Light of the North Issue 27 Autumn 2014

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Light of the North

Light

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I am the Light of the World Fr Bernie O’Connor reflects on Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium P 17

The New Evangelisation - What’s it all about? Fr Domenico Zanrè explains P19

North I s s ue 27, Aut umn, 2014 Sr Janet Fearns & the Scottish debate of the century P 25

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Alasdair Roberts and Ann Dean trace the history of friars black & grey in Aberdeen P 27

Light of the North

diocese

A Letter from Bishop Hugh O.S.B.

Dear Friends, Welcome to the latest edition of the Light of the North. It should be with you in time for Advent.

We have all heard of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. These provide a series of meditations and mental exercises which can help someone refocus their life and live it henceforth in a decisively Christian way. They open up a path which begins with an awareness and rejection of sin, passes through reflection on the life, sufferings and resurrection of Christ as given in the Gospel, and leads to a discovery or rediscovery of one’s personal calling in life. Usually, one is allotted a guide, someone with whom to discuss and assess what comes to mind. Classically, these Exercises engage a retreatant for four weeks. But there are other ways of distributing the content. People can then follow this journey over a longer period which does not require separation from their ordinary daily life. The positive effects of undertaking these Exercises have been shown again and again.

I mention this because what the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius offer those who embark on them is what the liturgical year offers all of us. In the cycles of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, and of Ordinary Time, we too can move from repentance to a new realisation of Christ. We can walk with him through the ‘mysteries’ of his life, which culminate in his death and resurrection (Easter), and in the coming of the Holy Spirit. We see the effect of this coming in the many saints, Mary above all, which the Church remembers throughout the year and especially after Pentecost. In this light we too can perceive our own vocation and mission more clearly and take it up more wholeheartedly. This grace of entering more deeply into Christ is offered us year after year. The muchloved devotion of the Rosary too, like the Spiritual Exercises, refers back to this primary ‘devotion’ of following Christ, Sunday

up front

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In 2015, the diocese will be hosting Scotland’s National Pilgrimage to Keith, the birthplace of St John Ogilvie, on the 400th anniversary of his martyrdom. after Sunday, through fast and feast, light and shade, which is the liturgical year. Thanks to the Holy Spirit and the Church, with faith as our companion, our own ‘time’, year after year, can become a Year of the Lord. There is no better ‘spiritual exercise’ than this.

Pope Francis has also declared 2015 the Year of Consecrated Life.

This opens with Advent of this year and will run to 2 February 2016. It’s an occasion to heighten our awareness of the presence and activity of the religious among us, and of their role in the Church.

In a way, the religious or consecrated life is a deliberate exaggeration of the Gospel, or a highlighting of its graces and demands. At its best, it is Christianity in 3D. Therefore it can be a stimulus for all of us. This holds especially for the chastity, poverty and obedience consecrated people profess. These are not their preserve merely, but values which enter into every Christian life in some form or other.

This Year will not be wasted if awareness simply of that grows in all of us.

2015 also marks the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie. This will be observed in Glasgow on 10 March, the date of his death, and in Keith, the place of his birth, on 4 July.

Thus our diocese will be hosting Scotland’s National Pilgrimage for 2015. There is already something about St John on the diocesan website (www.dioceseofaberdeen.org) – a place well worth visiting.

May the Lord be the shepherd of all of us this coming year!

Devotedly in Christ,

+ Hugh OSB

ur cover this issue features the work of the Italian Baroque artist, Antiveduto Grammatica. The painting is of “St Cecilia with Two Angels” which is held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

According to the narrative of her sufferings, known as the “Passion of St. Cecilia”, Cecilia’s family had arranged a marriage for her with a pagan nobleman named Valerian. Cecilia had taken a vow of virginity but agreed unwillingly to the marriage. Her association with music possibly comes from a line in her “Passion” which speaks of her singing a song to God in her heart – in which she asked divine help in preserving her chastity.

The artist’s unusual first name, Antiveduto, meaning “foreseen”, came about when his father had a premonition that he would soon be born during a journey the family were making to Rome. Antiveduto became an independent artist in 1591 in a studio with the great Italian painter, Caravaggio and his painting of St Cecilia combines the same realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, a style of painting which is largely attributable to Caravaggio.

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Light of the North

diocese

contents

diocese 2 liturgy 11 faithinaction 14 Witness 15 educationandformation 16 faithandculture 21 humour 34 crossword 35

Light of the North Managing Editor Deacon Tony Schmitz Editor Cowan Watson Editorial Advisor Canon Bill Anderson Advertising Manager Sandra Townsley 01463 831 133 Sedstown@aol.com

Light of the North Ogilvie Centre 16 Huntly Street ABERDEEN AB10 1SH 01224 638675 editor@lightofthenorth.org www.lightofthenorth.org

Casting out fear for Advent

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dvent is a time when we are asked to notice the “signs of the times� but whether the end of the world fills us with fear and dread, or with expectant hope, will depend largely on our faith. Fear and uncertainty have an unrivalled destructive power which we are helpless to overcome without the trust and confidence which comes with faith, a fact which was brought home to me by a story I heard recently about a local bus driver and one of his passengers.

The driver, who shall remain nameless, had just started on a new country route and everything was going smoothly until he pulled up at the third bus stop when a huge hulk of a man got on the bus - Six foot four, built like a sumo wrestler with arms hanging down to the ground. He scowled at the driver and said gruffly, “Big John doesn’t pay!� and then sat down at the back. The driver, who was, to say the least, physically challenged, didn’t care to argue but the next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down at the back.

As the weeks wore on the bus driver began to dread not knowing whether or not Big John would be at the bus stop and the days that he was there, he was too terified to challenge him. He began losing sleep over the way the man seemed to be taking advantage of him and shame at his own failure to confront him. Finally, after a particularly restless night, and not able to stand it any longer, the driver, who would not, until then, have considered himself to be a deeply religious man, summoned up his courage and, in a heartfelt prayer determined that, with God’s help, he would face up to Big John and that, come what may, he would put the outcome into God’s hands.

The next morning when Big John once again got on the bus and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!� the driver stood up and, admittedly in fear and trembling, glared at the passenger and then, much to the alarm of the other passengers, screamed, “And why not?�

With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, “Big John has a bus pass.�

A pointless story you might say but nevertheless an invitation this Advent to reflect on the words of 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.�

A Blessed Advent, Cowan

Could you provide a sacred home for this gem of an organ?

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ollowing Shelagh Noden’s mention of pipe organs in our summer issue, Fr John Allen wrote to the Light of the North to say that he was looking for a sacred home for a Scottish Chamber Organ. The organ built by James Bruce c.1834 is believed to have come from a Scottish castle, but more recently ex. Thurso Presbytery! For organ aficionados the instrument, which is presently partly dismantled, consists of four ranks: Open Diapason 8"; Bell Gamba 8'; Principal 4' Stop; Bass, Swell to Great; Electric blower and with a lower keyboard added in the 1940’s.

Fr Allen is willing to donate and erect the instrument within the diocese but failing that he suggests that the organ could be sold abroad and the proceeds given to the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia in Elgin.

If your church, chapel or other sacred space is lacking a suitable instrument or in need of an ‘upgrade’ then please write to Fr Allen at 3A Hill Park, Inverness IV2 4AL. I am sure he will be delighted to hear from you.

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diocese

Light of the North

St Thomas’, Keith will be looking its best for St John Ogilvie’s 400th anniversary

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t. Thomas’ church, the highest point in the town, is once again revealed in all its shining glory. For the past few years it has had its share of troubles. The original copper dome, installed in 1916, needed replacement and in 1996 this was done – and done very badly as it turned out. With the rain entering in several places and many patches and running repairs made over the years, it was decided that another new dome, constructed in a much better style, would have to be put in place, and this was completed in 2012. This expensive work left very little cash in the kitty, so it has not been until this year that the funds have been available to complete the repairs to the damaged plasterwork on the inside, and to repaint it. In early July the church was stripped of statues, the Stations of the Cross, and even the hymn books, and services were then held in St. Thomas’ Hall. Now everything has been put back in place, and it looks brilliant. As part of the work, new lighting has been installed; this reflects well on the white and pale yellow paintwork.

The church is in the best of condition in readiness for 2015 which will mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Scotland’s only post-reformation saint, who came from Keith, St. John Ogilvie. Many events and Masses will be held both in Keith and throughout Scotland. It is a testimony to the spirit and

Diocesan MC is taken by surprise ...for once!

Parishioners can be justly proud of the result of many years of hard work and fund-raising dedication of the parishioners that so much of the work on the church has been carried out voluntarily by members, and fund raising has been an on-going activity. Now, hopefully, it is time to relax and enjoy the beautiful church.

Ron Smith

Parish Safeguarders renew commitment

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ishop Hugh surprised George Brand KSG, the Diocesan MC, with a presentation at the end of Mass on the Feast of the Assumption to mark his 60 uninterrupted years as an altar server in St Mary’s Cathedral.

George, who is an Oblate of Pluscarden, was delighted with the painting of Pluscarden Abbey. He said it was truly appropriate as it is a place “dear to my heart”.

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group of Parish Safeguarding Coordinators travelled from across the deaneries of St Joseph and St Thomas for their annual InService day held in St Ninian's Parish, Inverness.

As part of the event they held a short Commissioning Service of Prayer and Readings to celebrate and dedicate their service of Safeguarding in the Diocese.

As at the Aberdeen event held in June, they renewed their commitment to their role in Safeguarding which is to support Parish Priests in the crucial task of ensuring that children, young people and adults-at-risk in our parish communities are as safe as possible.

Anne M. Rae

diocese dio d o ocese cese ce ese e

Light Ligh igh t of the N North orth th

Ho Honour onour for for Merchant Merchant Na Navy vy Captain selected C a aptain selec cted to to lay lay wreath w eath wr

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apt. R Robert obert Gribben Gribben from frrom Inverness Invverness was selected d to represent represent the M Merchant erchant Navy Navy Fleet Fleett by

by BP, BP P, to place a wreath wreath ath at the W War ar Annivversar e Memorial M emorial in London to commemorate the WW1 WW W1 Anniversary. y.

Rober bert Gribben, Gribben, born 1962 is originally ginally from from the F ort W illiam ar ea. H ew up Robert Fort William area.

Hee gr grew nverlochyy, wher is late father r, R obert senior r, wor rked at the British British in thee village of IInverlochy, wheree his father, Robert senior, worked inium Factory Factory in Lochaber and nd a young young R obert attended St. St. t M ary's P rimary Aluminium Robert Mary's Primary ol and ser ved at SSt. t. M ary's R C Chur ch in F ort W illiam. H School served Mary's RC Church Fort William.

Hee then attended aber High High School, before before joining ing the Merchant Merchant Navy Navy and attending ttending Nautical Nautical Lochaber ge. He He was one of the youngest youngest ev er SShip's hip's Captains in the UK fleet and giv en his College. ever given own ship hip while in his mid tw enties. i ((24-25yrs old). own twenties.

Being ng selected to lay this wreath wreath on behalf of the Merchant Merchant Navy Navyy was a significant Being ur for him and his family, familyy, who liv nverness. honour livee in IInverness.

C aptain Rob ert Gribb G en ac companied Captain Robert Gribben accompanied b rs. Gribb en of C ulloden, Duncan byy his mother M Mrs. Gribben Culloden, can Macpherson Macpherson In verness at the W a Memorial in LLondon. ar ondon.

Inverness War

Playbo Playboys oys band rock rock o and rroll olll back 50 yyears e in ears nostalg gic visit tto oA berdeen nC athedral a Hall nostalgic Aberdeen Cathedral

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n S Saturday aturday 9th August August this yyear ear the sur surviving viving ving members of an Aberdeen A berdeen rrock ock g group roup fr from om the six sixties ties made a nostalg nostalgic stalgic visit tto oA Aberdeen berdeen C Cathedral’s athedral’s Upper er Hall which w was as the v venue enue ffor or a rregular egular ar Sunda Sundayy nigh nightt dance dance held a att a yyouth outh club ub or organised ganised b byy Father Father C Charles harles S Stanley. tanley.

A vin vintage tage phot photograph tograph of the g group roup published in the e A Aberdeen berdeen P Press ress and Jour Journal nal br brought ought about a a rreunion eunion of the no now w ‘‘not not so yyoung’ oung’ P Playboys. layboys.

TThe he g group roup ccomprised ompr prised M Mike ike W Wallace allace (lead guitar), R Rhodney hodney P Phillips hillips (r (rhythm hythm guitar), M Mal al SStrachan trachan (bass ss guitar), EEddie ddie Keith (drums). TThe he singerr w was as Ian D Dowbekin owbekin who sadlyy p passed aaway way a number of yyears ears ago ago. g .

A dinner w was as or organised ganised tto o rroll oll back the yyears ears and M Mike ike W Wallace a e men allac mentioned tioned tha thatt his dad G George eorge had ccome ome along one Sunda Sundayy ev evening ening tto o the C Cathedral athedral and rrecorded ecorded the g group roup on one of the he first cassett cassette e rrecorders ecorders TThe he P Playboys Pl layboys in their hey heyday day had h a re regular egular sp spot ot at the C Cathedral athed athedr dra al Upp Upper er Hall tto o be used in A Aberdeen. ber erdeen. Sur Surprisingly prisingly the or original iginal cassett cassette e had sur survived vived and the along.The along .The fo four our ur P Playboys layboys w were ere ac accompanied companied ed b byy EEddie ddie Keith g group roup enlist enlisted ed EEddie ddie Keith jnr, jnrr, who has a small all rrecording ecording jnr and R Ron on R Robertson, ober tson, a ccousin ousin of the la late ate Ian D Dowbekin. owbekin. studio studio,, tto o rremaster emasterr the tape dig digitally itally and and,, with the wonders wonders IInterestingly nterestingly R Ron on had been the singer iin n a g group roup called of dig digital ital ttechnology, echnology gy, pr produce oduce a CD CD.. ‘‘Johnny Johnny Carson Carson on and The The Phantoms’ Phantoms’ who had also played pla p yed at at A Ass the rrecording ecording g had been made aatt the C Cathedral athedr hedral Upper the C Cathedral athedrall Halls in the six sixties. ties.

Hall the g group roup decided cided tha thatt it w would ould be a w wonderful onder der ful idea tto o IItt w was as a most ost enjo enjoyable yable and though thoughtt pr provoking rovoking visit and visit the Halls tto o see e the changes made tto o the building uilding in the br brought ought backk so man manyy enjoyable enjoyable memories memories es of the swinging swinging fif fifty ty yyears ears tha thatt had d passed passed..

Sixties Six ties in A Aberdeen. ber erdeen.

C Contact ontact w was as made de with Halls M Manager, anagerr, G Gabrielle abrrielle W Watson atson and she vvery er y kkindly indly ly ar ranged a da te fo or the g roup o tto o ccome ome arranged date for group

Malcolm Malc olm Strachan Strracha a n

Page P age 5

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‘A song for St. Cecilia’fundraising concert Gaynoll Craig

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Classical Concert set in the Convent at Greyfriars Elgin marked the first anniversary of four Dominican Nuns arriving in the Aberdeen Diocese. The Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia traded Nashville Tennessee for Elgin 12 months ago at the invitation of Bishop Hugh Gilbert of the Diocese of Aberdeen who welcomed everyone to the Concert.

A Song for St Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians was the theme of the Concert. We were entertained by some wonderful musicians giving their blissful performances throughout the warm afternoon. The Pluscarden monks performance of the antiphons for the Divine Office for the Feast of St Cecelia in Gregorian chant had the audience spellbound. It was an opportunity for those who had never experienced plainchant to hear the monks sing outwith the Abbey. JOYOUS! Isobel Burnie and Fiona Gordon delighted us with Sonata in A Minor by Telemann, ‘Piece en forme Habanera’ by Ravel and Gabriel’s Oboe (from the Mission) by Morricone. Those who went to World Youth Day in Rio last year hold this beautiful piece in their hearts.

