital, mostly under tent, which at one time saw forty thousand casualties brought in.
“Alice was one of two sisters from Northern Ireland who arrived in France, bringing their own money to initiate voluntary help to the troops. Alice Workman started four canteens for Servicemen in Rouen and managed them throughout the war. In January, 1919, Charles McNeill and she were married in St. Helen’s Bay Presbyterian Church in county Down”.

The loveliest comment on the life’s work of Charles McNeil is his own sense of wonder in the first smile of the child. This humble Pediatrician appreciated to the full his privileged profession expressed in his key direction in the Children’s Hospital. “He always regarded the first smile of a sick child as a matter of major importance, and a large red S had to be written on its chart to record the occasion”.

What is the glorious experience of parents in that first smile is something to move everyone to thank God for the wonder of our being.

Ps. 138(139).
For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

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I am the good shepherd

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

It is hard not to think that Jesus has got his metaphors a bit mixed up when we consider what he tells us in today’s Gospel. (“I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11).

He starts with the image of a Sheepfold. Then he speaks of the Gate of the Sheepfold; then of the Shepherd who enters through the Gate; then of the Gatekeeper who lets the Shepherd in.

He then switches back to the image of the Shepherd who leads the flock but, in his explanation to his uncomprehending listeners, he suddenly jumps back again to the image of the Gate: “I tell you solemnly, I am the Gate of the sheepfold.” “Anyone who enters through me will be safe: He will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.”

It is only after all this that Jesus explicitly applies the image of the Shepherd directly to himself. He finally says: “I am the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep….I know my own and my own know me.”

In summary, the Lord would seem to be implying that the basic picture is of His Heavenly Father being the Gatekeeper; He himself being the Gate, and his ministers down the centuries being the Shepherds who pass through the gate but who do so only as his own representatives, for ultimately he alone is both the Gate and the one and only True Good Shepherd.

This brings us to consider this morning the tremendous privilege we have in knowing Him and being called to follow Him who is the only true Gate to eternal life.

All other faiths have their own image of God; their own attitude towards God, more or less true. But no other Faith can give the knowledge of God that comes to us through our Faith in the Son of God incarnate; Jesus, our Brother in the flesh. What a difference that makes. We can hardly imagine what it must be like to have no other image of God and of our relationship with him than the image that still persists in Islam or even in Judaism. And how many millions, and indeed billions, of souls does that include!

We can only cry out with St Paul to the Philippians:

“Because of Christ, I have come to consider all these advantages I had as disadvantages. Not only that, but I believe that nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him, I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him.

Abbot Raymond. Morning Chapter Talk

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Good Shepherd Sunday

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Cardinal Keith O’Brien takes his queue from
POPE BENEDICT XVI’s Message for the 45th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 13 APRIL 2008,Fourth Sunday of Easter.

Theme: “Vocations at the service of the Church on mission”

The Cardinal quotes, “The Church is missionary in herself and in each one of her members. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, every Christian is called to bear witness and to announce the Gospel”, and he goes on to view the local panorama of the Church embodying the Vocations of his people in the Archdiocese.

The Holy Father himself extends the spiritual and ecclesial horizons of the Christian community.

It is worth reading his whole text,

He begins his message by recalling Jesus’ Great Commission to the Apostles (Mt. 28:19-20) to take the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He then traced this mission back to its origins in the call of God to the prophets. The way the Gospel is transmitted today remains the same as in the time of the Apostles. “In the beginning, and thereafter, what ‘impels’ the Apostles is always ‘the love of Christ’. (...) In fact, the love of Christ must be communicated to the brothers by example and words, with all one's life.”

This double loop, from the Apostles near ground level to the heights of the love of Christ, seems to be the Pope’s style, as in the next double loop. For example, on the occasion of the multiplication of the loaves, he said to the Apostles: “You give them something to eat” (Mt 14: 16), encouraging them to assume the needs of the crowds to whom he wished to offer nourishment, but also to reveal the food “which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6: 27).

“The promises made to our fathers were fulfilled entirely in Jesus Christ. In this regard, the Second Vatican Council says: “The Son, therefore, came, sent by the Father. It was in him, before the foundation of the world, that the Father chose us and predestined us to become adopted sons … To carry out the will of the Father, Christ inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. By his obedience he brought about redemption” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium,”

This same heavenly grid is evident where Benedict XVII quotes his two predecessors.

