Dougalthink

Ready to be changed.

2012-02-19T18:10:00.001Z

The Transfiguration by Raphael.

The Gospel for today is that of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:-2ff). Which makes sense in that it prepares us for the revelation of God's glory that unfolds through the season of Lent, climaxing in the blazing joy of the Easter Vigil. It is interesting that in Byzantine icons of the Transfiguration, the emphasis is light and the manifestation of the glory of God. Such icons try to convey the "uncreated light" of divine glory.

When we move from thinking that God is actually like our mental or artistic pictures of him/her/it, even in Christ, and recognising that our images (mental artistic, verbal or philosophical) are simply partial glimpses of the immense and incomprehensible nature of the Triune God, then we understand the idea of Transfiguration better . The Apostles saw and didn't fully understand but understood a bit more and grew somewhat in spiritual stature - they got a bit closer to God.

We often imagine that is closeness is only attained by "spiritual" means - prayer fasting penance etc. But St Maximus the Confessor begs to differ in a sermon he wrote on Charity:

"The Lord himself reminds us: Whoever loves me will keep my commandments. And this is my commandment: that you love one another. So the man who does not love his neighbour does not obey God’s command. But one who does not obey his command cannot love God. A man is blessed if he can love all men equally. Moreover, if he truly loves God, he must love his neighbour absolutely. Such a man cannot hoard his wealth. Rather, like God himself, he generously gives from his own resources to each man according to his needs.

Since he imitates God’s generosity, the only distinction he draws is the person’s need. He does not distinguish between a good man and a bad one, a just man and one who is unjust. Yet his own goodness of will makes him prefer the man who strives after virtue to the one who is depraved.

A charitable mind is not displayed simply in giving money; it is manifested still more by personal service as well as by the communication of God’s word to others: In fact, if a man’s service toward his brothers is genuine and if he really renounces worldly concerns, he is freed from selfish desires. For he now shares in God’s own knowledge and love. Since he does possess God’s love, he does not experience weariness as he follows the Lord his God. Rather, following the prophet Jeremiah, he withstands every type of reproach and hardship without even harbouring an evil thought toward any man. For Jeremiah warns us: Do not say: “We are the Lord’s temple.” Neither should you say: “Faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ can save me.” By itself faith accomplishes nothing. For even the devils believe and shudder.

No, faith must be joined to an active love of God which is expressed in good works. The charitable man is distinguished by sincere and long-suffering service to his fellow man: it also means using things aright."

Lenten observance? Don't just pray -do!

Anglicans and Orthodoxy

2012-02-13T22:11:00.000Z

SS Cyril & Methodius, 11th Century fresco, Basilica of S Clemente Rome

Here is some interesting ecumenical news for fans of unity between Churches: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/anglicans.and.orthodox.churches.formalise.ecumenical.relationship/29274.htm

The Oriental Orthodox are the old "Monophysite" (now referred to as "Miaphysite") Churches. However, back in 1984 the Pope and the Patriarch noted that the Chalcedonian schism was not seen as terribly relevant, and they issued this common statement:

"The confusions and schisms that occurred between their Churches in the later centuries, they realise today, in no way affect or touch the substance of their faith, since these arose only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae adopted by different theological schools to express the same matter. Accordingly, we find today no real basis for the sad divisions and schisms that subsequently arose between us concerning the doctrine of Incarnation. In words and life we confess the true doctrine concerning Christ our Lord, notwithstanding the differences in interpretation of such a doctrine which arose at the time of the Council of Chalcedon."

This Anglican /Oriental Orthodox agreement is particularly good news, given that tomorrow is the Feast of SS Cyril and Methodius, who were the great missioners of the Slavs, engaged in inter faith dialogue with Islam (albeit with a nasty anti-Jewish slant) or to quote Wikipedia: "Cyril's mastery of theology and command of both Arabic & Hebrew made him eligible for his first mission. He was sent to the Abbasid Caliph to discuss the principle of the Holy Trinity with Arab theologians, and to improve relations between the Caliphate and the Empire.

Cyril took an active role in relations with the other two monotheistic religions, Islam and Judaism. He penned fiercely anti-Jewish polemics, perhaps connected with his mission to the Khazar Khaganate, located near the Sea of Azovand ruled by a Jewish king who allowed Jews, Muslims, and Christians to live peaceably side by side. He also undertook a mission to the Arabs with whom, according to the "Vita", he held discussions. He is said to have learnt the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Arabic languages during this period.

The second mission (860), requested by the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch Photius, was a missionary expedition to the Khazar Khaganate in order to prevent the expansion of Judaism there. This mission was unsuccessful, as later the Khagan imposed Judaism on his people as the national religion." Cyril & Methodius are patron saints of Ecumenicism, especially between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church Churches and also of Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Europe. Europe. Give thanks and pray for more unity between Christians.

Lord of all,
who gave to your servants Cyril and Methodius
the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavs:
make your whole Church one as you are one
that all Christians may honour one another,
and east and west acknowledge
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and you, the God and Father of all;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

The New Bishop!

2012-02-12T22:08:00.000Z

As you might have noticed, we in the Diocese of Embra have been electificating a new Bishop. Confidentiality and all that means I can't give a blow by blow account of the process ("No Canon's egos were harmed in the making of this new bishop" and other such disclaimers may be issued elsewhere) but I am personally well chuffed that the Dean, the Very Rev Dr John Armes of St John's Princes Street (that weel kent site for leftist graffiti and Choral Mattins), was elected. His style has enabled good and creative dialogue to be held with disparate viewpoints both within the Anglican internal context and in Interfaith and political concerns. And he has been clear about his unease with the whole Anglican Covenant thing and solidly supportive of LGBT people and clergy and in favour of Same Sex relationships being normalised within the Church. In other words a decent middle of the road Anglican Churchman with sensibly liberal views on some sensitive matters. And nice and pastoral man (who vaguely resembles the late Vladimir Lenin minus the taste for gulags!)

I prepared for all this electing by going to see "Avenue Q" at the Playhouse the night before but resisted the temptation to go from Electing a Bishop to viewing the new Muppet Movie! Good stuff (like Sesame Street but with refs to porn and being gay and Everyone being a little bit racist!).

St Scholastica, bossy nun!

2012-02-09T22:46:00.001Z

St Scholastica (c. 480 – 10 February 547) was the twin sister of St. Benedict. St. Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues, tells us that she was a nun and leader of a community of women at Plombariola, about five miles from Benedict's abbey at Monte Cassino. We do not know what rule this community followed, although it seems most likely it was the Rule of St. Benedict. Scholastica was dedicated to God from an early age (some versions of her life suggest she preceded Benedict in godliness, and he came to holiness after she did). The most often told story about her is that she would, once a year, go and visit her brother at a place near his abbey, and they would spend the day worshipping together and discussing sacred texts and issues.

One year at the end of the day, they had supper and continued their conversation. When Benedict tried to leave, she protested, and begged him to stay with her for the evening so they could continue their discussions. He refused, insisting that he needed to return to his monastery. At that point, Scholastica closed her hands in prayer, and after a moment, a wild storm started outside the guest house they were in. Benedict asked, "What have you done?". She replied, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery." Benedict was unable to return that night, and they spent the night in discussion. According to Gregory's Dialogues, 3 days later, from his cell, Benedict saw his sister's soul leaving the earth and ascending to heaven in the form of a shining white dove. Her Feast Day is 10 February. She is the patron saint of nuns, convulsive children, and is invoked against storms and rain.

Lord God, may we, like Saint Scholastica,

serve you with an unsullied love.

Then our joy will be full

as we receive from your loving hand

all that we desire and ask.

through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever. Amen.

Serving the Servers

2012-02-08T23:21:00.000Z

Tonight I was off after work to the Cathedral (aka the Big Cauld Church in the West End) for the Edinburgh Servers General Meeting. By Edinburgh, I mean everything in the Diocese that isn't in the Borders (their servers come under the Fraternity of St Boisil and ain't our problem!). The meeting lasted just over 1/2 an hour and we ended up with the old Committee + a new Treasurer (aka the Guardian of the Sacred-Sock-under-the-Bed-with-the-pennies-in-it) & 3 new (and tell it not in Gath) and slightly younger members! The good thing about it was that it was a gathering from all over the diocese: Falkirk, the various City churches (St Ninian's, St John's Princes St, St Michael's, the Cathedral, St Peter's and St Mark's Portobello) and even Haddington. Sometimes you start to think that servers only exist in the Spike Shops so it was good to see some broad representation at a do. We finished with Compline in the Lady Chapel which is lovely in the quiet and shadow - even if it is utterly perishing!

Praying when tired.

2012-02-07T22:44:00.003Z

When it's late and I haven't had time to do any evening office (like when I'm on the backshift), I sometimes opt for prayers with less words and more pictures:-). Or to put it another way, I find when I'm tired the Daily Office can simply involve too may unfamiliar words and phrases - variable psalms and canticles etc. Something utterly familiar which I can do with my eyes shut is a blessing. Being me, the tangible nature of the rosary (beads running soothingly through your fingers) commends itself and also the fact that it uses a few familiar prayers and no more than 5 "pictures from the scriptures" in any given decade.

I was interested to discover that there is another way to start the Rosary than the one i was taught using the Apostle's Creed. it's the Domincan method. The Dominicans follow the medieval custom of beginning the Rosary like the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the Rosary being known as Mary’s prayer.

Let us pray.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

V. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

R. Blessed art though amongst women and

blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

V. Lord, open my lips. +

R. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

V. God come to my aid.

R. Lord make haste to help me.

V. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

(Alleluia.) (Praise be to Thee, O Lord, King of everlasting glory.)

It makes life a bit easier when you're tired. Worth a try perhaps?

Simple Pleasures

2012-02-05T23:57:00.000Z

Apologies to Madpriest for nicking this rather joyful little pikkie. Makes you think though - what makes you happy? A fast car? Fine wine? Or a good meal, good friends and a peaceful end to a day that has been just..pleasant? Personally, I've grown to appreciate more and more the simpler things that give me pleasure as the years fall past.

The words of the General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book sum it all up:

AlmightyGod, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give youhumble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to usand to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation,preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above allfor your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by ourLord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope ofglory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selvesto your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousnessall our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with youand the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

It's been a good day today. Thank God.

Good Holmes and new Bishops.

2012-02-04T18:11:00.001Z

It has been brought to my attention (during the lunch break at the Electoral Synod - and no no new bishop yet as this is the "hustings" meeting, we actually vote next week) that I've been blathering on about saints a lot recently. True indeed. The nearest thing to sort of social life I have had recently was an outing to the pictures with Rachel to watch "Sherlock Holmes 2" Good fun it was too. having never gone to see one, I was pleasantly surprised by Robert Downey Jr as Holmes, rather impressed by Jude Law as Watson and quietly freaked by Jared Harris as Moriarty. Actually I was more freaked by a moment when suddenly he was the living, breathing spit of his father, the late, great Richard Harris. (That's the original Dumbledore to the young and Cromwell opposite Alec Guinness's King Charles I for the film buffs). I still adore the Jeremy Brett TV series best of all and quite enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch's efforts in Sherlock. And of course the books are sublime!

The electing of a bishop is an essentially quite humdrum process to anyone who's ever been in politics. 3 candidates, 3 presentations to say why we should pick X or Y, 1/2 an hour to create some questions. Then lunch and the candidates respond to the questions (4 composite queries were submitted). Personally I'd rather have had unedited questions from the floor a la General Synod and none of the "redacted by the primus" queries which really didn't give us much of a chance to get a feel for the candidates style under fire. However, the process was efficiently done and simply confirmed me in my reaction when Bishop Brian retired. I was asked who I thought might be a good bishop, I named a certain priest who is one of the 3 shortlisted and after today's hustings, I felt his vision and manner were what I think the diocese needs just now. which I did a year ago. No surprises there then. At least I'm consistent.

Candlemass

2012-02-01T23:36:00.000Z

The Black Madonna of Candelaria, Tenerife. Feast day today.

Candlemass is one of my favourite festivals of the BVM. And one of the oldest: there are sermons on the Feast extant by Methodius of Patara (died 312), Cyril of Jerusalem (deid 360), Gregory the Theologian (away upstairs 389), Amphilochius of Iconium (passed on in 394), Gregory of Nyssa (off to glory in 400), and John Chrysostom (effectively martyred in 407).

The earliest reference to special liturgies are recorded by the travelling nun Egeria, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land (381–384). She reported that 14 February was solemnly kept in Jerusalem with a procession to the Basilica of the Resurrection, with a a sermon on Luke 2:22 (the Candlemas Gospel), and a celebration of the Divine Liturgy. The date of 14 February indicates that in Jerusalem at that time, Christ's birth was celebrated on 6 January, Epiphany. Egeria wrote to the nuns at home:

XXVI. "The fortieth day after the Epiphany is undoubtedly celebrated here with the very highest honour, for on that day there is a procession, in which all take part, in the Anastasis, and all things are done in their order with the greatest joy, just as at Easter. All the priests, and after them the bishop, preach, always taking for their subject that part of the Gospel where Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple on the fortieth day, and Simeon and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, saw him, treating of the words which they spake when they saw the Lord, and of that offering which his parents made. And when everything that is customary has been done in order, the sacrament is celebrated, and the dismissal takes place."

In 542 the feast was established throughout the Byzantine Empire by Justinian I. In 541 a terrible plague had broken out in Constantinople, killing thousands. The Emperor, in consultation with the Patriarch of Constantinople, ordered a period of fasting and prayer throughout the entire Empire. On the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord (the Orthodox name for Candlemas), there were great processions in towns and villages and solemn prayer services to ask for deliverance and the plague ceased. In thanksgiving, the feast was upgraded.

In the West, the feast 1st appears in the Gelasian Sacramentary (7th/8th centuries). There it was called the new title of the feast of Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Candlemas is the most ancient of all the festivals in honor of the Virgin Mary. The date of the feast in Rome was moved forward to 2 February, after the late 4th century when the feast of the Nativity was fixed as 25 December. It spread slowly at first; not being found in the Lectionary of Silos (650) nor in the Calendar (731–741) of Sainte-Geneviève of Paris. By the tenth century the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, had a formula used for blessing the candles. Candlemas became important enough to find its way into the secular calendar. It was the traditional day to remove the cattle from the hay meadows, and from the field that was to be ploughed and sown that spring. References to it are common in late medieval and early Modern literature; Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is recorded as having its first performance on Candlemas Day, 1602.

Almighty and ever-living God,

on this day your Only-Begotten Son

was presented in the Temple,

in flesh and blood like ours.

Purify us in mind and heart

that we may meet you in your glory.

through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God for ever and ever. Amen.

St Bride's Day

2012-01-31T22:50:00.000Z

St Bride's Cross

One of the great Irish saints, and patron of those powerful Scottish Lords, the Douglas's, Bride was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Faughart Church was founded by Saint Moninne in her honour and the old well, adjoining the ruined church there still attracts pilgrims.Because of the dubious historicity of the earliest accounts of her life, there is mucho debate as to the authenticity of her biographies. Allegedly her parents were Dubhthach, a pagan chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pict and slave, baptised by Saint Patrick. Some accounts suggest that her father was from Lusitania, kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to as a slave, rather like Saint Patrick. I like the idea of her humbler origins myself. A freed slave made mighty by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Fitting for the woman know as "the Mary of the Gaels".

St Bride was famous for her generosity to the poor. According to one tale, as a child, she once gave away her mother's entire store of butter. The butter was then replaced in answer to her prayers. She was allegedly "accidentally" ordained bishop, by one or other of the bishops Mel (d. 487) or Mac-Caille (d. c.489), probably being in Mág Tulach (Fartullagh, Co. Westmeath). Mel also granted her abbatial powers. She followed Saint Mel into the Kingdom of Teathbha (sections of modern Meath, Westmeath and Longford) in about 468.

Bride's small oratory at Kildare became a centre of religion and learning and eventually a cathedral city. She founded two monastery's, one for men, and the other for women, and appointed Saint Conleth as spiritual pastor of them. It has been frequently (mis) stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to Saint Conleth as Bishop of Kildare, but, as Archbishop Healy points out, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose Saint Conleth "to govern the church along with herself". Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior general of the monasteries in Ireland.

Bride also founded a school of art, metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the Book of Kildare, highly praised by Giraldus Cambrensis, but which has been missing since the Reformation. According to Giraldus, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".

Her friendship with Saint Patrick is attested by the following paragraph from the Book of Armagh: "Between Patrick and Brigid, the columns of the Irish, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many miracles". At Armagh there was a "Templum Brigidis" - namely the little abbey church known as "Regles Brigid", which contained some relics of the saint, destroyed in 1179.

Bride was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her "Adorned with gems and precious stones and crowns of gold and silver." Over the years her shrine became an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, February 1. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, Brigit's relics were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of Patrick and Columba. The relics of the three saints were discovered in 1185, and on June 9 of the following year were re interred in Down Cathedral.

St Bride's Cathedral Kildare.

Almighty God,
by whose grace St Bride, kindled with the fire of your love,
became a burning and a shining light in the Church:
inflame us with the same spirit of discipline and love,
that we may ever walk before you as children of light;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Conversion of St Paul

2012-01-25T22:35:00.004Z

Caravaggio, The Conversion of St Paul,Odescalchi Balbi Collection, Rome

I love the artwork (well it is my favourite, Caravaggio) but have never especially raved about the Conversion of Saul into Paul. It is striking and wonderful that God was able to use and transform the great persecutor into an instrument of mission, but in all honesty, I'm not fond of St Paul. I know he's terribly significant and important etc, but he's never really been one of my faves.. St John Chrysostom (a saint of whom I am rather more fond) preached this about him:

"The most important thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else; were he without it, it would be no satisfaction to be the friend of principalities and powers. He preferred to be thus loved and be the least of all, or even to be among the damned, than to be without that love and be among the great and honoured.

