Plenary, 03 Sep 2008

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Official Report 671KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good morning. It is good to see everyone back after the summer recess. Our first item of business this morning is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Father Kevin Dow of St Mary's church in West Calder.

Today in the Roman Catholic Church, and indeed, in a great many other Christian traditions of east and west, we celebrate the feast of St Gregory the Great. He was Pope from 590 AD to 604 AD and is remembered for a whole list of great accomplishments: his sermons, liturgical reforms and letters. Even a style of music—Gregorian chant—is named after him. In these islands, however, he is perhaps better known for being the Pope who sent the first missionaries to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the south, and so gave the mandate to St Augustine to found the see of Canterbury.

It is often said incorrectly of Catholics, and other Christians who recognise the saints, that they worship the saints. However, when you walk down Princes Street in Edinburgh and pass the Scott monument, pausing to reflect on the life and works of Sir Walter Scott, or even in Glasgow when you see the statue of Donald Dewar outside the shopping centre, you do not stop and worship them. We celebrate Burns suppers, but we do not worship Robert Burns. We remember them—just as we remember all those who have statues erected in their honour—for who they were and for what they did in life. That same sense of pride and gratitude fills the hearts of Catholic Christians whenever we celebrate a feast day such as today.

The saints were people like you and me—ordinary people who lived ordinary lives—yet they achieved extraordinary things. As members of Parliament, you have been given a mandate by the people of Scotland not just to do the ordinary things of day-to-day government and decision making, but to do extraordinary things for us and on behalf of us.

I leave you with a quote from St Gregory the Great:

"Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt."

"Things are not to be loved for the sake of a place, but places are to be loved for the sake of their good things."

This country of ours is a place that is indeed loved. However, it is in the hands of you, the members of our Scottish Parliament, who have the task of making good things happen, and so make our nation a better and much more loved place.

Amen.