Mariusz Wilk, a Polish baritone with a strong rich tone sang ‘Hallelujah, Panis Angelicus’ by Franck and ‘Giorgio’ a song by an unknown Polish composer. His strong sonorous tones reverberated around the chapel walls.

The programme would not have been complete without the performance of young musicians and we rang the changes with Annia, Mary and Iain MacGillivray on Clarsach, Violin and Pipes, all accomplished multi-talented musicians. Playing Gaelic ballads,

slow airs and Strathspeys. Annia composed a new Clarsach tune ‘Aisling Ur’. Iain rounded off the programme playing ‘Ave Maria’ and As I Kneel before You on the bagpipes. At this point the audience joined in. Hymns on the bagpipes sound great!

Sr Anna Christi read an excerpt from ‘A Short Sketch of the Foundation and Growth of Saint Cecilia Congregation’ by Mother Frances Walsh O.P. : “It was not without forethought that the young Academy was called St. Cecilia. Who has not experienced their joys increased or their sorrows lessened by the sympathetic influence of music?

From time immemorial music was thought to possess supernatural power. Music is truly the language of the soul. Throughout the Christian world under the sweet patronage of Cecilia, Roman Martyr and Virgin Saint, heavenly music ascends to the throne of the Most High.”

Sr Anna went on to say that the concert had proved to be so successful that they would like to make it a regular event. After all, she quipped, “didn’t St Augustine say, ‘he who sings prays twice’.”

The Master of Ceremonies was Duncan Macpherson who kept proceedings running well with great humour.

Gaynoll Craig World Youth Day Co-ordinator organised the classical concert in support of the work of the Sisters with the youth of the Diocese. “It was great to be able to support the Sisters in the work they do here. A Song for St Cecilia allowed us to celebrate music together. I think St. Cecilia would have approved and I am sure we had her support today. I was expecting around 70 people but ultimately more than 140 people attended!

At the end of the afternoon many stayed for Vespers with the Sisters. The church was full. A wonderful sight!

The Monks of Pluscarden held the audience spellbound with their Gregorian chant

There were over 140 concertgoers

Photographs courtesy of Sr Anna Christi Page 6

A blissful performance from Isobel Burnie and Fiona Gordon

The sonorous tones of Mariusz Wilk reverberated around the chapel walls

Light of the North

diocese

It’s ‘Anchors Aweigh!’ as church garden in Banff is transformed into a small harbour Tina Harris

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ea Sunday on the 13th July at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Banff began with preparations to transform the church garden into a picnic area with the atmosphere of a small harbour.

Two large anchors were hauled over the wall and placed on fishing nets, with a lifebuoy. A small fisherman’s anchor was placed at the entrance to the church. In the Sailors chapel was all the ‘Apostleship of the Sea’ information, prayer cards, and Seafarers Prayer Books, which have a permanent place in the chapel. Incidentally, the AoS logo was designed not two miles from here by co-founder Peter Anson, at Macduff harbour in 1922.

Tables were set out for food, and the barbeque was lit. There was no shortage of chefs! There were activities for children, in English and Polish, and they were encouraged to write a letter to a sailor!

Mrs Shaw, 4th from left and son Stephen, 2nd from left The facilities on board their ships would have been much more basic than what we see today as ship visitors though Mrs Shaw said they never actually boarded the vessels, rather the seafarers came ashore.

There was even more to celebrate as it was Fr Marek Kaleta’s birthday, and he was presented with a lovely cake. Whilst participating in this wonderful feast, I took the opportunity to collect some ideas for next year’s Sea Sunday event, from visiting clergy and our parishioners.

Tina Harris’ AoS hi-viz vest proved to be quite a hit with these children in the garden harbour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel!

They loved the stickers and the fact that they had A3 paper to draw ships on!

They participated very well in the karaoke, again in both languages!

We had an interesting guest at our Sea Sunday picnic. Mrs Shaw (86) who was here visiting her son Stephen, one of our parishioners, turned out to have been an AoS ship visitor when she was a teenager in the late 1940s, in the Port of Birkenhead. Mrs Shaw explained how the AoS would provide refreshments and sometimes dancing for the seafarers who came ashore. The ship visitors were instructed not to become too attached to the seafarers, she said, which was very important. Mrs Shaw remembered that the seafarers wanted to come ashore mainly to walk on solid ground and stretch their legs!

Fr Marek Kaleta gets to grips with his birthday cake!

Everyone went home having learned a little more about the activities of AoS, both locally here in Banff and Macduff and also across the world. Everyone thought seriously about where their commodities might come from, having listened to me for ten minutes before they left their pews! It was a blessed day!

Tina Harris is Parish Contact and Ship’s Visitor for the AOS in Banff

Unforgetable pilgrimage helps mark St Mary’s, Beauly 150th anniversary

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s part of the Highland Parish of St Mary's Beauly 150th Anniversary celebrations, the 10th October saw a total of 39 Pilgrims from Beauly, Tain, Fortrose, Inverness, Barra, Glasgow, the Midlands and Northern England, all joining together in an unforgettable spiritual week's Pilgrimage to Lourdes, Nevers and Paris. An inspiring trip indeed, and everyone felt that the journey was a lifetime experience. Our thanks must go to Father Colin Davies whose energy and dedication in itself was inspirational.

Carol Hooper Page 7

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diocese

St Joseph’s, Woodside gets in shape for the next 170 years…

Pat Stapenhurst

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he third public lecture in the 2014 series of “Great Aberdonians” was surprisingly well-attended. The organiser looked with some surprise at the crowd of Catholics who climbed the stairs in Aberdeen’s Town House to hear the talk. The subject was: Rev Charles “Priest” Gordon “parish priest and controversialist”. While my fellow Catholics came to hear about the man who built St Peter’s - the first Catholic Church in the city – my interest derived from a different church.

Today Woodside is a suburb of Aberdeen, but in 1840 it was just a village, one of several along the south bank of the river Don. Priest Gordon, seeing the growing numbers of Irish immigrants who came to work in the Donside textile mills, realised that the area lacked a Catholic church. St Joseph’s was built in 1842 to provide for the spiritual needs of those workers. More than 170 years later the church continues to welcome people from overseas, but nowadays they are more likely to come from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

The building has been expanded since 1842, first with the addition of a chancel at the north end and later a small porch in the south. In 2012 we replaced the porch by a large foyer, built to help meet the demands of our growing congregation and the increasing numbers of families with young children. Its incongruous green roof caused one local resident to ask whether the church was being converted into flats! We reassured her that the church still serves the purpose for which it was originally built – the celebration of Mass to the glory of God. Meanwhile the roof slates on the old part of the church needed replacing and the window frames were crumbling, so we prepared for some major work. Then in 2013 we found fungus sprouting from the skirting boards in the old sacristy, and we were urgently treating wet and dry rot. We were warned that there was likely to be more, lurking in those unseen places above and below the nave.

In addition to treating the timbers we were advised to reduce the humidity in the church by improving the heating and ventilation.

Our major work had become a major renovation project.

If you had passed St Joseph’s in September you would have noticed a big red digger in the car park. Behind a trellis of scaffolding the church was out of bounds to anyone who did not wear a hard hat. All Masses were relocated. Without its roof and floor and with the tabernacle removed, St Joseph’s was but an empty shell of a building, its skeletal timbers under scrutiny by the wood preservation experts. As predicted they found more wood rot: the roof timbers were in danger of giving way, while the font was in danger of crashing through the poorly supported floor! We are relieved that all the structural timbers have now been replaced, repaired, reinforced and treated.

At the time of writing (1st October) I do not know the end of this story. I do not know whether the re-slating will be delayed by bad weather; I cannot tell how effective our new heating system will be, nor what our upgraded lighting will look like. Will passersby admire our smart windows? Will the work be complete by 28th November as planned? Amid so many questions one thing is certain - we will be fund-raising for many years to pay off the debt!

If you are interested to see our renovated church why not join us at Mass - just check our website http://stjoseph.dioceseofaberdeen.

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St Joseph’s, Woodside - Work could be completed by the end of November org/ to ensure the digger has left! Finally, let us be thankful to Priest Gordon, who long ago visualised this small granite church in Woodside welcoming people from near and far.

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Light Ligh igh t of the N North orth th

New g New grotto rotto of ‘Our ‘Our Lady of the H ills and Heathers’ Heathers’ Hills ffor or S St. t. M Mary's, ar yy'ss, IInverness nverness ness

Bisho Bishop op blesses ch chapel hapel of O Our ur LLady ady of C Częstochowa zęstocho o wa a att S Stt M Margaret’s, argaret’s, LLerwick erwick

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n T Tuesday ue esday 26th A August ugust Bisho Bishop p Hugh G Gilbert ilbert Mass at S Stt M Margaret's Church, ccelebrated elebrrated M ass at argaret's Catholic Catholic Church, LLerwick. erwicck. H is visit w as e xtra special His was extra special,l, as he blessed a ne w chapel an nd ic on dedica ted tto oO ur Ladyy of C zęstochowa. new and icon dedicated Our Częstochowa.

TThe he chapel iiss loca ted inside the Parish Parish rrooms oom ms at at St St Margaret’s, Margaret’s, located ne xt tto o the ch hurch and FFrr A nil G onsalves, P arish P riest of SStt next church Anil Gonsalves, Parish Priest M argaret’s extends extends a warm warm welcome welcome to to all those who w ould Margaret’s would like tto o spend some s reflection and a prayer prayer in these time in quiet reflection peac eful sur roundings o . peaceful surroundings.

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his Ne New wG Grotto rotto is in the garden garden of St. St. Mary’s Mar a y’s C Church hurch IInverness. nverness. IItt w was as k kindly indly dona donated ted tto o the e church church b by y a parishion parishioner, nerr, Ishbel M MacGillivray-McGregor acGillivray-McG Gregor (88).

Ishbel w was as an active acctive member of S St. t. C Columba’s olumba a’s C Church hurch a att C Culloden, ulloden, which h is ser served ved b byy S St. t. M Mary’s ary’s parish. pariish. S She he has rrecently ecently mo moved ved tto oE Essex ssex to to be closer to to her three thrree children, children, a daugh daughter ter and ttwo wo sons sons.. T The he sta statue tue w was as in her gar garden den a att C Culloden ulloden and she w wanted anted the parish tto o ben benefit nefit fr from om it. it.

T Two wo ne new w benches benche es have have been donated donated to to the e garden, garden, so old and yyoung oung parishioners p can sit and pray pray tto o Our Our Lady.

Lady.

D Duncan uncan Macpherson rson

Congratulations C ongratula t tions S Shelagh! helagh!

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e ar are e sur sure re tha thatt rreaders eaders w would ould lik like e tto o join us in ccongratulating ongratulating S Shelagh helagh Noden, autho authorr of the Ligh Lightt of the N North’s orth’s e ever-popular ver-popular ““Musical Musica al M Memories” emories” ccolumn, olumn, who has jjust been a awarded warded a P PhD hD ffor or her w work ork on post post-Reformation -Reformation S Scottish cottish Catholic Catholic music. music.

Procession P ro ocession on to to the new chapel chapel with the icon iccon carried carried by by FFrr A Anil nil G Gonsalves onsalves M uch of the w ork in the Much work chapel w as car ried out by by was carried par ishion ners including the parishioners member rs of the chur ch’s members church’s liv ely yyouth ou uth g roup. lively group.

Ear lier in the yyear, earr, FFrr Earlier A nil ha ad launched a Anil had ccompetition ompetittion ffor or ama teur amateur and pr ofessional ar of tists professional artists tto o ’’write’ write’ an ic on of O ur icon Our Lady of o C zęstochowa, Częstochowa, winning entry the win ning en try tto o be plac p ed within w the newlyy placed cr eated chapel c prize created and a prize of £500.0 00 tto o be aawarded warded £500.00 tto o the suc ssuccessful cessful ar tist. artist.

TThe he ccompetition o ompetition w as was w on b aria M anuela won byy M Maria Manuela reiro, an icon icon wr iter Guerreiro, writer TThe he ic on ded dicateed to o O ur LLady ady Guer icon dedicated Our fr om P or r tso y .

T he beautiful from Portsoy.

The of C zęsto ochowa. b tist, M aria Częstochowa. byy ar artist, Maria ic on sho ows our Lady of icon shows M anue ela Guer reiro Manuela Guerreiro C zęstoch howa, sometimes Częstochowa, kknown nown as the e ‘Black Madonna’ Madonna’, who poin ts ttowards owards the child points Jesus who ho lds a book of the gospels in hiss lef holds leftt hand hand..

Y ou ccan an see mor Manuela Guerreiro’s Guerrreeiro o’s work work on her You moree of Maria Manuela w ebsitee at w ww.mmguerreeiro o.com website www.mmguerreiro.com

Page P age 9

diocese

Light of the North

Highland Pilgrimage to Stratherrick

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he little Church of The Immaculate Conception at Stratherrick was packed to capacity as 80 pilgrims squeezed in for a special Pilgrimage Mass on Saturday 30th August.

The church is 26 miles south west of Inverness and about seven miles from Fort Augustus, high in the hills above Loch Ness.

Bishop Hugh Gilbert celebrated the Mass and then led the Rosary Walk to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Highlands.

In the photograph above the pilgrims are accompanied by Bishop Hugh Gilbert, Fr. James Bell, Parish Priest at St. Mary’s Inverness and Fr. Andrew Harden, Parish Administrator for Fort Augustus and Stratherrick.

Who says that pilgrimages aren’t meantLto be fun?

The pilgrims, representing many of the Highland Parishes, also enjoyed a ‘Hog Roast’ and barbecue presided over by Fr James Bell.

THE TALE OF QUISQUIS

The Tale of Quisquis

Reading the Rule of St Benedict as Story

Reading the Rule of St Benedict as Story

A

ccompanied by their youth leaders and Fr Keith Herrera (Administrator, St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen), a group of about 30 young people aged 12 to 18 from various parishes in the diocese of Aberdeen joined some young people from Ireland to make a week long pilgrimage to Ireland from 9th to 17th August.

The pilgrims were based in Knock for most of the week and enjoyed a week of worship, prayer, testimony, joy and devotion.

They also cycled round the beautiful Aran isles off Galway Bay, climbed Benbulbin in Co. Sligo and Mount Brandon in Co. Kerry, and had fun go-karting. The pilgrimage culminated with participation in the Youth 2000 Ireland Summer Festival weekend at Mt St Joseph’s Abbey, Roscrea. A fantastic and inspirational time was had by all!

As one young pilgrim put it, 'In the last week of my holidays, I went to Ireland for a "pilgrimage". Normally pilgrimages aren't meant to be fun, BUT this one was absolutely brilliant!!!!'.

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Hugh Gilbert OSB, Bishop of Aberdeen Hugh Gilbert, OSB

‘The Rule must be constantly rediscovered, its deepest intentions explored and re-expressed.’

978085244 754 3 210 pages Gracewing 1/4 Gracewing 2 Southern Avenue Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 0QF 01568.616835 www.gracewing.co.uk

£12.99

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liturgy

The Organ in the Church of the Twenty First Century Dr Roger B. Williams M.B.E. ‘The pipe organ is to be held in high honour in the Latin Church as the traditional musical instrument, the sound of which has the power not only to add a wonderful splendour to the Church’s ceremonies, but also to lift up men’s minds in a remarkable way to God and things on high.’