To be separated from that love was, in his eyes, the greatest and most extraordinary of torments; the pain of that loss would alone have been hell, and endless, unbearable torture.

So too, in being loved by Christ he thought of himself as possessing life, the world, the angels, present and future, the kingdom, the promise and countless blessings. Apart from that love nothing saddened or delighted him; for nothing earthly did he regard as bitter or sweet."

Centred on the love of God. That is ultimately what we who are Christians all ought to aspire to be.

Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion
may follow him in bearing witness to your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St Francis de Sales.

2012-01-23T22:42:00.003Z

Coat of arms of St Francis de Sales

St Francis de Sales is a great saint. Some quotations give a flavour of his gentle spirituality.

There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love—every man works his oar voluntarily!

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working ; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.

Have patience with every one, but especially with yourself. (How very 12 step!)

Quoted by Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus in The Spirit of Saint Francis de Sales.

I like this from his "Introduction to the Devout Life":

"I say that devotion must be practised in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.

Moreover, just as every sort of gem, cast in honey, becomes brighter and more sparkling, each according to its colour, so each person becomes more acceptable and fitting in his own vocation when he sets his vocation in the context of devotion. Through devotion your family cares become more peaceful, mutual love between husband and wife becomes more sincere, the service we owe to the prince becomes more faithful, and our work, no matter what it is, becomes more pleasant and agreeable."

Grant, Lord, that in the service of our fellow-men

we may always reflect your own gentleness and love,

and so imitate Saint Francis de Sales,

whom you made all things to all men for the saving of souls.

through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever. Amen.

St Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Gawd help America!

2012-01-22T23:47:00.004Z

The US Republican Presidential candidate selection process is rather fun (!) - at any rate to an ex-political-hack such as myself. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/u-republicans-romney-gingrich-vie-south-carolina-win-000020425.html To lift a quote from the article: "Some Florida voters were delighted by Gingrich's rise. "We are for Gingrich all the way," said Ada Rodriguez, 75, a real estate broker. "Obama is a socialist. He is the same as Castro," referring to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the enemy of many in Florida's Cuban exile community."

If dear Ada (doubtless, an awfy nice wee auld wifie and all that) really thinks that the current occupant of yon place on Pennsylvania Ave. which the Royal Marines burnt in 1812 is a Commie, then she's a) never read Marx b) or Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement c) has no idea what Fidel Castro has actually done (both good and bad) and d) would doubtless see David Cameron as some sort of mad pinko. In short, many of the most quotable in both politics (and indeed religion) are basically theoretically illiterate in the particular field on which they pronounce. Trouble is, they can vote for and create an outcome that messes up the lives of billions who can't really act against their dafter ideas. That said, you really can't ban the incurably biased or stupid from having a vote. That would be undemocratic. And a bad thing.

let's just hope the US electors (historically capable of picking great presidents like FDR or Teddy Roosevelt and utter disgraces like Warren Harding) can go for someone sensible from whatever party they as a majority favour. Bampots with nukes are a seriously bad idea.

Freedom? It's a dangerous thing.

2012-01-21T00:30:00.002Z

The press reports about the successful prosecution of a number of leaflet distributors in Derby for passing out anti-gay leaflets which alluded to the possible desirability of the death penalty for LGBT people (see http://uk.news.yahoo.com/muslims-guilty-over-gay-leaflets-152353818.html ) make me both pleased (that the law has acted to defend LGBT people from hatred) and thoughtful. The fact that all of the individuals concerned are Muslims is almost entirely irrelevant at one level - plough any set of sacred Scriptures (Christian, Jewish Islamic, Buddhist or Hindu) and you will find anti-Gay or potentially anti-gay material. Of course there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that they and their supporters will see themas martyrs like St Vincent here.

But there is always the slight worry in my mind that any such legal action against faith based demonstrations in what might be called the political sphere (and LGBT rights are a matter of politics) could later be used for a more general repression of the voice of the Faiths when they are critical of current political trends or developments. legitimate faith inspired dissent has a honourable place and a decent one in our political life. For year CND was led by outspoken and faith inspired clergy like Canon John Collins (below)

and Monsignor Bruce Kent. So, whilst I'm glad the leaflet distributors were made to feel the full weight of a wise law, let us never forget that there should always be freedom for those who religious convictions compel them to dissent from the prevailing viewpoint as long as it doesn't advocate violence.

Christian Unity Week

2012-01-18T22:51:00.000Z

Christian Unity has long been a passion of mine (despite my intense detestation of the typical Presbyterian monologue services I all too often have had to endure in its furtherance!) My personal theology is that of that brilliant and appropriate collect from 1929 Scottish Prayer Book for the unity of all Christian people:

O GOD, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord: that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The material for this year's unity services is from Poland and their prayers of repentance and for unity and Transformation are excellent.

Prayer of repentance

L: Almighty God, in spite of the Unity we receive in Christ, we persist in our disunity. Have mercy on us!
C: Have mercy on us!
L: We harden our hearts when we hear the Gospel. Have mercy on us!
C: Have mercy on us!
L: We fail to serve You in our brothers and sisters. Have mercy on us!
C: Have mercy on us!
L: The disobedience of Adam and Eve brought suffering and death to us, and creation was wounded and torn apart. Have mercy on us!
C: Have mercy on us!
L: May God Almighty have mercy on us, forgive our sins, and lead us to eternal life.
C: Amen.

Prayers for Unity and Transformation

L: United in Christ who gives us the victory, let us pray to God:
For the Church, the Body of Christ, that we might truly live the unity we receive through the Holy Spirit. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For the leaders of our churches that they may be faithful to the unity to which all Christians are called. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For the nations of the world, that they may live in peace with one another and promote justice for all. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For all people, that we may be good stewards of the earth. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For the people of our society, that we may be transformed to live as caring neighbours to each other. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For the sick and suffering, that they may be transformed by your healing presence. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For all families and households, that their struggles and joys may find their fulfilment in your love. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: For the dying, that they may be comforted by your presence. God our strength:
C: Change us by your grace.
L: Lord, stand in our midst and grant us unity and peace.
C: Amen.

Prayer is the foundation of true Christian unity, not doctrinal committees. Only it can break down centuries of mistrust, prejudice and misunderstanding. if we all pray and keep on praying, something will happen!

Ouch!

2012-01-12T21:14:00.001Z

I'm somewhat bruised today, as one of our service user walloped me yesterday and my thumb is rather black and blue. Nothing fatal and the GP sent me off to the Minor Injuries Unit at the Western General where they peeked and poked and did an X Ray and assured me that nothing's broken and it's just a cast of not straining it, elevate and ice pack it and use paracetamol! The good thing was I was was in and out inside 30 mins and just walked in and was seen. The NHS can be very good indeed when you need it.

Yes I know it's St Aelred and St Bendict Biscop today but I don't feel especially like musing on any saints today. Anyway, Kimberly Bohan does it better (see http://wonderfulexchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/aelred/ ). So I'll just share this:

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Makes sense to me!

Busy Day

2012-01-07T23:12:00.000Z

It sure was! After my usual shift, it was a bus to Haymarket to meet up with a workmate and thence by diesel choo-choo to Central Park to watch my lot (the Blue Brazil) play his lot (the Hibees) in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup. We lost 3-2 - which wasn't bad really against a (currently) Premier League side. Well, we we're obviously outclassed - which really ought to worry them at Easter Road! Then back to Embra for a house Blessing, Eucharist and rather enjoyable dinner of Pork done as it is (allegedly) in Valencia. It involves marmalade and chili so is obviously not breakfast fare!

And since it's been busy a wee prayer to Notre Dame de Bon Secours (Prompt Succour as they call her in the Anglophone bits of Louisiana) seems appropriate!

O Mary, OurLady of PromptSuccour, bright Star of the Sea shining upon life's stormy ocean, weimploreyour speedy help. Shining Star of our tempest-tossed souls, lovingly guide us amongtemptation'sheaving billows and treacherous shoals, and lead us safely intoeternity'speaceful harbour. O sweetest of mothers, we seek your PROMPT SUCCOUR nowand at the hour of our death. Amen.

Epiphany

2012-01-06T23:00:00.000Z

Shrine of the Three Magi, Cologne Cathedral, Germany

The Feast of the Epiphany was 1st observed by the Eastern Churches. Well, Wisdom comes from the East (as is clear from the fact that 3 out of 4 ancient Scottish universities are on the East Coast!). It was originally a general celebration of the Incarnation of Christ. It included a commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Wise Men, all of Jesus' childhood events (none recorded in the Canonical Scriptures it has to be said - but hey, Tradition!), his Baptism and his 1st miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. The Baptism, it has to be said, was the main event commemoration wise.

The date of the feast was fixed very early on. The Biblical Wise Men, representing the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus, unlike Herod, who sought to kill him. Saint John Chrysostom said of the interaction between the Magi and Herod's courtiers: "The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way the birth of Jesus would be made known to all."

St. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote that the Epiphany is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ's "Birthday; that is, His Epiphany"). He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day. (Aye, right!)

In a sermon delivered on Christmas Day 380, St. Gregory of Nazianzus referred to today as ta theophania ("the Theophany", an alternative name for Epiphany), calling it a commemoration of he hagia tou Christou gennesis ("the holy nativity of Christ") and he told his listeners that they would soon be celebrating the baptism of Christ. Then, on 6/7 January, he preached,declaring that the celebration of the birth of Christ and the visitation of the Magi had already taken place, and that they would now commemorate his Baptism.(Confused? Well, we may be missing the odd sermon here and there I suppose)

Today in Eastern Orthodoxy, the emphasis is on the shining forth and revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Second Person of the Trinity at the time of his baptism. It is also celebrated because, according to tradition, the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist marked one of only two occasions when all three Persons of the Trinity manifested themselves simultaneously to humanity: God the Father by speaking through the clouds, God the Son being baptised in the river, and God the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove descending from heaven (the other occasion was the Transfiguration). Thus today is considered to be a feast of the Trinity.

I like that. It's not just about Jesus - it's about the relationship of God with God, with us and with the whole of Creation. and it's about listen to strange messengers and welcoming strangers who may teach us of the reality of God, even if they come from a different culture.

Into the future!

2012-01-04T13:15:00.000Z

Happy New Year! And our first real action of the year was ... to post the darn invites to the wedding! Yes, I know the thing isn't till June but getting replies back, giving folks time to arrange annual leave etc meant that the Boss ruled that we do it now! Still, addressing cards whilst parked in front of a roasty hot coal fire isn't really a hardship! And it's done!

'Twas a quiet New Year - my having a tummy bug that meant I had a cup a soup as my entire daily food ration made this unavoidable, but a day snoozing whilst drining ginger beer with the occassional dose of immodium sort me fairly quickly and I enjoyed a 2 day lurk in the borders to recover. So now it's back to normal. Let's see what the year brings!

O Emmanuel

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000Z

Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the child Immanuel (16th cent. St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai).

The Latin antiphon is:

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,

exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:

veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.

or in English:

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,

the hope of the nations and their Saviour:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

It's based on one of the most familiar of the Advent/Christmas readings:

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

God is with us which is a scary and comforting thought. Scary because it means the Holy of Holies is among us, dwelling in an earthly tabernacle of frail flesh. Comforting because it means that God utterly identifies with us - adopts us - and grants us the Kingdom as a gift. Great, eh?

O Rex Gentium

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000Z

Christ the King, a detail from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck.

The Latin antiphon is:

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

which is in English:

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

"For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

"He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Isaiah 2:4

If you are going to acknowledge Christ as King of the Nations, then using a prayer from one of them may not be a bad thing.

"May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another. May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wildernesses - the children, the aged, the unprotected - be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood." Buddhist prayer

I can reconcile this one with my faith as the "beneficent celestials" to me are "angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven" . As to "attaining Buddahood" - well, being perfected in Christ through his Incarnation, Death and Resurrection is achieving perfect fulfilment or Buddahood. If Christ is the Cornerstone, then he draws all nations and faith to himself and perfects in due course all our errors and misunderstandings. or Anonymous Christianity - the theological idea that declares that those who have never heard the Gospel might be saved.

You can find traces of this idea in the Vatican 2 document "Lumen Gentium", which states that those "who no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation".^{(LG para 15)}

The German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner's put it more forcefully:Non-Christians could have "in [their] basic orientation and fundamental decision, accepted the salvific grace of God, through Christ, although [they] may never have heard of the Christian revelation."

^{King of the nations, bring ALL your children into the fullness of life that is your will for us all. Amen.}

O Oriens

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000Z

"Gero crucifix“, late 10th century, Cologne Cathedral, Germany
In Latin the antiphon is:

O Oriens,

splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:

veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

or in English:

O Morning Star,

splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

(NB: A literal translation of the Latin is "O Rising Sun", but the poetic "O Morning Star" is often preferred.)

Isaiah had written:

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined." Isaiah 9:2

Light from the East. The direction of the rising Sun, the reason why some of us still prefer to face east when celebrating the Eucharist . That light which is coming - the Light of the World.

This poem offers some food for reflection:
O Oriens Paradiso XXX; 61

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking”

Malcolm Guite

May the light ignite in our hearts a new sense of being called to worship, serve and love.

O Clavis David

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000Z

Samuel anointing David

The antiphon for today is:

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;

qui aperis, et nemo claudit;

claudis, et nemo aperit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

which is in English:

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

It draws on:

"I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open." Isaiah 22:22

"His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore." Isaiah 9:7

"To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah 42:7.

Again the promise of liberation and freedom. This paraphrase from (By A.C.A. Hall, Bishop of Vermont. A.R. Mowbray& Co., n.d. but c. 1914) gives food for reflection:

O Lord Jesu Christ, to Whom is given the throne and sceptre of David Thy father over the house of Israel,
that Thou mighest extend his kingdom over all peoples:
Thou didst come in our nature, as the Son of man forgiving sins, dispelling sickness and loosing bonds:
to Thee now is committed all authority in heaven and on earth,

and the powers of hell cannot withstand Thy word:
Come, we pray Thee, by Thy grace,

and through the instrumentality of Thy Church,
to loosen the prisoner from the chains of sin,
to enlighten with the glad tidings of Thy word all who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
that they may rejoice in the deliverance which Thou hast wrought.

It elliptically touches on the "political" impact of the Incarnation. But today, inspired by the likes of Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Trevor Huddleston, we are more likely to be pointed in our Christian critique of political policies. and rightly so. Perhaps it's a day to pray that the shadow of the Stalinist prison house will begin to shorten in North Korea?

O Radix Jesse

2011-12-18T23:27:00.001Z

Tree of Jessefrom the Master of James IV of Scotland, Flemish, Bruges and Ghent or Mechelen, 1510 - 1520. Tempera colours, gold, and ink on parchment 9 1/8 x 6 9/16 in. MS. LUDWIG IX 18, FOL. 65

The antiphon for today is:

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem Gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

or in English:

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Isaiah had written: "A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Isaiah 11:1 and "On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious." Isaiah 11:10

Jesse was the father of King David, and Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be of the house and lineage of David and be born in David’s city, Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).

Radical to think that it will be a poor Jewish boy from the butt end of the Roman Empire (Palestine was not a sought after posting) who the power brokers will belt up before and that he will be (as he is) the one to whom prayer is offered in one form or another in nearly every nation of the world. Oh dear - maybe the bankers ain't gonna fare so well on the day of judgement? Or the politicians?

O Adonai

2011-12-18T15:11:00.000Z

The prophet Isaiah

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,

qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

or:

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Isaiah prophesied:

"but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins." Isaiah 11:4-5

"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us." Isaiah 33:22

I was interested to discover this little fact about the "O antiphons": "The Os themselves already contain an answer to the riddled petitions they embody. Written out together across a page in Latin, the initial consonants of the antiphons (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia) form a reverse acrostic spelling Ero cras — I will be there tomorrow. And so they make for that generous and rare thing, a prayer to God that is its own answer from God." (from Anglicans Online" http://morgue.anglicansonline.org/051218/ ) So redemption is promised for the future. Of course, one of the classic criticisms of the Church is that it is very good at promising paradise tomorrow to those whose today is sheer hell on earth. The Holy Orthodox promised heaven to the Tsarist peasants if they kept quiet and didn't upset the system topped by their "little Father" the Tsar.

That isn't the prophetic vision: the vision of the Isaiah school of prophecy is a vision of justice for the most vulnerable. (And yes I do go with modern Biblical criticism on the authorship of Isaiah -tradition may say the book was written by THE Isaiah himself, but modern scholars have for over 100 yrs divided the book into 3 parts: Proto-Isaiah (chs 1–39), containing the words of the 8th century BC prophet & 7th century expansions; Deutero-Isaiah (chs 40–55), a 6th century BC work by an author who wrote towards the end of the Babylonian captivity; and Trito-Isaiah (chapters 56–66), probably written by a group of authors in Jerusalem shortly after the exile.) Of course, later interpreters of the Scriptures may put a different spin on what seems like a plain, straightforward and obvious text. Isaiah 7:14 for example, where the prophet assures the King that God will save the Kingdom of Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria and thatthe sign which will prove this is the forthcoming birth of a child called Emmanuel, "God With Us". The Hebrew grammar suggests that the "young woman" is already pregnant and therefore not a virgin.However, the Greek-speaking 1st century AD author of Matthew 1:23 interpreted it as a prophecy that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. And the Church has been stuck with this ever since. We all tend to spin the Scriptures to validate our own point of view. And course, I'm right and you're wrong/theologically unsophisticated/thick (delete what doesn't apply). Well, that's what we tend to do anyway.

