East Anglia Seminarians

Signed with the Cross

2012-01-21T17:05:00.000Z

This morning I was at the parish RCIA meeting, called "Exploring Catholicism", for those who are considering becoming Catholic Christians. The priest led the rite of acceptance into the neocatechumenate for those who are not baptised - basically this means that they are showing a desire to let Christ into their lives, and more importantly they are receiving grace through the rite to do so. Those who are neocatechumens have "baptism by desire", and are in a certain relationship to the Church, even though they are not yet sacramentally baptised.

The rite of acceptance is very rich in symbolism. First the priest made the sign of the cross on each aspiring catechumen, so that they might know and follow Christ. Then he asked the sponsors to make the sign of the cross on the ears, that the aspirant might hear Christ's word; on the eyes, that they might see the glory of God; on the lips, that they might respond to the word of God; on the heart, that Christ might dwell there by faith; on the shoulders that they might bear the gentle yoke of Christ; on the hands, that they might manifest Christ in their work; and on the feet, that they might walk in the way of Christ.

Non Anglia Orientalis, sed Angli in Oriente

2012-01-20T05:09:00.001Z

I'm languishing in the luxurious loungue complex in the space-age Seoul Incheon Airport, on my way back from Our apostolic journey to the Kingdom of Cambodia, which began on the Epiphany. More on that later (those posts will be interesting; this post is mostly rambling, so stop reading here if your dislike such things! I'm just excited about using the internet for the first time in weeks!).

Brother Assistant Sacristan took many photographs during our two-week journey, and so I suspect some of them shall appear here in the next few weeks, as we begin to trickle back into term-time.

Meanwhile, I have another hour before I can board my twelve-hour flight back to Blighty, so having exhausted all other avenues of entertainment which South Korea can provide (without having to acquire an entry visa, that is), I thought I'd send a little word of greeting to our readership from the Far East, as well as having to re-learn how to use Windows, and guess what the various different Korean keys and buttons mean.

Having slept through the entirety of our five-hour flight from Siem Reap to Incheon, I proceeded immediately to the airline lounge at Incheon, and slept for another two hours on one of the beds which are dotted around the airport. Fortunately, it was still dark, but my ear-plugs and eye-shade obscured a surely familiar winter sunrise; I awoke to a damp, misty morning - about nine hours before East Anglia's morning alarms went off - and, thanks to the heating in the airport, I'm protected by the freezing temperatures outside. I had my first hot shower in two weeks, in a well-appointed shower complex in the transfer lounge; the hand-towel and soap were complementary, at least.

I had hot chocolate to wake me up, recited the morning Offices, and then it was time for elevensies, and was grateful to find a shop that sold Ear Grey (with real milk!) and pastries. I read a little of my book, too. I've already finished reading my story book - part three of the Shardlake historical murder mystery and legal fiction novels - my spiritual reading book - Mgr Strange's Risk of Discipleship, which was eerily familiar to the recent three-day retreat he gave at Oscott, but fun nonetheless - and now I'm cracking on with my general interest book - the Lord Patten's Not Quite the Diplomat, which I first read years ago, and though it is six years old and a bit out-of-date, but I enjoy the former Governor's and Oxford University Chancellor's splendid use of vocabulary and wit.

I've had lunch, looked at all the Far Eastern shark cartilidge-derived health products (highly illegal in Europe, so I didn't buy anything!), rediculously over-priced chocolates and gin (not that I'm familiar with customs regulations regarding such products from outside the European Union. Besides, I fancied a bottle of Limoncello, but, it seems, unless it's whiskey, they aren't interested).

I've just looked around a museum-like exhibition on Korean wedding-customs, which was quite interesting, though I found the labels on each item was more descriptive than explanitory, so I'm none the wiser, but the outfits and trinkets were pretty enough to look at.

Now, I'll be off to recite the evening Offices, to save getting out my breviary on the areoplane; I'll save my rosary for take-off methinks!

This day, St Sebastian's day, because of time-zone changes, will not be a mere 24 hours, but 30 hours. The longest day. Until next time!

God Speaks to His Children

2012-01-16T14:23:00.001Z

One of the brilliant things about being on parish placement is that you pick up tips on how to respond to perennial pastoral challenges. Like "How do I introduce young kids in the parish to the Bible, in a way that is easy to understand and at the same time faithful to what the Bible actually says?". Well it so happens that at the weekend this particular question was answered for me. I was at a Maryvale catechists' training day in the parish, and someone gave me a copy of "God Speaks to His Children: Texts from the Bible". Published by Aid to the Church in Need in various languages - including the one in the picture above, though I don't know what it is! - this book gives an abridged account of the Biblical History of Salvation. The language is simplified, but pretty faithful to the content of Scripture, and it gives Scripture references at the end of each section. It also has beautiful illustrations. What strikes me is that although the book is quite short, it includes texts that other catechetical materials would omit as being too difficult for children. There is an account of the sacrifice of Elijah and the priests of Baal (leaving out the slaughter of the priests!), the sharp condemnation by the prophet Amos of Jerusalem's wrongdoings, the vision of the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days in Daniel, the Babylonian exile and the return of the people to Israel under Cyrus, and the new heavens and new earth of Revelation.

You can order the book for £3 from this site, and that enables ACN to give three copies to children in places where the Church is suffering.

Just What IS the Epiphany Anyway?

2012-01-07T21:11:00.001Z

The Solemnity of the Lord's Epiphany is one of the most important liturgies in the Church's year. But sometimes it can seem as if it's just a hangover from Christmas - the wise men have finally arrived to present their gifts to the newborn king, long after every Catholic primary school in the country has rehearsed this encounter in a month of pre-Christmas nativity plays. Of course for Latin rite Catholics, this encounter is the main focus of the Epiphany. The wise men represent the Gentile people to whom God extends his salvation. They approach him through their observance of the natural world, and in faith, representing the mutual interdependence of faith and reason in the Christian life. And they give Jesus gifts that indicate who he is: gold for a king, frankincense as an offering for a priest, and myrrh as a tradition burial spice, to indicate Jesus' death as a prophet. Epiphany comes from the Greek word meaning "manifestation", because in the encounter with the wise men, Jesus is revealed to be the King of the World, the Priest who is Himself God, and the Prophet who will not only die for the sake of the truth, but will rise again so that we might have new life.

But the Epiphany is also connected with two other manifestations of Christ's divinity. The second is the Wedding at Canaa, where in obedience to Mary his mother Jesus works his first miracle, the turning of the water into wine. In this way, St John tells us, Jesus "manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him". The third manifestation which is connected to the Epiphany is Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan. At this event, the Father bears witness to his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit hovers over him, the New Creation, just as the spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation in Genesis. In being baptised, Jesus not only identifies with us and gives us an example, but he sanctifies the waters, so that they are not just a symbol of conversion but also a means of grace. Though the Baptism now has its own separate celebration in the Latin rite since 1955, it is the primary meaning of the Epiphany in many Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions, where they have the Blessing of the Waters, and people swim or dance in ice cold water to recall Christ in the Jordan. Brrrr!!! Even for us, the Latin rite antiphons in the Divine Office still recall the three intertwining meanings of the Epiphany:

Today the Church has been joined to her heavenly bridegroom, since Christ has purified her of her sins in the river Jordan: the Magi hasten to the royal wedding and offer gifts: the wedding guests rejoice since Christ has changed water into wine, alleluia.

Facelift

2012-01-02T17:29:00.000Z

We've gone for a bit of a facelift this year, with a little more content than just our blog. We hope you like the changes. More things will be added over time, and altered a little, I'm sure, and, for a while, some of the new links won't take you to anything but a blank page, so treat it as an exciting teaser! Hopefully, we will be able to be a little more interactive, and we hope to be able to use this site as a place of prayer, discernment and maybe even a little catechesis!

There might not be many posts over the next few weeks, as placements will shortly commence. Term starts again on the week beginning 29th January. Please pray for us as we undertake our pastoral placements over the next three weeks.

Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis

Diamond Jubilee Year

2012-01-02T17:13:00.000Z

2012 sees many big events (the end of the world too, if you are an ancient Mayan!).

One of those events is the diamond jubilee of the Queen of the United Kingdom. After 60 years on the throne, she has seen this country change quite radically, as well at the Catholic Church (she has seen 6 Popes during her reign, and met most of them), and she has presided over some considerable changes in the Anglican Communion as well. I can't possibly imagine how different life is now as it was in 1952.

Though she is not a Catholic, she is a deeply Christian lady, and this year, she used her Christmas broadcast to speak of the hope that Christ signified in his Incarnation as a human person. She said,

Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: 'Fear not', they urged, 'we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

'For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.'
Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves - from our recklessness or our greed.

God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.

Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God's love.

In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, there's a prayer:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in. Be born in us today.

It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

How refreshing to hear the Truth broadcast over the whole world by the very head of our establishment! She also spoke of the importance of the family, especially important considering the erosion of the family in our modern society.

It was always an encouraged practice to recite a prayer for the Queen after High Mass on Sundays, a practice, like prayer in general, that fell into abeyance after the 1960s. This year, the bishops of our country have reminded us of this prayer, and have encouraged us to use it publically during this diamond jubilee year. It is the same prayer (the lack of hieratic language notwithstanding) that is found in the pre-Concilar manuals. We've put it in our side-bar too.

V. O Lord, save Elizabeth, our Queen.
R. And hear us on the day we call upon you.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come before you.

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.

Almighty God, we pray, that your servant Elizabeth, our Queen, who, by your providence has received the governance of this realm, may continue to grow in every virtue, that, imbued with your heavenly grace, she may be preserved from all that is harmful and evil and, being blessed with your favour may, with her consort and the royal family, come at last into your presence, through Christ who is the way, the truth and the life and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The bishops' conference have requested that, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Sunday June 3 2012, each parish will celebrate a Mass with prayers to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. During this Mass, the first reading is replaced by 1 Kings 3:11–14 and the Prayer for the Queen, which has been approved by the bishops, is used after the post-Communion prayer and before the final blessing."

The amended prayer in our side-bar can be used at any time.

I know some parishes that will be using this prayer more regularly than Trinity Sunday, even every Sunday throughout the year, after Mass. Republican or not, it is very important that we pray for our country and its leaders. We should always live in reality, after all! The Queen, as the wearer and manifestation of the Crown, our nation's supreme sovereignty, should receive our prayers most especially and regularly. Let's prove that prayer is fashionable. It does work, after all! As St. Peter wrote, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good" (2 Pet. 2:13-14), and also St Paul, who wrote, "I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ..." (1 Tim 2:1-3).

So Gawd bless ya, Mum.

God save the Queen!

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T17:35:00.000Z

As I opened my Enchiridion Indulgentiarum over my corn flakes this morning, I was overjoyed to discover that:

Plenaria indulgentia conceditur christifideli qui, in ecclesia vel oratorio, devote interfuerit sollemni cantui vel recitationi [hymnus] Te Deum, ultima anni die, ad gratias Deo referendas pro beneficiis totius anni decursu acceptis.

Which, in my holiday fatigue, I translated to read, "a plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who, in a church or oratory, devotedly present the solemn singing or recitation of the hymn, Te Deum, on the last day of the year, to give thanks to God for the blessings received over the whole of the year."

If you are lucky enough, in your parishes, to be able to attend a liturgical or para-liturgical celebration of the end of the year, and the start of the new year, I'd strongly encourage you to go. What a wonderful way to usher in the new civil year, and to start as we mean to go on! If not, remember to thank the Lord for the blessings and graces he has worked in our lives this year. Some of those blessings we may not be able to see very clearly, but there are there whether we've noticed them or not, just like our guardian angels.

And, if you don't know the Te Deum, he's a lovely recording for you to listen to right now.

We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting.

To Thee all Angels: to Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein. To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim cry with unceasing voice: Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts. The heavens and the earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.

Thee the glorious choir of the Apostles, Thee the admirable company of the Prophets, Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs praise, Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world, doth acknowledge.

The Father of infinite Majesty, Thine adorable, true and only Son, also the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete.

Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. Thou having overcome the sting of death didst open to believers the kingdom of heaven. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.

We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge. We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants: whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious Blood. Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting.

Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine inheritance. Govern them and lift them up forever. Day by day we bless Thee. And we praise Thy name forever: and world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day to keep us without sin. Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us: as we have hoped in Thee. O Lord, in Thee have I hoped: let me never be confounded.

End of Term

2011-12-18T15:07:00.000Z

Today is the end of our autumn term.

Congratulations to those three students from the dioceses of Liverpool, Salford and Motherwell, who, this morning, received the ministry of acolyte from Father Rector, during the celebration of the Mass.

Today, during our anticipatory Christmas lunch, we also said goodbye to Anne Clibbery, who has been working as the college cook for 28 years, and has just retired from her venerable post. The first event at Oscott in my first year was a presentation of a Benemerenti medal to Anne, a gift from Pope Benedict, in recognition for her years of service to the Church here at Oscott. Little did she know that she would be making the Pope's pudding a year later! We hope that Anne will continue to visit us, and we wish her all our love.

Finally, we finish our term with trumpets galore at the annual carol service, for the domestic staff and their families, and for those involved with our local pastoral placements. I'll be reading the story of the fall from Genesis at the pulpit; I hope I don't fall down all those stairs in the darkness!

With our best wishes and prayers for you all for the Christmas season, and for the new year.

Oremus pro invicem!

WWJD?... go to Mass

2011-12-14T18:56:00.002Z

I've always cringed at the question, 'what would Jesus do?'

Bishop Davies of Shrewsbury said recently:

For you will sometimes hear people say, “what would Jesus have done, what would Jesus have said,” as if He were some distant figure of history whose words and actions we can now only guess at. In the reality of the Eucharist, in the reality of this Mass we hear what He says to us, what He now does for us.

As we prepare ourselves for Christmas in this half of Advent, let's remember, as Bishop Davies reminds us, of the words Blessed John Paul II gave to the world on his last world youth day:

...the same Redeemer is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the stable of Bethlehem he allowed Himself to be worshipped under the humble outward appearances of a new born baby by Mary, by Joseph, by the shepherds; in the consecrated Host we adore Him sacramentally present.

That's why we have cribs in many of our churches! When St Francis was a deacon in Assisi, he brought in the farm animals during the Mass to re-create the nativity scene. There was no baby Jesus figurine in this scene, however; the baby Jesus is Jesus in the Eucharist, on the altar!

For the bread and wine we will place on this Altar after the words of consecration are spoken, His words “This is my Body, This is my Blood,” are no longer bread or wine but Christ our Lord Himself given for us. And once we know and recognise this we would never fail to find our way here at the beginning of every new week of our lives.

Take a look at the whole of Bishop Davies' sermon, 'we cannot live without Sundays', to a youth gathering in his diocese; he speaks very eloquently of distractions from our Sunday Mass attendance, and is very pertinent, especially preparing for Christmas next week.

Ad multos annos

2011-12-12T18:04:00.000Z

I was quite surprised when His Grace the Archbishop walked out of the sacristy this morning to celebrate the low Mass.

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of his ordination to the sacred priesthood, and it is touching that he should decide to celebrate this occasion with us in Oscott. We even had wine with lunch; so much for revision this afternoon! The seminary was the first place he visited after his enthronement in my first year, and we always enjoy his visits, because he evidently loves our college very dearly.

In a brief sermon during the Mass, Archbishop Longley thanked the Lord for his many years of priestly ministry and service at the altar, the greatest grace that has been bestowed upon him. It is a great encouragement for us seminarians to hear such words, and to see the example of a good priest who loves his priesthood very deeply.

He was ordained to the diaconate and presbyterate in Wonersh seminary at the start of the 1980s. He often speaks very fondly of East Anglia in conversation, and knows our diocese very well!

Though, as seminarians of another diocese, we are not his own students, Archbishop Longley still looks after us during our time here in Oscott; we thank the Lord for calling him to the priesthood, and to the episcopate as bishop of the church in Birmingham, and we thank him too for his prayers, pastoral care and affection.

Ad multos annos!

