Margaret of Scotland Marvellous Era

Saint Margaret of Scotland

Fr. Patrick,

Thank you, Fr. Patrick,for the blessings of our patron

---- Forwarded Message ----
From: father patrick . . .
Sent: Sun, November 15, 2009 6:15:36 PM
Subject: St Margaret of Scotland Feast Day

Greetings and Peace!

I greet you as you prepare to celebrate

The Feast day of St Margaret of Scotland.

We thank God

for this wonderful woman, her faith

and her example for us.

We pray

for you,

and yours

and for Scotland at this time.

Sincerely in the Lord,

Father Patrick

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

During the hours of the Divine Office, Vigils, Lauds and Lauds the hymn we use for St. Margaret was the one composed by the late Br. Andrew. His words are the ardent expression of his love of the Saint.

Hymn to St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland by Brother Andrew.

Sing for a mother on her blessed feast day
who in her children gave the Lord of heaven
sons to be servants, maids to do him honour,
hearts to adore him.

Pearl of great price and held by God as treasure;
driven by tempest from a distant country
here to our homeland he in mercy brought her,
children to nurture.

Wed to a warrior; tamed his savage nature;
urged him to mercy; curbed his deadly anger;
melted to pity his avenging fury:
queenly ruled o'er him.

Homeless and helpless, pilgrims poor and needy,
tenderly cared for; motherly caressed them,
cleansed their. and nourished; lovingly consoled them;
gentle her reigning.

Trinity holy, Father, Son and Spirit,
bless this our country; grant we may together,
one in our worship with our saintly mother,
praise you for ever.
Amen

Memorial
Brother ANDREW William McCahill
born 16 Nov. 1912
entered 8 Dec. 1946
professed 3 July 1949
died 9 Jan. 1987

The picture shows Br. Andrew, working as the electrician in the construction of the monastery. Before entering as the first novice to enter the foundation of Nunraw, he worked at the renowned Ship Building docks of Clydeband, Glasgow.
He always carried the consequence of the injury of electical accident - not treated to the standard of caring.

The Saint of the Day 16th November St. Margaret of Scotland Biographical selection: St. Margaret was Queen of Scotland. Her father, Edward Atheling, was the Saxon heir to the throne of England, and her mother was a German princess, the descendant of Emperors. Like the strong woman of the Gospel, the practice of Catholic virtues made her still more illustrious. After the Norman Conquest, many members of the English nobility, including Margaret, found refuge in the court of Malcolm III of Scotland. In 1070 Malcolm married Margaret and made her Queen of Scotland. Margaret impressed the Scottish court both with her knowledge of continental customs and also with her piety. For the love of God she imposed upon herself severe mortifications, leaving aside the superfluous and often even the necessary. She influenced her husband and son to govern better and introduced Catholic customs, manners and ceremony to the Scottish court. She raised her sons in great piety and one, David, was later canonized. Above all she excelled in her zealous charity for her neighbour. She was called “the mother of orphans” and “the bursar for the poor of Jesus Christ.” In 1093, after six months of great physical suffering, she delivered her soul to God in Edinburgh. The sanctity of her life and the numerous miracles she worked both in her life and after her death made her famous worldwide. In 1673 Pope Clement X named her the patroness of Scotland, over which she had reigned for almost a quarter century. Comments of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (Marvellous Era . . .) The life of St. Margaret prompts me to comment on the spirit of the marvellous in the Middle Ages. I am not speaking of the marvellous as a fable or tale, as something unfeasible, but of the marvellous as something that can become reality. The foggy Scotland of that time was still far from being a civilized nation. In many senses it was still barbarian. Then, in that rough environment a flower bloomed. Divine Providence brought to that Island a Princess of the most illustrious blood, who had in her the best of Western Civilization. Further, she herself was a saintly woman, a valiant wife, and a wonderful mother who raised her children perfectly, interceded for her people, and became known for her constant and generous alms. She also worked miracles. And she did all this under the prestige and unction of the royal crown. This ensemble of facts communicates a message to us: that the marvellous, the extraordinary, the stupendous can be realized in this world. This fact is drawn from the fullness of that Catholic principle (the axiological principle) which says that when everything is ordered, good, true and sublime, it generates the realization of the plan of God on this earth. The life of St. Margaret sends us a message that is the opposite of the minimalism sustained by many Catholics of our days. That is to say, today, when a person manages to reform and become a little less bad, this is already considered a triumph. In the time of St. Margaret the apostolate was maximalist. The goal was for the queens and kings to become nothing less than saints. And, in fact, many queens, like St. Margaret of Scotland, were saints and spread the precious perfume of Jesus Christ throughout society, creating an atmosphere of the marvellous in Catholic Civilization. We can understand this atmosphere when we consider the medieval stained glass windows. When we enter the world portrayed in those stained glass windows, we see a Queen presented in a world of multiple brilliant colours - gold, ruby, emerald. This gives us an idea of how the medievals used to think about life, for instance, the life of St. Margaret of Scotland. One of the advantages of this search for the marvellous is that it fills the soul of the people with what is correct and upright. That is, it fills the soul with the marvellous world of Our Lord Jesus Christ and its extension into the temporal sphere. When such values do not pervade the souls of people, they begin to travel in the wrong direction. They start to create idols like movie stars, rock singers, football players, and so on, to replace the real models that should be admired. We can see how blessed the Middle Ages was with its correct models and admiration for the marvellous. In the opposite sense, we can see how it is a chastisement for us to no longer have these models. We should long for the time when this admiration for the marvellous will be restored, which will be the Reign of Mary. Let us pray to St. Margaret of Scotland to help us merit the coming of this new marvellous era. (www.traditioninaction DOT org/SOD/j077sdMargaret4-10.htm)