^The Christian hope is that the 2nd coming, the arrival of the Kingdom of God, will bring true justice, God's justice, for all. The Porsche in the driveway of the splendour of your Basillica will be utterly unimportant in comparison to your walkly justly and acting fairly. Come that day of splendour and terror (and I imagine we'll all be bl**dy scared when it comes, even if we do live in love and trust with God and try to stress the joy and freedom of being a Christian) it is what we have to to bring the Kingdom nearer that will matter rather than our Wonga generating facility. Will we fare well or fail? I hope and trust we will but we have to do something about it.

O Sapientia

2011-12-17T23:28:00.000Z

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,

attingens a fine usque ad finem,

fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:

veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

or in English:

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,

reaching from one end to the other mightily,

and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

This liturgical antiphon for today is based on words from Isaiah:

"The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord." Isaiah 11:2-3

"he is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom." Isaiah 28:29

It would be quite flattering to be regarded as a source of Wisdom I imagine, but the other day I was regarded by a number of folks at Waverly Station as a source of information. They were all Chinese and kept on asking me if this was the train for London, despite the visible presence of a train person with a whistle on the platform. I wondered if I projected some mysterious aura of great knowledge? Rachel pointed out I was wearing my Russian black fur ushanka, complete with a red star with a hammer and sickle on it. They probably thought I was People's Police and might be helpful!!! (An ushanka is literally an "ear hat") - a Russian fur cap with ear flaps that can be tied up to the crown of the cap, or tied at the chin to protect the ears, jaw and lower chin from the cold. The word ushanka derives from ushi, "ears" in Russian.)

People can make assumptions about who they can find wisdom from. A dog collar for spiritual wisdom, an ushanka for practical help. Neither items of dress guarantee any wisdom in the wearer, even in the right context. Wisdom comes from both knowledge of and being experienced in the tradition and practise of the area in which wisdom is sought. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever." (Ps 111:10). Our wisdom comes from a source other than ourselves and it alone can teach us what the antiphon calls "prudence" which quells the devices and desires of our unruly hearts and draws us nearer to God. and god who is Wisdom draws near to us as we prepare to celebrate the feast of the Incarnation.

This, if you are interested, is what an ushanka looks like:

It keeps the wise man's head very warm BTW!

St Drostan's Day

2011-12-15T23:30:00.003Z

A page from the Book of Deer which is a source for the life of St Drostan .

Drostan was a Scottish (naturally!) abbot who ministered in the misty North about A.D. 600. All we know about him comes from Good (because he founded my alma mater Aberdeen University) Bishop Elphinstone's Aberdeen Breviary and the "Book of Deer", a ninth-century MSS. now in Cambridge University Library (nicked from us by the Engerlish or their more-French-than-anything-else allies in the Scottish nobility during the Wars of Independence and gifted to Cantab by the Wee Wee German Lairdie aka George I) but the two accounts don't entirely agree. He had links to the royal family of the Scoti - who were Irish, not Scots! When he showed signs of a religious vocation he was handed over to St. Columba, who trained him and professed him as a monk. He went with Columba to Aberdour in Buchan (the real Aberdour is, of course in Fife!) some 45 miles from Aberdeen. The Pictish ruler of the area gave them the site of Deer, fourteen miles away where they established a monastery, and when Columba returned to Iona he left St. Drostan there as abbot of the new monastery. On the death of the Abbot of Holywood a few years later, Drostan was chosen to succeed him. Afterwards, feeling called to a life of greater seclusion, he resigned the abbacy, headed north, and became a hermit at Glenesk. Here his holiness attracted the poor and needy, and many miracles are ascribed to him, including the restoration of sight to a priest named Symon. After his death his relics were transferred to Aberdour and preserved there in a stone coffin. The monastery of Old Deer, which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt for Cistercian monks in 1213 and continued until the Reformation.

Well, it's either remember him or celebrate the Emperor Nero's birthday so...

take yer pick!

Rejoice in the Lord Always!

2011-12-10T20:10:00.001Z

I haven't posted for a bit simply because Rachel's been up & I've been posting stuff for Advent elsewhere (https://lovebloomsbright.wordpress.com). However, Advent 3 is Gaudete Sunday, which takes its name from the Latin word Gaudete ("Rejoice"), the first word of the introit in the Mass Propers for Advent 3:

Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.".

It's one of the two Sundays in the year when rose-coloured vestments may be worn instead of violet, (or Sarum blue if you're Very Percy Dearmer!).

Rejoicing and thanksgiving are vital parts of the life of faith: without them, life descends into an unremmitting grind of trying (and generally failing) to "do the right thing". If Christians ain't joyful, then we are very unlikely to convince anyone that the our faith is life enhancing rather than life inhibiting. And if we can't do that, we're failing in our commission to go out and preach the GOOD News!

Smile! It's Gaudete Sunday!

Charles de Foucauld

2011-12-01T20:35:00.001Z

The last picture of Charles de Foucauld taken in 1914.

This Holy Failure was who we commemorated at Mass today. He failed because he founded a religious community which attracted no members and had not converted a single Tuareg tribesman before he died. He triumphed because his vision and spirituality inspired others years later to work for God in the desert, with the mentally ill and in the urban desert of the City. he also had some fine phrases and thoughts. Like this:

Prayer is just conversation with God: listening to him; speaking with him; gazing upon him in silence. The best prayer is the one in which there is the most love. Adoration, wordless admiration, that is the most eloquent form of prayer: that wordless admiration which contains the most passionate declaration of love. Charles de Foucauld.

Thanks be to God for Holy Failures.

Another Credo?

2011-11-28T20:09:00.001Z

Icon depicting Emperor Constantine (centre) and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381

Another Credo? The world and indeed the Church is full of them. Every Tom, Dick and Harriet with an interest in liturgy and an agenda to run can hash one together and proclaim it thus. A Feminist Creed, a Gay Creed a Socialist Creed etc, etc,etc..... I don't see any of them as replacements for the Ecumenical Creeds of the Undivided Church but to reflect on them every so often (or even to recite them in Church) can sharpen our understanding of the implications of the faith we profess. Like this one - Dorothy Sollee's German Creed:

I believe in God
who didn’t create a world
full of things that are the same,
who doesn’t rule in accordance with eternal laws
which are unchangeable
nor under the natural order
of poor and rich,
experts and uninformed
rulers and those who depend on their mercy.

I believe in God
who supports the protests of the living
and the change of all conditions
through our work
and through our politics.

I believe in Jesus Christ who was right when he,
as an ‘individual who can’t change anything’
just like usworked for the change of all conditions
and who perished in so doing.

Compared with him I realise
how our intelligence cripples
and our fantasy stifles
our efforts are wasted
because we don’t live like he did.

Every day I am afraid
that He died in vain
because he is buried in our churches
because we have betrayed His revolution
in obedience and fear of authorities.

I believe in Jesus Christ
who rises from the dead in our life
so that we can become free
from prejudice and arrogance
from fear and hatred
and drive His revolution
towards his reign.

I believe in the Spirit
that came into this world with Jesus
to the community of all nations
and our responsibility for what
becomes of our world,
a valley full of lamentation, hunger and violence
or the city of God.

I believe in the just peace that can be created
in the possibility of a meaningful life
for all peoplein the future of this world of God.

In Advent we prepare for the return of the Prince of Peace. For the coming of the the Kingdom that is Justice and Peace. We pray, we hope. And hopefully we act. We act justly. We attempt, at least in a small way, to re-order our own little bit of the kingdom in a more peaceful and just way. We do our bit. If nothing else, we put one more brick in the wall that reaches to Heaven. And in that hopeful building, we show what we really believe.

The Miraculous Medal

2011-11-27T20:31:00.001Z

I hate following the trend so will ignore Advent Sunday this year! (in blogging at any rate!)

On this day, Saint Catherine Labouré had a vision which led to that well known religious artefact, the Miraculous medal

On November 27, 1830, she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary during her evening meditations. The Virgin appeared inside an oval frame, standing on a globe, wearing many rings of different colors, most of which shone rays of light over the globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words Ô Marie, conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous (O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee). As St Catherine watched, the frame seemed to rotate, showing a circle of twelve stars, a large letter M surmounted by a cross, and the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns and Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. Asked why some of her rings did not shed light, Mary reportedly replied, "Those are the graces for which people forget to ask." Catherine then heard Mary ask her to take these images to her father confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions, and saying "All who wear them will receive great graces." Catherine did so, and after 2 years of investigation and observation of Catherine's normal daily behaviour, the priest took the information to the archbishop without revealing Catherine's identity. The request was approved and medallions began to be produced. Those who wore the medal felt that they had received great blessings, and the medal came to be referred to as the "Miraculous Medal". They proved to be popular, and the medals spread worldwide.

The chapel in which Saint Catherine experienced her visions is located at the mother house of the Daughters of Charity in Paris. Her body lies in a glass coffin at the side altar of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, 140 Rue du Bac, Paris. The incorrupt bodies of Saint Catherine Labouré and Saint Louise de Marillac, a co-founder of the Daughters of Charity, are interred in the chapel, which continues to receive daily visits from Catholic pilgrims today.

The chapel in Paris

Religious nick-nacks don't stir me much either way (but I happen to have a medal on a rosary somewhere) but the idea of the Mother of God continuing to pray for us as she did for the 1st disciples does. A hymn puts it nicely:

Let us weave our supplications,
she with us and we with her,
for the advancement of the faithful,
for each faithful worshiper,
for the doubting, for the sinful,
for each heedless wanderer.
Hail Mary, hail Mary, hail Mary, full of grace.

May the Mother's intercessions
on our homes a blessing win,
that the children all be prospered,
strong and fair and pure within,
following our Lord's own footsteps,
firm in faith and free from sin.
Hail Mary, hail Mary, hail Mary, full of grace.

For the sick and the aged,
for our dear ones far away,
for the hearts that mourn in secret,
all who need our prayers today,
for the faithful gone before us,
may the holy Virgin pray.
Hail Mary, hail Mary, hail Mary, full of grace.

Praise, O Mary, praise the Father,
praise thy Savior and thy Son,
praise the everlasting Spirit,
who hath made thee ark and throne
o'er all creatures high exalted,
lowly praise the Three in One.
Hail Mary, hail Mary, hail Mary, full of grace.

Mother of God pray for us!

And it being the 1st Sunday of Advent, Alma Redemptoris Mater seems appropriate:

Loving Mother of our Savior, hear thou thy people's cry Star of the deep and Portal of the sky! Mother of Him who thee made from nothing made. Sinking we strive and call to thee for aid: Oh, by what joy which Gabriel brought to thee, Thou Virgin first and last, let us thy mercy see.

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary R. And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Let us pray.
Pour forth we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may, by His passion and cross, be brought to the glory of his Resurrection; through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.

C S Lewis

2011-11-22T14:03:00.001Z

Today is the anniversary of the death of my favourite apologist, C S Lewis. My only connections are dining at High Table in his old college, Magdalen Oxford and meeting his executor Walter Hooper in the Bird and Baby afterwards! The 1st theological book I ever bought was "The Screwtape Letters", but my favourite is "The Great Divorce". Wikipedia summaries it thus:

The narrator inexplicably finds himself in a grim and joyless city (the "grey town", which is either hell or purgatory depending on how long one stays there). He eventually finds a bus for those who desire an excursion to some other place (and which eventually turns out to be the foothills of heaven). He enters the bus and converses with his fellow passengers as they travel. When the bus reaches its destination, the passengers on the bus — including the narrator — are gradually revealed to be ghosts. Although the country is the most beautiful they have ever seen, every feature of the landscape (including streams of water and blades of grass) is unyieldingly solid compared to themselves: it causes them immense pain to walk on the grass, and even a single leaf is far too heavy for any to lift.

Shining figures, men and women whom they have known on earth, come to meet them, and to urge them to repent and enter heaven proper. They promise that as the ghosts travel onward and upward, they will become more solid and thus feel less and less discomfort. These figures, called "spirits" to distinguish them from the ghosts, offer to assist them in the journey toward the mountains and the sunrise.

Almost all of the ghosts choose to return instead to the grey town, giving various reasons and excuses. Much of the interest of the book lies in the recognition it awakens of the plausibility and familiarity, along with the thinness and self-deception, of the excuses that the ghosts refuse to abandon, even though to do so would bring them to "reality" and "joy forevermore."

Brilliant! Only a Brit would see purgatory as a suburb and a bus as the way out (which is far more likely than votive masses one suspects!)! Laus Deo for Jack Lewis and all who inform and inspire our faith.

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike; Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Keep smiling!

2011-11-18T23:03:00.001Z

The British sense of humour!

A St Margaret's tide miscellany

2011-11-16T20:55:00.001Z

It has to be said that I have a very soft spot for St Margaret of Scotland. She was born in 1046, a member of the(Anglo-Saxon) English Royal Family. She was educated in Hungary,where her family lived in exile during Danishrule in England. After the Norman invasion in 1066, whenshe was seen as a threat to the new monarchy, shewas welcomed in the court of Malcolm III Canmore of Scotlandand married him in 1069. Theirs was a happymarriage and Margaret proved to be both acivilising and a godly presence. She instituted many churchreforms and founded many monasteries, churches and pilgrimhostels. She was a woman of prayer as well as good workswho seemed to influence for good all with whom she came intocontact. She died on this day in the year 1093. I worshipped as a student at St Margaret's in the Gallowgate in Aberdeen and at the Convent then on the Spital dedicated to her. I was also born in Dunfermline where she lived, so she is a favourite. The top photo is a reconstruction of her shrine in the Abbot's House Museum in Dunfermline, the middle the site of her shrine at Dunfermline Abbey and the lower, the chapel she worshipped in at Edinburgh Castle.

God, the ruler of all,
who called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne
and gave her zeal for your Church and love for your people
that she might advance your heavenly kingdom:
mercifully grant that we who commemorate her example
may be fruitful in good works
and attain to the glorious crown of your saints;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Ritualist thought.

2011-11-15T17:32:00.001Z

It is superstition to put one's hope in formalities: but it is pride to be unwilling to submit to them.
Pascal

True! Mass, ritual, posture gesture and vesture cannot and do not bring salvation, hope and new life. But they can be pathways or enablers to finding them. It struck me the other day that all the surroundings of faith (including the Church visible and structured here on earth) contain just enough of the reality of the Divine to draw us into exploring and encountering more deeply Communion with the God who is the ultimate source of our existence and our truest and deepest happiness. Of course, we have to cut through a serious amount of guff and garbage to meet it but that is what it's about - selling all you have to obtain the Pearl of Great Price. The Church as we know it is not God (though it acts as if it is sometimes) but God is still in the Church with all its faults.

11th November.

2011-11-10T22:14:00.001Z

The Papal Archbasilica of St John Lateran - of which the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, is ex officio the "first and only honorary canon" of the basilica, a title inherited from the Kings of France, who have held it since Henry IV.

Now I could go on about St Martin of Tours (who influenced Scotland's St Ninian) or Remembrance Day, but it is also the 296th anniversary of the 4th Lateran Council (12th Ecumenical and it was binding on the medieval church in Scotland). Amongst other things it passed the following Canons:

Canon 1: Transubstantiation rules OK. (Good-ish)

Canon 4: An exhortation to the Greeks to reunite with the Roman Church and accept its teaching, so that, according to the Gospel, there may be only one fold and only one shepherd. (Not welcome at Constantinople I'm sure.)

Canon 5: Proclaimed the Papal primacy. After the Pope, primacy is attributed to the patriarchs in the following order: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem. (But not Canterbury - sorry ++Rowan!)

Canon 6: Provincial councils must be held annually for the reform of morals, especially those of the clergy. (So That's what General Synod's really for!)

Canon 13 forbids the establishment of new religious orders, lest too great diversity bring confusion into the Church. ( Franciscans founded 1209, Dominicans 1216 so it was pretty much ignored soon after!)

Canons 14-17: Against the irregularities of the clergy — e.g., incontinence, drunkenness, attendance at farces and histrionic exhibitions (so we can avoid General Synod?).

Canon 21, the famous "Omnis utriusque sexus", which commands every Christian who has reached the years of discretion to confess all his, or her, sins at least once a year to his, or her, own (i.e. parish) priest. This canon did no more than confirm earlier legislation and custom, and has been often but wrongly, quoted as commanding for the first time the use of sacramental confession. (Anti-mendicant order really!)

Canons 78 & 79: Jews and Moslems shall wear a special dress to enable them to be distinguished from Christians. Christian princes must take measures to prevent blasphemies against Jesus Christ. (Oh well, every Ecclesiastical gathering makes horrible mistakes I suppose - but ain't it funny/ironic that nowadays it's the Right (Theological) wing of both Judaism and Islam who want the right to dress distinctively, rather than see it as a form of persecution or discrimination which it originally was?)

Ah, the joys of Church History!

St Willibrord

2011-11-07T15:20:00.001Z

We are in Communion with the Continental Old Catholics, so a commemoration of St Willbrord seems apt today.

Collect:

"O Lord our God, you call whom you will and send them where you choose: We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. "

A November Sunday.

2011-11-06T20:37:00.000Z

I liked this picture, so decided to post it for no better reason that it made me chuckle: (gaun yirsel, Mr Spock!)

Today has been quite chilled. I sub-deaconed High Mass, then decided to be less couch vegetable than normal. Instead of sitting in front of a computer, I went out, grabbed a Spicy Italian from Subway (a sarnie rather than Bruno Tognoli! Ooer Missus!!) and caught a bus to Blackford Hill, where I enjoyed some superb views of Edinburgh and Fife. Home and a nice cuppa of Whittard's excellent 1886 Blend and then a splendid dinner of chicken casserole followed by Bread and Butter pudding. A fine autumn Sunday indeed!

How to view the world.

2011-11-05T11:58:00.001Z

The Vatican map of Europe.

