Donald Golden Jubilee

50th Anniversary of Ordination of Donald's Priesthood

As I begin the Homily we thank the Poor Clare Sisters from Humbie for the glorious display of flowers around the Church. It expresses the wonderful welcome to all present in this Golden Jubilee Mass. 24th. June 2009 we celebrate the Birthday of Saint John the Baptist just as we did 1959 and we give thanks of the fiftieth anniversary of ordination of my priesthood. The only thing you can say about fiftieth is that it is decimal. O good friend has a better idea he writes on the Golden Jubilee as the DOMINICAL DECADES, the Lord’s Five Decades. Our values of time are not decimal, we have 24 hours, 7 days, four weeks, 12 months. The decimalisation of our years are more dignifies by significance of Jubilee and Golden. It is in that religious spirit we have imbedded the sacredness of time. As for example the Birthday of St. John the Baptist embodies the reality of the richness of the fullness of life in relations. We listened to the simple narrative of the Gospel sounding and resounding with the words of the life of the child, of parents, of family , of a people. “The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy” Lk. 1:57. In this context, such is the beauty of Ordination of Priesthood. I can recall the day when Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray laid his hands of Ordination of Priesthood on my head. If I felt (and still feel) the awesomeness of that moment it was but the radiance touching child, parent, family, people, Church — making more and more for every year since and on, the communion bonding us in the reality, the love, the light and the glory. This is the COMMUNION of a PRIESTLY PEOPLE. The story of this 50 years of one monk and priest in the community of Nunraw can only be a passing glimpse in the panoply of amazing persons. For me was a key figure the first Abbot. Abbot Columban, by name of the DOVE, Columba and he symbolizes his fame in ecumenical activity in Scotland. But a smaller occasion. Columba was dying in Saint Raphael’s Hospital lying in coma. On one occasion friends were gathered around the hospital bed chatting away knowingly about the unconscious patient. I said, “Look at Columba. He is listening to every words”. At that point a wide smile lighted up his face. His 22 years as Abbot left his mark on the Abbey – with its joys and sorrows but most memorable is the monk of his life of dedication and praise of God. A very different character was Brother Carthage. He was another key member of the community. As one of the founders he was Brother in the farm and then carried through the management of the considerable farm to his end. As a boy Carthage went to the Cistercian College in Mount Melleray, and then later joined the monastery of Mt. St. Joseph. Learning some of his story from his family later I could well believe that he would have liked to go to the Priesthood as in fact his brother did. That possibility did become more accessible for Brothers. So two very different stories but the very centre of both was the dedication and consecration of their lives in the monastic vocation. I can hear the inner refrain as in the Liturgy of St. John the Baptist. “Before I formed you in the womb. I know you, and before you were born I consecrated you”. Even just two vignettes of the community are the stories of each of the monks. They include the crosses in the cemetery and in this internet world even the shared memorials in the Website. It was something that my friend Liam mastered for us. Now if I were to talk similarly for myself, my story, you would immediately pick it up the composition of my Obituary. Another key monk was the Novice Master — Fr. Andrew from Dumbarton. Fr. Andrew knocked into shape a good number of Novices. He had a problem. In order to keep himself awake after the Night Office he learned to do Bookbinding, stitching together the very large Choir Books. But even more spiritual but very practical was the translating of the French of the Writings of the Teacher of the Beatified monk, Brother Joseph-Marie Cassant.. Andrew would lend of the copy of the manuscript. In the company of these holy monks we are reminded of the likes of the Beatified Br. Joseph of the monastery of Desert near Toulouse. Maybe we keep our light under a bushel but the amazing story of Joseph Cassant is different. There is a catalogue of the success of his prayer of intersession for healing and favours. The witnesses recorded “From 1903 to 2001, there are recorder 418 interventions on his part of conversions, reconciliations, cures or notable improvement in health material favours, etc”. The miracle of recovery from cancer and other accounts go on. What is rather ironical is the contrast, and the problem to find miracles to identify miracle for the promotion the canonization of John Henry Newnan. On the one hand is the accumulation of evidence of the sanctity of the concealed and hidden monk and priest Joseph Cassant, and on the other hand is the scarce of miracle by the Cardinal od great renown. Perhaps there is a lesson in it all. The young monk died of tuberculosis. His spirituality was so simple. His life is the offering of self to the Father and everything then becomes intercession for souls. There is a graphic illustration. In the Diocese of Paisley there is the Coat of Arms. It has the inscribed MOTTO “For the good of souls”. The Bishop Emeritus, John Mone, used to speak on the teaching of the intercession for souls. In 1946 at the foundation of Nunraw to be abbey, the Mother House, Mt. St. Joseph, surrendered from the Library a consignment of books. It contained the collection of 8 Vols of Fr. Frederick Faber. At the top of the list of titles was “All for Jesus.” A Chapter is called “INTERCESSORY PRAYER” and the First Section, “The saving of the Soul”. It is some daunting reading of Fr. Faber who was like a gushing oil-well of preaching the Word in Brompton Oratory in London. Typically he set out his thought “Let us see what goes to the saving of a SOUL.” He then caps this aspiration, not with one thought but an effusion of some 15 insights to the heart. To begin basic “In the first place, it was absolutely necessary that God should become man”. The last one took my breath, even thought it was basic. “And all the time the SOUL is so near to God, and his heart IS A PLACE so sacred and so privileged, that NONE BUT GOD HIMSELF can communicate grace to it, (to the soul), NOT EVEN ANGELS, NOT EVEN the Mother of God herself, Throughout all ages”. The challenge is NONE BUT GOD HIMSEL can give grace to the soul, the sobering thought and adoration of the holiness of God. The challenge is that of the immensity of the thought and understanding, “NONE BUT GOD Himself communicates grace to the soul”.