Our Lady of Guadalupe

2011-12-12T11:10:00.001Z

Well, I've just done my ecclesiology exam, and now I'm turning my mind to John's gospel, which is tomorrow morning. First, however, one should mention that today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

There are many Americans in our diocese - one of them became a seminarian, so happy feast Henry! - and, when I was a student in one of our universities, I remember the Spanish-speaking students from Latin America always put of a great celebration in honour of Our Lady, and Mass was celebrated largely in Spanish. I specialised in early modern Spain and Spanish America before I arrived at Oscott all those years ago, so I'm feeling particularly festive myself!

When missionaries arrive in a new land, they often convert places of pagan worship into Christian centres of worship. Just look at the Pantheon in Rome; no longer a temple to all the Mithraic gods, but now the Church of Our Lady and All Martyrs. Or think of the magnificent Cathedral in Cordoba; you'd think it was a mosque. It was built as one! St Boniface, one of my favourite saints, had a habit of chopping down pagan trees and building churches on them too.

This ancient practice, a custom found not only in the Christian religion, but is common in almost all religions, and even political philosophies, did not stop in ancient times, but when the 12 Franciscan missionaries arrived in the New World back in 1512, they also copied this practice.

There was a pious belief, proposed principally by the Jesuits later on in that century, that the religions of the ancient Americas were so 'in-tune' with the Christian religion, that an apostle must have been to the continent (Bartholomew was said to have travelled to Peru - historical nonsense of course, but fun all the same). In the Andes, in South America, for example, there was an ancient understanding of a separated priesthood, distinct from the people. That wasn't a peculiarly Christian belief, until one discovers that the people also believed in a fellowship of sharing bread, and confessing sins to priests, and veneration of the dead. I think Lumen Gentium refers to such things somewhere in chapter 8!

One of the beliefs of the Mexica was in a mother-goddess, whose principal temple was found in a village called Tepeyac, down from the road from Tenochtitlan. This temple was torn down, and, later, a Christian Mexican experienced a vision of Our Lady, whose image was left in-printed inside his poncho, which he used to carry roses which Our Lady presented to him to take to his bishop. A shrine grew up, and the rest is history!

Recently, because of the image's association with the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady (the feast is kept within the octave, after all), Our Lady of Guadalupe has become a patron of the pro-life movement, and is often invoked as Patroness of the Unborn.

We pray for Our Lady's intercession for missionaries and the American Churches, which many East Anglian priests have served, especially in the Society of St James, and also, that Our Lady's prayers and example might soften the hearts of those involved with abortion to the truth, and comfort those left indelibly hurt and damaged by this practice.

A herald of glad tidings

2011-12-10T08:24:00.000Z

It is that time of year again.

Panic sets in, and everybody rushes to the shops to buy supplies, everybody is writing, and getting buried under reams of paper.

Ste Thoma Aquinatus, ora pro nobis!

No, it's not preparation for the Christmas holidays, but the exam season, which necessarily for Oscotian seminarians, is always the dominant theme for Advent.

Our exams begin today (though some 'starred students', as we call them, had their first exams yesterday), so please keep us in your prayers in a particular way over the next few days!

Because of the number of seminarians in the house, many of the written exams will take place in the Northcote Hall this year. I'll be spending at least 6 hours in there before the end of Wednesday myself! This was a lecture theatre before student numbers dropped at the end of the last century, so it is really great to see it in use as it was originally intended to be used.

A larger than life statue of St Thomas Aquinas looks down over the hall from above the pulpit, keeping all the seminarians in his prayers, I'm sure! Philosopher and theologian, he has all our best interests close to his heart!

Please also keep in your prayers the preparations for our annual Advent carol service, which takes place every year, for the domestic staff and their families, and those involved in our pastoral placements. Making sure everything, especially the music, turns our marvelously, takes a lot of effort and time for the musicians and singers, who are juggling carol-singing with their revision!

Advent of Advent

2011-11-26T17:39:00.001Z

Well, it shall nearly be new year, and, probably, if you are reading this, it already is!

So happy new year.

Oscotian tradition dictates that we have an advent wreath during the season, as most parishes do, which has become just as much a Catholic tradition as it is already a protestant tradition, being Lutheran in origin and all. I remember that we had red candles as a little boy in Germany in good Saxon tradition!

I've spent the afternoon working on this year's wreath with brother choir-master, which is a little smaller and stumpier than the one I did last year with brother organist. That was so big and full of pine-cones, that you couldn't see the choir on the other side of the chapel! Though some of the brethren don't like as much extravagance as I do when it comes to floral arrangements; the rocket-shaped gladioli erupting from the paschal candle last Pentecost was a step too far for some!

Waiting for Advent: our austere little wreath!
Brother Sacristan hasn't changed the frontals yet
...oops!
(More astute readers will notice that our candlesticks
have changed. The Pugin ones came down today
to be sent to the repairers)

So we wish all our readers, and all the faithful in East Anglia, and very happy and healthful new year!

The Pope in Africa, on vocations

2011-11-20T09:21:00.000Z

An extract from an address by Pope Benedict during this weekend's apostolic visit to Benin:

Dear priests, the responsibility for promoting peace, justice and reconciliation falls in a special way to you. Owing to your reception of Holy Orders and your celebration of the Sacraments, you are called in effect to be men of communion. As crystal does not retain the light but rather reflects it and passes it on, in the same manner the priest must make transparent what he celebrates and what he has received. I thus encourage you to let Christ shine through your life, by being in full communion with your Bishop, by a genuine goodwill towards your brother priests, by a profound solicitude for each of the baptized and by great attention to each person. In letting yourself be modelled on Christ, you will never substitute the beauty of your priestly being with ephemeral and at times unhealthy realities which the contemporary mentality tends to impose on every culture. I urge you, dear priests, never to underestimate the unfathomable riches of the divine grace placed in you and which you have been called to live at the service of peace, of justice and of reconciliation.

Turning now to you, dear seminarians, I encourage you to place yourselves in the school of Christ in order to acquire those virtues which will help you to live the ministerial priesthood as the locus of your sanctification. Without the logic of holiness, the ministry is merely a social function. The quality of your future life depends on the quality of your personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ, on your sacrifices, on the right integration of the requirements of your current formation. Faced with the challenges of human existence, the priest of today and tomorrow – if he wants to be a credible witness to the service of peace, justice and reconciliation – must be a humble and balanced man, one who is wise and magnanimous. After 60 years in priestly life, I can tell you, dear seminarians, that you will not regret accumulating intellectual, spiritual and pastoral treasures during your formation.

300th post! And Christmas puddings...

2011-11-17T16:13:00.001Z

God makes good all things, and all truth is truth in virtue of Christ the Lord. So, I have just been inspired to write this 300th post of our blog after being reminded on the radio to stir up my Christmas pudding mix this Sunday!

For the feast of Jesus Christ, Universal King, the seminary traditionally travels to Mass in our neighbouring parish bearing that dedication. It's also the first time that the new, bigger college has travelled en masse to Mass.

This feast was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to combat the dismissal of Christ, and the Christian religion, as the rightful centre of the life of all people. It was originally intended to be celebrated on the last Sunday in October, interrupting the ordinary (post-pentecost) liturgical cycle, so that the Lord's feast is celebrated, followed by a celebration of his royal court in heaven (All Saints' day) a few days later, anticipating the royal authority which he already holds over those in heaven is extended over all those inhabiting the earth. In the liturgical reforms, the feast was moved to the last Sunday before Advent, dedicating the whole year to the King of the Universe. I think it works either way; I like both symbols!

There was one unfortunate effect of moving Christ the King to the last Sunday of the year, however, because it means that a beautiful opening prayer (collect) for that Sunday gets left out of the liturgy.

We have been hearing in the Office of Readings lately many prophesies concerning the coming of the Messiah (in fact, we first heard from Isaiah in August, so central is the Incarnation of the Divine Word in our religion), and, those who attend Mass in the extraordinary form of our rite this weekend will hear a prayer which can translate into English as:

Stir up the wills of Thy faithful people,
we beseech Thee, O Lord;
that they more earnestly seeking the fruit of good works,
may receive more abundantly the gifts of Thy loving kindness.

When Christ the Lord comes to claim his royal crown over the earth on the day of judgment, we will cry this prayer, asking the Lord for his mercy and loving kindness, to deliver us from our earthly desires, and give us faith to live wholly for him.

As the Gospel for that Mass tells us, "then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty; ... Heaven and earth shall pass away, by My words shall not pass away."

In Advent, we not only prepare for Christmas, but also Christ's second coming, of which he speaks here in this Gospel passage. As Pope Pius intended, the feast of Christ the King reminds us that, as our response, we should daily allow Christ to come on clouds descending into our lives, where he reigns as King.

So that's while we call this Sunday, Stir Up Sunday. Even making our Christmas puddings should remind us of this reality, so it is to be a Christian. It reminds us of our Christmas day feast, but also, the reason why we celebrate that feast. Let's recover our culture!

Christ is not just for Christmas.

Revised Roman Missal and musical settings

2011-11-14T22:05:00.001Z

Fr Guy Nichols, C.O.

Thanks for Fr Guy Nichols Cong. Orat., who, for a number of weeks, has been presenting a series of lectures on chant and the Mass, with particular attention paid to the chants given in the revised translation of the Roman Missal.

Now the books themselves have been delivered, we can use them, as we have been doing at Oscott since half-term. I can tell you that even as something as simple as the beautiful re-rending of the collects and proper prayers of the Mass has had a profound influence on my spiritual life, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Now every time I open my breviary and see older, more sub-standard translations of the prayers, I want to weep with despair. Praise God; we are living in a wonderful and grace-filled time. Let's make the most of it!

It used to be said that Mass was sung, and indeed, the whole of the Mass (except the homily!) can be sung. The liturgy is our best act of worship we give to the Lord, so we should give our best, our finest talents, in the liturgy, always and without exception. The revised Missal provides various tones for the whole Mass, and with Fr Guy, we've looked at, and sung, English Collects, Prefaces, the Eucharistic Prayers, the Ordinary, and, not from the Missal, but from a new Graduale Parvum, English antiphons and graduals (the alternative for responsorial psalms). These are all very simple, and most parishes have, somewhere in the pews if it hasn't already been discovered, some degree of musical talent. The congregation and small choirs can, and are already, singing and enjoying the new, simple music.

Don't just eat the scraps, but sit at the table, and dine upon the banquet!

This is the first, most simple and obviously effective way to restore our much ill-treated Catholic heritage, now we are in the era of the New Evangelisation.

He who sings, prays twice, as St Augustine opined. Indeed, why pray once when you can pray twice!

I cannot find any of the sung texts from the missal (probably not looking in the right places!), but here is a simple and beautiful setting we sing at Oscott from an organisation which has produced an exciting new hymnbook, very much in the true spirit of Vatican II.

Armistice Day

2011-11-12T08:38:00.001Z

Yesterday was Armistice Day, and tomorrow in the UK is Remembrance Sunday.

What a co-incidence that Armistice Day (which commemorates the cease-fire at the end of the Great War in 1918) fell on the feast-day of St Martin of Tours, Martinmas, one of the Church's most ancient and solemn feasts, and one which commemorates both the patron saint of soldiers and of conscientious objectors.

St Martin was a Roman soldier who, upon seeing a beggar, cut his cloak with his sword, and placed it upon his shoulders. Christ the Lord revealed himself to be the beggar in a dream, and Martin left the army to seek baptism in the nearest town, now called Tours. He was accused of cowardice, but his later life shows his bravery.

The Church at this time was suffering a great division over its belief in the nature of God and Christ. The Bishop of Tours, St Hilary, was expelled from the city, and Martin travelled around southern France and northern Italy preaching the Gospel, and even found himself exiled.

When Hilary was restored to his see, Martin returned and established a monastery, and was popularly acclaimed bishop when the see became vacant. A little reminiscent of the later St Boniface, Martin was a vociferous opponent of paganism, and he himself to an axe to a great pine tree worshipped by the local people, at great threat to his own person, so great was his love for Christ in others, he completely forgot himself.

Such is the love that many have themselves faced death on behalf of others, and died in the great wars of the last century, and they continue to offer their own lives today in diverse conflicts. Conscious that East Anglia has a large number of military personelle, and an important heritage in its involvement in the two world wars, being so close to the front, we unite ourselves in prayer this weekend, and, indeed, throughout the year, with the armed forces, alive and dead, and continue to beseech the Lord to soften the hearts of men and women for the propagation of peace.

Vocationcast

2011-11-09T21:18:00.002Z

Check out the new website for Vocationcast.

You can subscribe to the podcasts on iTunes, or listen on the website.

October 2011 Reflection - Franciscan Spirituality from Vocationcast on Vimeo.

Christmas is coming...

2011-11-08T08:29:00.000Z

Christmas stamps in the UK alternate every year between a 'secular' theme and a 'religious' theme, though 'religious' stamps are always available upon request every Christmas. It is the turn of 'religion' this year to appear on our stamps, and Royal Mail has just released this year's issues.

Each stamp features a (bad, in my view) picture, and a scripture reference. I was quite pleased that the second-class stamp features the angel appearing to St Joseph (patron saint of the Universal Church) in a dream, and you shall call his name Jesus. Though I do think that most people would probably find this scene a little spooky, and wouldn't know what it is about. Unfortunately, Joseph often gets missed out in nativity story. In the film, unimaginatively called the Nativity Story, Mary and Joseph arrive at night in the village of Bethlehem, and Mary is about to give birth, so Joseph takes her from the colt, and carries her through the town with a great sense of urgency. Our salvation is urgent, and Joseph carries it all in his arms. Every time I watch this film, and this scene (saccharine-rich, though it is), I can't help but weep for the beauty of what it symbolises!

First-class is the Madonna and child, and stamps to Europe feature a tightly-wrapped Lord in a manger (or trough, I suppose we should say nowadays) adored by a cow and a donkey.

I like to bulk-buy stamps at Christmas-time, which isn't such an easy thing to do now with the rocketing price of Royal Mail postage, so that I can send all my mail franked with the Incarnation of Our Saving Lord.

Jesus is not just for Christmas.

New swashbuckling traditions

2011-11-03T20:02:00.003Z

It's Oscott's new tradition (since my first year) that a public bonfire and fireworks display takes place on the sports' field, organised by a local pentecostalist group for the local community of Kingstanding. That's what happened again year, just after the conclusion of our three-day silent retreat. We at Oscott take these anti-Catholic demonstrations with much lightheartedness, of course, though the condition of our hosting the event is that a Guy is not burned on the bonfire!

Guy Fawkes, a convert to Catholicism, was executed in 1606, along with many of the other conspirators, for plotting to assassinate the king and his parliament. I remember always being the most vociferous complainer at school about bonfire night, so, as is my own tradition, I've offered a rosary for the martyrs, who are not canonised.

After the plot failed in 1605, a service of thanksgiving was incorporated into the Book of Common Prayer, which came to become Bonfire night in our modern idiom, after the king ordered fires be lit to commemorate the failure of the plot. Bonfire night is, of course, on Saturday.

I braved the windy roof of the tower to take a few snaps for our loyal readers, so take a look. Taking pictures of fireworks is not easy, but hopefully you can make something out; you can just about see the chapel belfry on one picture!

Guy himself was arrested in Westminster, but some of the other conspirators fled to Stafforshire, one of England's Catholic heart-lands. Spurned by many Catholics (including some who were martyred themselves later; these men knew many of our canonised martyrs personally), they ended up in a house near Dudley. It's quite moving to think that they passed through this area, and died for the faith just down the road. You never know, they could have even ridden up from London on the Chester Road!

Who'd have thunk it? The Bishop of Rome himself would walk the same streets as they did four centuries later... Talk about time healing!

Three day retreat: Shhhhh!

2011-10-30T21:58:00.000Z

I enjoy silent retreats a lot.

We start our annual three-day retreat tomorrow (we have a five-day retreat in Lent), which is led by Monsignor Roderick Strange, Rector of the Pontifical Beda College, Rome. I don't know what he is going to talk about, but I'm sure you'll find out on Thursday!

Until then, bye for now.

Let us pray for each other.

Half term is over

2011-10-30T21:47:00.000Z

Yes, we've been on holiday again. You may have seen one of us this week and wondered why we weren't in seminary!