This particular funny made me chuckle: perhaps the Vatican diplomatic corps need to see it? Mind you, describing the Irish Free State as "Our Britain" is pretty inaccurate now that the Paddies are withdrawing their Embassy: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-stunned-irish-embassy-closure-131052801.html

Moved to unusual actions.

2011-11-02T23:07:00.000Z

Forgive us, Lord Christ,
When the Church fails to be your Body on earth.
Forgive its inward-looking,
its temptation to respectability;
its silence towards the rich,
its neglect towards the poor.
Give us grace to seek first your Kingdom and its justice,
and unite all Christians in the struggle;
that, in the unity of the Faith and with one heart,
we may seek to overcome the world
and establish that Kingdom on earth;
to the glory of your Name,
who with the Source and Spirit are one God,
forever and ever. Amen.

From "Catholic Socialist Devotions" http://www.anglocatholicsocialism.org/csdevotions.html

The St Paul's Cathedral debacle has moved me to such uncharacteristic activities as buying the Guardian (best coverage - honest!). This prayer (a slight modernisation of a Catholic Crusade prayer) seemed apposite at this time.

The Catholic Crusade ("Catholic Crusade of the Servants of the Precious Blood") aimed, among other things:

To create the demand for the Catholic Faith, the whole Catholic Faith, and nothing but the Catholic Faith. To encourage the rising of the people in the might of the Risen Christ and the Saints, mingling Heaven and earth that we may shatter this greedy world to bits.

Hmm! It makes that reluctant fan of capitalism the former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's "loke a bit weedy" as my esteemed colleague Canon Molesworth might say! It's founder Conrad Noel wrote a marvellous Credo.

From the Epilogue to Conrad Noel's Jesus the heretic (London, Religious Book Club, 1940)

We believe in God the Father, Who has made us and all the world: In God the Son, Who has redeemed us and all mankind: In God the Holy Ghost Who inspires us and all the chosen army of God.
We believe that the source of our life is the Triune God, the Comm-Unity, and that the substance of life is Community, namely, that men, by the grace of God, should of their own initiative come into that freely chosen Fellowship of God's Kingdom which is their home. We must, therefore, give ourselves as workers together with Him for the re-creating of a world in which there shall be an interplay of initiative and co-operation.

We believe that God is terrible in goodness and not in tyranny: Maker of all things visible and invisible: Maker of men: Of the sense of wonder and worship: Of the sense of sight which delights in form and colour, in flowers, pictures, sunrises and gay fabrics: Of the sense of hearing which exults in poetry and music: Of the sense of justice and truth which drives men to rebellion against the tyrants who rob men's lives of vigour, leisure, and nourishment: Of the sense of goodness which will re-create the world: God, Maker and Upholder of men's spirits, minds, and bodies.

We believe that God is manifest in splendid men and women, and incarnate in Jesus, the Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, wholly God and wholly Man, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of man, who rejoices that her Son is casting down the mighty from their thrones and exalting them of low degree; the Woman clothed with the Sun, with the world at her feet and the serpent under them.

We believe that Christ's Incarnation and wondrous Life, devoted to the liberation of the oppressed and the Commonwealth of God, was met by the malice of the mighty masters of the world who dragged Him down to His Passion and Death on the Cross; but that, despising its shame, in triumph he passed through the realms of the dead to a mighty Resurrection, no mere bodiless ghost but with spirit, soul, and body transformed.

We believe that His Glorious Ascension to the very heart of the Godhead fills all things with His Presence, and creates out of the old and tired human race a new race.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, coming upon the little band in the upper room, raising them from despair and death to newness of life, and filling them with courage and gladness, making them of one heart and mind to share all things in common and to scatter the good news among the crowds in the Holy City and to the furthest ends of the earth.

We believe, then, in this Catholic Church, a visible Army to be the first-fruits of His Kingdom and to battle for its achievement among men: the very Body of Christ to redeem mankind from the inward tyrannies of sin and the outward tyrannies of cruel systems and cruel men.

We believe that evil conditions are the outward and visible sign on the inward and spiritual rascality on the part of the few, and inward and spiritual apathy on the part of the many, but that once they have been created they react for evil upon the minds of rich and poor, and they must be swept away by an immense awakening in the soul of the nations . . .

We believe that those who by the Power of Christ have overcome sin will one day rise with glorious bodies to enjoy and help in the ordering of the Good Life to come, the overmastering Life of the Golden Age.

We believe that we are pledged to establish it now and are destined to enjoy it hereafter.

My kinda Creed! Bet they won't sing this at St Paul's on Sunday!

Theological dissonance.

2011-10-31T23:35:00.000Z

There is a thundering theological dissonance between this (the "Libera me" - the version of which from Faure's Requiem was sung beautifully by the choir last night at the All Souls Mass at St Michael and All Saint's Edinburgh) :

Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda:

Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra.

Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem.

Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira.

Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra.

Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, dies magna et amara valde.

Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved,

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved.

That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.

and this (the Post Communion collect for All Souls Day from Exciting Holiness used at the same service) :

God of love,
may the death and resurrection of Christ
which we have celebrated in this Eucharist
bring us, with all the faithful departed,
into the peace of your eternal home.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
our rock and our salvation,
to whom be glory for time and for eternity.

On the one hand, a God who shall judge the world by fire, who make us tremble and fear The Wrath of God. On the other, a God of Love who draws us through the death and resurrection of the only begotten Son into the peace of our eternal home. The two ideas have their own validity (though I have to say I prefer the modern theology but adore the Faure music - my own inner theological dissonance.) but they simply don't sit comfortably side by side in the same liturgy. One of the challenges facing any practising liturgist is how to mesh the best of tradition with the best of the new. And sometimes you just have to admit that the mesh is not actually possible. There's many a Remembrance Sunday that simply never uses "I vow to thee my Country" because the sentiment nicely wrapped in Holst is utterly foreign to modern culture and sensibility. It all works fine if you treat the music simply as a mood setter and ignore its theology, cloaked in luscious notes and hidden in generally incomprehensible Latin (just don't print the English translation in the order of service). If you think that the meaning of what we sing with our lips is just as important as what we say aloud, then there is a problem. Then you have to choose - Ancient or Modern?

For All the Saints

2011-10-29T22:40:00.002+01:00

This Sunday in sunny Edinburgh, we are keeping the Feast of All Saints (one of our 2 dedication fesitivals) rather than the Umpteenth Sunday after Trinity. Traditionally, this is kept on November 1, followed by All Souls' Day on November 2

The festival of All Saints really began in the West on May 13, 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at Rome (a wonderful pagan temple and a quite pleasant Church) to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; the feast of the dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated in Rome ever since. There is evidence that from the fifth until the seventh centuries in certain places there were sporadic celebrations on 13 May to remember the holy martyrs. However, some maintain that it has to do with the pagan observation on 13 May of the Feast of the Lemures, in which the malevolent and restless spirits of the dead were propitiated. Liturgiologists base the idea that this Lemuria festival was the origin of All Saints on the shared date and theme of "all the dead".

The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III of an oratory in St. Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world", with the day moved to 1 November and the 13 May feast suppressed. This usually fell near the Celtic holiday of Samhain, which had a theme similar to Lemuria, but with overtones of a harvest festival. The Irish, having celebrated Samhain in the past, did not celebrate All Hallows Day in November, as historical documents suggest that the celebration in Ireland took place in the spring: the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches in Ireland celebrated the feast of All Saints on April 20. Typical of the Irish to do their own thing!

The November festival of all the saints was already widely celebrated on November 1 by the time of Charlemagne. It was made a day of obligation throughout the Frankish empire in 835, by a decree of Louis the Pious, issued "at the instance of Pope Gregory IV and with the assent of all the bishops", which confirmed its celebration on November 1. The octave was added by Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484).

The festival was retained after the Reformation in the calendar of the Anglican Church and in many Lutheran churches. In the Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden, it acts as a general commemoration of the dead. In the Swedish calendar, the observance takes place on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6. In many Lutheran Churches, it is moved to the first Sunday of November.

Protestants generally regard all true believers as saints and, if they observe All Saints Day at al,l they use it to remember all Christians both past and present. In the United Methodist Church, All Saints' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November. It is held, not only to remember Saints, but also to remember all those that have died that were members of the local congregation. In many Lutheran churches, All Saints' Day and Reformation Day are observed together on the Sunday before or after those dates, given that Reformation Day is observed in Protestant Churches on October 31. Typically, Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is sung during the service. The observance of Reformation Day may be immediately followed by a reading out of the names of those members of the local congregation who have died in the past year in observance of All Saints' Day. In English-speaking countries, the festival is traditionally celebrated with the hymn "For All the Saints" by William Walsham How. The most familiar tune for this hymn is Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The Eastern Orthodox follow the earlier tradition of commemorating all saints collectively on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The feast of All Saints achieved great prominence in the ninth century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI "the Wise" (886–911). His wife, Empress Theophano—commemorated on December 16—lived a devout life. After her death in 893, her husband built a church, intending to dedicate it to her. When he was forbidden to do so, he decided to dedicate it to "All Saints," so that if his wife were in fact one of the righteous, she would also be honored whenever the feast was celebrated. According to tradition, it was Leo who expanded the feast from a commemoration of All Martyrs to a general commemoration of All Saints, whether martyrs or not.

"Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessèd saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen"

St Paul's and all that.

2011-10-29T21:13:00.000+01:00

Now here's a thought:

Play with it. Reflect on it in regard to the recent shenanigans around St Paul's Cathedral in London. The establishment of the Church closing the over-priced museum (sorry, I mean Cathedral) for longer than the Luftwaffe ever managed to do. The media loving Canon who first issued a welcome (albeit, the normal and insipid one that any parish priest uses to any weirdly dressed placard bearer who stops outside St Whatsits to demonstrate against the evils of haddock farming in the Utter Hebrides - "Of course you're welcome in this church" (even if you do look like Tarzan, smell like Cheetah and walk like Jane - hey we're Anglicans!) ) resigns because he can't reconcile himself to the collective responsibility for legal action that may lead to Inspector Knacker of the Yard clearing the protesters off the premises with riot gear on. It is to quote George Carey (a rare occurrence for me) a "debacle". I very much doubt that Jesus thinks much of any of the participants. The Chapter have behaved stupidly in siding with the City authorities. Giles Fraser has as usual indulged in "lovable maverick" grandstanding. And all of course in the name of Christ. With full media hoopla.

Says it all really.

Fresh Expressions of Church

2011-10-28T22:16:00.001+01:00

I know they all go on about "Fresh Expressions of Church these days but my personal preference is for...

...stale expressions (obviously)! Happy SS Simon & Jude btw!

Myers Briggs and Prayer.

2011-10-25T16:00:00.001+01:00

This is for all of us who ever had to be cod-analysed by Myers-Bloody-Briggs fans during our training or selection.

At least we now have some idea of what to pray!

Yorkshire Saints and Nachos!

2011-10-21T21:17:00.001+01:00

The obscure saint for today is St John of Bridlington (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Bridlington ) depicted above in the Parish Church of All Saints Thwing (his hometown). If you know anyone having a difficult labour (no, not Ed Milliband!) he's your designated intercessor. It's also The International Day of the Nacho. It began in the 1990s in the United States and Mexico to celebrate the invention of nachos by Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya in 1943 in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. So that'll be a very traditional Mexican dish then? To be fair, it was aimed at tourists.

Piedras Negras is just over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. One day in 1943, the wives of ten to twelve U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan in nearby Eagle Pass were in Piedras Negras on a shopping trip, and arrived at the restaurant after it had closed for the day. The maître d', Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, invented a new snack for them with what little he had available in the kitchen: tortillas and cheese. Anaya cut the tortillas into triangles, added longhorn cheddar cheese, quickly heated them, and added sliced jalapeño peppers. He served the dish, calling it Nachos especiale - "Special Nachos".

Anaya went on to work at the Moderno Restaurant in Piedras Negras, which still uses the original recipe. He also opened his own restaurant, "Nacho's Restaurant", in Piedras Negras. Anaya's original recipe was printed in the 1954 St. Anne's Cookbook^.^.The popularity of the dish grew throughout Texas. The first known appearance of the word "nachos" in English dates to 1949, from the book A Taste of Texas^.

^{Never minds nachos - after quiche for tea I want some real food before bedtime. Ho to the Chinese!}

Of Arians and hernias!

2011-10-20T19:38:00.000+01:00

How about a little Arianism? This fine fellow is St Artemius of Antioch, martyr and patron saint of hernias whose festivals is today. Funny how piety can drive people to acts of immense courage even if it is misguided. That said, although during the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate Artemius was a fanatical Arian, hunting and persecuting monks, nuns and bishops (including Saint Athanasius), prayer and the horror of the persecutions, converted him to Orthodox Christianity. He became a strong supporter of the faith, and turned on pagans, including the Emperor Julian.He was accused by pagans of destroying idols, arrested, taken to Antioch, tortured and martyred. Just goes to show that there is always hope for even the most aggressively inclined of us. The enemy of Christ become the martyr willing to die. Even Qaddafi? Possibly - who knows? Well, God obviously. Judgement, grace and mercy are entirely God's prerogatives and it is not for us to prescribe the boundaries of God's love. Do that and we might easily put ourselves beyond it's reach.

The first Pope in Scotland.

2011-10-17T23:26:00.000+01:00

Never mind St Luke or much piety, tomorrow is the birthday of the 1st Pope to visit Scotland - Pius II aka Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. In 1435 he was sent by Cardinal Albergati on a secret mission to Scotland. The journey to Scotland proved so traumatic he swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port. This proved to be Dunbar (where I will be today), and the nearest shrine was 10 miles away at Whitekirk (I'll drive through it en route to lunch at North Berwick). The journey through the ice and snow left Aeneas afflicted with pain in his legs for the rest of his life. In Scotland he had his second natural child, the other one having been born in Strasburg. A rather lively lad, but actually a fairly competent medieval Pope. It's also Martina Navratilova's birthday and the anniversary of the composer Gounod's death (he wrote some nice stuff including his famous Ave Maria - including the National Anthem for the Vatican City!). Bless 'em all for giving some fun to the world in various ways. one as author, one through sport and one through music.

Teresa of Avila

2011-10-15T00:21:00.000+01:00

My favourite woman saint is the wonderful Carmelite, Teresa of Avila. Bernini's sculpture is a wonderful picture but is even more stunning in reality when you see it in the side chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria. The French portrait of 1827 is magnificently romantic, but the one with the dove is probably the most life like, being a copy of a painting of the Madre made when she was 61. Much could be said about her but I love this little poem of hers and will let her words give a taste of the strength, wisdom and humour of the lady herself. Enjoy her!

LAUGHTER CAME FROM EVERY BRICK

Just these two words He spoke

changed my life,

"Enjoy Me."

What a burden I thought I was to carry -

a crucifix, as did He.

Love once said to me, "I know a song,

would you like to hear it?"

And laughter came from every brick in the street

and from every pore

in the sky.

After a night of prayer, He

changed my life when

He sang,

"Enjoy Me."

St Teresa of Avila

Our Lady again.

2011-10-13T22:39:00.000+01:00

Icon of the Mother of God of Yakhrom

Just to show that I am positively and universally Catholic in my Marian devotion (and October is traditionally the month of the Rosary), here's something from Holy Russia for 14 October.

The Yakhrom Icon of the Mother of God appeared to a holy youth Cosmas, while he was accompanying his master, a sick landowner. They had stopped on the bank of the Yakhrom River, not far from Vladimir, and the sick man fell asleep. Cosmas suddenly saw a bright light coming from a nearby tree, and heard a voice, "Attend and understand the words of life. Live a God-pleasing life and seek the joy of the righteous, and then you will delight in eternal blessings." The light had come from an icon of the BVM.

Cosmas took the icon and placed it on his master, who was immediately healed. After this, when Cosmas's term of service expired, he went to the Kiev Caves monastery. After he was tonsured, he amazed even the experienced monks by his spiritual efforts.

Years later, St Cosmas was told by an angel to return to the place where he had found the icon. He took the wonderworking icon with him to the bank of the Yakhrom River where he had found the icon. At once, the place was again filled with light. St Cosmas built a monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and placed the Yakhrom Icon within it.

Here's an icon of St Cosmas in the sake of balance

Our Lady of Fatima

2011-10-13T15:59:00.001+01:00

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. All very apocalyptic was the message - but hey, it was 1917 and it must have looked like the end of the world was very near with WWI in full swing and the Bolsheviks arising in Petrograd. The Angel Prayer is a good 'un:

O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

Whatever one might think of the dancing Sun or the "secrets", intercession for the salvation of the world by the most Holy Trinity can't really be faulted theologically by anyone. So, it might be a prayer you feel you could make. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray WITH us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

Gay marriage in Scotland

2011-10-13T10:45:00.000+01:00

I've made no comment on the current media stramash on the Scottish Guvinment's consultation on Same Sex Marriage up till now, but it's been interesting watching the apparently unlikely alliance of the Roman Catholic and Free Churches ("Nae chance" approach) http://www.scmo.org/articles/archbishop-mario-conti-issues-statement-on-marriage.html and also the reaction to the sharp critique offered by the Provost of St Mary's Cathedral Glasgow ("You lot embarrass the Christian community") http://www.thurible.net/20111009/sermon-preached-on-9-october-2011/comment-page-1/#comment-14304. The Primus of the SEC has given what I regard as a nicely judged contribution in today's Hootsmon snoozepaper: http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/cartoon/the_most_rev_david_chillingworth_a_secular_state_should_be_prepared_to_defend_religious_freedom_1_1905917

I acknowledge the absolute right and freedom of those opposed to the idea to let the appropriate authorities know what they think. It's called democracy. If they expect it to be uncritically adopted, then they are seeking a theocracy, which I never liked since studying Politics and the Continental Reformation at Uni. Zwingli and Calvin didn't run City States with a good record for tolerating theological diversity and their heirs would be as assuredly bad at it as they were. The Holy Camping Stove of St Andrews is quite right. Freedom to bless and affirm, with a conscience clause allowing those faith groups who conscientiously disagree to not participate, strikes as an entirely reasonable, mature approach. Welcome to the modern world, O Church leaders who hanker after an age when you were kow-towed to.

