MY FAVOURITE little piece of The monks live in the abbey, two roads up above us. They are very nice and we go to see them for church sometimes. The monks have a farm where my second neighbour Gerry works. It's not a "farm" farm because they only keep cows in it. They clear out the cages when the cattle are out mating and feeding. |
Monday 22 June 2009
My little piece of Scotland
Sunday 21 June 2009
Saint Aloysius Springburn
It was joy to welcome our friends from St Aloysius Springburn,
Herewith are the PHOTOS of the Pilgrims at the Farm Barns just after your Way of the Stations of the Cross.
And walking up the hill was a great achievement by the brave seniors. Some ladies were all-out after climbing the hill of the
Fr. John pointed out that they missed a Saturday this time for Saint Aloysius Gonzaga’s feast.
God reward all the good people.
Friday 19 June 2009
Father Faber
"Saving of a Soul". These last words, " none but God Himself can communicate grace to it , not even the angels, nor the Mother of God herself, blessed throughout all ages.", are so obvious but, at the same time, I am surprised by illumination in this basic of faith.
Maybe Faber radiates, from his Italian and Oratorian tradtion, his immersion of spirituality and devotion, while, on the other hand, Newman reflects the very distinctive apologia for sincere searching.
Thursday 18 June 2009
Joseph-Marie Cassant
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Corpus Christi
CORPUS CHRISTI 2009
When God threw the planets into space and set the universe turning we can imagine the angels being filled with wonder and praise, especially so when the jewel of this earth evolved - the waters, the dry land; the mountains and hills; the plants and animals; and finally man himself. The whole story is wonderfully told for us, of course, in the first chapters of Genesis. Then, as the history of mankind progressed, the Angels observed hints of another new creation that must have whetted their appetite for something even more wonderful.
First of all they observed the mysterious “Tree of Life” in the midst of the
By this time we can imagine the angelic intelligences realising that this is all leading up to some great work of the Lord to come in the future. But what on earth could it be? Were these images of “Bread” foreshadowing ‘Someone ‘or ‘Something’? Are angels given to guessing? I wonder. They couldn’t realise yet that the Eucharist itself was part of this great evolving plan; part of that Great Secret of the Incarnation of the Son of God, hidden from all ages.
But, to continue our journey through the history of revelation; after this there was the “Bread of the Presence” which had to be placed before the ark of the covenant at all times, then, in the time of Gideon there was the mysterious dream of a great round of bread rolling down on the camp of the enemies of Israel and utterly destroying it. Surely all these stories revolving round bread have some Eucharistic significance!
Next comes one of the most beautiful and powerful images of the Eucharist in the whole of the old Testament: the scene where the prophet Elijah, fleeing for his life and collapsing into a sleep of exhaustion in the shade of a desert bush, is wakened by an angel to find bread and water by his side and the angel telling him to rise and eat or the journey will be too much for him.
But what we can be very sure of is that no matter how great the intellects of the Angels, no matter how high in the order of being the Cherubim and Seraphim, they could never have dreamed of the wonder that this was actually leading up to, and how, even they must have been astonished and filled with wonder and praise at Miracle of the Body and Blood of God Incarnate becoming Bread and Wine to nourish the children of God on their journey to their heavenly homeland. Are there any limits to the Loving Omnipotence of our God.
Community Sermon in Chapter
by Dom Raymond Sunday 14 June 2009
Saint Lutgard
We remember St. Lutgard for her blindness in sight and her mysticism in light of inner sight. We enjoy hearing of her mystical life. In the Gospel this morning (Mt. 5:43) seems in great, contrast “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
Whether we hear words of poetry, mysticism or Scripture we are guided and enriched in the liturgical unfolding.
In the Night Office the Response and Verse to the 1st Nocturne of Office of Virgins so well present the sense of Lutgard,
“The Kind has desired the beauty which he himself has made; He is your King and your Spouse.
V. You are wedded to your God and King by whom you are endowed, adorned, redeemed and made holy”.
We enter into the Eucharist in the love to ‘wed to God’
Thomas Merton had thoughts of revising this book.
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Monday 15 June 2009
Newcastle History Group
Sunday 14 June 2009
Balmerino Abbey
The Cistercian Abbey of
Balmerino, Fife (Scotland)
A monastery is not just the cluster of buildings enclosed within the monastic precinct. It is also the community - religious and lay - who inhabited it, the complex of lands, rights and privileges assembled to sustain that community, and the interaction with notables and neighbours whose influence helped shape its history.
The small Cistercian abbey of Balmerino, on the southern shore of the Firth of Tay in north Fife, has long languished in relative obscurity, consigned to a supporting role in Scottish monastic studies with dismissive comments based on the fragmentary nature of its physical and documentary history. Current research is demonstrating how wrong that interpretation is. These chapters will present a diametrically opposed view of the significance of the surviving record and its value as a source of evidence for the social, economic and environmental history of Balmerino Abbey specifically and the wider region more generally.