S

o reads paragraph 120 in Sacrosanctum Concilium, as translated by Dom Gregory Bainbridge OSB, originally published in 1967, and more recently by CTS in 2012. Quite why such a position is granted to the pipe organ is not directly explained by the documents of the Second Vatican Council, but we are given some hints in two phrases at the close of the same paragraph 120, as the document mentions ‘in accord with the dignity of a church building…contribute to the edification of the faithful.’

But it is not only the Catholic Church that gives an important place to the pipe organ. Many chapels in other denominations place the organ at a central point at the front of the Church, and in many Anglican cathedrals the organ is situated on the rood screen, making its presence felt visually not only from the nave but also from the choir. Many churches give the pipe organ an important place within its physical buildings, and it is therefore not surprising that there are ceremonies for initiating an organ or blessing it after repairs or renovations.

So what is special about the organ that it has been accorded such an important place? After all, it is only a musical instrument, and not even something that has a prescribed role for the Mass or indeed for any Office.

Historically the organ was sometimes used to take the place of verses of psalms and hymns and other texts that would have been well known to congregations. This was almost certainly the case in pre-Reformation times. At King’s Chapel in the University of Aberdeen, one of the sixteen Vicars Choral of Bishop Elphinstone’s original foundation, was appointed to have special responsibility for the organ. We do not know for certain what such a responsibility involved, but the best guesses are that the organ was used to

play in some sort of alternation with the voices. This practice of alternatim, between voices and organ, seems to have been common practice in pre Reformation times, judging from the many sources of small organ versets still extant. It was common in France as recently as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was only forbidden in the early twentieth century. Some years ago, it was generally thought that the organ in King’s would have been a small instrument. But more recent interpretation, as a result of Professor Jane Geddes’ research showing that the organ most probably had its own gallery, suggests a large instrument, most probably like those that Bishop Elphinstone would have experienced in Belgium and France – where he spent time prior to arriving in Scotland. The procedure of alternating voices and organ, would have enabled singers to contemplate the meaning of the texts, without the physical necessity of declaiming all of them. In times when such texts as the Magnificat, or Psalms, were known by heart, such performances might best be explained as involving silent, inner participation. Music in the Church was not an activity in which everyone participated but was produced by professional musicians – organists and singers. The role of the faithful of the congregation was to listen to the music and use it as an inspiration to private devotions and to aid inner contemplation. There is common ground between using music in this way and looking at paintings, a fine building or a stained glass window. By absorbing the vision of an artist we are able to tap into deeper contemplation than would otherwise be open to us, we can grasp latent meanings of a text or gospel passage –even if that understanding may not be entirely literal. In our busy world of ever-present reality, such ideas are perhaps less easy to support. Since the Reformation, the importance attached to the clarity of texts and to their being understood, has run the risk of making some of the more imaginative ways of interpreting scriptural passages less easy to sustain.

The enthusiastic singing of hymns, scriptural paraphrases and metrical psalms, such a feature of Methodists and Congregationalists often supported and led by a pipe organ, have shown how music can contribute vitality and vibrancy to worship. But using music in this fully involving participatory way offers a serious challenge to the idea that music might replace a text. In the interests of being fully and actively participatory, do we not run a risk of becoming too literal in our interpretations, and thereby deny to our inner contemplations higher flights of imaginative interpretation?

There is something about a pipe being made to sound by air passing through it that is entirely familiar to us all. This is, after all, the way that vocal cords in our throat sound, so that we are able to speak, or sing, or shout. In other words, the same mechanics used to make sounds by the pipe organ, are what enable us to communicate with each other. This familiar mechanism helps us identify with a good organ, which when well played, can help unify a congregation of different vocal talents and disparate outlooks into one unified action - singing together. Unlike various electric keyboards which can be entirely appropriate in certain circumstances, a working pipe organ is somehow close to a living entity, like human beings, it changes with temperature and humidity. The air that feeds it – the breath, if you like – is something that we all share in the same building. Regarding an organ as the Spirit of Singing is not so far fetched.

The organ is an instrument that can help us to reach deep, inner contemplation when the context is conducive. It is also an instrument that can enhance a congregation’s wish to sing by giving a lead and helping to unify the intention of a gathering of people. A good pipe organ has the capacity to make substantial contributions to the whole process of worship – however that may be defined.

There is no wonder that it ‘is to be held in high honour’.

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Light of the North

Dedication Mass for new altar Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB was principal celebrant at a special Mass to dedicate new altar at St Mary’s, Inverness

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n the 29th August Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB presided at a concelebrated Mass to dedicate a new altar at St Mary’s, Inverness. As Bishop Hugh remarked in the introduction to his homily this is “one of the richest, almost luscious, of the Church’s liturgies” and one which those present were priveleged to witness.

Since an altar becomes sacred principally by the celebration of the eucharist, the Mass of dedication was also the first

eucharist celebrated on St Mary’s new altar. The celebration of the eucharist is the one necessary rite for the dedication of an altar but, at a Mass of dedication: the bishop also blesses water and with it sprinkles the people and the new altar; the relics of martyrs or other saints are placed beneath the altar and the altar is anointed, incensed, covered with a new altar cloth and the first new altar candles are lit.

The bare altar before the Mass of Dedication

In place of the penitential rite the bishop blesses water and with it sprinkles the people and the new altar

The relics have been placed beneath the altar and the Bishop now anoints the altar with chrism, making the altar a symbol of Christ, “The Anointed One”.

Incense is burned on the altar to signify that Christ’s sacrifice and the people’s prayers rise up pleasing and acceptable to God.

The dressing of the altar indicates that the Christian altar is the altar of the eucharistic sacrifice and the table of the Lord.

The altar candles have been lit signifying that Christ is ‘a light to enlighten the nations’ and his brightness shines out in the Church and through it in the whole human family.

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Light of the North

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Homily to mark the dedication of the new altar Hugh Gilbert OSB Bishop of Aberdeen

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oday we celebrate one of the richest, almost luscious, of the Church’s liturgies, that of the dedication of an altar.

At the beginning of the Mass the altar was sprinkled with holy water. In a moment it will be dedicated by a Prayer which refers all the way back to the first altar mentioned in the Bible, that raised by Noah after the Flood. It will be anointed with chrism, have incense set burning on it. It will be dressed and then lit.

It’s as if the altar is almost a person. Indeed that is the key. It’s as if it’s baptised and confirmed, given a white garment and a candle to hold.

Finally it becomes the place of the Eucharist. This is what happens to us in the process of Christian initiation. There’s a symbiosis between the altar and ourselves. Even more between the altar and Christ. It represents him. After the consecrated elements which are the very Body and Blood of the Lord, there is no stronger representation of Christ in a church than the altar.

There’s one detail, though, I’d like to dwell on. It’s Noah. In the Prayer of Dedication we’ll hear the words: ‘Noah, the second father of the human race, once the waters fell and the mountains peaked again, built an altar in your name. You, Lord, were appeased by his fragrant offering and your rainbow bore witness to a covenant refounded in love.’

This is drawn from chapters 8 and 9 of Genesis. The almost alldestroying flood has subsided. And the very first thing Noah does when he and his family and the animals come out of the ark is build an altar for the Lord and offer some animals and birds as a sacrifice on it. Noah wants to reconsecrate the world to God. And the Lord – this is expressed very humanly – smells the appeasing fragrance, and says ‘Never again will I curse the earth because of man, because his heart contrives evil from his infancy.’ Our altar tonight is one of the latest in the world, and in biblical history Noah’s is the first. And the context of the first throws light on the last and latest.

Noah’s altar follows on from the Flood, the Great Deluge – the archetypal catastrophe. Behind the Flood, in the Bible’s mind, is our deep-rooted penchant for evil. Behind it is God’s exasperation with humanity. The Flood was a return to the chaos that had been overcome in the beginning. It was a protest of nature at the wickedness of man. It was a sign of God’s justice, his will to drown the accumulating human sin and disorder. And of his mercy, his desire to begin again, with a second Adam: righteous Noah. And Noah’s altar and sacrifice is the curtain-raiser of this new beginning, this second chance for humanity. It’s a sign of hope.

100 years ago this month the 1st World War began. It released a flood. Some historians of the 20th century, rather than speaking of two world wars, have spoken of one seventy-five year war, beginning in 1914 and ending with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. And again since then, and not least now, the earth seems to open and dark destructive waters well up and flood the earth.

And where is the altar from which an appeasing fragrance will rise, that will draw a line under destruction, and be the cornerstone of a better future? Christ of course is all that, and more. He’s the new Noah, the ‘second father of the human race’ after the first one, Adam, failed and fell. He’s the origin of a new humanity born of

“Our altar tonight is one of the latest in the world, and in biblical history Noah’s is the first” the Spirit. He rode the flood of human sin on the Cross and rose as the beginning of a new world of righteousness. He’s the priest, the sacrifice and the altar. He’s the appeasing fragrance which lifts the curse and guarantees the victory of life over death. He is the great sign that God’s mercy overpowers his justice, as it were, that evil has a limit, and that God’s final purpose for us is positive and good.

And every Christian altar is a sign of him, of all he is and does.

It’s him, his table, his Cross, his empty tomb, his ascended self.

It’s where the Eucharist is celebrated, the sacrifice of the ultimate pleasing fragrance. Every detail almost conspires in this direction.

An altar like ours is solid, fixed, made of stone. Why? Because the Cross is a fixed point in a turning world and the risen Christ is always living to intercede for us, firm in the heavens. The altar is a focus and centre, it catches our eye, unites our attention. So, when Christ is lifted up he draws everything to himself, reconciles us to God and one another. ‘Make it source of unity and friendship, says the Prayer, where your people may gather as one to share your spirit of mutual love.’ We approach the altar for a blessing or Holy Communion or to be confirmed. ‘Make it a place of communion and peace’, we’ll pray, ‘so that those who share the body and blood of your Son may be filled with His Spirit and grow in your life of love.’ When we look at it and beyond it to the Tabernacle, we can lift up our hearts in prayer like Solomon in the Temple: ‘Hear the entreaty of your servant and of Israel your people as they pray in this place. From heaven where your dwelling is, hear; and as you hear, forgive.’

How the world needs places like this! How the world needs altars!

How many floods there are, and what a constant need – at micro and macro levels – for new beginnings, for picking up the pieces and starting again! From the altar comes the fresh strength we need.

I remember a scene from the biography of Bl. Leonid Fedorov. He was a Catholic bishop of the Russian rite at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution (another flood). Everything was against him and his little flock. And he would go to his chapel and lean his head against the altar and pray there. How good that this parish has seen its way to have this altar built!

All this brings us back to ourselves. ‘Set yourselves close to him’, the living stone, the living altar, Jesus Christ. We’re the living stones making a spiritual house, baptised, confirmed, enlightened by faith, anointed by the Spirit, each of us and all of us a place of thanksgiving and intercession, a Eucharistic community, and please God an appeasing fragrance and light in the world. May this altar help this to happen! May our whole lives be worship in spirit and truth! May they ride out every flood!

Reading through the rubrics, I was struck by one. The people were to be prepared for this liturgy beforehand, it said, and so ‘be imbued with a due and proper love of the altar’.

Yes, may this parish really reverence and cherish and love this altar! May all this sacramental symbolism enter our hearts and imaginations! And may the saints whose relics are here pray for us!

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faithinaction faith aith ith thin ina naction a ction c tion t ion i on

Light Ligh igh t of the N North orth th

something of the t house. Dressed Dressed in secular attire, attir ttire, the two nuns arrived and were arrived at the door d were greeted greeted by by a maid d servant. servant. ln answer answer to their question questioon about a possible sale, the maid d admitted that the rumour rumour was true. trrue. At At that moment the lady of the house herself appeared appeared and assured aassured the visitors that her house use was not for sale. your lawyer lawyer that l want no more moore such visits" she ”Please ”Please inform m your said.

However, market Howeverr, when wh hen the house did come on the mar rket some weeks weeks later, laterr, Mr Craigen, Craigeen, who was to prove prove a vvery ery good d friend to the sisters for many years, yearss, entered entered into negotiations forr the purchase. purchase. His His overcame all obstacles and only after the contract was signed skill overcame did Mrs Milne, Milnee, the owner, ownerr, discover discover to her consternation con nsternation that the purchasers purchasers were were nuns.

During During that first exploratory exploratory visit to Aberdeen, Aberdeeen, Mother Mother Stuart Stuart greatly attracted attrracted by by the early devotion devotion to Our Our Lady in that city y, was greatly city, centred on an ancient statue known known as "Our "Our Lady L Aberdeen". centred of Aberdeen".

C ved Car d in i oakk and a d beech b h wood d in i the h late l Middle Midd dl Ages, dle A h original i i l Carved the en into hiding during the Reformation Reformation efo formation and then statue was taken Low Countries for safe keeping. keeeping. After many shipped off to the Low adventures, it came c rest in the Church Church of Finistère Finistère in Brussels, Brussels, adventures, to rest where Our Our Lady Lad dy is venerated, venerated, especially by by students, stud dents, under the title where "Our Lady of o Good Good Success".

Success". of "Our Bishop Hugh Hugh Macdonald Macdonald of A berdeen, Mother Mother ln a letter too Bishop Aberdeen, SSrr M. D Donnelly onnelly rrscj scj Stuart wrote, wrote, "Father "Father Chisholm made us spend s Stuart a delightful Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Woodside Woodside and Bridge Briidge of Don Don and he afternoon in Old br ought k O u ur Aberdeen brought us back full of the wish to win back Our Lady of Aberdeen his yyear ear the S Society ociety of the S Sacred acred d H Heart eart and hom me me. " M other S tuar t's t s enthusias sm must hav e been to her old home.

Mother Stuart's enthusiasm have their fr friends, rieends, ends for former rmer pupils and co colleagues olleagues are are shar ed b y M oth her D igb y S uperior G en neral, shared by Mother Digby who, as Superior General, had a surprise celebrating celebratin ng the centenaryy of M Mother otther S Stuart, tuart, esses when they arriv ed d in A berdeen later foundresses arrived Aberdeen Superior S uperrior G General eneral of the S Society ociety and an n outstanding waiting for thee foundr that y ear . year. educator and wr writer, riter, who died on 21 O October, cttoberr, 1914.

The first mem mbers of the ne w community to arriv estwood members new arrivee at W Westwood Although she was born b in Cottesmor Cottesmoree in E England ngland an and nd her par parents ents on the mornin ng of 29"` N o v ember r , 1895, w er e pr eceded bbyy morning November, were preceded w were ere E English, nglish, with irish connections on her father father’s r’s side, Janet Janet D earmer r , the R oehampton gar dener r , who ha had ad trav elled b y sea Dearmer, Roehampton gardener, travelled by always claimed to be Scottish . SShe he often spent holiday holidays ys in Scotland fi ce storm and then slept in th he cold dar fierce the darkk house in her yyouth outh and had d a gr great eat lo love ve for Scotland and its itts people. Her Her on a night of fier on top of one of the many pa acking cases.

When packing father father, r, a Canon of th the he Anglican chur church ch , wr wrote ote a that packing case was opened, ed, it was found to book about the fami family ily in which he claimed that contain a facsimile of the original ginal g statue, , the first his line was descende descended ed fr from om the rroyal oyyal SStuart tuart line in A berdeen and the gift off R everend M other Aberdeen Reverend Mother of Scotland. This clai claim im seems to be vindicated bbyy D igb y in P aris.

And so, when n M other S tuar t and Digby Paris.

Mother Stuart a DNA test taken recently recently by by the present present Earl of M other Thunder arriv ed in the ev ening, they Mother arrived evening, Castle Stewart, Stewart, greatgreat- nephew nephew of Mother Mother Stuart.

Stuart. w er e gr eeted at the entrance b y two statues, one were greeted by ln 1895 there there were were five five Sacred Sacred Heart Heart convents convents of the S acr ed H ear t and the o ther of O ur Lady of Sacred Heart other Our and schools in England Enggland and four in Ireland Ireland A ber deen. ( W estwood is no w the bishop's house Aberdeen.

