St Andrews

This evening I’ll be accompanying Fr Roger Nesbitt to St Andrews where he will be giving a talk entitled ‘For me to live is Christ’ at the Canmore Catholic Society. It’s always great to visit Canmore though it’ll be nice to be in the audience this time. I’d imagine that the talk will be well worth listening to - it’ll soon be available on the Society’s podcast page.

Nicola

Nicola is 15 and in the early stages of pregnancy. Though she wants to have her baby, she’s under a great deal of pressure from her family and has an abortion booked for tomorrow. Please pray that she has the strength not to go through with it. Thank you and God bless.

Nurses Day

On Saturday 10th May, the Catholic Nurses Guild will be celebrating Nurses Day with 1pm Mass in St Andrew Cathedral, Glasgow followed by a talk from Fr Paul Murray on Ethics in the Eyre Hall after Mass. Light refreshments will be provided.

For more details please contact Nita Harkin on 01475725252, Isa Wilson on 01316653639 or email clairemarion.murray@ntlword.com.

The 2008 Pluscarden Pentecost Lectures

CHRISTIANITY AND THE WORLD RELIGIONS
Clash of Civilisations or a New Opportunity
by Prof. Gavin D’Costa

A series of four public lectures at
Pluscarden Abbey
Elgin IV30 8UA
from 13th to 15th May 2008

Each year the Abbot and Community of Pluscarden Abbey sponsor a series of four lectures by an invited theologian on an aspect of Catholic Theology.

One of the most important and controversial questions in theology today is that of the status of non-Christian religions. Catholics, and all orthodox Christian, believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Saviour of the whole human race. At the same time the Second Vatican Council affirmed the value of other religions and taught that their adherents may be saved.

Globalisation, decades of interreligious dialogue and the rise of militant Islam have all made this issue a priority, and it is of great imporance to Pope Benedict XVI. Even in the political sphere recent events and the publication of Samuel P. Huntington’s book, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, have brought the question of relations between the religions to the centre of debate. Professor Gavin D’Costa is one of the leading Catholic theologians working in this field and we are pleased that he has agreed to share with us new developments in his research.

THE LECTURE PROGRAMME:

Tuesday 13th May at 2:45PM.
A map of the terrain: current debates in Christian attitudes to other religions.

Wednesday 14th May at 10:15AM.
‘The descent into hell’ as a doctrinal solution to an unresolved question?

Wedanesday 14th May at 2:45PM.
Dying to redeem? A comparison of two lives: a Hindu ’saint’ and a Catholic saint.

Thursday 15th May at 10:15AM.
Christianity in a multi-religious Europe: The Clash of Civilisations?

The lectures are free and all are welcome to attend, either the whole series or individual lectures. They will take place as usual at the Abbey in St Scholastica’s Retreat. We can offer hospitality at the Abbey for a limited number of men and women, but early booking is advised.

To make further enquiries contact:
Pluscarden Abbey, Elgin, IV30 8UA.
email: monks@pluscardenabbey.org

Monastic Experience Retreat at Pluscarden

To continue on the vocations theme and to steal shamelessly from Fr Tim:

Pluscarden Monastic experience retreat 2008
Live the monastic life for six days

The Benedictine monks of Pluscarden Abbey are organising a Monastic Experience Retreat for single Catholic men aged 18-40 to be held at the Abbey on 1st – 6th September 2008. The format will be the same as the successful retreat held last year and those who attend will live the same life as the monks and follow the monastic timetable. They will be in choir with the monks, do some lectio divina (spiritual reading) and prayer as we do, eat in the monastic refectory, do some manual work with the brethren each afternoon etc. There will also be a few talks and discussions on things such as the meaning of monastic life, monastic prayer and the Divine Office, and Gregorian Chant, as well as a tour of the Abbey some periods of recreation and a chance to speak with the brethren.

