Light of the north issue 9

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I am the Light of the World Spotlight on the Global citizens of St Thomas’ Primary School,

Keith

Issue 9, Ad vent, 2008 Sister Moira Donnelly rscj asks: ‘What is a religious vocation?’

New church for Culloden Dedication of St Columba’s

Each copy of the Light of the North costs over a pound to produce and we would ask you to consider this if you wish to make a donation.

A quarterly magazine produced and published by the Ogilvie Institute for the Diocese of Aberdeen R.C. Diocese of Aberdeen Charitable Trust, a registered Scottish Charity no. SC005122

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ur image on the front cover of this issue is an icon of the Nativity which comes from the Monastery of St. Catherine’s at Mt Sinai. St Catherine’s has the largest collection of Christian manuscripts and icons outside of the Vatican Museum.

There are more than 2,000 icons including this example which dates to the early seventh century and probably came from a workshop active in one of the monasteries of the East. Icons like this were one of the main sources that contributed to shaping Christian art in the following centuries.

up front

One of the most famous icons is that of the Nativity.

Its symbolism is that of the Creator of the Universe entering history as a newborn babe. The little helpless figure in swaddling clothes represents the complete submission of Christ to the physical conditions governing the human race. Yet He remains Lord of Creation. The angels sing praises. The Magi bring their gifts. The fact that heathen magi were among the first to worship Him shows us the universality of this great event, meant for the salvation of all mankind.

The sky salutes Him with a star. The earth provides Him with a cave which serves to remind us of the cave in which our Lord was buried 33 years later, wrapped in a shroud. In the cave are an ox and ass who watch Him in silent wonder, details not mentioned

by the Gospels, but which are an invariable feature of every icon of the Nativity.

The lower scenes underline the ‘scandal’ of the Incarnation. The right-hand scene shows the washing of the infant by the mid-wife and her assistant. At one period there was a prevailing opinion that this scene was degrading to Christ who had no need of washing, being born in a miraculous manner from a pure virgin.

Instead, this scene reinforces the fact that Christ was born like any other child. The scene on the left portrays Joseph, who, having observed the washing of the infant, is once again assailed by doubts as to the virginity of his spouse. His very posture expresses doubt and inner trouble.

Finally, as we look at the icon as one united composition, we can only be filled with joy, not only because of the bright festive colours but for the joyous news of our salvation so clearly proclaimed by this simple work of art.

In it, all creation is rejoicing at the birth of our Lord: the heavens (a star and angels); the earth (the mountains, plants and animals}; and especially mankind, represented most perfectly in the figure of the new Eve, the most virgin Mother of God.

Mass for seafarers

John O Still

Bishop Peter and crew members from the ‘Aida Aura’ n Monday, 1st September Bishop Peter Moran celebrated Mass aboard a cruise liner.

The Apostleship of the Sea, or “Stella Maris” ministers to seafarers in ports worldwide. Seafarers include the crews of merchant ships but also , of course, the crews of luxury liners. North-East Scotland’s “Stella Maris” chaplain is Deacon Brian Kilkerr, and he arranged for Bishop Moran to visit the Italian-flagged “Aida Aura” when the vessel called at Invergordon in Ross-shire.

Bishop Peter represents the Bishops of Scotland as a Trustee Bishop Promoter for Scotland of Apostleship of the Sea GB. As a keen dinghy-sailor himself, he certainly knows port from starboard. He gladly welcomed these visitors who were mostly from Germany, to the beautiful Cromarty Firth, part of the Diocese of Aberdeen.

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contents deaneries 4 witness 14

children’slight

15 faithinaction 17 liturgy 15 educationandformation 19 faithandculture 26 humour 33 crossword 34 Westminster 35 OgilvieInstitute 36

Light of the North Managing Editor Deacon Tony Schmitz Editor Cowan Watson Chief Reporter Fr Paul Bonnici Editorial Advisor Canon Bill Anderson Light of the North Ogilvie Institute 16 Huntly Street Aberdeen AB10 1SH Tel: 01224 638675 Email

lightofthenorthmagazine@gmail.com If you would like to advertise in the Light of the North please contact Sandra Townsley on 01463 831 133 Email Sedstown@aol.com

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Have church - will travel!

Photograph courtesy of Jim McCauley, Thurso How often have we heard it said that, instead of waiting for people to come to Church the Church must go to the people. Well, Fr John Allen, parish priest of Wick, Thurso and Orkney is one priest who seems to have taken this injunction to heart and has aquired this ‘travelling chapel’ to do the job!

Fr John’s ‘travelling chapel’ is set to become a familiar sight on the roads of Caithness and Sutherland bringing the message of the Gospel to rural villages during the summer months. He also plans regular trips to Orkney.

The mobile church is equipped with stained-glass windows, an organ, which Fr John has carefully restored and a fold down steeple so it can fit neatly into his garage when not in use during the winter months!

OK, so we’ re just kidding about Fr John but it did get your attention didn’t it and, after all, we are approaching the Advent season, a time of joy, laughter and expectant hope. And we hope you’ll agree that the mood of the season is also reflected in the pages of this issue of the Light of the North, not least with the news of the recent dedication of the new church of St Columba’s in Culloden. In addition, our schools page puts the spotlight on the wonderful work being done at St Thomas’ Primary School in Keith. Then there’s Abbot Hugh Gilbert’s account of the student martyrs of Burundi who put their brotherhood in Christ before tribal loyalties; Fr Bernard O’Connor’s challenging essay on the Pauline theme of discipline and discipleship and Clare Benedict’s article reaffirming the unsurpassable love of God. And, if you’re interested in the Catholic history of the Diocese, Professor Peter Davidson tells the intriguing story of Cosmo Alexander, the outlaw portrait painter from Aberdeen and Shelagh Noden recalls some musical memories of the North East.

This is also an appropriate time of the year to thank all our contributors who dedicate their time and talents to the magazine and all those readers who have given us their support including the anonymous reader who recently sent us a £200.00 donation.

Finally, in this season of new beginnings which contrasts with the end of our calendar year let’s try to make sure that, despite the lure of the shops and all the holiday preparations, it remains a season of joy rather than a season of stress; a time when we look to the future and the past in order to focus on the present. God’s reign is in our midst!

Cowan

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Thirty years in the waiting!

Christians from all over the Highland Deanery and beyond gather for Dedication of new church at Culloden

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Fr James Bell

ll Saints’ Day was celebrated differently at St Columba’s, Culloden. It was the day of the Dedication of the new church, thirty years in the waiting. Festive and celebratory the Litany of the Saints took on a new significance as local saints were recalled. St Columba, St Bean, St Donan, St Duthac, St Gilbert and St John Ogilvie joined the more usual holy men and women, martyrs, confessors and pastors whose intercessions we seek. The rich Communion of the Saints emphasizes the call to holiness through the centuries.

Into the fellowship gathered at Culloden on Saturday 1st November were Christians from all over the Highland Deanery, and beyond: a vibrant celebration of Faith.

Bishop Peter Moran presided at the Mass of Dedication, with Archbishop Mario Conti also present as a principal concelebrant with Canon Duncan Stone, Canon Peter Barry, Father James Bell and other priests from the Diocese. Clergy and visitors from other churches were made warmly welcome. The Liturgy was rich in symbolism and sacramental signs: the blessing of water after which the faithful, the walls and the altar were all sprinkled; the anointing with Sacred Chrism of the altar and the four walls of the church; the lighting of a brazier from which plumes of richly fragrant incense filled the church. All of these outward and visible signs indicated the spiritual and interior graces that were brought through prayer to the place and the people.

Over two hundred and fifty people were somewhat cosily squeezed into a Church designed for two hundred and twenty. Before the Mass began John Steyn, Chairman of the Fabric Sub-Committee presented to the Bishop the Architect, UBC the builders, and others involved in the construction. The keys of the building were handed over

by Don Williams, Chairman of the Local Pastoral Committee. It was a happy moment: the prescience of

People can expect a warm welcome at St Columba’s

Quarter page for Vanpoulles in the feature on St Columba’s Church.

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UBC Building Contractors

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Light of the North clearly a hall, with an attached sacred space, the sanctuary capable of being screened off by very strong and tastefully designed wooden doors which slide behind a wall pelmet when the church is open. Doors closed the hall can be used for appropriate social gatherings. Nothing that is not consistent with Catholic faith and practice will be permitted in the hall.

In the adjacent “lean to” there is a well designed sacristy, a Lady Chapel, a kitchen (“not designed by a woman” was one lady’s response, seeing some ‘wasted space’), and a very useful Meeting Room, equipped with TV gizmos and opening out to an adjacent patio.

Bishop Peter Moran pesided over the Dedication Mass and a Liturgy which was rich in symbolism and sacramental signs Canon Duncan Stone in his purchase of land near the battlefield of Culloden, the generosity over the years of the parishioners of St Mary’s and St Ninian’s, and the leadership of Monsignor Robert McDonald and Canon Peter Barry were all recalled.

Innovative in its way, if controversial in the attempt at dual use, it is certain that the dynamic parishioners at Culloden will use the full range of its capabilities. The total cost of the building is about £800,000, of which the parishioners have raised £260,000. They have a debt of £350,000 and are up to the challenge, but they would welcome any help that is going, however small!

Another feature which has attracted attention is the striking The building itself is not without controversy. There is a Celtic Standing Stone fixed to the wall outside the front tension inherent in the design, whether it is primarily a door. It is the newest War Memorial in Great Britain. It “church”, or a “hall” for community use. In shape it is commemorates not only those who fell at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, but also those British, Commonwealth

Reynolds Architects 1/2 page

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The striking Celtic Standing Stone War Memorial

and allied service men and women who have died in the defence of freedom. To the UBC site supervisor, young Alasdair Paul MacDonald, a former Royal Marine who served in Afghanistan, it has special poignant significance.

So too for the Architect, Billy Reynolds, formerly an officer in the Parachute Regiment, who has designed it with careful attention to detail. A Cross of St Columba is carved on a slab of Caithness stone, a strong memorial above a plaque on which is inscribed ‘PAX’.

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CBC Church Furnishings

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St Columba’s at Culloden, part of the Parish of St Mary, is ready for the challenges of mission and making people welcome in this part of Inverness, the fastest growing city in Europe.

Father James Bell is Parish Priest and Dean of the St Joseph’s (Highland) Deanery.

Hayes and Finch 1/4 page

Tradition of craftsmanship spanning four generations For 125 years, Hayes & Finch – a Liverpool-based business – has been one of the country’s leading suppliers to churches.

Hayes & Finch manufactures and restores a range of church furnishings that is truly astonishing.

Whether working in wood, wax, wrought iron, brass, silver or gold, the company’s highly skilled craftsmen continue a tradition started four generations ago.

Hayes & Finch are proud to have had the opportunity to supply a large selection of their products to the newly built St Columba’s Church, in Culloden.

The vast diversity of work undertaken by Hayes & Finch is reflected in a full-colour, 280 page catalogue. For your free copy, please call 0151 523 6303 or visit www.hfltd.com

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Tain Seven’s inspirational Sydney trip Fr James Bell

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he Australian winter was really rather better than a Scottish summer. Sydney in July was a wonderfully warm respite from the vagaries of our northern climate. But it was not simply the gentle heat and the clear skies in that vast land under the Southern Cross, but rather the cherishing kindness, the affectionate welcome that everyone received that set our hearts on fire. Seven of us from this Diocese were soon engulfed in a great blaze of enthusiastic hope. Six of us travelled with the group from Dunkeld, our southern neighbour, and that was the beginning of the great process of introductions.