Thomas Cardinal Wolsey,
Archbishop of York

I've spent some of my holiday in Ipswich, a place which was formerly quite unfamiliar to me! I knew that the old Hanseatic town of Ipswich, or Gippeswick in the historical vernacular, was an important place indeed, and I know lots of stories about Our Lady of Ipswich (who, unlike Our Lady of Walsingham, was spared the iconoclasm), Cardinal Wolsey, and what not, and was pleasantly surprised to see much of the town centre preserved. I'd always, mistakenly, assumed that Ipswich, being so important, must have been destroyed in the war, but the quaint street and timber-framed building survived, complemented by modern renovations around the water-front area. One could even call it the hidden gem of our diocese.

I tried to visit some of the Catholic parishes in Ipswich during my stay, and I managed to meet some parishioners at St Mark's and its quaint and friendly out-lying church, Holy Family, in Brantham. I also had a peep in St James, St Mary (which, I've since discovered, is dedicated as Jesus Christ and Saint Mary), and St Pancras in the town centre, which is a beautiful church indeed, though a little scaffolding remained from the finishing-touches of its renovation. Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit St Mary Magdalen, though I've been there before, or any of the other 'station' churches, nor Woodbridge, which is also in the Ipswich deanery.

I always enjoy visiting parishes in our diocese, not only for my penchant for architecture (surely a veritable curse cast upon all priests upon their entering seminary: one just can't help but mentally re-arrange even the most beautiful of churches!), but it is always a good thing to 'plug back in' to East Anglian life now and then, to remind ourselves of reality!

I wonder which town will await me next holiday...!

T: -1 to the College Feast!

2011-10-17T10:32:00.000+01:00

Sedes Sapientiae window,
Glancy Library, Oscott

In Oscott tomorrow, we celebrate the internal solemnity of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom.

The College Chapel is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whose principal feast, as we all know, is 15 August. Being in the summer holidays, it has become College tradition to celebrate an internal solemnity on the second or third Tuesday in October.

So tonight, we shall celebrate first vespers of Our Lady, and, East Anglia has a special treat this evening, for our new vocations director, Father John Warrington, is making his first visitation to the seminary.

New blog for Oscott

2011-10-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

A student has started a new blog for the college, which will, for the time being at least, last throughout this year. Each student shall write a post for every week in the year (hopefully!), so do follow this exciting new venture....

http://oscottcollege.wordpress.com/

You can also follow us on Facebook...

House groups and Our Lady

2011-10-07T17:39:00.001+01:00

Katherine of Aragon, 1485-1536
Queen of England, 1509-1536

I'm a little annoyed with myself. The house is divided into small groups of about 8, presided over by a member of the formation staff, to meet for prayer and social activity, every other Friday night. Tonight is one of those nights, and, in our group, we are going to meet to say the Rosary together, and then each of us will share a little on a shrine in our diocese.

I was tempted to talk a little about Katherine of Aragon, who died in my parish, Buckden St Neots, and is buried in the Anglican cathedral in Peterborough, formerly St Peter's abbey, now in the parish of St Peter and All Souls and Our Lady of Lourdes. But then I remembered that it is not technically a shrine, because there is no official cause for canonisation...yet, though I'm sure there are many praying for it (I know of at least one!). You can visit Queen Katherine in Peterborough Cathedral, and there is no cost upon entry; many obviously do, and her tomb is often decorated with flowers and pomegranates placed there by holy souls.

Anyway, a while ago, I wrote a short article in a magazine about the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and, finally, the reason why I am annoyed is because I cannot find my copy of said magazine! I was hoping to read it to the group, but instead, I have a fine little publication compiled by Tim McDonald, the shrine manager, to commemorate the centenary of the shrine in 1997. It is a little souvenir, a collection of news articles and postcards, I earned while I volunteered as assistant sacristan in summer 2009, and so I'm glad it will come in handy today!

Treasures of Heaven

2011-10-06T21:41:00.000+01:00

Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet. (2 Kings 13:20-21)

A woman had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well." And immediately the haemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her illness. (Mark 5: 27-29; cf Luke 8: 43-48)

God did extraordinary miracles by he hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. (Acts 19: 11-12)

Reliquary containing a Holy Thorn,
and depicting the Last Judgement.
14th century French

As it is good to get far away from the seminary on our days off, yesterday, I went to London to visit the Treasures of Heaven exhibition in the British Museum, just before it closes this weekend. There displayed are a variety of reliquaries, and associated items, from the early Church to the Reformation, tracing the ancient cultic devotion of the early martyrs, to the discovery of the true Cross by St Helena in the 4th century, to the excesses of the late mediaeval period. As we can see through these three passages from scripture, however, our understanding in 'relics' goes back much further than that.

Many of the reliquaries were empty, but all, of course, are still holy objects, made so by their use (including a whole ancient stone altar, with little stone-carved rouched curtains to allow the faithful to venerate the relics underneath it!), but some of the reliquaries still contained their original contents, including many pieces of the True Cross, and splinters from Christ's crown of thorns, a piece of St Thomas of Canterbury's skull, and clothing taken from St Cuthbert's tomb in the 19th century. I didn't know whether I should be viewing them as museum pieces, or incensing them with a smuggled-in thurible! Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't go on the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as my scruples would have required me to genuflect at every-other display-case!

The museum was quite sensitive to the reality that some of those viewing the exhibition would regard these items as sacred objects: there were conveniently placed benches in front of particularly important displays, such as a cabinet of True Crosses and the Mandylion of Christ on loan from the Vatican. I was moved to notice several people clearly spending a few moments in prayer before these precious things, and I said a few prayers myself, including asking for St Thomas' intercession for our seminary year. Just think of all those millions of holy souls who have found comfort and received graces through these items, and it continues still! The museum also gave a (brief) mention to the visit of St Therese's relics to this country in 2009; the outpouring of faith and devotion surprised many secularists, if you remember. It's important to remember that our faith, the faith of our fathers, is a living faith, not one of the history books. All these people we learn about in history are real people, like us, not fiction. We dump our heritage at a great price, a peril to our souls, just for the sake of pursing the zeitgeist; there is nothing new under the sun, after all.

Fittingly, for this blog at least, there was also an account of the life of St Edmund, 12th century, written in English, with little illustrations, though, being a book, only two pages were open at one time; I saw a little scene of a monk in prayer at his tomb in Bury St Edmunds, a shrine now lost thanks to vandals and their error. I wonder whether our descendants will think similar such things at the violence which has been committed in some of our own sacred spaces.

Unfortunately, the exhibition closes this weekend, so you may have missed it already, but those who have visited, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. As is usually my wont for such exhibitions and galleries, I bought the big picture book for my coffee-table in my cell to keep me and my lucky guests entertained for a few minutes.

October devotions and little flowers

2011-10-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

Like the rest of the country, Oscott's been roasting of late. I live on the front of St Bede's (the south-facing façade of the house), and the sun has been pouring in through the windows, so it is especially oven-like. If we leave the windows and doors open though, the breeze is quite cooling! Someone must have heard our complaining, though, as we didn't have any hot water this morning: cold showers all round.

Today is the first day of October, which is a month dedicated to Our Lady, particularly, our devotion to her in the holy Rosary. The Council of Trent ordered that October be given this dedication in particular for priests and seminarians (a new creature in that century!) could re-dedicate themselves to their heavenly Mother.

As is our Catholic tradition this month, as well as May, today, after lunch, Father Rector solemnly crowned the statue of Our Lady in the back cloister, outside the Northcote Hall.

The veneration of Mary is the surest and shortest way to get close to Christ in a concrete way. In meditating on her life in all its phases we learn what i means to live for and with Christ - in the everyday, in an unsentimental matter-of-factness that nonetheless enjoys perfect inner intimacy. Contemplating Mary's existence, we also submit to the darkness that is imposed on our faith, yet we learn how we must always be ready when Jesus suddenly asks something of us. (Balthasar)

Our Lady is an object of our veneration because she points us to Christ; by becoming like Him through the sacrament of baptism, we become, like him, Sons of the Father, through the grace of adoption. That requires trust, and a lot of it! Mary is our greatest model for trust, and, like her, so is St Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, who feast it is today.

Several of the community have been praying a novena in preparation for her feast day today. Our meditation for day seven of the novena was the spiritual fruit of trustfulness. St Therese's last words in her autobiography read, 'I lift myself to him by trust and love'. In her dark night, she says with Job, 'though He should kill me, yet will I trust in him.' We strive as Christians to abandon ourselves completely, in our own ways, to the Lord. St Therese is known as the 'Little Flower'; not a beautiful rose, or other-such glorious bloom, but a little flower in the crag of a cliff, clinging to the rock for life, lest it be blown away by the tempest.

As Pope Benedict said to the German seminarians last week:

Even for my own generation, it was not exactly easy to imagine how many decades God might assign to me, and how different the world might become. Will I be able to hold firm with him, as I have promised to do? ... It is a question that demands the testing of the vocation, but then also – the more I recognize that he does indeed want me – it demands trust: if he wants me, then he will also hold me, he will be there in the hour of temptation, in the hour of need, and he will send people to me, he will show me the path, he will hold me. And faithfulness is possible, because he is always there, because he is yesterday, today and tomorrow, because he belongs not only to this time, but he is the future and he can support us at all time.

To the German seminarians...

2011-09-27T13:55:00.000+01:00

Pope Benedict, who concluded a 4-day journey to Germany last Sunday, spoke, before he departed, to the country's seminarians. His speech, which was not written down, but later recorded and translated by the Vatican has just been published, and can be found here.

Here's a little excerpt:

In considering the question -- What is the seminary for? What does this time mean? -- I am always particularly struck by the account that St. Mark gives of the birth of the apostolic community in the third chapter of his Gospel. Mark says: "And he appointed twelve". He makes something, he does something, it is a creative act; and he made them, "to be with him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 12:14). That is a twofold purpose, which in many respects seems contradictory. "To be with him": they are to be with him, in order to come to know him, to hear what he says, to be formed by him; they are to go with him, to accompany him on his path, surrounding him and following him. But at the same time they are to be envoys who go out, who take with them what they have learnt, who bring it to others who are also on a journey -- into the margins, into the wide open spaces, even into places far removed from him. And yet this paradox holds together: if they are truly with him, then they are also always journeying towards others, they are searching for the lost sheep; they go out, they must pass on what they have found, they must make it known, they must become envoys. And conversely, if they want to be good envoys, then they must always be with him. As St. Bonaventure once said: the angels, wherever they go, however far away, always move within the inner being of God. This is also the case here: as priests we must go out onto the many different streets, where we find people whom we should invite to his wedding feast. But we can only do this if in the process we always remain with him. And learning this: this combination of, on the one hand, going out on mission, and on the other hand being with him, remaining with him, is -- I believe -- precisely what we have to learn in the seminary. The right way of remaining with him, becoming deeply rooted in him -- being more and more with him, knowing him more and more, being more and more inseparable from him -- and at the same time going out more and more, bringing the message, passing it on, not keeping it to ourselves, but bringing the word to those who are far away and who nevertheless, as God’s creatures and as people loved by Christ, all have a longing for him in their hearts.

There are lost of worthwhile things to read from this apostolic journey, so please, if you can, take some time and have a peek.

Germany was evangelised by a great Englishman, St Boniface, who is a great model of a bishop for our times too. The Church in our country is in a relatively good position, so we must always keep praying for the churches in countries such as Germany, which are facing a much tougher time than we are at the moment.

Happy feast!

2011-09-24T14:29:00.000+01:00

Well, it's only been 13 days since our last post, but today, in East Anglia, we keep the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. Here in the archdiocese of Birmingham, however, it is only a memorial, and so we missed out on the 'proper' offices of Our Lady, and cannot even sing the Te Deum at the office of readings!

Still, now that our weekly 'Rosary rota' here in Oscott is a sign-up list (every Saturday, we say the Rosary together after lunch), and so an East Anglian seminarian managed to take the reigns today, and, as well as praying for the Pope, our normal prayer intention for the Rosary, we gave thanks for her shrine and the priests, brothers and staff who look after it and the pilgrims. We also prayed that the Lord made speed to send us a new bishop in East Anglia.

Fr Stephen Billington, our new philosophy lecturer, preached an excellent homily at Mass today for the feast, and spoke of a priest's essential filial relationship and devotion to Our Lady, through the Rosary, and other prayers and devotions, such as the consecration to Our Lady of St Louis de Montfort.

Ben has travelled up to Walsingham today to celebrate the feast there, so we hope to hear more from him upon his return. Henry will be preaching this evening at First Vespers of Sunday, as is our custom for 5th years, so remember to keep him and his year in your prayers! My year will start preaching (well, giving reflections), at weekday Masses after half-term.

We'd like to wish a happy feast to everybody in East Anglia, and the national shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham. Oremus pro invicem!

"The more the Holy Ghost finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ." - St Louis de Montfort

Change and continuity

2011-09-09T16:35:00.000+01:00

We have nearly finished the first week of our academic year. Henry, in year 5, is starting '3rd theology', and Ben and I, '1st theology'.

Even those already in the house have been getting used to all the changes at Oscott, which, as you know, has expanded to 59 seminarians this year, as well as 10 residential and 3 non-residential formation staff; the refectory and chapel are very busy and noisy these days!

St Gregory's, Stratford

Last week, for a little 'community bonding', our house groups (we are divided into small cross-house house groups) travelled to different local places to spend some time with each other, and celebrate vespers.

My house group travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare, and a very quaint English town, if full of rather a lot of tourists! As well as visiting the very fine Anglican church of the Holy Trinity, the burial-place of Shakespeare, as well as boasting a rare pre-reformation stone high altar, we visited the Catholic Church of St Gregory the Great, and there celebrated first vespers of his feast, which was last week.

The following Sunday, Archbishop Longley visited the college overnight, and celebrated solemn second vespers, as well as the community Mass on Monday. Also on that Sunday, Our Lady and the English Martyrs, in Cambridge, was host to the weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, Sunday Worship. Mgr Leeming presided at the first broadcast Mass in the new English translation of the Roman Missal, assisted by the parish choir.

We wouldn't want to over-load you with too much news, so expect more titbits as term progresses!

There are even changes going on in the diocese. Many of the parish moves are happening around now back home in East Anglia, and we shall also be receiving the appointment of a new vocations director very shortly, so let us pray for each other in these transitional weeks. The feast of Our Lady of Walsingham is shortly upon us - always a time to feel a little home-sick!

Collegium Sanctae Mariae de Oscott, MMXI - MMXII

God is not Geometry

2011-09-03T17:11:00.000+01:00

Well, we're back at seminary and starting a new and exciting year! It's wonderful having nearly 60 seminarians in the building; the place has a lively and lived-in feel about it. I'm starting my 5th year at Oscott, and as well as looking forward to diaconate (God/ rector/ bishop if we have one? willing) I am reading in order to get ideas for my final dissertation next year. At the moment I'm reading Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity which he wrote in 1968. Ratzinger has an amazing knack for hitting the nail on the head. Here is something he says about the God who Jesus reveals to us in the parable of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one:

"He is not the unfeeling geometry of the universe, neutral justice standing above things undisturbed by a heart and its emotions; he has a heart; he stands there like a person who loves, with all the capriciousness of someone who loves."

In other words, God is not this:

...but this:

Fortunate for us, eh?

EA Seminarians are now in the 21st Century

2011-08-29T16:13:00.000+01:00

The East Anglia Seminarians' blog is now available on your phone. The mobile web version should load automatically on your mobile or smartphone instead of the normal web version.

Now you have no excuse not to follow your favourite seminarians all day, every day, except during Mass, of course!

24

2011-08-29T16:03:00.000+01:00

In 24 hours, I shall probably be on my way back to Oscott, a day before the start of third year!

Where has all the time gone?

Term begins on Wednesday, with the arrival of all the new students, both those who were formerly students of St Cuthbert's, Ushaw, as well as the first year, many, but by no means all, of whom are joining us from St Alban's, Valladolid. With all these new students, I think the house will number around 56, up from 26 last year (including part-time). The house-list on the website hasn't been updated yet, so I don't know who most of these people are, but then my curiosity will be satisfied in a few days.

Last year, we said 'goodbye' to our three brethren from the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who are now all ordained and at home in India, but this year, we say 'hello' to three new brethren from the Order of St Augustine, who will be studying philosophy at Oscott.

