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Pluscarden Retreat

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This today from Dom Augustine. I warmly recommend this retreat at Pluscarden. 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 monast...
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Pluscarden video

Thanks to Vocation Station whose "hermit without a permit" alerted me to this video from Pluscarden Abbey which features Fr Augustine and Abbot Hugh.
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Pluscarden retreat

Mark at Rise and Pray has an interesting post on a recent retreat at Pluscarden given by Fr John Emerson of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. He has some great photos - I won't pinch them: you can go over and have a look ;-)
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Interview with monk of Pluscarden

Many thanks to Vocation Station for passing on this video clip of an interview with Fr Giles, a monk of Pluscarden Abbey . ( During the first 21 seconds, the picture is unclear. ) Vocation Station is a blog worth watching - they collect videos on the religious life and the site would e helpful for someone who is discerning a vocation to the consecrated life. I have just added it to the blogroll.
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Pluscarden Abbey video

Many thanks to a kind commenter for the link to this video tribute to Pluscarden Abbey which was posted at Vocation Station . I haven't got time to watch it all at the moment but I did like the opening "Google earth" type zoom in. That's a good idea. The video is hosted at Gloria TV "the more Catholic the better"
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The Times on Abbot Gilbert

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Thanks to Fr Ray Blake for pointing out the Sunday Times article ( Monk tipped to be archbishop ) which discusses the possibility of Abbot Hugh Gilbert of Pluscarden being considered as a possible Archbishop of Westminster. Talking of Abbot Gilbert gives me the excuse to post one of my nice photos of Pluscarden from my visit last summer. Here, have another one!
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A foretaste of eternity

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The daily liturgical timetable for weekdays at Pluscarden is as follows: 4.45am - Vigils (similar to Matins of the Roman Breviary) and Lauds - approximately an hour and a half c. 6.55am (half an hour after Lauds) - Prime 8.45am - Conventual Mass and Terce 12.35pm - Sext (followed by lunch) 2.15pm - None 6pm - Vespers, followed by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the Lady Chapel (Supper is at 7pm) 8pm - Compline The offices and conventual Mass are all chanted in Latin. The community are using the new books edited by Solemnes as they are produced. The older Antiphonale Monasticum is used where necessary. Mass in in the Novus Ordo , using the new Graduale Romanum (readings in English). One of the pamphlets I read spoke of the chanting of the psalms as an image of eternity. This could be joked about, especially at Vigils when, for example, we chanted the whole of psalm 77 - on a monotone as are all the psalms at Vigils. However, I think there is an important point in seeing this ...
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Pluscarden Abbey

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After an interval of nearly 400 years, Benedictine monastic life began anew at Pluscarden. After the Reformation, the Priory had been in the hands of lay owners. In 1897, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, and author of the eccentric but enormously useful translation of the Roman Breviary, purchased the Priory from the Duke of Fife. A devout and wealthy philanthropist, he helped the Presyterian congregation who had been using the ruins for services to build a Church in the glen, and arranged for Catholic Mass to be celebrated in the Prior's Chapel by Dom Sir David Oswald Hunter Blair Bt OSB of Fort Augustus Abbey. On the death of the Marquess, the property passed to his son, Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart who was eager for a monastic community to take up residence. Eventually, he found Abbot Wilfred Upson of Prinknash willing to found a new monastic community and in 1948, five monks began to live the Benedictine life once more in the Priory. The community has carri...
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Photos of Pluscarden

There are some great pictures of Pluscarden over at Joee Blogs.
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Popular posts from this blog

Bernini's elephant Inscription

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Here's the elephant. (That's the Pantheon in the background.) And here is the inscription: It reads: SAPIENTIS AEGYPTI INSCULPTAS OBELISCO FIGURAS AB ELEPHANTO BELLUARUM FORTISSIMA GESTARI QUISQUIS HIC VIDES DOCUMENTUM INTELLIGE ROBUSTAE MENTIS ESSE SOLIDAM SAPIENTIAM SUSTINERE Which is to say "Whoever sees here that the symbols of the Egyptian sage, inscribed on the obelisk, are carried by the elephant, the strongest of the beasts: understand that it is a proof of a robust mind to sustain solid wisdom." I first read this inscription on a tour of the twelve obelisks of Rome, led by the incomparable Fr Reginald ("Reggie") Foster. He was the best teacher of anything that I ever knew and I always try to call in at the beginning of his class. 25 years on, he teaches at the same time, in the same room, with the same dry sense of humour and the same passionate love of Latin. The obelisk is outside the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva where St Catherine of Sien...
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CD 275: Paying cash for work done

A handyman who does work for me prefers for me to pay him in cash. Am I committing a sin if I agree to do so? It is fascinating to see how virtually the whole country has become engaged in the intricacies of moral debate on this issue, including the complex question of material or formal co-operation in evil. The broad consensus is correct according to Catholic moral teaching: there is absolutely nothing wrong in itself with paying somebody using cash, which is, after all, legal tender. However if we pay cash because of an explicit offer to reduce the cost of the work, and because this reduction is due to the evasion of income tax or VAT, then we are formally co-operating in evil, and committing a sin (probably a venial sin given the amount of tax normally involved.) If we simply have a suspicion that cash is requested in order to avoid tax, then we ought (within reason) to ask whether this is the case or not. The costs that small businesses incur with bank charges, credit card me...
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Hippolytus and Eucharistic Prayer II

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When I was a student in Rome, I remember going with a priest for Mass in one of the ancient Churches. The priest said that he was going to use Eucharistic Prayer II because it was the most ancient of all the prayers and was specifically Roman, composed by Hippolytus. This was the standard view at that time (early 1980s) but has since been called into question. A number of people have recently mentioned the matter to me and so here are a few notes for you. In the 19th century, a number of ancient texts were discovered that were similar to the "Apostolic Constitutions", (of which the first modern edition was published in 1563). Among these texts was a document which came to be referred to as the “Egyptian Church Order”. In addition, the Canons of Hippolytus and the Testamentum Domini were discovered. The scholarly consensus in the early 20th century on the dependence of these documents was that the “Egyptian Church Order” was in fact the "Apostolic Tradition" of Hipp...
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1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
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How to make an act of perfect contrition

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How can you go from imperfect to perfect contrition? Gabriella D from Australia asked me this on Twitter today and I want to give an answer because I think that many people misunderstand what we mean when we talk about “perfect contrition.” Perfect contrition is sorrow and detestation of sin arising out of the love of God. One way of exciting this contrition in our hearts is by considering the passion of Jesus Christ and making acts of love for Him. We can also think of the infinite love which God has for us, and express sorrow in our heart in the presence of this great love which we have offended. Imperfect contrition is sorrow and detestation for sin arising from a consideration of the ugliness of sin or out of the fear of hell. Disgust at the ugliness of sin is more common today than fear of hell. That is because we do not preach enough, or with sufficient conviction about the four last things. If a person commits an act of impurity, for example, perhaps by deliberately ...
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