A real multinational welcome for the folk from Tain Dani Tharakan from Alness/Invergordon particularly enjoyed playing football and making new friends with a group of young Italians on the spectacular surfing beach at Manly. Busy lad he is still in touch with his friends made at Sydney. Oh, the wonders of texting: the airwaves are being sanctified by the expressions of good will as our young pilgrims recall the highlights of their Australian pilgrimage with their companions around the world.

For Iain a high spot was witnessing “ a re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross by proper actors, which took place along the Sydney Harbour Shoreline...all the Pilgrims Melissa Fry, from Tain, is hopeful that “ I will always keep gathered to see it, a very emotional and overpowering in touch with my many new friends, from all round the experience.” That impact was the same for each of us. I world.” watched by the waterside, and I recall that passers-by stopped to see what was happening, and they were soon For Iain MacGillivray, also from Tain but now at a enthralled. It was a dramatic period of outdoor prayer.

Benedictine University in America, it really was a time for making new friends. He had his fiddle and his bagpipes with him. His easy going expertise and his Gaelic charm broke down any initial barriers and soon he paired up with a lad from Paisley now at Scots College in Rome. However, everyone’s contacts were truly international, indeed Catholic, as our group were soon exchanging addresses, mobile numbers, e-mail addresses, clothing, flags and souvenirs.

These were nothing to the Dani Tharakan gets to feel the ‘long arm of the law’! exchanges which were taking place as we learned about each Dani would have liked to stay there such was the spiritual other. Maria Campbell was dimension of sharing with 400,000 other Pilgrims in the struck by the opportunity “to truly inspiring Papal Mass at Randwick racecourse. Maria explore our faith and share it writes of this, “ I realized how amazing it was, all that we with other young people. It had done, for all these people had made the effort to get Iain MacGillivray plays really showed that the Church there for the same reason....we really have to thank everyone is alive.” an impromtu solo that helped to get us there. It was a life changing experience.

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Our trip was amazing and I really hope that we can inspire more people to go next time, 2011 in Madrid”.

The sight of the papal launch (well inner harbour ferry really) coming into The Harbour at Sydney, past those great visual images the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House was utterly memorable. Pope Benedict on the bridge of the ship surrounded by happy youngsters made its mark on everyone. During the week Papa Benedetto’s warmth, his Sabine Cross leads clear but kindly and firm the Viking invasion of teaching impressed everyone.

Sydney He was a great star, and he won the affection of many in Australia by his gracious candour. He was surrounded by the youth of the world, and the young in heart of all ages, in a pilgrimage to the “ Great Land of the Southern Cross”.

From left to right: Maria Campbell, Melissa Fry, Iain MacGillivray and Mark Campbell alert, vibrant and cheerful, and there were no drugs busts, no drunks, no arrests, the Catholic Church must have got something right!” Alleluia, Amen to all of that. Sydney was marvellous. “ Madrid 2011 here we come!” that is the message of the Tain Seven who represented the Diocese .

To those who made it possible, all our fundraisers, and the Paisley Diocesan Group to whom we were attached, we all send grateful thanks and greetings.

One self-confessed Sydney cynic wrote to a national The Tain Seven were : Fr James, Sabine Cross, Dani newspaper in Australia shortly after the Holy Father Tharakan, Iain MacGillivray, Melissa Fry, Mark and returned to Rome. About the immense invasion of youth Maria Campbell he said, “All those young people thronging through Sydney,

Ringing endorsement for Snehalaya Homes from people of Nairn A Salesian Society priest who is dedicating his life to helping children abandoned to the streets of the Indian city of Guwahati paid a short visit to Nairn in the summer on his way to America to raise awareness of his work.

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John Dolan

ather Lukose Cheruvalel set up his rescue centres Snehalaya Homes in 2000 with the aim of caring and rehabilitating abandoned young boys and girls. Snehalaya means “house of love”.

Fr Lukose tries his hand as a bell ringer while Peter (right) and his team of ringers offer a helping hand on what are regarded as the world’s most northerly “ring of bells” They have returned to the city twice to work at Snehalaya Homes as volunteers. To help raise awareness of Snehalaya, both Peter and Aileen are well known for their talks to local WRI, Rotary and church groups in the Nairnshire area.

During his stay in Nairn, Fr Lukose stayed with friends Dr Peter Shipton and his wife Aileen, who fundraise locally for the outreach programme with particular Fr Lukose arrived in the seaside town on July 23 and the following day took the opportunity to meet with child emphasis on promoting “child sponsorship”. sponsors of Snehalaya in Inverness and visit the city’s Their work for Snehalaya followed a visit to Guwahati Corbet Centre for disadvantaged adults who 18 months where Peter’s father is buried in the city’s war cemetery. earlier had raised £1300 for his work.

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Fr Lukose celebrated Sunday Mass at St Mary’s in Nairn and during his sermon told the moving tale of a sevenyear-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy who had been abandoned by her family and had been rescued by police before being taken to one of the Snehalaya Homes. A special collection taken up at the Mass raised a remarkable £700.

From its humble beginnings of caring for eight homeless children in a small shed, Fr Lukose’s outreach programme now cares for 200 youngsters in eight homes.

heartened by the welcome he received.”

Anyone who would like to know more about Snehalaya Homes, or sponsor a child, contact Peter or Aileen on 01667 451575, or visit the website: www.snehalaya-houseoflove.org

Check us out at Bebo!

He is now planning to build new administrative headquarters in Guwahati, including a new shelter home - where abandoned youngsters are taken first to be assessed. The complex is expected to cost about £1.5 million.

“I would like to clear up the loans taken out on the new centre, but also to feed the children as our running expenses are £4000 a month,” he told me.

“It’s important that we build a shelter home, which is the starter point for children and is where they can begin to forget about the street. We have a basic centre at the moment but we need to make it permanent and better.”

He went on to praise Peter and Aileen for their “exceptional work for his project”.

“Their work for us has been substantial. They have also lived with the children and are very passionate about the whole thing. It is great that they can co-ordinate things here for us and they do it all voluntarily.”

Fr Lukose also offered his thanks to the people of Nairn and Inverness. “Everyone was very kind and I thank them for their hospitality. I have found everyone very friendly and you are a listening people.”

When Fr Lukose arrived at the Shiptons’ home a special welcome awaited him with an impromptu bell ringing display from Peter and some of his friends. Peter boasts Scotland’s only private “ring of bells” which are contained in a specially built bell tower at his home. Fr Lukose was also presented with a teeshirt from Peter and his group with the words “I’ve rung the most northerly bells in the world - in Scotland!”

“Fr Lukose was very intrigued by it all and it was a good memory for him to take with him,” Peter said. “It just so happens that two of the bell ringers are also sponsors of Snehalaya.”

Peter added: “I really think Fr Lukose was genuinely

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Founder members of Bebo site

n online Catholic community for students and young adults within Aberdeen and surrounding areas has been set up at Bebo, a popular social networking website.

If you are interested in joining the community just log on to www.bebo.com/SMSYPC.

Burns Publications

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Bishop’s reception for nursing professionals

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Konkans celebrate Nativity of Our Lady

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onkans living in Aberdeen enjoyed a traditional feast to celebrate the birth of Our Lady at St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen. Mass was celebrated in the Lady Chapel by Fr Chris Brannan and Fr Richard Reese. The children actively participated in the Mass by reading prayers of intercession and readings from Scripture.

Smiling nursing professionals at the reception reception for the nursing profession was held at the Bishop’s House in Aberdeen on the 23rd May.

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A message was read out from Pishop Peter (who was still covalescing after his operation) saying:“I have invited you here this evening to thank you for the dedication and care you give to your patients. As nurses, you bring care and reassurance to people who are anxious weak or in pain; as Catholic nurses you bring them something of Our Lord’s care and love. On their behalf thank you! Do not underestimate the value of the work you do. Think of it as a ministry, and be assured of my blessing and my prayers.”

Deacons Challenge Trophy

From left to right: John Chalaya, Fr Tad, Gerald Cunningham and Peter Sims. ine Teams from Brora, Cathedral, Elgin, Forres, Fraserburgh, Inverurie (2teams) St Peter’s Castlegate, St Joseph’s Woodside, competed at Elgin Golf Club on the 27th June for the Deacons Challenge Trophy which has now run for 10yrs. The Cathedral team won by a very close margin from Brora. The trophy and other prizes were presented by Fr Tadeusz Turski following high tea.

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Fr Richard Reese and Fr Chris Brannan assist some of the children to light the votive candles

SMA Fathers

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Confirmations

Aberdeen Diocesan Calendar Saint Gilbert of Moray [1st April]

Bishop Peter with the candidates and their sponsors. ishop Peter visited Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Banff on Saturday 13th September to confirm six of our Polish parishioners. The bishop addressed the candidates in both English and Polish, and the service was conducted using both languages.

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Bishop Peter with the ten confirmands n Sunday 14th September, Bishop Peter confirmed 10 young parishioners at St Margaret’s, Huntly. The picture shows the bishop with the candidates.

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Pictured with Bishop Peter from left to right; Anthony Mayberry, Charlotte Kerr, Jayne Atkinson, Cailyn McCadden, Emily Ewan, Amanda Benton, Iona McDonald and Richard McDonald. ishop Peter visited St. Mary’s in Nairn on the 21st September and celebrated Mass with Fr. Francis Burnett and the congregation, and celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation for six young people from St. Mary’s Parish and two from the Parish of St. Margaret’s in Forres.

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Saint Gilbert was the son of William de Moravia, lord of Duffus and Strabrok, who owned enormous tracts of land in the north of Scotland. King Alexander appointed him archdeacon of Moray, which gave him secular and religious power during a turbulent period. Enemies set his accounting ledgers ablaze, but miraculously, they survived.

In 1233, Gilbert was appointed bishop of Caithness to succeed Saint Adam. The seat of the diocese of Caithness was originally at Halkirk, but owing to the brutal murder at this location of the two bishops who preceded Gilbert (St Adam was burned alive), his first decision was to transfer the seat of the diocese to Dornoch. He held that position for 20 years during which he built Dornoch Cathedral at his own expense. It is uncertain how long it took to fully complete the Cathedral, but by 1239 the building was far enough along for the first service to be held. The statues of this cathedral of Dornorch were modelled on those of Moray and Lincoln. He also established several homes for the poor.

Gilbert was a valued servant of the Scottish kings, a zealous upholder of Scottish independence against the archbishop of York (though this is disputed), and a great preacher and administrator.

Gilbert died on the 1st April, 1245. He was later recognised as “one of the noblest and wisest ecclesiastics the mediaeval church produced” and was the last Scotsman, until the canonisation of St John Ogilvie to whom a place was given in the Calendar of Saints.

As patron of Caithness his name is in the Aberdeen Breviary. Until the Reformation (1545), Gilbert’s relics were venerated and used for the swearing of oaths.

Lord our God, you charged Saint Gilbert with burning zeal for the honour of your house. With his merits interceding for us, heal our weakness, body and soul and lead us to the place where your glory dwells. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

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Jim Curran - stalwart of St Aidan’s Jim Curran, a stalwart of St Aidan’s Parish, Aviemore, died last May. Patricia Franks looks back at the magnificent contribution Jim made to the life of the parish and the wider community spanning a period of more than forty years.

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im Curran came to Aviemore for hill training with the Marines in the early 1960’s, where he met and maried a local girl Ann McIntosh. In between assignments at home and abroad, he became indispen sable to the parish church of St Aidan’s. As a Royal Marine Commando Jim had to move with the job, serving in Ireland, Singapore, Malta and Arbroath. He completed 27 years in the Forces, leaving with the rank of Colour Sergeant. After retiring he took another job, this time doing 10 years on the oil rigs as an administrator, always keeping St Aidan’s as his parish church. After retiring from the rigs he became a Special Constable with the local police force.

death of Fr. Braidy. Many’s the time he drove visiting priests back and forth to Grantown on Spey, banked the collections every week and looked after the fabric of the church, one time painting and wallpapering the whole of the church house. For anything he did for St Aidan’s he never asked for payment - he was a giver not a taker. He went out of his way to give this writer a lift to church countless times.

