Pentecost. The Divine Office and The Holy Spirit 8 June 2014

Readings for the Season 

Friday of the seventh week of Easter

The Divine Office and The Holy Spirit

J. D. Crichton

On the assumption that the Divine Office becomes in a future, near or far, the prayer of a great number of ordinary people, it will be seen that this is a kairos, a privileged moment for the reception of the Spirit. St Benedict, who in the sixth century provided the office for all monastic families of the West, was perfectly well aware of this.

Prayer, he says, should be pure and short 'unless it chance to be prolonged by the impulse and inspiration of divine grace', that is by the Holy Spirit. He thought of the calm and orderly celebration of the prayer as a quietening of the mind and the senses so that the monk could hear the voice of God in the psalms and in the readings and the Holy Spirit could make his presence known. That the revised office makes this possible can hardly be doubted.

The antiphon may be followed by a silence or there may be one at the end of the psalm before the psalm-collect, if it is used. Silence is recommended after the readings in morning or evening prayer and, of course, may be prolonged if the community so desires. But perhaps it is the intercessions that offer the most favourable opportunity for unstructured prayer when the official prayers have been said. There is no reason why the prayers of members of the community should not be uttered aloud.

This may not suit all communities but where 'charisrnatics' gather it would seem right that at least the first part of their prayer is structured and room left at this point for unstructured prayer. The community will have prayed the psalms 'in the Spirit', they will have listened to the reading by which the Holy Spirit is communicated to them, and they will be prepared to respond to the move­ment of the Spirit. They will, in the words of St Paul, be praying 'not only with the spirit but with the mind as well' (which he considered necessary) and the final result will be that the two forms of prayer, the liturgical and the charismatic, will be combined.

From; The Glenstall Book of Readings,  The Once and the Future Liturgy,Veritas, Dublin, J977. Used by kind permission of the publisher.   

Mgr James Crichton - Liturgy Institute

liturgyinstitute.org/mgr-james-crichton/  

There is some biographical material published on Mgr Crichton,. “Anamnesis” ... J.D. Crichton's Significance for PastoralLiturgy in England,. was defended by Fr ...

http://liturgyinstitute.org/

St. Robert of Newminster, Morpeth - the Update

NEWS: Instant coverage of the event - 

by kind permission of Fr. Lawrence. 

St Robert of Newminster Feast Day

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Fr Lawrence

The Icon arrives on the afternoon of Friday 6th June. Cath Ferguson, the Iconographer, together with her husband, Chas, is assisted by Jacob Conroy (who made the easel  to hold the icon)  as the Icon is prepared to be lifted into place:                                                                  Pictures from St Robert’s   Day. We were delighted to have Dom Mark Caira OCSO, Abbot of Nunraw Abbey in Scotland to bless the Icon. Nunraw is part of the Cistercian Order to which St Robert belonged. Nunraw is the nearest Cistercian abbey to   Morpeth.               Here we have the Abbot with Fr Jim  Doherty, 

 Fr Lawrence Jones and Deacon Chas Ferguson, the husband of Cath who wrote (painted) the Icon.

Posted in First Communications | Leave a comment

St Robert of Newminster Newsletter 1st June 2014 and the Season of Joy continues..

St. Robert of Newminster, Morpeth

Church Details:

Address
St. Robert of Newminster
Oldgate
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 1QF

Telephone 
(01670) 513410

Fr Lawrence Jones

In Residence (Retired): Fr James Doherty( Retired)

ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER, Cistercian

COMMENT:

Abbot Mark ocso

  
Saints Cistercian
Abbot Mark, (Nunraw Abbey), is on his way at the celebration of the St. Robert of Newminster annual pilgrimage.
 The Abbot has been invited by the Parish Priest to participate and bless the painting.
We look forward to the Diocesan Newspaper, Northern Cross, covering the happy event.

Saturday, 07 June 2014

ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER(12th century)          In 1132 Robert was a monk at Whitby, England, when news arrived that thirteen religious had been violently expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary, in York, for having proposed to restore the strict Benedictine rule. He at once set out to join them and found them on the banks of the Skeld, near Ripon, living in the midst of winter in a hut made of hurdles and roofed with turf. In the spring they affiliated themselves to St. Bernard's reform at Clairvaux, and for two years struggled on in extreme poverty. At length the fame of their sanctity brought another novice, Hugh, Dean of York, who endowed the community with all his wealth, and thus laid the foundation of Fountains Abbey. In 1137 Raynulph, Baron of Morpeth, was so edified by the example of the monks at Fountains that he built them a monastery in Northumberland, called Newminster, of which St. Robert became abbot.         The holiness of his lif e, even more than his words, guided his brethren to perfection and within the next ten years, three new communities went forth from this one house to become centers of holiness in other parts. The abstinence of St. Robert in refectory alone sufficed to maintain the mortified spirit of the community. One Easter Day, his stomach, weakened by the fast of Lent, could take no food, and he at last consented to try to eat some bread sweetened with honey. Before it was brought, he felt this relaxation would be a dangerous example for his subjects, and sent the food untouched to the poor at the gate. The plate was received by a young man of shining countenance, who straightway disappeared. At the next meal the plate descended empty, and by itself, to the abbot's place in the refectory, proving that what the Saint sacrificed for his brethren had been accepted by Christ.         At the moment of Robert's death, in 1159, St. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, saw his soul, like a globe of fire, borne up by the angels in a pathway of light; and as the gates of heaven opened before them, a voice repeated twice, "Enter now, my friends." Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

May the Martyr Saint Boniface be our advocate 5th June 2014

Monk Saint Mass

Memorial of St. Boniface, bishop and martyr

Daily Readings for:June 05, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: May the Martyr Saint Boniface be our advocate, O Lord, that we may firmly hold the faith he taught with his lips and sealed in his blood and confidently profess it by our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYERS

• June Devotion: The Sacred Heart
• Litany of Saint Boniface

LIBRARY

• Ecclesiae Fastos (On St. Boniface) | Pope Pius XII
• In Hac Tanta (On St. Boniface) | Pope Benedict XV
• Saint Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans | Pope Benedict XVI

St. Boniface, a monk of Exeter in England, is one of the great figures of the Benedictine Order and of the monastic apostolate in the Middle Ages. Gregory II sent him to preach the Gospel in Germany. He evangelized Hesse, Saxony and Thuringia and became Archbishop of Mainz. He well earned the title of Apostle of Germany, and Catholic Germany in our own times still venerates him as its father in the faith. He was put to death by the Frisians at Dokkum in 754 during the last of his missionary journeys. The famous abbey of Fulda, where his body lies, has remained the national shrine of Catholic Germany.