Nunraw placed under the patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Monday 22nd August

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Anniversary of the laying of the foundation-stone of Nunraw Abbey

1500 people attended the foundation of the new abbey of Nunraw 22 Aug 1954.
Drenched by the showers on the open site, the concourse was not damped in the spirits of the faithful..
It may be possible to find the archive picture of the crowd - we search.
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Stone of Foundation

D.O.M, - Per Matrem Eius Mariam in festo Immaculati Cordis Illius, 22 Augusti 1954.

 Sermon at the Laying of the Foundation Stone 1954

Abbot Columban Mulcahy

"My house shall be called a house of prayer." Isaias, LVI.7.

Your Grace, my Lords, Right Reverend and Reverend Fathers and dear Friends of Nunraw,

We are assembled today on the slopes of the Lammermuirs for a very historic event. the laying of the foundation stone of the first Cistercian Abbey in Scotland since the Reformation. Even the most superficial knowledge of history will convince us that any abbey, almost in spite of itself, must have considerable influence both social and spiritual, so it is no exaggeration to say we are engaged in an action of historic import.

There is added historic interest in the fact that these lands are returning to Cistercian hands, for as you know, Nunraw formerly belonged to the Cistercian nuns of Haddington. It was a grange or outfarm and at least one document has come down to us from the 16th century signed by a nun at Nunraw.

Yet another, if rather tenuous, historic link is that in former times the monks of Melrose had the right to graze their sheep on part of the Lammermuirs. In fact not far beyond us over the hill is an old ruin said to have belonged to Melrose. Today you may raise your eyes and see Cistercian sheep once more feed on the slopes of the Lammermuirs.

History is wont to recall the debt owed by Scotland in the 12th and following centuries to the Cistercians: their contributions to agriculture, sheep-rearing, coal-mining, architecture, education and general social life. It is not perhaps generally known that several of the early professors of Glasgow University were Cistercian monks and a modern writer on the history of agriculture assures us' that the suppression of the monasteries threw back agriculture in Scotland by a hundred years.

Admittedly these were very solid contributions to the national life, but it is necessary to stress that in the eyes of the monks themselves, this contribution would be only secondary and subsidiary. The chief purpose of monks, descried by Our Divine Lord as the one thing necessary, is the personal service of God, whereby the monk centres his whole life on God and for God and strives to give God that worship which every creature owes his Creator, yet which man is so apt to forget or forego - to his great loss, not to God's.

For why did God make us all? The catechism answers: To know, love and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next. And how are we to know God? How do we best get to know anybody but by speaking to him? So we get to know God by speaking to Him in prayer. Yes, we can speak to God at any time of the day or night, without any appointment or ceremony and we can be sure of a true communion of spirit, an entirely cordial reception.

We are the creatures of His hands, made for Himself, and with an inherent craving in us for Himself, a bounden duty to praise and worship God who made us. That is our primary duty, but it is also our greatest achievement. There is nothing which so elevates man's nature as prayer, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, the creature's joyous worship of His Gracious Maker. It is while exercising that prerogative that man truly lives.

The Gospel tells us how insistently Our Divine Lord while on earth carried out this great duty - frequently spending whole nights in prayer, and it records for us His command to pray without ceasing. The disciples, seeing Him emerging from His prayer asked Him enviously, "Lord, teach us to pray", and received from their Master's lips the "Our Father". Taught thus by Our Lord we dare to call God our Father and we pray that His name be hallowed, His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth. How that prayer elevates us, raising us up to God, raising our concern above ourselves and making us think only of Him. To give honour where honour is due is a dictate of our very nature and hence because of our utter dependence on Him, God merits our profound adoration.

That being so, is it not frightening to think of the millions who neglect God? Even in Christian countries, how many millions neglect prayer altogether, and then what of those ever increasing millions who deny God, and strive to destroy every vestige of His worship, shaking their fists in His very face. Surely it is not surprising that the Church should institute contemplative Orders where souls dedicated to God's service might make prayer the mainstay of their lives and devote themselves to the adoration of God and to prayer for their fellow-men.

This is the aim of the monastic life. It trains men of prayer to make reparation to the Divine Majesty for the neglect of so many. It creates a milieu, an atmosphere, favourable to prayer so that a monastery is a place where people find prayer easy and almost spontaneous. Such a place is a constant reminder to all of the duty to pray and is a support to those whose faith is weak. Truly this abbey will recall Our Lord's words to His disciples: "A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden, neither do men light a lamp and put it under the measure but upon the lampstand so as to give light to all in the house." (Matt. V, l5). May Sancta Maria Abbey be a sanctuary lamp recalling God's presence to the whole countryside, raising up all men's hearts to God in humble, loving, brotherly prayer, creature of one God, children of one heavenly Father, blood brothers of Jesus Christ through the saving waters of Christian baptism.

Such then is the purpose of the Cistercians' return. The miners of Scotland have no longer anything to learn from monks about mining coal. The farmers of Scotland have no longer anything to learn about farming or sheep-rearing, but all Scotland and the whole world has still to learn this perennial lesson, the one thing necessary: "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul, or what can a man exchange for his soul," or, as St. Augustine so beautifully phrased it: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord and our souls can never rest until they rest in Thee."

And so we return to the old, old task, to build a house where souls may worship God in silence and in prayer, a house which will be a constant reminder of man's primary obligation to God and a living example of that happiness and joy to be found in the wholehearted service of God. As such we sincerely hope it will be a source of inspiration and gratification not only to Catholics but to every creed and class, to every individual who still bows in prayer before the one true God of all consolation and love.

It is the traditional rule of the Cistercian Order that every abbey is to be dedicated to the Mother of God, and for this devout gathering no further elaboration or justification of that practice is necessary. This particular house has from the first been placed under the patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and it is surely providential that today on the Feast of that Immaculate Heart, in this unique Marian Year, the foundation stone is to be laid. That this is possible the monks regard as a sweet sign of our heavenly mother's favour. Judge then our delight and joy when our beloved Archbishop expressed his desire to make this the day and place for the official consecration of the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Surely this day will bring us the heavenly fragrance of Her presence and be an abiding memory to console and encourage us in this vale of tears.

But this day must also see laid in our souls the foundation of a more active devotion to the Immaculate Heart. You remember how part of the heavenly message of Fatima was a request for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturday of the month. Our Holy Father has already made that general consecration and we today will help to ratify and complete that act by dedicating ourselves anew, individually and collectively, to our Immaculate Mother.

That same Fatima message insisted on God's wish for the spread of devotion to the Heart of Mary. We are assured that "It is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary that God wishes to grant His grace and it is from Her we must ask it. It is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary especially that peace must be asked, because it is to that Heart that the Lord has confided it."

Yes, we Catholics have a grave responsibility, because we know that peace will not come to the world through the adroit negotiations of statesmen nor through the threats and violence of war. Peace is the gift of God Who alone holds all men's' hearts and wills in His Hands. Peace is only to be won by prayer - especially prayer to the Immaculate Heart. And as in this Marian Year we so frequently repeat the beautiful and challenging prayer of the Memorare:"Remember, 0 most loving Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided," surely we must feel our trust in her grow stronger day by day. Let us say that prayer slowly and thoughtfully, confidently beseeching Her to bring us peace.

And as we now make this gesture of filial compliance with Her wishes, may this day become for us a day of Marian grace. May it set in our souls the foundation of a more fervent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and may the rising walls of Her Abbey urge us to an ever-growing devotion in our hearts till we find every fibre of our being dedicated to Her - the surest guarantee that we shall not be wanting in wholehearted service of God.  

Sancta Maria Abbey Nunraw 2011