(Westwood now but none in Scotland.

Scotlan nd. Then, early in that year, yearr, and the statue of O ur Ladyy of A berdeen still Our Aberdeen Mother Mother Stuart, Stuart, superior superrior at Roehampton, Roehampton, received received w elcomes all who enter the fr r ont hall.) welcomes front a letter from from Father Father Bissett, Bissett, parish priest of Nairn, Nairn, F ollowing M other SStuart's tuart's example, e the SSacred acred Following Mother earnestly requesting requesting a foundation in his parish.

H ear t community pr omoted d this dev otion in Heart promoted devotion Mother Mother Stuart, Stuart, who wh ho very very much wanted the their schools and, thr ough th he pupils, at parish through the Society Society in Scotland, then wrote wrote to Bishop Bishop Hugh Hugh lev el also acred H eart nuns level also.. And it was two SSacred Heart Macdonald Macdonald about the t proposal proposal . The bishop’s bishop’s who wr ote the wor ds and music of the no w wrote words now reply reply has come down down n to us. ” What! Go Go to Nairn Nairn w ell-kno wn hymn to O ur L Lady of A ber deen. well-known Our Aberdeen. and preach in the cold North preach to the fishes fi North Sea! Sea! ln his little book, "O ur Ladyy of A berdeen: The "Our Aberdeen: Certainly here Certainly not! But But come c here to Aberdeen Aberdeen and H idden S tatue", F ather H ea aly pays tribute to Hidden Statue", Father Healy help to warm up thee hearts hearts of the people of the the influence of the S ociety y in spr eading the Society spreading Granite to the Sacred Granite City by by devotion devotion o Sacred Heart."

Heart."

TThe he first ccopy op py of the originall lo v e of M ar y in the diocese.

H e says, “1895 is a love Mary He And so it was that thaat in April April of that same year, yearr, sstatue tatue of O Our ur LLady ady of Ab Aberdeen erd deen n memorable y ear in the histor y of dev otion to O ur year history devotion Our Mother Mother Stuart Stuart and d Mother Mother Digby Digby arrived arrived in sstill till w welcomes elcomes visito visitors ors to o thee Lady of A berdeen. IIn nA pril of o that yyear, earr, F ather Aberdeen.

April Father Aberdeen Aberdeen and were were given given hospitality by by the Bishops’’ House to today Bishops oday D uncan Chi Chisholm, h l a d dev out priest i i in charge h off Duncan devout Nazareth h House House Sisters.

Siste i ers. The Th bishop bi h and d the h sisters i Nazareth the old chur ch h of S t P eter r , met two nuns of f the S ociety of the church St Peter, Society gave them every every help p in finding a suitable house. Their Th choice fell gave acred H eart, R everend M other D igby, Assistant ant G eneral at P aris Heart, Reverend Mother Digby, General Paris Westwood, a largee granite building at Queen's Queen's Cross, Cross, but it was SSacred on Westwood, and M other S tu uar t, S uperior at R oehampton.

Th They w er e paying an Mother Stuart, Superior Roehampton. were tiime. In In June, June, however, howeverr, the solicitor, solicitor soliccitorr, Mr John John not for sale at that time. explorator y vis it to A ber deen with a vie w to th he establishment of exploratory visit Aberdeen view the Craigen, heard heard that the property property might be going on n the market. market.

Craigen, a conv ent.

I t was w his,(F ather Chisholm ’ s) dev ot tion to O ur Lady of convent.

It his,(Father Chisholm’s) devotion Our Mother Stuart Stuart and a companion travelled travelled back to Aberdeen Aberdeen and, Mother A ber deen whic ch inspir ed them."

Aberdeen which inspired owner w try to see hearing that the owner was absent, they decided to try

Mother Janet Mother Janet Erskine Erskine Stuart, Stuart, Religious R eligiouss Of Of The The Sacred Sacred Heart Heart

T

Page P age 14

Light of the North

Witness

3(67(5,1* *2' Eileen Grant “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice!

O let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleading” (Ps 129).

“The Lord is close to all who call him” (Ps 144). Scripture is full of testimonies about the power of persistent prayer, of the benefits of actually pestering God. So often we can be discouraged when it seems as if God is not even hearing our prayers, far less answering them; and so we may be tempted to give up. Some people may even become angry with God, turn away from practising their faith, or, worst of all, lose their faith altogether. We tend not to be patient creatures, unlike God himself who has waited for millennia for his people to come back to him with all their hearts. As Scripture testifies, over and over, the Lord always hears our prayers and he always answers them – only not perhaps when we want him to or in the way we desire. This is the hardest lesson to learn about prayer; even Jesus the man had to realise it – Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.

“Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there…’” (Gen. 18: 20 ff) Abraham’s trust in God and his persistence in pleading for the citizens of Sodom won a promise from God that he would not destroy the city if only ten righteous people could be found. Later, Moses in his turn pleaded with God to spare the people for their idolatry of the golden calf. “I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’” (Deut. 9: 26ff). Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we find those who felt close to God, petitioning for favours for themselves or for their people: Elijah for the glory of God and on behalf of God’s people who had gone astray and suffered as a result; Hannah pleading for the gift of a child whom she promises to dedicate to God’s service; and again and again in the Psalms. In these stories we discover that God does not spurn boldness and persistence but welcomes the trust displayed by his children.

“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

When the only Son of God became flesh and dwelt amongst humankind as one of them, he taught his followers the value of prayer, even of persistent prayer, of the need “to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk 18). His teachings often contained examples of this: the persistent friend knocking on the door in the night; the persistent widow seeking justice from an unjust judge. Her persistence eventually bears fruit as the judge concedes – anything for peace! – “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son

of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” It is so easy to lose heart and we need, like the father of the sick child, like the centurion, like the disciples themselves, to pray also for the gift of faith: “I believe; help my unbelief!”; “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed”; “Increase our faith!”

“Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19).

Sometimes we cannot know how our faith in God will stand up until we are really tested, often to the limits of our endurance. It is then, however, that we may become aware of the power of prayer, of the truly amazing strength when “two or more” of us set out to bombard heaven with our plea. Recently, our adult son was infected with the deadly necrotising fasciitis bacteria and very narrowly escaped death, and still has a long struggle ahead of him to regain fitness and compensate for the damage done to him. His story is something of a medical record – or a miracle – depending on your viewpoint, as he survived this attack for longer than most before being properly diagnosed. He had been misdiagnosed, and, for more than a week, I prayed for his recovery from whatever was causing him immense pain and discomforting symptoms. By the time we discovered what was really wrong it was almost too late and at that point I enlisted the prayer battalions!

I emailed everyone I reckoned would pray or have “positive thoughts” for our son. This rapidly snowballed, as individuals contacted their contacts, in some cases prayer groups, until the bombardment of heaven included bishops, priests, monks, nuns and hundreds of individual Christians (plus some agnostics!). The campaign became ecumenical (my husband is an elder in the Church of Scotland and I also have Anglican contacts), multi-faith (Jewish and Moslem friends of friends) and global, with prayers and Masses being offered in several European countries, in the USA, in Australia and Africa. I have had messages from people I do not know, or have never actually met, except via email. And I firmly believe that that cry from the depths saved our son.

We have been overwhelmed by the ever-expanding safety-net of love and support that has upheld us during these difficult weeks. We hear so much about the evil going on in the world, of the wickedness of fallen human beings; but God truly can and does bring good out of evil. In this huge cry that has gone up to heaven on behalf of our son, is reflected the agapé, caritas, truly divine love that seeks the good of another, of the stranger who is neighbour. And God listened to that cry and answered. Even in the darkest moments, before we knew our son would live, I knew that he was in safe hands – no matter what happened. We are, however, profoundly grateful to God that he has left us our son for a while longer. And we give thanks for all those who have shared our vigil at the foot of his cross. God is good; people are good. Thanks be to God. “O Lord, I cried to you for help and you, my God, have healed me.

O Lord, you have saved my soul from the dead, Restored me to life from those who sink into the grave” (Ps 29).

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Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia at Greyfriarss Fostering a Child’s Vocation Sr Anna Christi

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hen they brought Jesus to the temple to be presented to the Lord, in obedience to the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph were amazed by what was said about their child. “The light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel!” exclaimed Simeon as he held the child Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:32). He turned to Mary, too, and prophesied that a “sword will pierce your heart so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed” (Luke 2:35). In the months and years that followed the Presentation, Mary pondered these sayings and prepared herself and her Son for the day of their fulfilment.

Catholic parents likewise bring their small children for the Rite of Baptism, in which infants become children of God and members of Christ’s Body, the Church. In the baptismal font, the grace-filled seed for a child’s vocation in the Church is planted. With holy amazement at God’s grace in their child’s life and taking Mary and Joseph as their models, Christian parents nurture a child’s vocation as the child grows. How is this to be done?

So what does God want you to be when you grow up?

The first way is to foster the mind-set in which the vocation can mature. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question often asked young children. A Christian family should rather ask their children a different question, “What does God want you to be when you grow up?” Blessed Henry Cardinal Newman wrote, “God knows me and calls me by my name…God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.” There can be a great deal of comfort in that thought: a vocation is not something I have to determine or decide on my own. Rather it is a discovery of a mystery within me. Indeed, it is actually a discovery of Someone waiting within me, who respects and loves me and who has good purposes for my life. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Therefore, developing a relationship with the God who calls me is the best way to discover my vocation.

The second way parents can nurture a child’s vocation is to be open to all the possibilities to which God might call him or her.

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Does a child have a priestly vocation? A vocation to marriage? A vocation to the consecrated life? Will the child live out his or her Baptismal consecration as a single person? Families who develop relationships with individuals in all these vocations of life show to their children that each vocation is valuable. It is also a profound support to children when they know that, regardless of the vocation to which they are called by God, their parents will be supportive of it.

Certainly, keeping the idea of vocational discernment on the child’s horizon through daily prayer for vocations is a primary factor in nurturing his or her vocation. In my own family, our parents prayed with us each night the Serra International Prayer for Vocations. The prayer asks God to “send labourers for your Church, fellow labourers with Christ to spend and consume themselves for souls.” That line always burned in my heart and prompted me to wonder whether I myself might be called to this. Praying for vocations nurtures within both children and parents an openness to God’s grace and a willingness to respond to his invitation with courage, whatever it might be.

The First Sunday of Advent this year, 30 November 2014, begins the Year for Consecrated Life proclaimed by Pope Francis. This year, which will last until 2 February 2016, is a wonderful time to recall the vocation of every Christian to belong wholeheartedly to God. It will raise the awareness of all of us to pray for each member of the Body of Christ, whether priests, deacons, lay faithful, or consecrated persons, that we will live fully the vocation to which God has called us. May our rising generation of Catholics discover the vocation to which God is calling them, and respond to it with generosity and love.

JERICHO BENEDICTINES Combine the Spiritual Life with the running of ‘Jericho Inns’ for those being passed by on the other side’ The Drug & Alcohol Addicted Victims of Domestic Violence Homeless Men & Women Holidays for those on low income Enquiries & donations gratefully received

Jericho Inns 1/8 Fr. James Monastery of Jesus, Harelaw Farm KILBARCHAN Renfrewshire PA10 2PY

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The Joy of the Gospel: Part 1 Evangelii Gaudium is a powerful document that will have a deep impact on our Church for generations to come. It is also a LONG document. In Pope Francis’ own words, “I have dealt extensively with these topics with a detail which some may find excessive” (#18). Pope Francis covers a tremendous amount of ground and Fr Bernie O’Connor has taken on the unenviable task of distilling the essence of the document into an accessible twopart ‘must read’ reflection for the Light of the North.

Fr Bernie O’Connor

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n November 24, 2013, Pope Francis presented the first major treatise of his pontificate. The document is referred to as an “Apostolic Exhortation”, aptly described, since the Pope ‘exhorts’ those who read his words to consider the broad implications of our experience of the Year of Faith.

In 288 articles, Pope Francis discusses how the hallmark of authentic faith is a sense of profound and pervasive joy. But “The Joy of the Gospel,” the formal title of the Exhortation, is neither an emotional nor individualistic aftermath to our daily efforts to comply with Jesus’ teaching.

For joy is not simply a hoped-for consequence of belief; rather, joy motivates faith, guides and sustains faith, and is inherent in the very nature of faith. And it is this joy which endows us with the courage to constantly reevaluate and rethink our every approach to how the Gospel message is

Joy is a Sunrise

proclaimed. According to the Pope, joy is the antidote to a glum and dreary rendition of Christianity suggestive that its adherents have succumbed to a pessimism which has lost its enthusiasm and its zeal. Who could possibly be inspired to want to identify with belief which is more heartless than heartfelt? Joy then is not the sunset of a faith which is fading at the end of its day of relevance and meaning.

Joy is a sunrise, an always fresh new beginning to a faith capable of the rediscovery of the grace to renew its mission.

In Part I of my reflection, I will comment upon the Introduction and Chapters One and Two of the Pope’s text.

Part II, in the next edition of Light of the North, will address Chapters Three to Five. Suffice it to say that the content is so extensive that it cannot be discussed in exact detail. However, the Pope’s assertions are such that they alert us to how the Spirit is moving, and moving in an unprecedented manner.

“Nor, for example, is the Church composed of those who routinely ‘attend’ Mass, as if the Eucharist is a spectator event. And neither is conferral of the sacraments, notably baptism, confirmation and marriage, the equivalent of granting a writ of anonymity.”

What seems to be the Pope’s aim in authoring on the theme of joy? A parallel may perhaps be found in the recent Scottish referendum. I was among those ‘foreigners’ who refused to retire for the night until the electoral verdict was decided. As a Professor of Political Science, I was astounded by the record of voter turnout. Scotland became an example across the globe of the legitimacy of the democratic process.

The electorate, from as young as sixteen to the elderly, recognized that the participation and voice of each person actually shaped the destiny of their beloved nation. For this fact alone, I was never so proud of the Scottish heritage of my native Nova Scotia. Because the modern Scot has proven that passivity is not an option conducive to social progress.

It is when we immerse ourselves in causes worthy of our dignity that we fulfill the natural social mandate to do our part in enabling the betterment of the human condition.

And so with the Papal Exhortation. Recalling lines from the Latin American bishops, Pope Francis urged that the Page 17

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baptized become entirely involved in promoting faith. We “cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings” (Art. 18). We must “feel compassion,” particularly “at the outcry of the poor,” and affirm that this is not “someone else’s responsibility,” but is properly “our own” (Art. 54). “To go out of ourselves and to join others is healthy for us.” We were not created “to be self-enclosed” (Art. 87). Nor, for example, is the Church composed of those who routinely ‘attend’ Mass, as if the Eucharist is a spectator event. And neither is conferral of the sacraments, notably baptism, confirmation and marriage, the equivalent of granting a writ of anonymity.

Salvation is not privatized; it is our call to belong in community and to express willingness to transcend selfinterest. Dynamic and creative inter-personalism awakens that joy which denotes our acceptance of being ‘our brother’s keeper’. We ought be mindful that “the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures” and inferior goals (e.g. money, power, a competitive attitude) will inevitably lead to “a blunted conscience” (Art. 2). Despite the risk which accompanies genuine encounter with Christ (Art. 3) and despite our having to endure multiple tribulations, even to the point of “great suffering,” (Art. 6), joy eludes those “tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met” (Art. 7). I am told that the etymology of the word ‘happy’ is ‘hap’, translated as ‘by

embracing those “disillusioned with reality, with the Church, and with themselves” (Art. 83). Joy insists that we reject the escapism of “taking refuge in the comfort of (…) privacy or in a small circle of close friends” (Art. 88). For each of us is blessed with the potential and energy to safeguard the Church from “turn(ing) into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few” (Art. 95). Pope Francis yearns that our joy shall reverse the impact of “a lack of contagious apostolic fervor in communities,” lest there be a “cooling of enthusiasm and attractiveness” (Art. 107).