Symeon the New Theologian

2011-10-12T17:37:00.001+01:00

I don't like St Wilfrid much, so I'll ignore him today and go for a different saint. Hey, it's my blog, not the SEC's:-). According to the Greek Orthodox Calendar, today is the Feast day of St Symeon the New Theologian. Symeon wasn't a massive fan of the Episcopate as he encountered it. I mean he wrote;

They (the bishops) unworthily handle My Body
and seek avidly to dominate the masses...
They are seen to appear as brilliant and pure,
but their souls are worse than mud and dirt,
worse even than any kind of deadly poison,
these evil and perverse men! (Hymn 58)

He was also a strong believer in direct personal experience of God as a prerequisite for teaching or leading and was rather inclined to disregard ordination as a requirement for hearing confessions and absolving the penitent. He was in some ways the Patron Saint of the Charismatic Movement.

In his Discourse XXVIII Symeon wrote about the light of Christ and its power to transform:

It shines on us without evening, without change, without alteration, without form. It speaks, works, lives, gives life, and changes into light those whom it illuminates. We bear witness that "God is light," and those to whom it has been granted to see Him have all beheld Him as light. Those who have seen Him have received Him as light, because the light of His glory goes before Him, and it is impossible for Him to appear without light. Those who have not seen His light have not seen Him, for He is the light, and those who have not received the light have not yet received grace. Those who have received grace have received the light of God and have received God, even as Christ Himself, who is the Light, has said, "I will live in them and move among them." (2 Cor. 6:16).

May the light of Christ transform us into that same light to change the world into the image of his glory.

Thomas Traherne

2011-10-09T22:36:00.000+01:00

October 10 is the commemoration of the English poet and divine Thomas Traherne (1637-1674). Here's a taste of his stuff.

A Serious and Pathetical Contemplation of the Mercies of God

For all the mysteries, engines, instruments, wherewith the world is filled, which we are able to frame and use to thy glory.

For all the trades, variety of operations, cities, temples, streets, bridges, mariner's compass, admirable picture, sculpture, writing, printing, songs and music; wherewith the world is beautified and adorned.

Much more for the regent life,

And power of perception,

Which rules within.

That secret depth of fathomless consideration

That receives the information of all our senses,

That makes our centre equal to the heavens,

And comprehendeth in itself the magnitude of the world;

The involv'd mysteries of our common sense;

The inaccessible secret of perceptive fancy;

The repository and treasury of things that are past;

The presentation of things to come;

Thy name be glorified for evermore.

O miracle of divine goodness!

O fire! O flame of zeal, and love, and joy!

Ev'n for our earthly bodies, hast thou created all things.

All things visible, material, sensible.

Animals, Vegetables, Minerals,

Bodies celestial, Bodies terrestrial,

The four elements, Volatile spirits,

Trees, herbs, and flowers,

The influences of heaven,

Clouds, vapors, wind,

Dew, rain, hail and snow,

Light and darkness, night and day,

The seasons of the year.

Springs, rivers, fountains, oceans,

Gold, silver, and precious stones.

Corn, wine, and oil,

The sun, moon, and stars,

Cities, nations, kingdoms.

And the bodies of men, the greatest treasures of all,

For each other.

What then, O Lord, hast thou intended for our Souls,

who givest to our bodies such glorious things!

Enjoy and reflect - God made all of us and all of it is good. It's only our twisted human visons and misunderstandings that make it so "evil". That twistedness (which you can call original sin) distorts us and our actions so severely that the world and others and God suffer. If we let divine Grace in Christ change, transform and re-order "our unruly wills and affections", then God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Sunday a day of rest?

2011-10-09T21:03:00.000+01:00

I spent the morning preaching and celebrating at the Good Shepherd Murrayfield (babies and the baptising thereof was left to the Deacon Brenda!) and then went to lecture on the history of St Michael and All Saints where I am officially attached. Most illuminating it was too! Curates with rich wives, mega wealthy High Church spinster sisters, social outreach to fallen women - good rollicking stuff! Tonight I had a fancy for Evensong and tootled off to Old St Paul's where Anglican chant and Stanford in A reminded me that I am at heart a "Stale Expressions of Church" man, rather than a "Fresh Expressions" fiend! Then a fish supper for my tea - life is good!

Be still and know.

2011-10-09T16:46:00.000+01:00

Here's a thought for the day that I thought was worth sharing:

I create a pool of inner quiet through meditation and contemplation. I create a place of peace within me that I can call on throughout my day. I give myself time to sense the meaning of my life. Unless my mind slows down, I will not be still enough to know through direct experience. I will not have the inner peace to come in touch with deeper and deeper layers of self. If I accumulate and accomplish all that I set out to but lose my ability to enjoy, then I have bought into a fool's paradise. Then I will simply be surrounded by riches that I am unable to appreciate. I will take good care of myself today. I recognize that an important part of taking good care of myself is to give myself the quiet time I need and deserve in order to be happy.

I give myself the quiet I need.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:36-37

Time for a wee quiet lurk with God, I think.

The day thou gavest...

2011-10-08T23:02:00.002+01:00

Luckily, this will not be my problem at Murrayfield tomorrow! Organ & choir, Hymns Old and New and a baptism (the deacon does that!) Today was marked the "Booking of the Honeymoon". France, a cottage and a swimming pool are the key ingredients. And we sorted the wedding hymns. And the Liturgy will be modern Scottish - but no keech like "handsel" will be involved and there will be a confession and proper prayers for the bride and groom before the Eucharistic prayer starts and nae clergy wandering aboot after the consecration to bless us. The Liturgy gurus of the Province can experiment away with the laity if they like - neither of us intends our nuptial mass to be a liturgical experiment. (I was very anti vivisection as a youth! I ain't gonna be no liturgical guinea pig!) They did that to us when I was a student at Coates Hall and to this day I dislike that ring bound folder thing they call the Scottish Daily Office. If you need an Office book, a lectionary, a guide to the lectionary, a bible, something with a collect and a hymn book to say mattins with an office hymn then you need to get your act together and produce something more workable. Moi, je prefere l'Office SSF. All you need is a bible and a hymnal and a lectionary. And you're off! The beauty of the Roman Office is that everything is in one volume. Perhaps our liturgical gurus might take note of that!

Why I am not a Rector (and neither was St Francis).

2011-10-04T22:55:00.000+01:00

Just recently, I've been doing quite a lot of church stuff. And was reminded why I am happier as a Self Supporting Minister. Office bearers moaning about other office bearers being too officious, encroaching on their area of responsibility and uttering the immortal incantation: "I'll speak to the Rector about it". Members of the congregation barneying over disabled parking with others who also drive the disabled to Church. Again the response "We'd better get the Rector to sort it out". Being somewhat free of the structures, I don't have to put up with the expectation of having to sort out the petty squabbles of other wise intelligent and devout adults who ought to be able to sort this keech out without needing the assistance of a priest who is called upon to act like a kindergarten superintendent.

But I've also had to pray for someone who's just been diagnosed with bowel cancer, another who was beaten up by the Israeli police whilst protecting Arab orphans under his care were caught up in a bit of a riot. And stand in for a colleague who got whisked off for a check up when her pulse went all irregular. Give tea to a distressed RC priest who'd had no support from his brethren. Real stuff, not church c**p.

So I reflect on this and my own impatience with the Church:

From the first known letter from St Francis of Assisi to all Christians:

"O how happy and blessed are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord himself said in the gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, and your neighbor as yourself. Thereofore, let us love God and adore him with pure heart and mind. This is his particular desire when he says: True worshipers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore him must do so in the spirit of truth. Let us also direct to him our praises and prayers, saying: "Our Father, who are in heaven," since we must always pray and never grow slack.

Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neightbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will recieve from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be sinple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to very human being for God's sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father's children who do his work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace gladly to renounce the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfect joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

The Little Flower

2011-10-01T10:43:00.000+01:00

"Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of people with AIDS, aviators, florists, illness(es) and missions." (An odd mix indeed!) According to one of her biographers, Guy Gaucher, after her death, "Thérèse fell victim to an excess of sentimental devotion which betrayed her. She was victim also to her language, which was that of the late nineteenth century and flowed from the religiosity of her age." Thérèse herself said on her death-bed, "I only love simplicity. I have a horror of pretence", and she spoke out against some of the Lives of saints written in her day," We should not say improbable things, or things we do not know. We must see their real, and not their imagined lives."

I always regarded devotion to "the Little Flower" as a sign of soppy piety, but can accept Gaucher's analysis as a reason to look beyond my gut reaction and take her insights more seriously. These are some of her thoughts I agree with.

"Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God's arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.' "

"For me, prayer is a movement of the heart; it is a simple glance toward Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and love in times of trial as well as in times of joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. . . . I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do like a child who does not know how to read; I say very simply to God what I want to say, and He always understands me."

"O Father in Heaven, Who through St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, dost desire to remind the world of the Merciful Love that fills Thy Heart, and the childlike trust we should have in Thee, humbly we thank Thee for having crowned with so great glory Thine ever faithful child, and for giving her wondrous power to bring unto Thee, day by day, innumerable souls who will praise Thee eternally.

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, remember thy promise to do good upon earth, shower down thy roses on those who invoke thee and obtain for us from God the graces we hope for from His infinite goodness. Amen"

Michaelmass

2011-09-29T20:39:00.000+01:00

I have always been a bit dubious about angels, Arch or otherwise. That said, I seem to write something about them each year. Why I cannot think, as apart from reciting "with angels and archangels when celebrating they really do not figure in my devotional life. Living and departed saints, men and women who stuggled, prayed and loved inspire me rather than "spiritual creatures". Still, acknowledgeing the existence of "heavenly powers" is never a bad thing as it reminds us that we are citizens of 2 kingdoms and our stay here is not permanent. The painting is more inspiring to me than the theology. "The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not wantonly destroy." (Reverend Sean Parker Dennison)

Why Rome?

2011-09-22T23:29:00.001+01:00

I am musing (complete with a cup of rather tepid peppermint tea) as to why recently so many people of my acquaintance (some of them good and sincerely practising Anglicans) are joining (or exploring joining) the Roman Catholic Church? It's not a complaint, just a query. One wasn't a surprise (Ordinariate was created and he was due to retire with his Pisky pension), one genuinely was (joined an ordinary bog standard RC parish but had been exploring a vocation to the priesthood and was female, so that's off the cards with Rome) and the other is slightly surprising (gay lapsed Presbyterian).

I think the last 2 puzzle me in the sense that both are consciously signing up to something that would require them (officially at any rate to deny a part of themselves that they up till now have seen a positively God given. That genuinely baffles me. I fully understand the attraction of getting Catholic worship where ever you go (even if it is done badly!) and not having to play "hunt the spike Shop" or "dodge the Evo" when going to Church. Likewise, you can do the Catholic spirituality thing with Rosary, exposition et al without anyone batting an eyelid or having to find an Anglican Church that is into "that sort of thing". But the denial of your God given self or vocation - why sign up to that? Is it a price worth paying for something intangible I'm missing entirely? I would genuinely be interested in feedback from anyone out there who has any ideas on "Why"?

I ask in an irenic rather polemic spirit. Not least because this was today's little meditation from an online addicts support group I glance at.

"I will be willing to reposition myself today. When I lock myself into protective, defensive or aggressive poses, I am making any negotiating impossible. Being stubborn and clinging to my rigid position can be both dangerous and foolish. I can take another look. I am willing to move and be moved."

I am very aware that I can lock myself into a defensive aggressive attitude towards others who change or move out of my comfort zone. So I thought it worth taking a look through others experience.

St Matthew's Day

2011-09-21T21:12:00.000+01:00

(St Matthew and the Angel by Rembrandt, the Louvre, Paris)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthewsitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me."And he got up and followed him. As he sat at dinner in thehouse, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sittingwith him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this,they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat withtax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard this, hesaid, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, butthose who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desiremercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not therighteous but sinners."

Matthew 9. 9-13

If you've ever felt as if you were on the outside of the world looking in, then Matthew is the Apostle for you. He wasn't just on the margins of his world - he was utterly ostracised and probably faced death threats for being a collaborator with the Romans. He was also probably terribly well heeled. Tax collecting in those days was farmed out by the government to the private sector and was notorious for corruption. In all probability, Levi the Tax collector was not a very nice man who would have had a bodyguard of goons and would have used violence to get money. A legalised gangster. Who would also have been well educated in both Aramaic and Greek. Saint Matthew is the Patron Saint of accountants, bankers, bookkeepers, stock brokers and tax collectors. All of whom, post Lehman Bros and Fred the Shred at the RBS, are about as popular currently as he was then. but Jesus scandalised both the unco' guid and the revolutionaries of his day by treating him as a worthwhile human being and called him into the Kingdom as an apostle and evangelist. Thank God. Because he can do the same with such disreputable wrecks as us if we let him.

O Almighty God,
whose blessed Son called Matthew the tax-collector
to be an apostle and evangelist:
give us grace to forsake the selfish pursuit of gain
and the possessive love of riches
that we may follow in the way of your Son Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

PS As good as Rembrandt is, I've added 3 images of St Matthew by Caravaggio to this post: a) because I love his paintings and b) I've seen the three of them in the backstreet Church of S Luigi dei Francesi in Rome and they are truly stunning in the flesh (sic). And this church is where Martin Luther stayed when he came to Rome for his trial - so it's well worth popping into!

The Stigmata of St Francis

2011-09-17T23:39:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know it's not in the Roman Missile (unless you're reactionary) but today was the Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis. Can't be bothered with a commentary at this late hour - so just enjoy the glories of Giotto and thank God for his ministry!

Yin and Yang

2011-09-16T00:08:00.000+01:00

It is one of the little quirks of Marian devotion (to which I am somewhat prone ;-) ) that for every Christological festival, there is a Marian equivalent. Yin and Yang. Runaway piety in part, I admit, but there is a slightly more laudable theology behind it. It was to ensure that feminine humanity was regarded as saved as well as the masculine. This should of course, be utterly bleedin' obvious to anyone with an ounce of properly taught and understood Patristic theology. Sadly, over the centuries, the Early Church's theologians were all too frequently used to justify the virtual opposite, with female humanity regarded as more flawed, weaker, prone to sin etc. Today being the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (or St Mary at the Cross in the SSF office), it's worth going back to the High Medieval period when a theology that took Mary's femininity serious began to dominate the theological scene. This passage from a sermon by St Bonaventure give a flavour.

"When Christ was suffering on the Cross to purify, cleanse and redeem us, the Virgin was present. With all her heart she acquiesced to the Divine Will and accepted that the fruit of her womb be offered on the Cross as a ransom. This ransom she paid as a courageous and loving woman, filled with loving respect for God. ... The glorious Virgin paid our ransom as a courageous and loving woman filled with compassion for Christ, for the world and above all for the Christian people. ... This may make us realise that the whole Christian people has issued from the womb of the glorious Virgin."

I personally baulk at the idea of Mary paying the ransom (my Barthian training) - it was Christ on the Cross who did that. Mary shared in a unique and educative way in that offering. Her example of abiding faith under soul shattering pressure is still a powerful inspiration. I'm more into the idea of her being "Mother of the Church" - Saint Ambrose of Milan (338 – 397) 1st used the idea, calling Mary Model of the Church in light of her faith, love and complete unity with Christ and Mother of the Church because she gave birth to Christ. but at least Bonaventure spoke positively of the feminine - not perhaps what one would expect of a 13th century male Italian Franciscan Cardinal and philosopher.

Of Art and Life

2011-09-15T00:10:00.000+01:00

"We adore you O Christ and we bless you,

because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world"

"Golgotha" by David Mach (City Art Centre Edinburgh)

Let's ignore Holy Cross Day (and why not? - the Primus, the Bishop of Moray and the Dean of Edinburgh did tonight at the Electoral Synod Mass, which was in GREEN!!!!) and reflect on a little art. There are 2 excellent exhibitions on at the moment in Embra. The Elizabeth Blackadder show http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/19938/21215 at the National Gallery on the Mound is good, with great botanical paintings and cats - her drawings from Italy are superb examples of draughtpersonship! The Japanese stuff isn't really my scene, but the wee films on the loop about her with her own comments are delightful. She may be a DBE and Queen Betty's painter in Scotland, but she comes over as a perfectly nice normal Edinburgh wifie (who is nonetheless a Falkirk Bairn!). The David Mach exhibition in the City Art Centre http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/City-Art-Centre/Exhibitions/Current-Exhibitions inspired by the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible is genuinely stunning (and I say this as someone who really doesn't like a lot of modern art). The centre piece "Golgotha" is a stunning giant crucifixion made out of wire coat hangers and army surplus tank traps. The powerful "Die Harder" which was 1st shown in Gloucester Cathedral is very powerful too. T'is a pity such talent hails from Methil (wee local intra-Fife dig there!) but it is well worth the seeing before it closes on 16th October. And the Fish Pie in the Cafe was very good indeed!

On the life front Rachel and I were haunting these exhibitions and wander the streets when we spotted the Jungle sculptures currently littering the streets of this nations capital. Wee versions were on sale in Harvey Nicks, so for the 1st time in my life I entered that Temple of over-priced self indulgence to look at them. Aye, we might buy one in due course, but I left reflecting how old fogey I am, as I infinitely prefer Jenner's in Edinburgh (well, they lost the tea room but at least replaced it Valvona and Crolla - the baked cheesecake is superb) and Fortnum and Mason's in London for over priced self indulgence (F&M's Welsh Rarebit is to die for)! Rachel also recommends Liberty's in London! (Harrods is a tad under classy under Al Fayed IMHO!)

