Scottish Bishops with Benedict XVI

Bishop Joseph Toal, Bishop Mone (Emeritus), Bishop Cunningham, Bishop Devine, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, His Holiness Pope Benedict, Archbishop Mario Conti, Bishop Logan, Bishop Murray (Emeritus), Bishop Moran, Bishop Philip Tartaglia

Mini Lectio: Monday Week V Ordinary Time

I'll do this from time to time.

 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:53-56.
After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

Pondering this gospel today, what came to me was our relative lack of faith in the power of the Eucharist, when we read in this passage touching the very tassel on Jesus' cloak heals. I guess very few of us will ever really come to appreciate it properly or maximise the benefits we have offered to us in it.

 

Lord I pray that you can open my heart more and more to the wonderful truths of our faith, make my life revolve around them and grow holy because of them. Amen.
 

How very very dare they!

This letter in the Scotsman Newspaper from James MacMillan got me thinking (and sniggering a bit).

Oh dear, oh dear! So some people think the Reformation was a tragedy, do they? How very uncivil. How very divisive. How very, very dare they.

Not all people here view Scottish history and culture through the one smug, complacent and myopic lens.

JAMES MACMILLAN CBE London Symphony Orchestra St Luke's Old Street, London

Last week I wrote this in my post "Proud of the Pope!"

The Holy Father has been getting it in the neck today. His crime? To encourage his bishops to oppose any policies which encroached on catholic doctrine. "How very very dare he!" cried the new pagans, gays, humanists, secularists, atheists, non catholics n pic n mix catholics.

What did the Pope Really Say?

Try not to believe everything you read in the media. For a slavishly accurate interpretation of the Pope's address to our Bishops, visit Fr Z's site

As for this front page from the Scotsman Newspaper...0/10

WWJD? - Ask David Cameron!

Conservative leader  David Cameron has shown a rare insight into his relationship with "Our Lord Jesus" which seems to stretch to authority over the Church. He tells the Anglican Church what Jesus would do and also claims he has the skills to get around "a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Scotland" on Roman Catholic opposition to Gay adoption. This is not unlike another similar venture into doctrinal matters - "(Catholic) Church should rethink beliefs says Blair"

 

Where does all this leave the "stay out of politics" brigade and the rants about our "meddlesome Pontiff"? Looking a bit hypocritical I would say.

Bishop Tartaglia addresses media debate

There is an excellent article reporting the thoughts of Bishop Tartaglia of Paisley in this weeks Scottish Catholic Observer. The Bishop makes some good points well, talking about the issues raised in last weeks media debate on the form of the mass and I am inclined to agree with most of what he says. I would have liked to have seen him be a bit more forthright about the fact we need to do the Mass in the ordinary form well, and that liturgical abuses in whatever form will not be tolerated, and that poor inappropriate music is as much an abuse as incorrect liturgical practice. I admit that one person's praise is another person's din, but there is a clear need for guidelines here. I am glad one of our hierarchy has come out publicly in this manner, addressing the issues head on, and we haven't ignored the media debate in what is after all our national catholic newspaper. Maybe hasn't been the case in the past?

Freedom! Foods

Now regular readers will know what my political leanings are. I am disappointed that the party I hope will continute to further the cause of nationalism seems to have fallen so far into the trappings of ultra capitalism. Everything has its price? Some things shouldn't have. It is sad that the First Minister of Scotland thinks it is worth any money to have lunch with him. The debate seems to revolve around his "misuse" of the Parliament as a premises. Wherever he has this lunch it is an afront to us all as Scots to offer his services in such a manner. It is not a good sign for the independent Scotland I support and hope to see.

Address by Cardinal O'Brien to Pope (and what he should have said!)

Substiantial details here

The Scottish Bishops met the Pope in a private audience this morning, during which Cardinal Keith O'Brien thanked the Pope for his teaching and promised him a "heartfelt welcome" to Scotland later this year, saying "we are thrilled that your visit will include Scotland"

More from the Cardinal's address:

When in 1878 Pope Leo XIII re-established the Scottish hierarchy the Holy See acknowledged Scotland as a distinct nation, albeit within a Kingdom formed from the union of the Scottish and English crowns subsequent to the Reformation. As Scots Catholics we are proud of our nation’s long relationship with the Holy See.

Actually the kingdom was formed by a Union of the Parliaments, not the Crowns. But we know what he meant. The Reformation and Union eh....the proverbial Chicken and Egg? What the Cardinal should have said, or at least what I would have said. :-)

Catholic Teuchtar's alternative address:

"When in 1878 Pope Leo XIII re-established the Scottish hierarchy the Holy See acknowledged Scotland as a distinct nation, albeit within a kingdom formed from the Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments subsequent to the Reformation, both fiercely opposed by our predecessors. We are proud of their fierce opposition, and our nations long relationship with the Holy See."

Failte Gu Alba Benedict XVI

Scottish Catholic Observer blog confirms Papal visit to Scotland. Guess we know where to be going for the exclusives eh?

Pontious Pilots

I really hate it when you get on a delayed plane - 2 hrs no less- and
the homeward bound leg too - and the pilot begins to apologise. Stop
gibbering man! Step om it!

--
Sent from my mobile device

Boys will be Boys will be Girls

Recognise the old 80s lyrics? Belloc warned we have, and would continue to make up "nice" words to make up for the immorality portrayed by the old words as we accepted it more and more in our society. The latest new word I hereby submit, frequent in the equality bill debate via the media is
TRANSGENDER.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Proud of the Pope!