“My venerable predecessor John Paul II wrote: “The special vocation of missionaries ‘for life’ retains all its validity: it is the model of the Church's missionary commitment, which always stands in need of radical and total self-giving, of new and bold endeavours”. (Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, 66)

This multitude of men and women religious, belonging to innumerable Institutes of contemplative and active life, still plays “the main role in the evangelisation of the world” (Ad Gentes, 40). With their continual and community prayer, contemplatives intercede without ceasing for all humanity. Religious of the active life, with their many charitable activities, bring to all a living witness of the love and mercy of God.

The Servant of God Paul VI concerning these apostles of our times said: “Thanks to their consecration they are eminently willing and free to leave everything and to go and proclaim the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. They are enterprising and their apostolate is often marked by an originality, by a genius that demands admiration. They are generous: often they are found at the outposts of the mission, and they take the greatest of risks for their health and their very lives. Truly the Church owes them much” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 69).

“Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated. Mission, as a witness of divine love, becomes particularly effective when it is shared in a community, “so that the world may believe” (cf. Jn 17: 21).

The Church prays everyday to the Holy Spirit for the gift of vocations.”

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Nunraw trial Video

This is a trial in using the Video facility of this BLOG

Adam, where are you?

A TALE OF TWO GARDENS

The Books of Holy Scripture are full of twin stories, Diptychs; sometimes with one story in the Old Testament relating to one in the New, e.g. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac vis-à-vis God the Father’s sacrifice of Jesus; sometimes with both stories in the same Testament; e.g. The two miraculous catches of fish in the Gospels, or the Deliverance of Israel, first from Egypt and then from Babylon in the O.T. Sometimes the two stories are thousands of years apart e.g. The Passion and Death of Samson in the O.T. and the Passion and Death of Christ in the N.T.;

Sometimes the stories are immediately one after the other as with the stories of the Annunciation and Birth of John the Baptist and the Annunciation and Birth of Jesus.

In every case, however, the first story is a key to the understanding of the second. The second story is coloured and enriched by its association with the first.

So, with this in mind, let us take one of these Diptychs and try to draw all we can of the Divine Author’s meaning from it. God is, after all, the supreme dramatist. Before him all the Cicero’s and Dante’s and Shakespear’s of the world pall into insignificance.

Moreover, where these great human authors can only write with words on paper or parchment God can dip his finger into the ink-well of his creative power and write real historic scenes with real live characters on the pages of history itself in order to convey his message to us.

The great Diptych I would like to consider here is the Diptych which places the story of the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Fall, and the story of the Garden of Christ’s Tomb, the Garden of the Resurrection, side by side.

In the Garden of the Fall, God appears as the Heavenly Father, the Creator of Mankind.

In the Garden of the Resurrection, God appears as Christ, the Redeemer of Mankind.

In the Garden of the Fall God calls out to his fallen creature: “Adam, where are you?” Now, it becomes apparent as we study the parallels of this Diptych, that this is no angry cry of an offended Deity, but rather the heartfelt cry of a Father who has lost his son.

God’s cry of “Adam, where are you?” in the Garden of the Fall is contrasted with Magdalene’s cry in the Garden of the Resurrection: “Where is he? They have taken away my Lord!”

In the first Garden it is God who is seeking man; in the second Garden it is man who is seeking God. The balance is at last restored.

And how fitting it was that it should be Mary Magadalene who represents fallen man seeking his God; she who was sin personified, as it were; she, out of whom seven devils had been cast. She had seen it all, done it all. How beautiful that the Risen Christ should therefore first appear to her – she who was first, the personification of sinful man, and then, the personification of the repentant sinner.

In the first Garden it is man who is hiding from God, in the second Garden it is God who is hiding from man.

Jesus plays a game of ‘hide and seek’ with Magdalene and by his questioning: “Why do you weep? Who are you looking for?” he draws from her the expression of her desire for him: “They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where the have laid him.”