I cannot help but notice in the Exhortation’s initial two chapters how often the Pope mentions the term ‘beauty’.

There is the “beauty in the liturgy” (Art. 24), the “beautiful example” of many Christians’ dedicated witness (Art. 76), the “beauty” of the commitment of “young people” who are “street preachers” (Art. 106). Numerous similar cites could be quoted. But what they illustrate is Pope Francis’ conviction that a world redeemed by Christ cannot be ugly or brutal.

Ours is a world which ceaselessly mirrors the Divine. We do well to heed the counsel of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” Pope Francis would doubtless agree, as he would with Louise May Alcott’s having once exclaimed that “love is a great beautifier.”

For each of us is blessed with the potential and energy to safeguard the Church from “turn(ing) into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few” (Art. 95).

The Rev. Bernard J. O’Connor is Fellow and John Henry Cardinal Newman Professor of Theology and Ecclesial Mediation at the Graduate Theological Foundation, Mishawaka, Indiana and former official with the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches.

chance’. The Pope is convinced that happiness does not follow from random and haphazard chance. Happiness derives from choice, consent to the truth that “God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us” (Art. 12).

When we are oriented “to go out from ourselves” (Art. 21), instead allowing ourselves to be influenced by the Gospel ‘word’, we may be startled to learn that “God’s word is unpredictable in its power” (Art. 22). That ‘word’ diverts our focus from “self-preservation.” Even the Church itself must not lapse into a kind of “ecclesial introversion” (Art. 27). Can we admit, for instance, that the review of our parish-based system, “has not yet sufficed to bring (parishes) nearer to the people” (Art. 28)? Do we lack the humility to declare that we do “not walk alone,” but should “rely on each other as brothers and sisters” (Art. 33)? And are we persuaded that it is only when we invite Church teaching to abide in our heart, mind and spirit, that that teaching avoids becoming a sham, “ a house of cards,” so to speak (Art. 39). Ours is not “a monolithic body of doctrine,” (Art 40), inscribed with “language” which is “alien” to those walking the highways and byways, and which enshrines “a false god” (Art. 41). “Religion”, our own included, must never degenerate into “a form of servitude” (Art. 43). The Pope states: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets,” and which does not “cling to its own security” (Art. 49).

Pope Francis cautions that “what is real gives way to appearances.” It is those appearances which must be challenged and which must be revised (Art. 62). The answer to our personal and social dilemmas is neither a rigid religious “fundamentalism,” arid and stifling, nor the proposal of “a spirituality without God” (Art. 63). Together, it is our task to ensure that “houses and neighborhoods” will not be “built to isolate and protect,” but “to connect and integrate” (Art. 75).

‘Missionary’ joy transforms. Joy enthralls. Joy uplifts,

1/4 Jesuits

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There is one sign which we should never lack: the option for those who are least, those whom society discards.

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The New Evangelisation - What’s it all about?

Fr Domenico Zanrè “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” With these words, Pope Francis begins his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. This document, released at the end of the Year of Faith, not only serves as a pastoral blueprint for Francis’ pontificate, but it also acts as a guide for all of us to place the Good News at the centre of our personal mission as Catholics. As such, it is an ideal platform to explain Pope Francis’ own vision of the New Evangelisation (for an in-depth examination of Evangelii Gaudium, see Fr. Bernard O’Connor’s article in this issue).

The New Evangelisation is a topic that is the focus of much present discussion. What exactly is it, though, and in what way is it “New”? In order to understand this better, we need to take a look at the origins of this expression. The word evangelion simply means “gospel” or “Good News”. The term is used in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, in the following famous verses: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation, and tells Zion, ‘Your God is king!’”(Is 52:7; emphasis added). The term evangelion appears constantly in the New Testament, particularly in relation to the mission of Jesus. The kerygma, or core message of this Good News, as preached by St. Paul to the early Christian community of Corinth, is that “Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor 15: 3-4). Even after his death and Resurrection, the disciples continually “preached every day both in the Temple and in private houses, and their proclamation of the Good News of Christ Jesus was never interrupted.” (Acts 5:42) The importance of preaching the evangelion was underlined in the Second Vatican Council, where the terms ‘evangelise’ and ‘evangelisation’ (evangelion) were mentioned some 157 times; by contrast, it features only once in the documents of the First Vatican Council – a fact that points towards a change in attitude – one that was more outwardlooking, pastoral, and Christ-centred – in response to the growing secularisation of the 1960s. Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the central role of evangelisation in his 1975 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi: “Evangelisation is in fact the grace and vocation most proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelise” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). Pope Francis has significantly referred to this text of Paul VI as the “greatest pastoral document that has ever been written” (Address to pilgrims from Brescia, 22 June 2013), citing it on 13 separate occasions in his own Evangelii Gaudium.

However, it was another great shepherd of the Church, Pope

John Paul II, who coined the phrase “New Evangelisation”. During his first apostolic visit to Poland, he declared that “… on the threshold of the new millennium, in these new times, these new conditions of life, the Gospel is again being proclaimed. A new evangelization has begun, as if it were a new proclamation, even if in reality it is the same as ever” (Homily at the Shrine of the Holy Cross, Mogila, 9 June 1979). Four years later, on 9 March 1983, during his address to the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Pope John Paul II again issued the call for a New Evangelisation: “The commemoration of the half millennium of evangelization will gain its full energy if it is a commitment not to re-evangelise but to a New Evangelisation, new in its ardour, methods, and expression.”

By “new”, John Paul II was referring to several important features. Noted scripture scholar Scott Hahn has characterised the New Evangelisation as a proclamation of the Good News that “is more for the baptized than the unbaptized. It’s for those who’ve been inadequately catechized but all too adequately secularized,

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap., Evangelist and Preacher to the Papal Household Page 19

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and it’s for those who’ve been de-Christianized in the very process of being sacramentalized” (Evangelizing Catholics, Our Sunday Visitor, 2014, p. 13). In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, the New Evangelisation “is directed principally at those who, though baptised, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life” (homily at the opening of the Synod on the New Evangelisation, 7 October 2012). Furthermore, it is not content with a simple proclamation of the Gospel message, but aims rather at a personal conversion towards a Person that Catholics once knew, but from whom they have drifted. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, echoed these sentiments: “we are called to renew the proclamation of Jesus Christ […] to stimulate people once more to have faith in him by means of conversion of life (The New Evangelization: Responding to the Challenge of Indifference, Gracewing, 2012, p. 55). It is thus a gradual process, which mirrors the act of falling in love: courtship (getting to know, or in this case re-acquainting oneself, with the beloved), engagement (pledging oneself to the other person), and marriage (making a lifelong commitment to honour, love, and cherish your spouse).

Another feature of the New Evangelisation is that it is not just limited to bishops, priests, and members of religious orders. All of us share a responsibility in the proclamation of the evangelion, particularly the laity: “Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization [...] Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Jesus Christ” (Evangelii Gaudium, 120). This leads us to a basic, but very important, point. We cannot be evangelisers unless we first have been evangelised. Nemo dat quod non habet, as the maxim goes. The love of Jesus, founded on an intimate relationship with him, has to be at the centre of our own lives as Catholic Christians. Personal, nourishing prayer; regular reading and reflection on Holy Scripture; a knowledge of the teaching of the Church, as laid down in the Catechism – these are the pillars on which our own faith should be built.

The other traits of the New Evangelisation are contained in Pope John Paul II’s 1983 address in Port-Au-Prince (“new in its ardour, methods, and expression”). In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus sets out his mission to his disciples: “I have come to set fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing” (Lk 12:49).

Zeal and ardour are key characteristics of the New Evangelisation, the same zeal and ardour that were present in the early Church: “We must allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost. We must revive in ourselves the burning conviction of Paul, who cried out: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’ (1 Cor 9:16)” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 40). As the well-known Catholic author and apologist Fr. Robert Barron has underlined, Christianity, in its beginnings, was characterised by a sense of urgency, of freshness, of joy: a young carpenter from Nazareth who preached the kingdom of Heaven and declared himself to be the Son of God, who was crucified, died, and was buried, is now risen from the dead! Jesus is the fulfilment of Israel; he is the descendant of the house of David; he is the long-awaited Messiah; he is the Saviour of the world! Whenever we open the Gospels and begin to read and pray over them, we should be filled with this same excitement and fervour. Unfortunately, much of the original ardour has been diminished and replaced nowadays by a lukewarm response at best. To participate fully in the New Evangelisation is to open ourselves to the power, grace, and dynamism of the Holy Spirit, as the apostles did at Pentecost.

We have all received the Spirit at baptism, and been sealed with His strength when we were confirmed; now we are being asked to rekindle that fire, so that we may proclaim the Good News with Page 20

“The Lord is knocking at the door of our hearts.

Have we put a sign on the door saying: ‘Do not disturb’’?”

Pope Francis on ‘Twitter’, January, 2014 passion and joy.

Joy, happiness, and a real sense of fulfilment are essential expressions of the New Evangelisation, because they allow us to articulate the truth in a way that is attractive to a world that often seems jaded. If we want to bring someone to Christ, we have to present this encounter in a way that is compelling and exciting. If we ourselves are filled with an infectious joy and peace, and we are able to present that exuberance to others, then they too will want to share in it. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, has often said that “the New Evangelisation is accomplished with a smile, not a frown”, and those of us in the Diocese who have been lucky enough to attend his catechesis sessions at recent World Youth Days can amply testify to this. Being a friend of Jesus is something to sing and shout about!

Before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was once asked “How many ways are there to God?” Ratzinger answered: “As many as there are people” (Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium – An Interview with Peter Seewald, Ignatius Press, 1997, p. 32). Each individual’s journey to God, through Christ, is unique, and because every person is different, there is no one form or style of evangelisation that will touch the heart of all humanity. Hence, the New Evangelisation needs to employ many different methods to transmit the Good News in as effective a way as possible. In our modern, internet age, this is relatively simple. Media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (or “Hugh-Tube”, as someone has mischievously referred to it in the Diocese of Aberdeen!) provide us with an unrivalled opportunity to create new avenues of communication. Not only is this media platform extremely fast, beaming information from one side of the world to the other with the click of a button, but it is also available 24 hours a day. This facility allows the beauty of the Gospel message to enter the homes of non-Catholics as well as those Catholics who have drifted from the Church, and offers a means of exploring the Faith without any sense of commitment or feelings of embarrassment or fear.

At a grass-roots level, though, it is in our parishes that we find the real centres of the New Evangelisation. Many of these communities have flourished by the presence of ecclesial movements devoted to renewal and evangelisation, such as Communion and Liberation, Focolare, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, the Faith movement, and Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In her excellent book Forming

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Intentional Disciples (Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), Sherry A. Weddell urges parishes to re-concentrate their energies on the New Evangelisation by helping parishioners to come to a personal encounter with Christ. As Weddell points out, our parishes should become like evangelical hubs with one central mission: to assist people in coming to know and follow Jesus as disciples who, in turn, will draw others to him. It is the Synod Fathers, however, who express most eloquently the responsibility of each and every one of

us with regard to the New Evangelisation: “It is up to us today to render experiences of the Church concretely accessible, to multiply the wells where thirsting men and women are invited to encounter Jesus, to offer oases in the deserts of life. Christian communities and, in them, every disciple of the Lord, are responsible for this: an irreplaceable testimony has been entrusted to each one, so that the Gospel can enter the lives of all. This requires of us holiness of life” (Message of the Synod of Bishops, 26 October 2012).

Fourth Eucharistic Prayer – The Preface Clare Benedict It is truly right to give you thanks, truly just to give you glory, Father most holy, for you are the one God living and true, existing before all ages and abiding for all eternity, dwelling in unapproachable light; yet you, who alone are good, the source of life, have made all that is, so that you might fill your creatures with blessings and bring joy to many of them by the glory of your light.

And so, in your presence are countless hosts of Angels, who serve you day and night and, gazing upon the glory of your face, glorify you without ceasing.

T

he Fourth Eucharistic Prayer is truly catholic, universal, inclusive, cosmic, offering hope of salvation for all mankind, indeed for all creation and those of us present “in body” are privileged to assist in this catholic prayer on behalf of our “anonymous” brothers and sisters. Though a new Prayer, introduced only in 1968, it is steeped in Scripture and Tradition and encapsulates salvation history, from the origins of the universe, through God’s saving deeds on behalf of his people, to Christ’s saving sacrifice and institution of the Eucharist. The Revised Translation of the Missal has restored for us the beauty of this sadly underused Prayer. Let’s look at the many biblical allusions spread throughout the whole prayer, beginning with the Preface.

Father most holy… Right at the start of the Preface, we are reminded of exactly what Jesus did for us, as God the Father is addressed, as Jesus did in his great priestly prayer in John 17:11: “Holy Father, keep them [us] in your name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Through our incorporation into Christ through baptism and strengthened in Holy Communion, we are sons in the Son, adopted children of God and, as such, are sanctified. Enrico Mazza talks of the Father’s holy name as “a temple wherein Jesus would have believers kept”.

Right from the start, then, we should be aware of our dignity and

sanctified state, inducing both exaltation and humility in us.

“You are the one God, living and true”: Deuteronomy 6:4 instructs the people of God that “The Lord our God is one God” and this is to be repeated over and over, in Christian prayer also; Peter makes his confession of Jesus’ divine state as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16); and at the beginning of his priestly prayer, Jesus confirms that “this is eternal life, that they [whom the Father has entrusted to his Son] know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (17:3). St Paul to the Thessalonians speaks of “a living and true God” (1 Th 1:9). Joseph Gelineau suggests that “true” in this context “should be understood in the biblical sense of ‘faithful’, that is, as he has shown himself to man” and the OT abounds in images of God’s unwavering fidelity to his side of the covenant. He is a God dwelling in inapproachable light – Paul speaks to Timothy, surely of Christ as God: “King of kings and Lord of Lords (made so memorable in The Messiah), who alone has immortality and dwells in inapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:15-16); John too preaches to his spiritual children that “God is light” (1 Jn 1:5) and has much to say about the light of Christ that has now dawned; and Psalm 36 has the wonderful line “In your light we see light” – that uncreated light that so fascinated the Early Fathers can be visible only through our spiritual senses in this world but will be fully visible in the next.

You [God] alone are good, the source of life – Luke records Jesus saying “No one is good but God alone” (18:19); “God alone is the source of life”, perhaps better translated as “font of life”, reminding us of Jesus’ promise to the Samaritan woman of water welling up into eternal life (Jn 4). In Psalm 36, the line “For with thee is the fountain of life” immediately precedes “In your light we see light”. And then of course with the words you made all that is, we are referred back to the Genesis account of God not only as the source of all life on earth, but that all God made was good, indeed, very good. This was a favourite theme of St Cyril of Jerusalem in his catechetical lectures, a point he may have emphasised to drive out any dualist inclinations in his catechumens, and it is suggested that Cyril’s thought is the origin of this part of the prayer. St Paul sternly upbraids the people of Lystra for their vain worship of idols, telling them of the “living God” who made everything that is and “did good” (Acts 14:15-17), and converts their hearts on the spot.

We then hear of the countless hosts of angels of whom Jesus speaks as constantly serving God, dwelling in his light, and gazing on his face Page 21

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(Mt 18:10), who glorify him without ceasing, which leads us into the song of the angels, the Sanctus, itself originating in scripture (Is 6:23), in which the whole Church, on earth and in heaven, the whole of Creation, including those here and now present, join. It is the most powerful, worshipful and efficacious chorus known to man, if sung aware that we are in union with the angels and the saints.

