Hugh Gilbert: Benedictine abbot elected bishop of Aberdeen

Hugh Gilbert.jpgPope Benedict XVI nominated as the new bishop of Aberdeen (Scotland) the Right Reverend Dom Hugh Gilbert, OSB, 59. This appointment was made public today.

Until now, Dom Hugh has been the abbot of the Pluscarden Abbey, a position he’s held since 1992. He’s been a Benedictine for 37 years. In the monastery he’s held several positions of service as well as serving as a member of the Union of Monastic Superiors and on the Abbot Visitor’s Council for the Subiaco Congregation of monasteries.
Pluscarden Abbey is the under the patronage of Our Lady and Saints John the Baptist and Andrew. It was founded in 1230 by King Alexander II; the monks were under Carthusian rule of life at the time of the colonization and later adopted the Rule of St Benedict while following Cistercian customs. By 1599, the abbey closed due to the Reformation. Providence saw to it that property was purchased for the monks in 1897 and the community formally was re-founded in 1948; it became a conventual priory in 1966 and an abbey in 1974. The community numbers 16 with a couple novices.

The Diocese of Aberdeen dates to the 6th century and was organized in 1063; it has 70 parishes. Due to the Reformation the Catholic diocese ceased until 1878 when it was restored. Today, the overall population of the Diocese of Aberdeen is 718,000 of that 18,600 are Catholics. There are 49 priests, 11 permanent deacons, and 45 religious.

Dom Hugh is the author of Unfolding The Mystery: Monastic Conferences on the Liturgical Year (2007).
The news article from BBC online can be read here.
May the Lord bless Dom Hugh as he assumes his new ministry as bishop.

Art is not merely an option for the Christian

Our Lord ascended to Heaven so that the Holy Spirit
might come at Pentecost and fill the Church with His truth. The greatest art
expresses that truth and is far superior to vain “self-expression.”
John Keats said “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” but T.S. Eliot
rightly thought that the expression was meaningless sentimentality. The
craftsman ignorant of the Creator becomes a vain aesthete expressing nothing
more than the ego. While truth is beautiful, beauty is not truth itself but
expresses that truth. In the classical tradition, beauty consists in
proportion, integrity and clarity: it is harmonious, suited to its purpose, and
intelligible. This is sublimely seen in Christ Himself, Who incarnated this
beauty as the Way (guiding to a harmony of virtue) and the Truth (revealing
God) and the Life (enlightening with creative love). St. Macarius, an Egyptian
monk of the fourth century said, “The soul which has been fully illumined
by the unspeakable beauty of the glory shining on the countenance of Christ overflows
with the Holy Spirit . . . it is all eye, all light, all countenance.”


Art
is not merely an option for the Christian. Thus, the wisdom of Lorenzo in The
Merchant of Venice: “The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not
mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils
. . .” The most sublime art is the Eucharist, in which we “take part
in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of
Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims . . .” (Vatican II, SC 8).

Father George Rutler
Pastor, Church of Our Saviour, NYC
homily excerpt from a recent Mass with Artists

Ascension of the Lord


Ascension HSuess.jpg

“He in fact came
to the world to bring men back to God, not on the level of ideas – like a
philosopher or master of wisdom – but really, as a shepherd who wants to lead
his sheep back to the fold . . . It is for us that he came down from Heaven,
and it is for us that he ascended there after making himself like men in all
things, humiliated to the point of death on the cross, and after touching the
abyss of the greatest separation from God”. 

“And what does man need more in
every age if not this: a solid anchoring for his existence? After the Ascension
the first disciples remained gathered together in the Cenacle around the Mother
of Jesus, in fervent expectation of the gift of the Holy Spirit, promised by
Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14)…. [this divine invitation is offered to us] “to remain
united together in prayer, to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. In fact, only
to those who ‘are born again from above,'”, that is, of the born of the Holy
Spirit.