Then finally, and so beautifully, the scene climaxes in Jesus calling her by her name: “Mary” and at this she recognises him and clings to him with unspeakable joy. In this, so beautiful way, calling her by name, Jesus gives us a sign and a symbol of the utter love with which he forgives and takes us back to himself.

And so the scene of the First Garden is reversed and all things are restored to what they ought to be – Repentant Man seeking and finding his God again.

Abbot Raymond

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Nunraw Annunciation

Annunciation of the Lord

Solemnity transferred to Mon. 31 March 2008.

Chapter Sermon by Fr. Mark.

It is a happy coincidence that the feast of the Annunciation sometimes occurs in Easter Time. It serves to remind us that no feast can be separated from the saving deeds of Jesus that we have just celebrated in Holy Week. Each feast of the year truly contains the whole dying and rising mystery of Christ.

During the eight octave days of Easter the gospels continually present us with encounters of the risen Christ with his disciples. The transposed solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord to Mary can also fruitfully be interpreted within similar parallel meetings between the divine and the human. What an encounter with God Mary had through the intervention of the angel Gabriel: “The power of the Most High will overshadow you”, Gabriel tells her and she becomes pregnant with Jesus! Her womb is opened and the Son of the Most High, the Saviour, is conceived within her body. This life, nurtured in darkness, bursts forth to be the Light of the world. This life, entombed in Mary’s womb, becomes the risen Lord.

But even so, Mary, the first of the disciples and the mother of God, at first receives the angel’s message as one “greatly troubled” and questions the angel, “How can this be?” – These are surely typical human responses. The gospel account shows us how our ways can be completely changed into the ways of God. What transformed Mary from the frightened and questioning young woman we saw at the encounter with Gabriel into the confident though still reticent but firm believer that we have come to see and treasure in the life of the Church and its tradition? This is the same type of question we have seen being asked of the disciples in the face of the death and then of the resurrection of Jesus. What transformed them from doubting followers to believing disciples? And the ultimate question for us in all of these events is, what transforms us?

The first reading in the Mass of the Annunciation relates to a similar dilemma. God offered Ahaz a sign; Ahaz refuses to ask for one and thereby clutches to his own way of thinking. Mary, in spite of being troubled and with questions in her heart, comes to submit to “the power of the Most High.” Her answer (“I am the handmaid of the Lord”), transforms her. Jesus ends his earthly life by doing his Father’s will, and by offering himself as a sacrifice on the cross for our salvation. This act of self-giving allowed the Father to raise him up. Mary in her acceptance of God’s will anticipated Jesus’ own response to the Father. But it was he who, when he had accepted the Father’s plan of salvation for mankind, gave her earlier response its full significance and purpose.

When our Lady replied to Gabriel’s message from on high: “May it be done to me according to your word,” she begot Jesus in the flesh. When Jesus said to his Father in his final hours, “Let your will be done, not mine.” we were raised us up with him to the heights of heaven.

The dimension of the resurrection, therefore, comes into play when we celebrate Gabriel’s greeting to Mary in this Easter Season. His words, “The Lord is with you” become pregnant with the added and fuller meaning that it is the risen Lord who is with us.

By accepting God’s will in our own lives as both Jesus and Mary did in theirs we will truly encounter the risen Christ. And our Easter Alleluias become our way of saying, with Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word.”

Holy Saturday - POSTSCRIPT

Post Script.

Holy Saturday is not Easter Sunday
- the DESCENT INTO HELL.

Hippolytus, (C4), was as clear as the women, NOT going to the tomb before the end of the Sabbath, when he continued the tradition, “Many of the just, proclaiming the Good News and prophesying were awaiting him who was to become by his resurrection the first born from the dead. And so, to save all members of the human race, whether they lived before the law, under the law, or after his own coming, Christ DWELT THREE DAYS BENEATH THE EARTH.

I was not surprised in the pastoral log jam of Saturday/Sunday Masses to find an excellent Homily on Holy Saturday was to be found NOT on the Saturday but on the SUNDAY Easter Vigil.

A Holy Saturday Homily from the Dominican Website, Dublin, although miscued to the Sunday Easter Vigil, seems to express very well some of the Holy Saturday experience.
This is another example of the progressive foreshortening of Holy Saturday and the precipitating of the Easter-Vigil. Monasteries and religious house seem to better attuned to the Blessing of the Easter Fire to coincide with the Sunday Dawn

Our thanks to the Dominican Fathers for this Homily. (Their Website, “Today’s Good News” has been consistently Biblical and theological in its commentary on the Lectern Gospel of the day).

