Bishops, buffets and football

Happy feast of Ss Timothy and Titus.

Now that Michael and Luke are back from placement, the East Anglian presence in Oscott is notable (look out Birmingham). This was especially true of this last week when the bishop came up to visit. We got to talk to him about how seminary was going, and even have a bit of banter with him when we went out for a Chinese buffet in the evening. As if latin, greek and hebrew weren't enough, Michael and Luke were quizzed on their cambodian, which they had used last summer on placement there. I think the bishop wins in that department. He was also happy to talk about Leeds football!

Yesterday Oscott won their first football match in years, against Maryvale Institute, the Catholic college just down the road. Granted, you'd expect a seminary full of twenty and thirty year olds to beat a team that only came together for this match, but still it's a win! I wonder if it's apporopriate to pray to John Paul II that we beat our rivals from Wonersh seminary next week? It could be the miracle that makes him patron saint of footballers...

New colleagues

Ladies and Gents, I would very much like to introduce to you some new members of the family...

Please meet John Fisher and Thomas More...

Back in business

Incredibly it's been over a week now since we arrived back at the seminary after our Christmas break and I'm not sure I've had time to stop since because things have been pretty manic.

Luke and I of course have the added peculiarity of trying to get back into the swing of things after having been away for six months, mainly on parish placements. Now we have to face the joy of academic work once again - we have both already had to write and hand in a 3000-word essay. We have both also gained new house jobs, Luke is the Master of Ceremonies (very impressive, I hear you cry) and I am in charge of Manual Labour (perhaps not so impressive, I hear you mutter...)

It is good to be back in the company of our fellow seminarians. Padraig and his year group are receiving the ministry of Acolyte on Sunday, so please say a prayer for them. It's also good to now have the opportunity of getting to know Henry better which had been difficult until now because of our being away on placement when he started in September.

Please keep us in your prayers as we each try to discern the Lord's call for us and serve Him as best we can.

God bless.

Happy Feast of Our Lord's Baptism

He does not cry out or shout aloud,
or make his voice heard in the streets.
He does not break the crushed reed,
nor quench the wavering flame.

Faithfully he brings true justice;
he will neither waver, nor be crushed
until true justice is established on earth,
for the islands are awaiting his law.

(Isaiah 42)

Today is a day of recollection for us as we start the term so I'll say no more, but have a blessed day and keep us in your prayers.

WYD prep

I realise full well that I should be in bed right now, but as I can't get to sleep I thought I'd write a quick post.

First of all, a belated feast of the Epiphany to everyone. Saturday night I went to the bishop's Epiphany Vigil Mass for young people who are going to be, or have recently been, confirmed. Afterwards I got to meet some of the young people in the light of a bonfire and fireworks, a few of whom I saw the next day at the preparation afternoon for World Youth Day. Luke my senior was also there, putting sweepstake tickets into envelopes for a fundraising event, while trying to convince the youth of Doctor Who's Catholicity - see previous posts. We had an Australian come and explain all about Australian life and culture (yes, I've heard the yoghurt joke), and we learned such useful phrases as 'flat out like a lizard drinking' ('I'm busy') and 'fair dinkums' ('it's true'). Ripper! I'm stoked to learn all this...





I missed a second Epiphany Mass with the bishop to come back for a Vocations Holy Hour which was being held in my parish. As well as having initiatives to attract men and women to the priesthood and religious life, it is important to pray to Christ that he might open them to the possibility of such a discernment. As it says in 'Fishers of Men', as a baby grows in silence, so a vocation is formed through silence. Please pray for an increase of priestly and religious vocations in East Anglia, especially amongst our young people!

I promised a report on the FAITH conference - it will come. Fr. Tim has a good review on his blog as well, though I miss the fun video that usually accompanies such events!

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!