Saint Andrew's day, "O Bona Crux!"

Today is the feast of the Apostle Saint Andrew, patron of Scotland. I was able to find the tartan sash of the ancient clan of MacLachlan and wear it to Mass. My kinsmen wore the same tartan at Culloden in 1746 while fighting beside Bonnie Prince Charlie. Happy feast day to my sister Andrea and my several cousins with the name of Andrew.

Here is Robert Burns' poem Scots Wha' Hae,' one of my favorite poems as a child.

Scots wha' hae'
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power
Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn, and fleel

Wha for Scotland's King and Law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa',
Let him follow me!

By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain our dearest veins
But they shall be free!

I always loved the stanza of Wha will be a traitor knave?...Wha so base as be a slave? It still gives me a chill.

On a darker note, Scottish native Tony Blair's wife Cherie is about to be appointed to the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences. Mrs Blair is a Catholic but she diverges from Church teaching on many points and one wonders if her appointment is some diplomatic gesture. British Catholic author and journalist Joanna Bogle writes of this on her blog; she and many of our Catholic brethren in the U.K. are not pleased and I understand why. Prayer is definitely in order.

Today begins the prayer which if prayed 15 times a day from the feast of St Andrew, Nov 30, until Christmas eve is supposed to be instrumental in bringing many graces:

Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment when Jesus Christ was born of the pure Virgin Mary at midnight in Behlehem in piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe O my God to hear my prayer and grant my petition through the intercession of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary His Mother. Amen.


From the old Martyrology for November 30, Feast of St Andrew the Apostle:

Andrew, having been brought to the place of execution, seeing the cross at some distance, began to cry out: O good cross, made beautiful by the body of my Lord! so long desired, so anxiously loved, so unceasingly sought after, and now at last ready for my soul to enjoy! take me from amidst men, and restore me to my Master; that by thee He may receive me, Who by thee redeemed me. He was therefore fastened to the cross, on which he hung alive two days, preaching without cessation the faith of Christ....

Thus passed into eternal glory on this day the poor fisherman from Galilee, Patron saint of Scotland, of Greece, and of Holy Russia.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
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