22 March [Easter Vigil Mass] Mt 28:1-10
“After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

There is no Eucharist of Holy Saturday. It is the only day of the year when Mass is not celebrated. The altars are stripped bare, tabernacles lie open and empty – an extraordinarily powerful symbol for Catholics. The whole Church is one with Christ in his death. It is necessary to experience this. We have to allow ourselves experience sadness and loss. The Liturgy is a wise teacher.

However, piety immediately negates the power of the empty tabernacle by setting up an altar of repose, much more elaborately decorated with flowers and candles than the high altar ever was. We find it hard to live even for a day with anything that seems like emptiness.

George Steiner, among others, remarked that our world around us today is a kind of prolonged Holy Saturday: the age between Friday and Sunday, between defeat and hope. Today, of all days, the Christian heart feels the darkness of the world, and allows itself to look at the darkness in itself.

The emptiness and darkness that we have allowed ourselves to feel will show us the light of Easter all the more brightly. In the darkness we rise for the Easter Vigil. Against a black sky we light the Easter fire. But this would be a forlorn gesture if Christ were not risen from the dead! Suddenly the Paschal candle is alight. Lumen Christi! – the light of Christ lightens our darkness. Exultet! – “Exult, all creation...! Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour, radiant in the brightness of your King.... Darkness vanishes forever...! Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God's people!”

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Who links to me?

Who links to me?

RESURRECTION 2008.

Easter Vigil - Abbot’s Homily

RESURRECTION 2008.

As with all the great events of the life of Christ, His Resurrection has many facets. There is an element of Triumph in it; an element of hope; an element of encouragement; but there is also an element of challenge. The element of Triumph is obvious. Christ has triumphed over death. The element of hope is what makes us look forward to our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. The element of encouragement is what gives us strength to fight our own battles during this life. But the element of challenge is another thing. Perhaps, even the main thing.

Let’s look then at the way the doctrine of the Resurrection challenges our faith. I dont mean that it challenges our faith by being something that is hard to believe in. If we believe in the Divinity of Christ there is no problem in believing that he could rise from the dead. Perhaps some of us might find it difficult to believe in our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. That might be a bit of a challenge to some of us. But that is not the main and most pressing challenge of the Doctrine of the Resurrection. One can ignore the doctrine of our own bodily resurrection if one finds it awkward. But there is a challenge in the doctrine of the resurrection which no one can ignore. Whether we like it or not we have to learn to face it. And if we do take it on board we will find it the answer to, and the support for, all the pains and problems of life.

To understand this challenge we must first consider that the Doctrine of the Resurrection is that Christ has triumphed over death and sin on our behalf. Now we can easily see how Christ has triumphed over death and sin personally but how does that triumph affect us? What does it do for us in our own daily struggle with sin and sickness and disease? What triumph can we claim over sickness and death and sin? We who have to live in the middle of it all, while Christ sits in glory on high! What triumph can we claim over the evils of war and plague and famine when they still stalk the earth so powerfully? Indeed, did Jesus himself not warn us that there will always be wars and rumours of war, and sickness and famine? Where is the triumph of the Resurrection then?

The triumph of the resurrection lies precisely in this: That our triumph will be of exactly the same nature as that of Christ. He attained his resurrection only by passing through death. This is not an understanding of the resurrection that we like to ponder on. But it is the only one which makes the resurrection the answer to all our ills. We will rise with Him, only if we are prepared to pass through death with him. And sufferings of this life are, in fact, that “death” through which we must all pass. We must learn to lift up our minds and hearts to where Christ is, seated in his glory, and realise that it is only when we too have passed through all the sufferings and sadnesses of this life, and eventually death itself will we be delivered from them. The ultimate answer to all our ills is this understanding of the meaning of the triumph of resurrection. But the world, of course, wants all its ills healed here and now, and therefore it is bound to find a terrible frustration and disappointed with life. The soul of faith on the other hand, looks to the resurrection as its real hope, the real deliverance from the evils that so beset us in our life in this world. The resurrection is the ultimate answer and the only complete answer And if one does not believe in the resurrection then there is no answer.

