Monastic Witness

If you click here you can watch a short video of Fr Augustine of the wonderful Pluscarden Abbey explaining the importance of the witness of monastic life.

Unfortunately we couldn’t embed the vido here and the site is in Danish, but you can watch the video.

God bless!

Buggy appeal in the news…

From The Catholic Times 25/01/2008

World backing for the Gospel of Life
by James Hastings

The nun in charge of the UK’s best known pro-life group took a special delivery this week - a pram all the way from Chicago.

Sr Roseann Reddy, of the Sisters of the Gospel of Life in Glasgow, was stunned when the hi-tech pram arrived from America.

It follows an appeal on the order’s blog for baby buggies and baths. The order and its volunteers run the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative which provides practical help to expectant mothers.
 
But after a surge in babies being born over the Christmas period, the sisters found their pram cupboard practically empty.

Sr Roseann told The Catholic Times: “We placed a small notice on our blog and have been absolutely amazed at tghe responses we’ve received from all over the world.

“One woman in Chicago read about the appeal on a priest’s blog in the United States and she got Amazon to deliver a pram.

“Other people have been sending baby baths which are also desperately needed, while others are sending money.
 
“One priest in England sent us a baby bath and he is urging his parishoners to do the same.

“Best of all there are very kind messages from all over the world, praising the work being done here and offering prayers.
 
“It is absolutely wonderful and we want to give a bi thank you to everyone.”

The pro-life initiative was set up by the late Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgow in 1997 after claims from pro-abortionists and critics that the Church did not offer practical assistance to pregnant women.

So far more than 1,000 children have been born and mothers provided with items such as prams, cots and even nappies.
 
Sr Roseann established the Sisters of the Gospel of Life in 2000, the first female religious order founded in Scotland for 150 years.

The sisters and volunteer helpers provide counselling and information on issues like housing.

Added Sr Roseann: “We like to give mums the equipment around eight weeks before the baby is due, and we have a number of mums here at that period.

“If anyone has a pram or buggy, in good condition, that you no longer need, please do consider donating it to us.

“We have a particular number of women whose due dates are imminent and are in particular need of prams or buggies.”

Copyright The Catholic Times 2008

……………………………………………………….

Again it’s wonderful to see such a visible response to our appeal - this article featured on the front page of the most recent Catholic Times. There are a few small inaccuracies - the lady from Chicago who sent a pram (Ma Beck!) saw the appeal on Fr Tim’s blog, rather than on the site of an American priest. The English parish priest referred to is also Fr Tim, and he sent a buggy.

More personally, the description of the origins of this organisation is skewed somewhat, implying that the impetus came from the criticisms of the pro-choice lobby, rather than as a positive initiative of the late Cardinal Winning.

However it is on the whole a good article, and it was nice to be able to reach an audience perhaps unacquainted with the blogging world, as well as giving us the opportunity to once again publicly thank all who contributed to the appeal.

As well as a number of new buggies (ten or eleven I believe) we’ve received a good number of baths and two baby slings. A priest friend of ours also brought us three buggies. Thank you all so much for your support, for making donations, to Fr Tim and all who publicised the appeal.

Finally, a special thanks to Fr Neil ‘Postman Pat’ Donnachie and to Peter Creron for receiving and transporting several of the very large parcels.

Thank you all and God bless!

International Student Pro-life Conference

From our friends at SPUC Scotland:

SPUC Scotland is hosting the first International Student Pro-life Conference which will take place on 28th-30th March, in Carberry Tower Conference Centre, Edinburgh.

The theme of the conference is Civil Rights and the keynote speaker will be Martin Luther King’s great niece Celeste Beal.

Celeste will be explaining why she feels that the pro-life movement is today’s most pressing civil rights issue.

There will be a special screening of the much-acclaimed movie, Bella which has only recently been released in America.

Plus, there will be lots of other interesting presentations and the Arts will play a special part in the conference.

This conference provides a unique opportunity for young people to socialise with fellow pro-life advocates from around the world.

A weekend NOT to be missed.This residential weekend is open to 6th year pupils, university students and those aged between 17 and 35. For more details please check out our website.

tententheatre

Some of you may have joined us for our ‘Day for Life’ celebrations back in May. One of the events staged here at the Initiative was an excellent production of ‘Babies’ a play by Martin O’Brien and the tententheatre group.

Tententheatre exists to advance the social, moral, spiritual and cultural education of children, young people, young offenders, prisoners, teachers and the general public through drama and the performing arts.

‘Babies’ (for KS4, sixth formers, s4-s6 and adults) tells the story of Annie and Joe, a teenage couple facing an unexpected pregnancy and “covers a wide range of themes dealing with teenage pregancy, abortion, parenthood, relationships, marriage, family life, love and responsibility”.

Tenten have just embarked on a new project ‘Chased’ (for KS3, Year 9 or S3) which “explores issues of self-worth, respect for others, the value of sex and the influence of drugs and alcohol on decision-making.”

Over the course of 2008 tenten will be touring schools and parishes across Britain with both plays - many dates have already been taken but if you’re interested in booking them (and we very much recommend them) you can get in touch by:

emailing - info(at)tententheatre(dot)co(dot)uk OR
phoning - 0845 388 3162

For full details you can have a look at their website.