The Friars Hermits, as they were once called, have a house in Harbourne in Birmingham, which is on the opposite side of the city, near Edgbaston. They are also not strangers to our diocese of East Anglia. The Austin Friars still have a house in Clare in Suffolk, and have pastoral responsibility for that parish. Putting my history-hat on, the Order, both the canons and friars, had several houses in East Anglia before the Protestant Reformation, including Walsingham Priory.

We are also joined by an additional brother from the Society of Divine Vocations, who have made their mark on the Oscott community in the past few years! Two of their existing students are undertaking their extended placement this term, so will not be joining us at college for a few months.

Maybe there are more religious students I have not heard about yet. Not to mention the all the secular students, who are still in the majority!

East Anglia has no new students this year, but there are a number of applications this year, so keep these aspirants in your prayers over this year during their application process.

And please don't stop praying for vocations to the priesthood!

It is really great news that Oscott has a larger first year than we have seen for a while, and that the propaedeutic seminary in Valladolid is over-subscribed again, and English students will even being going to seminary in Ars this academic year.

It has been a year since the Papal visit, so we are only just seeing the first fruits of that visit in aspirants who are coming forward today. With prayer and a firm conviction, let us all do our part in building a culture of vocations in our parishes, making spiritual sacrifices, and supporting young men who you think may be suitable. Nurture the faith of young people with orthodox Catholicism. Support your parish prayer groups, social groups and youth clubs, and attend exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

The People of God must consent to the ordination of a priest at his ordination, so the People of God must do their part in helping them from the start. It might seem silly, but don't overestimate the power of the question, "have you ever thought of being a priest?"

Mass with seminarians

2011-08-27T17:38:00.001+01:00

As is now usual, the Pope celebrates the Mass for seminarians during World Youth Day. Madrid was no exception. His homily, as, we know, is normal for our Holy Father, was beautiful and powerful, and it is well-worth reading in full. I hope one day, all of his writings, sermons and speeches will be gathered into a magnum opus!

Until then, a large chunk of his homily from last week appears here below, with some highlights.

Dear friends, you are preparing yourselves to become apostles with Christ and like Christ, and to accompany your fellow men and women along their journey as companions and servants. How should you behave during these years of preparation? First of all, they should be years of interior silence, of unceasing prayer, of constant study and of gradual insertion into the pastoral activity and structures of the Church. A Church which is community and institution, family and mission, the creation of Christ through his Holy Spirit, as well as the result of those of us who shape it through our holiness and our sins. God, who does not hesitate to make of the poor and of sinners his friends and instruments for the redemption of the human race, willed it so. The holiness of the Church is above all the objective holiness of the very person of Christ, of his Gospel and his sacraments, the holiness of that power from on high which enlivens and impels it. We have to be saints so as not to create a contradiction between the sign that we are and the reality that we wish to signify.

Meditate well upon this mystery of the Church, living the years of your formation in deep joy, humbly, clear-mindedly and with radical fidelity to the Gospel, in an affectionate relation to the time spent and the people among whom you live. No one chooses the place or the people to whom he is sent, and every time has its own challenges; but in every age God gives the right grace to face and overcome those challenges with love and realism. That is why, no matter the circumstances in which he finds and however difficult they may be, the priest must grow in all kinds of good works, keeping alive within him the words spoken on his Ordination day, by which he was exhorted to model his life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross.

To be modeled on Christ, dear seminarians, is to be identified ever more closely with him who, for our sake, became servant, priest and victim. To be modeled on him is in fact the task upon which the priest spends his entire life. We already know that it is beyond us and we will not fully succeed but, as St Paul says, we run towards the goal, hoping to reach it (cf. Phil 3:12-14).

That said, Christ the High Priest is also the Good Shepherd who cares for his sheep, even giving his life for them (cf. Jn 10:11). In order to liken yourselves to the Lord in this as well, your heart must mature while in seminary, remaining completely open to the Master. This openness, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, inspires the decision to live in celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and, leaving aside the world’s goods, live in austerity of life and sincere obedience, without pretence.

Ask him to let you imitate him in his perfect charity towards all, so that you do not shun the excluded and sinners, but help them convert and return to the right path. Ask him to teach you how to be close to the sick and the poor in simplicity and generosity. Face this challenge without anxiety or mediocrity, but rather as a beautiful way of living our human life in gratuitousness and service, as witnesses of God made man, messengers of the supreme dignity of the human person and therefore its unconditional defenders. Relying on his love, do not be intimidated by surroundings that would exclude God and in which power, wealth and pleasure are frequently the main criteria ruling people’s lives. You may be shunned along with others who propose higher goals or who unmask the false gods before whom many now bow down. That will be the moment when a life deeply rooted in Christ will clearly be seen as something new and it will powerfully attract those who truly search for God, truth and justice.

Under the guidance of your formators, open your hearts to the light of the Lord, to see if this path which demands courage and authenticity is for you. Approach the priesthood only if you are firmly convinced that God is calling you to be his ministers, and if you are completely determined to exercise it in obedience to the Church’s precepts.

So, in summary...

Seminary is a time when seminarians prepare themselves to become apostles with Christ and become like Christ, and be with others as companions and servants on their own journeys.

Time in seminary should be spent, primarily in:

interior silence
unceasing prayer
constant study
gradual insertion into the pastoral and structural life of the Church

The Church is shaped by our holiness and our sinfulness, but ultimately, the source of its holiness is the Lord.

Priests are living signs of Christ, therefore, priests should strive to be holy themselves. Anything other than this is a sign of contraction, hypocrisy. Seminarians strive towards holiness during their time in seminary.

God gives everyone the grace to live their calling; priests should be mindful that their calling is to model themselves on the Lord's cross, and least strive towards that goal.

The heart of a seminarian should be open to what the Lord is asking him to do, particularly, in striving to live the Evangelical Counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) in sincerity.

Do not be afraid to unmask the false gods that are worshipped in our society!

Pope Benedict also mentions to things that seminarians (and priests) should avoid absolutely in striving to imitate Christ in his charity towards others:

Anxiety: a subjective 'feeling' and interior disposition whereby persons to worry about uncertain outcomes. This word is being eliminated from the English translation of the Embolism (after the Lord's Prayer) in the new translation of Mass, incidentally, not only because it is an in-appropriate translation and oft-misused word, but Christians have no need to be anxious and without hope, as St Paul says (1 Th 4:12-3). The new translation uses 'distress' instead; all people, including Christians, often feel distressed by external threats, not interior feelings, as modern western society tells us. Our passions should not govern our being, and anxiety, according to this understanding (rather than the psychological condition), is contrary to the Gospel. We are a beacon of hope to others. How can we be that beacon without hope burning within ourselves?

Mediocrity: At the end of the film, Amadeus, Salieri says that there is no place for mediocrity in God's glory, it means to be moderate or not very good. This doesn't mean not being good at doing things. I'm not very good at painting. We know from our Thomisic philosophy, that a being is not defined by what it does, but by what it is. The priest's being in ontologically conformed with Christ, so God doesn't want us to be moderately Christ-like. "...because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." (Rev 3:16)

Half-way through WYD

2011-08-19T22:01:00.002+01:00

I've been following all the goings-on in Madrid via the internet. We can't really watch anything on the secularist state broadcast news, which only seeks to cover a small protest of around a hundred people, never mind the witness to faith of a million young people! Here's a picture of some of them, including our very own seminarians:

Our East Anglian brethren!

Since the arrival of Pope Benedict, I've been reading his speeches, addresses and sermons, and I'll replicate a few segments here. As ever, the Holy Father doesn't shy away from reality, and, I think, much of what he says is particularly relevant for us in Britain, given our recent civil disturbances. His words are always encouraging and inspiring.

Please take a few moments to read these extracts. I promise you will appreciate it afterwards!

Here's what he said when he arrived in Madrid, addressing the core problems faced by young people, and, indeed, all people, head on.

Many of [these young people] have heard the voice of God, perhaps only as a little whisper, which has led them to search for him more diligently and to share with others the experience of the force which he has in their lives. The discovery of the living God inspires young people and opens their eyes to the challenges of the world in which they live, with its possibilities and limitations. They see the prevailing superficiality, consumerism and hedonism, the widespread banalization of sexuality, the lack of solidarity, the corruption. They know that, without God, it would be hard to confront these challenges and to be truly happy, and thus pouring out their enthusiasm in the attainment of an authentic life. But, with God beside them, they will possess light to walk by and reasons to hope, unrestrained before their highest ideals, which will motivate their generous commitment to build a society where human dignity and true brotherhood are respected. Here on this Day, they have a special opportunity to gather together their aspirations, to share the richness of their cultures and experiences, motivate each other along a journey of faith and life, in which some think they are alone or ignored in their daily existence. But they are not alone. Many people of the same age have the same aspirations and, entrusting themselves completely to Christ, know that they really have a future before them and are not afraid of the decisive commitments which fulfill their entire lives. That is why it gives me great joy to listen to them, pray with them and celebrate the Eucharist with them. World Youth Day brings us a message of hope like a pure and youthful breeze, with rejuvenating scents which fill us with confidence before the future of the Church and the world.

Of course, there is no lack of difficulties. There are tensions and ongoing conflicts all over the world, even to the shedding of blood. Justice and the unique value of the human person are easily surrendered to selfish, material and ideological interests. Nature and the environment, created by God with so much love, are not respected. Moreover, many young people look worriedly to the future, as they search for work, or because they have lost their job or because the one they have is precarious or uncertain. There are others who need help either to avoiddrugs or to recover from their use. There are even some who, because of their faith in Christ, suffer discrimination which leads to contempt and persecution, open or hidden, which they endure in various regions and countries. They are harassed to give him up, depriving them of the signs of his presence in public life, not allowing even the mention of his holy name.

But, with all my heart, I say again to you young people: let nothing and no one take away your peace; do not be ashamed of the Lord. He did not spare himself in becoming one like us and in experiencing our anguish so as to lift it up to God, and in this way he saved us.

Later, in Madrid itself, during a Liturgy of the Word, he delivered a homily on the Gospel of the house build on solid rock, from which the next extract is taken. He speaks here of rooting one's life in Christ, not giving in to the temptations which lead us away from true life.

Indeed, there are many who, creating their own gods, believe they need no roots or foundations other than themselves. They take it upon themselves to decide what is true or not, what is good and evil, what is just and unjust; who should live and who can be sacrificed in the interests of other preferences; leaving each step to chance, with no clear path, letting themselves be led by the whim of each moment. These temptations are always lying in wait. It is important not to give in to them because, in reality, they lead to something so evanescent, like an existence with no horizons, a liberty without God. We, on the other hand, know well that we have been created free, in the image of God, precisely so that we might be in the forefront of the search for truth and goodness, responsible for our actions, not mere blind executives, but creative co-workers in the task of cultivating and beautifying the work of creation. God is looking for a responsible interlocutor, someone who can dialogue with him and love him. Through Christ we can truly succeed and, established in him, we give wings to our freedom. Is this not the great reason for our joy? Isn’t this the firm ground upon which to build the civilization of love and life, capable of humanizing all of us?

Dear friends: be prudent and wise, build your lives upon the firm foundation which is Christ. This wisdom and prudence will guide your steps, nothing will make you fear and peace will reign in your hearts. Then you will be blessed and happy and your happiness will influence others. They will wonder what the secret of your life is and they will discover that the rock which underpins the entire building and upon which rests your whole existence is the very person of Christ, your friend, brother and Lord, the Son of God incarnate, who gives meaning to all the universe.

He died for us all, rising that we might have life, and now, from the throne of the Father, he accompanies all men and women, watching continually over each one of us.

Finally, this evening, during a celebration of the Way of the Cross. He spoke of suffering, and said:

As we were making our way with Jesus towards the place of his sacrifice on Mount Calvary, the words of Saint Paul came to mind: “Christ loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). In the face of such disinterested love, we find ourselves asking, filled with wonder and gratitude: What can we do for him? What response shall we give him? Saint John puts it succinctly: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own shoulders the sufferings of the world, in the certainty that God is not distant or far removed from man and his troubles. On the contrary, he became one of us “in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way — in flesh and blood … hence in all human suffering we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio is present in all suffering, the consolation of God’s compassionate love — and so the star of hope rises” (Spe Salvi, 39).

Dear young friends, may Christ’s love for us increase your joy and encourage you to go in search of those less fortunate. You are open to the idea of sharing your lives with others, so be sure not to pass by on the other side in the face of human suffering, for it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion. The different forms of suffering that have unfolded before our eyes in the course of this Way of the Cross are the Lord’s way of summoning us to spend our lives following in his footsteps and becoming signs of his consolation and salvation. “To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves — these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself” (ibid.).

Let us eagerly welcome these teachings and put them into practice. Let us look upon Christ, hanging on the harsh wood of the Cross, and let us ask him to teach us this mysterious wisdom of the Cross, by which man lives. The Cross was not a sign of failure, but an expression of self-giving in love that extends even to the supreme sacrifice of one’s life. The Father wanted to show his love for us through the embrace of his crucified Son: crucified out of love. The Cross, by its shape and its meaning, represents this love of both the Father and the Son for men. Here we recognize the icon of supreme love, which teaches us to love what God loves and in the way that he loves: this is the Good News that gives hope to the world.

Let us turn our gaze now to the Virgin Mary, who was given to us on Calvary to be our Mother, and let us ask her to sustain us with her loving protection along the path of life, particularly when we pass through the night of suffering, so that we may be able to remain steadfast, as she did, at the foot of the Cross.

Of saints and things...

2011-08-10T21:40:00.000+01:00

Meanwhile, some of us have remained at home!

I've recently been in a rainy York, where, amongst other things, I visited the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow. St Margaret was a convert to Catholicism, who enabled the celebration of Mass in her house in the city of York. Her son trained as a priest in the English seminary in Douai. St Margaret was arrested in 1586 for protecting Catholic priests, who were regarded as traitors, and executed, not, interestingly, for that crime, but for refusing to make a plea during her trial. She was crushed to death - an agonising death which took 15 minutes - on Good Friday, 1586, which was also the feast of the Annunciation that year. Queen Elizabeth, unusually, issued a protest to the city of York for ordering the execution, as a woman should not have been executed for her crime, according to law.

The Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow, York

Today, there is a small shrine to St Margaret Clitherow on the Shambles, which is a twee little street in the city centre, filled with tourists and sweetshops. This present shrine was not the site of her house - that is a few doors down - but Mass is celebrated in this little chapel every Saturday at 10 am. I wonder how many tourists and visitors are aware of such a significant shrine; many people wander into the chapel, as it opens directly onto the street.

Even though I have visited this chapel many times, I had never really noticed that alongside the statue of St Margaret is a statue of Blessed Thomas Thwing. He will be well-known to Oscotians, as, along with Blessed Nicholas Postgate, we have a number of his relics in the Chapel; they were the last priests to be martyred in England, in the wake of the Titus Oates plot in the 1670s. Oates, a former Catholic and seminarian, wrongly accused a number of Catholic priests of treason, who were swiftly led to the gallows. Blessed Thomas was, interestingly, the first chaplain to the newly established congregation of un-cloistered nuns based in York, inspired by the Jesuits, and led by the Venerable Mary Ward, who are now known as the Congregation of Jesus, who are still present in Cambridge.

These little historical links can be interesting, occasionally!

My new lithograph, depicting the martyrdom of St Edmund

Another twist of fate allowed me to find a 19th century illuminated lithograph of the martyrdom of St Edmund, the patron saint of our diocese, as well as a depiction of Our Lady of Walsingham, which I 'rescued', and I look forward to hanging it in my room in Oscott, as a reminder of East Anglia!

World Youth Day!

2011-08-10T21:12:00.000+01:00

Well, it's about 140 hours before World Youth Day begins, at the start of next week, on the feast of St Roch. The week will culminate next Sunday, with a prayer vigil and Mass with the Holy Father in Madrid's 'Four Winds' airport.

Cuatro Vientos airport, which will be transformed next week

The East Anglian contingent are already on their way, and they will be joined by many others on their journey over the coming days.

Making sure all the mitres are well ironed!

