Praying For The Word And The World Praying For Us – Part 1
“…It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give thanks to the Lord our God… through his beloved son, Jesus Christ.”
Catholic Christians are familiar with the words said dur- ing Mass at the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer: “Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give thanks to the Lord our God… through his beloved son, Jesus Christ.” How do we pray, always, and everywhere, and at all times? This is a leading question. The answer depends on our under- standing of the different kinds of prayer.
Essential Praying
Prayer is a raising of mind and heart to God. This needs to be qualified. There are two essential kinds of prayer. Something we call Public Prayer or Priestly, and something we call Private or Devotional. Unfortunately, we often confuse them because we wear two hats, so to speak. It is important to know which prayer ‘hat’ we wear, when praying.
Critical Distinction
The distinction between public and private prayer is critical. They may seem the same but they are different. Public prayer is something liturgical. The function of liturgical prayer is priestly. The language of ‘public’ prayer is consistently ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘they’, ‘our’. Private prayer is something devotional. The language of private prayer is devotional. The personal pronoun ‘I’, is the language of private prayer. “I” is never used in the public prayers of the mass.
Baptism and Priestly Prayer
Our understanding of priestly prayer depends on our under- standing of baptism. Through baptism we share in the priest hood of Jesus. We are anointed priest, prophet, and king. To be anointed is to be chosen, like the boy David in the Old Testament (Samuel 3). A priest, in virtue of his or her baptism, is anointed to offer sacrifice. As priests, we are called to pray habitually for the world; not ourselves. We pray for the world and the world prays for us. At mass this is crucial we are officiating as priests. We pray “Through Christ our Lord…” In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ, “we offer all honour and glory to our almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.” The ordained priest has the additional role to lead public worship on behalf of the Christian community.
Difficulties of Priestly Prayer
The church the body of Christ in the words of St. Paul exists in the world not for its own sake, but for the sake of humankind. The church is an instrument of salvation in the world. Its function is to save the world, not itself. In the liturgy in the mass we are exercising our priesthood, not just for ourselves, but first and foremost, for the world.
The needs and feelings of God’s people, not our individual needs, have priority in the priestly prayer of the Church. Priestly prayer con- nects us to the lives and lifestyles, needs and sufferings, of men, women, and children of different nationalities and religions. Even though we only partially under- stand how this happens, Jesus, Our High Priest, fully understands. He makes up for our lack of under- standing. Through him, we pray for the world and the world prays for us. This is not something we can explain adequately but it is part of our Christian faith. What is happening is a miracle. I do not believe in miracles; I depend on them.
Crisis of Language
Language is important. Language is often a problem in priestly prayer. We experience real difficulties in making the transition from everyday language to priestly language. One reason for this is that we have lost a sense that the right words in faith matter, as in everything. Dorothy Soelle, a German theologian wrote, “What is appalling in our culture is that most people have no Language for speaking of the spiritual dimension of their lives”. My ministry in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, at this time, includes two native reservations. What is of great concern to the elders of these communities is that the young have lost, or are losing, their native lan- guage. Most of them, through lack of practice, no longer speak their native ‘Migwah’. So much of culture is contained in the spoken language and so much is lost when the ‘mother tongue’ is no longer spoken. Huge efforts are being made to revive the native language. Likewise in Ireland. Many who once spoke the ‘mother language’ of our forefathers and foremothers have lost much of it through non practice.
Prayer Past and Present
One of the most moving moments when officiating at native funerals is listening to women praying in their mother tongue – usually women lead these prayers and, interestingly, the recitation of the rosary is part of the ritual. Deeply moving, too, is listening to the menfolk, young, and not so young, drum beating the ‘Honour Song’, slowly, solemnly, rhythmically, as the remains are removed from the community centre and begin the final journey to the church, and to the burial grounds.
Culture keeps alive our values and tradition. Values are the glue that bind us together. Values are the things in life we hold dear and live for. It is no exaggeration, nor is it to our credit to say, that today our values are messed up. Someone has broken into the treasure store and changed the price tags.
Devotional
Private prayer is devotional. Here are some of its examples: meditation, belonging to a prayer group, saying the rosary, making the stations of the cross, participating in pilgrimages to holy places, saying grace before and after meals. The purpose of private prayer is to cultivate and cherish, nourish, and nurture, an intimate and personal relationship with God. To hear the voice of God, whispering in the secrecy of our hearts, ‘I Love you’.
Questions And Answers
Question 1. What does it mean when someone says they will light a candle for you? I have had it said to me a few times by a particular person and I am not sure what it does mean, apart from the fact that the person is wishing me well.