The Holy Father has been getting it in the neck today. His crime? To encourage his bishops to oppose any policies which encroached on catholic doctrine. "How very very dare he!" cried the new pagans, gays, humanists, secularists, atheists, non catholics n pic n mix catholics. "He doesn't even represent the majority of catholics," asserted a boring bloke being interviewed on BBC's Breakfast show. "What about the behaviour of his priests?," spluttered another on lunchtime Radio.

It seems to be lost on them that Europe is a dead duc exactly because of the morality and free thinking individualism these people espouse. They are bringing Western Christendom and its societies to their knees spiritually, morally, socially.I hope when the Holy Father arrives in the UK he excommunicates every dissenter from John O Groats to Landsend. I hope he points to the fruits of the Reformation on this 500th anniversary of Knox. I hope he emphasises the importance of correct liturgy.

I hope he bemoans the immorality rife in our land and by the time he leaves they are even more outraged than today.

Standing up for Benedict XVI!!

-- Sent from my mobile device

Kings & Queens

A very interesting post at this blog on the Act of Settlement 1701 which "bars" Catholics from being Monarchs in the UK. The author quite rightly points out that a host of other religions are banned as well. The essential requirement is that the Monarch be "in communion with the Church of England."  I asked the question if the Act of Union 1707 between England and Scotland had negated this provision and got this answer.

 

"The answer is No.

Article 11 of both Acts of Union refer to the provisions of the (English) Act of Settlement. Members of the Church of Scotland are "in communion" with the Church of England even though Scotland has its own Anglican (Episcopal) Church and England has its own Presbyterian Church (now part of the URC)

When Queen Victoria started the tradition of British Monarchs staying in Scotland at Balmoral she made a point of going to Church at the local Church of Scotland parish church a tradition continued today by Queen Elizabeth 2 who is an Anglican in England and a Presbyterian in Scotland "

 

If I understand this correctly there is something quite ironic going on here. Mainly centering around the fact that Queen Elizabeth 2 can be  "Anglican in England and Presbyterian in Scotland". 

 

I think it will come as a surprise to many "Free" Presbyterians, that it is infact their perceived communion with the Church of England with its many faces, from Liberalism to High Anglo Catholicism, that prevents their own denominations also being outside the pale as far as the Monarchy goes in exactly the same manner as Catholics. 

 

Short Film

This is worth watching. Absolutely brilliant. Kudos to reader His Girl Friday

Letter to Lucifer

I fall down I get up again you are never going to keep me down. I know its been a while. But really in the last month or two you must be disappointed with your level of success. A few hours of my time. I'm looking forward to opening my prayer books. To going to mass tomorrow God willing. Where will you be then? Prowling about like a roaring lion looking for someone else to devour! May they resist you better than I strong in faith.

Its a losing battle you must surely know. I know you feel worse about my continual rising than I do about my falls so that must be grim indeed at present. I am clean again from the stain of your short intrusion and how the brightness must hurt your eyes. At least I like to hope it is so.

You see your temptations are as nothing to the joy of grace and peace which you can not give. That's right I prefer the joy of the Spirit than your fleeting illusions of happiness.

Now beat it yet again!

--

Sent from my mobile device

Teuchtar travels

Not a wink of sleep! Yet, I feel surprisingly fresh. .Maybe Mrs T is
right - I go to bed too early. Waiting for my flight in departures.
Probably nod of the minute we take of and miss the free breakie!

Our company is moving head office from Glasgow to Edinburgh so I need
to get acquainted with mass times etc there now. Did some digging and
I note confession isn't as readily available as it is in Glasgow.
Churches in centre of Edinburgh few and far between. (Compared to
Glasgow) Just St Mary's Cathedral and Sacred Heart.... ?

--
Sent from my mobile device...HENCE THE DODGY SPELLING!

New Scottish Catholic Blog

Welcome on the Scottish Catholic blogging scene is "CrossWires"the new blog of the Scottish Catholic Observer - a much improved National Catholic Newspaper.

 

Reasons to be cheerful..well hopeful then.

Most MSPs are opposed to plans to allow terminally ill people to seek help to die at a time of their choosing, a BBC Scotland survey has suggested. Independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who has Parkinson's disease, has brought a bill to the Scottish Parliament. A survey of two-thirds of MSPs showed 17 supported the bill, 53 said they were against and 20 were undecided.

Haiti

Do not quote me on this. I'm quoting a politician which is always a bit risky. "The UK Government's aid to Haiti is the equivalent of the cost of maintaining the Iraq War for one week."

Prayer

As some of my readers will know I have taken up using the Monastic Diurnal recently in place of the Divine Office. The reason for this I had convinced myself was justified and I will not go into it at the risk of embarrassing myself.

I really enjoyed the Monastic Diurnal but I missed the variation in the scripture readings (chapter) which in the Diurnal is the same for Matins and Lauds of the "Ferial" (Ordinary weekdays).

I picked up the Divine Office yesterday for reasons I can not explain and had not foreseen and absolutely loved it. It was as if I had just met and old friend.

I have to admit, "Compline" in the Monastic Diurnal is far superior to "Night Prayer" in the Office and its worth having just for that.

More on this soon but aren't we liturgically spoilt!

Wooohooo!!