We'll all be keeping the pilgrims, and those preparing the event, in our prayers during the next week, I'm sure, and we await to see and hear about all the wonderful events.

Vocations and fiction

2011-08-07T16:35:00.000+01:00

I’ve just finished one of my summer novels, Ken Follet’s 1989 epic drama, The Pillars of the Earth. Set in the twelfth-century, it tells the story of the building of a priory cathedral in a fictional town in Wiltshire. It was a really good read, and I look forward to reading the sequel one day, but I would warn those who have not read it themselves, that it is quite risque and violent in places! I’ve now run out of novels at home, but waiting for me at Oscott is the first of the Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles, which is a historical crime fiction series, a little like Cadfael, but set in out very own Cambridge, which was recommended to me when I was on placement in Cambridge in January.

Like any good novel, there is a web of intermingling story-lines and characters in The Pillars of the Earth, which was recently adapted for television on Channel 4, which I have not seen. Because of my history background and pedantic nature, I wear a tiara of skepticism when judging historical-fictional drama, which clouds my overall judgement of the story. The liturgical scenes, even in the book, were horrific, but most of the story was beautiful in its humanity. One of the principal characters, Philip, is the Prior of Kingsbridge, who commissioned the cathedral. A conversation between him, and a young monk, Jonathan, who was brought to the priory as an abandoned baby, brought a smile to my face as I read it, and so I’ve reproduced it here. Brother Jonathan is talking to Prior Philip about vocation, and asks him:

“What do you think my task might be?”

“God needs monks to be writers, illuminators, musicians and farmers. He needs men to take on the demanding jobs, such as cellarer, prior, and bishop. He needs men who can trade in wool, heal the sick, educate the schoolboys and build churches.”

“It’s hard to imagine that he has a role cut out for me.”

“I can’t think he would have gone to this much trouble with you if he didn’t,” Philip said with a smile. “However, it might not be a grand or prominent role in worldly terms. He might want you to become one of the quiet monks, a humble man who devotes his life to prayer and contemplation.”

Jonathan’s face fell. “I suppose he might.”

Philip laughed. “But I don’t think so. God wouldn’t make a knife out of wood, or a lady’s chemise out of shoe leather. You aren’t the right material for a life of quietude, and God knows it. My guess is that he wants you to fight for him, and not sing to him.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“But right now I think he wants you to go and see Brother Leo and find out how many cheeses he has for the cellar at Kingsbridge.”

While all Christians have a vocation to holiness (the universal vocation), as explained by the Second Vatican Council, and by many saints, each individual Christian is called to perform some ‘definite service’, as Blessed John Henry wrote about his own vocation. A large part of vocational discernment is trying out ‘what fits’. If something feels like the right thing to do, after prayer and, importantly, discussion with others, it is probably a big divine push in the right direction! As Prior Philip suggested in his conversation, different vocations are not ‘more important’ than other vocations. They are different in expression, but equal in dignity: from bishops to builders, even counting cheeses! All are works of service to the Lord, and equal in value. It’s also important to remember that we actually have to do something about it; discernment is a process, not a destination.

We are called, as members of Christ’s Mystical Body, to emulate the life and virtues of Our blessed Lord, but that is always partnered with God’s sanctifying grace working within us. He is the Vine, and we are the branches. The branches are the bits of the plant that we see working: the fruit and leaves grow on the branches, but the branches themselves are fed by sap from the Vine itself. How gloriously humbling it is to freely accept that we are mere instruments of the all Holy God. Recall what happened to Peter, walking on the water, when he took his eyes off Christ the Lord. We are fools to think that we can try to live our vocation without beseeching the Lord to feed us with the means to do it!

Veni Creator Spiritus!

The importance of prayer for vocations: a pastoral theology situation

2011-08-07T16:20:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, I look back over my life, and I’m overwhelmed and humbled by some of the extraordinary moments of grace which I have been able to witness taking place in and through other people, mainly in monasteries and hospitals. As grace operates differently in different people, some of these moments may seem banal to others!

One of these little moments of grace was during post-Mass coffee, which I have, just for fun, turned into a pastoral theology-style ‘situation’ we have to discuss at Oscott.

Parishioner 1 was talking about vocations to the priesthood, and that the fewer number of priestly vocations being pursued suggests that the Church reconsider the discipline of priestly celibacy.

Parishioner 2 interjected, suggesting that, in reality, we, as laypersons in parishes, are not doing much about the vocations crisis. Parishioner 2 said that, if we really believed in the vital importance of the ministerial priesthood, we would be earnestly praying, in public, for vocations every day, after Mass, or at another time, like we used to.

Another recommendation...

2011-08-02T16:43:00.000+01:00

Talk of the CTS has reminded me of my intention to recommend another new pamphlet about the priesthood.

A Priest Forever: Continuity in an Age of Change, is written by Fr John Saward, from Oxford.

Here’s a little quotation from the booklet, taken from the website of the newly-founded British Province Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, which sums up the booklet quite well:

...In virtue of the character of Holy Order, the Priest differs from the layman in three ways. First, the priest is an ‘image’ of Christ in a way which the layman is not; secondly, he acts in the person of Christ the Head, which the layman does not; and thirdly, he possesses an active instrumental power that the layman does not... What the Priest is, he must become. His sacerdotal being is his chief motivation for sanctity. By virtue of his ordination, through the indelible character conferred upon him, the priest is objectively the image of Christ, with the power to act in Christ’s person in consecrating and absolving. But he is also called to become an image of Christ through the spiritual beauty of a Christlike life, by the exercise of the Christian and priestly virtues. Ontologically, he is an alter Christus; he must now become an alter Christus morally and spiritually, a priest according to the Heart of Christ.

Intended primarily to priests, it is clearly also helpful for the faithful to grow in understanding of the ministerial priesthood, and for men aspiring for the priesthood, to help them on their journey of discernment. It is a really excellent read, and short too!

I’m sure I’ve heard about the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, but I’ve only just discovered their flashy website, which is worth taking a look at. It is a fraternity of diocesan clergy, which seeks to encourage fidelity to the Church in service of the People of God, and assist the clergy in living their sacred vocation.

Lest anyone suggest that the blog has gone into abeyance over the summer...!

2011-08-02T16:24:00.000+01:00

An important aspect of seminary formation are the holidays away from the seminary.

But still, it is now August, and Oscott is starting early this year, on 31^st, so it won’t be long before we all have to file back through the gates again.

I’ve enjoyed spending time at home, catching up with my reading (that’s novels, of course, not course-books!) in the sunshine, as well as spending the odd weekend away, or day-trip somewhere, usually involving trawling the antique-shops of East Anglia and the East Midlands. I’ve also spent a lot of my time in my parish, not just drinking tea and eating biscuits with parishioners, but serving and reading at Mass, assisting funerals and baptisms, scuttling off for the occasional sick visit, and, here at home, helping to implement the new translation of the Roman Missal, which will arrive on every Missal stand this September.

As there hadn’t been any preparation for the new translation at home, it was clear that parishioners were exposed to the new translation as soon as possible, so I’ve led an hour-long catechetical workshop several times over the past few weeks, explaining the reasons behind the changes, and some of the important changes themselves.

It was heartening to see that almost everybody received the texts really well, and are, mostly, looking forward to their implementation.

During the reformation of the rite of Mass from 1964, culminating in the introduction ordinary form of our rite in 1969, there was little catechesis or instruction on the changes; an opportunity lost. We are now given, in my view, the best, most effective catechetical opportunity since then, and, perhaps, for many generations still, to help the faithful grow in their understanding of the Christian religion and its sacred rites. It is a shame to see this opportunity not taken up enthusiastically, partly, I suspect, because of lack of resources rather than hostility, so I was glad when a number of parishioners seemed keen to have much more in-depth instruction, the notes for which I’ll be preparing over the next few days. I pray that the Holy Spirit may bestow some of His Wisdom on His servant!

Just to give you something to read over the summer, I may write a few bits and pieces on this blog before September!

Speaking of liturgy, Oscott says goodbye to its liturgy lecturer, Father Timothy Menezies, who has been appointed Vicar General of the diocese of Birmingham. He is replaced by Monsignor Bruce Harbert, of Birmingham, who has been heavily involved in the new translation.

The Catholic Truth Society (CTS, which can be found at this website) is the new publisher of liturgical texts in this country. As well as producing Missals, they have also provided for the faithful a number of little instructional booklets as part of a new Living the Liturgy series, which I’d like to recommend here.

The first, Companion to the Order of Mass (LT01) by Mgr Harbert, is an almost line-by-line of the new translation of the liturgical texts of the Missal, particularly, making connexions with scared scripture. Mgr Harbert’s wit and scholarly talent shines through in this short booklet, which, as well as being an account of the translation process, but an excellent spiritual reflection. Much of its content was present to Oscott during our summer pastoral study days, which, if it isn’t a little exaggeration, has really affected my spiritual life. I’d recommend this booklet to anyone and everyone, as it is very accessible, as well as rich and powerful.

The second work, by Abbot Cuthbert Johnson, is Understanding the Roman Missal (LT02) which is a short spiritual reflection on the Mass, and, importantly, links parts of the Mass to scripture and magisterial teachings. The new rite of Mass has been severely lacking in accessible spiritual commentaries, in the model of Abbot Prosper Gueranger (late 19th century); hopefully, these two little booklets will re-ignite a passion for commentaries!

I am the Resurrection; I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

2011-07-21T16:18:00.000+01:00

I'm not often lost for words, but today I have a dilemma, in that nothing I can think to write seems adequate to describe yesterday's funeral Mass of our father the Bishop.

The Mass was celebrated by the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster (East Anglia is in the province of Westminster). Most of his brother Bishops from throughout England and Wales also attended, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio, along with clergy and seminarians from East Anglia, Southwark, Wonersh, Oscott, the Holy Land, Cambodia, Taize, and beyond, as well as civic dignitaries, lay Catholics from all over the country and the world, other Christians and, of course, Bishop Michael's own family. The Cathedral, the second largest in our country, was filled as no-body has ever seen it.

During the Funeral Mass of Bishop Michael

The seminarians helped in our own small way, on the altar, and carrying the episcopal regalia as the coffin was carried to its place of rest by six priests. There were two moments during the funeral which will particularly remain in my memory.

Carrying the insignia of Bishop Michael's pastoral office through his Christian family assembled in the Cathedral was very humbling and moving, and we were greatly privileged to assist in this way particularly. Seeing the crozier carried through the congregation without a bishop attached to it brought home to me the loss that our diocesan family has experienced, and will continue to experience until the Lord sends us a new pastor to shepherd our souls. Now we must pray for that the Holy Spirit console and guide those who will choose a new bishop for East Anglia.

As the bishop's coffin was placed in the hearse and Archbishop Nichols sprinkled it with Holy Water, the bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians sang ad hoc the Salve Regina. Clergy experience the Motherhood of Mary in a particular way, and it was fitting that we ask our blessed Mother to look after Bishop Michael, now that he has departed this vale of tears, that he experience the beatific vision, gazing upon the face of the Lord God for all eternity, and share in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day. Being Christian is for this purpose, and Bishop Michael, in his example, showed us the Way.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual life shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

"I'd like to see more smiles"

2011-07-11T23:18:00.000+01:00

We learned with great sadness this evening of the death of our father, the Bishop. After many years of living with cancer, and these past few months of intense suffering, by which he witnessed to Christ in such a powerful way, he has now gone to the Lord.

A few months ago, Bishop Michael recorded an interview for our local television. At the end, the interviewer asks him what would be his message for East Anglians when the day of his death finally comes. He said his message was the Good News:

"We go through death to resurrection. If there is pain, then we go through that to something even better. And, therefore, there is a way forward. It's not about standing still or just being who we are. We are on a journey, a pilgrimage, and a joyful one. I'd like to see more smiles."

Bishop Michael's pilgrimage here on earth has ended, and we rejoice in God's love and Truth. We pray for his soul, for the diocese, and for the comforting balm and guiding wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

A little on the priesthood

2011-07-11T12:53:00.000+01:00

As Henry has already written, Father Pádraig is now happily the newest member of the presbyterate of our diocese.

It is always a great joy to attend an ordination, and all the remaining East Anglia seminarians assisted in some way on the sanctuary, reading, serving and singing, along with a Birmingham seminarian, Craig. East Anglia now has only 3 seminarians, a rump of our former number. We can all pray that many more men will have the courage to listen to the Lord’s calling, and offer themselves for formation, not only for our own Church, but for other dioceses and orders. As the Church has gained a new priest, the seminary has lost a brother. We must rejoice the new priests Christ has won for his Church these past two years (Frs Pádraig, Luke and Michael), and pray that the grace and inspiration young men may have received at this time will be brought to fruition.

It was a great privilege to assist Fr Pádraig’s first celebration of Mass in his home parish of St Philip Howard, Cambridge. The small contingent from Oscott were warmly welcomed by Monsignor Harkness and the parish, which put on a generously-portioned and deliciously-tasting feast, as well as a spectacular and occasionally outrageous variety performance. Mgr Harkness thanked the seminarians who had come to the parish, who always provide an incomparable witness and encouragement, simply by their presence.

The Gospel of that Sunday was the parable of the sower. All priests, are called to partake in the life and ministry of Christ, the Sower, and the Church entrusts to them wonderful and powerful words to sow in the world today, as Fr McNally from Oscott reminded us in his homily.

The cosmic liturgy expresses our love of and dependence upon the Lord, and His love of and faithfulness to His people. The sacramental liturgy, then, signifies outwardly most fully our inward faith in this reality. And, so, let the liturgy speak for itself, here, in the preface for priesthood:

[Father], by your Holy Spirit you anointed your only Son High Priest of the new and eternal covenant. With wisdom and love you have planned that this one priesthood should continue in the Church. Christ gives the dignity of a royal priesthood to the people he has made his own. From these, with a brother's love, he chooses men to share his sacred ministry by the laying on of hands. He appoints them to renew in his name the sacrifice of our redemption as they set before your family his paschal meal. He calls them to lead your holy people in love, nourish them by your word, and strengthen them through the sacraments. Father, they are to give their lives in your service and for the salvation of your people as they strive to grow in likeness of Christ and honour you by their courageous witness of faith and love.

Amen.

Congratulations Fr Padraig

2011-07-11T09:49:00.001+01:00

On Saturday in a full cathedral Padraig Hawkins was ordained priest for the diocese, the third ordination in the space of a year. Bishop Peter Doyle presided (he had in fact been asked to do it some weeks ago), but Bishop Michael was unable to attend because, as many of you know, he had a stroke and was rushed to hospital on Thursday. It is thought he will not recover consciousness. Please pray for him at this time, and for the diocese. I think it was very moving that Fr Padraig was able to go give Bishop Michael his First Blessing in the hospital straight after the ordination.

Yesterday Fr Padraig celebrated two Masses in his home parish of St Philip Howard in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge. He said Mass very reverently and gave First Blessings afterwards. Later on there was a parish "do" with culinary and cultural contributions from the parish's different ethnic communities.

Fr Padraig thanked everyone who had contributed to his formation as a Christian and as a priest, and thanked Msgr Eugene Harkness, his parish priest, for his example of priesthood. He said it is important that we have good priests as models for how to live the priesthood.

May Fr Padraig have many years in his new ministry, at the service of the Lord's Gospel in this diocese of rich and ancient Christian heritage!

A Man Can Have No Greater Love

2011-07-04T09:55:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Fr Craig Szmidt, ordained priest for Birmingham Archdiocese on Saturday. At the ordination in St Wulstan's parish Wolstanton, Archbishop Bernard referred to Jesus' words: "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends." The Archbishop said to Craig that the Lord was asking him as a priest to lay down his life for his friends - not the friends of his own choosing, but those that would be given to him through his day to day ministry.

May Fr Craig have many blessings in his priestly life, and make many unexpected friends!

I call you friends

2011-07-01T12:49:00.001+01:00

As Henry has already written, yesterday saw the celebration of East Anglia's priestly jubilarians. Wednesday was the 60th Anniversary of Pope Benedict's ordination to the sacred Priesthood, and today, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the World Day of Prayer for Priests, which, in some places, is a culmination of 60 hours of prayer in thanksgiving for the Holy Father's priestly ministry, and for vocations to the priesthood. On Wednesday, he spoke during Mass of his diamond Jubilee:

Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend.

