Tu es Sacerdos in Æternum!

Today Fr. Michael Mary celebrates 34 years of Holy Priesthood! What a great example of perseverance to us all. Please join us in thanking God for the many graces He has bestowed upon Father during these years!

Thank you Father for the many years you have given to the service of Holy Church as well as to us, your community - may our good God give you many more to come!

What Matilda won for her darling.

In preparation for the feast

of

The Assumption of Our Lady.

The holy death of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

+

How a mother prepared for the great feasts of Our Lady.

The Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury

29 December, 1170.

From his cradle was St Thomas à Becket taught 

to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

His mother, Matilda, used in her hallowed playfulness of heart, 

to put her boy, whilst he was yet a child, into a scale, 

and bestow his weight in food, clothing and money, on the poor 

that she might thereby win for her darling 

the prayers and protection of the blessed Mary.

She taught her son

devotion to the Blessed Virgin

that his life and acts would be protected by Her

Whom he fervently invoked and

held as his hope after Christ.

"It is just a fact of life" - Bishop Hugh, O.S.B.

As a monk and a priest, I don't marry. This doesn't make me better or worse than married people. It is just a fact of life. Someone out there has been deprived of the privilege of having me as a husband; it just is not my role.

Rt. Rev. Dom Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.

Bishop of Aberdeen

There are hundreds of married people in the pews every Sunday and they do not celebrate Mass or hear Sacramental confessions. That doesn't mean that God loves them more or less than He loves me. It is just a fact of life. It is not their role to be priests.

In the Church it is not possible for a priest to marry. This is a matter of Church law. It could conceivably change. In our society, it is not possible for two men or two women to marry. That is not discrimination. It is not just a human law which can be changed. It is a fact of life.

Someone swimming the English Channel.

Saying that everybody should have the right to marry is like saying that everybody should have the right to swim the Channel. The fact is that not everybody can do it, or should even try. It is simply not possible.

It seems to me that the government has looked at civil partnerships and decided that they are so similar in every way to civil marriages that we might as well simply change the name. You might think that is fair enough and there is no difference. The truth is that a government can pass any legislation it likes, it can legislate to say that everything with four legs is a table, even when it is a dog and not a horse, but that won't make it so.

A Wedding in the East.

People have understood the meaning of marriage for thousands of years. Crucially, it has three limits. It is limited by number - you can only marry one person at a time. It is limited by relationships, a man cannot marry his niece, for example. And it is limited by gender - only men and women can marry.

A Wedding in the West.

Now a combination of misplaced kindness, fashion and a commitment to equality are leading the government to propose removing one of those three pillars. Why not the other two? Why is it alright for a man to marry another man, but not alright for him to marry two women? If we really want equality, why does that equality not extend to nieces who genuinely, truly love their uncles? And, if you say that such things do not happen, that they are mere freaks of nature, extreme examples dreamed up for the sake of argument, I say you need to spend more time in the parish.

And do you really want your little boy being taught that when he grows up he can marry another boy if he wants?

Fifty years ago nobody would have believed we could seriously be discussing gay 'marriage.' Fifty years from now will we be discussing multi-marriages in the same way?

The God I try to serve does not condemn. He did not condemn the woman taken in adultery but, if she had asked him to conduct a wedding service with her lover, he would have refused. It would simply have been impossible.

As Bishop of Aberdeen, I know there are gay people amongst the community of the Church. I promise I will always respect and love them and uphold them in their relationship with the God who loves them. But I won't marry them. It just cannot be done.

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.

Bishop of Aberdeen

A Foggy Feast

I personally really like it when it is foggy on Papa Stronsay.  There is a real feeling of peace and of monastic isolation.  Therefore I was not at all upset when I left my cell this morning to find that on the feast of Our Holy Father Saint Alphonsus, he had sent us some fog for the occasion!  While it was not so bad this morning, as I write this we are completely cut of visually even from the neighbouring island of Stronsay...I can barely even see the sea!  Here are some photos of our crossing to Stronsay this morning for sung Mass.

