Friends with Christ

Mutual enrichment revisited.

2012-01-27T13:29:00.003Z

Now that we have the new translation of the English Missal it is perhaps easier for us to begin to take an objective look at the 'mutual enrichment' which the Holy Father calls the Church to address; the Tridentine Missal shedding light on the Novus Ordo Missal, and how the new Missal sheds light on the old. There will be many, more able than I, who will be able to lead an objective and genuine enquiry concerning the mutual enrichment of the two forms of the Roman Rite, a process which will bring about the emergence of one single form of the Roman Rite. In any case, it is time which will allow an organic process of genuine reform of the Liturgy to take place. Nonetheless, there are a number of simple ways in which I already see the possibility for mutual enrichment by the two missals.

1. Ways in which the Tridentine Missal can enrich the Novus Ordo Missal:

The greatness of the Offertory Prayers of the Old Missal suggest that the Offertory Prayers of the New Missal could be enriched.

The Old Missal carries the text of the Offertory Antiphon, whereas the New Missal, whilst situating this antiphon in the rubrics, fails to give the text of the Antiphon.

The Liturgy for Ember and Rogation Days still remains to be included in the New Missal; the Tridentine Missal is the objective point of reference for this Liturgy.

The title given to and the sense of the two periods which are now called, in a banal way, 'Ordinary Time'. The Weeks after Christmas and before Lent have a very different sense to those which follow Pentecost. These two periods of the Liturgical Year have a richer sense in the Tridentine Missal.

2. Ways in which the New Missal can enrich the Tridentine Missal:

The development of the Lectionary.

The greater number of Prefaces.

The way in which the Church and the relationships within the Church are better expressed by the New Missal.

The greater variety of 'Masses for various occasions'.

Finally, a word about the Orientation of the priest at the altar. Since the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Missal presuppose that the priest faces east when he stands at the altar, the question of orientation is clearly one which in some sense, in flux. However, the weight of the Tradition obvioulsy falls on the east-facing orientation. I hope that in this process of Liturgical reform which is newly beginning, that the form of the Eucharistic part of the Mass will be appropriately enhanced - the moment when we can participate in that Eternal Return which Christ makes to His Father.

The proclamation of Christmas

2012-01-05T19:53:00.003Z

Christmas Day on British television again gave us the contemporary secular haze and again it was only the Her Majesty the Queen who spoke about the love of God revealed in Christ at His birth in her Christmas Day message. Her Christmas message this year was a proclamation of the true meaning of Christmas.

That she stands alone on British television in speaking about Christ reveals just how far we have gone in attempting to dismantle Christian civilisation, and how blessed is the Church of England to have her as its head.

A Social Encyclical?

2011-12-02T14:43:00.003Z

The prophetic teaching of Paul VI in the Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae is regarded most for clarifying that artificial contraception goes against the truth about human love. Those who read this teaching Letter for themselves see that Humanae Vitae actually contains a very beautiful teaching about the truth of marriage and, particularly, that it gives a wonderful exposition of "responsible parenthood": the way in which spouses are called to consider authentically the factors which affect or govern the number of children they have.
However, I have long thought that this Encyclical goes for beyond the sphere of marital morality and enters very fully into the social and public sphere. Most societies, down through history, have (correctly) entrusted the transmission of human life to spouses. Occasionally, a society has intervened in this very particular area of life in order to insert some controlling influence; for instance, the Chinese 'one child' policy, or the eugenics of the Nazis. In our era social forces within culture and from governments are entering into this special area: who today has the responsibility for the transmission of human life?
Contraception, by its very nature, introduces a 'third party' into the procreative mission of spouses. But the 'third party' influence might come through a false or contrived vision about the meaning of life, which the contemporary secular project promotes, it may be through the contemporary homosexual lobby, or through the desire of a government that its citizens achieve some pseudo-scientific goal or simply by the crude application of socio-economic forces. All these influences are being exercised today and many spouses probably feel that their God-given mission is indeed somewhat invaded.
Humanae Vitae then, is a Social Encyclical, giving light and clarity of vision to spouses in an age which dares to invade this most special of all human tasks. Spouses uniquely have the mission to transmit human life; no one else can legitimately enter in here, and the vision for marriage and responsible parenthood which Paul VI gave us is something to be made much of in our age. Let the truth shine out!

Memory and Identity: Modern Democracy

2011-11-19T00:50:00.005Z

In this chapter John Paul II gives a simple presentation of historical political systems and in which he particularly analyses democracy.

First, he describes the three forms of political organisation (from the perspective of who has power). In a Monarchy power resides in an individual, in an Aristocracy power resides in a social group, and in a Democracy power resides in the whole of society. Each of these systems is valid so long as the purpose of exercising power is to serve the common good, that fundamental moral norms are respected, and that civic virtues are actually exercised. If this is not the case, then Monarchy (and Aristocracy) degenerates into Tyranny, and Democracy into Ochlocracy (domination by the populace).

Democracy, understood not simply as a political system, but also as an attitude of mind and a principle of conduct, does not, in practice, allow for the direct exercise of power by the whole of society; power resides in representatives of the people who are designated by free election.

Catholic social morality favours Democracy because it corresponds more closely to the rational and social nature of man.

Democracy comes into being through a 'state of law', in which social life is established by parliaments with legislative power, and is regulated by law. Thus, Democracy is able to form free citizens who jointly pursue the common good.

