Happy New Year

Happy Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, and may you all have a blessed year of 2008! Sorry for the lapse in posts - that can be part of my New Year's resolution...

This Christmas has been my first major break since starting seminary. My first term at seminary was an enjoyable one, and I am looking forward to the coming term. We finished our first rounds of essays and exams - history, latin, Aquinas, classical philosophy, liturgy and Synoptic Gospels. Aquinas, Synoptics and latin are my favourite so far... But the fun and learning doesn't stop with the end of term; for Christmas I got Alice Hogge's 'God's Secret Agents', an account of the Jesuit priests on the English mission during Elizabeth's reign and up to the Gunpowder Plot. Hogges herself is an agnostic, but from what I've read so far she's very sympathetic to the Catholic voice in the Recusant period. What's more it is very easy to read, and relies often on the Jesuit John Gerard's autobiography (a compelling picture of the times through the eyes of a priest in hiding).



Tomorrow some of us are going to the FAITH winter conference, a couple of days of talks and prayer based on 'Hearing God's Word' in the Scripture. There will be sports in the afternoon and a bar in the evening, topped by a ceilidh dance on the last night! What more could anyone want? There is also a session in the summer for any young adults who are interested. I'll let you know how the conference goes.

Advent

Advent. Okay, everybody knows it is a season that is sidelined in the polular consciousness. We get homily after homily about its meaning being lost in the frenzied, commercial run-up to Christmas. But what is the meaning of Advent? Most Catholics (including myself until recently) see it vaguely as a time of preparation and restraint, awaiting the Birth of Christ our Saviour at Christmas. Fr. Tim Finigan calls it an extended penitential season, though according to our liturgy classes it is not as charcteristically penitential as Advent - we still have the Alleluia in Advent, for example.

But more than that, Advent is a season that looks both backwards and forwards; backwards to the First Coming of Christ, and forwards to His Second Coming. That is why the Mass readings of the first few weeks of Advent reflect on Jesus as Judge: 'He will wield authority over the nations and adjudicate between many peoples.' The Gospels are not the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke, but the accounts from Jesus about the end times: 'you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.' Coupled with this are the miraculous works of mercy Jesus performs, healing the lame and crippled, feeding the hungry, giving sight to the blind. On the Last Day Jesus will come as merciful judge, healing those who sought his forgiveness and acknowledged his lordship in their own lives, and standing as the Eternal Truth before all those who sought to evade the truth while they lived. This might sound scary, but it is meant to help us recall our duty to love and serve the Lord as he asks of us, and to help us reflect how we are fulfilling that duty at this moment in time: 'stand ready.'

I haven't had a chance to read Pope Benedict's new encyclical yet, but glancing through it he seems to emphasise that we will never get by on mere fear: 'Hiding through a spirit of fear leads to "destruction"' (Spes Salvi, 9). Rather, what keeps us going is hope, of whom 'God is the foundation' (SS, 31). In this season we are called particularly to hope for our fulfilment in God when we come before Him, the One who is the justification of all our daily trials. In looking forward to the end times, we are better able to appreciate the Incarnation as the salvific event in which our hope was given shape: when all seemed lost, God became man to bring man back to God.

I've written more than I set out to, but I wanted to instil something of the new appreciation I have found in Advent, as a season that prepares for the past through a remembrance of the future! May our Advents be abundantly blessed.

SORRY, numerous people have told me they can't play the video that was posted as part of the last entry about the Holy Souls. I'm really not technologically savvy enough to know how to fix so I can but point you in the direction of the Love To Be Catholic website which has a selection of entertaining videos about the Faith which includes the one by Fr Groeschel that I tried to include in the post. Sorry again. :-(

November - month of the Holy Souls - requiescant in pace

During this month of November it is customary for Catholics to increase their prayers for the souls of those who have died but who are still undergoing purification in purgatory.

It is a very sad thing that prayers for the Holy Souls have become far less common these days (perhaps even because of a loss of belief in purgatory at all!) I say it is very sad because these poor souls need our prayers and are so grateful for them, St John Vianney spoke of how blessed we are in praying for the souls in purgatory because when they reach heaven they will pray for us in return!

Let us never forget the Holy Souls then, and especially not during the month of November - when we ourselves pass from this world and are unready to stand before the face of Love itself we too will be eternally grateful for the prayers of the Church on earth which help us on the last leg of our journey to God.

For a more eloquent account of what purgatory is all about why not watch this video from the great Fr Benedict Groeschel



Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen

Vocations

Last wednesday Michael, Luke and I met up in Bury St. Edmunds (I being on my half-term and they being on placement not far away) to give a vocations talk to the parish confirmation group. Though there are only seven confimandees, they had been promised a prize for the one who brought the most friends with them! Needless to say, there were fifteen or so teenagers there. We watched the film 'Fishers of Men', and after that each of us gave a brief talk about what had attracted us to the priesthood and how we came to be in seminary. The experience of working in the world and the pull of marriage were some of the issues that came up, and we emphasised that priesthood wasn't necessarily an easy life to lead, but that it was a call from God like any other vocation. In the chapel Michael gave a brief reflection on Jesus calling the apostles to be fishers of men. The kids were very attentive, and we can only pray that some of them went away thinking about priesthood and religious life more seriously. In a time when a lot of parishes nationwide are gearing up to close down or amalgamate it is important to remember that the Church's future is in the next generations, and that no administrative plan will substitute the need for vocations.