When Parish Councils became the norm in Fr Peter Barry’s time Jim was the obvious choice for Chairman.

Years later Fr John McQuade only had an unofficial forum of interested parishioners to get things done, but Jim was still the Chairman in all but name of the meetings. He would fulfil any position where he was needed.

He was the originator and driving force for the ecumenical Millennium Cross His forces connection was continued as built and blessed by our then he acted as the welfare officer for Bishop Mario Conti . Jim’s name Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Families was not mentioned in the speeches Association -(SSAFA ). At various times at the blessing of the Cross, but he served as President and Benevolent everyone knew he was the man of Officer of the Aviemore and the moment. No sale of work, Rothiemurchus British Legion club. He bingo night or raffle was held told me once that early on as SSAFA without Jim becoming a jack of all officer it was politely noted that he had trades and taximan. His charisma very nearly overrun his allotted budget. and networking skills enabled all Then he heard one man tell another to these to be successful. go and ask Jim for money because he was soft. He very quickly learnt to tell His last project for St Aidan’s parish the needy from the greedy. was the beautiful statue of Our

Jim Curran - a giver not a taker Lady of Perpetual Help put up in Jim was decorated with the British front of the church house mainly Empire Medal for his service in Northern Ireland, and recently was awarded the Malaysian at his own expense. He had Dominic Ward a local medal for service during the Borneo troubles. He was joiner make a glass sided box so that the statue would upset that Aviemore had no memorial to the men of the be protected from the elements but be easily seen by World Wars, and went ahead and organised the design the faithful. Fr John Paul MacKinnon blessed the and erection of the compact memorial at Cairngorm statue one Sunday before Mass in a simple ceremony.

Avenue on behalf of the British Legion.

Four priests were present at the funeral Mass for Jim, Whatever enterprise he undertook and whatever person Canon Peter Barry, Fr John McQuade, Fr John Paul he dealt with, he brought to them his very real Catholic McKinnon and the present parish priest Fr Derick faith, and unofficially he has for many years been McCulloch, together with a large crowd of friends and recognised locally as the leading Catholic figure. He was colleagues, all showing love and respect for a very special part of the team who arranged the extension to the person. The parish will miss him. It was a privilege to original church in the early 1970’s when tourism added work alongside him, and the parish appreciates the to the small congregation. He had to organise and run patience of Jim’s wife Ann who supported him through the Parish for almost a whole year with the late Rex all his various projects on behalf of St Aidan’s, our Brown when there was no parish priest following the Church and the wider community.

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TheMartyrs of

Brotherhood

Abbot Hugh Gilbert OSB gives an account of the tragic yet triumphant martyrdom of forty young students; witnesses to a truly Christian ideal of brotherhood

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n 30 April, 1997 forty of the students at a junior seminary in Buta, southern Burundi, were killed by a marauding band of ‘rebels’ for refusing to separate on ethnic lines. This is a tragic story, but it is more than another horror story.

It has a depth to it and living, positive consequences. It’s a tale of a Christian community confronting contemporary evil. It is a story of martyrdom, and martyrdom, despite appearances, is always to do with victory. The victory here was of brotherhood over violence, and if that has a poignantly contemporary African relevance, it is not for one continent only.

A junior seminary was established in 1965. The students were ethnically both Hutu and Tutsi. In 1986, a diocesan priest, Fr Zacharie Bukuru, was made Rector. Looking back on the years prior to the tragedy, he was able to see the guiding, preparing hand of Providence. It is also clear to others that he was an inspired pedagogue and spiritual father for these youngsters. From the beginning of his service there the Rector was haunted by a premonition of death. He knew it was part of his task to educate them to Christian brotherhood, beyond their ethnic identities.

After the political events of 1993-1994 this became even more imperative. He noticed how the youngsters were already tending to recreate more and more in ethnic groups. At one point a group of young Hutu students planned to desert the seminary. The staff managed to prevent this, though shortly after six did leave. They were to join a rebel group and be the ones who later would guide it in the attack on their former confreres.

The Rector then began holding regular meetings with all the students. They would study together the news, study and ‘re-read’ the history of the conflict, especially the events of 1972 in which their parents had been involved.

This allowed things hitherto suppressed to surface. The boys began to express their fears, their sometimes onesided or distorted understanding of events, and their ethnic prejudices. Gradually they discovered how worthwhile it was to search for the objective truth. They learned to respect other perspectives and distance themselves from extremism. Gradually a culture of peace emerged. There grew a desire to disengage from the inherited conflicts and to move towards a better, reconciled future.

The names of the forty ‘Martyrs of Brotherhood’ who died at the junior seminary in Buta, Burundi Easter 1997 seemed to be special, with many of the students saying afterwards how moved they had been by the liturgy of Good Friday. Two weeks later came their communal retreat. This too seems to have been a time of unusual grace. At the final Mass everyone rose as if at the bidding of an electric current and danced, transported by joy, including the Rector. Then afterwards, after their days of silence, the boys began to speak. “I’m going to be a priest,” said one, and immediately others burst out laughing because that’s what they had decided too. And others said, “In this retreat I’ve really met God face to face.” One said to the Rector, memorably in view of what was to come: “Father, why have you never talked to us about Paradise?”

And they began to speak of peace, justice, love, the priesthood, the Church in a way the Rector had never heard them do before. He realised something unique had happened, and that some of them had been given a glimpse of paradise. “Never in my life had I experienced such a depth of brotherly communion, or so manifest a presence of the Holy Spirit.” This was the 24th April. Six days later, forty of them would be dead.

At 5.30 in the morning of 30th April, an armed group of around 2000, including women, equipped with machetes, guns and grenades, entered the seminary. Thirty of them made for the dormitory of the older students. To abbreviate a long story, they ordered the youngsters to separate on tribal lines, the idea being to try and enrol the Hutus in their militia, and kill the Tutsis. The lads refused and a general killing began.

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These young men set their human and Christian brotherhood above the secondary irrelevancies of tribal distinction. They had fully taken into themselves the teaching of the Gospel. Many died praying: for their comrades, their killers, their country. “Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do,” was heard from some; psalms from others, and the liturgical Reproaches of Good Friday; many died holding rosaries. They administered such first aid as they could to each other, irrespective of origin. The dormitory was awash with blood. Some escaped, some were badly wounded but survived. Forty in all were killed.

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martyred youths dedicated to our Lady, Queen of Peace.

After that Mass, the exhausted Rector for the first time in three days was able to rest. Immediately he began to weep. He wept for twelve hours.

The foundation stone of the sanctuary was laid on 30th May, 1997. After a spell in a French monastery, Fr Zacherie returned to Buta in 2004 and began the foundation of the monastery of St. Mary, Queen of Peace, 200 metres from the Sanctuary of the Martyrs. The cause for the beatification of these young men has been opened.

Burundi is a very poor country, and obviously a venture such as founding a monastery needs funds. We at Fr Zacherie survived. At the Funeral Mass he spoke about Pluscarden Abbey will be happy to forward to Fr. Zacharie the importance of not taking revenge. The next day the any contributions (made payable to us but designated for local Bishop returned and celebrated the Eucharist. He Burundi) readers might like to send us. announced the construction of a sanctuary for the

Spotlight ON St Thomas’, Keith The staff and pupils of St Thomas’ Primary School, Keith are celebrating their success as one of the few schools in Scotland to have achieved full International School Award status from the British Council

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e have been actively involved in International/Global Education for some years now and have attracted grant funding from DFID (UK Government Department for International Development). to support our links with the Lahore Lyceum in Pakistan.

Through this funding, our international and global perspectives have become real with teacher exchange visits and huge amounts of work in school involving all the children from Nursery to P7.

Mrs. Nicol visiting Ballyheerin, Eire and reading about us in their local newspaper!

In our Infant class, Mrs Nicol has instigated a link with an has become the main drivers for our development of A Irish school in the small village of Ballyheerin which she has Curriculum for Excellence in our school. visited since she was a little girl.

Mrs Main, our middle stages teacher, has a son who teaches Last year, one of our School Improvement priorities was to in Canada and her class have begun emailing and swapping apply for the International School Award. This has three levels and having looked at what was required to achieve information about life at home with the children there.

Our latest links are with Aulnay sur Mauldre near Paris in each level we decided to go straight for full status as we felt France and with Szkoła Podstawowa nr 4 w Jastrzębiu we were already meeting almost all of the criteria for this.

Zdroju in the south of Poland.

Cathy Francis, our International School Co-ordinator, put As you can see, we have developed our partnership work together our portfolio of evidence of the projects that were through a variety of means: personal links, e-twinning being done throughout the school. The whole school arrangements and a full blown partnership agreement with community were delighted to hear that we achieved full Lahore Lyceum. Our work in this area along with our highly status when we came back from our summer break. This was successful activities in the areas of Enterprise and Eco-schools surpassed only by learning of our success in the Link2Learn

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P4-5 with our globe -trotting mascot award for our submission which gained runners-up place in the Primary School of the Year section which was open to all primaries across Britain. The prize of £1500 will buy some more ICT equipment to allow us to develop even more exciting activities in this area.

We have become one of the few schools in Scotland to have achieved full International School Award status from the British Council. Of the almost 600 awards this year only five were from Scotland. This award has been gained through the hard work and commitment of pupils and staff to learn about the global dimension as well as the readiness of our International partners to engage with us. This is what some of our children thought - Caitlin, Sean, Matthew and Susanna said: “We are excited and proud. It’s amazing we have got an award for work which actually didn’t feel like

P1-3 switching on our Global Fountain - it works! work at all! We enjoy learning about how people live in different countries. Our work is important. We think other children should learn about this stuff because it is a great experience to receive and send work to partner schools. It is interesting to learn about other cultures.”

We consider ourselves Global Citizens but more importantly have gained a deeper understanding of our place in the

P6-7 showing how it feels to be Global citizens linked around the world! world and our responsibilities in this role. We would encourage anyone out there to apply for ISA status as there is a huge amount of fantastic work being done with staff, pupils and parents deriving great benefits from it. What we hadn’t fully realised was the benefits from having our work recognised and validated from outwith our school community. This has had a huge impact on the way we all think about ourselves and the role we play in the wider community.

If you want to find out more about our work in this area, why not log on to our website: www.stthomasrcprimary.org.uk

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“God’s preferential option for the poor”

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u If yo Want Peace

Work for Justice

Hazel Naughton, former Chairman of the Catholic Bishops of Scotland Commission on Justice and Peace, is setting up a new Justice and Peace group at St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen

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revention is better than cure”. That would be a good motto for Justice and Peace. It is better to drive out the drug dealers than to cure the evils of drugs. It is better to talk, to find the cause of a conflict and try to resolve it (Jaw, Jaw), than attempt to silence it with violence and destruction (War, War). It is better to help farmers in poor countries to stay on the land than to send food to the slums of the great cities.

We see so much social injustice in the world, at home and overseas, that when we first began our new parish group we felt overwhelmed by the amount and the variety of the injustices that Justice and Peace was called upon to tackle. But we knew that a handful of people couldn’t take on the injustice of the world so eventually we settled on two main areas of concern – homelessness and world peace – large enough surely! Gradually we whittled the peace project down to concentrating on the Arms trade with its destruction of human life, its provocation of war, its spread of poverty, its sheer waste of money, its outright evil. In the area of homelessness we are still doing research before deciding how best to use our limited resources.

There is so much that is already being done by other people we need to find an area where we can make a difference.