An even more powerful effect is obtained in the words, we, too, we here on earth, with the angels in heaven, through our voice as one,

give a voice to every creature under heaven. The eschatological dimension is here apparent, the words taken from the Apocalypse: “I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein”, giving superabundant praise “for ever and ever”. This sense of cosmic praise really is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and unceasing worship. If only we take time actually to realise this amazing truth and take it into ourselves the Sanctus might really raise the roof and reach heaven!

uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him (42:1). The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me (61:1); You are my son, today I have begotten you (Ps 2:7). We do not see total immersion here; this is more akin to later Christian baptism: Jesus is kneeling in the shallow water and John is holding a shell, later to become a symbol and instrument of Baptism. Submitting himself to his Father’s will, and humbly placing himself amongst sinful, fallen humanity, the Lamb of God takes upon himself the sins of the world.

In the background, the outline of pointed mountains almost parallels the groups of figures in the foreground. A dark hill right above Christ and behind the Dove significantly forms the highest point in the picture. A small ruin with palms signifying martyrdom stands above the Baptist and there is a funerary vase on a wall with three figures nearby. Small groves of trees echo the groupings of Continuing our series on Nicolas Poussin’s 2nd set of paintings people. The mountains of Tabor and Hermon can be glimpsed in on the Sacraments, we take a look at the Sacrament of Baptism. the distance: Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name (Ps 89:12). On the far side of the river are other tiny figures, one washing clothes and two walking. Further along there is a woman with a water-jar A. Philokalos on her head. What is the purpose of these ‘extra’ characters? Perhaps to show how the divine often manifests itself in the midst of our efore he began to paint, Poussin used to set out wax human activity; that miraculous events may take place unnoticed figures on a stage; as a result his pictures have an air by many. of the stage tableau about them but, in some ways, In the foreground, there are, apart from the central couple, four this can help the dramatic narrative – we see a single distinct groups, with Poussin’s favourite brilliant colours more moment frozen in time. Here, with a force similar to that which evident on the Right: one, in the Right background, of people points of light have in some of his other paintings, the ruined awaiting their turn to be baptized, already stripped in readiness; tower on the hill above John the Baptist points to his importance another, in the Left foreground, comprises those who have already and, moving along, we see the hovering dove doing the same for been baptized, pulling on their clothes. On opposite sides are two the kneeling Christ. Centre stage, we focus on the two figures – groups of spectators reacting in different ways to what they see Jesus kneeling and John in the act of baptizing him, while above and it has been suggested that the group of pointing youths on them hovers the white dove, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the right is a good place at which to enter the painting. So, on the the Trinity, as Isaiah had prophesied: Behold my servant, whom I Right, we have three planes with three groupings of figures: first, the three youths, then the kneeling men, a kneeling man, then two sons and their father, and behind them women and children, where once again we see the nursing mother (as in Marriage), this time with two small children. The nearer son, who is kneeling, turns to support the old man. Then we see the standing figure of the Baptist with the kneeling figure of Jesus on his other side, almost an inversion of the kneeling son.

The Left hand groups are again on three planes: the grey-bearded man seated on a rock, pulling on his stocking; then another bending to dry his feet, but turning to look across; yet another, facing away from us, looking up, his arm raised in obvious surprise; behind, another Nicholas Poussin, Baptism II (1647-1648)

The Seven Sacraments of Poussin

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man, frozen in the act of pulling on his robe, a look of wonder on his face. They have already been baptised but are all visibly taken aback by something and are looking or gesturing above the centre, caught in amazement by the voice from the opened heavens and the hovering dove which has suddenly appeared. The front plane is full of discarded clothing.

In the Left background we find observers and non-participants, perhaps Pharisees, idolaters of the word but incapable of recognising the Word in flesh appearing, who seem either unaware of what they are witnessing, or are sceptical. One seems particularly puzzled.

Back to the Right foreground, we see a group of young men clearly acknowledging the miraculous appearance of the dove.

Who are they? They may, of course, be a random group of young brothers or friends, a figuring Poussin used in other pictures, a kind of ‘Three Graces’ grouping. There is another possibility here. In St John’s account of the Baptism, we are told of two of the Baptist’s disciples who were greatly attracted to Jesus and followed him,

believing him to be the Messiah. One is named as Andrew who then fetches his brother Simon; the other is not named but is presumed to be John, the Beloved Disciple. It may be that these young men are potential disciples of Jesus.

A new feature to be found in two of the Second Sacrament paintings, Baptism and Ordination, is a delicate brushstroke of pure white, a tiny flash of light on the water at the Baptist’s feet.

Because of the two sets of circumstances in which we find these touches, it seems apparent that they are of special significance, hidden signs, visible things signifying the invisible: the presence of the Divine.

In the Gospel, of course, only John hears the Voice of God and sees the dove of the Holy Spirit. In the painting, however, the Baptist is shown concentrating on his task of baptising and it is the different groups of figures waiting around who reveal the wonder of the event which manifests the presence of God. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Mt 3:17).

Saint Barbara - the explosive story of 3rd century Martyr of Nicodemia!

Ron Smith

T

he Tuscany region of Italy is justifiably popular with Scots holiday makers; the broad plain that stretches from Pisa to Florence is full of history and special towns that just have to be explored. One of these is Montecatini, which has a number of mineral water spas that have made it popular as a holiday destination for centuries. High above the tourist bustle of the town is Montecatini Alto, sitting high on a steep conical hill. There is a road, and paths, to get you up there, but very popular is the funicular which dates from 1898. It still uses the two original cars, modified with modern safety systems.

The “Alto” (high) town is a jumble of winding cobbled streets, with not one of them level, packed with ancient buildings.

When you come up on the funicular, you then zig zag up cobbled streets to the main square (although it is anything but square – and slopes too!) This is full of tables from the various restaurants. At the top the square is dominated by a war memorial (to the First World War) and if you keep going past this, to the right, the narrow street takes you higher to the parish church of St. Peter, which dated back to the 11th century. In front of it is the massive bell tower, completely separate from the church. This was originally the church of the castle, and was dedicated to St. Michael. Montecatini Alto has been fought over several times as it holds a strategic position dominating several main trade routes, and so little of the Alto remains in its original state. The church sits solidly on its perch on one of the two summits of this rocky eminence. Going inside it is cooler, of course, and the interior is attractive, a little dusty, but then when I was there in September 2013 there was scaffolding up on one side with plastic sheeting to keep the dust down. A tunnel through the plastic sheeting led to a side chapel at right angles to the main church, with a beautiful Madonna and child, and bright attractive enamel Stations of the Cross. This chapel was well lit from the windows, and returning to the main body of the church was stepping back into the gloom – but then I saw a sign pointing to another door on the other side wall, to the museum. This is a treasure trove of religious items. This was opened on the 28th of May

Saint Barbara holds her tower of three windows, one for each person of the Trinity 1900 by Mgr. Giovanni Paponi. One of the worst attacks on the “Alto” was in 1554. The 25 towers and the walls did not stop Grand Duke Cosimo dei Medici’s Florentine army from laying siege and then systematically destroying most of the town, including burning the archives in the main square. Miraculously, many items survived, and Mgr. Paponi had gathered these and created the museum. He had to fight hard to keep the museum, as the Ministry, represented by the Florence Heritage authorities, wanted to take it away – but he won, and it is still there. However, in 1980 there was a major theft of many items, and so it was closed for security. Now, thanks to the efforts of volunteers, it was reopened in 2010 and we can once again view the ancient pictures, vestments, and artefacts.

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Light of the North level was rising all the time. Most ladies seemed to have fans which fluttered constantly, including during the Mass. The lady next to me was fanning herself with her hand, so I gave her my Mass sheet which she gratefully accepted and used for a fan from then on. The choir, accompanied by guitars, sang lustily, and then the altar servers entered in procession, with a big cross, and candles, and followed by their priest and the Bishop in all his vestments and carrying his crozier. After blessing and incensing the altar he took off his mitre and his cloak with relief, and pulling a large handkerchief (actually I think it was a tea towel – it was huge!) from his voluminous sleeve “After blessing and incensing the altar he took off his mitre and his cloak with relief, and pulling a large handkerchief (actually I think it was a tea towel – it was huge!) from his voluminous sleeve he mopped his entire head and neck.”

The reliquary of Saint Barbara containing the Saint’s skull One of the most striking items is the reliquary of Saint Barbara, which dates from the first half of the 15th century. It is lantern shaped, in silver and enamel. It has a star shaped pedestal resting on three lion’s paws, decorated with the coats of arms of Florence and Montecatini. The lantern shaped top part, with windows, contains Saint Barbara’s skull. It was last restored in 1972 by specialists in Florence. It is amazingly intricate and detailed. Saint Barbara was born in Nicodemia (in modern day Turkey) in 273 AD. Her father, Dioscoro, was a collaborator of the Emperor Massimiano Erculeo, who gave him rich estates in Sabina, Italy. Dioscoro had to be frequently away on business, so he had a tower built to effectively imprison her. It was designed with two windows, but during one of his absences, she persuaded the workers to put in three windows, in honour of the Trinity, as she had become a Christian. There is an old (17th century) portrait of her in the museum holding a tower.

When Dioscoro returned he was furious. Barbara escaped, after damaging most of the effigies of the pagan gods in the house. Her father had her captured and put on trial by Prefect Marciano, for impiety to their gods and for being a Christian. The trial started on the 2nd of December 290. Barbara tried to persuade all the court to become Christian, without success. She was terribly tortured for two days but refused to give in, so she had her death sentence read to her by her father, Dioscoro, who himself beheaded her with his sword on the 4th of December 290. The 4th of December is the feast day of St. Barbara. Dioscoro was going home after this awful deed when he was struck by lightning.

Because of her father’s fate, her name is invoked in prayers of protection from lightning and, as an extension of this, she has become the patron of gunners, miners, and others who work with explosives. These include among others the Italian Navy and Army, the Fire Brigade, miners, oil workers and geologists. She is also asked for protection from lightning, fire, sudden and violent death and danger, and is the patroness of towers and fortresses.

On the day that I was there, a special Mass for Confirmation was to be held, so I stayed for this Mass. The church filled up with very well dressed people, many men in suits and ties, and the noise Page 24

he mopped his entire head and neck. This tea towel made frequent appearances throughout the Mass! The congregation continued to chatter and move about and there were an inordinate number of men with cameras stepping around, including one with a huge camera like the old fashioned cinema ones, complete with lights and a monopod. It was a joyful family occasion for a very special day. After the Mass we all squeezed through the big old doors and into the fresh air, to find a long table with a picnic on it against the church wall, between it and the bell tower. With parents and excited children all milling around it was great fun, eating and drinking in the sunshine. Then people started moving off down into the main square for a long lunch. The ladies in their high heels had a hard time on the steep cobbles, and shoals of them with arms stretched out zig-zagged carefully down the street.

I decided to explore a little more, and climbed a flight of stone steps to one side. This leads to a flat area with a shrine to Saint Barbara. It is unusual. In the area, about the size of a small house, is a field gun, large artillery shells, a massive ship’s anchor, fire brigade pumps and wire fortifications. This is overlooked by a statue of Saint Barbara on a raised piece of wall in one corner, holding her tower with its three windows. It is a striking shrine. Next to it is the remains of the castle.

There is much more to see in this old hill-top town. There is the closed Carmelite church, with one of the remaining seven towers next to it; this one has a large clock face that can be seen

Saint Barbara’s shrine includes a field gun and large artillery shells

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from from anywhere anywhere in the th he town. town. There There is another church church h and convent convent lower down down beside b remaining gateway, gatewayy, and an nd a Franciscan Franciscan slightly lower the remaining monastery monastery that is an old people’s people’s home nowadays. nowadays. There Th There is also the remains remains of another church c ch in the main square. chur square. It It is hidden by by the cafes and tables, with the porch h just the doorway doorway to be seen. Inside Inside n porch is a strikingg memorial memoriaal to all those who died in the twoo World World Wars, Wars, soldiers, civilians, and an nd those who were were deported deported and an nd never never seen again. It It is poignant as there there are are photographs in little littlle frames next to the names of the soldiers – bringing it home to you you that these lists of names were people who lived were once o lived here, here, worked worrked here, here, and had family here. here.

It It is quite peacefull in “Alto”, “Alto”, despite the tourists, because ecause there there is so very very little traffic. There Th e are Ther are great great views views all round, round, and a good food and wine.

I walked down, down, w following following the Stations Stations of the he Cross Cross backwards backwards from from the top – too hot to start start at the beginningg at the bottom!

Then it was back to the traffic, noise and tourist tourist crush. crush. It It was interesting interesting to be b up there, there, and I recommend recommend it i to anyone anyone visiting the area. area.

Readers of thee LTN LTN mayy remember remember that back in in 2007 we we reported reeporteed that the tunnels tunn nels at the new Glendoe Glendoe hydro hydro d o scheme above above Loch Loch Ness were werree blessed on the 4th of December, Decem mberr, the feast of St Barbara.

Barbarra. Fr Fr Ryszard Ryszar ysszard d §wider and Fr Fr Michael Michael Savage Savvage from fro om St. Marys, Marryss, Inverness, Church Invernesss, together to togeether with Rev Adrian Adrian Varvvell Varvvell from fro f om the Ch urcch of Scotland Scotland and local l cal representatives lo reepreesentativves gathered gathereed with w the work work force forcce for the blessing. blessin ng. Each Each tunnel entrance entra entrance had its itts own own shrine to o St Barbara Barbarra complete comp pletee with a figuree of the saint to o guide and protect prrot oteect those starting starting a day’s day’s work work in the depths of the the earth. earth.

Scotland S cottland l d and a d England Eng land ma may m y still sing A Auld uld Lang gS yne e Syne SSrr JJanet anet F Fearns earns FMDM FMDM

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iith th a name like F Fearns, earn ns, ther theree has to be a Scottish S ttish connection somewher somewhere, e, doesn doesn’t’t ther there? e?

According A ccor cording to the Internet, Internet, the name dates backk to the time of the P b Picts icts and appears to have havve arisen arisen on the island of Fearn Fearrn in R Ross. oss. I hav have ve googled some lovely lovely photographs graphs of F Fearn earn H Hill, ill, station and nd far farm, m, but, sadly, sadlyy, these do not giv give ve me a welcome welcome printout printout off the Scottish roots roots of my paternal paternal n genealogy. genealog y. The tr trouble ouble is that hat although, on the maternal matern nal side ide of the family family, y, I can tracee my histor historyy he Vikings, I hav ve not had the same success back to 865 and the have followingg the F earns link thr ough g to its ancient cient or rigins. g in following Fearns through origins.

I am told that, ev even en from from my vvery ery earliest days, when I would not sleep sleep,, my pram m was rrocked ocked to the accompaniment niment of the songs of H Harry arry Lauder uder and Kenneth Kenneth McKellar.

McKellar. Even Even befor beforee we we had a television, thee strains of Andy SStewart tewart singingg The Scottish SSoldier oldier accompanied ed my journeys to and fr from om school. Then, when the first television ision set arriv arrived ed in our house, the now now longgone series of Scottish tish songs and dances, The White W H Heather eather Club Club,, became compulsor compulsory pulsory Saturday Saturday ev evening ening viewing. viewing. ng.

IItt is memories such uch as these which encouraged me to follo follow w with gr great eat inter interest est the he pr process ocess of the many and complex mplex debates on Scottish independence. ndence. IItt is a case of “E “Even ven with the name English, but...”” and I do hav havee a very JJanet, anet, I am E nglish, h, but... very soft spot for Scotland.

Scotland’s’s I could understand and the rreasons easons for and against nst Scotland independence and could argue on both sides of the c he discussion.

