Vocations

For those of you who have commented on our blog, I haven't been able to respond to them for some reason (some problem with my email address), but I remember one lady, Mrs. Pea, asking how she and her family could encourage vocations. This was the topic of the homily at a First Mass I was at on Saturday (when a newly ordained priest celebrates his first Mass, and invites another priest to give the homily). The first thing I think is to foster vocational awareness in the home; make it known to your children that there are any number of vocations that God could be calling them to, and that you would be delighted to see them become a priest or religious as much as you would be to see them married. In your own parish, you could ask an individual who you think would be a good priest or religious if they have ever considered such a vocation. The thing is, they can't discern a vocation if they haven't been introduced to the possibilities, and for most people priesthood and religious life isn't even a blip on their radar screen. The other thing is, that even if they have considered it, they are not likely to do anything about it unless they receive some encouragement from outside. So it's up to us!

As for supporting priests and seminarians, the best thing is to pray constantly for them! I think it's easy to forget that they need just as many prayers as everyone else, maybe more, to stay on the straight and narrow. Also, you can encourage them just by showing that you appreciate what they do; in East Anglia priests often have to slog it out on their own and probably don't always realise the extent to which their ministry is needed and appreciated. When they meet with a kind word or a thank you I am sure they will feel that all the difficulties they undergo are worth it! I wonder if anyone else has ideas about how to effectively encourage and support vocations?

School's Out

Well, the academic year is finished now and we're well into our summer holidays, though there are still things here and there to keep us occupied. This last week and next week sees the ordinations of the five deacons who have spent the last six years at Oscott. These have taken me to Wales, Luton and Northampton, and I'm discovering that it's no short spell travelling on public transport across the country from East Anglia!

Two of us are going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and two of us are leaving this Saturday for World Youth Day in Australia - as I'm going on the latter, I'm thinking of making a cork hat as a gesture of cultural good will (well, really just for the fun of it). I'm certain we will have a wonderful experience of the worldwide Church there, as the last two WYDs in Toronto and Cologne have been a great witness of the love which young Catholics have for their faith, and also the admiration which they have for the Pope as their spiritual father. Plus Cardinal Pell and Bishop Anthony Fisher seem to have put a lot of time and thought into the preparation.

In August I will have my first pastoral placement, in All Souls, Peterborough. It is apparently a vibrant, active parish with many international parishioners. The other day I was changing trains in Peterborough, and two of my trains were cancelled, so I took the time to go find All Souls. When I got there, there was a Polish Mass taking place (at which there were about twenty to thirty people) followed by adoration. The church has some nice features, particularly the large wooden Stations of the Cross. Visiting there has given me a keen sense of anticipation, and I'm now looking forward to a busy couple of months!

Year of Discernment?

Exams are halfway over - woohoo! Just Boethius' reconciliation of free will and divine foreknowledge, Aquinas' argument of contingency, the life of St. Francis, and the development of the medieval parish to do! So I thought I'd take the opportunity to make an advertisement...

For any young Catholics that are looking for something to do for a year before Uni/ after Uni, there is a programme in Soho, London called St. Patrick's Evangelisation School, which is a great opportunity for growing in one's faith. It involves living in a small community in London, helping out in a busy city centre parish, receiving catechesis from many priests, religious and laypeople, including a degree in Religious Studies from Maryvale Institute. There are pilgrimages to places like Rome, and mini retreats throughout the year, with the aim of helping young Catholics discover the fulness of the Church and discern their Christian vocation. There is also an emphasis on evangelisation, mostly in the West End of London, whether it is doing outreach work for the homeless and lonely, or engaging with the many thousands of people who come to Soho to shop, who often have no sense of Christ's personal love for them.

The School is looking for young people who would be willing to give a year to God in such a way, ready to be formed as witnesses for the New Evangelisation which Pope John Paul II spoke of. The School's motto is, 'Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you' (Pet 3.15). Having done the year prior to coming to seminary, I can say it was a grace-filled experience and well worth the time! If anyone would like to find out more about St. Patrick's, they can check out the blog at www.sohope.blogspot.com, or they can go to the website at www.sohope.blogspot.com

Singing Seminarians!