We are also organising some one-off talks to raise awareness of some of the many issues which are crying out for justice. We can’t do everything, but it’s good to know what’s happening.

But hold on, you may say, this is the realm of politics, not religion. Yes, it is indeed politics. But surely, you may say, our Church should keep out of politics. NO, that’s not true. The Church should keep out of Party Politics, but not out of politics itself. The Church, and the Church’s voice on social justice, the Justice and Peace Commission, is strictly impartial on Party Politics.

Politics, however, the right governance of the people, is an essential remit of the Church.

“But Jesus never meddled in politics,” you may say. And we reply, “You’re right. Jesus never meddled in politics.

He was up to his neck in politics.” He was the greatest revolutionary of all time. He spoke out against the authorities in support of the poor, the sinners, the “unclean”, the prostitutes who may have been driven by circumstances into prostitution and then could never find the money to buy the Temple sacrifice to remove them from this status (you couldn’t use money from illgotten gains).

All right then. But why do politics in Church? The answer is absolutely fundamental to our work.

It is because Jesus did it. It is because God didn’t deliver his message of Love to our world simply through the Holy Spirit, through an inspiration from on high.

He delivered it through a man, through God in the human form, through a totally holy human being. And by his

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very presence in this world Jesus acknowledged the holiness of the whole of creation. There is nothing in this world which is not touched by the holiness of God. So if God has proclaimed the holiness of all creation we too, as believers in God, as followers of Jesus, must do likewise. Every human being is loved by God, from the richest to the poorest, from the holiest to the most degraded, all are the objects of his saving Love.

But God does have some favourites! Unless you can become as these little ones you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Translated in modern language terms we speak of “God’s Preferential Option for the Poor”. If we want to be like God, then we too must have this preferential option for the poor, for those who have been ground down by the injustice of others, for those who cannot help themselves, for those who are killed indiscriminately by small arms or by large tanks because other people can make huge sums of money by making and selling these weapons. And in the area of homelessness, God has a

special love for those who, so often through no fault of their own, find themselves without a home, find themselves living in a B&B or on the floor of a friend.

From there it is very easy to move on to drugs, alcohol abuse, crime and violence. We who are more fortunate must never dare to criticise them.

So in Justice and Peace, we believe we are answering God’s command to love our neighbour, by working to prevent the injustice in our world, that precious world, those precious people, so dearly loved by God, so holy, so glorious. Why not come and join us? The more of us there are the more we can do!

If you are interested in forming a Justice & Peace Group in your parish but don’t quite know how to get it off the ground Hazel may be able to advise you. hazelnaughton_29@hotmail.com

without saying, especially if our parents are still alive. But the debt we owe, each and all of us, to the dead is far greater. Imagine we were merely the first or second generation of human beings. What would our life be like?

How ignorant and thin and poor it would be! To whom do we owe the walls of our church, or the Mass, or the monastic life, or our understanding of the Christian life?

To whom do we owe all the intricate complexities and rich satisfactions of civilised life? Not to us, Lord, not to us, give the glory. Even the most recent modern invention has a great pre-history. And so, even at the human level, to pray for the dead is surely a natural and wholesome thing to do. It’s to discharge a debt of gratitude. The dead sinned, too, of course, and often we carry the consequences of that too. But by praying for them, for their forgiveness, we can lift the burden from them and from us.

A L L S O U L S D A Y Abbot Hugh Gilbert O.S.B.

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nly a short time ago on the 2nd of November we remembered the dead, prayed for them and offered Mass for them. All Souls’ day, as we call it.

We owe, each of us, a great deal to the living. That goes

It was a terrible thing the Reformation did by forbidding prayers for the dead, freezing a human instinct, depriving the living of the comfort of praying for the dead and depriving the dead of the comfort of the prayers of the living.

Honour your father and mother, says the commandment. I may have failed in that during their lifetimes. I needn’t fail now they’ve died. And so with every other relationship.

There are times and places in human history where the thought of the dead has been too present to the living: in ancient Egypt, for example. And there have been times and places when intoxication with the present has almost cut through the sense of being linked with the dead – who are still living too. The Church gives us this day, and in a sense this whole, quiet month of November, so that we can order aright our relationship with the dead.

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And this can lead us to a higher perspective, too. If you look at the history of this All Souls’ Day, there is no doubt it has grown in stature. It began, as all these things do, here and there, locally. Then an abbot of Cluny sponsored it and it began to spread more widely. Then the Dominicans in Spain began the custom of celebrating three Masses on this day, which spread throughout the Spanish and Portuguese empires overseas. And then we come to the 20th century. It was a century of unprecedented, large-scale slaughter. Genocides of various kinds have almost become a human hobby, and we have become so used to it that we scarcely notice. In the late nineteenth century there were several anti-Jewish pogroms in Czarist Russia. The most that were ever killed in these was about forty, and the whole civilised world was outraged. In 1915, one and a half million Armenians were massacred. It was the curtain-raiser. Pol Pot, at the other end of the century, is accused of having two million people liquidated.

It’s not pleasant to dwell on this. But it was the slaughter on the Western Front in World War I that made Pope Benedict XV extend the Iberian custom of saying three Masses to the whole Western Church. Thirty years ago, it

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would not have been possible to say those Masses on a Sunday. But now the Church has said they may be. This is the day Christ came back from the dead. Surely, then, a good day for proclaiming the power of his death and Resurrection in the world of the dead. And this ‘before all the people’, on the day when all Christians gather and when the Church’s prayer is at its most powerful.

The ancient cry still holds: ‘Christian, recognise your dignity.’ Recognise your mission, we could say today.

Christ’s arms on the cross embrace everyone, the living and dead, and our arms – our prayer – can too. Our baptism, our union with Christ, has made us intercessors, pray-ers for others. It’s a talent, it’s a gift, it’s a power we all have, and it extends to the dead as well as the living.

The seal of this monastery, which goes back to the late Middle Ages, shows the Risen Christ coming up from the underworld, the world of the dead, leading Adam and Eve out of the dragon’s mouth. In Christ, in prayer, we can do the same. We can ask God to reconcile the dead, the great mass of twentieth century dead, to Himself, and we will be heard. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called sons of God. Let us make peace, for the living and for the dead, by our prayers.

What is a religious vocation?

Sister Moira Donnelly rscj, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, continues our series on vocations with this thoughtful consideration of the religious life.

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ecently, I heard Father Gerry Hughes, S.J, speaking to older religious about the spirituality of ageing. One point he made was the importance of desire. He invited us to reflect on what we most deeply desire, something about which we could say, “This alone will satisfy my longings. This is where my happiness lies.”

It was a reflection that resonated with his listeners. For myself it evoked memories of the time before I made the decision to ask to enter religious life. As a student and as a young teacher I tried to enter into the world of socialising, dating , dancing and fashion with my friends but there was lways a deep-down yearning for something different. It was like an inner voice telling

“It is a source of the greatest joy to discern and to follow one’s God-given call”

me, “These things, good in themselves, will not bring you happiness. Your desire lies beyond all these.”

What was that desire? It was an exciting challenge, in the proper sense of that word, because it was both attractive and daunting. It was the invitation to offer my life to God to use it as He chose. It involved too the desire to let Christ continue his work on earth through me. Scary? Yes, it certainly was. And only a sense of a vocation, of being called, could make a positive response possible.

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I do not know anyone who actually physically heard a voice calling her or him to religious life but l do know many religious who were given a powerful inner conviction of being called by God and this gave them the courage to say “Yes.” It was as if God was saying, “I am asking you to make a commitment and l, for my part, commit Myself to be with you always.” Only such confidence in God’s faithfulness and loving kindness made the taking of vows possible.

ministry, financial expertise, campus and hospital chaplaincies and faith education.

The important thing for every Christian, and especially for young people making life choices, is to take the time and trouble to discern their deepest inner desires, to ask in prayer, “To what am I called? Where does my happiness lie? For what does my heart long?” If anyone feels that he or she is at such a moment of decision in life, one helpful step would be to make a In the light of the initial call, there are then further directed retreat. Another would be to speak to someone desires to serve God in a particular way. One person who will really listen and offer accompaniment during may feel called to continue Christ’s ministry of healing, the process of discernment. another is drawn to His work of teaching, a third is attracted to His life of prayer and a fourth wants to It is a source of the greatest joy to discern and to follow take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth like one’s God-given call and today the scope for living out the first disciples. Such vocations within a vocation one’s vocation, whatever it may be, is probably wider will lead a person towards the order or institute best and more exciting than ever before. suited to their God-given gifts. There, supported by a community, they find that they can do in solidarity with others what they could never do alone.

Religious life has many facets and has given to the Church a rich tradition of spiritualities; Benedictine, Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican, Jesuit, to name but a few. The Society of the Sacred Heart, of which I am a member, has as its mission and ideal to make known the love of the Heart of Jesus, especially through education in its widest sense. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, when Jansenism was rife, with its image of a stern and distant God, our foundress, Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, found in the Scriptures, and especially in St John’s Gospel, the inspiration to spread everywhere the knowledge and love of a God of unconditional overflowing love. When I first read that “mission statement”, I knew that I had found what I most desired.

In the Church today there is a new awareness that, by virtue of their baptism, all Christians have a vocation and every vocation is to be respected and fostered. In addition to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life, the Church is opening up new ministries to lay Christians, such as pastoral responsibility, music

If you know somebody who is unable to get to church to pick up a copy of the Light of the North please let them know that for just £10.00 they can be put on our subscribers mailing list, and we will send them a year’s issues of the magazine by post. All cheques should be made out to the Ogilvie Institute.

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The Sacrament of Marriage

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What you always wanted to know about your faith but were afraid to ask!

Marriage is not primarily a human institution, not a human creation, but rather a divine institution, a part of divine Creation. God Himself is the Author of marriage…

Since the first human being stood upon the earth, marriage has belonged to God’s Natural Law, with God’s rules, to the natural order of Creation and has been a part of God’s loving plan for humankind: as John Paul II put it: love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being (Familiaris consortio 11).

The Scriptures open with a marriage, between the first created man and woman, and they close with a marriage, the final marriage between God and His people. In the beginning we hear God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them (Gen 1:28) - man and woman created in equal dignity, blessed by their Creator to share His shining new Creation.

Later, we hear:

Eileen Grant ‘This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church…’ (Eph 5:32) ‘The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator Himself and endowed by Him with its own proper laws … God himself is the Author of marriage … a man and a woman are no longer two, but one flesh, rendering mutual help and service to each other…

Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.’

This lovely image lies at the heart of the Church’s rich teaching on human marriage (Gaudium et Spes).

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he Sacraments of Marriage and Ordination are grouped together as ‘Sacraments at the Service of Communion’, for marriage, like the priesthood, is a vocation, a call from God. In other words, we could say that we are asked to consider not so much ‘what do I get from entering into this arrangement?’ as rather ‘what can I give?’ Such an understanding of marriage places a far higher value on its meaning than society on the whole tends to do. It raises all manner of challenges, but at the same time it confers a special dignity and beauty on the married state.

The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him.’ … The man exclaimed: ‘This at last is bone from my bones,and flesh from my flesh!This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body (2:18-24).

The man cries out in his joy at being given a partner who is his equal in dignity and worth, for men and women are created equal but complementary, made for one another, to help, support and love one another. One of the saddest consequences of the Fall was a disruption of that original harmony, so that we have to work very hard at times to achieve and maintain harmony in marriage, as in all our relationships. But God gives us that help.

Marriage as Covenant, not contract: A contract is a legal document, written on paper; it can be torn up, revoked by one or other of the parties, dissolved in a court of law.

