Simon & Jude, 28 Oct 2011

   

Fr. Michael Casey ocso

MONASTIC ANTHROPOLOGY SEMINAR 

SANCTA MARIA ABBEY, NUNRAW,

SCOTLAND.

16 – 29 October, 2011

Abbot Mark Nunraw

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Abbot Mark . . .
Sent: Friday, 28 October 2011, 21:11
Subject: Intro MassThe Introduction for today's Mass:

Intro Mass                                                      Simon & Jude, 28 Oct 2011

Today we celebrate the feast of Sts Simon and Jude.  This is the other Simon among the twelve, called the Zealot, and the other Jude – not the Iscariot.

This will be the last celebration of the Eucharist at the seminar for some of us, so I want to take this opportunity to say publicly how well everyone has fitted into the spirit of the meeting and accepted the arrangements that have been made – both among the Nunraw community as well as our good natured extended community.  I thank you all for that.

It is the final day but only the beginning of something else.  I say that because this time together has brought to the surface thoughts and values that need to be worked at, to be properly digested, if we are to make them our own.  Not least there are the faces that won’t be readily forgotten.  This past fortnight has been a gift for which we give thanks to God, and to Michael for being the channel through which we received them.

Jude has traditionally been revered as the patron of Hopeless Cases.  What a wonderfully appropriate feast to have on our final day.  But, after two weeks probing texts and turning them upside down in an entertainingly way with Fr Michael, I hope he thinks St Jude has been successfully at work among us.