Making the crossing from Papa Stronsay to Stronsay for Mass.

The Stronsay village of Whitehall where our chapel is. 

 Arrived at the Stronsay pier. The Brothers ascend the pier steps.

Looking back towards Papa Stronsay, which risks being swallowed up by the mist. 

"The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?... 

...And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" 1 Cor 10:16 

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:4-5

Papa Stronsay as it looks while I write this post.  The Fog has really come in. 

Standing almost on the water's edge you can only just make out the pier with our boat. 

And out towards nearby Stronsay...nothing.

Lovely

St Alphonsus and Prayer - Pope Benedict XVI, yesterday.

ON PRAYER

ACCORDING TO ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

"He who prays is saved. He who prays not is damned!"

Only yesterday.

The Holy Father spoke about St Alphonsus for his feast day.

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today marks the liturgical memorial of St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer -- the Redemptorists -- patron saint of scholars and moral theology and of confessors. St. Alphonsus is one of the most popular saints of the 18th century because of his simple, straightforward style and his teaching on the sacrament of Penance: In a period of great rigorism -- the result of the influence of Jansenism -- he recommended to confessors to administer this sacrament by revealing the joyous embrace of God the Father, who in His infinite mercy never tires of welcoming back the repentant son.

Today's memorial offers us the occasion to consider St. Alphonsus' teachings on prayer, which are extremely valuable and filled with spiritual inspiration. He considered his treatise, Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, which dates back to 1759, to be the most useful of all his writings.

In fact, he there describes prayer as

"the necessary and sure means of obtaining salvation, 

and all the graces we need to attain it"

(Introduction). 

Only yesterday the Pope said:

"He who prays is certain to be saved.

He who prays not is damned".

This sentence sums up the Alphonsian understanding of prayer. First, in saying that it is a means, he reminds us of the end to be attained: God created out of love in order to be able to give us the fullness of life; but because of sin, this goal, this abundance of life has, so to say, drifted away -- we all know this -- and only God's grace can make it available. To explain this basic truth, and to enable us to understand in a straightforward way how real the risk is of man's "being lost," St. Alphonsus coined a famous, very elementary maxim, which states: 

"He who prays is saved. He who prays not is damned!" 

Commenting on this lapidary statement, he added: "To save one's soul without prayer is most difficult, and even impossible … but by praying our salvation is made secure, and very easy" (Chapter II, Conclusion). And he goes on to say:

 "If we do not pray, we have no excuse, 

for the grace of prayer is given to everyone …

 if we are not saved, 

the whole fault will be ours, because we did not pray" (ibid.). 

In saying that prayer is a necessary means, St. Alphonsus wanted us to understand that in every situation in life, we cannot manage without praying, especially in times of trial and difficulty. We must always knock at the Lord's door with trust, knowing that in all things He takes care of His children, of us. We are invited, therefore, not to be afraid of turning to Him and of presenting our requests to Him with trust, in the certainty of obtaining what we need.

Dear friends, this is the central question: What is truly necessary in my life? With St. Alphonsus I respond: "Health and all the graces we need for this" (ibid.); naturally, he means not only bodily health, but above all also that of the soul, which Jesus gives to us. More than anything else, we need His liberating presence, which truly makes our lives fully human and therefore full of joy. And it is only through prayer that we are able to welcome Him and His grace, which by enlightening us in each situation, enables us to discern the true good, and by strengthening us, makes our will effective; that is, it enables it to do the good that is known. Often we recognize the good, but we are unable to do it. Through prayer, we arrive at the point of being able to carry it out.

The Lord's disciple knows that he is always exposed to temptation, and he never fails to ask God for help in prayer in order to conquer it.

St. Alphonsus recalls the example of St. Phillip Neri -- very interesting -- who 

"used to say to God from the first moment he awoke in the morning,

 'Lord, keep Thy hands over Philip this day; for if not, Philip will betray Thee'" (III, 3). 