COMMENT

Dear . . . Thank you Fr for forwarding this article. As you can imagine I was very interested in seeing Br Andrew's photo. I vaguely remember seeing him many years ago at Compline. His electrical work has lasted all these years with only very minor alterations. A good job well done. It is more remarkable considering Br Andrew found solace at an Abbey having spent time in the "yards" I can assure you Fr that the ship yards would have been a very unpleasant place of work for a Catholic man in the 40's. "A diamond in the rough" I hope the community are all well. Please pass my regards, hope to see you all very soon. Robert

Dear . . . Greetings. We were very interested in Margaret of Scotland as we had not heard of her before untill Mass yesterday and because of the Scottish connection we were interested so we now have the full story. All well here. Regards, Michael.

Dear . . . It's great to see an article by Plinio Correa de Oliviera in your blog. I am sure he will be recognised as one of the greatest saints of the last century in the years to come. God bless, Neil

Dear . . . Thank you for this wonderful account of St Margaret of Scotland, which I will forward to some of my friends and . . .. I have saved it my Documents. Yours in the Lord, Jane

Saint Gertrude the Great

Monday 16^th November

Saint Gertrude the Great

Our thanks to you, Fr. Patrick.

It is a welcome to receive your regard for Saint Gertrude.

Your words renew us to delve more into the ample resources in the Great Saint. Gertrude.

From: father patrick . . .

Sent: Thu, November 12, 2009 1:05:56 AM

Subject: St Gertrude Feast Day

My dear Friends in Christ:

I greet you as we prepare to celebrate:

St. Gertrude the Great, whose Feast Day is Monday, November 16

.

It is said that Gertrude is called "Great" because of her love for the Sacred Heart.

Few have merited the title, "the Great";

I know of only one nun so honored,

St. Gertrude of Helfta,

a mystic whose spiritual writings have remained influential up to the present.

She is associated with the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The pierced heart of Jesus embodied for her the Divine Love,

an inexhaustible fountain of redemptive life.

Her visions and insights in connection with the Heart of Jesus are very enlightening.

She helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Her writings have been greatly praised by Saint Teresa and Saint Francis de Sales,

and continue in print today.

As we celebrate her Feast Day,

We are grateful to God

for the Love shown us through the Heart of Jesus.

May God Bless our celebrations.

Sincerely

Father Patrick

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

OCSO Menology

NOVEMBER 16

St Gertrude the Great 1256-1302

At the age of five she was brought to the convent of Helfta, Saxony, a house which followed Cistercian usage without being juridically attached to the Order. She received a good education and became engrossed in the liberal arts until a conversion experience when she was twenty-five, which was for her a living encounter with Christ, and the revelation of a bond of love between him and herself. She wrote of this and subsequent mystical experiences in The Herald of Divine Love, also known as her Revelations. Toward the end of her life she composed the Exercises, seven retreat experiences consisting of prayers, reflections and instructions.

Gertrude's life was not marked by any extraordinary or extravagant penances, but was simply that of the community, lived with great fervor. Her spirituality was nourished by and closely related to her liturgical life. It is marked by a very personal and familiar love for Christ, Mary and the saints. Two of its chief characteristics are confidence and abandonment. It is noteworthy that for all her deep union with God, she never completely succeeded in overcoming her character faults, and had constantly to deplore her shortcomings.

