St Alphonsus and Prayer - Pope Benedict XVI, yesterday.

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ON PRAYERACCORDING TO ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI"He who prays is saved. He who prays not is damned!"
Only yesterday.The Holy Father spoke about St Alphonsus for his feast day.
Dear brothers and sisters!Today marks the liturgical memorial of St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer -- the Redemptorists -- patron saint of scholars and moral theology and of confessors. St. Alphonsus is one of the most popular saints of the 18th century because of his simple, straightforward style and his teaching on the sacrament of Penance: In a period of great rigorism -- the result of the influence of Jansenism -- he recommended to confessors to administer this sacrament by revealing the joyous embrace of God the Father, who in His infinite mercy never tires of welcoming back the repentant son.
Today's memorial offers us the occasion to consider St. Alphonsus' teachings on prayer, which are extremely valuable and filled with spiritual inspiration. He considered his treatise, Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, which dates back to 1759, to be the most useful of all his writings.In fact, he there describes prayer as
"the necessary and sure means of obtaining salvation, and all the graces we need to attain it" (Introduction). 
Only yesterday the Pope said:"He who prays is certain to be saved.He who prays not is damned".This sentence sums up the Alphonsian understanding of prayer. First, in saying that it is a means, he reminds us of the end to be attained: God created out of love in order to be able to give us the fullness of life; but because of sin, this goal, this abundance of life has, so to say, drifted away -- we all know this -- and only God's grace can make it available. To explain this basic truth, and to enable us to understand in a straightforward way how real the risk is of man's "being lost," St. Alphonsus coined a famous, very elementary maxim, which states: "He who prays is saved. He who prays not is damned!" Commenting on this lapidary statement, he added: "To save one's soul without prayer is most difficult, and even impossible … but by praying our salvation is made secure, and very easy" (Chapter II, Conclusion). And he goes on to say: "If we do not pray, we have no excuse, for the grace of prayer is given to everyone … if we are not saved, the whole fault will be ours, because we did not pray" (ibid.). 
In saying that prayer is a necessary means, St. Alphonsus wanted us to understand that in every situation in life, we cannot manage without praying, especially in times of trial and difficulty. We must always knock at the Lord's door with trust, knowing that in all things He takes care of His children, of us. We are invited, therefore, not to be afraid of turning to Him and of presenting our requests to Him with trust, in the certainty of obtaining what we need.
Dear friends, this is the central question: What is truly necessary in my life? With St. Alphonsus I respond: "Health and all the graces we need for this" (ibid.); naturally, he means not only bodily health, but above all also that of the soul, which Jesus gives to us. More than anything else, we need His liberating presence, which truly makes our lives fully human and therefore full of joy. And it is only through prayer that we are able to welcome Him and His grace, which by enlightening us in each situation, enables us to discern the true good, and by strengthening us, makes our will effective; that is, it enables it to do the good that is known. Often we recognize the good, but we are unable to do it. Through prayer, we arrive at the point of being able to carry it out.
The Lord's disciple knows that he is always exposed to temptation, and he never fails to ask God for help in prayer in order to conquer it.St. Alphonsus recalls the example of St. Phillip Neri -- very interesting -- who "used to say to God from the first moment he awoke in the morning, 'Lord, keep Thy hands over Philip this day; for if not, Philip will betray Thee'" (III, 3). A great realist! He asks God to keep His hand upon him. We, too, in the awareness of our own weakness, should humbly ask God's help, relying on the richness of His mercy.
In another passage, St. Alphonsus says: "We are so poor that we have nothing; but if we pray we are no longer poor" (II, 4). And in the wake of St. Augustine, he invites every Christian to not be afraid of obtaining from God, through prayer, the strength he does not possess and that he needs to do the good, in the certainty that the Lord does not withhold His help from whoever prays with humility (cf. III, 3).
Dear friends, St. Alphonsus reminds us that our relationship with God is essential for our lives. Without a relationship with God, our fundamental relationship is missing. And a relationship with God develops by talking with God in daily personal prayer, and by participating in the Sacraments; and so it is that this relationship can grow in us, and that the divine presence that directs our path, enlightens it and makes it secure and serene can also grow in us, even amid difficulty and danger. Thank you.
[Translation by Diane Montagna]© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Thank you! Holy Father!Happy Feast Day to all our readers!

A Foggy Feast

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I personally really like it when it is foggy on Papa Stronsay.  There is a real feeling of peace and of monastic isolation.  Therefore I was not at all upset when I left my cell this morning to find that on the feast of Our Holy Father Saint Alphonsus, he had sent us some fog for the occasion!  While it was not so bad this morning, as I write this we are completely cut of visually even from the neighbouring island of Stronsay...I can barely even see the sea!  Here are some photos of our crossing to Stronsay this morning for sung Mass.