During Zambia, discovered During my 12 years years rs in Z ambia, I disco vered thee tradition of

During D uring m myy 12 yyears ears in Z Zambia, ambia, I disc discovered overred d the tr tradition radition of ““tribal tribal ccousins”. ousins”. “tribal history “tribal cousins”. cousins”. When two tribes had a histor ory of fighting each other, otherr, making peace and subsequently facing each other again in conflict, sometimes declared times over over a history history of generations, tions, they declar ed themselves cousins”. themselves to be ““tribal tribal cousins ”. This meant that their members guaranteed each ch other hospitality and support suppor ort whilst rretaining etaining the freedom freedom too offer the occasional teasing insult ult after the fashion of brothers family. never brothers and d sisters of the one family y. Theyy would nev er again confront livee side-b side-by-side confront each other in anger and would liv ide-by-side in peace forever forever after. after. In In rrecognition ecognition of their speciall rrelationship, elationship, they would stand together ogether against threats threats from from outside. utside. There There was a bond which, from cousinship,, was from the time of the declaration n of cousinship never never away.” never to be ““spoilt spoilt poilt or soiled and nev er taken away y.” wee remember This yyear, earr, w remember the centenary centenary of the he beginning of the First and Scotland First World World War. War a . I wonder how how many times England England n stood together in the trenches? trenches? I have have no doubt bt that soldiers from from both lives other’s generosity b h countries i s owe owe their h i liv es to each h other h ’s courage, gener osity i and humour. beforee and after the SSecond World War, humour. SSimilarly, imilarlyy, befor econd W orld W arr, the members of the Armed Forces havee nott checked out each Forces hav other’s beforee declaring, bbyy action rather than other’s country country of origin befor by England by word, word, thatt whatever whatever the political differences, differences, E ngland and Scotland have have a special rrelationship. elationship.

Recently, newcomer Britain R ecentlyy, I noticed n hackles rise when a ne ewcomer to B ritain Page P age 25

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spoke of England and Ireland as if they were the one country.

When the appropriate moment arose, I pointed out that England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are four very different countries, each with its own history, language, culture and traditions. In many ways, we can live and work together, but, I told the newcomer, if she wants to live in peace, she must remember and appreciate that the people of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are in no way interchangeable.

The relationship between all four geographically very small countries helps each to “punch far above their weight.� Whether or not that should translate into some political separation, there is something closer than the centuries-old historical bonds, for instance, with France, Germany and the Netherlands. (There have been many occasions when England and France have disagreed simply because they are England and France!)

Of course, within the Church, the Bishops Conferences of Scotland and of England and Wales have long been separate entities. There is great cooperation between the two Episcopal Conferences. Admittedly they have not had to debate such thorny issues as currency, defence, oil and the myriad other concerns which surrounded the possible separation after September’s referendum. The news didn’t carry stories of bishops having a punch-up to settle any differences between them. Perhaps the cooperation between the two Episcopal Conferences might set an example for the new political scenario?

Now that the referendum has taken place, there is one point of which we can be justifiably proud. Looking at the turmoil, global threats and bloodshed now facing the situation in Ukraine, there is no risk of armed conflict between England and Scotland. Right from the very start of the debate, its paramount importance was the ballot and not the bullet. This is a real treasure in a world where different ideologies can often lead to suffering and bloodshed.

Although in years gone by, the border between England and Scotland moved north or south depending on battlefield success, physical fighting and mutual raids have long been consigned to history. For sure, there are remembered injuries on both sides.

Many people suffered and died on both sides of the border because of disagreements over property and power. (Is it not always the way that war is declared by the people at the top and fought by the people at the bottom?)

Since the two kingdoms became one, our shared history has ensured that quarrels have been verbal and/or legislative.

England and Scotland will always see eye to eye on some issues and not on others, but it is extremely unlikely that troops will ever again muster to contest or to defend the border between us.

For that, we can thank God and commonsense. Perhaps, for all its inadequacies, The Union of England and Scotland Act 1707 conferred a benefit upon future generations that could not be foreseen at the time.

The debate about Scottish independence between the English and Scottish members of my own community has been peaceful and a genuine search for the right path into the future. This is mirrored from John O’Groats to Lands End. Each and every one of us owes a unique allegiance to our country, for it has helped us to be who we are today, “warts and all�. We are at a turning point in our history and generations to come will experience the results of the decisions that were made this year.

Thanks be to God, at the end of the day, Scotland and England may still join together to sing Auld Lang Syne.

Sr Janet Fearns is a Book Editor with Redemptorist Publications and a regular contributor to the Catholic Press

Let’s mak Let’s make e Scotland Scotland a place where where everyone love later life. e veryone ccan an n lo ve lat er lif e e.

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Age Scotland (Dept L LOTN) OTN) Causewayside C ausewayside id House H 160 C Causewayside ausewayside Edinburgh E dinburgh EH9 1PR

w: www.agescotland.or www.agescotland.org.uk g.uk e: ffundraising@agescotland.org.uk undraising@agescotland.org.uk p: 0845 833 0200

Charity No: SC010100 Age Scotland, part of the Age Network, N is an independent charity dedicated to improving improvving the later lives of everyone on the ageing journey journey,, w within ithin a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered reggistered in Scotland.

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Friars Black and Grey in Aberdeen

Ann Dean’s delightful watercolour of Greyfriars Church before the Reformation on the site of what is now Marischal College On the 7th September at a Mass at King’s College Chapel in Old Aberdeen Bishop Hugh Gilbert welcomed to the Diocese the first Conventual Franciscans to serve as Catholic chaplains to the University of Aberdeen. In his homily Bishop Hugh commented that, “it is the first such Friary to be established in Scotland since the Reformation and in a sense it is the rebirth of the Franciscan Friary that began in Aberdeen in 1471, lasted for 90 years and, historians tell us, was much-loved by the people.”

Today’s Friary will be home to Fr. Raymond Mallet OFM Conv from the USA and Fr. Jakub Czajka OFM Conv from Poland and, early next year they will be joined by a third friar from India.

To celebrate this ‘homecoming’ and the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Chaplaincy, historian Alasdair Roberts, with the help of artist Ann Dean, explores the history of the Black Friars and Grey Friars in Aberdeen.

Alasdair Roberts & Ann Dean

S

oon after the Black Friars were instituted as a preaching order by St Dominic they set up house where Gordon’s College now stands. King Alexander II is said to have met the founder in Paris. He certainly favoured the Dominicans and helped seven communities into being as well as that of Aberdeen. His son Alexander III was of like mind and gave an annuity from his farms around the town. As a result the men in black were able to build ‘a very splendid monastery’ at Schoolhill

with an extensive garden, orchard, barn and burial ground. The richly ornamented church of St Nicholas was hard by. Blackfriars Street runs along what was once the western boundary with the chapel at its northern end. These friars were good teachers in the first Aberdeen grammar school. Serving local families, they were popular from the thirteenth century through troubled ones to come – wars for independence, Black Death and unremitting strife.

The Grey Friars also came to Aberdeen in what was looked back on as a golden age of peace and prosperity. They were Observant Franciscans, maintaining the primitive rule of St Francis as distinct from the Conventuals. Black or Grey, mendicant friars did not have to beg hard for support. The Friars Minor or Franciscans were a practical group of men who built their own premises on the site which became Marischal College. Records show skills in stonecutting, masonry, carpentry and glass-making. Brother John Strang had his glazier’s workshop near the quadrangle’s gateway - this on the evidence of peat ash discovered during excavations. The Greyfriars church replaced an earlier one and was completed in the opening decades of the sixteenth century. Its quaint bell-tower went, but heraldic panels and a ‘gryt gabill windo’ survive to this day.

Another golden age may be identified around this time, though it was cut short by the death of James IV and many of his nobles at Flodden. The marriage of the Thistle and the Rose (Margaret Tudor becoming James’s queen) had encouraged hopes of a better outcome. The king’s chancellor Bishop William Elphinstone brought university education to Aberdon near the mouth of the river, and the Dominican Prior John Adam became its first Doctor of Divinity. By this time the population of the royal burgh of Aberdeen - approaching 4,000 – was served by 150 clergy including Carmelite Page 27

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The original entrance to Marischal College which was created as a Protestant alternative to King's College in Old Aberdeen. This resulted in Aberdeen having two universities at a time when there were only two in the whole of England. and Trinitarian friars in the Green.

Long after Martin Luther launched the Reformation in Germany and Henry VIII laid claim to England’s monasteries, Scotland stayed loyal - nowhere more so than in the two Aberdeens. Then John Knox’s iconoclastic preaching at Perth in May 1559 led to smashing of stained glass and pulling down of statues. Four days after Christmas masses had been celebrated between Dee and Don ‘The Congregation’ (raiders led by Bible-reading gentry) arrived from Angus and the Mearns. Finding all valuables removed from the mother church of St Nicholas, they attempted to pull down the steeple but were driven off by an outraged citizenry. Attempts to ‘fire

and spulzie’ the nearby Dominican property were likewise prevented although symbols of Catholic worship were damaged.

Down in the Green things grew worse. The Carmelite White Friars were driven out and their altars despoiled. The Trinitarian Red Friars (first of the mendicant orders to be welcomed into the burgh) had buildings set on fire. Thanks to generous donations they were in possession of all the land bounded by Guild Street, Trinity Street and Market Street. Aberdeen architect Victor Mitchell who wrote and illustrated The Destruction of the Churches and Religious Houses of Aberdeen had this to say: ‘It is recorded that Friar Francis, one of the brethren, in attempting to make his escape, was cruelly stabbed by the mob and his body thrown back into the burning building.’

The Reformers carried on to Old Aberdeen. St Machar’s Cathedral suffered but King’s College Chapel was successfully defended by staff and students.

Meanwhile the Franciscans had made a peaceful exit. On that last Christmas Day Brother John Roger, warden, resigned the Order’s property into the hands of the magistrates. Prior Thomas Gray had already taken ship for France. George Keith Earl Marischal acquired this property along with the Dominican and Carmelite holdings in order to open a Protestant college distinctly different from Bishop Elphinstone’s. His uncle’s takeover of Deer Abbey in Buchan had been reported by the Jesuit John Hay: ‘I cannot recall without the greatest pain complaints which I heard expressed by the poor people against their ministers, accustomed as they had been to the most generous treatment from the churchmen of old times. Now the revenues of a single monastery which formerly supported two hundred people in honesty and comfort are scarcely sufficient to maintain the profligacy and extravagance of even one spoiler.’ The Earl Marischal inherited. His response to criticism can still be seen above the College entrance: ‘They haif said; quhat say thay; lat yame say.’

Independence with peace of mind Show Complex Open - Visit Today Artist Impression

McCarthy Stone

Lorna Dawson, Homeowner’s daughter

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Light of the North

Shelagh Noden’s Musical Memories Priest Gordon and music at St Peter’s

I

n August this year St Peter’s parish in Aberdeen commemorated the 210th anniversary of the first High Mass in Scotland since the Reformation, which was celebrated there by Bishop Alexander Cameron in 1804 at the request of Priest Gordon. The work of Rev. Charles Gordon in the promotion of church music is less acknowledged than his charitable and educational activities, but deserves to be more widely known.

The success of the High Mass at St Peter’s, followed by two more in 1807 and 1810, encouraged members of the congregation to form a lay choir in 1814. Charles Gordon judiciously applied for permission, writing a tactful letter to Bishop Cameron, who was notorious for being a dilatory correspondent: ‘Yielding to the pressing importunity of the whole of the most respectable part in particular of my Congregation, I have been induced to take some distant steps towards the introduction of some little Church Music into our Chapel. We have not so much as begun as yet to teach, nor have we made choice of our Scholars, and it will take us a full year at least to prepare ourselves properly for doing anything to that purpose. Your Lordship’s at least tacit approbation is necessary.’ He knew that Bishop Cameron was unlikely to reply, and phrased his letter accordingly.

Mr Gordon took a great deal of trouble to establish his choir, and informed Bishop Cameron that he employed ‘a professed Teacher attending about twenty-five of our young people thrice a week’. He assured the bishop that ‘nothing shall be performed in public till we are all prepared to do our parts with becoming propriety’. The hard work paid off; within a few years it was said that ‘the chapel in Aberdeen has a great name for music, the like of which is not to be heard in the whole country.’

We must not underestimate the uphill struggle faced by Mr Gordon and his choir. He noted in his diary that ‘It is a circumstance particularly to be noticed that Sacred Music has hitherto been quite unknown amongst us. We had in a manner, to create it. Scarcely one individual amongst us had ever heard a single note of Music in any place of worship.’

This seems scarcely credible today, but it was true enough in the early nineteenth century. Following the Reformation, Catholics in Scotland were forced to worship in secret, so any form of music was impossible. A whole musical tradition was lost and had to be painstakingly recreated. Finding suitable sheet music for the choir was also far from easy. In 1815 Mr Gordon wrote to Bishop Cameron that: ‘Webbe [the composer, Samuel Webbe] is our standard. The gentlemen at Aquhorties have been very kind in sending out several pieces. We use no English except the hymn “Come Holy Ghost”’. He went on to inquire whether pieces in

The redoubtable Priest Gordon English were used in Edinburgh and, if so, whether he could have copies, asking the bishop to ‘let me know the particulars of your music department that I might endeavour to form mine after the model of it. I allow nothing but what is strictly the Church’s office - they say our Choir is not a bad one - it has cost me a great deal of labour and a good round sum of Money.’ The following year he reported that the organist, Alexander Downie, had returned from a visit to London ‘with a deal of, not too difficult, excellent music by Novello’. This is the earliest mention of music by Vincent Novello being used in Scotland.

Charles Gordon addressed the problem of expense by purchasing only one copy of each piece of music and having hand-written copies made. In his memoir he wrote: Fortunately, however, one copy of each piece in print generally did our turn, as a young man of great merit and unwearied industry, Mr James Macdonald, who wrote a superior hand and who, in every respect, was fully up to the task, freely undertook to draw out (which he did after his labours of the day and when he should have been in bed) as many copies as the choir should require.’ This was the common practice at the time. As paper was expensive, choir members sang from individual handwritten parts, while the conductor of the choir, and possibly the organist, used a complete score.

The musical reputation of St Peter’s was upheld by several of the assistant priests at St Peter’s, notably Charles Fraser and John Reid, who were both known as composers and skilled musicians. John Reid, who died tragically early from typhus, aged only 35, was described as follows in the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1855: ‘He composed several pieces of Sacred Music of great merit, and arranged many others for the use of the choir of St Peter’s chapel, which, under his direction and training, achieved so remarkable a pre-eminence among Catholic choirs.’

Thus the musical tradition begun by Priest Gordon was to continue throughout the nineteenth century and up to the present day. Perhaps the parish of St Peter’s might consider celebrating another, rather more conventional, anniversary next year. Easter Sunday 2015 will mark the bicentenary of the day the newlyformed St Peter’s choir made its debut. Perhaps an occasion for Samuel Webbe’s Mass in G, and a rendering of his well-known setting of ‘Regina Caeli’?

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Light of the North

faithandculture

A Record of a Generous People - A History of the Catholic Church in Argyll & the Isles Author: John Watts Paperback: 408 pages Publisher: Ovada Books (November 30, 2013) ISBN-10: 1905965117 ISBN-13: 978-1905965113 List Price: £20.00

of a more modern and sustainable base on which the present day diocese was finally established.

If, at times, the chronology threatens to become rather dry (as any record covering such a span of time inevitably would), the author succeeds in illuminating the text with vivid and good natured portraits of some of the diocese’s clergy and their endeavours. The book pays tribute to their ingenuity and perseverance, as well as their devotion to the people they served.

Should our own clergy ever complain about the distances they have to travel today in order to say mass, or visit the housebound, perhaps they should consider the account of one priest’s itinerary to do just that as recently as the 1960’s.

