Resonances from the words of Fritz Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, sounded in our Vigil Reading this morning. Climate change and poverty are the issues Schumacher voiced so powerfully are carried forward in some striking ways.
This weekend, the Cardinal from Edinburgh is to lead a Church Delegation to the United Nations in New York. He said, 'The issue of climate is one that is too important to be sacrificed for national short-term interests."
THURSDAY 24th September
Vigils Second Reading
From Small is Beautiful by Fritz Schumacher
In the excitement over the unfolding of their scientific and technical powers, people of today have built a system of production that ravishes nature and a type of society that mutilates human beings. If only there were more and more wealth, everything else, it is thought, would fall into place. Money is considered to be all-powerful; if it could not actually buy non-material values, such as justice, harmony, beauty or even health, it could circumvent the need for them or compensate for their loss. The development of production and the acquisition of wealth have thus become the highest goals of the modern world in relation to which all other goals, no matter how much lip-service may still be paid to them, have come to take second place. The highest goals require no justification; all secondary goals have finally to justify themselves in terms of the service their attainment renders to the attainment of the highest.
This is the philosophy of materialism, and it is this philosophy - or metaphysics - which is now being challenged by events. There has never been a time, in any society in any part of the world, without its sages and teachers to challenge materialism and plead for a different order of priorities. The languages have differed, the symbols have varied, yet the message has always been the same: seek first the kingdom of God, and these things (the material things which you also need) shall be added unto you. They shall be added, we are told, here on earth where we need them, not simply in an after-life beyond our imagination. Today, however, this message reaches us not solely from the sages and saints but from the actual course of physical events. It speaks to us in the language of terrorism, genocide, breakdown. pollution, exhaustion. We live, it seems, in a unique period of convergence. It is becoming apparent that there is not only a promise but also a threat in those astonishing words about the kingdom of God - the threat that "unless you seek first the kingdom, these other things, which you also need, will cease to be available to you."
We shrink back from the truth if we believe that the destructive forces of the modern world can be "brought under control" simply by mobilizing more resources - of wealth, education, and research - to fight pollution, to preserve wildlife, to discover new sources of energy, and to arrive at more effective agreements on peaceful coexistence. Needless to say, wealth, education, research, and many other things are needed for any civilization, but what is most needed today is a revision of the ends which these means are meant to serve. And this implies, above all else, the development of a life-style which accords to material things their proper, legitimate place, which is secondary and not primary.
St Aloysius' College's senior and junior pupils with Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Bishop Peter Moran at the school's 150th anniversary celebrations PlC: PAUL McSHERRY
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SCOTI1SH CATHOLIC OBSERVER
Friday September 18 2009
By Martin Dunlop
150 not out for St Aloysius' College
MASS and a civic reception have been held to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of St Aloysius College in Glasgow.
The college, founded in 1859 by the Society of Jesus, was originally situated in the Bridgeton area of the city before moving to its current location in the city's Hill Street.
As a Jesuit school, St Aloysius' College shares in a tradition of educational excellence which is almost 500 -years-old and is part of a worldwide network of schools and universities whose mission, in the words of St Ignatius Loyola, is 'the improvement in living and learning for the greater glory of God and the common good.'
The year of celebrations began on June 21 with an anniversary Mass being celebrated by Bishop Peter Moran, of Aberdeen Diocese, a former pupil of St Aloysius College.
Last week's celebrations began with Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow celebrating Mass for the
JuniorSchool on Thursday September 10. The following mornng the SeniorSchool began a day of events with Mass concelebrated by Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Bishop Moran and the Jesuit Provincial Fr Michael Holman, SJ.
The liturgy featured two original musical works, including Serenity specially composed by James MacMillan and Let all the People Praise Thee, O Lord by college music director Liam Devlin.
In his blessing Cardinal O'Brien said that the 'whole people of Scotland join in thanksgiving for the college,' saying that the name of the college and those associated with it are revered throughout the country. Reflecting on the leadership role that the school has played over the past 150 years, he asked pupils and staff to 'continue to look out to the world around them and to those who are poor and afflicted.'
In his homily, Fr Holman spoke of the college 'not merely as a good or fine school, but as an outstanding school.' He emphasised his pride in the 'energy, enterprise and foresight' of the Society of Jesus in establishing St Aloysius' College which has contributed so much to the society of the West of Scotland.
Mass was followed by pupils, staff and parents gathering at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall for the annual prize giving where an address was given by the Right Hon Lord Gill, Lord Justice Clerk, a past pupil of the college.
