St. Mary's Pathhead

The story of St Mary’s church

It is not uncommon for a village the size of Pathhead to have just one church but it is unusual for that church to be a Roman Catholic one. St. Mary’s story tells us much about change and discrimination in 19th century Scotland.

St. Mary’s was founded by Cecil Chetwynd Kerr, the Dowager Marchioness of Lothian. She was a remarkable woman who had converted to Catholicism in 1851 after a long and at times painful journey of faith. She had been influenced by the Oxford Movement’s push to restore pre Reformation liturgy and worship in the Church of England and by her spiritual advisor, John Henry – later Cardinal – Newman.

Although the penal laws against ‘popery’ in Scotland had been repealed so Catholics could own property and build churches, Cecil’s conversion meant making sacrifices. She was seen as a considerable risk to her own children (all except her two eldest sons later converted), was forced to move out of the family home and became estranged from her friends.

Lady Cecil had lived most of her married life at Newbattle Abbey, which was originally a Cicercian monastery. By founding St. Mary’s and other churches, most notably St. David’s Dalkeith, she hoped to make amends for the confiscation of Catholic churches and religious houses during the Reformation.

Cecil was also moved by the needs of a scattered Irish Catholic population who had arrived in Midlothian following the Great Famine in Ireland. These people were discriminated against, very poor and living insecurely – mostly as farm labourers around Pathhead, Penicuik, Roslin, Loanhead, Gorebridge and Bonnyrigg. The area was served by ‘mission priests’ who moved about, often preaching outdoors and saying Mass in hired rooms. In time Pathhead gained a tiny school that was used as a chapel and vestry.

Lady Cecil aimed to expand the mission effort in Pathhead and her funding allowed a simple church to be built, dedicated to Our Lady. St. Mary’s was opened on the 2nd of June 1872. Cecil continued to follow the community’s progress, making small gifts to the church.

We thank everyone who was able to come to our final Mass today and those who were with us in spirit. These are the prayers we offered

Father, we thank you for all the ways St. Mary’s has been our special place

– where we have been able to gather together as a faith community

– where we have found our sanctuary, our refuge and our place of peace.

Holy Spirit, we are grateful for all of the things that Your inspiration has given us

– the welcome, love and warmth, and happiness we have shared

– the comfort we have offered each other in difficult times: the sickness and death of our loved ones, our own illnesses, worries and fears.

Jesus, we know you have blessed us as a special faith family at St. Mary’s

– providing us with many opportunities to share our gifts with each other

– giving us committed priests to care for our spiritual wellbeing.

Jesus, we thank you for making Your presence felt in our midst.

We remember the people in our congegration who have passed away or moved on – we hold them in our hearts both now and as we move on.

We recognise God’s loving care

– in the way the people of Pathhead have supported us

– in the prayerful fellowship of other Christians from our local churches.

We are grateful for all of the people who have walked alongside us over the years.

Lord, we stand at a painful crossroads today. A church is not a building, it is a community. We ask You to walk with us as we make the next steps, confident in Your compassion and love for every person who follows You.

We are sorry to say that St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Pathhead is closing and the building will soon be up for sale.

Our final Mass will be at 9am on Sunday 27th August. Please note this is earlier than usual.


We thank you for your support over the years.

The Jewish Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament, is divided into three parts; in order of importance they are the Law, the Prophets and the Writings; the Prophets covers the major writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, followed by the 12 Minor Prophets; the last of these is Malachi which is headed, ‘an Oracle,” and before that is Zechariah from which today’s first reading is taken; chapters and 9, 11, 12 and14 are each also called ‘Oracle.’  Our reading is taken from the first of these oracles. The first verses before it are about the ill-fate of the nations surrounding Judah, but our reading contrasts that with the announcement of a great king, who is righteous and saves – often translated simply as being triumphant and victorious. Yet as well as being great he does not ride the horse of a warrior but a simpler, and maybe humbler, donkey. The last oracles in the collection of the Prophets were added by a later editor, we cannot be sure of their date nor consequently of the circumstances to which they refer. The general message is one of ‘God will save His people;’ and Christians would see this as a reference to Jesus who was selfless and humble and He certainly makes salvation available to us. The other readings might elaborate on the practical ‘workings’ of this process for individuals.

The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, which is largely an exposition of how he perceives the whole relationship between people and God. The section we have today follows one about the human and particularly Jewish situation: we are inevitably going to die someday; we are going to suffer from both the wickedness of those around us and our own stupidity and sinfulness; for the Jews there is also the difficulty of trying to keep all the rules of their Law and of their religion; and we might add nowadays that the world in which we live brings disasters that are both natural and brought about by our own misuse of nature. A satisfactory solution to this comes from God. Hence in our extract Paul identifies the problem in our lives with the word ‘flesh’ – we live according to the flesh; and the solution is to live instead in the spirit – the Spirit of God in us. These two sides (literally of flesh and spirit) are difficult to translate and as we try to see what it means it is worth looking at the variety of attempts at translation though many are still too literal. This reading is noteworthy for its emphasis on the Spirit, Who is often played down in favour of the Creator, father-figure and the sacrifice for our sins of His Son. Some theologians think this has come about because those in authority in the Church, as anywhere, like things to be orderly and under control rather than inspired by enthusiasm or a spirit of freedom.

