A Happy and Holy New Year

Incline unto my aid, O God;
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende;
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
(Ps. 69:2)

Week #188 - 31st December - Sponsored by The Craft Barn

Hello sketch fans!
Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas Day.
Did Santa bring you some lush new craft stash to play with?

So we wave goodbye to 2011 this evening

Personally, I'd like to thank my lovely friends, the totally awesome Saturday Girls (past & present), for their love, support and of course the outstanding work that they give each week, you girls are all amazing! xx

From the team as a whole, we'd like to thank our generous sponsors, our talented guest designers and of course we'd like to thank all of you, the challengers, for making Sketch Saturday all worthwhile.

A special thank you goes to Karita, who has taken the difficult decision to leave our design team for pastures new.

We are very sad to see her go, but we all wish her well in her other DT positions, they are very lucky to have her join them.
Karita, thank you so much for sharing your stunning creations with us, we'll miss you. Friends forever. xx

On behalf of all of The Saturdays... HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
We hope 2012 brings you good luck, good health and happiness.
And if you are going out to celebrate tonight, stay safe and enjoy yourselves.
xXxXx

This is our final challenge of the year, and we are delighted to have our dear friends at The Craft Barn sponsor us this week.

"We are a UK based business selling a wide range of craft supplies including stamps, dies and embossing folders, punches, an extensive range of items to alter and decorate and much more for your scrapbooking and card making projects. We are committed to providing the best, most up to date craft products at great prices, coupled with first class service.

Some of the leading companies that we stock include Stamping Bella, Ranger, Tim Holtz, Crafty Individuals, Martha Stewart, Katzelkraft stamps, Nestabilities, Craftwork Cards, Copic Pens, House Mouse, Viva Décor, Eco Green crafts and Cosmic Shimmer to name but a few.

We are constantly adding new products to our range of craft supplies so be sure to add us to your browser favourites so you can pop back and see us."

The Craft Barn offer a wide range of goodies for all crafters from all things 'Cuttlebug'to grunge paper, from cottage cutz dies to cosmic shimmers, then there's your essentials like cardstock and papers and adhesives.

Not forgetting their HUGE stock of clear and rubber stamps to tantalise you!

There really is something for everyone :)

For all the latest products that have been added to the site PLEASE CLICK HERE,
Includes, NEW Cheery Lynn Designs dies, and fabulous Kraft Fusion products.

Do you love the sewn card look but don't like to sew?
then THIS RANGE is just for you.

Today is the first day of The Craft Barn's

WICKED WINTER SALE

Their shop sale will run for 4 days only and finishes at 5pm on Tuesday 3rd Janaury.
All sale products will be half price and can be found in their upstairs studio.

Their online Winter sale also starts today. The products in both sales are completely different to enable their staff to better manage the stock, so a visit to both the shop and the website is highly recommended...

...don't miss out on a bargain buy!


CHALLENGE PRIZE

This weeks winner will win a co-ordinated embellishment bundle:
Artemio Ribbons Boy, Artemio Blue Ric Rac ribbon pack, Artemio light blue tassels, pack of blue buttons, Artemio blue flowers, box of wooden embellishments, a selection pack of extra large brads and a jar of blue Beadazzles.
All these goodies have a total value of almost £23

AMAZING prize eh?
Massive thanks go to The Craft Barn xx

Here is the final sketch of 2011...

This pretty card has been made by our talented GD for December, Hanne...

Hanne, thank you for sharing your talent with us throughout December xx

And here are the beautiful cards made by the Saturdays...

Bente

Susie

Jilli

Faye

Donna

Terry

Karita

Jo

Cazza

Tracey

So, for the very last time this year, please leave a DIRECT LINK to your creation with Mr. Linky below ...

Winner number 2 of challenge #186

The 2nd week winner of challenge #186 who wins my mystery prize is...


Sylvia! (Happy Crafty Times)   prize claimed

with this fabulous card...

Congratulations!

Please leave a message here then EMAIL ME with your FULL postal address so that I can get your prize posted out to you. Thank you.