Answer:
It simply means that they the person means to pray that God will bless you and fill your life with the light that only God can give. ‘I am the light of the world.’
Question 2. Who was St. Blasé and why do we get our throats blessed on his feast day on February 2nd?
Answer:
St. Blasé, bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, is believed to have been condemned to death and beheaded in the year 316. The details of his life are very scarce, but there are a lot of legends attached to his life. E.G., during a persecution he was imprisoned in a cave and wild beasts came to him to be cured. It is also said that a mother came to the bishop, asking him to cure her son who was choking on a fish bone stuck in his throat, and the bishop saved the boy with a prayer and the sign of the cross. For this very reason St. Blasé is venerated as patron of those who suffer from diseases of the throat. Throats are blessed on his feast day with two blessed candles held together in a form of St. Andrew’s cross, and St. Blasé is invoked to preserve the person blessed from all diseases of the throat.
Question 3. I hear there are a lot of fables and myths attached to the life of St Brigid of Kildare. What do we really know about her? (New reader)
Answer:
Born near Kildare around 454 her father wished to make a suitable marriage for her but she insisted on consecrating her virginity to God. She received the veil and probably her spiritual formation from St. Mel. She founded a double monastery (for men and women). This con- tributed greatly to the spread of Christianity throughout the country, and later her cult was carried by missionaries to the continent and elsewhere. She is renowned for her hospitality, almsgiving and care of the sick. She is the Patron Saint of Kidare, poets, scholars and dairy workers. She is a Patron saint of Ireland, along with St. Patrick and St. Columba (ColmCille). Her feast day is February 1st.
Question 4. I am beginning to have doubts about my faith. God does not seem to be there for me at all. I go to mass every day and pray a lot. But nothing good happens to me or my family. I am really beginning to find it more difficult to believe. Please help.
Answer:
Thank you for writing I think it is true to say that all Christians have doubts at one time or another. We can be very convinced about our faith when everything is going well but when problems appear our faith is put to the test. It is obvious that our faith will not make pain or problems disappear. It will not make life easier. But it will help us to face with confidence and courage whatever trials and difficulties we meet in this life.
In other words our belief in God and in the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives is not just something we are happy to go along with in the good times. Faith is about saying I believe in God even when he seems to be deaf to my prayers. I believe that he is present in our world despite the evil and the pain and the suffering that is so evident in our world.
When bad or painful things come into our lives, when our suffering seems to go on and on and all is bleak and dark, the risen Christ calls us to keep the faith to fight on to stick in there to believe in His presence and love. He has walked the way of suffering before us and assures us that He is with us to help us carry our cross.
Question 5. What were Synagogues?
Answer:
Synagogues were prayer halls and places to learn the Scriptures but they were also used as centres for civil administration and as places of confinement while awaiting trial. Luke 21:12 tells us that many of the early Christians came in conflict with Jewish communities and were ‘handed over’ to synagogues.
Every February 14, across Ireland, the UK, America, and other places around the world, chocolates, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. The history of Valentine’s Day and the story of its patron saint is shrouded in mystery and legend. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, but who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this tradition celebrated over centuries?
Lupercalia
Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the tradition, some believe it originated in ancient Rome, where from February 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a fer- tility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. There the priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. Later in the day, according to legend, all the unmar- ried young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. The legend is that modern Valen- tine’s letters originated from this custom. In reality, as you will see later, it actually originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia. Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity, but was outlawed as “Un-Christian”-at the end of the fifth century.
St Valentine
Most believe the real origin of this day for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all at least not in the traditional sense. It originated as a Western Christian liturgical feast day honouring one or more early saints named Valentinus whose martyrdom may have inspired the holiday. The facts about our Saint Valentine are cloudy. Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine; but the St Valentines honoured on February 14 are believed to be Valentinus of Terni and Valentine of Rome. Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, central Italy) and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian in 273.
The other, Valentinus of Rome was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentinus, realising the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentinus’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death in 269. Other stories suggest that he may have been put to death for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire of that time. Because of the similarities of these accounts, it’s thought they may refer to the same person; however the saint we celebrate on Valentine’s Day is known officially as St. Valentine of Rome. He was added to the calendar of saints by Pope Galesius in 496.
Although the truth behind the Valentine legend is murky, the stories all emphasise his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and most importantly romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day first became asso- ciated with romantic love within the Medieval circle of English Poet, Geoffrey Chaucer in the four teenth century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. No record exists of romantic cel- ebrations Valentine’s Day prior to a poem he wrote around 1375. Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. In his work Parliament of Foules, he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day. Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he may have invented the St Valentine’s Day we know today.