Making the crossing from Papa Stronsay to Stronsay for Mass.
The Stronsay village of Whitehall where our chapel is. 
 Arrived at the Stronsay pier. The Brothers ascend the pier steps.
Looking back towards Papa Stronsay, which risks being swallowed up by the mist. 
"The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?... 
...And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" 1 Cor 10:16 
"In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:4-5
Papa Stronsay as it looks while I write this post.  The Fog has really come in. 
Standing almost on the water's edge you can only just make out the pier with our boat. 
And out towards nearby Stronsay...nothing.
Lovely

"It is just a fact of life" - Bishop Hugh, O.S.B.

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As a monk and a priest, I don't marry. This doesn't make me better or worse than married people. It is just a fact of life. Someone out there has been deprived of the privilege of having me as a husband; it just is not my role.


Rt. Rev. Dom Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.Bishop of Aberdeen
There are hundreds of married people in the pews every Sunday and they do not celebrate Mass or hear Sacramental confessions. That doesn't mean that God loves them more or less than He loves me. It is just a fact of life. It is not their role to be priests.
In the Church it is not possible for a priest to marry. This is a matter of Church law. It could conceivably change. In our society, it is not possible for two men or two women to marry. That is not discrimination. It is not just a human law which can be changed. It is a fact of life.
Someone swimming the English Channel.
Saying that everybody should have the right to marry is like saying that everybody should have the right to swim the Channel. The fact is that not everybody can do it, or should even try. It is simply not possible.
It seems to me that the government has looked at civil partnerships and decided that they are so similar in every way to civil marriages that we might as well simply change the name. You might think that is fair enough and there is no difference. The truth is that a government can pass any legislation it likes, it can legislate to say that everything with four legs is a table, even when it is a dog and not a horse, but that won't make it so.A Wedding in the East.
People have understood the meaning of marriage for thousands of years. Crucially, it has three limits. It is limited by number - you can only marry one person at a time. It is limited by relationships, a man cannot marry his niece, for example. And it is limited by gender - only men and women can marry.
A Wedding in the West.
Now a combination of misplaced kindness, fashion and a commitment to equality are leading the government to propose removing one of those three pillars. Why not the other two? Why is it alright for a man to marry another man, but not alright for him to marry two women? If we really want equality, why does that equality not extend to nieces who genuinely, truly love their uncles? And, if you say that such things do not happen, that they are mere freaks of nature, extreme examples dreamed up for the sake of argument, I say you need to spend more time in the parish.


And do you really want your little boy being taught that when he grows up he can marry another boy if he wants?
Fifty years ago nobody would have believed we could seriously be discussing gay 'marriage.' Fifty years from now will we be discussing multi-marriages in the same way?
The God I try to serve does not condemn. He did not condemn the woman taken in adultery but, if she had asked him to conduct a wedding service with her lover, he would have refused. It would simply have been impossible.
As Bishop of Aberdeen, I know there are gay people amongst the community of the Church. I promise I will always respect and love them and uphold them in their relationship with the God who loves them. But I won't marry them. It just cannot be done.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.Bishop of Aberdeen

What Matilda won for her darling.

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In preparation for the feastofThe Assumption of Our Lady.

The holy death of the Blessed Virgin Mary.+How a mother prepared for the great feasts of Our Lady.
The Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury29 December, 1170.
From his cradle was St Thomas à Becket taught to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His mother, Matilda, used in her hallowed playfulness of heart, to put her boy, whilst he was yet a child, into a scale, and bestow his weight in food, clothing and money, on the poor that she might thereby win for her darling the prayers and protection of the blessed Mary.She taught her sondevotion to the Blessed Virginthat his life and acts would be protected by HerWhom he fervently invoked andheld as his hope after Christ.

Around Her funeral couch.

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Yesterday the meditation from St. Alphonsus was on the Death of Most Holy Mary.
By today the beautiful funeral couch of the Mother of Godhad been erected with a pall overhanging Her figure.
Memoria mea in generationes saeculorum.My memory is unto everlasting generations.
Beata es, Virgo Maria, quae omnium portasti Creatorem:genuisti qui te fecit, et in aeternum permanes virgo.Blessed art Thou, O Virgin Mary, Who didst bear the Creator of all things:didst bring forth Him who made Thee,and for ever remainest a virgin.
At the funeral couch of our Mother let us pray:Holy Mary, Mother of God,pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.