Jo xx

A NEW YEAR FOR SHARING

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I appreciate so much all the nice comments you have made this past year. You are all so encouraging to me.  It's hard to believe it has been 3½ years since Ginger and I started this blog. I'm forever amazed at the great variety of inspirational posts you all share and I'm looking forward to this new year. I pray the Lord's blessings for each and every

my mistake

Hi sketch fans, I hope you are all having a fab time and have lots of new craft stash to play with :)

I think I was running on auto pilot last week and I forgot that I had planned to have the challenge run for 2 weeks until 30th, and I already announced the winner after one week. I'm so sorry.

So as promised our challenge will run until 30th, and for this second week (24th-30th) I will host the prize myself. You will receive a mystery gift package (with a RRP of at least £10) from me if you are chosen by Random.org.

The challenge is the same as last weeks, using the same sketch.
Please continue to add your entries to Mr Linky in last weeks post (#186)
All entrants from and including number #61 will be entered twice, I will add on the same amount of entrants again to the end of the list.
So if you take part this week you will have twice the chance of winning the mystery prize.

ALSO, all new entrants (#61 +) can have one FREE download of my own craft sheet designs if they wish.
All my sheets can be found on my other blog Jobo Designs.
Just email me with the number of the sheet you would like (all sheet numbers end with 966) and once confirmed that you have entered the challenge, I will email your chosen design to you. You can print off the sheet as many times as you wish, but they are strictly for your own personal use only.
All copyright and TOU apply to free downloads too. Details are on the blog and will also be emailed to you with your download.


I have altered last weeks posts so that anyone going direct to the challenge from another blog will know that the challenge is still running.

The winner will be announced at 7:50am on 31st December.

Jo xx

The 2011 Christmas Day Blessing Urbi et Orbi of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

Translation.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world!

Christ is born for us!
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the men and women whom he loves.
May all people hear an echo of the message of Bethlehem
which the Catholic Church repeats in every continent,
beyond the confines of every nation, language and culture.
The Son of the Virgin Mary is born for everyone;
he is the Saviour of all.

This is how Christ is invoked in an ancient liturgical antiphon:
“O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver,
hope and salvation of the peoples:
come to save us, O Lord our God”.
Veni ad salvandum nos! Come to save us!
This is the cry raised by men and women in every age,
who sense that by themselves they cannot prevail
over difficulties and dangers.
They need to put their hands in a greater and stronger hand,
a hand which reaches out to them from on high.
Dear brothers and sisters, this hand is Christ,
born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary.
He is the hand that God extends to humanity,
to draw us out of the mire of sin and to set us firmly on rock,
the secure rock of his Truth and his Love (cf. Ps 40:2).

This is the meaning of the Child’s name, the name which, by God’s will, Mary and Joseph gave him: he is named Jesus, which means “Saviour” (cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:31). He was sent by God the Father to save us above all from the evil deeply rooted in man and in history: the evil of separation from God, the prideful presumption of being self-sufficient, of trying to compete with God and to take his place, to decide what is good and evil, to be the master of life and death (cf. Gen 3:1-7). This is the great evil, the great sin, from which we human beings cannot save ourselves unless we rely on God’s help, unless we cry out to him: “Veni ad salvandum nos! – Come to save us!”

The very fact that we cry to heaven in this way already sets us aright; it makes us true to ourselves: we are in fact those who cried out to God and were saved (cf. Esth [LXX] 10:3ff.). God is the Saviour; we are those who are in peril. He is the physician; we are the infirm. To realize this is the first step towards salvation, towards emerging from the maze in which we have been locked by our pride. To lift our eyes to heaven, to stretch out our hands and call for help is our means of escape, provided that there is Someone who hears us and can come to our assistance.

Jesus Christ is the proof that God has heard our cry. And not only this! God’s love for us is so strong that he cannot remain aloof; he comes out of himself to enter into our midst and to share fully in our human condition (cf. Ex 3:7-12). The answer to our cry which God gave in Jesus infinitely transcends our expectations, achieving a solidarity which cannot be human alone, but divine. Only the God who is love, and the love which is God, could choose to save us in this way, which is certainly the lengthiest way, yet the way which respects the truth about him and about us: the way of reconciliation, dialogue and cooperation.