A covenant, on the other hand, is written on the human heart; it is binding until death on the human part; everlasting on God’s. God is always faithful; His love never fails, however great the provocation. We are called to imitate this example of loving, faithful forbearance and to think of marriage as a covenantal agreement. ‘‘Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the

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faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with possibility of love between a man and a woman which is those who love Him (Deut 7:9). but the paradigm (imitation) of divine love’ (David Burgess). What a beautiful concept! And what an amazing Though covenant may be damaged, it cannot be thing marriage can be! destroyed.

When we look at the nature of the Church herself, we see As a result of what Jesus described as fallen man’s hardness how Christ, that final Revelation of divine love, freely of heart, couples did divorce but this was, he said, a and willingly gave himself for, and to, the Church, his contravention of God’s Natural Law. At Cana, he Bride, in an irrevocable act of covenant. This image was demonstrated that marriage is good; we find marriage taken up with enthusiasm by St Paul (often given a very raised to the dignity of a Sacrament, a sign of Christ’s unfair press regarding his attitudes to women and to saving presence among us and so, ‘married love makes marriage!) in his Letter to the Ephesians (5:21-32): so too present among mankind the same a man and a woman, by this free divine love made visible in the mutual gift of self, enter into a Redeemer’ (PSM 25). We often covenant for life, for what is freely find Jesus setting hard challenges; given in love cannot be revoked. on marriage, as in other areas of Christian life, he did not The love which is to dominate in compromise: as a sanctified state, Christian marriage is no longer the ordained by God, marriage is a love which is basically that of want, commitment for life. of self-centred desire, but instead that same sacrificial love which is For this reason, a man will leave working through the Mystery, the his father and mother and be divine love which does not seek its joined to his wife, and the two will own, but above all seeks to give life become one flesh. So they are no and give it abundantly. Their longer two but one. What therefore mutual love will not be merely the God has joined together, let no association of two egotisms, but man put asunder (Mt 19:5-6). rather the true image of the love of Christ and the Church and, through When his disciples expressed their this, an image of the Mystery itself scepticism as to anyone’s ability to (Louis Bouyer). keep such a difficult commandment, Jesus told them that marriage is a If only it were that easy! - especially The Betrothal of the Virgin true call from God and that ‘not all when faced with one another’s (Raphael, early 1500s) men can receive this precept, but only annoying little habits! But we are those to whom it is given’ (Mt 19:11). Of course it is given a great deal of help, if we choose to accept it. To difficult but, to God and with God, anything is possible. human beings, on their own, many things are difficult or Jesus concedes the difficulty but he also offers the impossible; to God, and with God, all things are possible necessary grace. The unique nature of this sacrament is and so, with the help of God’s grace, we can achieve the brought home when we realise that the couple are difficult, even, at times, the impossible. If we try to live themselves the ministers of the sacrament, by virtue of our marriages in a Christian spirit, we will continue to the free and willing gift of self to each other, even unto give of ourselves, considering the other, setting aside our death: a gift given in the presence of God and witnessed own self-centred desires, not trying to score points or by the Church. Therefore, the Church does not have the always have the last word; putting the other’s needs before power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom our own; discussing problems in a spirit not of (CCC 1640). confrontation or accusation but listening and considering the other’s point of view; and always making peace before Marriage as vocation, a call from God: requires an the sun goes down - or at least before it comes up again. exploration of, perhaps even a redefinition of, the whole concept of love, not just in romantic or sexual terms, but a love which can transcend the ordinary and elevate Eileen Grant is RCIA Catechist at St Mary’s Cathedral, human marriage to a state of truly awesome heights, for Aberdeen ‘in the sacrament of matrimony there is affirmed the

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“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...” (Jn 3:16) If proof were needed, what greater proof could we ask for? In Jesus, the only Son of God, we see the love of God made incarnate; we look upon the very face of Love; we witness the depths to which that love was prepared to go, in order to save our poor, sin-begrimed humanity, crippled by self-love or, in so many cases, selfhate. A great cry of love was proclaimed from the Cross to the ends of the earth, ascended to the Father and resounded back into the hearts of men and women throughout history.

Through his self-sacrifice on Calvary, Jesus smashed down the barriers between humanity and our God of Love; through his resurrection he opened up the way to that Love eternal, shedding perpetual light on our path.

“For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all called children of God; and so we are. Beloved, let us love things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of living” (Wis 11:24-26).

God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made All well and good: I can accept that God loves us; He loves manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the everyone but… Surely that can’t possibly include me? How world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, can I know that God loves me? It takes much more than not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his the repetition of three little words. It needs an open heart.

Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so I may be prepared to believe that He loves everyone else, loved us, we also ought to love one another. We love, but what about me – sinful, unworthy, unlovable me? If I because he first loved us” (1 Jn 3). can’t love me, how on earth (or in heaven) can God? How can He really love me just as I am? So many of us may be unsure of love – love from parents, siblings, friends; we Clare Benedict may find it difficult to love ourselves, therefore how could anyone else love us? How could God love us, love me? It is ow can we know that God loves us? How can perhaps the loneliest place to find myself: a place where I I know that God loves me? With regard to the am imprisoned in my own not-love, where even, where first question, we have plenty of evidence, if especially, God’s love seems absent. It is the place of the proof is what we are looking for: Scripture is Cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” filled with instances of God showing His love for His people and telling them – over and over – how He loves Cry out to God and He will answer you: “You are my them. He created the universe because He loved; He beloved child.” From his Cross, Jesus cried aloud in his created us because He loved us with an everlasting love agony and the Father answered him by raising him from that extends back beyond Creation and forward into the dead. He will do no less for us, raising us from the eternity. Again and again throughout salvation history tomb of our loneliness where love seems shut out. Whenever He declared His forgiving love for His wayward children, I am moved to doubt God’s love for me, I must ask myself, expressing His longing to gather them to Himself, to “Do I love God?” or am I too busy weltering in my own protect, nurture and lavish with blessings. Again and sense of unlovableness? St Bernard once wrote this in a again, that love was rejected, scorned, forgotten. Think letter: “No one who loves God need have any doubt that how frustrating it is when we offer a gift or utter words of God loves him. God gladly returns our love, which was love, only to have gift and words spurned or, at best, preceded by his own. How could he be reluctant to love us received with a grudging acceptance. It hurts! in response to our love for him, when he already loved us before we ever loved him at all. Yes, I say, God loved us. We “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, have a pledge of his love in the Spirit and a faithful witness but my steadfast love shall not depart from you” (Is 54:6).

H

The U

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to it in Jesus – a double and irrefutable proof of the love I have to do is accept it. When I do accept God’s love, I will God bears toward each one of us.” be aware of being positively deluged with graces. And that love, that grace, given with so lavish a hand, is too much for For St John, God’s love became the most important thing me alone; it spills over and demands to be shared with others, in his life. According to an ancient tradition, one of his for God’s children are all one in Christ, are all my brothers disciples once complained: “Why don’t you ever talk and sisters. about anything else?” John answered, “Because there isn’t “When did God’s love for you begin? When He began to be anything else.” He had known Love Incarnate – had God. When did He begin to be God? Never, for He has “seen, looked upon and touched” Love – and therefore always been without beginning and without end, and so He Love was his reality. has always loved you from eternity” (St Francis de Sales). It is “the love that moves the sun and the other stars”. “Love For St Paul, God’s love is a grace “poured into our hearts was his meaning, “ wrote Julian of Norwich after her vision through the Holy Spirit”, that personification of the eternal, of the Lord when he told her “full blissfully: Lo, how that I reciprocal love between Father and Son. The Greek verb loved thee, as if He had said: My darling, behold and see thy used by Paul is always used in connection with excess, with Lord, thy God that is thy Maker and thine endless joy, see superabundance, with extravagance: it is the verb used of a what satisfying and bliss I have in thy salvation; and for my torrential downpour of rain! So, not something little, love rejoice [thou] with me.” something grudging, but something lavish, something that counts no cost. That love is infinite, active, not dependent “Because You have loved me, You have made me lovable” on my worth: it is a totally gratuitous gift held out to me; all (St Augustine).

St. Paul on Discipline and Discipleship Pope Benedict has declared June 2008 to June 2009 to be the Year of St Paul and to mark this 2000th anniversary of the birth of St Paul the Apostle Fr Bernard O’Connor begins a new series of meditations on some major Pauline themes

Fr Bernard O’Connor

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n June 30th, 2008, Pope Benedict inaugurated a Pauline Jubilee Year (extending to June 29, 2009) in honour of the great missionary ‘apostle’. In his homily for Vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, the Holy Father emphasized the purpose motivating his call for this observance. Besides wanting Catholics to become more familiar with the New Testament writings associated with Paul’s ministry, the Pontiff hopes that Catholics will not merely “reflect on a past history, irrevocably surpassed,” but also recognize how “Paul wants to speak with us today.”

Sacred Scripture should not be regarded as being about Christ solely in the sense that He is relegated to antiquity. Rather, because the Bible is the Word of

God its contents are both inspired by the Holy Spirit and infused by the same Spirit. Scripture exudes the Spirit’s confirmation of Christ’s Gospel message. Year of Saint Paul Therefore, the 73 books comprising the Bible are far from static. They are dynamic, vibrant, and enable us actually to enter into an ever greater intimacy with the Trinity’s love. But contrary to the position prevalent in many Protestant denominations, scripture does not stand apart from Tradition. For example, scripture contains the earliest record of Catholicism’s origins and experience. And so it is entirely mistaken to conclude, as some claim, that the Church was established only long after the period corresponding to the New Testament (e.g. by Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Toleration). It is equally false to deduce that scripture intends to justify an independence from the ‘organized’ Church. In fact, no set Bible existed during the first four centuries of the Christian era.

Catholic Popes (e.g. Damasus I – 382 A.D., Innocent I – 411) and Councils (e.g. Hippo – 393, Carthage III – 397 and Carthage IV – 419) made the determination of what constituted the New Testament

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canon. And for them, Paul was a figure of monumental importance.

Addressing the general audience of July 2, 2008, Pope Benedict encouraged us to consider Paul in view of the unique environment and “global context” which influenced him. Nor should we overlook the role of the Roman Empire’s “political-administrative structure.” This permitted “peace and stability from Britain to southern Egypt,” allowing Paul a reasonably convenient access to his era’s diverse population centers. Paul, the Pope stated, can thus be described as a “man of three cultures;” Jewish, Greek and Latin.

For us, he is a foremost teacher. With humility and openness, we may “learn the faith from him, (…) learn from him Who Christ is, (and) learn, in the end, the path for an upright life.”

Where uprightness of life is concerned, it may be helpful for us to reflect upon how Paul links discipline to discipleship. The significance of this approach reminds me of when I so often hear people say that they believe in God, but that the Catholic Church no longer is relevant for them. Yet, there is no exception clause appended to scripture and no evidence which argues for intrinsic obsolescence. Neither is there an opt-out provision to justify our selection of those portions we find appealing and useful so that we might then conveniently disregard the remainder.

What these people seek is tantamount to what C. S. Lewis in his wonderful classic, Mere Christianity, referred to as the quest for a tame god. For Lewis, any god which lets us ‘off the hook’, to quote the modern jargon, is simply an idol. It is the byproduct of a wish-centered arrogance and ignorance. Because the Christian God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is demanding and disturbing; challenging us to the very core of our being. Nothing else conforms to the truth and anything else is a pathetic caricature.

Ultimately, the illusion will disintegrate, leaving us to collapse under the rubble of our own exaggerated self-deception. This explains why discipline, which is to say the willingness to wrestle with reality as it is and not as we would refashion it, is inseparable from the Pauline approach to Christian commitment.