In his address, John Stoer, head master of St Aloysius, noted that the college had had a very successful year academically, with the best A-C pass rate at Higher of all the independent schools in Glasgow. He went on to note that while academic success is important, 'the aesthetic, emotional, social and spiritual development of pupils is key to developing the God given potential of each individual.'
A civic reception for the college was hosted by Glasgow City Council at the City Chambers on Saturday. In his welcome Baillie Gordon Matheson, on behalf of the Lord Provost, looked at the contribution that the college has made to Glasgow and the West of Scotland, noting the commitment of the Society of Jesus to provide the academic and spiritual benefits of education through both the best and worst of times over the past 150 years. Mr Mathieson spoke of 'looking forward to a bright and confident future in St Mungo's city and a renewed partnership between GlasgowCity Council and tangibly closer links with the college.'
20th Sept 200925th Mass and the Gospel is from:Mark –the 9th Chapter – all part on the Instructions to the Disciples by Jesus – in Harmony with Matthew and Luke.
The Mass Introduction, & Blessing of Holy Water, could do no harm with a shock. An Holy Ghost father said, “we begin our celebration with the sign of the cross.”
The Cross as an emblem was once News and horrific, “as if one were wearing an electric chair.”
“The Cross is a summery of Mark’s Gospel and is shocking teaching.”
On the other hand the words, in this section, also include,
“35 Jesus took a little child, and gave it a place in the midst of them; and he took it in his arms, and said to them:
36 Whoever welcomes such each as this in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcome not me, but him that sent me.”
And Saint Leo the Great knits these words of ‘one child such as this in my name’, can be the Child of the Nativity of Christ.
The Birth of Christ is the source of life for all Christian people.
True it is that each individual called takes his place in his own prper order, and appears at different periods of time.
The celebration of the Blessing of Water at the beginning of this Mass, reminding of our Baptism, Christ Nativity,
each of us is crucified with Christ in Passion,
raised in his Resurrection,
and placed at the Father in his Ascension.
Saint Leo the Great (?-c.461), Pope and Doctor of the Church
6th sermon for Christmas, comments with words that surpass our facility:
"Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me"
The infancy that God's majesty did not disdain reached mature manhood through his advance in years. Then, when the triumph of his passion and resurrection were completed, all the actions of his lowly state, which he adopted for love of us, became a thing of the past. Nevertheless, the feast of his nativity renews for us Jesus' first moments, born of the Virgin Mary, and when we adore the birth of the Savior we find we are celebrating the origin of our own life.
For the birth of Christ is the source of life for all Christian people and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body. True, each individual who is called takes his place in his own proper order and the Church's offspring appear at different periods of time. But just as the entire body of the faithful, born in the font of baptism, is crucified with Christ in his passion, raised again in his resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand in his ascension, so they are born with him in his nativity.
Any believer, from any part of the world, who is born again in Christ, having abandoned the sinful ways retained from his first beginnings, becomes a new person through his second birth. No longer does he belong to his father's ancestry according to the flesh but to our Savior's race. For he became Son of man that we might become sons of God.
Knox Harmony §52. Instruction to the Disciples
MATTHEW 18: 1-4
1 The disciples came to Jesus at this time and said, Tell us, who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
2 Whereupon Jesus called to his side a little child, to whom he gave a placein the midst of them, and said,
3 Believe me, unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 He is greatest in the kingdom of heaven who will abase himself like this little child. He who gives welcome to such a child as this in my name, gives welcome to me.
MARK 9: 29-49
29 Then they left those parts, and passed straight through Galilee, and he would not
30 let anyone know of his passage; he spent the time teaching his disciples. The Son of Man, he said, is to be given up into the hands of men. They will put him to death, and he will
rise again on the third day.
31 But they could not understand his meaning, and were afraid to ask him.
So they came to Capharnaum, and there, when they were in the house, he asked them,
32 What was the dispute you were holding on the way?
33 They said nothing, for they had been disputing among themselves which
should be the greatest of them.
34 Then he sat down, and called the twelve to him, and said, If anyone has a mind to be the greatest, he must be the last of all, and the servant of all.
35 And he took a little child, and gave it a place in the midst of them; and he took it in his arms, and said to them:
36 Whoever welcomes such each as this in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcome not me, but him that sent me.
LUKE 9:46-48
46 And a question arose among them, which of them was the greatest.
47 Jesus, who saw what was occupying their thoughts, took hold of a little child and gave it a place beside him, and said to them,
48 He who welcomes this child in my name, welcomes me; and he who welcomes me welcomes him that sent me. He who is least in all your company is the greatest.