In the mid sixteenth century, William Shakespeare also helped romanticise Valentine’s Day in his work. By the seventeenth century it became popular throughout Britain and the rest of Europe for wealthy and educated people to celebrate St Valentine’s Day by sending written romantic messages to loved ones on hand made cards. Eventually, the tradition made its way to the New World. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s.
Valentines
By the mid-eighteenth-century St Valentine’s Day had evolved into an occasion in which friends and lovers of all social classes expressed their love for each other by giving flowers, chocolates, and sending handwritten cards decorated with ribbons and real lace known as “valentines”.
Paper Valentines became so popu- lar in England in the early nine- teenth century that homemade valentines eventually gave way to mass-produced greeting cards assembled in factories. The indus- trial revolution ushered in printed cards in the late nineteenth century. All over the country printers started to mass-produce valentine cards complete with pre-prepared verses and pretty pictures; and by 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, America, began mass producing valentines in the thousands.
February 14 has not been the same since.
Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-send- ing holiday of the year. However, the rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium has spawned a whole new digital way to cele- brate Valentine’s Day. Millions of people now use digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greeting messages such as e- cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent last year alone.
The commercial aspect of St Valentine’s Day seems to be increasing year on year, with gifts of chocolates, flowers and even jewellery now being expected to accompany the simple St. Valen- tine’s Day card. While it seems that the exchange of “valentines” is now more the result of tradition rather than the memory of St. Valentine,there is a Christian message that should be remembered. Jesus said, “There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” which is what St Valentine’s Day is really about. The honouring of a man who gave his life because of his love of Christ and his fellow man.
The Last Flight Of An American Heroine
Bill McStay
Eighty years after her disappearance, she is still admired as a great American. She was a well known celebrity during her short lifetime, hailed as a model for young American women. She was the first woman to fly the American continent both ways; to fly the Atlantic solo, and to be awarded her country’s Distinguished Flying Cross. Amelia Earhart was born in Atcheson, Kansas, on 24 July 1897, and disappeared without trace on 2 July 1937 whilst attempting the 29 000 mile circumnavigation of the earth. Amelia had two sisters, and was something of a tomboy as a child. It was whilst visiting an aeronautical show in Long Beach California, where her father worked as an insurance agent, that Amelia got her first ride in an aeroplane, an experience she later declared, that changed her life. It awakened a passion for flying which she never lost. In June 1921 she took her first flying lesson, and in the following year reached an altitude of ten thousand feet, in her own second -hand plane, a record for a woman pilot.
First woman to fly across the American Continent
It was the beginning of Amelia’s many records and distinctions. Inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, she crossed the same ocean as keeper of the flight log on the April 1928 flight by Wilmer Stulz and Louis Gordon from New foundland to Wales. With her daring achievements and striking appearance, when she took up pro- motion of women’s fashions, she became the darling of the newspapers. In August 1928 she became the first woman to fly across the American continent and back, and a key figure in convincing public opinion that flying was a normal and safe means of travel.
On 7 February 1931, Earhart married George Putnam, a publisher and later publicist of her promo- tional campaigns. In May of the following year, she took off solo from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in her Lockheed single engined plane, intending to land in Paris. She did cross the Atlantic, encountering strong headwinds and icy conditions on the way, but instead of Paris she landed in a field in Ballyarnett, near the city of Derry, where today a small memorial museum stands. Honours quickly followed, including the U.S. Congress’s Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Legion of Honour.
Earhart attempts to fly around the earth
On 11 January 1935, Amelia, now the holder of seven women’s speed and distance record, set her sights on the greatest prize of all circumnavigating the earth. She joined the faculty of Purdue University, and that institution financed the construction of a Lockheed Electra, fitted with a specially large fuel tank. A first east-west attempt from Oakland, California, on St. Patrick’s Day 1937 was abandoned in Honolulu because of engine damage. Never- theless on 1 June Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan announced that they were about to attempt the record, flying west-east.
At first all went well, with stops in South America, Africa, India, and New Guinea. Just after midnight on 1 July, with seven thousand miles’ flying across the Pacific remaining, Earhart and Noonan left Lae, New Guinea, in their heavily loaded plane. Their destination was Howland Island 2500 miles to the east in the equa- torial archipelago now called Kiribati. Awaiting their arrival off Howland was the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca. During the Lockheed’s approach, the vessel could hear Earhart’s voice trans- missions, but by the dawn hours of 2 July, all contact was lost.