ON JUNE 7th 7.30 PM, Oscott seminary will be hosting a concert as part of our annual intiative to support two charities, one national and one international. This year we're supporting Right to Life, which stands for the rights of the unborn and vulnerable in this country, and Cenacolo, wich is an Italian-founded charity helping people to come to term with addictions (they also have houses and groups in Britain). We've been practicing hard in the seminary schola all year on music, most of it four-part harmony, and some unexpected additions, so if you are around Birmingham on June 7th, do come. There are only 200 places so there's little chance that there will be a seat if you come on the night, so book in advance! See the details on the website accompanied. Spread the word as well...

http://www.oscott.net/JusticePeaceAdvert2008.pdf

Candidacy

Please pray Michael and Luke as they receive candidacy today - the formal acceptance of them for ordination!

Paray le Monial

Sorry for delay in posts. We're back at Oscott now with a month to go before the dreaded Exams. Anyway, thought I'd say something about Paray le Monial where I also went on the Ars pilgrimage the other week.

Paray le Monial is the home of St Margaret Mary Alocoque, a nun who was apparently quite a difficult character for her community to live with, very prayerful but given to scrupulosity. She came to her Jesuit confessor, Fr. Claude de la Columbiere (also a saint), reporting apparitions of Jesus in which He told her of the love of His Sacred Heart. Claude knew that Margaret Mary was given to over-sensitivity, and to establish the credibility of her story, he asked her to ask Jesus the next time she saw Him what her greatest sin had been. When she asked Jesus, He simply said to her He could not remember - her sins had all been blotted out in sacramental Confession. When Margaret Mary told this to Claude, he knew that the apparition was real, because Margaret Mary was too scrupulous to have come up with such a reply herself. Following this, devotion to the Sacred Heart grew up, the heart by which Jesus revealed His human and divine love to a world that was suffering the effects of Jansenism, a heresy in which people refuse God's love out of a sense of their own unworth. Claude took the revelation to England, where he preached it in the streets of London and was eventually imprisoned in the Tower until the King of France demanded his release.



After visiting the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, we went to the church of St. Claude where his relics are kept (they were in England only last year). Then we had Mass in the church where St. Margaret Mary received the apparitions, a wonderful privilege. Her incorrupt body is preserved there as well, and is very beautiful. Hot on our tail was a group from the North American College who were also staying at the seminary at Ars and had come to the church in Paray to celebrate Mass after us. It was a wonderful day, and very appropriate to our time at Ars, for the Cure himself said 'the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.' I would recommend going there not just to priests, but to everyone!

Happy Easter from Ars!

Hope everyone has had a good Easter Triduum and is celebrating the Resurrection in style. A group of us (priests, seminarians and prospective seminarians) are in Ars to see the stomping ground of St. John Marie Baptiste Vianney. So far we've seen the church - with the attached basilica enshrining his body - where he catechised the villagers and eventually heard confessions for up to 16 hours a day; the presbytery where he lived in evangelical poverty, giving away the luxurious furniture which one of the benefactors of the parish gave to him; and the statue of his meeting with a boy of the village (pictured), where he said, 'Show me the way to Ars, and I'll show you the way to heaven.'

The seminary where we are staying was started after JPII visited Ars in 1986, and trains priests from all over the world. It is a great privilege to visit the home of the patron saint of priests, not least because like him it is a very humble and unostentatious place, not much bigger than it was when he was alive. I'll update you on our pilgrimage as the days go by.

Good Friday

It's been an eventful week for us, as we went down to the diocesan cathedral in Norwich on Wednesday for the diocesan Chrism Mass. It was a beautiful liturgy and we had a real sense of being a part of the Church in East Anglia, something that Bishop Michael talked about in his homily. Holding up for us the example of St. Felix who has just been given the status of a feast in the diocese, he encouraged everyone to imitate the apostles in bringing the Good News of Christ to the people of East Anglia.