The Gospel speaks on about the Cross often but it also does so on the mystery on the childhood. Too much about the quarreling of the disciples can be misleading.
Jesus has a constructive view of such rivalry.
The Reading of our Vigil Reading see a more positive approach. The author may not be well known. (It was rather understanding in the theologian, Theophylact, known as tutor to the imperial heirpresumptive and author of Education of Monarchs).
From a commentary on Saint Mark's gospel by Saint Theophylact (PG 123, 588-589)
Two of the many paradoxes of Christianity are seen in this simple gospel commentary. Death leads to resurrection, humility to exaltation.
As he was teaching his disciples the Lord said to them: "The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will put him to death, but after his death, on the third day, he will rise again."
The Lord always alternated prophecies of his passion with the performance of miracles, so that he would not be thought to have suffered through lack of power. Therefore, after imparting the grievous news that men would kill him, he added the joyful tidings that on the third day he would rise again. This was to teach us that joy always follows sorrow, and that we should not be uselessly distressed by painful events, but should rather have hope that better times will come.
He came to Capernaum, and after entering the house he questioned the disciples:
"What were you arguing about on the way?" Now the disciples still saw things from a very human point of view, and they had been quarrelling amongst themselves about which of them was the greatest and the most esteemed by Christ. Yet the Lord did not restrain their desire for preeminent honor; indeed he wishes us to aspire to the most exalted rank He does not however wish us to seize the first place, but rather to win the highest honor by humility.
He stood a child among them because he wants us to become childlike. A child has no desire for honor; it is not jealous, and it does not remember injuries. And he said: "If you become like that, you will receive a great reward, and if, moreover, for my sake, you honor others who are like that, you will receive the kingdom of heaven; for you will be receiving me, and in receiving me you receive the one who sent me."
You see then what great things humility, together with simplicity and guilelessness, can accomplish. It causes both the Son and the Father to dwell in us, and with them of course comes the Holy Spirit also.
The reflection of the Gospel for Sunday Mass seemed to knit together the anticipations of Jesus to the Agony in Gethsemane and the Passion and Death.
PRAYER TO JESUS, AGONISING ON THE
MOUNT OF OLIVES
My soul is sorrowful even unto death.Stay here and watch. (St. Mark 16-34)
PROMISES TO DEVOTEES OF THE AGONY OF JESUS ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
Finally, and in order to prove to you that I want to break open a dam of My Heart so as to let flow a flood of My Graces, I promise those who spread this devotion to My agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the following three graces:
Total and final victory over the worst temptation to which they are subjected;
Direct power to save poor souls from purgatory;
Great enlightenment and strength to fulfil My Will.
All of these, My precious gifts, I will definitely give to those who carry what I had said, and who, therefore, remember and venerate with love and sympathy.My great, incomprehensible Agony on the Mount of Olives.
(San Giovanni Rotondo – 1965).
The Sunday Gospel of Mark 8: 27-23 gives a vivid reminder of the mind of Jesus so oblivious of the disciples, again at St. Mark 16:34.
KNOX Harmony Matthew, Mark and Luke, Confession of Peter
Matthew 16: 13-28
21 From that time onwards Jesus began to
make it known to his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem, and there, with much ill usage from the chief priests and elders and scribes, must be put to death, and rise again
22 on the third day. Whereupon Peter, drawing him to his side, began remonstrating with him; Never, Lord, he said; no such thing 23 shall befall thee. At which he turned round and said to Peter, Back, Satan; thou art a stone in my path; for these thoughts of thine 24 are man's, not God's.
Mark 8: 27-33.
31 And now he began to make it known to them that the Son of Man must be much ill-used, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be put to death,
32 and rise again after three days.
Luke 9: 18-27.
22 The Son of Man, he said, is to be much ill-used, and rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be put to death, and
23 rise again on the third day.
The Homilist, Fr. Hugh, had question about the Confession of Peter. He had reassurances for the problems on faith and quotes from one of the Abbots, Bl. Guerric of Igny, Advent Sermon V.
“However for you to journey along it, the way is always waiting to be prepared, so that you must start afresh from the place you have reached and advance along what lies ahead. You are led to do so because at every stage you must meet the Lord, for whose coming you are preparing the way, and each time you see him in a completely new way and as a much greater figure than you met before.”
“The longer I live the more I look forward to the future.” Dick Ranolph S.J. wrote this in his Memooirs which he wrote in his 80s. He died last October at the age of 92.