Despite the most intense search over seventeen days, no trace of wreckage could be found. Despite several searches in the Pacific since, some using the most up-to- date robotic underwater equipment, what has been described as “the last great American mystery of the twentieth century” has not been solved Perhaps that mystery will indeed be revealed some day, but for now the Pacific waters keep their long-held secret.
Lent – A New Spiritual Springtime
“Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping. mourning.” Let your hearts be broken not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and ready to relent.” Joel 2:12-13
The The “Eagle and the Rattlesnake” is a story I remember from childhood. It speaks of a great battle that rages inside every per- son. On one side is the soaring eagle. Everything the eagle stands for is good and true and beautiful. The eagle soars high above all the clouds. Even though it dips down into the valleys, the eagle builds its nest in the mountaintops. The other side is the slithering serpent, the rattlesnake. The crafty, deceitful snake represents the worst aspects of a person the darker side. The snake feeds upon one’s weaknesses and shortcomings. Who wins the great battle in our lives? None other than the one that is fed the most the eagle or the rattlesnake? And during this penitential season of Lent we aspire “to feed the eagle”, and rise to all that is best and beautiful in our humanity; and “to starve the rattlesnake” and lessen its power over us.
Digging and turning over the sod.
“Lent” comes from an old Anglo Saxon word “lencten” meaning “springtime”. And appropriately, at this time of year in the northern hemisphere, we are witnessing a gentle and gradual rebirth and re- awakening of the world of nature around us: new life stirring in the trees and shrubs; plants sprouting new shoots; seeds beginning to germinate beneath the earth; and longer daylight hours. An “awak- ening” in nature that simultaneously stirs up a longing in usa yearning for a new “springtime” in our own lives, in our relationship with God, with our neighbour and within our own selves. A season where we are challenged to dig, and turn over the sod, and loosen and ventilate the soil of our own hearts as we aspire to a new blossoming of all that is best and beautiful in us care and compassion, forgiveness and generosity, fraternity and tenderness.
It is a liturgical season which begins with the dramatic expres- sion of our need of repentance the wearing of the ash on the fore- head on Ash Wednesday. In all honesty and humility we recognize and publicly acknowledge that our lives are not all that we could be, that we are not all that we are called to be; that there is something missing in our lives, that we are capable of more, of better.
Blossoming in “Christ Jesus”
In one of the prefaces of Lent we pray “As we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ the image of your son comes to perfection within us.” This is what we aspire to: to grow in the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. That we might begin to trust in the Father as he did, to believe in love as he did, to defend the dignity of every human life as he did, to welcome the stranger and outsider as he did, to reach out to the suffering with active compassion as he did, to give of ourselves generously in service as he did, and to confront life and death with hope as he did. And in doing so, to experience more fully in our bodies eyes, ears, hands and hearts his living and life-giving presence becom- ing flesh in us and in the world today. During the season of Lent we prepare and look forward to “rising” with Jesus at Easter to new life: new courage, new trust, new strength, new love so that his love might shine in us, in new and even more creative and beautiful ways like “the eagle” that we might soar on wings of love.
But it is not a “rising to new life” that emerges from our own strength and will power; human experience teaches us that such growth will not last. No, we take the hand of Jesus and walk with him; and if we are already holding his hand we take an even tighter hold; drawing ever closer to him in prayer and practice so as to draw life from him to be fed by him, nourished by him, empowered by him, transformed by him. And just as the world of nature opens up to the increasing light and heat of the sun so we too open up to the light of the Son of God, to the beauty and passion and fire of his love. Our growth in love is the fruit of our turning towards the Son and bathing ourselves in his light. Whatever practises we engage in during this season of Lent are truly a means to this end: that we might turn our lives towards Jesus and rise with him to new life.
Journey of a lifetime
We know that the growth we long for will not be achieved in the twinkling of an eye or by the wave of a magic wand during any one season of Lent, but more often than not, it is a slow, gradual advance of two steps forward and one step back. The challenge of “feeding the eagle” and “starv- ing the rattlesnake” is truly the work of a lifetime but what mat- ters is that with each passing year we fly just a little higher on “the wings of love” as we journey through life.
There is a beautiful verse from one of the hymns for Midday Prayer that captures well the wonderful spirituality of the season of Lent: “The day is come the accepted day, when grace like nature flowers anew. Trained by thy hand the sure way, rejoice we in our springtime too.”
An Inspiring Prayer
Unknown Author
Heavenly Father, help us remember that the annoying driver who traffic last night is a single mother worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who, at the checkout can’t make change correctly, is a worried 19- year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking tramp, begging for money in the same spot every day is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.