I have a little prayer book filled with prayers for priests, but, alas, I have left that at Oscott, but one of my favourite prayers is well-known, penned by the Little Flower:

O Jesus, eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

Jubilarians' Mass

2011-06-30T22:50:00.000+01:00

Priests of East Anglia (photo from the Mass with the relics of St Therese)

Today I got to go to a Mass at Walsingham for 4 priests of the diocese celebrating 40 years of priesthood: Msgr Tony Rogers, Fr Peter Brown, Fr Bernard Rolls, and Fr David Middleton. A good proportion of the diocesan clergy were there, and two of us seminarians. It was a nice occasion for fellowship, and there was a lunch in the Pilgrim Bureau after the Mass.

At the other end of the scale, this weekend we will go to the first of two ordinations from the college, as two men prepare to set out on that unexpected adventure of the priesthood!

Ss Peter and Paul

2011-06-29T10:07:00.001+01:00

Happy Solemnity!

Today we celebrated the memory and ask for the intercession of Ss Peter and Paul, the two pillars of the apostolic Church. We often see Peter's role as maintaining the tradition of the Church and bringing the Jewish people to the fulness of faith in Christ, and Paul's role as spreading the Gospel to the wider world, particularly the pagans. But in reality both apostles did both these things. People nowadays like to label each other as Liberal or Conservative. We could say that both apostles were "conservative" (in the true sense of the word) in handing on the faith and the tradition as they had received it, and "liberal" in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the "glad tidings" (evangelion) that changes the whole world. To be one or the other is to be merely political. To be both insofar as is appropriate to each is to be Catholic. Tradition and grace do not exist without one another.

"It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation." (2 Cor 4: 18)

The Power of the Cross

2011-06-27T23:05:00.001+01:00

For a few weeks now it has been known that Fr John Corapi, the popular TV evangelist who often appeared on EWTN, and who was suspended from ministry due to an abuse allegation, has decided to resign from priestly ministry. This will be a shock to many, and I haven't read enought to know all the details, but the gist of it seems to be that he feels he can be more effective if he resigns from ministry and takes up an apostolate as an evangelist on his new website, Black SheepDog. In this way he refuses to "crawl under a rock and die" because he still believes he has "something to offer".

I don't want to criticise Fr Corapi, not knowing the ins and outs, and I know other seminarians and I have been encouraged by his witness to the faith in his preaching. But it is sad to see a priest resign from ministry, even if his faculties were already suspended. Surely the Cross is most present in the priest's ministry when he is helpless, and the power of the Crucified most evident in his weakness. That is not the same as "crawling under a rock to die", though this is how the world, without a supernatural perspective, is bound to see the situation. Rather, it is to be "odedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2) as Christ was, and to imitate the martyrs who "loved not their lives even unto death" (Revelation 12).

In an article in the Catholic Herald this weekend there was a quote from Sue Ryder to the effect that, "Our tragedy is not that we suffer, but that we waste suffering". Only someone with faith can understand this. I suspect that Fr Corapi's fidelity to his priesthood in the face of suffering would be inestimably more fruitful that any number of autobiographies or apostolic websites.

We cannot know if Fr Corapi is in fact innocent, but we can pray for Fr Corapi, as well as for all priests who feel powerless and abandoned.

Roll On September

2011-06-27T22:34:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we finished the year at Oscott, and one more deacon was acquired for the Church (Rev Michael Glover for Birmingham Archdiocese). This marks the end of the community as we know it, for in September the community will be twice as big, with the arrival of Ushaw and others! The singing in the chapel will no doubt be a lot louder. It promises to be a wonderful and exciting time, on top of the excitement of having the ordinary of the Mass in the new revised translation (it doesn't take much to make me happy)! In the meantime, there are priestly ordinations to attend, including our very own Rev Padraig Hawkins on Saturday 9th July! Keep him in your prayers please as that day approaches.

Oscotian Day

2011-06-23T09:34:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was the Feast of Ss John Fisher and Thomas More, as everyone knows. It was also the birthday of Blessed Dominic Barberi. It was also Oscotian Day. Those who studied at the college, priests and also some laymen, came back to celebrate the heritage of Oscott, to meet in fraternity, and to remember their own time here (hopefully with fondness). Msgr Philip Shryane from Bury St Edmunds was the president this year and celebrated the Mass. At lunch the rector looked back over the past year, a 'fairly quiet year' he said tongue in cheek, only the Papal Visit and two successful Invocation events to account for, as well as frantic preparations for a seminary community twice its present size come September...

There were I think seven East Anglians up here for the day, and it was great to see them, especially as last year they were on the diocesan retreat and could not come. The lunch was a real occassion for comraderie, and makes the day one of the highpoints of the college year.

Long may Oscott serve the Church faithfully in England, Scotland and Wales, preparing men to be Her priests.

The Nuncio and Adoration

2011-06-21T10:02:00.001+01:00

As Simon has already posted, we had a wonderful Invocation event for young people at the weekend, which concluded with the Nuncio's celebration of Mass on Trinity Sunday. I was struck by some of his words in the homily about Adoration. Here is the paragraph:

"I should like to commend to you the practice of Eucharistic Adoration which you have experienced during this weekend of discernment. Adoration draws us away from external distractions into a growing communion with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. Encourage your friends to join you in this practice. In Eucharistic Adoration, whatever our personal circumstances, we are drawn out of ourselves towards the Sacramental Presence of Christ who came so that we might have life."

It is encouraging to see an Archbishop so frank about the importance of Adoration, even to the point of encouraging us to share its importance with others. It is in the Eucharist that we find the answer to our very existence, an existence which is founded on a relationship with Another. Bishop Mark Davies made this point very well the day before. The Nuncio was very gracious after the Mass, and made a point of meeting many of the young discerners during lunch, including a group of East Anglians. He even seemed to appreciate our invitation for him to visit East Anglia!

Finding true life...

2011-06-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

Invocation saw a number of key-not speeches. Today's speaker - a consecrated layperson - talked of living in the world, but not being of it, and the importance of being true to your vocation in life: priestly, religious or lay. All vocations are equal in dignity; they are all different, but one is not 'more important' than the other.

Pope Benedict bestowed his Apostolic blessing on the gathering, and the presence of many bishops, along with the Nuncio himself today, demonstrates the vital importance the Church's hierarchy places on young people and discernment.

Today, I was reminded of something which was quite important to me on my vocational journey to seminary, which was Pope Benedict's homily at the opening of his pontificate 6 years ago. He said:

If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.

Invocation

2011-06-19T19:34:00.001+01:00

Well, Invocation 2011 is all over.

The Apostolic Nuncio has just celebrated Sunday Mass for the attendees. Here are a few of some of the first pictures of the event:

Archbishop Longley opened the event with Vespers on Friday;
I'm not sure how many turned up, but the chapel seemed pretty full to me!
Later that evening, Fr John Hemer, a Mill Hill missionary, and former
Oscott lecturer presented a talk about finding your vocation in the modern world.

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury celebrated Mass
of the Dedication of the Cathedral on Saturday.

Where the Holy Eucharist is found you will also find the answer to the greatest
question of your life-time. Here you will find your true vocation.

St. John Vianney...used to point to the Altar and Tabernacle...and say:
“He is here, He is here, the One who loves us so much, He is here.”
The question which King Solomon had asked before the altar he built:
“Will God really live with men on earth?” is answered beyond all imagining in the Eucharist.
And you’ll notice in the Gospel that it is in the very moment that
Simon Peter recognises who Jesus truly is, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God,”
that he also discovers who he truly is, his own unexpected vocation,
“you are Peter,” the rock on which the Church will be built.

The Chapel was full; plenty of extra seating was provided.

On Saturday night, we "walked with God" in a torch-lit
Eucharisticprocession around the grounds.

We finished up with benediction, of the congregation and the city,
from the front of the college.

Archbishop Mennini, the Apostolic Nuncio
(the Papal representative in Great Britain),
celebrated Mass on Sunday.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord

2011-06-12T17:59:00.000+01:00

Today is Pentecost.

The Easter season comes to an end, but Christ, who has ascended to the Father, promises to send the Advocate, an event which is commemorated today, bringing to completion the Paschal mystery: "The Holy Spirit prepares us with his grace in order to draw us to Christ. He manifests the risen Lord to us, opening our minds. He makes present the mystery of Christ. And he reconciles us, bringing us into communion with God."

The Liturgy, the most perfect form of worship which we can offer to the Father, expresses most perfectly the meaning of a celebration, and today is no different. The new translation of today's preface of the Mass, addressed to the Father, reads:

Bringing your Paschal mystery to completion, you bestowed the Holy Spirit today on those you made your adopted children by uniting them to your Only Begotten Son. This same Spirit, as the Church came to birth, opened to all peoples the knowledge of God and brought together the many languages of the earth in profession of the one faith.

The Roman liturgy is as succinct as ever in its simple and noble expressions.

Tonight, those to be ordained, which, for our diocese, includes Pádraig, make their Profession of Faith at Vespers. This is a public act, sworn on Holy Scripture, proclaimed aloud and written in their own hand, of their fidelity to Christ and the Church, before they are called to be ordained in a few weeks.

High Mass in the Slipper Chapel:
Oscott on pilgrimage to Walsingham in the 1930s.
It was on this pilgrimage that Oscott donated a processional cross
to the shrine, which is still used today. Hopefully, we will use it tomorrow!

This evening also sees the arrival of the students from Ushaw who will be joining us in September. They are spending the whole week with us at Oscott. We will be spending the middle of the week undertaking more pastoral study days on the new English translation of the Roman Missal. Tomorrow, however, we are all traveling to Walsingham together on pilgrimage, to ask Our Lady's intercession for our community and the needs of the world. We are looking forward to being back in East Anglia, even for only a few hours!

At the end of this week, we are hosting Invocation! Please keep all these intentions in your prayers this week.

Spiritus Domini, the Introit Antiphon for the second Mass of Pentecost, which was sung at Mass at Oscott today, it reads:
The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, alleluia, and that which contains all things has knowledge of the voice, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee before his face, alleluia.

From the Dominicans

2011-06-12T13:48:00.000+01:00

Our friends in Blackfriars have produced an excellent short video showing their way of life and charism in the Order of Preachers; you may want to take a look:

Ministries Mass

2011-06-10T23:57:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, the second year, including Simon and Ben, were instituted into the Ministry of Lector by Bishop Pargeter, and Long, from fourth year (Birmingham) was instituted into the Ministry of Acolyte.

More on the run

2011-06-10T15:05:00.000+01:00

On your marks...!

Ben comes in on his bike

Weeks of training paid off for Father Rector!

An almost photo finish!

Father Spiritual Director close behind!

Rev. Hawkins just isn't convinced

Man in Cassocks 10k run

2011-06-07T22:55:00.000+01:00

Today, we ran for 10 kilometres around the college grounds to raise money for our charities.

Ben cycled round, while all those hours in the gym paid off for Henry and Pádraig, who completed the seven laps in well under an hour. Well done you! Simon elected to walk around at a gentleman's pace, and brought up the rear at just over an hour; he has decided to spend more time in the gym in future!

If you would like to donate to our charities (Aid to the Church in Need and the Andrew Robinson Trust), please contact the Chairman of Oscott Action for Justice and Peace, at the college address, shown in the side-bar.

Pictures will follow soon no doubt, so watch this space!

A different kind of vocation...

2011-06-05T17:46:00.000+01:00

With Invocation 2011 less that 2 weeks away now (!), here is a short documentary on the life of a hermit priest who lives in Ireland. I haven't managed to find a tenuous link with East Anglia as yet, but it sheds a some light on a very different kind of vocation some in our diocese and beyond may be called to in the future...

All about catechetical theory

2011-05-27T20:49:00.000+01:00

Since we have finished our exams (well, all bar the STB exam Saturday for top-year!), we have, for the past two days, had, in our timetable, 'Pastoral Study Days'. These are opportunities apart from the normal academic programme, to engage with issues and situations in the priestly ministry. I suppose they are the times when we learn priestcraft (that's the aim anyway).

Yesterday, Dr Farey, until this year, Thomistic philosophy lecturer, led a day on Catechesis for the lower house.

We began our day with the aim of catechesis, which, as Blessed John Paul II reminded us, should look a little like this:

In order that the sacrificial offering of his of her faith should be perfect, the person who becomes a disciple of Christ has the right to receive 'the word of faith' not in mutilated, falsified or diminished form but whole and entire, in all its rigour and vigour. (Catechesi Tradendae, 30)

All persons, including children, have the right to know who they are, and who God is, in order to hand themselves over more fully to God as a sacrificial offering. This is what every soul is made to do, so that Christ may take it to the eternal bliss of heaven.

For example, all Christians should have been taught the sign of the cross. It is the birthright of every Christian, to take this sign, and cover themselves with it, and through the invocation that accompanies, wrap themselves in the persons of the Blessed Trinity. Not all Catholics, however, are aware of something as simple as the sign of the cross, and its significance. In catechesis, one cannot presume anything, and, for catechists, one cannot pass on what one has not received.

The life of the early Church demonstrates for us the method of catechesis relevant event today.

They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)

We can see from this, a four non-optional dimensions for, not only catechetical method, but for living the Christian life:

Teaching of the Apostles
Life in Christ
Sacraments
Prayer

In living this Christian life, Christ, of course, is at the heart, both in his human nature, and as a person of the Blessed Trinity. This is called a Trinitarian-Christocentricity. In catechetical method, this does not mean that you must talk about Christ for, say, 80% of the time, rather, everything is connected, and all leads to Christ (we call this the nexus mysteriorum). These four dimensions of teaching the Christian life are organic, systematic and comprehensive: that it is connected and grows, it is arranged intelligibly, and it leaves nothing out.

We should also look at the law of the Church (Canon law), when thinking about catechesis (Canons 773-80).

There is a whole chapter in the code of canon law all about catechesis, next to the chapter about homiletics: so, catechesis, in the mind of the Church, is just as important as the homily you hear (or give) every Sunday!

The parish priest is bound, before God, to undertake his proper duty to take care of catechesis in the parish, both through doctrinal instruction and example and experience. He is the person, who not only is responsible for organising catechesis, but he himself is the teacher of our first teachers, our parents, and our sacramental sponsors. He exercises this power from the bishop, and no-one can take away this grave responsibility, and he should employ all the resources and helps available to him (remembering that the personhood of Christ is found more in man's personhood than on a screen!).

There is envisaged, in the code, five types of catechesis, in this order:

Catechesis for the celebration of the sacraments: this is for everybody, and it goes on forever. Nobody should be celebrating the sacraments without adequate preparation. Perhaps an example of this is preparing lapsed-people immediately a sacrament such as baptism and marriage. This means, not only what they 'do' to participate, but what they are 'doing' in participating.
Catechesis in preparation for the first reception of the sacraments: this is what, perhaps, most people are referring to when they say 'catechesis'; as we see, sacramental preparation is just a part of what catechesis is. This is for everybody, but happens only once. Our sacramental life is nourished through on-going catechesis.
Catechesis after the first reception of the sacraments: in the early Church, this was called 'mystagogia', and it refers to the on-going catechesis immediately after the sacrament, whether that be baptism (for adults and older children), first communion, or confirmation. The person still needs to be instructed at this time, perhaps even more so than before. Just think of all the grace present from the sacrament just received; it is important to keep that flame burning.
Catechesis for the impaired: sometimes, we are required to instruct people who are impeded in some way by a disability, physical or mental, which necessitates particular care and attention.
Catechesis for the faith of youth and adults: this is for the on-going formation of 'grown ups', in order to strengthen, enlighten and develop their faith in a variety of different ways. Every person has a right to this formation (though, obviously, it ultimately requires them to respond to it!). For those who undertake a particular ministry in a parish, it is particularly important, and they should all have access to at least an annual 'day of recollection' and 'day of formation', whether they be Extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion, readers or flower-arrangers: none are more important than the other in what they do for Christ, and, in fact, these are the people most open to formation.