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, on this Christmas 2011, let us then turn to the Child of Bethlehem, to the Son of the Virgin Mary, and say: “Come to save us!” Let us repeat these words in spiritual union with the many people who experience particularly difficult situations; let us speak out for those who have no voice.

Together let us ask God’s help for the peoples of the Horn of Africa, who suffer from hunger and food shortages, aggravated at times by a persistent state of insecurity. May the international community not fail to offer assistance to the many displaced persons coming from that region and whose dignity has been sorely tried.

May the Lord grant comfort to the peoples of South-East Asia, particularly Thailand and the Philippines, who are still enduring grave hardships as a result of the recent floods.

May the Lord come to the aid of our world torn by so many conflicts which even today stain the earth with blood. May the Prince of Peace grant peace and stability to that Land where he chose to come into the world, and encourage the resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. May he bring an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed. May he foster full reconciliation and stability in Iraq and Afghanistan. May he grant renewed vigour to all elements of society in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East as they strive to advance the common good.

May the birth of the Saviour support the prospects of dialogue and cooperation in Myanmar, in the pursuit of shared solutions. May the Nativity of the Redeemer ensure political stability to the countries of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and assist the people of South Sudan in their commitment to safeguarding the rights of all citizens.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us turn our gaze anew to the grotto of Bethlehem. The Child whom we contemplate is our salvation! He has brought to the world a universal message of reconciliation and peace. Let us open our hearts to him; let us receive him into our lives. Once more let us say to him, with joy and confidence: “Veni ad salvandum nos!”

Christmas in a Storm

We have been graced this year with a great storm over Christmas. While the wind raged outside, we were treated to a wonderful candlelight Midnight Mass.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed

the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
but his mother only, in her maiden bliss,
worshiped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

After Mass was over each of us venerated the baby Jesus.

We wish you all a very happy and holy Christmas!

The Royal Christmas Broadcast of Her Majesty the Queen.

Lord, save our Queen Elizabeth,
and graciously hear us in the day when we call upon Thee.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, we pray that Thy servant our Queen Elizabeth,
who by Thy mercy has undertaken the government of this realm,
may receive increase of all the virtues;
so fittingly adorned,
may she be enabled to avoid all foul temptations,
(overcome her enemies),
and with her prince consort and the Royal family,
may she at the last be welcomed by Thee,
who art the way, the truth, and the life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


DOMINE, SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM ELISABETH,
ET EXAUDI NOS IN DIE, QUA INVOCAVERIMUS TE.

OREMUS.
QUAESUMUS, OMNIPOTENS DEUS,
UT FAMULA TUA ELISABETH, REGINA NOSTRA,
QUI TUA MISERATIONE SUSCEPIT
REGNI GUBERNACULA,
VIRTUTUM ETIAM OMNIUM PERCIPIAT INCREMENTA;
QUIBUS DECENTE ORNATA,
ET VITIORUM MONSTRA DEVITARE,
(HOSTES SUPERARE)
ET AD TE QUI VIA, VERITAS, ET VITA ES,
CUM [PRINCIPE CONSORTE ET PROLE REGIA,
GRATIOSA VALEAT PERVENIRE.
PER CHRISTUM DOMINUM NOSTRUM.
AMEN.

#299 - Festive

Whatever you are or are not celebrating today, I hope your day is festive!

Week #187 - no challenge - MERRY CHRISTMAS! xx

Merry Christmas Everyone! xx

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our sponsors and guest designers throughout 2011, as well as thanking each and everyone of you,  fantastic challengers, for your support of our challenge blog, thank you so much for taking part each week and sharing your wonderful creations.

 There is no new challenge this week, The Saturdays are having a well deserved week off with their families, friends and loved ones.
But you still have time to use last weeks sketch to win a mystery prize, please add your entry to last weeks Mr Linky, they are dated so I can determine who is eligible for the prize.

We will be back next week with our final challenge of 2011.

We hope you have everything you wish for and more.

Have fun! 

The Saturdays xx

Winner of challenge #186

The winner of last weeks challenge who wins a fabulous £15 shopping spree at  Crafters Companion is...



Barbara G! (Barb's Creative Corner)  prize claimed

with this fabulous card...

Congratulations Barbara, Merry Christmas!

