God Speaks to His Children

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?

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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!