There are many different materials available to parish priests and his catechists, and they should always be inspected for their Trinitarian-Christocentricity. Really, we should ask what these materials are teaching. Are they affected by agendas other than Christ's? Ultimately, we must remember that the Blessed Trinity is the light which illuminates everything else; without it, there is darkness.

Some important resources and links:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (not everyone starts here!)

General Directory for Catechesis

Top Ten Errors in Catechesis Today (a good checklist to see if your resources could be improved!)

Courses:

RCIA Catechists' Manual (available from various places)

Echoes Course (a wide-ranging learning resource run by Maryvale)

Anchor Course (a really excellent and simple course designed for parents of children on preparation courses, but I think could have a wider use)

Evangelium Course (RCIA-based catechesis, both for preparation and on-going formation, in partnership with the CTS)

Vulneratus caritatis sum ego

2011-05-27T09:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Saint Philip's Day, the whole seminary travelled down to the Oratory in Birmingham to assist at High Mass to commemorate their holy Father, St Philip Neri.

Birmingham Oratory, decorated for St Philip's day, 2011

Father Rector preached on St Philip, particularly, how he can be used as a model for evangelisation today. He also highlighted the significance and importance of the Bishops' recent decision to restore the compulsory Friday penance of abstention from meat.

The Vision of St Philip, by Reni

There were many holy people around in the Church during the sixteenth century, and St Philip was perhaps as popular then as he is now. The 'Apostle of Rome' was a key figure in missionary activity to the 'down and outs' of Rome, as well as inspiring many in the work of the re-evanglisation of Europe after the Reformation. He was a man of extraordinary spirituality and love of God, which poured out through his personality; he is well-known for his jollity and vivacity! In fact, Father Mark mentioned the importance of this aspect of a priest's life, and, indeed, the life of all Christians, in spreading the Good News.

Back to yesterday. It was the first time in anybody's memory, that Oscotians had joined the Oratorians en masse. The Fathers had previously joined us for lunch at the seminary after the Papal visit, but it was a joy to celebrate the feast of their founder with them, in their beautiful church in Edgbaston. There have been many personal links between the two houses, and it was great to see our long relationship solemnised in this way.

Father Provost, Richard Duffield, gave us a brief tour, and showed us some of Blessed John Henry's items, including his writing desk, violin and original letters (as well as an original facsimile of Elgar's setting of his poem, The Dream of Gerontius), and we said prayers before his shrine. After Mass, which was accompanied by the music of Father Tomas Luis de Victoria, one of my favourites, whose quadricentenntial anniversary falls this year, we were treated with champagne and chocolates with the community in the Newman exhibition. It was great to see champagne corks being fired across a room filled with important artifacts and glass cabinets!

Even Pushkin, the Oratory cat, joined us.

Live life to the full

2011-05-15T13:45:00.000+01:00

Today is Vocations Sunday, and many Oscotians have gone out to parishes - some close, some far away! - to speak to their congregations about vocations, specifically, to the priesthood.

Needless to say, the house is significantly depleted. The remnant shall be assisting and serving Mass at St Chad's Cathedral this morning.

St Chad's Basilica in Birmingham

On May bank holiday, several of the seminarians were able to travel to Walsingham for the diocesan pilgrimage, on the translated solemnity of St George. It was our Easter holiday, so we travelled with our parishes or families.

Bishop Michael's latest published update reads:

Our Diocesan Theme for this year has been not only, ‘Proclaim the Good News’, but also ‘Make Disciples of All Nations’. To do so requires real courage, especially when, like the first Christians at Pentecost, we have to leave our own ‘Upper Room’ and go out into the market place, well beyond our comfort zone.

We can only do this effectively if we stay close to Christ like the vine and the branches which was the Gospel passage at the Pilgrimage. We were also reminded in the book of Revelation that day, that Victory and Empire belong to Christ alone, and that only he can give us the strength and courage that we need.

We hear him say personally to each of us; ‘Courage, do not be afraid, I am with you always, to the end of time.’

We need to pray for courage in all the things we do and decisions we make in life, and in bearing the crosses we are given to bear, as Christ left us an example, that we should follow in his steps.

On this Vocations Sunday, we should ask, out of love, what the Lord wants us to do, and ask for the strength and courage to do it.

The Good Shepherd

Pugin's Rocket

2011-05-06T11:40:00.001+01:00

Now that I have worked out how to use my mobile camera telephone, I've uploaded some of my photographs to my computer. Here is a couple of our chapel for Easter this year (being in Ushaw for the Sacred Triduum, this is the first time we've been in college for the season this year). Some astute readers may notice a slight sanctuary re-ordering, which occurred at the start of Lent, with the use of some newly acquired benches for concelebrants (who previously sat in the quire). The Minton tiles have been washed and re-sealed, so the floor looks like glass!

And here's a close-up of our famous 'Rocket', one of the few of Pugin's original features. It hasn't been seen since 2009, because we did not have a Paschal candle last year. Pity the poor wax sacristan, who has to climb the stairs every day to light it!

It is an Oscott custom for the Paschal candle to be decorated by one of the students, and Henry obliged us this year, and very elaborately too! For Royal Wedding buffs, you may have noticed the similarity between our sanctuary frescos and the Archbishop of Canterbury's cope fabric: both were the same Pugin design!

New term

2011-05-05T12:33:00.000+01:00

Oops.

We forgot to post anything for the past 3 weeks!

The third and final term of our year starts today. I have just returned to Oscott, having popped into the Polling Station at home before I set off to vote in the referendum and local council election. It is very important to exercise our civic responsibility, even if we don't think it is really important. It is a great privilege to be able to vote in elections, from conclaves to councils!

Most of us are preparing to move rooms now, to make room for the workmen who are going to complete the renovations to accommodate all the new students we are going to get in September. We also have exams to revise for, so it is going to be a busy few days!

Now, where is my Greek textbook...

Liverpool Cathedrals

2011-04-19T22:36:00.001+01:00

Today a few of my year went on an outing to Liverpool, because we'd never been. It is a nice city to wander around, and the warm sunshine was a bonus! We went to Mass at the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King. I'd seen pictures of it already, so I wasn't too surprised by what I saw, but I must say I still haven't warmed to it!

Having said that there were a few things in it I did like, such as the images in the St Joseph Chapel.

From there we went to the Anglican Cathedral, which was designed by the notable Catholic architect Giles Gilbert Scott (at the age of 22!) in 1903, but wasn't finished until 1978. Ampleforth Abbey is another of Scott's achievements... The cathedral is the biggest in the UK, and is certainly an impressive space, giving the aura of a moody, continental, gothic cathedral I think...

Make of the two what you will! I know which I prefer.

Of Gods and Men

2011-04-18T22:24:00.001+01:00

One of the nice things about Holy Week in the seminary is that there is a change of gear in the life of the community. The regular timetable gives way to a more flexible programme that centres on celebrating the major liturgies of the week and preparing ourselves spiritually for the Triduum. Yesterday we went to Palm Sunday Mass in St Chad's cathedral, celebrated by His Grace Archbishop Bernard. We will go there again for the Chrism Mass on Wednesday, and then we're off to Ushaw for the Triduum (sorry that once again we can't all come back to East Anglia for the Chrism Mass in St John's Cathedral).

This morning we watched a beautiful film - Of Gods and Men. The French film came out around Christmas I recall, but was only in certain cinemas in this country (it was widely watched in France). It tells the true story of a group of French Cistercian monks in Algeria in the 1990's, who get caught up in a spree of Isalmist terrorism that is targeted against foreigners. The monks live a peacable existence, praying, doing manual work, and helping the Muslim population in the local village (mainly through providing medical treatment). With the new threat, they must decide whether to stay, or to flee to safety. The monks are initally very nervous, and resentful of their superior Frere Christian's principled decision to stay put. Each one of them has to wrestle with his understaning of his monastic vocation, and what it means to radically commit his life to Christ. Their existence is very much presented in the film as a love story, the seduction of the monks by Christ's call and their faithful relationship with him in prayer and service. It is very well acted, and while the monks are shown to have very real, human reactions to their unexpected predicament (fear, anxiety, reluctance, confusion), their courage and faith shine through it all.

Do see it if you are able - the DVD has come out now!

Jesus of Nazareth - Did Jesus Celebrate the Passover?

2011-04-18T21:43:00.000+01:00

One thing emerges from [the tradition of the Last Supper]: essentially, this farewell meal was not the old Passover, but the new one, which Jesus accomplished in this context. Even though the meal that Jesus shared with the Twelve was not a Passover meal according to the ritual prescriptions of Judaism, nevertheless, in retrospect, the inner connection of the whole event with Jesus' death and Resurrection stood out clearly. It was Jesus' Passover. And in this sense he both did and did not celebrate the Passover: the old rituals could not be carried out - when their time came, Jesus had already died. But he had given himself, and thus he had truly celebrated the Passover with them. The old was not abolished; it was simply brought to its full meaning.

Retreat over

2011-04-16T17:43:00.000+01:00

Our 5-day retreat is now over. Blimey, that went quick! I'm sure some of the brethren felt it went slowly, however! Silence is not the easiest thing to do for so long, especially in seminary, where the natural laws of the space-time continuum do not apply, and a week seems like an hour.

The retreat was led by Dom Christopher Jamison, as was intimated last week in the previous post. Fr Christopher, Abbot Emeritus of Worth, proved an excellent retreat-giver. Over the past week, he talked about the Eight Thoughts of the Desert Fathers - and Mothers - and their relationship with the Seven Sacraments.

I had never heard of these eight thoughts, though when they were mentioned by name, I realised that in the west, they have been transformed into the Seven Capital Sins, minus one.

The Desert Fathers (the earliest of the Church's monks, who lived in the Egyptian desert in the early centuries; among them was, notably, St Anthony) clearly had quite a sophisticated understanding of anthropology and spirituality! They believed that the human person was vulnerable to assaults from eight demons:

Demons of the body

Gluttony

Lust

Greed

Demons of the heart

Acedia

Anger

Sadness

Demons of the soul

Vanity

Pride

Fr Christopher juxtaposed these thoughts with the seven sacraments, and how these provide the sanctifying grace to combat these thoughts during our lives. He finished the retreat talking about the importance of praying and preparing for a happy death, and the meaning of happiness.

Oscott retreats have a particular look about them. They are characterised by silence in the house all day, for the duration of the retreat. Silence not only includes not speaking to each other, but avoiding the use of telephones, internet, computers and radios. How a seminarian responds to this is entirely according to his conscience! I, for one, simply could not get up in the morning without a little Classic FM to tease me from underneath the covers! What is more important than exterior silence, however, is interior silence, which allows a space within us for God to gently speak to us. We are permitted a little half-an-hour lie in every day, and, like every other day in term-time, it begins with meditation and morning prayer. After breakfast, the retreat-giver delivers a spiritual conference for about 45 minutes, followed by free time for prayer and reflection before Mass, at which he preaches daily, and a silent lunch. In the afternoon, we have more time for prayer and reflection, or, indeed, any other appropriate pursuit we wish to engage in, until tea-time, by which time we are ready for another conference, and more time for reflection. After Vespers and supper, we gather for holy hour - one of which is a penitential service - before bed. We have opportunities, if we want, to talk to the retreat-giver.

I quite like our retreats; after a long term, and having finished lectures and essays for the year, it is good to have a few days to charge our spiritual batteries before celebrating Holy Week and Easter together. I do find it a little difficult to 'tune back in' to planet earth after long retreats, because I can get far too used to the luxury of my own company!

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. We are traveling, as demanded by Oscott tradition of several decades (which I believe dates back to Archbishop Dwyer), to St Chad's Cathedral to serve the Archbishop's celebration of Mass and a procession of psalms.

This Triduum, the college is traveling to Ushaw, to celebrate Easter as a single community, as will be the case in reality from September. Normally, students attend their diocesan Chrism Masses in Holy Week, but we will be remaining in Birmingham, as we are traveling to the frozen north on Wednesday.

I'm sure you'll see lots about Holy Week, and, indeed, a few reflections of our retreat in the coming days, so keep us book-marked!

Retreat

2011-04-11T00:21:00.000+01:00

We're on a 5 day silent retreat starting tomorrow, led by Fr Christopher Jamison (the monk behind the TV programmes "The Monastery" and "The Big Silence", now working for the National Vocations Office). In order to engage properly in the retreat, there will be no posts here until Saturday.

See you on the flip side!

Jesus of Nazareth 7 - Set apart for mission

2011-04-10T15:03:00.000+01:00

Pope Benedict's words today draw a connection between Jesus being set apart from the world, in order to serve the world, just as we as Christians are set apart from the world in the universal call to holiness, but only in order to bring the whole world to God.

The process of consecration, "sanctification", includes two apparently opposed, but in reality deeply conjoined, aspects. On the one hand, "consecrating" as "sanctifying" means setting apart from the rest of reality that pertains to man's ordinary everyday life. Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control. But this setting apart also includes the essential dynamic of "existing for". Precisely because it is entirely given over to God, this reality is now there for the world, for men, it speaks for them and exists for their healing. We may also say: setting apart and mission form a single whole.

The connection between the two can be seen very clearly if we consider the special vocation of Israel: on the one hand, it is set apart from all other peoples, but for a particular reason - in order to carry out a commission for all peoples, for the whole world. That is what is meant when Israel is designated a "holy people".

Jesus of Nazareth 6 - the High Priestly Prayer

2011-04-09T21:20:00.000+01:00

Jesus' prayer [in John 17] manifests him as the high priest of the Day of Atonement. His Cross and his exaltation is the Day of Atonement for the world, in which the whole of world history - in the face of all human sin and its destructive consequences - finds its meaning and is aligned with its true purpose and destiny...

...And is it not the case that our need to be reconciled with God - the silent, mysterious, seemingly absent, and yet omnipresent God - is the real problem of the whole of world history?

Jesus of Nazareth 5 - Creation is for the Covenant

2011-04-08T21:41:00.000+01:00

According to rabbinic theology, the idea of the covenant - the idea of establishing a holy people to be an interlocutor for God in union with him - is prior to the idea of the creation of the world and supplies its inner motive. The cosmos was created, not that there might be manifold things in heaven and earth, but that there might be a space for the "covenant", for the loving "yes" between God and his human respondent.

Jesus of Nazareth 4 - heroism and humility

2011-04-07T12:58:00.000+01:00

During the washing of feet, in the atmosphere of farewell that pervades the scene, Peter asks his master quite openly: "Lord, where are you going?" And again he receives a cryptic answer: "Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward". Peter understands that Jesus is speaking of his imminent death, and he now wants to emphasise his radical fidelity even unto death: "Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you". Indeed, shortly afterward on the Mount of Olives, he rushes in with his sword, ready to put his intention into effect. But he must learn that even martyrdom is no heroic achievement: rather, it is a grace to be able to suffer for Jesus. He must bid farewell to the heroism of personal deeds and learn the humility of the disciple.

Jesus of Nazareth 3 - The wrong kind of remorse

2011-04-06T20:06:00.001+01:00

Pope Benedict reflects on what happens to Judas in betraying Jesus:

He has come under the dominion of another. Anyone who breaks off friendship with Jesus, casting off his "easy yoke", does not attain liberty, does not become free, but succumbs to other powers. To put it another way, he betrays this friendship because he is in the grip of another power to which he has opened himself.

True, the light shed by Jesus into Judas' soul was not completely extinguished. He does take a step toward conversion: "I have sinned", he says to those who commissioned him. He tries to save Jesus, and he gives the money back. Everything pure and great that he had received from Jesus remained inscribed on his soul - he could not forget it.

His second tragedy - after the betrayal - is that he can no longer believe in forgiveness. His remorse turns to despair. Now he sees only himself and his darkness; he no longer sees the light of Jesus, which can illumine and overcome the darkness... Genuine remorse is marked by the certainty of hope born of faith in the superior power of the light that was made flesh in Jesus.

Congratulations

2011-04-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

Bishop McMahon with (L - R) Henry, Neil, Craig and Linh,
after their admission to Candidacy

As Henry mentioned in a previous post, fourth year yesterday received Candidature for Holy Order at the hands of Bishop Malcolm McMahon, OP. Congratulations Henry and all of our brothers!