This is an opportunity for men who are considering a monastic vocation to experience our life ‘on the inside’ as well as for any men in the age group to share the riches of monastic spirituality. Those who came on previous retreats have ended up as monks, seminarians, diocesan priests, members of other religious orders and secular institutes as well as in various other ways of life.

Pluscarden Abbey was founded in 1230. The monastic community died out after the Reformation in 1560 but Benedictine monks from England returned to the medieval buildings in 1948 and resumed the monastic round of prayer and work. Over the years the buildings have been restored and at present the cloister is being completed. The community now consists of 30 monks, some of whom live in a daughter house at Petersham, USA and in a new monastic foundation in Ghana, West Africa. The monks live the classical Benedictine life of prayer and work centred on Holy Mass and the Divine Office celebrated according to the traditional schema of St Benedict, all of which is sung in Latin with Gregorian Chant. For more information on our way of life see the Pluscarden Abbey website

For further information on the retreat, contact Fr Augustine by email or by post at:
Pluscarden Abbey
Elgin
IV30 8UA

We cannot recommend this enough - if you’re a young man discerning a religious vocation, this is an absolutely wonderful opportunity to gain new insight into monastic life.

Minster Abbey Vocations Retreat

In advent we joined the wonderful nuns of Minster Abbey in Kent for their Advent retreat - it was a great experience of authentic contemplative religious life. In the summer they will be holding a vocations retreat for young Roman Catholic women, so if you think you might have a vocation to religious life this an excellent opportunity to see what it’s all about!

ST MILDRED OF MINSTER
690-735 AD

A WOMAN OF PEACE:
OF PRAYER:
OF WISDOM AND LOVE

A WOMAN FOR OUR TIME

Do you feel inspired to follow Jesus, in the footsteps of St Mildred?

COME AND JOIN THE BENEDICTINE NUNS
OF MINSTER ABBEY JULY 9-14TH 2008

For a time of reflection, prayer, and work,
and celebration of the Feat of St Mildred!

For more information contact:

The Novice Mistress
Minster Abbey
Minster, nr. Ramsgate,
Kent CT12 4HF 01843821254

 

Anyone fancy a new project?

We are, as usual, on the scrounge. However, even for us, this is a slightly unusual request.

As part of our work we provide families in need with clothing and equipment. For babies this mainly involves prams, cots, etc. However if they have older children we like to give them toys. As in all things we’ve been blessed in this regard with the incredible generosity of our friends and we receive a huge variety of wonderul toys.

So this is our request. Can any of you sew? Are you looking for a project? We have a large number of Barbie’s and Action Men, minus clothing. We’d like to clothe them so that we can give them away.

There are however, a few things to note. In the case of Barbie - she’s often not clothed in a particularly chaste manner, and we’re very strict about what we give out. So we’re looking for slightly more modest outfits, to help make Barbie a bit classier.

For Action Man - we’re looking for less militaristic outfits. A lot of the families we work with are refugees and have had extremely bad experiences in conflict zones across the world. So we’re thinking more Val Doonican than Jean Claude Van Damme. They don’t have to be boring, just not too scary.

If anyone has any ideas or would like to contribute, we would be most appreciative. We’re not asking anyone to go out and buy outfits, but if you can sew, you have the time and you’re looking for an interesting project, please do consider. Thank you and God bless!

Update on Sr Andrea

Sister is doing well - she got out of hospital the day after her operation, a few days earlier than expected. She’s recovering at home and will be off work for a few weeks, but hopefully there should be no long term problems. Thanks to all for prayers.

Prayers for Sr Andrea

Today Sr Andrea will be having a minor operation to remove a lump from her parotid gland. We’re not expecting any problems but prayers are appreciated. Thank you and God bless.

Day of Renewal

Charismatic Renewal, Glasgow are having a Day of Renewal here at the Pro-Life Initiative on Saturday (5th of April) at 10.30am. Sr Roseann will be the main speaker and there will be Mass in the afternoon.