Please leave a message here then EMAIL ME so that I can let you know how you can claim your prize. Thank you.
Happy Shopping!

Jo xx

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Everyone will be especially busy this weekend since Christmas comes on Sunday. I suspect there will be fewer links but who knows ― there may even be more. When you visit the various links I hope you will take the time to leave a comment so they will know you were there.

We received an interesting comment last week. It came from India. Hari said "Am not spiritual only on Sunday but every single

Smile!

Markets - December 19th to 31st

CHRISTMAS MARKETS

MONDAY 19TH DECEMBER
Spotswood from 4pm to 8.30pm

TUESDAY 20TH DECEMBER
Hurstbridge from 4pm to 8pm
Templestowe Rotary (twilight market)

WEDNESDAY 21ST DECEMBER
Bundoora Park (twilight market)
Caulfield from 4pm to 8.30pm
Croydon
Kingston from 4pm to 7.30pm
Veg Out St Kilda from 3pm to 8pm

THURSDAY 22ND DECEMBER
Casey-Berwick from 4pm to 8pm
Echuca from 4pm to 7pm
Hume Murray from 5pm to 8pm
Yarraville from 4pm to 8pm

FRIDAY 23RD DECEMBER
Mulgrave from 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Traralgon from 4pm to 8pm

SATURDAY 24TH DECEMBER
Churchill Island
Myrtleford
Newtown
Slow Food
"Taste of Gold" Monash

TUESDAY 27TH DECEMBER
Churchill Island Post Christmas Market

WEDNESDAY 28TH DECEMBER
Venus Bay Farmers Market (every wednesday until January 25th)
Jupiter Parade, Venus Bay - 8am to 1pm

SATURDAY 31ST DECEMBER
Churchill Island New Year Market

#298 - Health

Hello all!

The prompt this week is: Health.

And if you are celebrating this week, happy holidays to you.

P.S. Some of you might have noticed that we are getting very close to THREE HUNDRED prompts! I'm hoping that an old friend will come back and provide a prompt when we get there.  Hitting three hundred at the beginning of a new year seems pretty fitting doesn't it?

Week #186 - 17th December - Sponsored by Crafters Companion

Morning everyone ... only 8 more sleeps till Christmas Day or 7 more crafting days for those of us that still have Christmas cards and gifts to make/buy.

This weeks challenge will last for 2 weeks because there is no challenge set for Christmas Eve (24th), but there WILL be a challenge on 31st December.

So you have until 11:59pm 30th December to submit your entries for this challenge. You can enter a maximum of 3 times if you wish. But they must be NEW entries only please.

Our generous sponsor this week is Crafter's Companion

Crafter's Companion are a forward thinking company who pride themselves on the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative crafting tools. The range include the Rock-a-Blocks - a patented stamp mounting system - and the Award winning Ultimate Crafter's Companion Pro - an all in one compact carry case which allows you to score, measure, trim and create boxes, shaped cards blanks, envelopes and more. Crafter's Companion are also well known for creating fabulous CDs and rubber stamps using licensed characters, which to date include Beatrix Potter, Popcorn the Bear, Humphrey's Corner, the Snowman and Flower Fairies.

Last UK order dates for pre-christmas delivery

Standard delivery - 19th December

Next Day delivery - MIDDAY 22nd December

Christmas Gift Shop

If you are searching for that perfect present for a crafty friend or relative then look no further than their Christmas Shop. There's a wide selection of gifts and crafting kits to suit all tastes and budgets. Each comes with a bonus gift absolutley FREE, plus double loyalty points with each item.

Stocking Fillers

There's a Stocking Fillers category on their web site, filled with hand-picked selections of their best-selling products. These crafty gifts will please crafters young and old, and with a wide range of crafting abilities. Better yet, everything is under £30!

FREE UK delivery on orders over £50

Our lucky challenge winner for this week (17th-23rd) will receive a £15 voucher to spend from their fab website! Woohooo!

For the second week (24th-30th) the winner will receive a mystery prize from me (Jo)

The challenge is the same (same sketch) but will be split into 2 prizes, one for each week.

Here's this weeks sketch...

This stunning card has been made by the wonderful Hanne

our GD for December

And here is more inspiration by The Saturdays .....