The gospel comes from a tradition also used by Luke and its language about the Father and Son and their relationship to us is almost in the style of some parts of John’s gospel. There is also the contrast in believers, between those who rely on their own sophistication to know something of God, and children who generally just accept what they are told and seems obvious.  The second part can easily be read as saying that Jesus will bring us relaxation and an easy life; but we should note that we will have a burden and a yoke, but when it is Christ’s it is not so burdensome because He carries it too!

See Jeff’s Jottings – Wise guys

In the Acts 12:1-11 Luke is writing the remarkable account of the expansion of Christianity and the development of the church; and this is despite external opposition, even persecution, and their leaders’ inadequacies and failings. The story is built around the two different characters in the early church of Peter and Paul. Whereas Peter was a headstrong, simple Galilean Jewish fisherman who followed Jesus throughout His public ministry, Paul was a well educated Jew and Roman citizen living outside of the Jewish territory, who after a special encounter with Jesus turned from antagonism to Christians to become an apostle of Christianity to the Gentiles. The phrase “in those days” at the beginning of today’s reading, alludes to the time when the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem and the surrounding area expanded and even included followers of Jesus’ Way who were not Jews – they were Samaritans or even Gentiles. It was this expansion that began to cause disturbances in Jerusalem. Herod, the local ruler, wanted to keep the peace in order to retain favour within the Roman empire, and so began to arrest the Jewish Christian leaders who were the source of the trouble. So our reading concerns the imprisonment of Peter; it was during the feast of unleavened Bread – a sacred time in Jerusalem – so he would be executed after the Passover, as James had been earlier. The story of his escape was passed down by word of mouth and that is what is related here by Luke. This is a good story illustrating how faith can lead us into difficulties and yet God can save us.

The two letters to Timothy and the one to Titus are together called the pastoral epistles. They may well date from about the year 100 AD at a time when the organisation of the body of Christians was developing and the difficulties of admitting Gentiles and the like were overcome. But at that time part of the difficulty was the distance in time since Jesus, and even since the time of the disciples who knew him. So these letters are about life and practice in this later church. But the letters do include some passages that seem most likely to come from Paul himself, and our reading today is from one of these sections. In the first paragraph Paul writes about himself in later life as he looks back on the devoted life that he has led and looks forward to his expected reward like that of all who work for the fullness of coming of Christ on earth. The second paragraph in the original begins with a “But” because the text tells of the loneliness and difficult situation of Paul – even being unsupported when taken to court – which explains the ‘but’ before our second paragraph. On this feast of Peter and Paul, this reading shows Paul as a saint in the sense of someone that we would do well to emulate; we should be pouring out our lives for God’s work and confident that the Lord is with us even at difficult times and that we shall eventually get our reward.

Peter acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah is recorded in the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). But Matthew, which we read today, adds a commissioning of Peter to be a leader of the church. This may be because the churches for which Matthew is particularly writing had a special respect for Peter their founder and leader for a time. He is called a rock, which is what Peter means. Nevertheless he also was the most headstrong disciple who so often let Jesus down. This is why he is an admiral saint – someone we can look to emulate in some way because even when we mess things up we can be sorry, be forgiven and still go on to do good things. He was eventually executed for his faith in Rome. Catholics particularly view him as the first overall leader of the Church worldwide – a Pope

There is a delightful incident about Rhoda (in our language Rose) which follows our first reading and is the subject of my jotting this week.

click Jeff’s Jottings – The lassie Rose

The first reading from the Book of Jeremiah displays a common pattern in the experiences of all humans when they are intending to do their best and what they think is right. In this 7^th century BC this prophet really feels the call from God to try to bring the people – all people – back into a good relationship with a loving God and to preach with severity and reproach against the poor behaviour of his people. It seems almost natural that they oppose him more and more as he upbraids them – and Jeremiah had a really tough time. But he earnestly wants to believe that God will see him alright in the end, will put his accuses to shame; he has faith yet it is shot through with human weakness for he hopes and expects that God will ‘get His own back’ on these miscreants … Jeremiah hopes for revenge! The best of us will still get things wrong about God and His ways.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he wants to express the central beliefs he has as a follower of Christ. In this brief extract we see evidence of his Jewish education, in that he sees the story of Adam in the bible in two ways: it is about the temptation of the first man to do what is forbidden, the giving-in to this lure and the consequent expulsion from the happy situation in the garden of Eden for himself and for the whole human race that descended from him; but it also sees Adam as a representation of the general human condition, the fact that all of us will be tempted, will give in to temptation and in consequence suffer some sort of alienation from reality and our true selves. Sin is not just breaking a rule, but falling short of the sort of human one could and ought to be. However, Jesus is the man who has reversed this situation for everyone (which is the import of his phrase “for many”).

The extract from Matthew that is today’s gospel reading comes after Jesus has been telling his followers that they will face persecution but will be loved by God, whatever people do to them that is hurtful. Jesus says that all will be made clear and will make sense in the end. It is strange that Matthew uses terms like body and soul, because this way of seeing a person was that of the Greek culture whereas Matthew is generally more influenced by Jewish teaching in which this distinction isn’t made – but his audience would be Diaspora Jews. But we should have reverential fear for God, though He loves all his creation especially humans. This whole passage might give us an insight into some of the difficulties Jesus’ followers might be having at the time Matthew is writing – after the destruction of the Temple about 70 AD

see Jeff’s Jottings – Do something about it