Easter blessings from Fr Raymond, Nunraw

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Holy Saturday 2008

Holy Saturday is not Easter Sunday.

The DESCENT INTO HELL.
The Liturgical and personal celebration of Holy Saturday conveys more clearly the starkness, the vacancy, the void ness of any kind of assurance of consolation in the dying of Jesus. Even the Cross of Good Friday is stripped away, images are veiled, the Tabernacle lies empty, bells are mute, monks’ make none of the usual choir salutations.
Hans Urs von Balthaser, drawing inspiration from the mystical theologian, Adrienne von Speyr, in whose spirituality plays the Descent into Hell plays a massive part, wrote that he aimed not to leave this neglected article of the Old Roman Creed out of account.
In the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre (Church of the Resurrection) in Jerusalem the Pilgrim’s first ‘welcome is at the marble slab, the Stone of Unction, where in the Orthodox tradition elderly people bring the shroud they hope will be used in their dying hours.
On the facing wall is a mural painting depicting of the scenes of (1) the Descent into Hell, (2) the Anointing of Jesus’ Body, (3) the Entombment.
As the most central basilica of Christendom it is known most popularly and most aptly as the HOLY SEPULCHRE. The silence of Holy Saturday, the ominous emptiness of the tomb, pervades the hours of bereft mourning and a sense of expectation of the unknown. It is not anticipation. Anticipation of Easter Sunday is premature. Holy Saturday is not to be ushered a side Chapel.
It is difficult to accept the full reality of Jesus’ death and descent into hell, even for those few hour of prayer. Not many concentrate on the experience of such a one as Adrienne von Speyr in her union with Christ in his Passion and especially in the mystical entering into the Holy Saturday abyss of god-forsakenness.
Not being able to accept too much reality, it is easier to veer quickly into the more visual and audio perception we create in representations of the more comforting glories of the Resurrection.
Hasty anticipation expresses not Jesus’ utter abandonment in death but the instant anticipation of a triumphant awaking of the dead in a victorious release, rescue and recovery. Even St. John takes a leap forward, “after his resurrection, these came out of the tombs”,
(“Mat 27:51 And suddenly, the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks were split,
Mat 27:52 the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead,
Mat 27:53 and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people”).
Our understanding of the question is helped by Joseph Ratzinger who wrote a book called Eschatology:
“God himself suffered and died . . . He himself entered into the distinctive freedom of sinners, but he went beyond it in that freedom of his own love which descended willingly into the Abyss. Here the real quality of evil and its consequences become quite palpable, provoking the question . . . whether in this event we are not in touch with a divine response able to draw freedom, precisely as freedom, to itself. The answer lies hidden in Jesus' descent into Sheol, in the night of the soul which he suffered, a night no one can observe except by entering this darkness in suffering faith . . . It is a challenge to suffer in the dark night of faith, to experience communion with Christ in solidarity with his descent into the Night. One draws near to the Lord's radiance by sharing his darkness”.

Stone of Unction upon which the body of Jesus was anointed.
To the rear a mural, (modern iconography), depicts 3 scenes, the Descent into Hell, far right, the Anointing of Jesus’ Body, the Entombment.

BBelow picture of the Adam Chapel situated farther to the right, under which lies Golgotha.
This mural forms a link from the Adam Chapel to Christ’s Tomb further left.
Note the tradition of the Adam Chapel commemorates the burial site of our common father, Adam, and that on the day of the Crucifixion the blood of the Redeemer fell upon that first guilty head. This has given rise to the custom, mainly in the Greek Church, of representing at the foor of the Crucifies a skull and cross-bones.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

He summons Adam and his generation,
brings light where darkness endless seemed;
He frees and claims his own, so long held captive
who, with the living, are redeemed.

Hymn Divine Office

Good Friday

It is Easter Sunday that makes Good Friday good.

“The Church invites us to take on the Paschal Fast; the Easter Fast. Our fast is not of penance but of anticipation. We are like a bride or bridegroom fasting before the wedding celebration.
. . .This is a fast of excitement, of anticipation.
. . . Today we are invited to enter the mystery of Christ’s dying on the cross and rising, the mystery of our baptism”. (Bible Today).