Now the Divine Law also comes into play for man, this was given through Moses and is binding, even on those who do not accept Revelation, as natural law. The Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), or natural law, is foundational for any human legislation, precisely because they seek the fundamental good of personal and social life. If any of these commandments is placed in doubt, both human society and man's moral existence is put at risk. This is because law rests not upon human judgement, but upon the truth of being, the truth of God, of man, of all reality.

Memory and Identity: the relationship between Church and State.

2011-11-12T05:54:00.004Z

The Council describes this relationship in Gaudium et Spes 76, saying that both Church and State are autonomous and independent of each other, yet both are devoted to nurturing the personal vocation of man, though under different titles.

The totalitarian States of the last century attempted to separate the Church from the State and extinguish it; for them the world belonged exclusively to the State. The Church's view is clearly in conflict with this, because for the Church the world is both a task and a challenge. This is particularly the case for lay people who are called to Christianise society and culture.

Today again, some politicians are trying to redefine the relationship between Church and State, colouring the Church's position as one of purely subjective faith (or opinion). We have seen this for instance from Barack Obama and Tony Blair. And, at the same time we have witnessed a certain passivity from believing citizens and a failure to defend basic human truths and rights. Indeed, we have also witnessed great efforts in society (for instance, the media) to intrude in people's consciences and to lead them to stop believing in Christ.

Here today lies the great challenge for the Church: a new evangelisation, which must begin with the task of rehumanising the world.

(Incidentally, the German wartime theologian Bonhoeffer said that the Christian's purpose in the State is to try to make the State a better State. He was executed by the Nazis two weeks before the end of WWII.)

A visit from overseas

2011-11-09T06:48:00.002Z

On Monday this week George Weigel was the guest speaker at "Theology on Tap" in Sydney. What a tremendous teacher he is and how privilaged we were to host him in our monthly event for young people. He spoke to us about Bl John Paul II and how he showed the world that being a radically converted Christian is the greatest human endeavour.

You may be interested to follow Professor Weigel's weekly column here.

Seventy minutes

2011-11-07T00:08:00.002Z

If you have seventy minutes to spare I recommend that you listen to a talk given by Archbishop Mark Coleridge. He was speaking last year in Perth, Australia, at a meeting of ICEL on the subject of the renewal of the Liturgy and the new translation of the missal. His understanding of this subject is superb. You can find the link here; scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the audio file.

Memory and Identity: The Mission of the Church

2011-11-06T05:26:00.003Z

The Mission of the Church is the context in which we live the Christian life, for the Church is missionary by nature; she is called at all times to proclaim the Gospel, and her attitude must always be humble but courageous. And so today, an enormous ammount of work is needed on the the part of the Church, in particular the lay apostolate.

Christ and the Church are inseparable. There is no Christ without the Incarnation, and the Incarnation is prolonged in history in the Church. The Church exists then, because Christ belongs to the history of all humanity. God's plan has always been to unite and to transform all humanity in Christ His Son.

Today's "secular" world intends to live as if separated from God, yet this same world is called to fulfilment in Christ. The Church is called to pave the way for this "secular" world to receive its glory from God.

(I took the above photo while driving in Sydney a couple of years ago.)

Memory and Identity: The positive fruits of the Enlightenment.

2011-10-31T08:59:00.003Z

We should not limit ourselves to considering the destructive aftermath of the Enlightenment, but consider also its positive aspects.

The Enlightenment prepared the way for a better understanding of human rights (even if these were already known to be rooted in the nature of man created by God.) During the Enlightenment the rights of nations to exist, to maintain their own cultures and to exercise political sovereignty came into focus, and with it came the idea that "fraternity" is a bond which not only unites men, but nations also.

During the Industrial revolution, which did great harm to the fabric of society, in which men were exploited by industry and commerce, some of the values of the Enlightenment led to a profound rediscovery of the truths contained in the Gospel.

Likewise, the birth of Communism led to a clearer understanding of the Church's social mission. This came to be expressed in her Social teaching.

The teaching of the Second Vatican Council can be seen as a synthesis of the relationship between Christianity and the Enlightenment: that the Church is called to engage with the world, not in a polemical or condemnatory way, but through a desire to lead the world to Christ - to evangelise the world. For, "it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man becomes clear." (Gaudium et Spes, 22) Christ is the light of men, first in their interior lives, and then in their vocation and destiny. In Christ, man knows who he is and how he is called to live. For uniquely, in Christ, man's whole life is a unity, his interior life, his spiritual life, his social life, he affective life, his moral life and his political life is united. Man is made whole in Christ. Apart from Christ man remains divided in himself, he remains an enigma to himself.

The mission of the Church then, is to man, wherever he is and in whatever state he is in; the Church's mission is to lead him to transformation in Christ.

(The extraordinary photo above was taken in Sydney city centre in July 2009.)

Memory and Identity: Europe as native land.

2011-10-27T04:07:00.003Z

In this cahpter, the Holy Father looks at Europe through the prism of Christianity which, as we will see, is also the root of today's Europe.

The evangelisation of Europe began with a mysterious call which St Paul received, to cross from Asia to Europe and preach the Gospel there (Acts 16: 9). Within a few hundred years Ireland, the western most part of the continent, had become itself a missionary centre of the faith.

Building upon the fabric of the ancient world, it was evangelisation which formed Europe; the Faith favouring the formation of different cultures, different nations, but all linked to the common patrimony of the Gospel. However, it is only with the advent of the Modern Era, when the known world was extended to Asia, the Americas, to Africa and Australia, that Europe was seen in a more objective way.

St Paul's address at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17: 22-31) holds the key for what would take place in the wider Europe. In this speech St Paul first recognises the religion of the ancient world and, in so doing, prepares his hearers for a proclamation of the Incarnation and the Redemption. The Church would go on to achieve a profound integration of faith and culture in the peoples of Europe.

