Page 11 - Ordinariate Scotland Review - Lent 2025

News from The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in Scotland Page 11

A life on the ocean wave!

R CAMERON MACDONALD will not be
F Fwith us during Holy Week and Easter as he is
off on two cruises with P&O Cruises, to southern
Norway and the Fjords, starting in Southampton
and visiting Stavanger, Olden, Innvikfjorden
(cruise-by), Nordfjord (cruise-by), Alesund,
Haugesund and returning again to Southampton.
He will be on the same cruise twice to cover
both Holy Week and Easter week. The cruises
chaplaincy is organised by Stella Maris, the
largest ship-visiting network in the world, and the
official maritime charity of the Catholic Church.
I will preside at two Masses each day for
The ship he will be on is the MS Iona which passengers and Crew, 8.30am for passengers and
has 15 guest decks and is 344.5 metres (1,130 11.30pm for the crew. In Holy Week, on Maundy
ft) long. There are 30 bars and restaurants, 10 Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday Vigil
entertainment venues, and 4 swimming pools. Mass will be one service each day for both crew
It can carry 5,206 guests and 1,762 crew. The and passengers.”
ship’s maiden voyage was in 2021 along the Inner
Hebrides. This has become a regular pattern for Fr
Cameron for the past few years at Christmas
As Fr Cameron explains, “The main purpose is and Holy Week and Easter and something he
to minister to the crew and to allow then to keep values as an important part of his ministry. On
the feasts. Chaplains go on board at Christmas this occasion, Elaine will be with him for the two
and for Holy Week and Easter for that purpose. cruises to Norway and the Fjords.

What is happiness?

“Happiness is our human vocation, a goal to which all aspire. But what is happiness?
What is the happiness that we await and desire? Not some fleeting pleasure, a
momentary satisfaction that, once experienced, keeps us longing for more, in a desperate
quest that leaves our hearts unsated and increasingly empty. We aspire to a happiness
that is definitively found in the one thing that can bring us fulfilment, which is love.
Thus, we will be able to say even now: I am loved, therefore I exist; and I will live forever
in the love that does not disappoint, the love from which nothing can ever separate me.
Let us listen once more to the words of the Apostle: ‘I am convinced that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:38-39).”
Pope Francis, Spes non confundit 21

Long Reach Electric Lighter - an amazing find!

HAVE ALWAYS struggled safe, replacement for
t
I I o re-fill gas lighters used traditional lighters
for lighting candles in church It’s lithium-ion battery with no smell and no fuel, and
or at home, but now I have is recharged by USB and the best of all, it only costs around
found the perfect solution. In long flexible neck, keeps your £5. It has been in use at Birnie
a recent search on Amazon (for hands a safe distance from Kirk and in the Oratory of Saint
something else) I came across the the spark which easily lights Joseph in Inverness for several
Long Reach Electric Lighter. the candle. An excellent and months now.