Janet Smith talk

Fertility Care Scotland presents:

A Half-Day Conference

“Contraception: Why Not”

Celebrating 40 Years of Humanae Vitae
With

Professor Janet E Smith

Saturday, 1st March 2008

9.30am - 1.30pm

GTG Conference Centre

1330 South Street, Glasgow, G14 0BJ

For a booking form, please contact Fertility Care Scotland on 0141 221 0858

Severe weather warning…

Tomorrow Sr Andrea is headed for Benbecula, after her last trip was postponed (after several attempts over two days) due to poor weather conditions. Here in the office we’re predicting a sudden down-turn in the weather at around 4 o’clock tomorrow.

Buggy Appeal

The response to our appeal has been truly overwhelming. We’ve already recieved a number of buggies and baths and have had word that more are on the way.

The first of the buggies - thank you to our friends at Oscott! - providentially arrived and went out this morning, to a woman shortly due to give birth.

Thank you also to the lady who sent this one…

…it’s going out tomorrow.

Many, many thanks to all who’ve responded and particularly to Fr Tim for his initial post. God bless!

Thank you!!!

…for the amazing response to our last post. We are truly blessed to be surrounded by so many kind and generous friends. Deo gratias. You will all be in our prayers.

URGENT HELP REQUEST

Due to unprecedented demand we have a severe shortage of prams and buggies, which we desperately need over the next few days.

If you’re in the Glasgow area and have a pram or buggy, in good condition, that you no longer need, please do consider donating it to us. We have a number of women whose due dates are imminent and are in particular need of prams or buggies suitable from birth onwards.

We’re also in serious need of baby baths.

If you can help, please email us at:

 info(at)prolifeinitiative(dot)org

Or phone us at: 0141 433 2680

Thank you and God bless.

A response to some queries…

Since we started the blog in July, we’ve had some queries regarding our habit, specifically on the question of veils. I apologise that it has taken so long to answer - I’m new to the blog scene and not as proficient at answering questions as many of the more experienced bloggers. Also, as you can imagine, we’re kept very busy. However, now that things have quietened down, I wanted to respond.

Firstly, as a new community (founded in 2000) with our main apostolate of crisis pregnancy care and the spreading of the Gospel of Life, we decided right from the very beginning to wear some form of dress that was recognisably religious.  This we have always done, albeit with a few variations along the way. What we currently wear (and have done for the last four years) is our final choice and consists of a simple, long black tunic dress worn over a plain white round-neck top. Over this is worn a simple black cardigan for warmth.  We wear sensible black shoes in the winter months and equally sensible black sandals in warmer weather.

Around our neck we wear a long silver chain with a crucifix (the one associated with Pope John Paul II) and on our ring finger we wear a simple silver rosary ring, which will be replaced with a wedding band when we take our final vows.

It is in our constitutions that we will receive a long black veil as a mark of our consecration when we take our final vows. This veil we will wear in the majority of situations, removing it only when pastoral concerns dictate otherwise. To help you understand what this means, let me explain a little bit about our working environment.

When we start working with a pregnant woman, one of the first things we assure her of is complete confidentiality. If we go to visit the woman, in her own home or in hospital, we generally wear a jacket over our habits so as not to be quite so conspicuous, thereby not breaking our promise of confidentiality.

In future, when we hope to take the veil following our final profession, we will wear it primarily as a mark of our consecration, and secondly as a witness to the world.

I am afraid there is no possibility of the “real nuns” habit some have mentioned: we are an active, dynamic young community doing what we believe to be the most important work of our time – protecting the lives, rights and dignity of all human persons from conception until natural death – against great odds and a society that has been corrupted by the “culture of death”. No one who meets us is in any doubt that we are religious sisters – our dress and, please God, our lives, demonstrate this in abundance.

We do as the Church requires in wearing a simple form of dress which is distinctly religious, ‘a religious garb that distinguishes us as consecrated persons’ (Vita Religiosa, 34). This habit is however ‘suited to the time and place and to the needs of the apostolate’ (Perfectae Caritatis, 17).

With regard to whether or not we will attract vocations if we don’t have a “real” habit, I must confess that I’m not sure we would want any young woman whose main marker for following God would be that she got to wear such a habit.

We love and admire our contemplative sisters who wear a full habit and it is right and fitting for their way of life.  We recently spent our retreat with a wonderful community of enclosed nuns. We sat in choir with them, we ate in silence with them, we worshipped God at Mass with them and they had no problem with our mode of dress – in fact, except for the veil, one could hardly tell the difference.

As a community, we wear a discernible habit. Every day we say the full office, have a holy hour, attend Mass, say the Rosary and Divine Mercy, and eat our meals – all of this we do together. We participate in the life of the local Church, we fast when the Church fasts and we feast when she feasts. We have an annual community retreat, spiritual direction every six weeks and Confession at least every two weeks.  In addition, we try our very best every day to save unborn babies from being aborted and their mothers from making the biggest mistake of their lives. To paraphrase the great St Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons, if this be not enough to keep a man alive or, in our case, to prove that we are “real” religious sisters … We just long to get on with the task the Lord has given us.

This has been an epic response, but one I felt I had to give. I will not, however, be getting into a debate about habits/veils since, frankly, there are more important things to do. So please feel free to comment, feel free to pray for vocations to our community and encourage anyone you know who may feel called to our way of life – but please do not expect any more comment from me.

God bless,
Sr Roseann