After the session we joined the curate Fr. Martin Fears in the parish presbytery for dinner (and a very good dinner at that). Fr. Martin is the youngest priest in the diocese and the last East Anglian to be ordained from Oscott - in 2000. In the morning we went to Mass and then had a long-anticipated fry up. It was good to have a coming together of the brethren, to talk about seminary and to 'fortify one another with pious discourse' in the words of one of those youtube videos from a seminary across the water!

moving right along

It's now been over a month since the start of term, and the first assignments are looming on the distant horizon. I'm currently starting an essay on Pope Gregory the Great, as well as reading up on Aquinas, the pre-Socratics, and juggling a healthy dose of latin declensions. And of course there are plenty of other things recreational and spiritual to be taking part in: football, badminton, jaunts to the Birmingham Catholic chaplaincy (Fr. Julian runs a weekly youth prayer group there), chanting practice, preparation for the in-house concert, etc. This last week was riddled with liturgical celebrations, and on Oct 1st we continued the Oscott tradition of crowning a beautiful statue of Mary which resides in the cloisters. Some of us also went to the Birmingham Oratory last night where there was a beautiful Mass of the Sacred Heart to end 40 Hours Devotion there. The college feast day is this coming Tuesday, and that should be quite an occassion. The good news is that there are no lectures that day - but it means I have to cant morning prayer!

Our Lady of Walsingham

Happy feast of Our Lady of Walsingham!

Mother of God, be our Mother always.
Mother of Men, be our Mother always.
Mother of the Church, be our Mother always.
Mother of the world, be our Mother always.
Mother we need, be our Mother always.

(from the Litany of Our Lady of Walsingham)

Parish Life!

Both Michael and myself are on our 'extended parish placement' at the moment. In other words we are working in parishes until Christmas, the idea being that living in the presbytery and engaging in pastoral work gives you an idea of what we're letting ourselves into, when God-willing we are ordained.

Michael is in Cambridge and I am at St. Mary's, Woodbridge Rd, Ipswich. Beginning my third week now I have to say that, although early days, it is turning out to be a unique, life giving if not very busy, chapter of my formation, indeed my life.

The community at St Mary's has been very welcoming and the Parish Priest Monsignor Leeming has been most hospitable.

Most of the work to date has been based around the High School, St Albans. From teaching year 7 RE students about the Mass, to giving
talks on the RCIA programme to exercising my ministry as Lector & Acolyte - I'm certainly being kept busy.

Please pray for Michael and Myself at this critical point in our formation for Priestly ministry.

Watch this Space for further updates and reflections!

Start of Term

As Luke and Michael are now on extended parish placement, I have taken on the mantle as a new student of keeping an update on life at seminary. For us first years, term began on September 1st, and for a few days we were introduced to Oscott and the city of Birmingham. On Sunday we had the chance to say Evening Prayer with Archbishop Vincent Nichols in St. Chad's cathedral. The rest of the college returned on Tuesday, when I met my fellow East Anglian Padraig, who is beginning his third year. During the BBQ on Tuesday evening I got to talk to three Vietnamese students who are also joining the first year as students for Birmingham diocese (after having spent some time here already learning English).

Lectures have been underway since yesterday, and the days are beginning to have a regular pattern. Half an hour's meditation in the morning preceded by the Angelus and followed by Morning Prayer, breakfast, lectures, Mass, lunch, free/ study time, Evening Prayer, dinner, Night Prayer and some form of social time. The Pugin chapel is definitely the highlight of the college, done in an ornate and colouful Gothic style, and we have already been introduced to some of the beautiful psalm settings and hymns used in the liturgy here - yesterday we had a go at the solemn tone of the Salve Regina.

On another note, I've been told there's football tomorrow, so I'll see if I can hide the fact that I've got two left feet!

Evan Almighty

With the holiday season being what it is, the three, sorry four (Welcome Henry) of us, haven’t been around a computer to update the Posts. September will resume with more frequent posting activity!

Among holiday activities I went to watch 'Evan Almighty' the sequel to 'Bruce Almighty'. It is rare that a practicing Catholic can watch a film these days with content that is safe, so I thought it might be worth flagging this one up. If you want to see a safe, clean comedy with a fairly good, sometimes-explicit Christian message this summer, then this is the film to watch! Kids should find it fine too as the scenes with the animals make it very family-friendly.

The plot: Evan Baxter, successful newsreader for buffalo news becomes congressman with the slogan 'change the world'. After moving to upmarket accommodation and surrounding himself with things that are worthy of his new-status he prays to God to help him do exactly that, -change the world! It really is a case of being careful what you pray for! Biblical epic meets slapstick comedy as ark building ensues, yes that’s right Evan becomes Noah! I won't spoil the ending but to stop you wondering, God doesn't kill every one!

It's actually a quite a good film with themes relating to prayer, trusting God, vocation and original sin to name but a few. The film will probably be better received in the states than here, as we seem to be a more secular society and less tolerant to religious themed films. (The treatment of 'The Nativity story' by our cinemas last Christmas was ridiculous, it didn't stand a chance)