The first great 'wounding' of Europe was the 'Great Schism' of 1054 when the Eastern and Western Churches ceased to function together. Then, at the beginning of the Modern Era disputes arose with the Protestant reformation, and the Western Church suffered further divisions.

During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries - the era of the Enlightenment - Christ began to be rejected in Europe. The Enlightenment was not an outright rejection of God, but an attempt to exclude Christ from thought and from Europe's history.

Today a cultural drama continues for those who reject Christ; for the ideas of these secularists are, in fact, profoundly rooted in Christianity, so deeply has the Gospel marked Europe.

Christ himself gives us a Theology of the Incarnation and Redemption. In the metaphore of the Vine and the branches (John 15: 5ff), Christ shows how God cares for and cultivates his creature. He grafts it onto the stock of the divinity of His Son. From the beginning man has been called into existence in God's image and likeness. By agreeing to be grafted onto Christ, man can fully become himself. By refusing this grafting man is condemning himself to an incomplete humanity.

So, in the European Enlightenment man has endeavoured to cut himself off from the Vine, and thereby he opened up the path that would lead to the devastating experience of evil in the Twentieth century.

According to St Thomas Aquinas evil is the absence of good. For man to deprive himself of the good of being a part of the Vine is to deprive himself of that fullness which God intends for man.

(The above photo I took a few years ago in the churchyard in the village of Birstall in North Yorkshire. It is the gravestone of the late Christopher Dawson, the Catholic sociologist whose life's work was given over to helping Europe rebuild itself on the foundations of the Gospel after the Second World War.)

Memory and Identity: Nation and Culture.

2011-10-25T04:03:00.004Z

The origin of history and culture is found in the Book of Genesis: the decision by the Creator to make man in His own image and likeness, blessing man, charging him to be fruitful and placing him at the forefront of the world. In one verse (Gen 1: 28) we have the earliest and most complete definition of human culture.

In the second account of Creation (Genesis chapter 2), we are given man's original experiences of solitude, unity and nakedness, together with the losing of original innocence in sin.

Man's mission then, which belong's equally to men and women, is to discover and confirm the truth about ourselves, and to receive the world as a gift and as a task. In order to undertake this mission we must be guided by the truth about ourselves and about the world.

Man's mission to the visible world has evolved throughout history, and we can see that where there have been problems, we have not been faithful to the truth about ourselves. Civilisation has always been linked to knowledge of the truth about the world, together with knowledge about ourselves.

Deeply ingrained in human culture is the element of beauty; that man reflects in his own life and work the beauty and goodness which is present in the created universe - man's testimony to God's work. This is a foundational element of the human experience and one which is expressed in the culture of a nation. It is this experience, by which man represents what is true, which reveals man's sovereignty in the world, his greatness. And for the same reason, the nation (natural society) is greater than the State (political organisation), for the nation's link to truth is more organic and foundational than is the State's.

Today, it can be said of many Western countries that they have arrived at the stage of "post-identity". That their relationship with truth and their own sense of sovereignty is now much diminished, and that consequently the citizens of these countries cannot give a testimony to their culture (man reflecting his own truth and the truth about the world). Instead, culture has in many cases been overwhelmed by false values, modern destructive trends in liberalism and economics.

A weekend of grace.

2011-10-24T01:04:00.007Z

This past weekend the Seminary of the Good Shepherd held a public 40 Hours of Adoration (Quarantore) for the intention of vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed on Friday evening at 9pm and finally reposed on Sunday at 1pm. The Seminary is grateful to the Sydney Archdiocese Vocations Office for their help and for providing such a great range of resources for spiritual reading and disernment during the 40 Hours.

There many times during the weekend, both during the day and during the night when our seminary chapel was vitually full, and you could 'feel' that a mighty work of grace was taking place. It was quite remarkable that there was a constant stream of young people visiting the chapel throughout the weekend. It was wonderful to see the Lord visibly at the head of His Church.

The 40 Hours ended with Solemn Benediction, which was followed by a mighty BBQ for all those who were present. We would certainly like to repeat this again next year.

Memory and Identity: History.

2011-10-22T06:44:00.003Z

The whole created universe is subject to history; everything and everyone is subject to the course of events. Man however, unlike the plants and the animals, can reflect on history and give an account of it.

Communities of people, like individuals, have a historical memory; nations, for instance, seek to record what they remember. These histories are among the essential elements of culture, because they go to the heart of a nation's identity.

History for the Christian is not simply a question of acknowledging and understanding the past, it concerns rather, the whole of man's life: his origin, his historical experiences and his future, including his judgement before God. Such a perspective flows out of God's self-revelation; it is called "escatological". In other words, there is a diffrence between the history of nations and the history of man. A nation's history is confined to a course of events which have marked that nation. Man's history, as well as containing a course of events, also includes his divine origin and his divine vocation. This unique value within man's history is something which leaves its mark, and gives meaning to, the history of a nation.

(The above photo I took in 2007 inside the basement of the Bell Tower of the Tower of London. St Thomas More was confined in this cell before his trial and execution.)

Memory and Identity: the concept of a nation.

2011-10-21T22:28:00.004Z

The term 'nation' designates a community based in a given territory and distinguished from other nations by its culture. Nation and family are natural societies - societies who basis is found within human nature, rather than in mere convention - and if replaced, it could only be in a contrived way. It is for this reason that the Church embraces these realities.

The nation therefore cannot be identified as the State, even though a nation may call itself a State. A State is not a natural society, but is rather the socio-political organisation which becomes established in a nation.