MBS (Modern Biographical Sketches of Cistercian Saints . . ) p. 295; CF 49; Peace Weavers, CS 72, p. 239 Gertrude the Great – Spiritual Exercises

"O Love, O God, let me not be left behind in the school of charity, but in you and through you, or rather with you, let me grow to maturity day by day and advance from strength to strength, daily bringing forth fruit unto you, my Beloved, in the new path of your love."

Exercises, 98

Memorial: November 16 - in Germany: November 17 Also known as: Getrude; Gertrud the Great of Helfta, Gertrude the Great Saint Gertrude is one of the greatest and most wonderful saints in the Church of God. Gertrude was born January 6, 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia ((part of modern Germany). When she was about 5 years old, she became a student at the Benedictine monastery at Helfta, near Eisleben (southwest of Magdeburg, Germany). The Abbess at the time was Gertrude of Hackerborn a woman who ensured that both spiritual and intellectual life flourished. The child Gertrude was put in the care of Mechthilde (became later a Saint), the sister of the Abbess who was head of the school associated with the monastery. Gertrude studied the Scriptures, the Liturgy, and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Her life was crowded with wonders. She has in obedience recorded some of her visions, in which she traces in words of indescribable beauty the intimate converse of her soul with Jesus and Mary. Gertrude had her first vision of Christ at the age of twenty-six. She tells us that she heard Christ say to her, "Do not fear. I will save you and set you free." This was the first in a series of visions that transformed her life. From then on, she spent many hours reading the bible and writing essays on the word of God. When she was asked to write about her experiences, she claimed that it would serve no purpose. When she was told that her words would encourage others, Gertrude agreed to write spiritual autobiography. Gertrude committed to writing many of her mystical experiences in the book commonly called the "Revelations of Saint Gertrude." These Revelations form one of the classics of Catholic writing. And although they would have to be classified as “mystical literature,” their message is clear and obvious, for this book states many of the secrets of Heaven in terms that all can understand. Recorded here are Saint Gertrude's many conversations with Our Lord, wherein He reveals His great desire to grant mercy to souls and to reward the least good act. In the course of their conversations, He reveals wonderful spiritual “shortcuts” that will help everyone in his or her spiritual life. She also composed many prayers, ‘sweeter than the honeycomb’, and many other examples of spiritual liturgically inspired Exercitia spiritualia is a gem still awaiting in-depth analysis. But Gertrud’s most important legacy is universally acknowledged to be the Legatus memorialis abundantiae divinae pietatis, or Herald of the Memorial of the Abundance of Divine Love. This complex work, usually abbreviated in English to The Herald of Divine Love, is worthy of attention both in itself and as a fascinating test case for the study of medieval women’s theology. Another most important book is “The spiritual exercises”. Through her writings helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. She meditated on the Passion of Christ which many times brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She had a tender love for Our Lady. During the long illness of five months from which she would die, she gave not the slightest sign of impatience or sadness; her joy, on the contrary, increased with her pains. When the day of her death arrived, November 17, 1302, she saw the Most Blessed Virgin descend from heaven to assist her, and one of her Sisters perceived her soul going straight to the Heart of Jesus, which opened to receive it. Saint Gertrude died at Helfta monastery of natural causes. She is properly known as Saint Gertrude for, although never formally canonized, she was equipollently canonized in 1677 by Pope Clement XII when he inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology. Her feast was set for November 16. Pope Benedict XIV gave her the title "the Great" to distinguish her from Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn and to recognize the depth of her spiritual and theological insight. When the community was transferred in 1346 to the monastery of New Helfta, the present Trud-Kloster, within the walls of Eisleben, they still retained possession of their old home, where doubtless the bodies of Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtilde still buried, though their place of sepulture remains unknown. Saint Gertrud and Saint Mechtilde: When Gertrude was five years old, she was placed in the care of Mechtilde. She became the first teacher of Gertrude. They became close friends, and Mechtildis (Mechtilde), who had mystical experiences of her own, helped Gertrude with her Book of Special Graces (also called The Revelations of St. Mechtildis), and the two Saints collaborated on a series of prayers. Mechtidle died November 19, 1298 at Helfta monastery of natural causes. marypagesDOTcom/GertrudetheGreat.htm

Saints of the Benedictine Family

Contemplative Life Today

The 2^nd Reading of Vigils this morning spoke so clearly and resounding, it gave us the thought for today’s celebration of the ALL SAINTS of the Benedictine Family/