Faye

Susie 

Donna

Karita

Jilli

Terry

Bente

Tracey

Cazza

Jo

So, with just one week left till the "Big Day" we hope you're all prepared and still have time to come along and play with our fab sketch this week.  To be in with the chance of winning this week's fantastic prize please leave a DIRECT LINK to your crafty creation, with Mr. Linky below ....

Winner of challenge #185

The winner of last weeks challenge who wins a fabulous $25 shopping spree at  Simon Says Stamp is...

Jayne! (serendepity)

with this fabulous card...

Congratulations Jayne!
Please leave a message here then EMAIL ME so that I can let you know how you can claim your prize. Thank you.
Happy Shopping!

Jo xx

WELCOME FRIENDS

Hey, did you notice Spiritual Sundays has 406 followers now? I remember not too long ago we were looking forward to number 400. More people shared with us last week than have shared in several weeks. I'm glad new people are discovering this blog and "old" people are being so faithful to share. Many are sharing Advent posts as our minds are on Christmas and the coming of Christ to the earth. I'm

Victoria Who Overcame the World

Reverend Mother Maria Angela Borsa, Prioress of the Venerable Monastery of the Most Holy Annunciation and Incarnation in Genoa, Italy, before the relics of the Holy Foundress, Bl. Maria Vittoria (behind the Infant Jesus).
Below: A clearer view of the sacred incorrupt relics.

During the 1990s our Congregation made a home in the former monastery of the Celestial Annunciades in Joinville, France (below). The holy order, founded by Blessed Maria Vittoria de Fornari Strata, seemed to have more or less dwindled and we were privileged to glean, from local memories and some remaining artefacts, a little of the history of the beautiful order which had once found a home within the same walls.

Each day we devote a few moments to preparing the image of the saint for the next day for our top right sidebar. Having found that 15 December is the anniversary of Blessed Maria Vittoria’s death, and making the association with our former home, we went searching for a suitable image. What a surprise to find that the monastery where her relics repose is alive and well and very much inclined towards the traditional religious life. The photographs are simply beautiful so we decided to share them with our readers.

The Altar of Blessed Maria Vittoria during the traditional First Holy Mass offered there in 2009
by the newly ordained Rev. Fr Francesco Ramella .


The Celestial Annunciades are religious order for women founded by Bl. Maria Vittoria Fornari (1562 - 1617) at Genoa. The death of her husband, Angelo Strata, left her the care of six children, and it was only after they had entered the religious life that she was free to carry out her life work, for which she had been preparing by retirement and the practice of austere virtue. Her lack of temporal means for some time caused her director and the Archbishop of Genoa to withhold their consent, which, however, was finally obtained (1602), and a convent was erected at the expense of one of her companions. Pope Clement VIII approved them in 1604, placing the Order under the Rule of St Augustine. In the same year ten members were received, each adding the name Maria Annunziata to her baptismal or religious name, and they made their solemn vows on 7 September, 1605. The Order spread through France, Germany, and Denmark.

Above: A novice preparing embroidery for the support of the monastery.
Below: The altar of Our Lady of Protection, a devotion particular to the order.

The title of our post, Victoria Who Overcame the World, is a play on the words of Holy Scripture, often seen in pictures of the Blessed: "For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith." [1 John 5,4] It is uplifting to see her spiritual daughters continuing to overcome the spirit of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Markets - December 12th to 18th

SATURDAY 17TH DECEMBER
Bayside
Boroondara
Buninyong
Echuca
Fairfield
Gasworks
Highlands
Moyhu
Myrtleford
Park Orchards
Pearcedale
Port Fairy
Prom Country
Riddells Creek
Sunraysia
Trentham
Wellingson
Wheelers Hill

SUNDAY 18TH DECEMBER
Ashwood
Flemington (ex Melbourne Showgrounds)
Inverloch
Koondrook-Barhamh
Mulgrave
Seaford
Talbot
Yarra Valley

EXTRA CHRISTMAS MARKETS

MONDAY 19TH DECEMBER
Spotswood from 4pm to 8.30pm

TUESDAY 20TH DECEMBER
Hurstbridge from 4pm to 8pm
Templestowe Rotary (twilight market)

WEDNESDAY 21ST DECEMBER
Bundoora Park (twilight market)
Caulfield from 4pm to 8.30pm
Croydon
Kingston from 4pm to 7.30pm
Veg Out St Kilda from 3pm to 8pm

THURSDAY 22ND DECEMBER
Casey-Berwick from 4pm to 8pm
Echuca from 4pm to 7pm

A pastoral letter unlike any I have read before.