A great realist! He asks God to keep His hand upon him. 

We, too, in the awareness of our own weakness, 

should humbly ask God's help, relying on the richness of His mercy.

In another passage, St. Alphonsus says: "We are so poor that we have nothing; but if we pray we are no longer poor" (II, 4). And in the wake of St. Augustine, he invites every Christian to not be afraid of obtaining from God, through prayer, the strength he does not possess and that he needs to do the good, in the certainty that the Lord does not withhold His help from whoever prays with humility (cf. III, 3).

Dear friends, St. Alphonsus reminds us that our relationship with God is essential for our lives. Without a relationship with God, our fundamental relationship is missing. And a relationship with God develops by talking with God in daily personal prayer, and by participating in the Sacraments; and so it is that this relationship can grow in us, and that the divine presence that directs our path, enlightens it and makes it secure and serene can also grow in us, even amid difficulty and danger. Thank you.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Thank you! Holy Father!

Happy Feast Day to all our readers!

All is well in Papa Stronsay.

Update

+

The Papa Stronsay Minor Lighthouse

Far in the bosom of the deep,

O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep;

A ruddy gem of changeful light,

Bound on the dusky brow of Night,

The Seaman bids my lustre hail,

And scorns to strike his tim'rous sail.

(Sir Walter Scott)

 At the end of June we welcomed the Commissioners of the 

Northern Lighthouse Board of Scotland.

 The sea launch taking the Commissioners back to their ship

which was anchored off the coast of Papa Stronsay.

The Northern Lighthouse Board is the General Lighthouse Authority

for Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The Board currently operates:

208 Lighthouses

160 Buoys

31 Beacons

27 Racons (radar beacons)

4 Differential Global Positioning System Stations

29  AIS Stations (Automatic Identification Systems)

+

The Great Wall of Papa Stronsay

Work continued this year on the Great Wall

which provides significant shelter from all winds

coming in a southerly direction. 

 The stone wall is nearly three feet thick and ten feet high.

On a wall this size, it takes a lot of work to make a little difference.

+

General  Round-up of Summer Work
in Papa Stronsay.

  

+

The Summer Weather.

The Summer has not accentuated itself this year.

We have had a few good days of sunshine

and some beautiful evenings.

We are looking for a time of suitable weather for an evening bonfire ...

... perhaps on August 15th
the feast of Our Lady's Assumption 

or on the 22nd
that of Her Immaculate Heart...
we wait in the hope of a reliable break of calm and sunshime. 

The Little Christmas

It is a Redemptorist tradition to commemorate the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the 25th of every month. This tradition is known as the Little Christmas.

The image of our infant Saviour is venerated at the foot of the altar on which He is daily sacrificed for our sins.

Feast of the Diocese

Not every diocese can claim its own Marian feast, but we are lucky enough to live in one that can.  Today, 9th July, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Aberdeen. The statue, which is now in Belgium, is known in that country as Our Lady of Good Succour.

The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Aberdeen.

The Holy Mass of Our Lady of Good Succour, celebrated before the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. - John 6:54

For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? - Hebrews 9:13-14

Record Breaking Cherries?

This year our greenhouse has been a huge success, especially in the fruit department.  Our cherries have grown fantastically; so big that we thought we should see what the record for cherry size is.

One of three cherry trees in our greenhouse.

Picked from the tree in the morning, and on the table at lunch...could they come much fresher? 

These cherries have very small stones.  Almost the whole thing is flesh. 

Guinness World Records give the heaviest cherry in the world as 21.69 g (0.76 oz).  The record was set in 2003 in Italy.  Br. Jean Marie, F.SS.R. places the contender on the scale.  He has done much of the work in the greenhouse.

Look at that!  Without even trying we have a cherry weighing in at 19 g (0.67 oz), just 2.69 g off the world record!  Could these be the heaviest cherries in Scotland?

The average weight for this years cherries has been 16g (0.56 oz).

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? - Matthew 6:26

Thanks be to God for the wonderful gifts he has provided us with!