As to the Synod - all hush-hush, but we ain't got any candidates at this stage so that's all it can be!

Praying the Day

2011-09-11T23:55:00.000+01:00

One of the funny things about blogging is that sometimes when there's a lot on, your creative muse goes AWOL. Friday for example. it was a praying day. Woke up early and joined the Rector for mattins. I recall how utterly dispiriting it was to try to maintain a daily office in Church on your own, so decided to try to be a wee bit supportive. I'd forgotten how insipid the Scottish 1990 Office is and I'm glad we are more or less Franciscan in Da Hoose! Which we then used after breakfast for the guests in the House. No clash of readings - ye Rector uses the SEC Office one's and we use the Missal for the day. In a way, one was the Prayer of the Church, the other the Prayer of the Community. Or the Prayer of the Wider Community and the Prayer of the Gathered Church if you like.

Then I used the Rosary on the train to Falkirk to commend an ex-Parishioner to God as I headed to her funeral. I don't often pray the actual mysteries, but I seem to keep a rosary in my jacket pocket. often I just fiddle with a bead or 2 during the day. It's just a reminder that the Incarnate One is with us in the place where we are. I know others use a holding Cross but I find the beads a little less obtrusive.

Jinty's funeral was a good and very appropriate send off and so crowded that I ended up standing behind the altar! Just like old times apart there being another 20 folk in the sanctuary. (There were between 250 and 300 in a 150 seat Church!) I went back simply because Jinty played a vital role in rescuing me when I went boing. She was the one who saved me from a night in the cells at the crash point (aka my last drunk) on Friday 13th March 2009. We had also shared a 2 week trip to Uganda back in 2006. So part of me turned up at a service in Falkirk to say "Thanks. And this is what I've done with my life since then. Sober, useful job and engaged!". I think I could hear a "Good boy! Well done!" over the ether from her. I occasionally got that from her when she was Vestry Secretary!

After that and the socialising, I crashed back into Church for the Evening Office form the Prayer Book. Old sonorous familiar words have their place and value in prayer along side the contemporary and your own words. And then the day ended with Franciscan Compline with the community. Praying through the days is something I try to do (often rather fitfully). The best I can do often is Sir Jacob Astley's Prayer before the Battle of Edgehill: "O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee,do not thou forget me". Which is quite a handy wee prayer!

Deaconing and all that.

2011-09-03T23:45:00.000+01:00

It's a funny thing, but most of my recent liturgical appearances have been as a deacon, rather than as a priest. given the small number of SEC churches that have the staff or liturgical tradition of having a liturgical deacon, this is a bit of a surprise. 2 Sunday's in August at St Salvador's Dundee (wore a biretta and sang the Gospel), today in Holy Trinity Melrose (deacon of the Gospel, rather than deacon of the Mass (??) - the Rector deaconed apart from me singing the Gospel) and then on the 18th, deacon and preach at St Michael & All Saints.

I don't mind it at all. In fact, much as I looked for to being ordained priest back in 1994, I remember at the time feeling a twinge of regret at losing the distinctive diaconal liturgical ministry. I enjoyed reading the Gospel, preaching and leading the intercessions. And then preparing the altar. It was an enabling rather than a doing ministry in a way and we often get lost in the priestly ministry in the importance of doing and leading, rather than facilitating and enabling and allowing other's ministries to flourish. I like the diversity of Wikipedia's list of prominent Deacons: Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr (stoned) ; St Philip the Evangelist, whose baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch is recounted in Acts 8:26-40 and who could be considered to be the founder of the Coptic Orthodox Church; Saint Lawrence, an early Roman martyr (he of the Gridiron); Saint Vincent of Saragossa, 1st martyr of Spain; Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans (should been on meds, but I like him really!); Saint Ephrem the Syrian and Saint Romanos the Melodist, a prominent early hymn writer. Prominent historical figures who played major roles as deacons and went on to higher office include Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (who didn't write the Creed, but hey!), Thomas Becket (bumped off in Canterbury) and Reginald Pole (Cardinal and last RC Abp of Canterbury). Quite a colourful and talented crew! So for all deacons I offer this slightly adapted prayer:

Eternal God,
you call Deacons to proclaim your glory

in a life of prayer and pastoral zeal:
keep the servants of your Church faithful
and bless your people through their ministry,
that the Church may grow into the full stature

of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

St Gregory the Great

2011-09-03T00:07:00.000+01:00

The tomb of St Gregory in St Peter's Basilica Rome.

John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope.I fear old JC was a trifle harsh in his judgements, but Gregory deserves to remembered with some affection by any good Anglican: a) because he sent St Augustine to Canterbury b) he wrote his great Rule to guide bishops (part one is good on spiritual direction for anyone in that trade) c) He wrote an early Life of St Benedict in his Dialogues. He also wrote this (as recorded by the Venomous Bede):

Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt – "Things are not to be loved for the sake of a place, but places are to be loved for the sake of their good things." When St Augustine asked him whether to use Roman or Gallican liturgical customs in England, Gregory was suggesting that it was not the place that imparted sanctity but good things that sanctified the place, and it was most important to please God. They should pick out what was "pia", "religiosa" and "recta" from any church and use that as best practice in England. Well in the bits of those southern kingdoms that weren't following Scoto-Irish customs at any rate!

Merciful Father,
who chose your bishop Gregory
to be a servant of the servants of God:
grant that, like him, we may ever long to serve you
by proclaiming your gospel to the nations,
and may ever rejoice to sing your praises;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. AMEN

Heads Up!

2011-08-29T23:22:00.001+01:00

It's another feast of St John the Baptist today. The Martyrdom/Passion or Decollation. I actually prefer it to the June one and loved this splendid Caravaggio depiction of it when I fist saw it in Valletta Cathedral (it's the only painting the geat artist signed).There is a splendid old account of this feast and its rational which was 1st printed in English by William Caxton http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/decollationjohnBaptist.pdf. The collect says it all:

Almighty God,
who called your servant John the Baptist
to be the forerunner of your Son in birth and death:
strengthen us by your grace
that, as he suffered for the truth,
so we may boldly resist corruption and vice
and receive with him the unfading crown of glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Black Madonna

2011-08-26T20:58:00.000+01:00

Today is the Feast of the famous Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland.

The origins of the icon and the date of its painting are hotly contested by scholars. The difficulty lies in the fact that the original image was painted over, after being badly damaged by Hussite raiders in 1430. To this very day, the slashes on the face of the Virgin Mary are still visible. Medieval restorers unfamiliar with the encaustic method found that the paints they applied to the damaged areas "simply sloughed off the image" according to the medieval chronicler Risinius, and their solution was to erase the original image and to repaint it on the original panel, which was believed to be holy because of its legendary origin as a table top from the home of the Holy Family. The painting displays a traditional composition well known in the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy. The Virgin Mary is shown as the "Hodegetria" ("One Who Shows the Way"). In it the Virgin directs attention away from herself, gesturing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation. In turn, the child extends his right hand toward the viewer in blessing while holding a book of gospels in his left hand. The icon shows the Madonna in fleur de lys robes.

Saint Luke the Evangelist, according to tradition, is believed to be the original artist of this painting in which Mary is depicted holding the Christ Child. This sacred picture was first brought from Jerusalem through Constantinople and was given to the Princess of Ruthenia. It was brought to Poland in 1382 through the efforts of Ladislaus of Opole who discovered it in a castle at Belz. However more recent Ukrainian sources state that it was taken by Ladisłaus from the Castle of Belz, when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom and that earlier in its history it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by Knyaz Lev I of Galicia .To ensure its protection, Ladislaus invited the Monks of Saint Paul the First Hermit from Hungary to be its guardians. The golden fleur-de-lis painted on the Virgin's blue veil parallel the French royal coat of arms and the most likely explanation for their presence is that icon had been present in Hungary during the reign of either Charles I of Hungary and/or Louis the Great, the Hungarian kings of the Anjou dynasty, who probably had the fleur-de-lis of their family's coat of arms painted on the icon. This would suggest that the icon was probably originally brought to Jasna Gora by the Pauline monks from their founding monastery in Hungary.

The foundation of the Monastery and Shrine in Czestochowa began with a small wooden church. Subsequent development (1632-48) led to the construction of the present basilica and defensive wall which surrounds the buildings. Under the heroic leadership of the Prior of the Monastery, Father Augustine Kordecki, the Shrine withstood the attacks of the Swedes during their Invasion of 1655. This great victory proved to be a tremendous boost to the morale of the entire Polish nation.

As a result, King Jan Casimir, in 1656, made a solemn vow proclaiming the Mother of God to be the “Queen of the Polish Crown” and the Shrine of Jasna Gora to be the “Mount of Victory” and a spiritual capital for Poland.

During the years of Poland’s partition at the hands of the Russian, Prussian (later German) and Austro-Hungarian empires (1772-1918) the Shrine at Jasna Gora became a vital centre of Polish national consciousness. The image at Czestochowa was a lighthouse of hope during the years of hardship.

Following the restoration of Polish independence in 1918, pilgrimages to the Shrine grew in number and size. As World War II ended, a nation devastated by the scourges of war drew new strength and courage from the Shrine to rebuild and recover from the war. Today the Shrine of Czestochowa in Poland attracts millions of worshipers and tourists who come to honor the miraculous image of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Holy Mary, pray for all who honour you and your Son and help us to follow him, whoever and where ever we may be.

A Thought for today.

2011-08-25T10:25:00.000+01:00

A thought for today from the Office of Readings:

From the Instructions of St Columbanus

You, God, are everything to us

"My brethren, let us follow this call. We are called to the source and fountain of life, by the Life who is not just the fountain of living water but also the fountain of eternal life, the fountain of light, the fountain and source of glory. From this Life comes everything: wisdom, life, eternal light. The Creator of life is the fountain from which life springs; the Creator of light is the fountain of light. So let us leave this world of visible things. Let us leave this world of time and head for the heavens. Like fish seeking water, like wise and rational fish let us seek the fountain of light, the fountain of life, the fountain of living water. Let us swim in, let us drink from the water of the spring welling up into eternal life.

Merciful God, righteous Lord, grant that I may reach that fountain. There let me join the others who thirst for you, drinking living water from the living stream that flows from the fountain of life. Overwhelmed by its sweetness let me cling close to it and say “How sweet is the spring of living water that never runs dry, the spring that wells up into eternal life!.”"

Not sure there are "wise and rational fish", but poetic licence is Soo Irish!

Out and about.

2011-08-23T22:23:00.000+01:00

Where have I been today? Various spots on the East Neuk of Fife with Rachel and Mum. We discovered the lovely beaches at Elie and Earlsferry, the reason why the Anstruther Fish Bar has won Chippy of the year so often (good and not over priced), the picturesue pottery of Crail and My personal favourite, Pittenweem, with its working harbour and holy cave.

St Fillan's Cave in Pittenweem in Fife, is historically associated with an Irish saint who settled over here by the name of Fillan. The cave contains a spring and a well named in his honour and has a colourful history. Pilgrims conversed with hermits (and possibly Fillan himself) inhabiting the cave on their way to nearby St Andrews. It was also used by smugglers for some time, as a store room for local fisherfolk (Pittenweem has been a fishing village since the time of early Christian settlement and later a harbour was constructed) and it was used as a rubbish tip which probably resulted in its disappearance for some time. While ploughing in the area, a horse apparently fell down a hole which allowed the cave to be discovered. In 1935 the shrine was emptied of centuries of debris, then re-dedicated. In 2000 the cave was again refurbished and reopened to visitors while, on occasion, the Holy Eucharist continues to be celebrated. The cave is owned by the Bishop Low Trust, is entrusted to St John's Scottish Episcopal Church in Pittenweem; the entrance can be found on Cove Wynd. From there we headed back to Dundee, where we are staying and getting to use a Rectory in return for my helping at the services (Mass with birreta and maniple tonight! And cat sitting! We took Mum home first though

St Fillan's Cave showing internal structure and altar.
St Fillan's Cave and the stairwell up to priory grounds.

St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot

2011-08-20T10:05:00.001+01:00

O God, by whose grace your servant Bernard of Clairvaux, Kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Today's saint was a great preacher, a significant theologian and someone who shaped modern Europe, through the impact the Cistercian Order had an our economic and social structures. OK, he was French, but that isn't actually a sin (unless God is actually an Englishman). his writings still have resonance today, even though they were written 1000 years ago. This sample is a good one:

"Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in the practice. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return. The sole purpose of his love is to be loved, int he knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him." - from a sermon by Saint Bernard .

Love is what raises us to one step short of the Angels. Love of God, love of another, love of the poor, love of our fellow mortals. May love of God be with us all today.

St Clare's Day

2011-08-11T11:16:00.001+01:00

Today is the feast of St Clare of Assisi. She was a strong character, beating off well meaning Popes who wanted to dilute the radical poverty of the female Franciscans and make them more Benedictine (or, as that would have been at the time, "more conventional" and (of course) safer for the hierarchy, I'm not particularly Franciscan myself, but have always had a soft spot for stroppy nuns! As obviously did Pope Innocent IV when he wrote:

"O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare!
In life she shone to a few;
after death she shines on the whole world!
On earth she was a clear light;
Now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.

O how great the vehemence of the
brilliance of this clarity!
On earth this light was indeed kept
within cloistered walls,
yet shed abroad its shining rays;
It was confined within a convent cell,
yet spread itself through the wide world."

The words of the lady herself are worth noting:

(From a letter of St Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague)

Happy the soul to whom it is given to attain this life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts behold forever, whose love inflames our love, the contemplation of whom is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our delight, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance makes us glow with happiness, whose fragrance revives the dead, the glorious vision of whom will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendour of eternal light, the mirror without spot.

Look into that mirror daily, O queen and spouse of Jesus Christ, and ever study therein your countenance, that within and without you may adorn yourself with all manner of virtues, and clothe yourself with the flowers and garments that become the daughter and chaste spouse of the most high King. In that mirror are reflected poverty, holy humility and ineffable charity, as, with the grace of God, you may perceive.

Gaze first upon the poverty of Jesus, placed in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. What marvellous humility! What astounding poverty! The King of angels, Lord of heaven and earth, is laid in a manger. Consider next the humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labours and burdens which he endured for the redemption of the human race. Then look upon the unutterable charity with which he willed to suffer on the tree of the cross and to die thereon the most shameful kind of death. This mirror, Christ himself, fixed upon the wood of the cross, bade the passers-by consider these things: ‘All you who pass this way look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.’ With one voice and one mind let us answer him as he cries and laments, saying in his own words: ‘I will be mindful and remember and my soul shall languish within me.’ Thus, O queen of the heavenly King, may you ever burn more ardently with the fire of this love.

Contemplate further the indescribable joys, the wealth and unending honours of the King, and sighing after them with great longing, cry to him: ‘Draw me after you: we shall run to the fragrance of your perfumes, O heavenly bridegroom.’ I will run and faint not until you bring me into the wine cellar, until your left hand be under my head and your right hand happily embrace me and you kiss me with the kiss of your mouth.

In such contemplation be mindful of your poor little mother and know that I have inscribed your happy memory indelibly on the tablets of my heart, holding you dearer than all others.

Santa Chiara, ora pro nobis!

Holiday time!

2011-08-10T23:07:00.000+01:00

Well, that's me on a spot (2 weeks) of Annual Leave. I started with a rather good AA meeting last night which got some head stuff into perspective and then went to the Chiropractor for my monthly "tweak"this morning. I also treated myself to a fry up! On return to the Capital, I pampered my self with a spot of massage (shiatsu, which is somewhat different from the Slavic I usually get) and then had a wee snooze! My evening leisure was pure dead cultured - a HD showing at the Cameo of the Met Opera's 26 April performance of "La Fille de Regiment". Great fun, although as ever with the Opera, the plot was pure mince!

Leisure, it strikes me, is important. I used to feel guilty about it. Perhaps, deep in my unconscious, there was a very working class instilled sense that being a cleric wasn't a "real" job. Now I work 8 hour shifts 5 days a week, I feel no guilt whatsoever about doing things I like when my time is my own. Also, my self confidence and sense of self-worth has improved greatly since I got sober and met Rachel, so I don't feel so odd or self conscious about pampering myself with a destressing massage or a hot shave or some other little treat. God values both body and soul, so should we!

The Transfiguration of Christ

2011-08-06T00:14:00.000+01:00

The feast of the Transfiguration of Christ is a major festival. In Christian teachings, the Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, and the setting on the mountain is presented as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place for the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth. "What does it mean to say: He was transfigured?" asks St John Chrysostom. He says: "It revealed something of His Divinity to them, as much and insofar as they were able to apprehend it, and it showed the indwelling of God within Him."

The mysterious combination of the two perfect natures, divine and human, within the Person of Christ, (Hypostasis as we learnt to call under the late great James Torrance at Aberdeen Uni). is "without mingling, without change, without division, without separation." (The Chalcedonian definition, still the official doctrinal position of nearly every mainstream Christian Church).

Why did Christ choose three Apostles and lead them up onto the Mount with Him? To show them something great and mysterious. As we consider the Mystery of the Transfiguration we need to seek to be illuminated by the Light of the Divine ourselves and to nourish within us a deeper search for the Unfading Glory and Beauty of God, We pray today for a deeper knowledge of the everlasting Light of Christ transfigured in His Glory, and of the Father from all eternity, and the Life-Creating Spirit, Who are One Radiance, One Godhead, and Glory, and Kingdom, and Power now and forever.