Buckfast Abbey: A Centre Of Christian Civilisation Reborn
David Bracken
On 25 February 1539 the last abbot of the medieval Buckfast Abbey, Gabriel Donne, signed the document of dissolution, bringing a sudden end to the monastery established by charter of King Canute more than five centuries before in 1018. That day a 343 year-long silence fell over the monastic choir in South Devon before the Benedictines returned in 1882. As Abbot David Charles worth, the present abbot of Buckfast remarks, ‘place matters for Benedictines’ who take a fourth vow of monastic ‘stability’. This then is the story of a place with deep roots, an abrupt ending and a surprising new beginning, a hope filled rediscovery of something long lost: the story of Buckfast Abbey.
The suppression of the monasteries
Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s ushered in a period of gradual but profound religious and social change. In 1534 Thomas Cromwell ordered that a visitation of all religious orders in England be carried out. While many smaller religious houses were suppressed within the year, other larger foundations survived until 1539. One after another they were ransacked by the Tudor state in a prolonged smash-and-grab raid, justified on religious and reforming grounds. By the fifteenth century Buckfast had become a wealthy landowner, a simple Cistercian community grown rich on the export of wool to far-flung Florence. The monastery was, however, an engine of economic growth for the locality, establishing markets and fairs. Moreover the wealth of the monastic community supported guest hall, almshouse and schools. While the monks ministered in the surrounding parishes and the monastery was a centre of Christian medieval liturgy and learning.
A death warrant for a way of life
Although in decline on the eve of the Reformation at the dissolution only ten monks remained in scenes repeated throughout England and Ireland, this great monastic heritage was THIS MONTH swept away at one stroke of a pen in 1539. The monastic buildings were vacated immediately and the monks were pensioned off. The lead was stripped bare from the roofs, the monastery bells sold to the neighbouring parish church: Buckfast Abbey abandoned and silent. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the abbey had been almost completely razed to the ground. In an echo of Matthew 24: 2 there was not left in Buckfast one stone upon another that was not thrown down.
A new beginning
In 1882 an advert was placed in the English Catholic weekly The Tablet advertising the sale of the site. The notice came to the attention of a group of Benedictines who had been forced to leave France following the enactment of anti-Catholic laws in 1880 and who had found tem- porary refuge in a house in Leopards town, County Dublin. On 28 October 1882 six monks arrived in Devon followed by the rest of the community and there began the pro ject to restore the lost her itage of Buckfast. One of the monks digging in the vegetable garden of the monastery uncovered the foundations of the medieval church and plans were soon drawn up for a new monastery on the footprint of the old.
Abbot Anscar Vonier: a work accomplished
It was the vision of Anscar Vonier who at thirty one years of age was elected abbot on 14 September 1906 who would bring these plans to fruition. Only a few weeks before, on 3 August 1906, his predecessor Abbot Boniface Natter was drowned when the Italian liner the Sirio was shipwrecked off the coast of Barcelona. Vonier who was accompanying Natter on the voyage survived the ordeal to accomplish a great enterprise. He would rebuild the medieval abbey church. A small group of monks under the guidance of Br. Peter, a master craftsman, galvanised by the energetic leadership of their young abbot set about the task. The works continued during the difficult years of the First World War. The war was particularly challenging for a community with many German-born members who were interned on the grounds of the abbey for the duration of the conflict. While the church was opened for public worship in 1922, it was not substantially fin- ished until August 1932 when the abbey church was consecrated: work on the tower was completed in December 1938. Within weeks Abbot Anscar was dead: his life’s work done. He had rebuilt Buck fast and restored an important link with the pre-Reformation culture where monastic communities were storehouses of Christian culture and civilisation.
School of the Annunciation
In 2014 the School of the Annunciation was established in the precincts of the monastery in response to John Paul II’s call for a new evangelisation. It is a school of evangelisation ground- ed on the firm conviction that the renewal of the faith in our time depends upon the ‘creative retrieval of the treasures of our Christian heritage’: Abbot Anscar’s vision for Buckfast reinterpreted for a new century. Today Buckfast Abbey attracts half a million visitors a year. They come to admire the craftsmanship of the monk masons who resurrected the monastery and perhaps they discover there an inkling of the Gospel of Christ that inspired the great work. The following lines from the poem, ‘Begin’ by Brendan Kennelly seem particularly apt in the case of the millennial history of the abbey. ‘Though we live in a world that dreams of ending, that always seems about to give in. Something that will not acknowl- edge conclusion insists that we begin again.’