In Sacred Scripture we see that the 'nation' arises through one generation giving rise to the next through procreation. And that in Israel's case, she was chosen by God. This choice by God was made in order that He might reveal Himself, through Israel, to the nations. In time, Christ was born in Israel. Christ initiates generation of a different order; not now through proceation, but through rebirth in the Holy Spirit. Now all peoples have a new calling: not simply to belong to a nation, but to belong to the new People of God, who are taken from all nations.

Thus, every nation is affirmed in its identity because every nation is called to take its place in the history of salvation. The Church is the sacrament and sign of this call, in which men and women of every nation, possessing their unique attributes, now have equal rights of citizenship.

The Pope will return later in the book to consider the importance of the State.

(I took the above photo in 2007 in the undercroft of the White Tower in the Tower of London. I had taken a group of young people on a Martyrs Pilgrimage to London, and here in the undercroft, although totally remodelled in the eighteenth century, we saw the place where Catholic priests in the sixteenth century were tortured on the rack by the State.)

Memory and Identity: Patriotism.

2011-10-18T22:33:00.004Z

Patriotism is a word and a notion which is much overlooked by many today, yet it continues to be, in reality, a foundational element of society. How is this the case?

Patriotism flows out of the Fourth Commandment: honour your father and mother. We venerate our parents because for us they represent God. They have shared with God in giving us life, and the spiritual patrimony of our native land, which we receive, comes to us first through our parents. From this flows our sense of love and duty towards our native land. The native land is also the common good of all its citizens, in which everyone has a duty to serve and nurture that people's culture and traditions.

Today, we need to ask, have we seen the final end of the development of human society? For we have seen the rise of globalisation, in which many small nations have been absorbed into larger political structures. And we have seen huge cultural changes taking place within societies.

Catholic social doctrine speaks about "natural societies". This indicates that both the family and the nation have a particular bond with human nature. It is clear that every society's formation takes place in and through the family. It is also true that the nation, when understood as the cultural and historical identity of a particular society, is also a part of human reality. It is clear then, that today natural societies - the family and the nation - are overlooked and attacked by other social forces, even though we need them.

Nationalism is not a heatly response to this dynamic, for nationalism represents the recognition and pursuit of one's own nation alone, without regard for others.

Patriotism, on the other hand, is a love of one's own nation that recognises the equal value of other nations; it is a properly orderd social love.

(The above photo was taken as I gave Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, 2007.)

Memory and Identity: the concept of "patria", native land.

2011-10-17T22:39:00.003Z

Having reflected upon human freedom, the Pope now begins to unwrap the bases of human society. All people, he says, have a sense that they belong to a particular place or territory and have inherited their lives and their culture from their forebears. This inheritance is the totality of goods bequeathed to us by our forefathers and including their spiritual content. Thus, the concept of "patria", native land, implies a deep bond between the spiritual and the material, between culture and territory.

Humanity has been given another patrimony. Christ presents himself to humanity with a new patrimony - that of the Father - our eternal homeland. The culture of the Holy Trinity is the culture which Christ has lived from eternity; it is a culture which he shares with us in the Incarnation. And at his Ascension, Christ explicitly gives us this new homeland.

Thus, the inheritance which we receive from Christ orients our earthly patrimony towards heaven. Christ, by confirming the eternal laws of God, and by initiating a new culture, "cultivates" the world anew, and Christian culture in each sucessive age continues to be transformative of the culture of the world.

Now the heritage of the Father which Christ gives us passes through Our Lady's heart also, since she received him in her womb, gave birth to him, and upon whom He depended. Thus, Christ's patrimony was enriched by what Our Lady gave to it. Looking at this same mystery in a much wider context, we speak of the Church as the meeting of Christ with innumerable human hearts. In the Mystery of the Church we find the whole patrimony of Christianity; and so we speak of the Church as our Mother, guarding and nurturing this patrimony for us.

(The above photo was taken in Huddersfield in 2007 as I placed the Sacred Host into the monstrance.)

Memory and Identity: the Mystery of Mercy.

2011-10-16T23:51:00.005Z

In this chapter of Bl JP II's book, he reflects upon the last and most important dimension of human freedom, a dimension that is largely overlooked today - that man's freedom exists only in relationship with God's love.

First, the Holy Father gives an exposition of Psalm 50, the psalm which speaks of the truth about man's moral fragility and the infinite Mercy of God. But how do we know about God's mercy? Our experience of God comes from God's self-revelation, ultimately in the death and resurrection of His Son.

Thus, the limit placed upon evil, of which man is both perpetrator and victim, is Divine Mercy. We might naturally presume to think that the limit placed upon evil would be Divine Justice. No, there is something greater than Divine Justice; Divine Mercy. For in mercy God draws good out of evil. The Paschal Mystery, which we celebrate in the Mass every day, confirms that good is ultimately victorious.

(The above photo was taken in 2007 as I celebrated Mass in my parish in Huddersfield.)

Memory and Identity: the lessons of recent history.

2011-10-16T01:32:00.003Z

We have seen how Bl JPII speaks about human freedom; that grace doesn't take away our freedom but actually gives us our freedom. In this chapter the Pope speaks about the rise and the fall of the two great totalitarian systems in Europe during the last century; Communism and Nazism. He makes note of a very important factor here. That in Eastern Europe these systems were not only resisted, but that many people aspired to live by true values. Whereas in Western Europe the growth of false values has taken place alongside a certain marginalisation of true values.