Part of that good news is obviously the event which we commemorate today - the passion and death of Jesus - acknowledging with gratitude his mercy towards us, and repenting of our own sins which made him 'a worm and no man'. This morning the seminarians from Oscott joined the local community in a walk of witness through the town centre, and we sang 'Man of sorrows' and 'All for Jesus' while students from the secondary school performed a mystery play of Jesus' death. We are just about to go in to Birmingham cathedral for the reading of the Passion and the veneration of the Cross, and this evening we will watch the BBC portrayal of the Crucifixion.

I only saw the first BBC episode on the Passion, which left me with mixed feelings. Much of the script did not come from the canonical Gospels at all, and rather than being hostile to the biblical portrayal of Christ's mission it just seemed to reduce it to a generic message of 'the Kingdom of God is in your hearts.' While some people are happy that Mary is not sweet or saccharine, she also seems to have had no say in her role as Jesus' mother, and does not really have faith ('It's easy to believe when you're young,' she says wearily). Also Jesus comes across, as he often does in these things, as a bit weedy. Still, I liked some of the dramatisations, and especially think Pilate is played well.

Holy Week

A Happy Palm Sunday to everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; we've just had a week's retreat with Bishop Malcolm MacMahon of Nottingham (a Dominican, ergo a good preacher), and before that the seminary had the flu, so it's been eventful.

Today we're going to Birmingham Cathedral for Palm Sunday Mass, so a break from the ordinary. Holy Week is a wonderful time to reflect on the central truths of our faith. I was watching a 'documentary' last night which explored the Early Church's understanding of Jesus, and the commentator lamented the fact that Jesus isn't seen as more of a wisdom teacher than a miracle maker. The fact is that neither are the primary way in which we see Jesus - He is the great 'I am', the One who being in 'the form of God' took on 'the form of a servant' in order to mediated on behalf of our sins to the Father. All his miracles and all his wisdom would have done us no good unless it had flowed from a love which was ultimately ready to lay itself down for our sake. So though this is a tumultous week in terms of what happens to Jesus, we can rejoice in his love for us, through which we were restored to the Father.

Please keep in your prayers the Confirmation retreat which is taking place in my parish in Bury St. Edmunds today. Pray that the young people will be given the grace to understand and desire the sacrament for which they are preparing.

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain

Just thought I’d take advantage of a surge of blogging energy to blog about the half-term trip to Valladolid, Spain which some of us went on a month ago...



Valladolid is the home of St. Alban's Seminary, an English seminary begun by St. Robert Persons in 1589 in order to train priests to come back to England and minister to the Recusant Catholics. Among the martyrs associated with the seminary are St. Hernry Garnet, St. Henry Walpole and Blessed John Plessington. The seminary, following the example of other continental operations like Douai and Rome, was a gift of the Spanish Crown, and hence reverts back to the Crown once it fails to be used any longer for the training of priests. Today, because it is no longer feasible to use it as a full-time seminary, it is used by many dioceses as a pre-seminary year for accepted applicants, where they learn the Catechism, develop a life of communal prayer and liturgy, and experience a profoundly Catholic culture. Close by are the cities of Avila and Segovia, where the two friends St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross respectively led a renewal in the Church through the newly formed discalced Carmelites.

Avila


Situated on the top of a hill and closed in by a great stone, turreted wall, the city of Avila supposedly provided Teresa with the inspiration for her mystical work, The Interior Castle, which talks of the different steps on the way to perfect union with God. She was first a nun in the Convent of the Incarnation, which lies a 10 minute walk outside the city walls. For the first half of her life in the convent she was drawn between ‘friendship with God and friendship with the world’, but in mid-life she read the Confessions of St. Augustine, and underwent a conversion of spirit, desiring to live a more fervent life in the service of God. She also received many spiritual locutions from Our Lord, in one of which she saw ‘the sorely wounded Christ,’ and these helped her to search for God more single-mindedly. She founded the convent of St. Joseph’s which resides in the city walls, where the sisters lived a more primitive observance of the Carmelite life. Seeing her cell in the Convent of the Incarnation, small and dark, with a little ledge and a small fireplace from which to cook her supper, was the most humbling thing from our visit to Avila.


I also enjoyed seeing the musical instruments which are kept there, for they indicated that St. Teresa and the nuns were accustomed to living out their faith with joy and creativity.

More about Segovia (home of St. John of the Cross) later!