This meant a thirty mile journey to Portree and back to Knoydart Peninsula which took three days and involved a mail boat, a ferry, a fishing boat as well as an overnight stay with an accommodating parish family!

The story of the more modern development of the diocese, from post war austerity and depopulation to the post Vatican period, is particularly interesting.

The author does not shrink from relating the sorry episode of Bishop Roddy Wright’s scandalous departure from office in 1994 amid a furore of media interest. The book’s tone of

Peter Hammond

C

hristianity has survived in Argyll and the Isles since around the year 500. A Record of Generous People is an ambitious and worthy attempt to trace the history of the Church from its earliest times.

This book is divided into two distinct parts. The first, accounting for approximately one third of the narrative, provides a brief historical overview of the origins of the church in these parts. The second focuses on the modern church, a detailed examination of the period that followed the restoration of the Scottish Hierarchy in 1878, viewed through the efforts of the bishops of the diocese up until the present day.

Taking its title from the Book of Ecclesiastes, this work is more than a mere statistical and chronological record of the church in a particular geographical location. It is an account of a resilient people who, over the centuries, have withstood isolation and penury in no short measure and enabled the faith to survive against the odds.

The affection in which Dr Watts holds the people of the diocese is evident throughout. He seeks to demonstrate the uniqueness of Scottish Catholicism found here by reminding the reader of the geography, the language, the culture and history of the people of Argyll & the Isles and how these helped shape and colour their faith. At the same time, he rightly acknowledges its role within a worldwide community, despite the relative lack of numbers, pointing out that in numerical terms they account for just 1.6% of the total number of Catholics in Scotland Tracing the development of a ‘Celtic spirituality’, Dr Watts points out that no other place on earth has produced more saints than Celtic Britain, Ireland and Brittany. He examines the influence of the early missionaries and founders of the early monastic communities, holy men of zeal and vision, men such as Brendan, Ninian and Patrick. He then covers medieval times, the upheaval of the Reformation and the development

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St Columba’s Cathedral, Oban (Photograph by Norrie Adamson) warmth and humanity is reflected in the moving account of the events which followed his resignation.

Other events and milestones depict the changing physical and spiritual shape of the diocese; Not least, the building of new parish churches, the completion of St Columba’s Cathedral in Oban, the medieval abbey of Iona, and the establishment of the House of Prayer there. Then there is the retreat centre at Craig Lodge at Dalmally which in time gave birth to the charity, Mary’s Meals. Therefore, the church demonstrates its ability to renew itself and is able to look forward to the future with cautious optimism knowing that bigger challenges were faced and overcome in the past.

Thoroughly researched, the author draws on a range of sources to provide detailed footnotes to each chapter. There are also approximately 50 illustrations, many in colour and a selection of useful maps. This is indeed a record of generous people and an important contribution to the history of the church in Scotland.

Light of the North

faithandculture

On a wing

and a prayer

Dusky Swifts give us a glimpse of eternity

Father Peter Barry

M

ost of our songbirds have now left for Africa: warblers and swallows will return again in the spring, but first they have to run the gauntlet.

Birds passing through Malta have little chance of making it: the branches on which they rest have been coated with lime, and they will hang suspended till they are killed for the pot.

The most valued are Ortolan bunting. These tiny songbirds are roasted with garlic, and eaten with hoods over the head to capture the intense flavour.

Recently a family of swans was blasted out of the sea with shotguns, and taken to the taxidermist. The killers were masked to prevent identification. We wonder what pleasure they get from this cruel trade, but trophy birds have been shot in Malta for centuries.

Among the migrating birds will be large numbers of swifts.

They scream around any tall building in Aberdeen during the summer months, and are the only birds which feed and sleep and mate on the wing.

They never roost or alight on the ground, nor do they touch any solid object until they nest. Their feet are barely strong enough to cling to the side of buildings, as they construct simple homes of mud and water.

The water and mud are scooped from puddles during flight, and any bird which lands is unable to regain flight.

A distant cousin, the Great Dusky Swift, nests behind the Iguazu waterfalls in Argentina, where the film, The Mission, was shot.

They approach the waterfall at some speed, and judge it perfectly, to arrive at their nest on the other side, invisible to us.

I watch them with wonder, and make my way after to a little Bistro for supper. A young Frenchman joins me with a bottle of wine. This is Bastille Day, he tells me, and he doesn’t want to celebrate alone. We drink to Liberty, Egality and Fraternity.

At night, a psalm in the Divine Office seems so apt: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork”. My thoughts wander to the swift. Invisible to us, on the other side of the waterfall, young are being raised and fed, as parent birds spare themselves no rest in the quest for food.

Is this an image of eternity? As we leave this world, and friends say goodbye to us, this is only the end of one journey, and the start of another. On a distant horizon, invisible to them, others are waiting to receive us. Welcome, they will say, welcome to the portals of eternity.

Great Dusky Swifts, hundreds of which can be seen flying through the mist of the falls, and which nest on the rocks behind the curtain of water.

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faithandculture

Light of the North

SCRIPTURE CAKE

Margaret Bradley’s

FOOD AND FAITH

Scripture Cake, also called Bible Cake, Scriptural Cake or Old Testament Cake is traditionally made for Christmas, Easter or Weddings. Its origins are unknown but it was popular in Britain and America in the nineteenth century where recipes could be found in Victorian Newspapers and Good Housekeeping Magazines. American pioneering families are said to have carried Scripture Cake recipes with them across the prairies.

Today the recipes frequently turn up in church newsletters as money-raising games and quizzes.

A Scripture Cake is a puzzle, requiring the cook to read the bible in order to discover what ingredients are needed in the recipe. It has been used as a fun way to teach youngsters both baking and Bible verses. It is a great dish to take to a church supper and also show off your knowledge of the bible!

Below is the recipe, along with the passages it refers to.

Give yourself a challenge. Try making the cake but cover the passages and the cheat insertions and see how you get on.

Good luck!

RECIPE FOR SCRIPTURE CAKE • • • • • • • • • • • •

200g Judges V:25 (Butter) “He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk,” ie butter.

250g Jeremiah VI:20 (Sugar) “What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.”

3 tbsp of I Samuel XIV:25 (Honey) “The entire army entered the woods, and there was honey on the ground.”

4 of Jeremiah XVII:11 (Eggs) “Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay, are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.” (Do not use partridge eggs).

170g 1 Samuel XXX:12 (Raisins) “…part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.”

170g Nahum III:12 (Figs) “All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.”

Numbers XVII:8 (Almonds) “The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds.”

500g I Kings IV:22 (Flour) Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour.

1 tsp II Chronicles IX:9 (Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) “Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”

1 tsp Leviticus II:13 (Salt)– “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.”

2 tsp Amos IV:5 (Baking Powder-leavening) “Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings– boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD.” Half cup of Judges IV:19 (Milk) “‘I’m thirsty,’ he said. ‘Please give me some water.’ She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.”

For baking instructions follow Solomon’s prescription for making a good boy, Proverbs 23:14, and you will have a good cake, “You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol. In other words mix/beat well.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together the Judges V:25 and Jeremiah VI:20 and then beat in Jeremiah XVII:11 one at a time, beating well after each one. Sift together I Kings IV:22, Amos IV:5, Leviticus II:13 and II Chronicles IX:9. Add alternately with Judges IV:19 to the creamed mixture. Stir in I Samuel XIV:25 and fold in Samuel XXX:12, Nahum III:12 and half of Numbers XVII:8. Mix well. Turn into a well greased / lined tin. Sprinkle the remaining Numbers XVII:8 on top and press gently into the batter. Bake at 325 degrees F for about 60 minutes. Test with a skewer. When ready remove from the oven and let it cool for 30 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a rack.

“Therefore, I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?” Matthew 6:25,26 Page 32

Light of the North

faithandculture

Poetic Licence Canon Bill Anderson delves into some of his favourite inspirational verse

Crossing the Bar

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.

Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809-92 The poem above deals imaginatively with the transition of the soul from this life to the next. Perhaps its greatest appeal lies in the sustained calm and dignity of the imagery. Departure into life eternal is likened to a mariner's putting out to sea, and crossing the harbour bar as darkness is falling and the full tide is about to turn. Quietly devotional, the poem pictures the great moment of the soul's encounter with God, the ultimate Pilot. For the individual dying there is no call for sadness, for this passing will be marked by the absence of worry and care.

Theologically there may be faults here, but the piece has from time to time been read at funerals, and has been of comfort. The author himself had a good appreciation of the sea. He was,after all, brought up near the Lincolnshire coast. That his work has somewhat fallen out of fashion is regrettable. Some of his detractors have been eminent, from Thomas Carlyle to F.R. Leavis, but so have some of his defenders, notably T.S. Eliot, who declared that he had "the finest ear of any English poet since Milton�.

I add this traditional Keltic death-blessing (collected by Alexander Carmichael in the 19th century). It complements Tennyson’s verses attractively: May the Father take you In his fragrant clasp of love, When you go across the flooding streams And the black river of death.

The next issue of the Light of the North will be published in the Spring. If you would like to sponsor the next issue or a page of the issue, perhaps in memory of a loved one or to celebrate a special occasion, please contact our advertising manager Sandra Townsley. Tel: 01463 831 133 or email:Sedstown@aol.com

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Light of the North

humour

Humour from the Vestry "It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously." - Oscar Wilde

Classroom Howlers

He has a false eye, but he can see through it; it’s made out of glass.

In this course the teacher and pupils are kept constantly on the verge of mental exertion.

No part of a cow is wasted; even the skin is used to put on the top of hot milk.

Pantaloon after pantaloon marched up the hill.

Sopranos sing notes with tails up; altos sing notes with tails down.

The way to have nice manners is to pick up any food with your fork.

A toadstool is a thing that looks like a mushroom then if you eat it you die and you know it is not a mushroom.

A baby is the most useful mammal because it will be a great help to its family when it grows up.

To find the centre of a given circle first get a pair of compasses and draw the circle. Hold the paper to the light and see the hole in the middle. That is the centre.

A point is that which will not appear any bigger even if you get a magnifying glass.

Our school is ventilated by hot currants.

When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why on earth would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

How to Buy a Horse Ethan walks into a barn with a farmer to buy a horse. The horse is laid down in some straw. After giving the horse the once-over Ethan says, "This horse hasn't got any shoes on."

The farmer replies "Well he hasn't got up yet.

Waterford Wife A Waterford wife, Pauline, was keeping a close eye on her new neighbours. 'They seem perfectly devoted to each other,' she opined to husband, Ryan. 'He kisses her every time he goes out and even blows kisses to her from the window. Why don't you do that?'

'But, I hardly know the woman,' was Ryan's reply.

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Goliath's Grief!

Why was Goliath so surprised when David hit him with a stone? Because nothing like this had ever entered his head before.

The Cost of Living God said to Adam, "I am going to make you a helper, a companion. What would you like your companion to be like?" Adam replied, "Well I want someone that is humorous, witty, intelligent, compassionate, caring, loving, trusting, polite, generous and beautiful."

God paused a moment after Adam's wish list and told Adam that a companion like that 'would cost him an arm and a leg.' Adam seemed a little dejected and then brightly replied: "What can I get for a Rib?" The Confused Samaritan A man was beaten up by robbers on a road to London.

He lay there, half dead and in bad shape. A Priest came along, saw him and passed by on the other side. Next, a monk came by but also walked quickly on the other side.

Finally, a social worker came along, looked at the man and said "Whoever did this needs help!"

Bernie, a Somerset farmer, was in a cafĂŠ having lunch when he noticed his old friend, Big Matthew. What really caught his attention was that Matthew was wearing an earring.

Bernie knew his old mate to be a very conservative fellow, and he was curious about his sudden change in 'fashion sense.'

So he approached Big Mat and gently enquired, 'Ooo, argh, Big Mat, I didn't know you was into earrings an' that.'

'No big deal, Bernie, argh but 'tis only an earring,' Big Mat replied rather sheepishly.

Bernie, the farmer, was silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity got the better of him and he demanded, 'So, Big Mat, then 'ow long have you been wearing one then?'

'Ahaaa, ever since my wife found it in the glove compartment of my lorry,' Matthew answered.

Irish Punctuality An Irish professor of Literature was at a conference in Spain. As a conversational ice breaker, his Spanish host asked if the Irish had a Gaelic word similar in meaning to the Spanish - maĂąana. Sure said the professor, we have ÂżYH ZRUGV VLPLODU WR PDxDQD EXW QRQH RI WKHP KDYH TXLWH the same sense of urgency.

Amen to that!

When my older brother, Shay, was very young, he always walked up to the church altar with my mother when she took communion.

On one occasion, he tugged at her arm and asked, 'What does the priest say when he gives you the host?' Mum whispered something in Shay's ear.

Imagine his shock many years later when he learned that the priest doesn't say, 'Be quiet until you get back to your seat.'

Child Psychology A new teacher thought she would use what she learned in her psychology courses. She said to her class, "Everyone who thinks they are stupid, please stand up."

After a few seconds, one boy stood. "Do you think you're stupid?" she asked.

"No, miss, but I just didn't want you to have to stand there all by yourself."

Light of the North

crossword

WORD No. 27

This issue’s competition winner will receive a copy of Bishop Hugh Gilbert’s latest book, ‘‘Tale of Quisquis - Reading the Rule of St Benedict as Story’’. Just send your completed entry by the 1st February to the Light of the North, Ogilvie Centre, 16 Huntly Street, Aberdeen AB10 1SH. First correct entry drawn out of the hat is the winner.

Answers to last issue’s crossword Across: 1. Sofa 5. Saul 7. Bequest 8. Nazareth 10. Cope 12. Meet 14. Upstaged 16. Idolator 17. Eden 18. Odes 19.

Separate 22. Auction 23. Noon 24. Thou Down: 1. Sion 2.

Abba 3. Aqueduct 4. Seth 5. Stockade 6. Luke 9. Amended 11. Pretext 13. Talisman 15. Seraphim 18. Oxen 19. Sick 20.

Rent 21. Esau

Little Horror Sudoku No. 14 If you prefer sudoku to crosswords then you still have a chance to be a prize winner with our super tough sudoku puzzle.

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

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

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Across 6. Church of the Vatican (7, 6) 8. Great joy (7) 11. He will — leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:8)(5) 12. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love — for ever (Psalm 118:29) (7) 13. Tidal flow (3) 15. Ancient Greek (5) 16. Home for a priest (7) 17. Known for white cliffs(5) 18. A child’s question! (3) 19. Wander off the subject (7) 22. Map (5) 23. No longer living (7) 26. Result of the Reformation (13)

Down 1. Intention (4) 2. Headwear (5) 3. Do something (3) 4. Title of a king (7) 5. Prophet (8) 7. Gallery (4) 9. Gain from a bequest (7) 10. Care for (7) 11. Adjacent (7) 14. Group of monks (8) 16. Cornish town (7) 20. Leave of absence for the priest (5) 21. Mud (4) 24. One of the sons of Ham (Genesis 10:6)(4) 25. Poisonous serpent (3)

Congratulations to our last competition winner, Mrs R. May from Banchory

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

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

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

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Light of the North

Come and study at the School of the Annunciation, a centre for the formation of adults where the Catholic Faith is joyfully transmitted in all its beauty, depth and vigour. Equip yourself for the mission given to us in baptism by Christ through His Church. All courses are harmonised with the rhythm of the Divine Office sung by the Monastic Community at Buckfast Abbey.

From Summer Schools and short courses at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, UK, to the distance learning Diploma in New Evangelisation. The School of the Annunciation will support you through its collaborative learning methodology. www.schooloftheannunciation.com Telephone: +44(0) 1364 645660 twitter: @OfAnnunciation Facebook: School of the Annunciation

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