Today we read the Pastoral Letter of Bishop Hugh, O.S.B.
It was a delight!

I invite you to read it too!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We live in a noisy world. Our towns and cities are full of noise. There is noise in the skies and on the roads. There is noise in our homes, and even in our churches. And most of all there is noise in our minds and hearts.

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote: ‘The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and I were asked for my advice, I should reply: “Create silence! Bring people to silence!” The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. And even if it were trumpeted forth with all the panoply of noise so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise, then it would no longer be the Word of God. Therefore, create silence!’

‘Create silence!’ There’s a challenge here. Surely speaking is a good and healthy thing? Yes indeed. Surely there are bad kinds of silence? Yes again. But still Kierkegaard is on to something.

There is a simple truth at stake. There can be no real relationship with God, there can be no real meeting with God, without silence. Silence prepares for that meeting and silence follows it. An early Christian wrote, ‘To someone who has experienced Christ himself, silence is more precious than anything else.’ For us God has the first word, and our silence opens our hearts to hear him. Only then will our own words really be words, echoes of God’s, and not just more litter on the rubbish dump of noise.

‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.’ So the carol goes. For all the noise, rush and rowdiness of contemporary Christmasses, we all know there is a link between Advent and silence, Christmas and silence. Our cribs are silent places. Who can imagine Mary as a noisy person? In the Gospels, St Joseph never says a word; he simply obeys the words brought him by angels. And when John the Baptist later comes out with words of fire, it is after years of silence in the desert. Add to this the silence of our long northern nights, and the silence that follows the snow. Isn’t all this asking us to still ourselves?

A passage from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom describes the night of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt as a night full of silence. It is used by the liturgy of the night of Jesus’ birth:
‘When a deep silence covered all things and night was in the middle of its course, your all-powerful Word, O Lord, leapt from heaven’s royal throne’ (Wis 18:14-15).
‘Holy night, silent night!’ So we sing. The outward silence of Christmas night invites us to make silence within us. Then the Word can leap into us as well, as a wise man wrote: ‘If deep silence has a hold on what is inside us, then into us too the all-powerful Word will slip quietly from the Father’s throne.’
This is the Word who proceeds from the silence of the Father. He became an infant, and ‘infant’ means literally ‘one who doesn’t speak.’ The child Jesus would have cried - for air and drink and food - but he didn’t speak. ‘Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving and mysterious silence of the eternal Word says to us.’ We need to listen to this quietness of Jesus, and allow it to make its home in our minds and hearts.

‘Create silence!’ How much we need this! The world needs places, oases, sanctuaries, of silence.
And here comes a difficult question: what has happened to silence in our churches? Many people ask this. When the late Canon Duncan Stone, as a young priest in the 1940s, visited a parish in the Highlands, he was struck to often find thirty or forty people kneeling there in silent prayer. Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards. But what is a church for, and why do we go there? We go to meet the Lord and the Lord comes to meet us. ‘The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!’ said the prophet Habakkuk. Surely the silent sacramental presence of the Lord in the tabernacle should lead us to silence? We need to focus ourselves and put aside distractions before the Mass begins. We want to prepare to hear the word of the Lord in the readings and homily. Surely we need a quiet mind to connect to the great Eucharistic Prayer? And when we receive Holy Communion, surely we want to listen to what the Lord God has to say, ‘the voice that speaks of peace’? Being together in this way can make us one – the Body of Christ - quite as effectively as words.
A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’
‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.

‘Create silence!’ It is an imperative. May the Word coming forth from silence find our silence waiting for him like a crib! ‘The devil’, said St Ambrose, ‘loves noise; Christ looks for silence.’

Yours sincerely in Him,

+ Hugh, O. S. B.
Bishop of Aberdeen


7 December 2011.