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See also
Friday 12 June 2009
REVIEW Christian Muslim Obama
19 Martyrs pictures below.
and more detail in post TUESDAY, 19 MAY 2009
REVIEW
Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People
by Martin McGee
At the anniversary of the Seven Atlas Martyrs I was fortunate to catch up with the “forthcoming” book of Martin McGee. At weekend it was a joy to read it from cover to cover. The space for an Amazon review has the stamp of brevity but it does note the importance of the significance of Mgr. Henri Teissier. The
Archbishop’s teaching on inter-faith recently adds strength from a surprising source.
The headlines in June 2009 were, “Obama reaches out to Muslim world”, “President Obama calls for greater inter-faith harmony”. The now famous address in
Martin’s book does not carry a sub-title of “19 Martyrs of Algeria”. Its unambiguous title is, “Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People”, and has a much wider range of the Christian-Muslim relations of closer mutual respect, service, friendship, and prayer.
In April 2005 Martin first visited
"The
The key and most powerful influence is that of Mgr Henri Teissier. Much of the significance of this book is essentially the instillation of the thought, comprehension, and spirit of the Archbishop of Algiers, later retired. Between the lines, and more specifically in the Addresses of Mgr Teissier (Appendices), the reader grapples with the vision and the rare insight of this dedication of ‘Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People’. The incisive conclusion to the address, given by Mgrr. Teissier in Italian to a missionary Congress held in Brescia, Italy on May 17, 1997. (155-167), is but a window to his writing).
A hundred years ago the emigration of a European people and of a European population to the south of the Mediterranean brought about the birth of a Church in
The blood bath of Algeria1994-96 abated. The current situation of January 2007 is summed up, “The number of active Islamic guerrilla fighters is thought to be approximately eight hundred to one thousand, down from a high of 25,000 at the height of the civil war in the mid-1990s. In January 2007, the GSPC changed its name to the Al-Queda Organization in the Islamic Magreb.” (19).
I take from the 19 brief biographies two vignettes of the brutal terrorism on the people, - the assassinations of four of the White Fathers, Dec 27, 1994, and the assassinations of two of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, Sept 3. 1995, are examples.
The targets of the four White Fathers died in the multiple motivation. It is possible that the fundamentalists were hoping to kidnap the four priests as a reprisal for the killing of four Islamists who had hijacked an Air France plane at
The White Fathers of Tizi-Ouzou.
“An elderly White father said after the funeral of his assassinated brothers, “I turned towards the Father, giving thanks during the burial of my brothers, the four victims of Tizi-Ouzou. I recall the closed shops along the route of the funeral cortege, and the silent crowd who joined it as far as the cemetery. Imagine ... four Christian missionaries led to their resting place by a crowd of [about 4,000] Muslims; and even more, on entering the cemetery, this crowd emitting youyous and applauding as if for their own martyrs.
Msgr. Teissier, present to the concourse of sympathetic Muslims, was able to find the words which expressed fully the meaning of this demonstration by affirming: "The
Sisters Angele-Marie and Bibiane.
The Sisters, on their quiet walk from the Eucharist, were slain beyond any humanity. As they lay in the street dying gunned down no one dared to go to their aid. That is the depth of terror by which people were reduced by the Islamic extremism.
Fear Reigned (Pere Lafitte). “At the time of the killing of the Sisters, Islamic violence was at its height and fear reigned … Despite the fact that the Sisters were universally loved and admired in Belcourt, people were too frightened to show their support after their deaths. Pere Lafitte had to move their belongings with only the help of two religious, one of them elderly. There was only one elderly woman from the area who had the courage to help them. At their funeral there weren't even ten Algerians. Everyone was terrified of the consequences of being seen to oppose the Islamists. . ."You had to leave people to die”. (53-54)
(As I recall the occasion, in October 1996, at the Cistercian General Chapter at Tre Fontane,
The venture of Martin McGee in “unexpected places” gives us, in thought, access to the places of Muslim life. “At the very least my short visits to
In September 2008 a new publication brings to English readers fuller information and deeper insight in the book, “Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People” by Martin McGee OSB. Books about the assassinations are mostly from the Francophone writers. Martin McGee, in spite of the forbidding aspect, has been attracted in a special way to
Response: REVIEW Christian Muslim
Dear Donald,
That is such an important piece of writing at this time. I love the honour paid to the Atlas Community.
It is a most fascinating, and essential, step towards the "wider range of the Christian-Muslim relations of closer mutual respect, service, friendship, and prayer". How greatly Fr. Christian and his Brothers would welcome this publication, and these new initiatives, which extend the mission of their lives. . . . William.
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2009, 8:11 AM
Dear Donald,
I have enjoyed reading the Article you posted: Christian Martyrs for a Muslim people. Thank you. . . .invited me to visit Nunraw, so maybe in the next few weeks I will get to read the book upon which the article is based. . . .Peter