Recall for moment Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, a marvelous synthesis of his teaching. There he reminds his hearers, and us, that lip service to religious convention will not result in salvation. The ancient Jews were content to point to their being the Chosen Ones of the Covenant, the Law, and that, moreover, they had been circumcised. This is quite similar to

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a parent who decides that their child should be baptized or prepared for First Holy Communion, but aside from the ceremony the child sees little if any regularity in Mass attendance and scant formation in the basic tenets of Catholicism. Caution. The initiation Sacraments (baptism, confirmation, eucharist) are meant to introduce recipients to a lifestyle. They are the venue for entry, not exit. The latter is the very notion which Paul rebukes, indeed, which he condemns. Instead, we should strive daily to become increasingly aware that “those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things” (8:5).

They further realize that our human nature, namely the inclination to give priority to what distracts us from God, must be steadily reviewed, reevaluated and reformed. Have we replaced the authentic God? Are we heedless of what is entailed in being “joint-heirs with Christ” (v.17)? Paul urges that we pray and meditate upon the Biblical Word in such a way that we will be “transformed” and “may discern what is good and acceptable and mature” in God’s sight (12:2).

Fr. Bernard O’Connor is a priest of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia and an official with the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches.

GPA Humphries

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Orkney Journal David Noden investigates the “Miracle of Camp 60” on the island of Lamb Holm

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y first visit to Orkney was organised as a longoverdue reunion by a select band of four “old girls” of Lark Hill Convent School in Preston and I was deemed qualified (as one of the husbands) to accompany them.

Our extensive list of projected activities included a visit to see Fr. Ronald Walls, whom we knew from his time in St. Joseph’s parish in Aberdeen, and who is living in very active retirement in Kirkwall. In conversation I mentioned to him that we had enjoyed reading his “Orkney Journal”.

Somehow, by the time we parted, I had got the job of writing this next instalment!

We spent our first evening in Orkney planning the week

The striking façade of the Italian Chapel ahead. There was one absolute “must” for Sunday. Mass is celebrated on the first Sunday of the month at the famous Italian Chapel on the small island of Lamb Holm. The tourist information outlined the history of the chapel, built by Italian prisoners of war, but we were really not prepared for the impact which the visit would make.

As we crossed from Mainland to Lamb Holm, over the causeway of Churchill Barrier No.1, we could see, amidst a bleak landscape, the striking façade of the little chapel, together with the statue of St. George (complete with dragon) close by. As we entered the chapel, beneath the relief of the head of Christ crowned with thorns, and walked over the mosaic (AD MCMXLIV, dating completion of the chapel as 1944), the interior was breathtaking. It would have been easier to believe we were standing in a small chapel in the Italian Alps than in a couple of Second World War Nissen huts on a windswept northern isle. There was so much to marvel at, not least the altarpiece to Our Lady Queen of Peace, painted by Domenico Chiocchetti after a holy picture given to him

by his mother, which he carried with him throughout the war. Equally inspiring was the wrought-iron sanctuary screen, exquisitely crafted by a fellow-prisoner at “Camp 60”. But, for all the many valid reasons which make the Italian Chapel one of the most popular visitor attractions on Orkney, we were there on that Sunday also to observe its original purpose as a place of worship, to hear Mass, celebrated by Fr. Walls, and attended by tourists and Orcadian regulars alike.

The “Miracle of Camp 60”, as the chapel is titled in the guide book, is remarkable in its origins, its execution and its legacy. In October 1939, the German U-boat U-47 penetrated the defences of the strategically important Royal Navy anchorage in Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak, with the loss of around 800 lives. This disaster reinforced the need to strengthen the defences, so the major project to build the Churchill Barriers was put in hand shortly afterwards, blocking the eastern approaches. Because of the shortage of civilian labour, several hundred Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa, were sent to camps on Burray and Lamb Holm to build, in deference to the Geneva Convention, causeways to link the islands.

The talents and creativity of the prisoners were quickly applied to making the camps more tolerable. Notably at Lamb Holm the result was the statue of St.George, and the stunning transformation of two Nissen huts, using almost exclusively scrap materials, into the chapel to cater for the prisoners’ spiritual needs.

In addition to this material transformation, and partly, perhaps, because of it, the relationship between the prisoners and the Orcadian people grew into one of some warmth. The chapel was in use for only a short time before the end of the war, but the Lord Lieutenant of Orkney, Mr Sutherland Graeme, who owned Lamb Holm, promised the prisoners that Orcadians would cherish their chapel.

The Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown (who later himself became a Catholic) wrote in the Orkney Herald, “We who are brought up in the Calvinistic faith, a faith as austere, bracing and cold as the winds that trouble

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indeed been cherished.

The chapel we see today has since been further enhanced by the Crucifixion shrine at the entrance, Stations of the Cross, cruets and altar linen: gifts from the Chiocchetti family and from Domenico’s home town of Moena, as the men who built the chapel, and their families, have been welcomed warmly back on a number of return visits to Orkney.

The wrought-iron sanctuary screen and the altarpiece dedicated to Our Lady, Queen of Peace Lamb Holm from year’s end to year’s end, can hardly grasp the fierce nostalgic endeavour that raised this piece of Italy, of Catholicism, out of the clay and the stones.”

But that endeavour has been more than grasped, it has

We managed to see Fr. Walls again, towards the end of our stay, this time for dinner at one of the hotels in Kirkwall.

“Hello, I see you’ve got Fr.Walls with you,” said the proprietor, smiling. It was a sincere welcome, spoken with great warmth, which somehow seemed to typify the Orkney response - to Fr. Walls, to ourselves as visitors and to the Italians who built the chapel, who found, in these sometimes bleak surroundings, a genuine respect and friendship.

Musical Memories of the North-East Shelagh Noden THERE IS A NECESSITY OF PUTTING AN IMMEDIATE STOP TO IT EVERYWHERE.

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his uncompromising statement was Bishop George Hay’s verdict on church music, given in a letter to John Gordon (brother of Aberdeen’s Priest Gordon, and himself a priest) in 1789.

It was not that the bishop disliked music. Instead he feared that, through their singing, his congregations might draw unwanted attention to themselves. At the time that he was writing to Mr Gordon(priests in Scotland were known as “Mr” until the mid 19th century) Roman Catholic public worship in Scotland was, strictly speaking, illegal, even though it was widely tolerated. But Bishop Hay had first-hand knowledge of anti-Catholic feeling.

Once, returning to Edinburgh after a visit to London in 1779, he had found himself in the middle of a riot. He asked a woman what was going on. “Oh sir,” she answered, “we are burning the Popish chapel, and we only wish we had the Bishop to throw him into the fire.” Prudently Bishop Hay sought refuge in Edinburgh castle until things died down. It was hardly surprising then that he wished his flock to keep a low profile.

Not everyone agreed with him.

His colleague, Bishop Geddes, tried to persuade him to relent “there does not appear to be the least Danger from our beginning to have some Music,” but it was not until Bishop Hay’s retirement due to ill-health in 1803 that the prohibition was relaxed. Bishop Hay’s successor, Bishop Cameron, came from the Scots college in Valladolid, and was used to the ceremonial of the liturgy as celebrated there.

By this date several parish priests in the North East had already reintroduced singing despite the ban. Mr Mathison claimed of his church at Tynet that “since singing took place on the Holy Days, the chapel is crowded.” In fact he was so keen to promote music in his church that, in the absence of an organ, he actually made himself a double bass, with which he accompanied the choir.

Later on, perhaps inspired by the success of his double bass, he became more ambitious and constructed an organ, which he sold to Mr Charles Gordon for St Peter’s, Aberdeen. Sadly, Mr Gordon was not impressed with the instrument, and returned it, preferring to order one from London at a cost of £441. Nothing daunted, Mr

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Mathison continued working on the organ and it was eventually installed in his own chapel in 1817.

Elsewhere in the North East several chapels installed organs in the early nineteenth century, including Preshome in 1822, where a “very large and elegant recess” was made to house the instrument .The parish priest, Mr Badenoch, noted “Our organ is doing very well and the choir improving. Great numbers of Protestants are attracted and the collections on Sundays are double what they formerly were.” An early example of ecumenism, as well as a healthy respect for the money-making powers of music!

There was also some musical rivalry –friendly, one hopes between parishes. Mr Badenoch went on to mention Mr Mathison’s double bass; “his famous Fiddle has lost much of her renown by the superior powers of our Organ.”

St Peter’s, Aberdeen, was at the forefront of the revival of church music. In August 1804 the church was dedicated

by Bishop Cameron, who, along with seven other priests, celebrated the first High Mass in Scotland since the Reformation. The Bishop visited again in 1807 and 1810.

Mr Gordon enlisted help with the singing from the students at Aquhorties seminary, near Inverurie, but he soon felt the need to start a choir of his own.

The achievements of this choir should not be underestimated. Mr Gordon pointed out that “Sacred

music had hitherto been quite unknown. Scarcely one individual amongst us had ever heard a single note of music in any place of worship.”

It was also difficult to obtain printed music, which at that time had to be ordered from London. Cannily Mr Gordon bought only one copy of each piece; extra copies were then written out for the choir.

So what music did they sing? What exactly did Mr Mathison perform on his famous double bass? A research project is currently underway at Aberdeen University to create a database of music used in Roman Catholic churches in Scotland from the late eighteenth century right up to the period immediately preceding Vatican II. We would be delighted to hear from anyone with experience of church music as an organist, choir member, church historian, or simply a listener in the pews. Do you remember the Mass of the Guardian Angels, for example?

Or Vögler’s Veni Sancte Spiritus? Or the Vidi Aquam by the “celebrated Mr S. Webbe,” one of whose Masses was performed at St Peter’s in 1815?

If you have any memories of church music that you would like to share, please do get in touch with Shelagh Noden at s.noden@abdn.ac.uk or phone 01358 742248 Thank you.

Kevin Mayhew

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On a wing and a prayer Father Peter Barry explores the bird life of Scotland and other exotic climes!

Off The Beaten Track

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ravel the silk route to Samarkand; drink camels milk, the best cure for any skin condition; sleep in a yurt; look for the snow leopard, etc. These are the exotic images associated with Central Asia.

In the Summer I made a short trip to Kazakhstan, considered by the United Nations to be the most corrupt country in the world. Even the locals call the police “ vermin “, and no mother would readily admit that her son is in the force. Stories abound of travellers on long

Not a bird in sight...has Fr Peter taken the hump?! train journeys across the Steppe having their passports held out the window, with the threat to throw them away unless a bribe is paid, often up to $100.

I found myself stranded one night, unable to proceed further to the Observatory at the Tien Shan mountains.

The bird-list at that height was impressive. I could see the snow capped mountains ahead, but here the public transport stopped. A family saw my predicament, and invited me to stay for the night. In the event I stayed for seven nights, and we spent long hours in conversation.

They declared themselves to be Muslims, but had no religious beliefs whatever, nor did they visit the Mosque or read the Koran. They were, however, fascinated by my work as a Priest: would l teach them some Latin?

There is now a family of secular Muslims who know the Latin grace by heart: Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine, et tu das illis escam in tempore opportuo, etc . ..... “The eyes of all hope in you, O lord, and you give them their food in due season”. l had to conduct a wedding on return to Inverness. They were full of questions: was the wedding arranged by the parents? Had the couple met each other before? Who paid for the reception? Was there a honeymoon? Was the bride 16 or 17 years of age? In central Asia that is the normal age.

There were only two rooms in the house. The family all slept on the floor in one room, and they gave me the other. Despite the fact that they were well off by local standards, the toilet was only negotiated after a walk of 40 metres to a long drop at the side of a vegetable patch.

St Mary’s Pastoral Centre

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Water was boiled over a fire for washing and cooking.

