Gossipers Stir Up Disharmony

[Weedy]

Gossipers Stir Up Disharmony

"Gossipers are described in a certain passage of the Scriptures this
way: "The heart of the fool is as the wheel of the cart." It carries
hay, and creaks, and keeps on creaking without end. Thus there are
many brothers and sisters who do not dwell together except physically.

What type of people do dwell together? People about whom it can be
said: "They have one mind and one heart in the service of God."

--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 132, 8

Prayer: Remember me, O Lord, not according to your wrath, which I have
deserved, but according to your mercy. This befits you, O Lord, not
owing to my merit but to your kindness.

--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 24, 7

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June 12th - St. Ternan, Bishop of Culross
5th century.

The biographies of St. Ternan are very confused.

The truth? Well, this is what I would humbly suggest as being Ternan's
true history, as drawn from the original sources. There was but one
Ternan. He was a Pict of the Mearns in Alba who was converted during
St. Ninian's Pictish mission, he was educated at Candida Cassa, he was
baptized in early manhood by that disciple of St Ninian whom the Roman
writers confused with Palladius, whose native name is Pawl Hen or Paul
the Aged. Paul was a missionary, a Briton, and worked with St. Ninian.
He survived into the early years of the sixth century and thus lived
long enough to meet St. David, but he could not see him because he was
blind with old age.

Ternan, having been third abbot of Candida Cassa, founded a banchor
(place of Christian learning) where is today the town of Banchory and,
indeed, there are remains of a celtic foundation to be seen in a
number of carved stones close by the old grave-yard.

It was here that St. Ternan is said to have taught his convert, the
Pict St. Erchard. If the reader ever wishes to understand how culture
in Pictland suffered from the invasions of the Danes and Vikings,
simply visualize Banchory and other like places in the fifth century
with their schools, their manuscripts, and active missionary teachers,
spreading the Gospel and Christian civilization; and then think of the
state of these places five hundred years later!

What was thought to be Ternan's skull, and his copy of St. Matthew's
Gospel in a case richly adorned with gilt and silver, are said to have
been preserved at Banchory until the 16th Century. So also was his
bell called Ronecht, said by tradition to have been given to him at
Rome by the pope, and to have miraculously followed him to Alba. It
was under the care of an hereditary keeper, as in the case of similar
relics associated with Celtic saints. Its dewar or keeper, in virtue
of his office, had a piece of land known as the Deray Croft of
Banquhori-terne. During the construction of the old Deeside Railway a
small square cast-iron bell was dug up by the workmen, but, sadly it
was eventually lost sight of. This may have been Ternan's Ronecht, so
carefully preserved in medieval times.

An image of Ternan, (dressed in archepiscopal robes no less!), is
preserved in one of the great treasures of Alba - the 15th-century
Arbuthnott Missal.

Besides the churches at Banchory-Ternan and Arbuthnott, that at
Fordoun was dedicated to St. Ternan and there was also a chapel
bearing his name at Findon in Banchory-Devenick parish. The latter was
built upon a rock and had near it a spring known as St. Ternan's Well.
A chapel to St. Ternan once stood in Belhelvie parish, to the north of
Aberdeen, standing close to a piece of land called St. Ternan's land.
The parish of Slains in Aberdeenshire had the saint as patron with
another St. Ternan's Well lying in the garden of the manse.

"The Pictish Nation, its People and its Church", Archibald B. Scott,
T.N. Foulis of London, 1918. To the enthusiast, this must be one of
the soundest sources of information regarding the early church in
Pictland of Alba.

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Troparion of St. Ternan, tone 5:

At Candida Casa/
among the throng of saints/
the flame of faith enkindled thee, O holy father Ternan./
Thy missionary labours/
among the Picts have shone with glory/
as did thy monastery of Culross in Fife./
Pray to Christ our God to save our souls.


Saint Quote:
Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will
be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear
its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do
nothing that can give greater glory to God, or be more profitable for
your soul, than to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly. It is the
favorite devotion of the saints.
--St. Peter Julian Eymard:

Bible Quote:
Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters,
but God who gives the growth. (I Cor. 3:7)


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Prayer to the Two Holy Hearts
of Jesus and Mary

O Heart of Jesus, pierced for our sins
and giving us Your Mother on Calvary!
O Heart of Mary, pierced by sorrow
and sharing in the sufferings of your Divine Son
for our redemption!
O Sacred union of these Two Hearts!
Praised be the God of Love who united them together!
May we unite our hearts and every heart,
so that all hearts may live in unity and in imitation
of that Sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts.
Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!
– in our hearts, in our homes and families,
in the hearts of those who as yet do not know You
and in all nations of the world.
Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph
and reign of Your Two Hearts so that the earth may resound
from pole to pole with one cry:
Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Obtain for me a greater purity of heart
and a fervent love of the spiritual life.
May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God
in unions with the divine heart of Jesus
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Hear and answer our prayers and intentions
according to Your most merciful will.
Amen