Indeed, the West has actively taken part in the building of an "alternative civilisation", a civilisation which is not built upon true values. In such a civilisation men and women live as though God did not exist. This means that they live outside the parameters of good and evil. Such a civilisation is another form of totalitarianism, subtly concealed under the appearences of democracy. So, today B16 has spoken publicly of the "dictatorship of relativism".

How then, asks JPII, can we respond to this situation? We must return to the roots. We must return to the roots in both human and Christian terms.

In human terms, returning to the roots means reclaiming the fundamental truths and values about humanity, being able to see these clearly again. The purpose of this book, "Memory and Identity", is to help precisely with this. Reclaiming fundamental truths and values which were taken up by the Enlightenment and contemporary secularism and given either a false or a secondary meaning.

It also means returning to the person of Jesus Christ himself. "Learning Christ" anew, by penetrating into the depths of the revelation of the mystery of Christ, and experiencing anew the testimony of life which flows from Him, whilst recognising that God intervened powerfully in the events of the twentieth century.

(The above photo I took, a year ago, of a former presbytery of mine in Huddesrfield. The house is now delapidated and souless as it was when I moved into it. Yet for three years this unprepossessing house became an oasis of the Christian life for the mission of the Church; during these years I had named the house "Our Lady Mother of Grace House".)

Soho to Sydney

2011-10-13T05:14:00.007Z

What a great joy it has been for the Church in Sydney to welcome Fr Alexander Sherbrooke of St Patrick's parish, London, on a week long visit. Fr Alexander was invited by the Archdiocese to give the main address at a colloquium which was titled "Parish renewal and the New Evangelisation". He addressed first the nature and significance of the New Evangelisation and then spoke about the Eucharistic Heart of the parish. These addresses together with a "pub talk' in the evening, in which he spoke about his work in London, were very well received. In the photo below Fr Alexander is speaking with Bishop Julian Porteous of Sydney who organised the colloquium. Below that is a photo of myself speaking at the event on the theme of the laity of the New Evangelisation.

The following day we were delighted to welcome him to the Seminary where he spoke, in an informal setting (photo below), about the need for priests to be alive in Christ and to keep His light alive in the Church. He spoke to us also of the freedom which faith and the language of faith still has in Australia, and how repressed are these dimensions of life in the UK; a call to these priests-to-be to promote and defend the faith in the public arena. Fr Alexander then made an overnight visit to the seminary in Melbourne to meet the seminarians there.

The following day he was welcomed at "Theology on Tap" in its pub venue in Parramatta. He spoke to over three hundred young people (photo below), calling them to participate in the New Evangelisation by seeking to develop their Christian formation, by adoring Christ in his Eucharistic Heart, and by being open to the poor and the way that God speaks to us through the poor.

We are extremely grateful to Fr Alexander for taking the time and the trouble to make the long return journey to Sydney and to give of himself to so many.

Memory and Identity: Freedom is for love.

2011-10-11T20:33:00.004Z

The Pope has described how modern man has unsucessfully wrestled with his freedom, and that for freedom to truly be what it is, it needs grace. Man cannot be free on his own; man cannot be free without God. What then, the Pope asks, is freedom?

For Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, freedom is a property of the will which is realised by truth. Freedom is therefore a task which man accomplishes through virtue. Human freedom comes about when man reaches out, through virtue, for that which is true. (It is this moral vision which was taken up by St Thomas Aquinas the medieval theologian.) Thus, human freedom involves the four cardinal virtues: prudence has an overall guiding function, justice regulates the social order, temperance and fortitude discipline man's inner life (his desires and emotions).

Yet Aristotle is not here proposing an abstract moral system, rather he is taking up man's real experience. St Thomas includes, in this moral vision, the light of Revelation, because if freedom comes about when man reaches out for what is true, then the greatest truth of all is God's Commandment's and the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that human freedom finds its fullest realisation.

So, the truth about freedom is that it is not an end in itself; freedom is for something. Freedom is for love. Human beings are free because they are called to love. Love perfects human nature, and without freedom man could never become who he truly is.

Once we know what the fundamental human vocation is - to love - then we can look at the many different dimensions of this vocation. Human freedom is the basis of all Catholic personal and social moral teaching, in which the Church shows how man is called to accept and to implement the truth about the good. In this way man can escape from the possibility of embracing evil and making himself worse off than he was before.

Freedom then, is the implementation of the truth regarding the good, such that freedom becomes good in itself. If freedom ceases to be linked with truth, it becomes corrupted and evil becomes a part of man's life.

(I took the above photo in October 2010 from a small boat in Port Stephens on the NSW coast.)

Memory and Identity:the just use of freedom

2011-10-10T21:06:00.003Z

Next the Pope turns to consider human freedom. The nature of this human faculty is the fundamental question today. If I use my freedom well I become good; if I don't use it well then evil takes root in me and around me. So what is the proper use of freedom? How can freedom be used so as to avoid evil?

A problem for us today is that we speak about freedom as though it has no connection with morality, no connection with goodness or evil. Today, the appeal is made to freedom alone - mere choice. However, in the past we recognised the need for a criterion with which to regulate the use of freedom; the criterion which is most employed today is that of utility or pleasure. So, I choose according to what will be most useful or cause the most happiness.

Now if we analyse what is going on in a person when they choose, we see that a person's will and intellect come together in such a way that the person is responsibile for his actions. And to identify the moral character of an action we have to distinguish between the just good, the useful good and the pleasurable good.

The just good represents real objective goodness. For instance, observing the Highway Code when driving. This good is the traditional object of moral choice.