Mountains, where we found high altitude species like Altai Accentor, related to our own hedge Sparrow. My life The mother worked as a doctor, and the father, an list grew by 39 species, some found in desert heat of 40 engineer, had been Kazakh chess champion. There were degrees, others at 3,000 metres where the temperature at two grown up sons and a daughter. night drops well below freezing.

For all my food and accommodation they would only accept 30 dollars per day. Happily they knew a professional Omithologist, a Russian named Andreyev. We spent four days in intensive bird-watching, two on the desert looking for exotic species like Red headed Bunting, Imperial Eagle, etc. Another two days were spent in the Tien Shan

Much more importantly, I had shared time and fellowship with folk who had never had a European under their roof, let alone a Christian or Catholic Priest. This can only be a way forward. If we are to survive, we must work for a shared global ethic. ln some tiny way I hoped my visit had lived up to that ideal.

Outlaw painter from Aberdeen Continuing our series exploring the Catholic history of the Diocese, Peter Davidson, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Aberdeen, recounts the intriguing story of Cosmo Alexander, an 18th century Jacobite portrait painter from Aberdeen.

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osmo Alexander was born (probably in Aberdeen) in 1724, descended from a long and complex dynasty of Jamesons and Alexanders, originating in the family of the celebrated seventeenthcentury Scottish painter Geroge Jameson. To some degree, almost all of them were artists, and many of them were Catholics. His father John Alexander (1686-1766), who was also his teacher, worked at Gordon Castle, painting the staircase ceiling there with a fine Abduction of Proserpine : confident and accomplished work which shows his familiarity with the contemporary Baroque styles which he had learned in Rome between 1711 and 1719. John’s patron the Jacobite Marquis of Huntly, later Duke of Gordon, presumably stood godfather to Cosmo, giving him the name which he had in turn received from his own godfather Cosimo III, grand duke of Tuscany. Cosmo’s brother Charles seems to have entered the Scots Catholic School at Regensburg in 1739 and have remained for life in Southern Germany as Benedictine Monk and painter, at least one portrait possibly by him survives today at Douai Abbey, near Reading. This international, Catholic and essentially Jacobite milieu was to be the society in which the painter passed his life.

We know little about Cosmo Alexander’s education, as there is no record of his name in any contemporary Scottish Catholic college or school, and it may have consisted mostly in apprenticship to his father, although the fine hand and the elegant Latin in which Cosmo signed his works suggests some considerable degree of polish, as would his and his family’s apparent ability to move at ease in society. His earliest work is probably a copy of a now lost portrait of the Earl Marischal, founder of Marischal College (University of

Painting believed to be a self-portrait of Cosmo Alexander, in the act of painting James Francis Edward Stuart. Private Collection. There is an earlier self-portrait in Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Aberdeen) and his Self-Portrait now in Aberdeen Art Gallery may have been painted while he was still in his mid-teens.

The defining element of his life was his Jacobitism: it is unsurprising that both Cosmo and John Alexander fought in the Prince’s armies in the 1745 rising (when Cosmo would have been 23) and both were wanted men after the Battle of Culloden. John Alexander seems to have hidden in the environs of King’s College: there is contemporary reference to him painting the fine imaginary portrait of Bishop Gavin Dunbar (now hanging on the top floor of the Old Town House in Old Aberdeen) while he was “skulking” under the protection of the college. In the course of the 1750s John and Cosmo between them seem to have made about three replicas of the fine Flemish-renaissance portrait of Bishop William Elphinstone, the boldest of which now hangs in the Catholic Chaplain’s Office at the University.

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With a price on his head, Cosmo Alexander seems to have fled to Italy by way of London; he arrived in Rome by Easter in 1747 sharing lodgings in the Strada Felice with Patrick Leith SJ and George Gray. He painted portraits of fellowJacobites in exile and eventually received a commission from James Francis Edward for a portrait of Charles Edward. He received many more commissions from the Pretender’s family for their portraits: a complete set of these is now at Fingask Castle, Perthshire, and one of the portraits of Henry Benedict in the Royal Collection at Holyroodhouse is most probably Cosmo’s work. It must have been at this time that he painted the quick self-portrait (now private collection) of himself beginning work on a formal depiction of James Francis Edward. He seems to have travelled home by way of leisurely sojourns in Livorno and Paris.

In 1754 he was settled in Henrietta Street London in a house left to him by his fellow Aberdonian Catholic James Gibbs (1682-1754) the celebrated architect. For the next ten years St Cecilia, painted by Cosmo Alexander for he made frequent trips to Scotland, especially Aberdeen, the Aberdeen Musical Society and presented painting almost exclusively members of the Jacobite and to them by him. University of Aberdeen.

Catholic communities. He received official commissions from the Aberdeen Town Council, which still had numerous family which eventually produced the distinguished neodiscreet Jacobite members. It was at this time that he classical designer Thomas Hope. undertook one of his most curious commissions: the In 1766, surprisingly (although many Jacobite and northern restoration of a sequence of paintings by George Jameson. families had considerable American connections) Cosmo In 1641 the enlightened, moderate-protestant Principal of left for America. He began in Philadelphia and moved on to King’s College, William Guild (also a relation of Jameson’s) New York in 1767 and on to Newport, Rhode Island in had commissioned Jameson’s workshop to produce likenesses 1769 where he painted portraits of members of the Grant, of the twelve Sibyls (gentile women of all races who had had Keith and Hamilton famililes. Exceptionally he painted two prophetic visions of the life of our Lord) to hang in the of the Grant family around this time, sitters from an common hall at King’s. This was an extremely tactful enlightened and scholarly family who were, however, not selection of subjects in times of religious tension: inoffensive part of his own Jacobite circle. One of these is at Monymusk to Catholics and moderate protestants, only theoretically to this day, the other in the Art Institute of Chicago. offensive to Aberdeen’s Calvinist minority. By the mideighteenth century, over a hundred years of coal smoke and candle-smoke had done much to damage these paintings, so that two were “quite gone” and the others were much faded.

Cosmo undertook a thorough restoration, signing his work and dating it 1761. The art-historian Mary Pryor suggests that he took the opportunity of strengthening and emphasising certain details – a rose, a sceptre — which carried Royalist and Stuart meanings.

About this time too, Cosmo Alexander painted his representation of the patron Saint of music St. Cecilia, to hang in the concert-room of the recently-formed Aberdeen Musical Society and concert club on the continental model which flourished from 1748 to the 1800s, before being revived in 2003 and now giving an annual St Cecilia’s day concert in King’s College Chapel, at which the painting still presides, and will do so this year with particular splendour having been re-framed and restored.

In the mid 1760s Cosmo Alexander worked in Holland, mostly for the Hope family, bankers of Scottish descent, a

It was in Newport that he took on a fourteen year old apprentice, Gilbert Stuart, later to be internationally famous as the portraitist who painted George Washington. Thus in a sense, Cosmo is a father of North American painting as it developed in the first years of Independence. Together they toured the southern states, visiting the many Jacobites who had fled to Carolina and possibly painting also in the Caribbean, although this is far from certain.

They both returned to Scotland in 1771. Cosmo Alexander died the following year, leaving his apprentice in the care of his brother-in-law Sir George Chalmers.

Cosmo Alexander’s painting is never less than competent, sometimes a good deal more than competent. But of more interest than the paintings themselves is the world they define: the self-sufficient and fiercely loyal world of the northern Catholics and Jacobites at home and in exile all over the world.

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Poetic licence Lines from “Messiah” by Alexander Pope The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold: Hear him, ye deaf! and all ye blind, behold!

He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eyeball pour the day: ‘Tis he th’ obstructed paths of sound shall clear And bid new music charm th’ unfolding ear: The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting like the bounding roe.

No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear.

From every face he wipes off every tear.

In adamantine chains shall Death be bound.

And Hell’s grim tyrant feel th’ eternal wound.

As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air, Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, By day o’ersees them, and by night protects; The tender lambs he raises in his arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms: Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, The promised Father of the future age.

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Alexander Pope

est known for his later satires like “The Rape of the Lock”, Pope wrote “Messiah” as a young poet. He was still free from the discrimination of 17th-century England towards Catholics, and not yet embittered by a tubercular deformity of the spine.

Canon Bill Anderson takes a look at some of his favourite inspirational verse.

Already masterful in his use of rhyming couplets, he zealously employs them here with special reference to the prophecies of Isaiah, happily familiar to us from many of the Advent liturgies. People with a musical interest will recognise in our poem similarities to texts used in Handel’s masterpiece, “Messiah”.

Compare with Pope’s opening lines the oratorio’s: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing”. With the closing lines compare: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young”.

We are occasionally in debt to Pope, Handel, and above all the Lectionary for offering us the opportunity to enjoy afresh Isaiah’s lovely inspirations. May they profit us much this Advent.

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humour

Humour from the Vestry Humour serves to destabilise the ego. This is why laughter is essential to religion. It cuts a person down to size. Humour is the first step to humility.

Move over Monopoly ...

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Ever wonder while you failed to get that job? Could it be something to do with that last staff evaluation you had?

“Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.”

“His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.”

“I would not allow this employee to breed.”

“Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”

“When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change whichever foot was previously in there.”

“Wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.”

“A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on.”

“Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together.”

“He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.”

“This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.”

Flexible Fiend!

Our minister gets very enthusiastic while delivering his sermon. He often moves briskly about the church, which jerks the flex hooked up to his lapel microphone.

‘Vatican’, a game which promises to “unlock the secrets of how men become Pope”. Six cardinals roll the dice in the quest to become papabile. To win, a cardinal must earn the support of at least two-thirds of the 150 cardinals voting in the simulated papal conclave.

Available from http://www.vaticanboardgame.com Bon Appétit!

Fr Maloney was invited to dinner at the house of a member of his parish. When he arrived, dinner preparations were almost finished, and the member’s young son was just finishing his task of setting the table.

When they sat down to eat, the young boy’s mother said with surprise, “Why didn’t you give father a knife and fork dear?”

“I didn’t think I needed to,” the little boy replied “I heard Daddy say he eats like a horse.”

Catastrophic News!

When my nephew and his family lived on a farm, one of his favorite farm cats was involved in an accident and was killed while he was away at school.

Naturally, my sister was very concerned over how her son was going to receive the bad news. When he arrived home from school, she explained the tragedy to him and tried to console him by saying, “Don’t worry son, the cat is in heaven with God now.”

My nephew replied, “What’s God gonna do with a dead cat?”

Once, as he was becoming more involved in his address, he moved and accidentally got tied up in the flex, nearly tripping himself before he managed to jerk free again.

After watching him make several of those circles and jerks, a little girl in the front pew (who was visiting) leant towards her mother and whispered, “If he gets loose, will he hurt us?”

A Licence, to boot!

Have you heard about the young man who had just received his provisional driving licence? He was eager to begin learning, so his father agreed to take him out in the family car to begin practice.

The son opened the driver’s door and got in the car. His father opened the back door and got in the car.

“Dad,” said the lad, “aren’t you going to sit in the front with me?”

“No,” said his Dad, “I’m going to do what you’ve done for the past fifteen years. I’m going to sit behind you and kick the seat.”

Some favourite ‘one liners’ •In an argument, a woman always has the last word.

Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

•I just got lost in thought, and it was unfamiliar territory.

•Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

•The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

•Time is a great healer, but a terrible beautician.

Crossword

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Light of the North

E=MA2

2 E=MB E=MC2

There are 27 pairs of clues in this issue’s puzzle. Use the 27 letters to make three words/phrases. They are three of the ‘ego eimi’ sayings of Jesus, which all start ‘I am the ...’. Helpful hint: One of these complements comprises one word, another two words and the last three words. Solution in next issue.Good Luck! Franc 1 a _ _ _ _ eg the Quorn and the elegance Cottesmore 18 a _ _ _ _ _ _ what the DIY person b _ _ _ _ _ a place a ghost habitually might be doing in the bathroom visits?