All Benedictine Saints 13 November [Based on Some Thoughts on Contemplative Life Today, by Clifford Stevens in Review for Religious, July-August 1991] The pattern of contemplative life has neither changed, nor will it change. It is still a life of solitude, of withdrawal from 'the world', of silence and seclusion. However the image of contemplative life is changing from an ascetic protest and rejection of 'the world' to the cultivation of intimacy with God in the sacrament of solitude. It is the personal pursuit of closeness to God, not from a sense of exclusivity, but from a deep sense of 'commonalty' with the rest of the human family. The contemplative life is just one way of seeking and finding God, in no way minimizing other pathways and in no way deprecating the infinite variety of the Christian life and Christian holiness. Every person, in the most secret part of his or her being, is contemplative. Every human being has a passion for God, a hunger for the known or unknown Divine that bursts into flame when, at certain moments, a glimpse is caught of the magnitude of God. To speak of the contemplative life is to speak of a kind of life that all people hanker after in the deepest part of their being; the formal contemplative life is simply an extension of this basic human hunger, a hunger for God that is perhaps the very blueprint of our existence. In the depth of our being, then, we are all solitaries, and each one of us has a primitive face we show to God alone, a part of ourselves we can reveal to no one else, however intimate our relationship or profound our affection. We show to others only a small part of our total personality while, at the core of our being, we are all God-centred. The contemplative life begins in astonishment at the overpowering reality of God's love, the magnitude of His plans for every human being. It is this fascination with God that draws a person into solitude, for only the freedom of solitude is adequate to contain that fascination and the probing of that astonishment. The contemplative has, in very truth, been astounded and struck with the wonder of God in a way that is beyond explaining. And it is this wonder and astonishment that draw him or her into solitude where the wonder can be nurtured and the astonishment explored and probed with all the energy of heart and mind. This, indeed, becomes the lifetime occupation of the contemplative, with the secluded life itself simply the setting and necessary environment for it. Contemplatives are driven into solitude as lovers are drawn together, and for the same reason: to cultivate an intimacy beyond their power to put into words, but which embodies everything they have ever desired and is expressive of the deepest and most intimate longing of their being. The contemplative life reaches out to intimacy with God just as human lovers reach out to intimacy with each other, for the sheer joy of that intimacy and for the love that binds two together in an inseparable and deliberately chosen companionship. And do You, Lord, have mercy on us.

All Benedictine Saints and Dom Blaise

There is also a Cistercian Blog from Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank.

http://subtuum.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-benedictine-saints-and-dom-blaise.html

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The community celebrates the Saints in heaven and speaks also beautifully of Dom Blaise of Spring Bank.

13 November, All Benedictine Saints vultus.stblogs***org/2006/11/13-november-all-benedictine-sa.html Thanks to Father Mark on November 13, 2006 Today we celebrated the feast of All Saints Who Militated Under the Rule of Saint Benedict. One might also translate the name of the feast as "All Saints Who Soldiered Under the Rule of Saint Benedict." It's enough to make a Jesuit envious! I thought that Spinello Aretino's depiction of Saint Benedict exorcising a demon might be appropriate for today's feast. Saint Gregory the Great recounts the whole story in his life of Saint Benedict. The painting, however, tells more than the story. The monks are engaged in a building project. The undertaking comes to a halt when a "heavy devil" decides to sit on a stone. No one can lift the stone. This happens not infrequently in community life. Saint Peter reminds us that we are all "living stones" destined by God to be "built into a spiritual house" (1 P 2:5). Sometimes one "living stone" becomes heavy to the point of being immovable. Then the upbuilding of the community stops and the "immovable stone" becomes the focus of much frustration and unhappiness. What can be done when a "heavy devil" fastened itself to a brother or sister in order to impede the building of the community? Prayer and fasting, and recourse to the power of the Cross and the intercession of Saint Benedict are efficacious means by which the devil can be detached from the poor soul on whom he crouches. Once rid of the "heavy devil,"

Bede - Widows Mite

The Widow’s Mite

Catena Aure – Gospel of Mark 12:41-44

Mystical Sense

Pseudo-Jerome: But in a mystical sense, they are rich, who bring forth from the treasure of their heart things new and old, which are the obscure and hidden things of Divine wisdom in both testaments; but who is the poor woman, if it be not I and those like me, who cast in what I can, and have the will to explain to you, where I have, 253not the power. For God does not consider how much ye bear, but what is the store from which it comes; but each at all events can bring his farthing, that is, a ready will, which is called a farthing, because it is accompanied by three things, that is, thought, word and deed. And in that it is said that “she cast in all her living,” it is implied that all that the body wants is that by which it lives. Wherefore it is said, “All the labour of man is for his mouth.” [Eccl 6:7]

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Allegorical Way

Bede: Again, in an allegorical way, the rich men, who cast gifts into the treasury, point out the Jews puffed up with the righteousness of the law; the poor widow is the simplicity of the Church: poor indeed, because she has cast away the spirit of pride and of the desires of worldly things; and a widow, because Jesus her husband has suffered death for her. She casts two mites into the treasury, because she brings the love of God and of her neighbour, or the gifts of faith and prayer; which are looked upon as mites in their own insignificance, but measured by the merit of a devout intention are superior to all the proud works of the Jews. The Jew sends of his abundance into the treasury, because he presumes on his own righteousness; but the Church sends her whole living into God’s treasury, because she understands that even her very living is not of her own desert, but of Divine grace.