The useful good represents the advantage which will be gained by the person who is making the choice. For instance, choosing to drive only on narrow country roads. Such an object is morally neutral. This good has become the basis of modern morality.

The pleasurable good is actually the joy which accompanies acheiving moral goodness. It is linked therefore to objective goodness, to the just good. However in the modern view, the pleasurable good has become an end in itself; seeking the pleasurable good has displaced seeking the just good. In this vision the pleasurable good is not linked to the just good, it is free to be sought after for itself, even at the expense of the just good.

The philosopher Emmanuel Kant has influenced our vision of morality. He observed that giving priority to pleasure in the analysis of human action threatens the very essence of morality. He proposed the notion of subjective obligation. That we are called to act justly becuase of the presence within us of 'moral categories'. However, building morality on the basis of subjective obligation means that you lose sight of what is objectively good.

The fundamental criterion of moral evaluation is in fact man's freedom - his will. It is man who chooses, it is man who decides what criterion to apply to his decision-making, whether this be the criterion of objective goodness or that of utilitarian advantage. But we find that real goodness and the happiness that goodness brings us remains an impossible goal, whether by seeking pleasure for itself, or constructing an subjective vision of goodness, or simply by failing to choose objective goodness - our freedom remains a question for us.

The question of freedom, today as before, is in fact the manifestation of man's need for a Redeemer - that man cannot acheive the fullness of his desire unaided, and that his freedom, far from being fulfilled is a problem for him.

JPII responds to this need in his Theology of the Body.

(I took the above photo in March 2008 at Stone in Staffordshire as a barge enters a canal lock.)

Memory and Identity: the mystery of evil 2.

2011-10-07T04:32:00.005Z

Bl John Paul II begins his book speaking about the co-existence of good and evil because this is the basic context of our lives, and because it is this context that Jesus Christ enters into. It is God, not man who puts a limit on evil; man cannot do this because he is divided in himself, and the limit which God places upon evil is the Redemption. Evil is radically overcome by the Redemption.

If we look round the world we can see the places which have suffered most from the presence of evil: those are the places where the Cross is most clearly revealed.

Sin is the greatest evil which affects man, and Christ forgives sin, indeed, he destroys it. Man's true greatness therefore lies in his conversion, by which he returns to God. However, this return to the Father is not about human effort, it is about grace. Man needs grace, and in Christ he is given grace.

Christ's death and resurrection reveal the full truth about man: that he is called to participate in God's life, and that this call is given to us in God's unconditional love for us; we are called to live a new life. The gift of grace is like light, given to us here and now in our divided condition.

The Redemption then is an unimagined victory for us, but it is also a task. It is a question of us receiving this gift into our lives. The Redemption will change us, but will we allow ourselves to be changed?

And so, we must speak about the Spiritual Life - our, my, relationship with God. This involves the way that I seek to keep God's Commandments; allowing Christ to conquer sin in me. It involves a growth in virtue as I allow God's light to pervade me. And this will lead to a certain experience of closeness to God, even now before I die, in anticipation of what is destined to be ours in eternity. It is Christ who reveals and teaches this way and accompanies those who travel.

So, we don't just need a way of understanding evil, we actually need to embark on the Spiritual Life, in which we personally participate in Christ's mission in which he defeats evil and restores goodness to us in superabundance.

(I took the above photo in January 2008 in the Fleurie hills of the Saone valley in France. Smoke rises from the burning of the dead wood of the vines in preparation for the new growth that will come in the Spring.)

Memory and Identity: the mystery of evil.

2011-10-05T08:30:00.004Z

It is perhaps surprising that Bl JPII should start his book by speaking about evil. This is because we all encounter evil in life, evil alongside goodness. It is goodness which we strive for but evil is always a problem for us. So a realistic approach to life involves recognising the presence of evil. Indeed, JPII says that we actually need to have what he calls a "philosophy of evil" - a way of understanding and "approaching" evil, so that we are able to continue building our lives, inspite of the presence of evil.
It is only in light of the truth that we can genuinely see evil for what it is and maintain our lives in the direction of goodness. Foundational Truth concerns the Mystery of God, of Creation and of Man. In the light of Revealed truth we can begin to see that evil is a mystery in which goodness, which should be overabundant, becomes reduced or even hidden. It is precisely to combat evil and restore goodness to man that God, in the three Persons of the Trinity, has undertaken what we call the Redemption.
However, today's secular vision of life reduces God to being merely an element of human consciousness. In the secular vision, God is no longer the God of Revelation but is the God who we can think of as we please. But, at the same time our way of understanding evil changes. Man, not God, is now the central player; if man now descides what God is, he also decides what is evil and what is good. We have seen this most terribly in the extermination of certain peoples by others.

Even so, we also see that evil is limited. Divine Providence allowed Nazism to exist for twelve years only. Yes, evil is limited by goodness.

The Church calls evil by its name in order to show that it can be overcome; it is overcome precisely when we open ourselves to the love of God. Most importantly and wonderfully, we know that Christ has definitively destroyed the evil that affects humanity. Thus, it is essential that we understand how Christ overthrows evil. In this, the Holy Spirit is Himself our guide - he guides us through the redeeming work of Christ.

(To be continued.)

The above photo was taken in May 2007 as I was blessing the Parish Boundaries of what was then my parish in Huddersfield.

The Memory and Identity Sessions

2011-10-03T01:02:00.003Z

Back in 2007, before I came to Australia, I lead some evenings in the parish in which we looked at the themes which John Paul II had developed in his book "Memory and Identity". I happen to think that this book should be standard reading for young people today. This is because we live in a society and a culture (in the West) which is so heavily influenced by the secular project of superficiality, opinion and consumerism, that essential truths, upon whose basis human society can be elaborated, have been forgotten.