2 a _ _ _ _ gardening implement b _ _ _ _ _ _ _ what the farmer b _ _ _ _ _ aid to deceleration might be doing 3 a _ _ _ diocese 19 a _ _ _ _ _ small bunch eg holly, b _ _ _ _ top player at Wimbledon 4 a _ _ _ possess parsley b _ _ _ _ Irish county b _ _ _ _ _ _ to jump; source of a 5 a _ _ _ _ quantity of paper stream b _ _ _ _ _ too good to be true 6 a _ _ _ _ _ _ imperial measure of 20 a _ _ _ _ keen eg reader liquid b _ _ _ _ _ _ _ historical type of ship b _ _ _ _ _ keep away from; refrain 7 a _ _ _ _ from which a prune is from doing made 21 a _ _ _ _ feline animals b _ _ _ _ _ ornamental feather b _ _ _ _ _ outdoor garments 8 a _ _ _ _ _ to cut off completely b _ _ _ _ _ _ strict; hard to endure 22 a _ _ _ _ gripping device 9 a _ _ _ _ _ to meet and join b _ _ _ _ _ sound made by the vocal b _ _ _ _ _ _ to come into view eg out cords; eg active or passive (grammar) of water or from concealment 10 a _ _ _ distant 23 a _ _ _ beam of light; slight b _ _ _ _ money paid on public indication transport 11 a _ _ _ _ cardinal point of the b _ _ _ _ The Rule of Benedict urges compass one to do this as well as work b _ _ _ _ _ banquet 24 a _ _ _ _ clenched hand 12 a _ _ _ _ Brazilian footballer b _ _ _ _ _ Czech writer who wrote in b _ _ _ _ _ The Father is the _ _ _ _ German _ Person of the Trinity 13 a _ _ _ _ clean, untainted b _ _ _ _ _ to make clean, remove 25 a _ _ _ _ _ declined, decreased taint b _ _ _ _ _ _ admonished 14 a _ _ _ _ type, category 26 a _ _ _ _ according to John this b _ _ _ _ _ lacking eg money 15 a _ _ _ _ _ parable dealing with was in the beginning our response to the Word b _ _ _ _ _ the pen is said to be b _ _ _ _ _ _ alternative to the bath 16 a _ _ _ _ _ augurs, portends, mightier than this 27 a _ _ _ _ was in debt to presages b _ _ _ _ _ _ corpses b _ _ _ _ _ promised, pledged, 17 a _ _ _ _ physical attitude or swore stance b _ _ _ _ _ composure, dignity, The solution for the puzzle in the last issue is as follows: St Benedict; St Declan; St James the Greater; St Martha.

Crossword 8

Name ......................................................

Address .................................................. ..................................................................... .....................................................................

Telephone ...............................................

Franc Kaminski’s Brain Teaser

To win a copy of Abbot Hugh Gilbert’s book, ‘Unfolding the Mystery’, send your completed entry, together with your name, address and telephone number to the Light of the North, Ogilvie Institute, 16 Huntly Street, Aberdeen AB10 1SH. First correct entry drawn out of the hat is the winner. Closing date: 1st January, 2009

Across 1. A book of books (5) 4. Shortest book in the Old Testament (7) 7. The number of chapters in Philemon (3) 8. This testament contains 39 books (3) 9. Jesus’ brother, who wrote a letter (5) 11. In authority before the kings (6) 12.His epistle contains one chapter (4) 13. Successor to Queen Vashti (6) 14. David wrote many of these, set to music (6) 17. Wrote about the restoration of the temple (4) 18. Originator, writer of a book (6) 21. Number of letters written

by John (5) 23. Number of chapters in 13A (3) 24. Galilee, Dead, for example (3) 26. Paul wrote many of these (7) 27. He prophesied the birthplace of Jesus (5) Last issue’s solution Across: 1. tepidity; 4. Gad; 6. nail; 7. flea; 8. council; 10. outdo; 12. locate; 14. Romans; 15.

Timon; 16. novenas; 19. ruin; 20. agog; 21. nun; 22. cantatas.

Down 1. There are 66 of these (5) 2. Behold (2) 3. Revelation comes in this part of the New Testament (3) 5. Donation of money to the poor (4) 6. This letter lists the faithful (7) 9. He prophesied of the ‘day of the Lord’ (4) 10. A faithful Moabitess (4) 13. He foretold the regathering of Israel in prophecy of dry bones (7) 15. A prophet who was a herdsman (4) 16. One of the gospel writers (4) 19. A prophet, reluctant to go to Nineveh (5) 20. Adam and Eve ate from this in the garden (4) 25. Joshua writes about this city near Bethel (2)

Down: 1. tunic; 2. poilu; 3. Tubal; 4.

Galatia; 5. deacons; 9. idea; 11. trio; 12. Lateran; 13.

Campion; 16. Nonna; 17. night; 18. sages.

Congratulations to our last competition winner, Fr Benedict Hardy of Pluscarden Abbey

Westminster

Light Light of of the the North North

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Sister Janet’s Westminster Blog Sister Janet Fearns FMDM is the Communications Coordinator for the Pontifical Mission Societies.

You can visit her website, ‘Pause for Prayer’ at http://pauseforprayer.blogspot.com

Advent with a difference

A

bunch of noisy children gathered outside the gate, jostling each other and trying to attract our attention. They were all shapes and sizes, boys and girls, in varying degrees of dustiness depending on the games they had been playing in the red soil. Curly black hair turned sandstone-red in the omnipresent harmattan season as the Sahara sands blew south into northern Nigeria. Before they went to bed, mothers would scrub youthful skin and hair until it shone, only for the dusty reddening process to begin all over again the following morning.

The gathering of children at the gate meant one thing and one thing only: it was Advent. Yet it was Advent with a difference as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

For sure, there were fields to be prepared for planting at the onset of the rain.

around his portable sewing machine on the borrowed table, arranged a cushion on the seat of his borrowed chair, and gathered his flowing robes around him. After wasting a considerable amount of time maximising the image of his importance, he picked up the first piece of cloth.

As the days passed by, the tailor built up an increasing pile of small brightly-coloured garments. There were sleeveless tops for the girls and shorts for the boys... and all the time, children would dart by, inspecting through the holes in the brick walls. They knew that, on Christmas Eve, one of those items would be theirs, to be worn with pride.

Not all the children who brought manure for the convent garden were Catholics. A good number were Muslim, but that made little difference as far as they were concerned. After all, everybody needed to grow vegetables and needed fertiliser. If they could earn a new piece of There were Christmas preparations to be considered in clothing into the bargain, why worry about the religious the parish. The catechist would prepare his teaching beliefs of the adults? sessions with a view to the Christmas story and the Incarnation. The parish priest examined his rota for the On Christmas Eve, the usual noise at the gate increased parish and every one of the many sub-parishes for which to fever pitch. They jostled each other anxiously, trying to ensure that if anybody were to be accidentally left out, it he held the pastoral responsibility... would be someone else. One or two toddlers fell over in In the homes in the village, there would be nothing of the the clamour, adding to the general din. Excitement knew hustle and bustle of shopping for cards and presents: no limits as one of the Sisters appeared on the scene, these people were poor and lived in mud-brick huts with carrying a rather battered exercise book, and followed by a thatched roof, seven miles from the nearest shop. Yet an older boy, struggling with a plastic ironing basket most, if not all, of the families had goats and chickens. filled to overflowing with newly-made clothes.

There would be a meal on Christmas day, and perhaps the chief might order the killing of a cow. Now that One by one, summoned by name, each child advanced to be fitted out with something approximately the correct would be a treat! size. Each had bathed for the occasion and gleamed with The convent began preparations of a different sort. The health and energy. beginning of Advent was the opportunity to send out a message. Any child who brought manure for the convent As quick as a flash, once the coveted garment was in the vegetable garden would receive a gift on Christmas Eve. outstretched hands, the children disappeared back to the Of course, each child had to make sure that his or her village and to home. name was written down in the designated exercisebook...... which was why, every afternoon at approximately four That evening, at the Vigil Mass, the younger members of o’clock, they would gather outside the gate, chattering the congregation strutted with the same pride as their away excitedly. Even the toddlers carried a tiny pot elders, for they, too, wore their finest. containing a few goat droppings so that they, too, could Outside the church, the Holy Family, newly-washed and be added to the growing list of names. strategically arranged within a half-size cutaway replica of Behind the scenes, a tailor took up his position inside the the houses in the village, became the focus of attention. yard, underneath the overhanging roof. With a great Christmas, long-awaited, had arrived. display of expertise deserved or otherwise, he shuffled

OgilvieInstitute

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Light Light of of the the North North

Divinity students celebrate degree success at Pluscarden

Jane Coll, a parishioner at St Anne’s, Thurso, has just completed her BA Divinity course and attributes a degree of her success to the Ogilvie Institute library!

V

isitors to Pluscarden Abbey will recognise the habit of the monk in the photograph.

If they frequent the shop there, they might even recognise the face of Br Dunstan. The photograph was taken recently when a few Maryvale Jane Coll and fellow Maryvale students enjoy a students came to Pluscarden for the week-end to well-earned break at Pluscarden Abbey celebrate completing their BA Divinity course. Br Dunstan had been part of the group, completing a out about the Ogilvie Institute at the beginning of the degree that he had started in Rome. course and am deeply grateful to them for their help.

We developed several mechanisms for passing books As one of the group, I can confirm that we all felt very backwards and forwards without having to resort to proud of ourselves for having completed the course. posting them! Their library contains many works that We agreed that the final grades were unimportant. are both essential reading and totally impossible to What mattered was having done the work - and there buy. Several of my essays and exams would have been had certainly been plenty of that! Maryvale Institute of a much lower standard without this valuable in Birmingham has a deserved reputation for both diocesan resource. orthodoxy and high standards. The course had stretched me to my academic limits but had also been Few students, at least in my year, have definite plans for applying all their hard-won knowledge. We hope that we hugely stimulating. One of the few frustrating aspects will be of use in our parishes but not in any one specific had been the constant struggle to write essays without role. Personally, I feel in need of a well-deserved rest! access to a theology library. I was fortunate in finding

Take and Read

Take & Read (the Gospel) is all about making known Catholic teaching on the Bible, encouraging Bible reading, supporting those who facilitate Bible groups, introducing resources and programmes and sharing experiences. You are invited to join a Scripture Reflection Group next January as part of the Take & Read Programme. If you’d like to find out more why not get in touch with Mary Nelson at the Ogilvie Institute.

MARYVALE COURSES OFFERED IN SCOTLAND

OGILVIE WORKSHOPS

Certificate for Parish Catechists Studies in the Catholic Catechism Listening to the Word BA in Applied Theology Diploma in Evangelisation and Ministry Art Beauty & Inspiration in a Catholic Perspective

Workshops on Spirituality Workshops for Readers Workshops for Auxiliary Ministers of Holy Communion Workshops on Liturgy Workshops for Catechists Workshops on Catholic Social Teaching Workshops on Catholic Faith and Culture Workshops on Scottish Catholic History Workshops for training Echoes Coordinators

If you would like further information on any of the above courses contact the Ogilvie Institute, 16 Huntly Street, ABERDEEN AB10 1SH, Tel 01224 638675, Email: director@ogilvie.ac.uk Director: Deacon Tony Schmitz Courses Coordinator: Mary Nelson

Have you seen the Ogilvie Institute’s new website?

Just go to www.ogilvie.ac.uk to learn about all the great courses and workshops on offer, such as the ‘Listening to the Word’ scripture course or the ‘Parish Catechists’ course. You can also find out about forthcoming events, and you will have complete access to the Ogilvie Library.