The Garden This Month
Deirdre Anglim
Purple crocuses have blossomed again. These beautiful little flowers lift my heart on dreary days. My neighbour planted hundreds of bulbs last year, which rewarded him with a ribbon of yellow crocuses all around his front garden. Primroses bloom in tubs. Winter jasmine still lingers along the wall. Purple cyclamen plants survived the recent heavy frost. But my star performer is the purple osteospermum that has flowered almost all year long in spite of wind, rain and frost. It is definitely one of the hardiest flowers I have ever grown.
White camellia is magnificent in a nearby garden. My own little one may bud up for me yet! Everything is greening up. Shoots of daffodils and tulips have appeared above ground. So on the next dry day wrap up warmly in hat, coat, gardening gloves and suitable footwear before you head out to check what other surprises await you.
Choose your jobs carefully. Don’t overstretch yourself. Rubbish should be cleared from base of hedges and shrubs to prevent pests like slugs, snails causing trouble later. Gather any debris from around the containers, pots and tubs. Remove decayed vegetation from flower beds. Fork over the soil and add some well rotted compost. Rockery plants can become smothered in dead leaves. Carefully remove the leaves to allow the plants to breathe.
Move snowdrops while they are still flowering. The plants can be divided and replanted where you will enjoy them again next spring.
Don’t cut hedges from now on birds are nesting.
This is a good month to treat paths and driveways with a commercial weed killer. Wear protective gloves when doing this job. Follow instructions on the packet. Cover every inch.
Plant antirrhinum seeds in a sheltered part of the garden or in a tray of compost on your sunny window sill.
Move houseplants away from windows on frosty nights. Check them regularly for disease/pest damage. Spray in case of red spider mite attack. Use an atomiser on the leaves to maintain humidity.
“True Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”- Great Romances From The Past
The past is often the best lesson for the present and never is this truer than in the study of famous couples in history. Great love matches show that romance can be tragic or happy, long or short, between people of the highest social status and of the lowest.
Some unusual facts relating to love and marriage are as follows:
The oldest bridegroom was Harry Stevens, who at the age of 103 married Thelma Lucas, a young 84. They were wed in Beloit, Wiscon- sin in 1984. The oldest bride was 102 year old Minnie Munro, who married an 83 year old gentleman named Dudley Reid in Point Clare, New South Wales, Australia. The youngest couple ever to marry wasan 11 month old boy and a 3 month old girl who were married in Bangladesh in 1986. The marriage was arranged in order to settle a twenty year feud over a disputed piece of farmland. Two couples share the record for the longest marriage in history. Sir Temulji Bhicaji Nariman and Lady Nariman were married for 86 years as were Lazarus Rowe and Molly Weber. The Narimans married in 1853, The Rowes in 1743. One of the shortest marriages in history was that of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The couple killed themselves within a few hours of their wedding in 1945. A week later Germany surrendered World War 11 was over in Europe. And what about the world’s most expensive wedding! This was a seven-day celebration of the marriage of Mohammed son of Sheik Rashid Saeed Al Maktoum, to Princess Salama. The wedding took place in Dubai in 1980 and the costs amounted to 44 million dollars.
Amongst the world’s best remembered romances are:
Iris Murdoch and John Bayley: Iris, novelist and philosopher was born in Dublin and educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. She went on to write 26 nov- els, her first ‘Under the Wet’ in 1954. Her novel ‘The Sea’ won the 1978 Booker Prize. In 1956 Iris married John Bayley, Professor of English at Oxford University. If there was ever a marriage made in Heaven it was the marriage of this couple. They were inseparable and they lived in great love and utter contentment throughout their 43 years of married life. This happi- ness survived the onset of Alzheimer’s disease which struck Iris In 1994 and which saw John attend daily to her every need right up to the moment of his wife’s death on 8 February, 1999.
Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal: The Taj Mahal remains the greatest monument to undying devotion. It was built by the 17th century Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Left heart-broken by the death of his wife and constant companion of 19 years, Arjumand Banu Begam, also known as Mumtaz Mahal (‘Chosen One of the Palace), channelled his grief into building a mausoleum to honour her memory. A year after her death this labour of love was begun on the banks of the river Yamuna in Agra, and took 22 years to build. Six years after its completion Jahan died and was entombed with his true love in what is regarded as the most romantic building in the world. Built of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones, it is a masterpiece of Mughal architecture and a world heritage site.
King Malcolm and Queen Margaret of Scotland: Married in 1070 the couple spent 23 years in perfect harmony. They were good for Scotland and their kingdom prospered. Malcolm was an inspiring leader in battle and he led his troops with much bravery. Margaret did much to assimilate the old Celtic Church to the rest of Christendom. She also devoted much of her time to nursing the sick and comforting the dying. Fasting and praying played a major part of her life. It was on her deathbed that Margaret learned of the fatal wounding of her husband and elder son, both killed as they led their troops against the English in 1093 at Northumberland. Margaret was canonised in 1250. Her feast day is 16th November.