Having listened to the Elton John and ACDC for decades now, having daily absorbed the "culture" of the Soap Operas, and followed the relentless call to be a consumer, and having placed in political power leaders who are partisans of "lifestyle living", and having largely set aside the pursuit of truth and virtue, it is hardly surprisng that we have the social and economic problems that exist today. But there remains the essential task of handing on and giving formation to young people, the foundations of human living and its accompanying ethics, that they might again be able to discern and build their lives upon this basis.

This is precisley what John Paul II did during his Pontificate, especially through the World Youth Days and, before he died, bequeathed us, in "Memory and Identity", a presentation of the foundational elements of human living for the modern era.

I shall re-work my orginal notes which I used back in 2007 and post, over the next few weeks, on the themes which Bl John Paul II wrote about in his book.

For a new evangelical flourishing of wealth

2011-10-02T00:48:00.007Z

Yesterday, I was privilaged to take part in a book launch by Fr Tony Percy, the Rector of the Sydney Seminary. What a great honour too that Fr Percy should draw a Cardinal of the Church to preside over the presentation. There are not many authors that I know of who get a Cardinal to their book launch!

The book "Entrepreneurship in the Catholic Tradition" was launched at Australian Catholic University in North Sydney. In the photo above Fr Percy is on the right, Cardinal Pell in the centre and Dr Gary Johns (Professor of Public Policy at ACU) on the left.

The impression that we have of Catholic Social Teaching is that it is mainly concerned with social justice and that the rich and weathly are somewhat 'evangelically disadvantaged'. Yet as any right-thinking public policy shows, wealth must be created before it can be distributed. Fr Percy's new book shows how much Catholic Tradition has appreciated businessmen and women for centuries. What follows I took from Fr Percy's presentation at the launch.

The entrepreneur is someone who is alert to new forms of knowledge and discovers new opportunities in the market place, who has an ability to engage the factors of production (land, labour, capital and enterprise) and is prepared to take a risk that the return will reward sufficiently. So, the Christian entrepreneur is someone who has an interest in money, but an interest which is moderated by a concern for the Common Good.

Delving into the tradition we find that entrepreneurship is appreciated in the Scriptures. For instance, in Sirach 42: 1,5 we read, "Of the following things do not be ashamed ... of profit from dealing with merchants."

St Thomas Aquinas reflects on the virtue of magificence (linked to magnanimity), and in doing so anticipates modern corporate finance theory. He argues that those who put their money away to earn interest are lovers of money, while those who undertake grand and magnificent projects for the Common Good demonstrate a capacity to moderate their love for money.

Since Leo XIII the Church has consistently defended the right to private property. Socialising property, historically, has lead to mass poverty. The Church has also defended the poor, giving rise to the principle of solidarity. And in the face of a collapsing social order (the unemplyement and depression which followed WWI), the Church articulated the principle of subsidiarity - that families, businesses and associations are prior to government, and that government is called to help not hinder them.

The Church then has clarified the importance of private property and private action for modern societies. This is a truth that needs to be proclaimed from the roof-tops in the twenty-first century, gripped as we are by big governments and big corporations who have stopped helping and are now hindering free initiative. This has happened by government lowering tax and interest for large corporations and shifting the burden onto individuals and families, and by raising the rate of Capital Gains Tax.

Pius XII, bewteen 1941 and 1956 repeatedly addressed the world of business and commerce in order to inspire a new breed of young people who would be both entrepreneurial and ethical.

JPII called for a society of free work, enterprise and participation, with the understanding that private property has a social mortgage on it, and that the goods of this world have a universal destination for all people. JPII admired entrepreneurs not only because they manifest freedom in the social order, but because they manifest a unique ability to bring people together to form a communion of persons in the work environment. If people are given responsibility for their own lives, with minimal government interference, then they will become responsible for the less fortunate; that subsidiarity leads to solidarity. The Common Good then, takes precidence over self-interest. Families, businesses and associations should be respected, not undermined by government.

Entrepreneurship goes to the heart of the pillars of Catholic Social Doctrine - human life and its dignity, the Common Good, and the principles of Subsidiarity and Solidarity. It is people who are the mian resource of any economy. Natural resources are helpful, but it is the people who make transform those resources into wealth; people create wealth which alliviates poverty. Life is not the enemy of economic development, death is. Indeed, reducing the abortion rate would offer significant help to ailing economies.

I hope that Fr Percy's book will create a new awakening to the wonderful truths which are guarded by Catholic Tradition, and that many will see new opportunities for their wealth, indeed, an evangelical flourishing of human resources.

"Entrepreneurship in the Catholic Tradition" is published by ConnorCourt Press.

Mutually enriching

2011-10-01T02:18:00.003Z

Before I went to America this June something had caught my eye on Zenit and I made a note to re-read this report. On 16th May there was a symposium held in Rome to reflect upon the Holy Father's "Motu Proprio" Summorum Pontificum. The symposium reveals that there is indeed in the Church an accurate understanding of this "Motu Proprio".

Not only is the Tridentine Mass an essential point of reference for the Liturgy today but, as the Holy Father said in his Letter accompanying the Motu Proprio, that "the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching".

In the light of this the secretary of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" said that the Motu Proprio is "the beginning of a new liturgical movement desired by the Pope", and should "be perceived by the Church as a sign of hope."

