Our Festive Thanksgiving.

Our Festive Day.

 Fr. Anthony Mary and Fr. Michael Mary

Feast of the Assumption, 2012.

Dear Friends and Families,

The words that spring immediately to my mind in writing a response to yesterday's Canonical Recognition of the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, are words that the priest prays every day at Mass, from Psalm 115:

"Quid retribuam Domino 
pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi?" 

"What return shall I make to the Lord 
for all He hath given to me?"

This is the question that we ask when we realise that what we have received from Our Lord through His Church is far beyond what we merit; His Mercies can never be repaid. On one hand we cannot survive without these Mercies, on the other hand, we do not deserve them nor have the means of repaying them ever at all. Caught between the necessity of the having a canonical recognition and our own indigence and unworthiness of which we are very conscious, what can we do except repeat the prayer from the psalm and cast ourselves before Him while awaiting the moment of rescue from our plight. Only prayer can save us!

And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.  Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and sin: Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the land that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out, that he might kill them in the wilderness, Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arm. (Deut. 9: 26-29) The application of this text to our history is appropriate; but we did not have to wander for forty years, and we did not die in the wilderness: in any case, in monastic life, the wilderness is our chosen place of abode.

We are profoundly grateful to the many friends who have supported us over these last years; thank you! We have been mightily supported by our families and friends; holy prelates, priests and nuns.

On a personal note, I thank my own parents and family: For over twenty years they took the neighbourhood, clerical and other brunt of my commitment to the old Mass; and they lived through the 'wilderness of doubt' of the last five years. It  has all turned out fine in the end! But thank you Dad and Mum for bearing things that would have hurt you deeply. In the end all has been part of God's permissive Will. It has led to the canonical establishment of a Congregation of priests and monks, officially recognised by the Church to continue permanently offering the old Mass and to serve souls. You taught me that it is a good thing to have something to put up with and to offer to Our Lord and Our Lady! Quite right!   

We are equally grateful to the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, to Bishop Hugh of Aberdeen and Bishop Barry of Christchurch for their mercy and kindness towards us. The graces we needed flowed abundantly through them; they are our Fathers in God and each of them have had the right words and acts of solicitude for us. We come into Full Communion with the Church having a Pope who deeply cares for traditionalists and having been directed to two dioceses of choice by God's 'great strength and His stretched out arm'.

In fine, could we but rejoice? Of course not; and we do. Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, diem festum celebrantes sub honore beatae Mariae Virginis: Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival day in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary!   

Fr. Michael Mary, F.SS.R.

 

The Most Small Congregation

"Out of the Wilderness".

Gathered together about Our Lady's Funeral Couch

Feast of the Assumption, 2012.

(Absent are: Br. Paul Mary, Br. Dominic Mary, Br. Xavier Maria all in Christchurch

and Br. Alfonso Maria in the Philippines)

Decree of Erection

Text of the above Document.


Decree of erection
Of a
Religious institute of diocesan right



The Papa Stronsay community known as the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer was founded on 2nd August 1988 residing on the Isle of Sheppey in England.  In 1994 they moved to Joinville in France and from there in 1999 came to their present location on the Isle of Papa Stronsay within the archipelago of the Orkney Isles.

In 2008 in response to the Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum, of his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, given Motu Proprio at St Peter’s on 7th July 2007, three priests of the community sought regularisation of their situation and a majority of the community signed a Formula of Adherence, which ended the schismatic state and brought them into full communion with the Catholic Church.

In September 2011, I as Bishop of Aberdeen and accompanied by Rev. Stuart P. Chalmers, Vicar General of the Diocese, made a pastoral visit to the community.  After further consultation with the Holy See it was agreed to begin the course of action leading to the canonical recognition of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Beginning on 23rd April 2012 a Canonical Visitation took place undertaken by myself as Bishop of Aberdeen and accompanied by Dom Benedict Hardy, O.S.B. Prior of the Abbey of Pluscarden; the results of which were duly reported to Cardinal William Levada President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.  Consequently, in accord with the letter dated 12th June 2012, Prot. N. 27/2006, from Mons Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and after consulting the Council of Priests of the diocese of Aberdeen:

I, Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B, by the grace of God Bishop of Aberdeen, decree that the community known as the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, be erected as a Religious Institute of Diocesan right in accordance with c 579 of the Code of Canon Law 1983.  The Institute will be subject to all other applicable norms of the said code and governed by the statutes of the said community previously approved by the Holy See.

Given this day 15th August in the year of Our Lord 2012

................................................
Rt Rev. Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.
Bishop of Aberdeen

Prot No. 01/2012 L.S.
............................................
Rev. Deacon John J. Wire
Chancellor

Official Statement

Official Statement

from the

Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer

On this festive solemnity of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God body and soul into Heaven our spiritual joy and fraternal rejoicing is great indeed:

Beneath Her mantle and on this occasion of Her solemn feast, today, 15 August, 2012, our community, The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, has been granted canonical recognition as a Clerical Institute of Diocesan Right by His Lordship the Right Reverend Dom Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B., Bishop of Aberdeen.

We invite you to rejoice with us on this solemn feast of Our Lady through Whose Perpetual Succour, we have received a great favour from Our Lord. 

We also announce the community’s public profession of vows that will take place in Our Lady’s Chapel (at the head of the pier) Stronsay, on 22 August, feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 18.15 (6.15 p.m.). 

The profession will be celebrated by His Lordship, the Right Reverend Dom Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B., Bishop of Aberdeen. 

(Limited overnight accommodation is available. The ferry leaves Kirkwall at 16.00 and arrives in Stronsay at 18.05).

Around Her funeral couch.

Yesterday the meditation from St. Alphonsus was on 

the Death of Most Holy Mary.

By today the beautiful funeral couch of the Mother of God

had been erected with a pall overhanging Her figure.

Memoria mea in generationes saeculorum.

My memory is unto everlasting generations.

Beata es, Virgo Maria, 

quae omnium portasti Creatorem:

genuisti qui te fecit, 

et in aeternum permanes virgo.

Blessed art Thou, O Virgin Mary, 

Who didst bear the Creator of all things:

didst bring forth Him who made Thee,

and for ever remainest a virgin.

At the funeral couch of our Mother let us pray:

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

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.

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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

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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)

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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.

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General  Round-up of Summer Work
in Papa Stronsay.

  

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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.