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In 1982 in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly reproduced an article entitled

“The Widow's Mite: Praise or Lament?—A Matter of Context”. As a daunting scholarly survey the exegesis of the subject left one rather mesmerized.

In a very different context, ‘out of babes’ may come wisdom in new guise .

The Widow's Mite Mark 12:41-43 PowerPoint Slide Masters sermons4kidsDOTcom/widows-mite-ppt-slides.htm

Caryll Houslander The Widow's Poverty

The Widow’s Poverty Caryll Houselander (+ 1954) The poverty of Christ is not destitution, though actually Christ was destitute for part of his life, and in every age one or more of the saints have had a true vocation for absolute poverty. Such saints are Saint John the Baptist, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Joseph Benedict Labre. For such a vocation there is room in modern life. So falsified are all our standards that we are inclined to forget that there is any such thing as intrinsic value ... Saints who are chosen by God to be destitute, to have literally nothing, are the pure gold that shows us that holy poverty has an intrinsic value. There was an old man who called at his bank every week and asked to see his money in gold. "I like to see what I have got," he explained. We Christians have "got" Christ's absolute poverty. Although we are allowed to have reasonable comfort ourselves, the grace and power of Christ's real destitution belongs to us. His homelessness, his nakedness, his loneliness, the poverty of the dead man on the cross, all that belongs to us as Christians, and in times of crisis we can draw on it. At all times we can rely on it; without it the gentler poverty would have no value and we should be a spiritually bankrupt race. The grace of Christ's utter poverty is given to all the destitute and homeless people in the world, outcasts and refugees; without it, they would despair. Anyone of us at any time now may need to draw on this pure gold of Christ's poverty. From time to time, like the old man, we want to see what we have got. Those saints who baffle the faithless by leading lives which seem to them to be useless, even selfish, lives like Christ's public life, poorer than the wild foxes and the birds, show us that his poverty is still our wealth, is still triumphant. Even in human nature as it is today, Christ, naked and foolish on the cross, can be king. Poverty, not destitution, the simpler poverty which many people experience, makes us more sensitive, more selective, able to perceive the poetry in life. Sunday, November, DAY BY DAY - MAGNIFICAT Missalette

Raymond - Widow's Mite

32nd Sunday of Ordiary Time

Sent: Tue, November 10, 2009
Subject: Widows Mite

Homily of Fr. Raymond

THE WIDOW’S MITE

Jesus generally uses two types of Oral Teaching to get across his message: first there is the direct teaching - of the Beatitudes – for example, and then there is the more indirect, but more picturesque, method of the parables - short imaginative stories to illustrate a point.

There is however one, perhaps solitary, incident of Jesus teaching where he uses neither of these methods. This incident is the story which we call “The Widow’s Mite”. It’s very uniqueness underlines for us the importance of its teaching. Nowhere else in his public ministry do we hear Jesus holding up the example of any living person, not even of his mother, for the admiration and inspiration of his hearers. This, we must remember, is no parable, no little ‘made-up’ story to illustrate a point. No, this was a real life incident which happened before the very eyes of Jesus and his disciples. It was an incident which must have impressed Jesus so much that he spontaneously turned to his disciples and told them that the gift of this poor widow’s two coins, meant more to God than had all the great offerings which they saw the wealthy putting into the treasury.

If we try to analyse her gift logically it seems to make no sense. “It was all she had to live on”, Jesus tell us. Perhaps he didn’t mean that quite literally. It was the kind natural expression anyone would have made. Anyone, knowing her condition and seeing what she did, could easily have said “But that’s all she has to live on!”

However, whether it was literally true or not, the lesson remains the same. Her extravagantly generous faith and love were highly pleasing to God. It is foolish to look for logic here and argue that she should have had a greater sense of responsibility in the use of her little sum. She knew very well she would have to beg for bread on the morrow!

But the logic of the poor widow was one of faith and love which would argue like this: “What kind of security for my future are my two pennies? Precious little! My security lies only in God! It is into his loving hands that I confide them as I confide my future.