The actor, Jim Caviezel, played Jesus in the film The Passion of the Christ. He described his experience, “I felt like a great presence came within me at times when we were filimg. This prayer that came from me was, ‘I don’t want people to see me. I just want them to see Jesus. And that conversion will happen’. That’s what I wanted more than anything, that people would have a visceral effect to finally make a decision whether to follow him or not”.

Blessed Guerric of Igny Cistercian abbot 4th sermon for Palm Sunday.

"Happy are all who take refuge in him!" (Ps 2,12)

Blessed may he be who let his hands, his feet and side be pierced that I might make my nest “in the clefts of the rock” (Sg 2,14)
Blessed may he be who has fully opened himself up to me so that I might go in to the sanctuary of God (cf Ps 42[41],5) and “conceal myself in the shelter of his tent” (Ps 27[26],5). This rock is our refuge… the doves’ sweet place of rest, since the sanctifying holes of those wounds covering his body hold out forgiveness to sinners and grant grace to the just. It is a sure abode, my brethren, “a tower of strength against the enemy” (Ps 61[60],4), when we dwell within the wounds of Christ our Saviour by means of loving and constant meditation, when we seek a sure shelter for our souls in faith and love for the Crucified: a shelter against the rebellion of the flesh, the tempests of the world, the attacks of the devil

The protection of this sanctuary lifts it above all worldly esteem… So enter into this rock, hide yourself…, take refuge in the Crucified… What is the wound in Christ’s side if not the door of the ark, open to all who will be rescued from the flood?
Noah’s ark, however, was only a symbol; here is the reality In this case it is no longer a question of restoring mortal life but of receiving the immortal. Thus it is wholly right that today Christ’s dove, his beautiful one (Sg 2,13-14),… should joyfully sing his praise

From the remembrance or the imitation of the Passion, from meditation on the holy wounds as from the clefts of the rock, his sweetest voice resounds in the Bridegroom’s ears (Sg 2,14).

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Holy Thursday 2008

Holy Thursday

Jn 13,1-2. - Knowing his time had come . . . . Jesus loved them to the end.

In John’s Gospel there is no account of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

In the first half of this gospel the words ‘life’ and ‘live’ occur 50 times, but not once in Jesus' conversation at the Last Supper. Death is hovering near; there is a tremendously significant mention of darkness: “Judas left...and it was night” (13:30).

In the Last Supper discourse: “Jesus disregards himself and his suffering, and shows only love for his own and compassion for their future trials.

Saint Catherine of Siena, (Letter 129) wrote;

“He does not refuse to take up the burden of suffering laid on him by
his Father; to the contrary, he throws himself into it, spurred on by his
great desire. Isn’t this what he reveals during the Last Supper on Holy
Thursday, when he says: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with
you before I suffer” (Lk 22,15)? By “eat this Passover” he means the
accomplishment of the Father’s will and his desire. Seeing that scarcely
any time lies before him (he was already looking ahead to the end when he
would sacrifice his body for our sake), he rejoices, he is glad and
joyfully says: “I have greatly desired”. Here is the Passover he is
speaking about: that which consists in giving his own self as food, in
laying down his own body in obedience to the Father.

“He does not refuse to take up the burden of suffering laid on him by
his Father; to the contrary, he throws himself into it, spurred on by his
great desire. Isn’t this what he reveals during the Last Supper on Holy
Thursday, when he says: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with
you before I suffer” (Lk 22,15)? By “eat this Passover” he means the
accomplishment of the Father’s will and his desire. Seeing that scarcely
any time lies before him (he was already looking ahead to the end when he
would sacrifice his body for our sake), he rejoices, he is glad and
joyfully says: “I have greatly desired”. Here is the Passover he is
speaking about: that which consists in giving his own self as food, in
laying down his own body in obedience to the Father”.

“. . . you also ought to wash one another's feet”. Again Jesus is saying, “Do this in memory of me.” He is present. It is a “real presence” in even the humblest service. In this too; it is a kind of Eucharist when our least service is given to each other. Jesus' words are the all time model of humble service [washing their feet] and of prayer (ch. 17), - real presence of grace.

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