These words of the current Pope in Lent 2006 may be helpful:

When one has the grace to live a strong experience of God, it is as if one is living an experience similar to that of the disciples during the Transfiguration: a momentary foretaste of what will constitute the happiness of Paradise. These are usually brief experiences that are sometimes granted by God, especially prior to difficult trials. No one, however, is permitted to live "on Tabor" while on earth. Indeed, human existence is a journey of faith and as such, moves ahead more in shadows than in full light, and is no stranger to moments of obscurity and also of complete darkness. While we are on this earth, our relationship with God takes place more by listening than by seeing; and the same contemplation comes about, so to speak, with closed eyes, thanks to the interior light that is kindled in us by the Word of God.

The Virgin Mary herself, among all human creatures the closest to God, still had to walk day after day in a pilgrimage of faith, constantly guarding and meditating on in her heart the Word that God addressed to her through Holy Scripture and through the events of the life of her Son, in whom she recognized and welcomed the Lord's mysterious voice.

Our vision will only be clear momentarily as we journey towards the radiant glory of God here on earth. Let us each walk onwards towards that life strong in faith, hope and trust - for the Way of Christ is one of faith rather than certainty. And in God we trust.

Back from the outlaws!

2011-08-04T12:54:00.000+01:00

Love is the extra effort we make in our dealings with those whom we do not like and, once you understand that, you understand all. This idea that love overtakes you is nonsense. This is but a polite manifestation of sex. To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny.

Quentin Crisp

A fair bit of truth in that - certainly undertaking some fragment of the beloveds destiny. "In sickness and in health" for example. Or commitment to be prosaic. Old QC (The Naked Civil Servant) has neatly delineated the difference between "caritas" and "Eros", the former being at least in part an act of will. Which brings me to the weekend spent meeting Rachel's clan at a gathering or Bar B Q as it is known.

Meeting (and impressing) such a crowd might not come naturally to me Asperger's and all, but I forswore the suggested tin helmet and instead donned a kilt of the Gordon tartan (well, it worked liked a dream on the Afghan's at Dargai!). All seemed fine and we even managed a Sung Eucharist in Rochester Cathedral (where her Grandad was Dean after ceasing to be Heid Chaplain of the Royal Navy!) on the Sunday morning. (OK but Common Worship is just that -"common" in comparison to any Scottish Liturgy) Flank on in a aisle to a "nave" altar we saw little, heard it well and generally got fed by a decent sermon, good music and intercessions involving the "Ave" which only the intercessor recited, suggesting that it was one of the Congregation's pet spike's being given a wee run off the leash, rather than an integral part of the congregation's spirituality. Still the weather was lovely and we enjoyed a few days together which was brill! And so back to work for a week before 2 weeks of proper annual leave!

Old news.

2011-07-26T10:50:00.000+01:00

I've been catching up on old copies of the Tablet and noted 2 interesting articles. One suggests that the Church of Ireland is benefiting from an influx of disenchanted Roman Catholics just as the RC church in Ireland is losing members and vocations hand over fist due to scandals. The other points out that the Ordinariate in Scotland has 66 members (still a bus trip to Carfin, rather than anything like a viable parish) and that the Ordinariate nationally (i.e. across the UK) has has £1.3m in the bank INCLUDING the £1m from the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament which has been referred back to the Charity Commissioners as a dodgy grant.

Interesting indeed. The triumphalist claims are facing a hammering and that fiscal situation is more than likely to produce a swift absorbing of the Ordinariate into the ordinary Catholic Church. I dropped into the RC Church in Falkirk whilst waiting for a train the other day. No silence for prayer, but rather marvellously a group of lay people reciting the Rosary after Mass without the presence of a priest. That's the beauty of Roman Catholicism in a way - the devotions that I like and value are a normal ordianry part of religious life, rather than an exotic and slightly suspect add on according to personal taste and fancy. But if you can get that by just being RC why go Ordinariate? So you can retain Evensong and slightly less sloppy liturgical leadership? A bit precious really. And Rome will not allow that luxury unless it can fund itself. Which looks unlikely as they face the bitter reality of life without the backing of Quuen Anne's Bounty and the historic endowmwents of the Establishmed Church. This may be less of a Flaminian Gate moment than some would think. Gameliel principle to be applied: if it is of God, it will flourish - if not, it will fade quietly into insignificance and nothing more than a footnote in a Church History text book. Shades of the South India hoo-hah of the 1950's I think.

Haw Jimmy!

2011-07-26T00:04:00.000+01:00

The chapel containing the relics of St James in Compostela, Spain

Or even (if you have the Gaelic), Ha Seamus! (Which is Anglicised into the forename Hamish). Today is St James's Day. He was St John's brother and, like him, a fisherman. One of the witnesses of the Transfiguration and one of those who slept through most of the Agony in the Garden. He was the first apostle to be martyred, being beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I in 44AD to please the Jewish opponents of Christianity. He was buried in Jerusalem, and nothing more was heard about Oor Jimmy until the ninth century.

Then a tradition emerged that his relics were brought to Spain (unlike poor old Andrew who was shipwrecked on the Fife coast and has had to put up with the weather both here and in the RC Cathedral in Edinburgh ever since) some time after his martyrdom, and his shrine at Compostela in Galicia grew in importance until it became the greatest pilgrimage centre in western Europe. In every country there are churches of St James and well-known, well-trodden pilgrim routes. In England, pilgrim routes lead from all parts of the country to the major ports that were used on the pilgrimage. This network of routes is a witness to the fact that the Middle Ages were not the static stay-at-home time that we often think them to be: everyone must have known someone, or known someone who knew someone, who had made the pilgrimage. The scallop-shell, the emblem of St James, has become the emblem of pilgrims generally.

Since have in the last 2 weeks celebrated the Scottish 1929 Liturgy twice and attended Communion in the Church of England according to the Book of Common Prayer 1662 (Scottish Eucharistic Prayer infinitely superior, English order more sensible, but both Eric Morecombe liturgies - all the right words just not necessarily in the right places!), Archbishop Cranmer's collect is the only fit response:

Grant, O merciful God, that as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Elizabeth of Russia

2011-07-18T22:17:00.000+01:00

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia. Monument in Marfo-Mariinsky Convent which she founded.

She is not a saint of whom I had heard until I read my copy of "Exciting Holiness". A half English princess, her husband was assassinated by a Revolutionary. She became an Orthodox nun, having campaigned for the remission of the killers' death sentence. Her unusual combination of charity to the poor, holiness and the ability to forgive the most terrible personal injuries struck me as worth noting. that and the fact that she died at the hands of a tyrannous and atheist regime. A statue of Elizabeth (pictured above) was erected in the garden of her convent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its inscription reads: "To the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna: With Repentance." Yes. Making amends is as important as forgiving. The two go hand in hand. The orthodox hymn for her feast says it well:

Causing meekness, humility and love to dwell in thy soul,

Thou didst earnestly serve the suffering,

O holy passion-bearer Princess Elizabeth;

Wherefore, with faith thou didst endure sufferings and death for Christ, with the martyr Barbara.

With her pray for all who honor you with love.

Taking up the Cross of Christ,

Thou didst pass from royal glory to the glory of heaven,

Praying for thine enemies, O holy martyr Princess Elizabeth;

And with the martyr Barbara thou didst find everlasting joy.

Therefore, pray ye in behalf of our souls.

Elizabeth of Russia, ora pro nobis.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

2011-07-16T00:21:00.001+01:00

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Oddly enough, there is a Scottish Episcopal Church in this Diocese dedicated to her. it's one of the very few medieval buildings we own (Kirkcudbright, Butt of Lewis and Blair Atholl being the others). The Priory Church of St Mary of Mount Carmel at South Queensferry was a 15th century Carmelite Priory. (And is rather wasted on the Evangelicals who "planted" it IMHO). The Carmelites have been an influence on my own spirituality through St John of the Cross's writings at University and latterly through some dipping into Teresa of Avila and Therese of Liseux. And knowing Carmelite nuns in both Dysart and Falkirk. Their vocation is primarily to the Interior life. An authority on Carmelite spirituality, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, OCD, wrote that devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel means:

"a special call to the interior life, which is preeminently a Marian life. Our Lady wants us to resemble her not only in our outward vesture but, far more, in heart and spirit. If we gaze into Mary's soul, we shall see that grace in her has flowered into a spiritual life of incalculable wealth: a life of recollection, prayer, uninterrupted oblation to God, continual contact, and intimate union with him. Mary's soul is a sanctuary reserved for God alone, where no human creature has ever left its trace, where love and zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of mankind reign supreme. ... Those who want to live their devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to the full must follow Mary into the depths of her interior life. Carmel is the symbol of the contemplative life, the life wholly dedicated to the quest for God, wholly orientated towards intimacy with God; and the one who has best realized this highest of ideals is Our Lady herself, 'Queen and Splendor of Carmel'."

Most of us can't manage that but we can aim to deepen our intimacy with God in silence and prayer. Like this by the Carmelite martyr Edith Stein, convert from Judaism, philosopher and nun murdered by the Nazi's in Auschwitz in 1942:

"O my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You.

Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me

along the next stretch of road before me.

I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived

where the horizon now closes down,

a new prospect will prospect will open before me,

and I shall meet it with peace."

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross -Edith Stein

Maniple mania!

2011-07-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

A maniple - for those who ain't never seen one!

I posted a note on my Facebook page, reporting the re-appearance of the allegedly extinct maniple in our Sacristy at St Michael's. Blow me if there wasn't a positive flurry of responses. I personally have worn this arcane vestment when it has been available, but hardly regard its omission as some invalidating heresy. I never thought it had been abolished, I simply regarded it as largely disused since the Vatican 2 reforms. To be frank, I have no strong feelings on it's reappearance. Given the very traditional style of St Michael's liturgy, why not go the whole hog? Memo to self: find your altar copy of the English Missile and your biretta - you may need them soon:-)

Blessed John Keble

2011-07-14T14:31:00.001+01:00

Today is the commemoration (in the C of E) of John Keble. Technically we in the frozen North recall him on 29 march (his heavenly birthday) but the English keep the anniversary of his Assize sermon which triggered the Oxford Movement. No matter. his hymns have deepened the devotions of many. Today's collect (from Keble College Oxford) helps us to recall that.

Father of the eternal Word,
in whose encompassing love
all things in peace and order move:
grant that, as your servant John Keble

adored you in all creation,
so we may have a humble heart of love

for the mysteries of your Church
and know your love to be new every morning,
in Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

St Benet's Eve.

2011-07-10T20:51:00.000+01:00

Tonight I popped into the Cathedral for Evensnog and found the sort of ecumenical service I like - A Pisky church, Pisky clergy and a Presby choir (Dunblane ex-Cathedral in their blue goonies). At least you could make out the words of the psalm without the mangling of trebles! A very pleasant experience followed by mince and tatties - braw as Oor Wullie says (we have to read the Sunday Post now that the News of the Screws has gone!).

Tomorrow is St Benedict, father of Western Monasticism and patron of Europe (I thought that used to be Cyril and Methodius??). Hang on, according to the books ALL of this lot are: Benedict of Nursia, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), Jadwiga of Poland. Europe obviously needs much prayer (Eurosceptics might agree).

Here interestingly is St Benedict's "12 step programme".

I A first faltering step is taken when a monk consciously obeys all of God's commandments, never ignoring them but always holding within himself a fear of God in his heart, for "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10) Benedict then warns that we must always beware of what may be said to us in the future, lest we should through negligence fall into evil ways and become useless: "when you do these things, should I be silent?" (Ps. 49[50])

II Our second step is achieved when one thinks not about pleasing himself but instead follows the injunction of the Lord, "I came...not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me" (Jn. 6:38)

III The third step is reached when out of love of God, one obediently submits to a superior in imitation of the Lord, for "he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death..." (Phil. 2:8) Such obedience is at the heart of the Benedictine spirit. The obedience a monk shows to his Abbot, and not exclusively to the Abbot but also to his seniors and, for that matter to all his brothers, is an indication that he is actively seeking to do God's will. In the Benedictine tradition the abbot of a monastery holds the place of Christ, much as a bishop does in his diocese. For the monk, his superior is the father of his particular house of God. For this reason, Benedict gave pride of place in his Rule to the qualities that each individual abbot must possess, spelling them out in exhaustive detail at the beginning of chapter 2. By comparison, chapter 1 is but a short treatise on the varieties of monks and is quickly dispensed with. So seriously did Benedict consider the abbatial position that he did not hesitate to warn, "he should keep in mind that he has undertaken the care of souls for whom he must give an account" (RB 2:34). The saint adds that the abbot must be led to realize that any lack of good in his monks will be laid at his doorstep.

Benedict also demonstrates his understanding of human frailties when, after instructing the monk to obey the abbot's commands in all things, he remarks that should he (the abbot) himself stray from his own path the monks under him should "do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but do not practice." (Matt. 23:3)

IV The fourth step is achieved when a monk, under obedience, patiently and quietly endures all things that are inflicted on him. It should make no difference whether the trials are painful, unjust or even completely beyond his understanding; he should neither tire nor give up. "Whoever endures to the end will be saved"(Matt. 10:22). To this Benedict adds the consoling promise, "in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us" (Rom. 8:37)

V The fifth step is reached when a monk humbly discloses to his superior all the evil thoughts in his heart as well as those faults and evil acts he has actually committed. Benedict urges us to "give thanks to the Lord, who is good, whose love endures forever." (Ps. 106:1)

VI To achieve the sixth step a monk must without qualms accept all that is crude and harsh; at all times he considers himself a poor and worthless workman.

VII The seventh step is attained when a monk not only confesses that he is an inferior and common wretch, but believes it to his very core. He must be willing to humble himself and claim with the prophet that he is "a worm, hardly human, scorned by everyone, despised by the people" (Ps. 22:7) and that "it was good for me to be afflicted, in order to learn your laws." (Ps. 118[119]:71)

VIII A monk reaches the eighth step of humility when he does only that which is demanded by the common rule of the monastery or by his seniors.

IX The ninth step can be achieved when a monk, practicing silence, only speaks when asked a question, for "where words are many, sin is not wanting; but he who restrains his lips does well." (Prov. 10:19) The monk is here reminded that humility at all times entails the control of not only his thoughts but also of his tongue. Benedict was extremely aware of the ease in which one inflicts injury through careless chatter. A monk is instructed to use his powers of speech in order to encourage his brothers.

X The tenth step is climbed when a monk restrains himself from undue laughter and frivolity.

XI To reach the eleventh step a monk must speak gently, without jests, but simply, seriously, tersely, rationally and softly. It is only through silence and limited speech that we are able to listen to God with the ear of our hearts; only thus can we be attentive to his divine presence in our monasteries and in our lives.

XII The final step is attained only when a monk can at all times show humility not only in his appearance and actions, but also in his heart. St. Benedict felt that it is only upon climbing all twelve steps that a monk can hope to find that perfect love of God that casts out fear; only then will he be capable of acting solely out of love for Christ. Indeed the initial fear which may have been necessary as a motivator can inspire the renunciation of all externals, including ownership; this in turn may lead to an inner renunciation that is the very essence of humility. Fear is eliminated by love, which is revealed as the very pinnacle of life on earth: upon successfully climbing the twelve steps one discovers what can only be called an unspeakable respect for God. It is then that his word is listened to with veneration and his law lovingly observed.

(Pinched from the website of Christ in the Desert Monastery Albuquerque)

Not sure all of it works for me - the low self image jars given the efforts that have been made by so many to improve me self-esteem but make it realistic and honest. but there is food for thought in this.

Another thought for another day - SS Peter and Paul's.

2011-06-29T23:55:00.002+01:00

Here's another wee reflection I got sent:

"In a search for God and a search for self, I always end up coming home. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, when asked by Glenda what she learned on her journey, replied, "I learned that if I ever lose my heart's desire again, I won't go looking past my own back-yard because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with." Dorothy's search for the wizard ended in the discovery that he was only a man behind a curtain, with all the needs and frailties that she, herself, had.

I can make my journey endless by seeking God or self outside of me in people, places and things, or I can shorten it by turning inward and looking for them where I am most likely to find them. Exactly how I get there is of little import. Ultimately the path will fade away behind me, anyway. It is the being there that matters; my willingness to know that my search begins and ends in the same place, within me.

I am the man behind and in front of the curtain.

This is the grand atonement, the being in touch. D. H. Lawrence"

Next to knowledge of God, knowledge of self is the key said Herbert Hamilton Kelly, founder of the Society of the Sacred Mission (better known as the Kelham Fathers). Actually, neither is possible without the other. Only when we know the reality of God do we finally realise that we ain't him/her/it! Only then can we live life as it ought to be for us - the life we are called to and promised in Baptism. St Peter and St Paul knew this: both were stripped of their self delusion of controlling their world - Peter in the courtyard when he betrayed Christ, Paul on the road to Damascus when he encountered the reality of God in Christ

Know Thyself.

2011-06-28T23:15:00.000+01:00

I get sent a "Thought for the Day" by an on-line support group for addicts which sometimes makes me think. This recent offering certainly did:

"Getting to know myself is my most rewarding and powerful adventure, my God story. It is a day-to-day task, it does not happen once and for all because the self evolves. Today I will try to get out of my own way and allow the deeper pulse of life and love and spiritual energy to flow through me. I often attempt to rid my personality of what I perceive to be undesirable aspects, to get them out of me once and for all. But today I wonder if rather than get rid of parts of myself, perhaps I need to learn to work with these troublesome areas and reintegrate them in a new way. It need not be my goal today to get rid of pieces of myself I dislike, but instead to work with them and transform them into something better through attention, care, self-honesty and self-forgiveness. I get more done with a loving and caring attitude toward others - why not try to be loving and caring with myself?"