This is the age of experience. Even deeper than our need to know about things is our need to experience them for ourselves. It used to be said that learning taught you more in one year than experience in twenty, but one can have one’s doubts about that. It may be true of the less profound kinds of knowledge (like inform- ation, or even theoretical know- ledge) but it is not true of the deeper kind of knowledge we call wisdom. Information and theoretical know- ledge are like coins: you can take them out of your head and scatter them around just like coins from your pocket. Like coins too they have the stamp of someone else’s head! But wisdom has to be your wisdom, just as your hunger is your hunger and your eating is your eating.
O God, you are my God, for you I long;
For you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you Like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze at you in the sanctuary To see your strength and your glory. (Psalm 62)
Knowledge is power, we say. Much of what we call knowledge is about having power or control, or at least the feeling of power and control. In contrast to this, notice the verbs in that psalm: to long, to thirst, to pine, to gaze…. These are not ‘control’ words; they are just the opposite. They are words that express incompleteness.
Is that a good thing? Wouldn’t it be better to be complete (whole)?
Despite the nice words, no. Have you ever looked into the eyes of someone who felt complete? What you saw was smugness at best; and at worst, arrogance, indifference, a separateness that had no love in it. I met a man recently whom I hadn’t met for twenty-five years. On that occasion long ago he was giving a lecture at a theology symposium, and he was very fluent and clever, at ease with his subject. But the other day there was a different quality in him: he had suffered greatly in the meantime, and there was such vulnerability in his eyes, such humanity. His friends, who see him every day, may not be as conscious of the transformation; but I could see it all in one instalment, so to speak. I feel that this was a glimpse of the meaning of human life. It gives substance to what someone quoted to me recently: “Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for people who have been there.”
To end, some lines from Patrick Kavanagh:
O God can a man find You when he lies with his face downwards And his nose in the rubble that was his achievement?
His implied answer was yes, yes, yes. In John’s gospel (12:20) some Greeks came looking to see Jesus. When Jesus was told this he said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In other words, that is the place to see him. Not in the halls of power, not in the glare of publicity, but in the ground of humility.
I would like to hear that vulnerable man speak about God now. I think only such people can really talk about God. That man has followed Christ to Calvary: that’s the qualification required.
The Dominican Amazon Mission-Memories
Flannan Hynes OP
In his pastoral visit to Peru Pope Francis included a visit to the Church’s mission in the Amazon Basin. The Amazon forest not only covers the north of Brazil but also part of South-East Peru. His visit was to Puerto Maldonado which is the centre of the Dominican Mission in the Amazon Basin. The Dominican mission there goes back over 100 years. The missions are along two rivers, the river Urubamba and the river Madre de Dios (God’s Mother). Each missioner lives alone in a mission station in the forest. There are no roads, so the only connection between missions is by canoe, or by the mission plane. The Franciscan Mission in the same part of Peru and the Dominicans share the costs of the plane, (which are consider able). The mission station, as well as a chapel, will include a primary school and in several a secondary school and also a health centre. Many of the pupils will spend the week in the mission and walk home through the jungle to their families at the week ends. All the mission stations are connected for one hour each evening by radio with each other and with the Dominican prio- ry in Lima. Everyone hears every one else and so have the news of all the mission stations.
My Visit to the Mission
Some years ago I was given the task of visiting the mission. My plan was to spend a few nights in each mission station and get to know the missioner and his work. I was sent to show the appreciation of the Dominican Order for the missioners and their work. I travelled from one station to another by the mission plane. I had never seen so small a plane. The missioner had first to contact the pilot by radio and report on the cloud formation in the area. Each missioner has been trained to do this. On the journey there is no place to land in an emergency except the river. I was told that the plane will float for some seconds on the water before sinking and in that time one has to escape. It took me several minutes to get my long legs into the plane, so there would be no escape for me! The pilot named the plane after his brother, who had drowned when his plane landed in the river. Some years later I learned that the mission plane crashed in the jungle and the pilot I knew also lost his life. Each mission station had a small landing strip. In one case it ended at the door of the priest’s house. The plane always carried supplies which the missioner had requested by radio.
