This should be Recent Event 3 as a part of my catching up but I got bored with that and thought that everything I write about could be given a number as a Recent Event so have decided to drop it.
A week past Saturday I went to Dalbeattie to give a day of recollection to Una Voce Scotland. I had been given a satnav by my brother for my birthday and this was its first real test. It worked perfectly but I had no idea where I was, not having located Dalbeattie on a map. The weather was not good, rain and mist everywhere I looked. However I could see that it was an attractive area and understood why it is a holiday destination.
There were about twenty people at the Mass. This was preceded by me giving a talk. I decided to give my talk on the Sarum Use again as I had it ready and it would remind me of the material before writing it up for the North East Catholic History magazine. This had seemed a good idea but as I found myself in Scotland I began to realise that it was very England-orientated. At least I had dates for the introduction of the Sarum Use in Glasgow to fall back on and mentioned the celebration of the Sarum Mass at Aberdeen in 200 by the then bishop Mario Conti. It wasn`t really a spiritual talk but I thought it was ok as there was a homily and a Holy Hour to come
Mass brought its own challenges as the altar was perched on the edge of a step so standing to face east, I found the altar was chest high. However I`ve never let an altar get the better of me yet and a low Mass followed. I preached on the saint of the day, St Francis, especially with regard to his love for the Church that kept him inside its visible boundaries.
After lunch we re-assembled for a Holy Hour. I`m not that sure it was an hour: I find it hard to time these things and many of them in the past have ben holy forty-five minutes but I spoke about the Eucharist under various aspects. It was when I came to the Eucharist as a source of perseverance that I felt somewhat at sea as I spoke about the English Martyr priests before I realised, to my shame, I knew little about the post-reformation situation in Scotland and just hoped it followed a similar pattern of priests saying Mass in secret for recusant congregations. After Benediction the day ended.
Many thanks to Una Voce Scotland for a warm welcome.
2 comments:
No, it wasn't quite the same in Scotland. We only have one canonised Reformation martyr.
You could phone up the remarkable little outfit operating out of the Passionists' house in Glasgow, Ovada Books, and ask for a copy of their book A Cairn of Small Stones, a rather good historical novel of Catholic life on the west coast in the C18. Or have a read through the Scalan website.
http://www.scalan.co.uk/
Order this up to the NLS reading room, and take the train to Embra for the day.
Many thanks Berenike. I`d heard of St John Ogilvie but hadn`t realised he was the only canonised reformation martyr. I`m intrigued to find out what went on in Scotland now and surprised that I don`t seem to know. Were the Presbyterians not as efficient as the Anglicans at catching and executing Catholic priests? I must find out.
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