There is a strong purgative tradition in some Christian spirituality's - spiritual growth comes through rooting out the dark spots in the soul. But that can sometimes be either self-destructive or deeply traumatising. Especially if you have deep within yourself elements which clash with the common vision of what it is to be "a Christian".Flogging things into submission or cutting out the canker both involve a level of spiritual violence that can leave scars. This more developmental approach strikes me as being potentially more fruitful. of course it will never be pain free - self-knowledge and self-love come at a cost and with tears. But they might be tears of joy and relief, rather than pain and lament.

Once a squaddie...

2011-06-26T23:44:00.000+01:00

always a squaddie. Not that I have ever been a member of HM Forces. But it was back to the Ecclesiastical ranks as a 2nd Acolyte at St Michael's this morning due to a server shortage. I think the last time I did this was back in 1993 prior to leaving Coates Hall. It's surprising how quickly things come back and I think I was reasonably competent (which, given that St Michael's is probably one of the most precise and well drilled liturgical shops in the country, is like saying I'd do OK on Horseguards Parade with the Woodentops had I been a squaddie! And tall enough to join the Scots Guards. Which I'm not - I have the build of a Poison Dwarf from the Cameronians (now defunct) or my local Regiment the Black Watch. And all whilst being observed by the Rector designate from the choir gallery.

It's odd to thank that my life which has been going forwards in the last year or 2 has achieved this by going backwards - from incumbent to Assistant Priest, by recovering my diaconate without a dog collar in Support Work. Still, it's no bad thing for the Priest Director of the Edinburgh Guild of Servers (moi!) to go back into the ranks and show he can still bash a square as well as any other platoon member:-)

St John the Baptist's Day

2011-06-24T22:56:00.001+01:00

It's John the Baptist's birthday today, hence the Caravaggio above, which Rachel and I saw in the Rembrandt's House museum in Amsterdam on it's 1st public outing from the private collection where it normally lives. I went to see Mum, visited Dad's grave with her and then we went out for a Spanish meal (Tortilla (that's a tattie omelette) for a starter, followed by Arroz Valenciana (chicken & bacon risotto, only Spanish rather than Eyetie) for me. Mum went for the patatas with garlic mayo and then the Hoose penne). Yes, I know Cowdenbeath isn't where you'd expect any cuisine less commonplace than a chippy, a Curry House or a Chinese, but hey we are getting better. We bumped into the big sister of one of my best mates at High School and chatted. Kevin is (evidently) bald, married and living in Angus.I intend to avoid replicating 2 out of those 3! Happy Baptiser's birthday!

A further note on Corpus Christi.

2011-06-23T22:52:00.001+01:00

"The question whether soul and body are identical, therefore, is as superfluous as to ask whether wax and the shape imprinted on it are identical, or, in general whether the material of a thing is identical with the thing of which it is the material. "Is" and "one" have various meanings, but in their most legitimate meaning they connote the fully actual character of a thing." Aristotle

Actually, this helps me to understand (or rather to clarify my own understanding of what happens at the Eucharist when the bread and wine are consecrated). Is the Sacrament the true Body of Chrisy? Answer: the bread and and wine AND the fleshly body TOGETHER are the actual body. They are linked in the mystery that is sacrament and I go very Orthodox on that:

"In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Eucharistic celebration is known as the Divine Liturgy and is believed to impart the actual Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful. In the act of communion, the entire Church—past, present, and even future—is united in eternity. In Orthodox Eucharistic theology, although many separate Divine Liturgies may be celebrated, there is only one Bread and one Cup throughout all the world and throughout all time.

The most perfect expression of the Eucharistic unity of the church is found in the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy (a Liturgy at which a bishop is the chief celebrant), for as St. Ignatius of Antioch stated, where the bishop is, surrounded by his clergy and faithful, there is the church in all of her fullness.

The Anaphora (Eucharistic prayer) contains an anamnesis (lit. "making present") which not only recounts the historical facts of Jesus' death and resurrection, but actually makes them present, forming an undivided link to the unique event on Calvary. The Anaphora ends with an Epiclesis ("calling down from on high") during which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit to come and "change" the Gifts (elements of bread and wine) into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. Orthodox theology does not make use of the term "transubstantiation" to systematically describe how the Gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ; rather, they state that it is a Sacred Mystery, and prefer to use only the word "change". The Orthodox do not link the moment of transformation of the Gifts to the Words of Institution, or indeed to any one particular moment. They merely affirm that the change is completed at the Epiclesis."

And also:

""Objective reality, but pious silence about technicalities" is the view of all the ancient Churches of the East, including the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Catholic Churches) and the Assyrian Church of the East as well as perhaps most Anglicans and Lutherans. These, while agreeing with the Catholic belief that the sacrament is not merely bread and wine but truly the body and blood of Christ, and having historically employed the "substance" and "accidents" terminology to explain what is changed in the transformation, usually avoid this terminology, lest they seem to scrutinize the technicalities of the manner in which the transformation occurs."

This passage by the great Alexander Schmemann sums it up for me:

"For the Eucharist, we have said, is a passage, a procession leading the Church into "heaven," into her fulfillment as the Kingdom of God. And it is precisely the reality of this passage into the Eschaton that conditions the transformation of our offering — bread and wine — into the new food of the new creation, of our meal into the Messianic Banquet and the Koinonia of the Holy Spirit. Thus, for example, the coming together of Christians on the Lord’s Day, their visible unity "sealed" by the priest ("ecclesia in episcopo and episcopus in ecclesia") is indeed the beginning of the sacrament, the "gathering into the Church." And the entrance is not a symbolical representation of Christ going to preach but the real entrance — the beginning of the Church’s ascension to the Throne of God, made possible, inaugurated by the ascension of Christ’s Humanity. The offertory — the solemn transfer of bread and wine to the altar is again not the symbol of Christ’s burial (or of His entrance into Jerusalem) but a real sacrifice — the transfer of our lives and bodies and of the whole "matter" of the whole creation into heaven, their integration in the unique and all-embracing sacrifice of all sacrifices, that of Christ. The prosphora (offering) makes possible the anaphora — the lifting up of the Church, her eschatological fulfillment by the Eucharist. For Eucharist — "thanksgiving" — is indeed the very content of the redeemed life, the very reality of the Kingdom as "joy and peace in the Holy Spirit," the end and the fulfillment of our ascension into heaven. Therefore, the Eucharist is consecration and the Fathers called both the prayer of consecration and the consecrated gifts "Eucharist." The insistence by the Orthodox on the epiclesis is nothing else, in its ultimate meaning, but the affirmation that the consecration, i.e., the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, takes place in the "new eon" of the Holy Spirit. Our earthly food becomes the Body and Blood of Christ because it has been assumed, accepted, lifted up into the "age to come," where Christ is indeed the very life, the very food of all life and the Church is His Body, "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:23). It is there, finally, that we partake of the food of immortality, are made participants of the Messianic Banquet, of the New Paschaleitourgia" which eternally transforms the Church into what she is, makes her the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit." (from "Theology and Eucharist", St. Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1961, pp. 10-23

Corpus Christi

2011-06-23T13:21:00.002+01:00

Yes, tonight we have one of those simple Gospel services for which St Michael's is renowned! And to explain it a bit, here's some theology from Wikipedia with the bits that tick boxes for me highlighted:

"In Anglican theology, a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. In the Eucharist, the outward and visible sign is that of bread and wine, while the inward and spiritual grace is that of the Body and Blood of Christ. The classic Anglican aphorism with regard to the debate on the Eucharist is the poem by John Donne (1572–1631): "He was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it; I do believe and take it" (Divine Poems. On the Sacrament).

Anglicans generally believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, but the specifics of that belief range from transubstantiation, sometimes with Eucharistic adoration (mainly Anglo-Catholics or High-Church Anglicans), to something akin to a belief in a "pneumatic" presence (many Broad-Church Anglicans). A small minority reject the doctrine of the Real Presence altogether (Mainly Low-Church Anglicans). The oldest Anglican devotional society, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, was founded largely to promote and re-affirm belief in the real presence amongst Anglicans.

The 39 Articles argue that the doctrine of transubstantiation, as understood by those who drew up the text, overthrows the nature of a sacrament as an outward, visible sign that conveys an inward, spiritual grace. For some Anglicans, whose mysticism is intensely incarnational, it is vital that God has used the mundane and temporal as a means of giving people access to the transcendent and eternal. They consider the presence to belong to the realm of spirit and eternity, and it is not about corporeal-fleshiness, which is not to say that they accept only a "pneumatic" presence. Instead, they strongly argue to be content to allow the mystery to remain a mystery. They bristle at the idea that one material substance gets substituted for another. (Roman Catholic doctrine insists that the material substance, being part of what is open to the senses, is in no way altered, and that the philosophical-sense substance or inner reality is converted into that of the body and blood of Christ, not substituted by it.) As some Anglican divines have stated: "It may not be about a change of substance, but it is about a substantial change."

From some Anglican perspectives the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist does not imply that Jesus Christ is present materially or locally. This is in accord with the definition of the Roman Catholic Church, as expressed, for instance by St. Thomas Aquinas, who, while saying that the whole Christ is present in the sacrament, also said that this presence was not "as in a place". Real does not mean material: the lack of the latter does not imply the absence of the former. The Eucharist is not intrinsic to Christ as a body part is to a body, but extrinsic as His instrument to convey Divine Grace. Some Anglicans see this understanding as compatible with different theories of Christ's Presence, transubstantiation, consubstantiation or virtualism, without getting involved in the mechanics of 'change' or trying to explain a mystery of God's own doing.

Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians participating in an Anglican/Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission declared that they had "reached substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist".

So rejoice today in the gift of the Blessed Sacrament:

"We are now in the presence of the infinite majesty of God, who was once pleased, for love of us, to come down from heaven and become Man on earth, and to die on a cross to save us; and is now in the Blessed Sacrament, to listen to our prayers and grant us the graces we ask of him.

I adore you, O Jesus, true God and true Man, here present in the Holy Eucharist, humbly kneeling before you and united in spirit with all the faithful on earth and all the blessed in heaven. In deepest gratitude for so great a blessing, I love you, my Jesus, with my whole heart, for you are all perfect and all worthy of love.

Give me grace nevermore in any way to offend you, and grant that, being refreshed by your Eucharistic presence here on earth, I may be found worthy to come to the enjoyment with Mary of your eternal and ever-blessed presence in heaven. Amen.

I believe that you, O Jesus, are in the Most Blessed Sacrament! I love you and desire you! Come into my heart. I embrace you. O never leave me! May the burning and most sweet power of your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, absorb my mind, that I may die through love of your love, who was pleased to die through love of my love. Amen."

St Francis of Assisi

NSM=No Stopping Moving

2011-06-20T11:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was singularly peripatetic. I was on the 8:04 from Haymarket to go and cover a service in sunny (not) Dumbarton. Even with a change on to the low level train at Queen Street, I was there by 10am. Mattins was said "en train", as was the Midday Office! A thoroughly enjoyable modern Mass (despite the Graham Kendrick ditties) was had, complete with the traditional heckling of the "Edinb***ers" by the Weegies during the notices. I said I wasn't taking offence because "Ah'm frae Fife!". And impersonated Karl Barth singing during the sermon - don't ask!

Back to barracks and some cooking, then off to Old St Paul's for Evensong and Benediction. The office was choral indeed - just the choir because the Curate slept in! He's obviously getting into African time in preparation for his move to South Africa! The evening ended with some party to raise funds for music therapy for traumatised Bosnian children. A busy but fun day.

Well matched.

2011-06-18T22:49:00.000+01:00

It's funny how things are with people sometimes, isn't it? The Memsahib was up for a day or two and I was a bit grumpy on arrival (moving flat into the new "annexe" of Emmaus House had me narky) - not at her, but with the new rooms! We did a bit of shopping (I have a new T-Shirt, she has a new necklace) watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" on DVD (Elton John songs, Shakespeare references and Ozzy Osbourne and Dolly Parton too! A good fillum!) and toddled off to watched "Potiche" at the Cameo - I now understand why the Frenchies rate Catherine Denueve (just don't ask your mother what she did in the 50's is all I'd say!). However, herself noted that when either of us is grumpy (and we both are from time to time), it's never with each other but about summat else. either we are singularly compatible or we haven't lived together long enough to annoy each other!

St Barnabas's Day

2011-06-12T00:01:00.000+01:00

Bountiful God, giver of all gifts,
who poured your Spirit upon your servant Barnabas
and gave him grace to encourage others:
help us, by his example,
to be generous in our judgements
and unselfish in our service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. AMEN.

The blessed apostle, on whose festa I was ordained Deacon 18 years ago, is given as the source of some funny ideas as this section from the "Epistle of Barnabas" attests:

"Barnabas 10:6-8 Moreover thou shalt not eat the hare. Why so? Thou shalt not be found a corrupter of boys, nor shalt thou become like such persons; for the hare gaineth one passage in the body every year; for according to the number of years it lives it has just so many orifices. Again, neither shalt thou eat the hyena; thou shalt not, saith He, become an adulterer or a fornicator, neither shalt thou resemble such persons. Why so? Because this animal changeth its nature year by year, and becometh at one time male and at another female. Moreover He hath hated the weasel also and with good reason. Thou shalt not, saith He, become such as those men of whom we hear as working iniquity with their mouth for uncleanness, neither shalt thou cleave unto impure women who work iniquity with their mouth. For this animal conceiveth with its mouth." (JB Lightfoot's translation)

Mad patristic metaphysics and dodgy biology are not really what I see as the defining hallmarks of this good and holy saint. Grace, the gift of helping others to grow closer to god and a willingness to serve humbly for the sake of the Gospel and the Kingdom are. I shall ignore the ancient loopiness others credited him with and honour the man in Acts.

Tertullian and other early Western theologians regarded Barnabas as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Which may have been the early Roman tradition, which Tertullian usually follows. According to Photius (Quaest. in Amphil., 123), Barnabas wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Most modern scholars go for St Luke.

He is also traditionally associated with the Epistle of Barnabas, although modern scholars think it more likely that it was written in Alexandria in the 130s. The 6th century Decretum Gelasianum includes a Gospel of Barnabas amongst works condemned as apocryphal; but no certain text or quotation from this work has been identified. Another book using that same title, the "Gospel of Barnabas", survives in two post-medieval manuscripts in Italian and Spanish. Contrary to the canonical Christian Gospels, and in accordance with the Islamic view of Jesus, this later states that Jesus was not the son of God, but a prophet and messenger. The book also says Jesus rose alive into Heaven without having been crucified. Allegedly, it also mentions by name, the Comforter, as Mohammad.

Happy St Barnaby's Day !

Accidents can happen

2011-06-05T15:13:00.000+01:00

...and very nearly did this morning. It is NEVER a good idea to give the thurible known as "Big Aggie" to a wee celebrant!!! Luckily, I was trained on the "Diocesan Bucket" at St Ninian's Pollokshields and can handle the big beggar! The sermon seemed to go OK, but the stand in organist chose what I can only describe as the only dirge tune in the hymnal for "At the Name of Jesus". It meant to be a real "Can Belto" hymn to send the punters out on a high. We got a mimsy, insipid piece of mush fit only for aged spinsters and woolly minded pantheists (lay or ordained). "Bore it up triumphant" - mair like "bored it out of triumph". Still it was quite fun.

Critical Wit

2011-06-04T23:38:00.000+01:00

This splendid parody from the Anglican Cyber Ordinariate amused me:

"I am the very model of the focus of great unity
I say who is to be a bishop vis-à-vis who's not to be
And when four-thirty's come and gone with tea and crumpets for each one
I read a little Johnny Donne and give thanks for impunity

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters theological
With books and thoughts from Genesis to Greek eschatalogical
You'll never find a brighter mind just knocking 'round and killing time
The Pauline corpus whole is mine - that's why I'm Christological

Yet even with so fine a grasp on life-behind philosophy
I'll write a poem, make a vid, and burn it all to DVD
I've yet to have a thought that wasn't captured without modesty
And posted up to interwebs in matters most postmodernly

This purple cassock hides a frame that's wracked with years of self-regret
Perhaps I'd show you after ten, but not until just then, you bet
I'd like to quote 'The Body's Grace' and get along with homophiles
But unity comes with a price and Lambeth is my domicile

Because the Thames, so fast and deep, so easily o'erflows its banks
And we have all these partnerships the world around, and we give thanks
To God the Father in whose name we obfuscate and place the blame
And dare not speak the love whose fame incites us all to spank the Yanks

Who even now would like to say that what they said and what they meant
Were justice-born and justice-done and no great cause for gross lament
When some elect and some consent, it's democratic government
So let's get on our knees, repent, and sign up for the Covenant

Yet there's a place for each and all at God's communion table
And I am called an Instrument to say that we are able
If we could only change the tide and Unity could take a ride
And Faith and Order lay aside ... Perhaps it's just a fable"

Wit is perhaps the most potent weapon against the bully or the egoist. It is a shame that it seems to be necessary to use it against the ++ABC. But twas ever thus. Ever since the wonderful Dom Gregory Dix OSB replied to the question "Don't you trust the Bench of Bishops?" with the observation that Scripture tells us not to put our trust in Princes - even princes of the Church and noted that the sign of a bishop was a crook and that of an Archbishop a double cross (Oww!), the Episcopate have been fair game for satiric wit on their words and deeds. Of course, these days Dom Gregory would I suspect have been part of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. ++ Rowan can console himself that Robert Runcie was lampooned as a puppet by Spitting Image and he hasn't had to endure that.

A thought on meditation and reflection.

2011-06-03T20:51:00.000+01:00

From a slightly unexpected source:

"You do not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait. Be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, and it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." Franz Kafka

Quite as good as Anthony De Mello or Mother Theresa. And beautifully succinct!