Other journeys were by canoe. From the mission station I was taken by canoe to visit small settlements in the jungle. The people lived and dressed as they had done for centuries. In one settlement I was attacked by a swarm of bees; much to the amusement of the local people. A nurse gave me an injection and then gave me a chair to rest for a while looking at the river. It took me a while to realize that tiny red ants were crawling up my legs and feasting on my white flesh.
A two day journey by Canoe
One of the journeys by canoe took two days. The canoe was more like a long boat with an outboard engine. The danger was striking a tree that was just before water level. I was warned to be well covered up for the sun but the reflection of the sun on the water got to my lips and I paid the price. The whole of the first day was beautiful, as the river winded through the forest. At night we slept on the beach. One of the local men kept watch beside a large fire to keep away unwelcome visitors. Everything changed the second day. Along the banks of the river were people looking for gold and destroying the river with mercury.
At one mission station I went for a walk to look at the river. On the bank there was a pile of metal drums, used for storing fuel. The fact that they were painted green did not mean anything to me until I looked closer. On each drum was written: AN BORD BAINNE, Lower Mount St. Dublin – the street I come from! The explanation I got was that milk fat is imported from Ireland. The empty drums are sold and used for fuel storage.
Saint Martin Replies
Fort Lauderdale, USA When Hurricane Irma was approaching the State I prayed to St Martin in hope and fear that my property would not be dam- aged by 180MPH winds, or be flooded by potential 8′-10′ feet of water. I had decided to leave Florida and stay in another State with a friend in an attempt to escape the devastation. Before I locked and left I prayed again to St Martin and said I was leaving him to stay behind and protect my home. When I returned a week later I had no property damage whatsoever. Apparently in the final hours before the hurricane was due to make landfall, it shifted to the S.E. coast of Florida. I had told St Martin that if faith could move mountains I believed he could move a hurricane. I truly believe he made it happen. My life would not be the same with- out all the wonderful things he has done for me. Not a day goes by when I don’t talk to him and thank him for his help with everything. St Martin is my best friend and I can never thank him enough for all he has accomplished in my life on an ongoing basis.
Birmingham: This letter is long overdue to thank St Martin, St Joseph, the Sacred Heart and our Lady for helping me for the past 60 years. I have had many health problems including high blood pressure. I always turn to prayer and would be lost without it. I love the magazine
Anon Just to say thanks to St Martin, the Sacred Heart, Our Lady and St Jude and all the others I pray to for making my visit to the eye clinic a good one. I had been so anxious about going but all my ‘friends’ made it more bearable.
Donegal Please publish grateful thanks to St Martin and Our Lady for many favours received. My granddaughter has M.E. and I’m praying for her at the moment. I have received a lot of answers to my prayers with regard to guid- ance for my brother in life and good health in my family. I have always prayed to St Martin and Our Lady over the years and got their help.
Mayo I want to thank St Martin for so many favours especially giving me good results today. Thank you for everything.
Tipperary I want to thank dear St Martin so much for a great request granted. Someone asked me to pray for their pet dog who was very seriously ill. Even the Vet had almost given up hope as the poor animal had been on a drip for quite a long time. I prayed very hard for over a week, made the Novena and lit candles every day. As a result the dog recovered.
Sussex I want to thank St Martin for helping and supporting me through a very difficult family conflict. It was a situation I had many times given up hope about. Things now seem to be improving and I am still praying to him and the Sacred Heart. St Martin has always been my support in earlier challenges with bad health and other concerns. I will always be grateful to him.
Donegal I wish to publish my sincere thanks to St Martin, the Sacred Heart and Our Lady for favours granted. We had money owing to us and had problems withproperty but thankfully all has been sorted. Keep praying to St Martin and he will always answer.
Devon I promised thanksgiv- ing to St Martin, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lady and St Joseph for favours they have granted me over the years. Please St Martin make my recent biopsy be clear. You have been my best friend for over 60 years. Thank you once again and do please publish: it would make me so happy.
Drogheda Please publish my heartfelt thanks to St Martin for many, many favours received; for helping me through a recent hip replacement and getting back my health; for many requests with regard to my family. I can never thank him enough for his help. This letter is long overdue.
Roscommon Thanks to St Martin for a very good year with cows calving. Everything went very well also for good health for all the family.
Kerry I want to thank St Martin most sincerely for helping our daughter to find a suitable house to rent for herself and her two daughters. I made a Novena to St. Martin because she has been looking for a house for over a year and as she is on Renters that any promise of publica Allowance it has been very diffition is fulfilled when you write cult. St Martin helped me years to us, even if your favour does ago in London when I needed to not appear in print. find a bed sitter, so I turned to him again and he has been wonderful. Both times he has found a place very suitable. Thanks again to a most helpful saint.