Although the translator has supplied the essential source notes, printed at the end of his interesting contribution, Fr Aelred, our late editor, had added the following details, some of which will serve to bring out the Cistercian context of the sermon: Adam of Kinless, or Adam Senior, some time after 1529, entered the Monastery of Kinloss, former Cistercian Abbey of St Mary within the county and old diocese of Moray, Scotland. Founded by David I in 1150 or 1151, the abbey is today a ruin. Adam Elder has left us his Conciones capitulares (Sermons preached in Chapter) whose standard is admittedly not of classic Cistercian quality. The Sermons themselves however are probably the only representative writings of the time and place by a Cistercian. Fr Ambrose Conway of Sancta Maria Abbey, Scotland, has made this translation-the first in English, to our knowledge=-keeping faithfully to the original. While it would undoubtedly be better to have an historico-spiritual commentary to accompany it, yet the obvious first step is to have a translation made. Kinloss appears to be the most promising area for research among .the Scottish abbeys, and the scholars are expected to get working on it soon.
We would draw the attention of the editors of the "Dictionnaire des Auteurs Cisterciens", Rochefort 1975, to page 7 where they misplace Adarn Elder in the 13th century.
'Lo! we have left all things and followed thee! (Mt 19.27)
In olden times, my brethren, it was usual to celebrate and praise the illustrious men, the heroes, who had merited well of the state and had then passed from this mortal life. Men of old were convinced that this was the best way to raise up many others like them, willing to follow their example called to mind in these solemn commemorations. And so I myself (if I may compare the small with the great) will do what my poor abilities allow to give some measure of that praise due to our hero, our Lawgiver, Benedict. It is not, indeed, that I have to urge you and you are running well already, but I would give a little prick of the spur to urge on my own laziness to imitate a little more the virtue of this great man. Indeed I am hard put to it to find words to describe the merits of a man so great that my mind can scarcely envisage his greatness. So I have good reason to fear that I will collapse under the attempt to praise him as he deserves and, rather than give a fitting picture of him, betray my own foolishness. Why should I not confess the truth? I have certainly always thought it more honest for a man openly to make profession of the truth which that faithful witness, his conscience, cannot hide. My comfort is that your kindness is favourable to me; so, that I may be emboldened to my task, let us turn together to our Virgin Mother, offering her the praise of the Angelic Salutation: Ave gratia plena.
Brethren, as you have heard so often when the life of our Lawgiver has been read for our example and imitation, the Blessed Benedict was born in the province of Nursia of a good family as the world reckons it. When he had passed his boyhood, his good parents sent him for education to the city of Rome, at that time famous above other places for its schools of learning. In these early years, thanks to his sharp intellect and the help of God's grace, he acquired rapidly a sound scholarship. But he saw also of how little worth were all the successes of this world. He ceased to care for his family riches or for anything else in this world, seeing in such things only an obstacle to divine contemplation; and it was to this life of contemplation that he resolved to devote himself, seeking to please God alone and mindful of the words of the Gospel: 'Everyone who has left house or brothers, or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will . receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life' (Mt 19.28-9). He clearly saw, moreover, that man is born with the seed of vice within him, and that all the delight of the flesh is the enemy of the soul. He judged, and rightly so, that early youth is the time to fly from whatever would nourish carnal pleasure. He quickly made up his mind that all the glory and the evil pleasures of this world, all temporal things, were but sham goods of no lasting value and fit only to be rejected as the evil mothers of shame and wickedness i the real goods were heavenly contemplation, religion, mercy and the other virtues, and these must be sought whole-heartedly. Blessed he was by name, blessed by grace, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and would give to him a robe of glory, the reward of eternal life.
He turned sharply from worldly glory and from all evil pleasures and enrolled in the .service of Christ, service which gives true glory and real triumphs, and bent his neck to the yoke of religious profession, donning its holy habit. In this profession he made such progress in a short space by the care, the zeal, the diligence with which he strove to mould his life on that of Christ and His Apostles that, as St Gregory tells us, his life, his conduct, his miracles, might make him seem himself an Apostle. Admiration was first aroused by the remedies for sin he made use of: fasting, abstinence and other bodily afflictions. Such was his zeal in this respect that he hid himself in a dark and narrow cave, content with a little bread and water, as happy with this as with every delicacy, living long unknown to men. He knew that concupiscence, which lurks deep in the hidden places of the soul, is by these means smothered and killed, but that indulgence is the beginning and the mother of lust. These were the means also by which he could give himself more easily and securely to the study of divine wisdom day and night.