Pope Benedict XVI, Ascension, 2008

Vatican and Good Samaritan Foundation talk on AIDS

Stats for those living with HIV-AIDS is somewhere around 33 million,  records the World Health Organization (WHO). Recently, the HIV-AIDS epidemic was studied at a Rome conference hosted by the Holy See and the Good Samaritan Foundation. The conference was titled “The Centrality of Care for the Person in the Prevention and Treatment of Illnesses caused by HIV and AIDS.”

Various experts and Vatican officials, including the Pope’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, where he said that our work ought to be centered on the patient in way that a holistic approach is followed: the whol person and not only the disease needs to competent assistance and friendship. Experts from 26 countries attended the conference.

It is estimated that there are some thing like 117,000 health centers across the globe that treat AIDS patients. With all the money wasted on frivolous things, the WHO said their research revealed that in 2009 about $16 million was used for AIDS research and treatments. Problems exist in medical care and safety because only 35 percent of patients in third world countries have access to treatment. Do the math: roughly 10 million people don’t have access to any type of medication and proper health care. 

Pope Benedict’s prayer intentions for June 2011

pope prays detail.jpg

The general intention


That priests, united to the Heart of Christ, may always be true witnesses to the caring and merciful love of God.


The missionary intention


That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities many missionaries who are ready to be fully consecrated to spreading the Kingdom of God.


When the bishop of a diocese celebrates the Chrism Mass during Holy Week each year he does two things: he blesses and consecrates the holy oils used for the sacraments and he leads the assembled priests in the “Renewal of Commitment to Priestly Service.” The laity are asked by the bishop to pray for their priests asking “the Lord to bless them with the fullness of his love, to help them be faithful ministers of Christ the High Priest, so that they will be able to lead” the faithful to their eternal destiny: life with the Most Blessed Trinity.

New Evangelization means to be missionary, prepare to be new apostles for Christ

The Pope, for the first time since forming the council for promoting the New Evangelization in 2010, addressed the full body of cardinals, bishops, theologians and consultors on May 30. There are two noteworthy Americans who are key advisors for this work, Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Archbishop of NY) and Sister Sara Butler (a theologian at Mundelein Seminary). Plus, I would say that the presence of Father Julián Carrón and Cardinal Scola should be noted, also. The Pope’s talk is given below.

Pope with New Evangelization Council.png

When last June 28, at First Vespers of the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, I announced that I wished to institute a dicastery for promoting the New Evangelization, I gave an operative beginning to a reflection that I had had for a long time on the need to offer a concrete answer to the moment of crisis in Christian life, which is being verified in so many countries, above all those of ancient Christian tradition. Today, with this meeting, I can see with pleasure that this new pontifical council has become a reality. I thank Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella for the words he addressed to me, introducing me to the work of your first plenary assembly. My warm greetings to all of you with my encouragement for the contribution you will make to the work of the new dicastery, above all in view of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that, in October of 2012, will in fact address the topic “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

Enhanced by Zemanta

Continue reading New Evangelization means to be missionary, prepare to be new apostles for Christ

Educating Young People in Justice and Peace

…and this is the Holy Father’s theme for the 45th World Day of Prayer of Peace of January 1, 2012.

This is a theme that Pope Benedict comes back to with some frequency in his addresses to bishops, to the diplomats, gatherings of priests and religious and encyclicals. It all has to hang together: lectio divina, Scripture study, liturgical praxis, the spiritual and moral life and matters of justice. In the ’60s and ’70s we would often see a separation of faith from justice which led to a radical reduction of the human person, virtue and politics. As it was said, “The theme engages an urgent need in the world today: to listen to and enhance the important role of new generations in the realization of the common good, and in the affirmation of a just and peaceful social order where the fundamental human rights can be fully expressed and realized,” (LOR online).

The English edition of the L’Osservatore Romano has a spot on the papal choice here.
And, what is our work going to be in the near future: to listen, to enhance, to work and to pray for peace and justice today.
Enhanced by Zemanta