It was a very beautiful occasion, and unexpectedly emotional (for me at least...but that doesn't take much!). Candidature, or, in American, Candidacy, as we call it at Oscott, is the last step before the Sacrament of Order. The Church has recognised that these four young men are now regarded as appropriate candidates to become priests. Now their formation is oriented entirely towards that end.

May God, who has begun this good work in you, bring it to fulfillment!

Jesus of Nazareth 2 - The Washing of Feet

2011-04-05T16:42:00.001+01:00

Maundy Thursday 2008 in the Lateran Basilica

What the Letter to the Philippians says in its great Christological hymn [chapter 2] - namely, that unlike Adam, who had tried to grasp divinity for himself, Christ moves in the opposite direction, coming down from his divinity into humanity, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient even to death on a cross - all this is rendered visible in a single gesture. Jesus represents the whole of his saving ministry in one symbolic act. He divests himself of his divine splendour; he, as it were, kneels down before us; he washes and dries our soiled feet, in order to make us fit to sit at table for God's wedding feast.

Candidacy

2011-04-05T14:58:00.000+01:00

A while back I mentioned that we went on retreat to prepare for Admission as Candidates, when we make a formal resolve to continue in our formation and be spiritually and mentally formed to be faithful to Christ and His Church as deacons and priests. Tonight four of us will receive Candidacy (for the dioceses of Birmingham, Nottingham, and myself for East Anglia), celebrated by Bishop Malcom McMahon of Nottingham diocese. We are excited, and grateful to God for this occassion! Please pray for us, that we may carry out our resolve of fidelity to Christ and the Church. Thank you!

Jesus of Nazareth - The New Commandment

2011-04-04T16:30:00.002+01:00

As mentioned yesterday, today is the first of a new series of posts taken from the Pope's second book on Jesus of Nazareth (replacing the Imitation posts). He is very concise in the way he touches on historical and critical perspectives of the Gospels and their interpretation, while at the same time presenting to us the spirit of the texts, so that ultimately we can come closer to Jesus. Here is a passage from his reflection on the Old Commandments and the meaning of the New Commandment of Christ at the Last Supper (to love one another):

...Who could possibly claim to have risen above the "average" way of the 10 Commandments, to have left them behind as self-evident, so to speak, and now to walk along the exalted paths of the "new law"? No, the newness of the new commandment cannot consist in the highest moral attainment. Here too, the essential point is not the call to supreme achievement, but the new foundation of being that is given to us. The newness can come only from the gift of being-with and being-in Christ.

Last Imitation? - the need to have recourse to God in troubles

2011-04-03T16:08:00.000+01:00

Apologies for not posting an Imitation yesterday. I'm finding it hard to select bits that aren't repeating what has already been said - that's just the nature of the book it seems! So I was wondering, seeing as I've begun Pope Benedict's new book on Jesus of Nazareth, maybe I'll post something from that each day instead of the Imitation. If anyone's go any objections let me know. Otherwise, tomorrow you will find a quote from Jesus of Nazareth...

Here's today's Imitation:

"Moses always had recourse to the tabernacle in order to decide all doubts and questions, and fled to the aid of prayer for help against the dangers and wickedness of men. So must you, in like manner, take refuge in the secret of your heart, and there most earnestly implore God's help."

Happy Laetare Sunday!

2011-04-03T16:00:00.000+01:00

Happy Laetare Sunday to everyone! It's called Laetare after the entrance antiphon for the Mass:

Laetare Ierusalem, et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam; gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae.

(Rejoice Jerusalem, and make an assembly, all who love her; be glad with joy, who were mourning, so that you exult, and you will be filled from her consoling breasts.)

On this day, when the priest wears rose vestments instead of purple, there is rejoicing (of a Lenten sort!) that we are halfway through our Lenten journey.We hope everyone is having a blessed season so far. Also, Happy Mother's Day to all Mums (ours included)!

Imitation 21 - Peace (continued)

2011-04-01T17:47:00.000+01:00

"Your peace does not depend on the tongues of men, because, whether they judge well or evil of you, you are not thereby another man. Where is true peace and true glory? Is it not in me? And he who does not desire to please men, nor fear to displease them, will enjoy much peace. All uneasiness of heart and the distraction of the senses arise from disorderly love and vain fear."

The Common Good

2011-03-31T14:27:00.002+01:00

On Monday evening, Archbishop Vincent Nichols came to give a lecture about the impact of faith on society, and touched on various principles of Catholic social ethics, including subsidiarity and the common good. He proposed an analogy for the common good that I found quite helpful. That is, the common good is not an addition sum, where the rights and needs of various groups within society are added together. Rather, it is more like a multiplication sum, in that as far as any group's needs are ignored (given a value of 0), then the sum of the equation, the common good, is also in some way negated (given a value of 0).

* * *

We live in a society that does marvellous work in many areas. We give to charities. We have a health system that provides healthcare access for all. We pride ourselves on, and to a certain degree have, toleration for varying beliefs and cultural traditions. But the rights of certain groups are ignored, or at least questioned. The unborn are an obvious group, whose fundamental right to life is ignored. The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, themselves allegedly protecting aginst unjust discrimination, are a means by which peaceful professions of faith are limited to what is in vogue with the current government, and it impinges upon the rights of conscience. The elderly are not always seen as having intrinsic worth, but sometimes are sidelined as living "a poor quality of life" that is better terminated. These are generalisations, I know, but nonetheless discernable for all that. And they suggest a tension between various understandings of social ethics today. Pope Benedict, in his speech to politicians in Westminster Hall, challenged us to recover a sense of a common ethical foundation for the common good in society:

"What are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be solved? These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse. If the moral principles underpinning the democratic proces are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy."

Our choice is the choice of the Gospel parable to build our house on sand or on rock. If society is built on the sand of social consensus, then the worst human atrocities are possible and even inevitable. If it is built on rock, then it will weather the storm of changing fashion.

Imitation 20 - The Way of Peace and Liberty

2011-03-31T13:41:00.000+01:00

In one dialogue between Christ and the soul, Christ says that there are four ways to peace and true liberty:

"Try, my son, to do the will of another rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Always seek to take the last place, and to be subject to everyone. Always desire and pray that the will of God be perfectly fulfilled in you. Behold, a man so disposed enters within the land of peace and rest."

Imitation 19 - Sound of Silence

2011-03-30T17:47:00.000+01:00

"O Jesus, splendour of eternal glory, comfort of the pilgrim soul! My mouth remains speechless in your presence, but my silence speaks to you. How long will my Lord delay to come? Let him come to me, his poor servant, and make me happy."

Peter Chrysologus

2011-03-30T14:18:00.000+01:00

Yesterday in the Offic of Readings (the first office of the day, which we say in private), there was a wonderful reading from St Peter Chrysologus, the 5th century bishop of Ravenna, about our three-fold Lenten "game plan" of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Here are some quotes:

What prayer knocks for upon a door, fasting successfully begs and mercy receives. Prayer, fasting, and mercy: these three are a unit. They give life to one another. For, fasting is the soul of prayer; and mercy is the life of fasting.

...Have this as your norm of showing mercy. Do you yourself show mercy to others in the same manner, amount, and readiness with which you desire it to be shown to yourself.

Imitation 18 - Patience

2011-03-29T17:57:00.002+01:00

He is not truly patient who wants to suffer no more than he thinks good and only from whom it pleases him. The truly patient man does not mind by whom he is tested...

Imitation 17 - Christ, the Source of the Virtues

2011-03-28T16:50:00.000+01:00

Christ helps Peter walk on the water

"There is no sanctity if you, Lord, withdraw your hand. Wisdom is of no avail, if you cease to govern us. Strength is of no help, if you cease to conserve it. Chastity is no longer secure, if you cease to preserve it.

A guard upon ourselves will be useless, if your holy vigilance is lacking. Because, if we are abandoned, we sink and perish; but if you visit us, we are uplifted and we live. For we are also inconstant, but through you we become strong; we are tepid, but you inflame us."

Playing with Fire

2011-03-27T20:53:00.000+01:00

Yesterday there was, as I was mentioning in another post, a day for Confirmation candidates in the deanery of Bury St Edmunds, called "Playing with Fire". It was a chance to learn more about the Holy Spirit - who is he, what does he do, how is he in our lives? It was also a great chance to learn about prayer, the Mass, the virtues, and to ask questions about the Catholic faith: why do we believe what we believe? Does it all make sense? What does it really mean?

The day was organised by deanery catechists and Hamish McQueen, the diocesan youth worker, and talks and testimonies were given by Fr Stephen Langridge (vocations director in Southwark archdiocese), two Franciscan sisters of the Renewal from Leeds, and Pascal, the young man who greeted the Holy Father in September outside the Westminster Cathedral, on behalf of Britain's young people. Music was provided by a team led by Edwin Fawcett, who sang and played at the Papal Vigil in Hyde Park.

It was a wonderful day, presenting young people with a vision of God who is the ultimate meaning of our existence, and in whose service we can truly become free and happy. There were about a hundred young people from the deanery and elswehere in the diocese, including Norwich cathedral, Peterborough, Dereham, Thetford, Bury and Brandon (with the two newly ordained Frs Luke and Michael present leading their groups, as was Fr John Barnes). There were also opportunities for Confession, and the day ended with a Vigil Mass for Sunday.

Many thanks to all who made the day possible. Hopefully it will not be the last such day for young people to discover and grow in their faith.

Imitation 16 - New Habits

2011-03-27T20:33:00.003+01:00

If we set out on the path of virtue, then...

"The old habit will resist, but it will be overcome by a better habit. The flesh will complain, but it will be held in check by the fervour of the spirit. The old serpent will tempt you and give you trouble, but he will be put to flight by prayer; furthermore, his chied approach will be closed to him by useful works."

Imitation 15 - Water of Life

2011-03-26T22:47:00.000Z

Today's reading fits in well with the Sunday readings tomorrow. Sorry to post this so late, but I've been to a day for Confirmation kids in the diocese. It went very well - I'll post about it tomorrow...

Out of me, both small and great, rich and poor, as from a living fountain, draw the water of life. And they who freely and sponatneously serve me shall receive grace upon grace. But he who would glory in himself, and delight in himself other than me, shall not be established in true joy, no shall his heart be enlarged, but he shall meet with many obstacles and anxieties.

Happy Annunciation! (Imitation 15)

2011-03-25T14:10:00.000Z

Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation... We had a dies non here at seminary, which means we didn't have any lectures this morning. Woopee!

The reflection from the imitation today encapsulates Mary's response to God's will (I changed "he" to "she" in order to make it more explicitly Marian):

The lover flies, runs and rejoices; she is free and nothing can restrain her. She gives all for all, and has all in all, because above all she rests in that one Sovereign Good from whom all goods proceed and flow. She does not regard the gifts, but she turns herself, above all other goods, to the giver. Love often knows no measure, but burns beyond all measure.

Love feels no burden, values no labours, would like to do more than it can do, without pleading impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. In fact, it is ready to do anything, and it performs and effects many things, in which she who does not love faints and succumbs.

Prayers

2011-03-24T14:22:00.000Z

Please say a prayer for a Day for Young People which is taking place in the Bury Deanery on Saturday (for older teenagers). It's a day for learning about the Holy Spirit, with guest speakers and musicians from various diocese. Pray that it will encourage young people to grow in their faith and in their relationship with the Blessed Trinity.

Imitation 14 - What to fear

2011-03-24T14:17:00.001Z

Fear nothing, fly and abhor nothing as much as your vices and sins, which ought to displease you more than any other damage.

The reason we flee from sin is not because God has made some arbitrary meaningless sanctions, not because it's some sort of social faux pas, but because sin is in fact a frustration of what it means to be human, a refusal to realise the end for which God created us, which is radical love. When we sin, it's a bit like eating spiritual cardboard, something bland, artificial, and no good for us!

Imitation 13 - Jesus the New Moses

2011-03-23T12:39:00.000Z

The Transfiguration

[The prophets] can indeed utter words, but they do not confer the spirit. They say beautiful things, but if you [Jesus] are silent, they do not inflame the heart. They transmit the letter, but you reveal the meaning. They state the mysteries, but you enlighten the intelligence concerning the things hidden therein. They announce the commandments, but you help us to practise them. They show us the way, but you give us the strength to walk. They only work on the outside, but you instruct and illumine the hearts. They water the ground, but you give fruitfulness. They warn with words, but you give understanding.

Let not Moses speak to me, therefore, but you, O Lord my God, eternal Truth, so that I may not die and prove fruitless, as would happen if I were only outwardly admonished and not kindled within. So that the word heard and not practiced, known and not loved, believed and not observed, may not be my condemnation.

"Speak then, O Lord, for your servant is listening."

Imitation 12 - The Sweetness of the Cross

2011-03-22T15:48:00.000Z

Why then are you afraid to take up that cross, which leads to the kingdom? In the cross there is salvation; in the cross there is life; in the cross there is protection from your enemies; in the cross there is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the cross there is strength of mind; in the cross there is spiritual joy; in the cross there is the sum of virtue; in the cross there is the perfect holiness.

Pope Benedict, while still a cardinal, wrote that ever since Christ's Paschal Mystery, the whole of salvation history has been interpreted in the light of an exodus, a going out of oneself to God. We can only find ourselves by going out of ourselves (Principles of Catholic Theology). And we do this by uniting our cross to the Cross of Christ. Then it is not merely a burden, but becomes a true sacrifice ("making holy").

Imitation 11 - God's gifts

2011-03-21T20:25:00.000Z

Gathering manna in the desert (from a 13th century Bible)

Be grateful then for every little thing and you will be worthy to receive greater things. Regard the least gift as the greatest, and the most common as a special gift. If you consider the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem little or mean to you. For nothing is small which is given by God most high.

Imitation 10 - Friends with Christ

2011-03-20T20:58:00.000Z

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (top right) by Velazquez

From the Imitation:

Blessed is he who understands what it is to love Jesus and to despise himself for the sake of Jesus. We must leave for this Friend every other friend, because Jesus wants us to love him above all things.

Here Thomas a Kempis gets to the heart of the matter. All discipline in the spiritual life is ordered to friendship with Christ. To "despise" oneself in this sense doesn't mean to hate oneself, but to count one's own comforts and privileges as nothing in the face of gaining the love of Christ. Such self-forgetful love is natural, say, in the case of a young couple. It is also the love that the saints are shown to have in Revelation 12: 11 - "they loved not their lives even unto death." This love is in fact that of Christ himself who "emptied himself" to become man for our sake (Phil 2 7: 7). To leave our friends for this Friend, in a similar way, doesn't mean that we have no friends besides Christ, but that we have no friends contrary to Christ, or even equal to Christ. That is, we do not keep company that will prevent us living our true Christian vocation (think of Caravaggio's painting of the Call of Matthew), and we do not depend on our friends the same we depend on Jesus, who is the Strength to whom we turn, the God who shows us love (Psalm 59: 17). Lent therefore is a great opportunity for stopping to look at this relationship, to ask ourselves if we are willing to "waste time" with Jesus.

Happy St Joseph's Day

2011-03-19T09:39:00.002Z

I always love the Solemnity of St Joseph. This morning at seminary we had (semi?) solemn Morning Prayer, with deacon and servers, and Mass will also be more festive, though it's a normal lecture day for us. But it's worth making the effort!

Let me quote to you St Joseph's most important words on the spiritual life:

" ... ".

Yes, silence is the most important thing he tells us. He teaches us to be people of interior recollection, of prudence, of courage, of loyalty, and of humility in the face of the ineffable mystery of the Christ Event, in which his wife is caught up (as is he). Not only is silence Joseph's appropriate response before the Word of God, Jesus Christ born of Mary, but it is the way in which Joseph comes to understand his own role in God's plan. St Augustine says that there is in each of us a depth so profound that it is hidden even from our very selves. Silence is the means by which we unearth at least something of that profound depth in us, the soul in which the Blessed Trinity makes its home.

The reading from The Imitation of Christ today is very appropriate therefore to this Solemnity:

The interior man cares for his own soul above all other things; and he who diligently attends to himself is easily silent with regard to others. You will never be a recollected and devout man if you are not silent about others, and especially watchful over yourself. If you attend wholly to yourself and to God, you will be disturbed little by what you see around you. Where are you when you are not present to yourself?