It often happens that a stream when it rises in the heights of a mountain and starts out on its way is narrow because of the weakness of the waterspring whence it rises, but that later, fed by continual inflows, it joins and intermingles with other bubbling fountains and before long becomes a full-flowing river, deep and plentiful. So did the virtues of our hero, Benedict, have their small beginnings in his infancy but grew like a flood in time, fed by the streams of God's grace, of that God who 'prevented him with the blessings of his sweetness', and swelled into a great and boundless river as he became practically the foremost leader of the religious state. Given totally to God, he began with ardent zeal to spread His glory, teaching lessons of piety, justice, kindness, patience and all the other virtues, but above all charity to others, remembering the words of the Apostle: 'If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal' and so on (I Co 13.1). As he became better known and as his miracles won recognition as setting the seal on the holiness of his life, men hastened to honour and venerate him as an authentic saint. But let us go back to the point where we digressed.
We have said that his great care and set purpose was to imitate Christ and His Apostles in their life and virtues. Let us, so far as time allows, look into this. For love of Christ the Apostles became poor, uncultured, unrespected, weak, despised. Like them our hero, Benedict, although he had once been rich, noble and powerful, cast away his family possessions, his inheritance, estates, honours, the pleasures of this world and all those things for which men cross the seas and toil and quarrel and fight and wrangle. And why should he not do so? It was for the love of Christ, to imitate Christ and His Apostles, that he became poor and ignoble, vile and abject. In fine, he was in this mortal life in utter want, but when the flesh was given up to devouring worms, his soul, in all the beauty of its good works, was rejoicing with the angels.
I am sorry, brethren, that I have to pass over much else, but time is getting short. My advice is, and I hope I can convince you to adopt it, that while we are in this mortal life, so full of troubles and sorrows, while we still run our course and play our part on this world's stage, we should make it our care and resolution to follow the example of St Benedict. First of all, after the example of our hero, we must turn our mind from things earthly and temporal so as never to be soiled by the dust of vain thoughts. Rather indeed should our mind be fixed on heavenly things and united with God through careful custody of the heart and the guarding of a good conscience which will stand secure before the dread tribunal of God, the Just Judge, in the day when the earthly vessel of our body is dissolved and reduced to ashes. Thus, doing always the will of our Creator we will also be imitators of the Apostles, so that we can truly say with St Paul, 'Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant?' (II Co 11.29), as we 'commend ourselves in every way as servants of God in endurance', and so on (II Co 6.4).
Let us shrink from no difficulty in this life nor fall away from the rules and precepts of this our Lawgiver whom we so much love and honour and venerate, today and every day. Let us give ourselves with all our power to continence, devotion, mildness and, above all, to mutual charity and kindness. Finally, let us devote ourselves thoroughly to the study of Scripture and divine wisdom, strenuously seeking to overcome ignorance: so, always straining towards the things that are above, we shall deserve to win through to eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven with our Legislator Benedict, through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and His eternal Father and the Holy Spirit.
Translated by Fr Ambrose Conway
Sancta Maria Abbey
NUNRAW, Scotland
Bibliographical notes
(1) ADAM ELDER entered the Monastery of Kinloss some time after 1529 when Abbot Robert Reid was appointed and blessed. Nothing is recorded about his early life or about his family. In the chronicles and in his signature to a legal document his name appears as Adamus Elder but in wnnngs aspiring to literary elegance such as his sermons it is "Adamus Senior". His talent was recognised and he was entrusted with the formation of the younger monks. It was in the discharge of this office that his sermons in Chapter were composed. In 1541 Abbot Robert Reid was appointed Bishop of Orkney by the Holy See on the recommendation of King [ames V with permission to retain the office of Abbot for some years. He installed his nephew WaIter Reid as Abbot in 1553. The new Abbot, still a boy, was immediately sent to Paris to complete his studies and Adam Elder was sent as his tutor. When making report on his pupil's progress to the Bishop, Fr Adam asked more than once that his sermons, left in the Abbey, should be sent to him. After some delay they came but very much mutilated, possibly damaged on the journey. He re-edited them and had them printed in 1558. To the revision seemingly belong the expansion of the sermon on St Bernard to include admonitions to Abbot WaIter on his duties as Abbot, and possibly the vehemence of his attacks on the arch-heretics here and in the Corpus Christi sermon. Adam passes from history. His pupil finally changed his religion and made Kinloss the property of his family. (From Preface of John Stuart to "Records of Monastery of Kinloss", Edinburgh 1872; and Life of Abbot Robert Reid, id.)
(2) Elder, Adam: Conciones Capitulares, 1158. Pressmark: National Library of Scotland: BCL 549.