Today then, the two forms of the Roman Liturgy are called to purify, enrich and reform one another, something which is entirely in continuity with Sacrosanctum Concilium. Indeed, the Church, through Sacrosanctum Concilium, called for a reform of the Liturgy. However, the Liturgy was not reformed, but instead we were given a New Rite. And so we have the continuing presence of the Tridentine Mass; a Rite which is clearly in need of reform. Again, if we look at the New Rite, we find not only that there are many elements which are yet to be provided for, and a Rite which is somewhat unfashioned at the edges, but that "the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage [should be demonstrated in the new Mass] more powerfully than has been the case hitherto". (B16)

The reform of the reform, which the Holy Father has spoken of is something which the Church will engender by a consistent and reflective celebration and study of both the Tridentine and the New Rite of the Mass, in other words through an organic and genuine liturgical formation.

No doubt this work will require of many that they leave behind entrenched liturgical positions and look to a time when the Church will indeed have one reformed Rite, totally Catholic, focused on Christ and the Paschal Mystery, and in which Christ's Mystical Body is genuinly revealed.

The report in Zenit is well worth reading in full.

Growing light

2011-09-29T22:28:00.004Z

While back in the UK in July I came across an article in the UK "Standpoint" magazine by George Weigel. The article, titled, "Benedict XVI and the future of the West" is the text of a lecture given by George Weigel at St Patrick's, Soho, this June. This magnificent article is a presentation of the "evangelical Catholicism" which both JPII and B16 have nurtured in the Church. Weigel is certainly someone who sees what is going on and is able to communicate that vision to others. Reading this article you will see the big picture of the new evangelisation as it is unfolding today. I agree with Weigel who, writing in another place, understands the polarity within the Church today not as traditionalist and liberal, but that on the one hand there are evangelical Catholics, and on the other insitutional Catholics.

And who are "evangelical Catholics"? They are "the men and women ... persons, families, communities, who decide to work in the vineyard of the Lord (Matt 21:33-43). Humble and generous workers, who do not ask any other recompense than participating in the mission of Jesus and the Church." B16, 18th September 2011.

Walsingham and Fr Rear's new book.

2011-09-22T22:23:00.007Z

During July, while I was back in the UK I read Fr Michael Rear's new history of Our Lady's Shrine at Walsingham, England, Walsingham: Pilgrims and Pilgrimage. Without doubt, this is the finest and fullest history of the Shrine that I know; Fr Rear has done a great service to Our Lady and to the Church. His research into the original house of Our Lady in Nazareth, the early documentation about the foundation of England's Nazareth (which certainly does point to the year 1061), the Shrine at its medieval greatness and its destruction, together with a presentation of the people and events (Catholic and Anglican) that surround the re-founding of the Shrine at the beginning of the twentieth century, give us a greater sense of the significance of this shrine. I hope that Our Lady's shrine at Walsingham will become, more and more, a real centre of the Faith in England; that many will be converted, awoken and renewed through the grace of Walsingham, and that the mission of the Church in England might be seen anew because of Our Lady's presence there. We are seeing this already, especially during August, when the great Festivals of Faith take place on the fields opposite the Slipper Chapel; "New Dawn", "Youth 2000" and other huge groups come there because She is there.

Finding gold

2011-09-22T00:03:00.003Z

While participating in the IPF Course at Creighton University in Omaha in June, I ventured into the university library. On my first visit I proceeded to the Sacred Scripture section and my eyes lighted upon a set of volumes claiming to present the comments of the Fathers of the Church across the whole corpus of Sacred Scripture. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Some of the vloumes had been published in 2000; how had I not known before about this extraordinary set of volumes!

Yes indeed, a group of scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic, have combed through the entire corpus of writings of the Fathers and aligned each reference to Book, Chapter and Verse of the Bible. This is Lectio Divina at its best; a work which allows us to read the Scriptures without this intervention of "Historical Criticism", and to see how the Scriptures have been interpreted directly in the light of Christ.

On returning to Sydney, I find that the Seminary has its own copy of the complete set of volumes in its own library, just ten yards from my office!

The "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture" is published by Intervarsity Press in twenty six volumes, and is also available for purchase on CD-rom.

The first shall be last.

2011-09-20T00:46:00.006Z

Britain has wanted to be first, first in 'freeing up' Contraception (at the Anglican Synod of Lambeth in 1930), first in legalising Abortion (1968), first in embryo research, and now desiring full legal recognition of same-sex unions. It is impossible to promote human life and to build society with these laws.

In singular contrast, the Hungarian Parliament, adopted a new Consitution in April this year, a Constitution will come into being at the start of next year, 2012. The Magyar State, a somewhat remote enclave within the greater Europe, is acknowledging its Christian foundation and heritage, that society is founded upon marriage between a man and a woman, and that the foetus should be protected from the moment of conception!

This is an extraordinary development in the world. You can read the whole text of the Constitution here. It makes you want to be Hungarian! I think that we should find out more about what the Hungarians are doing.

Madwyd

2011-09-17T22:39:00.006Z

I'm still catching up on things; flying round the world sets one back a little. You will already have read enough about World Youth Day but I'll post here briefly on it.

I accompanied the Sydney 02 group. Sydney 02 group was made up of about 90 young Sydneysiders, travelling first to Barcelona for the Days in the Diocese. About three and a half thousand young Australians came to WYD, one third of these were Sydneysiders! Our group was very warmly welcomed by the Parish of St Mary Magdalene in Barcelona, who also provided guides to accompany us in the city, including the elderly parish priest, Fr Joachim, who was absolutely thrilled that his parish facilities had been taken over by ninety young Aussies.

From all that we saw in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia church stands out in our memory. The superb architecture of Gaudi, and that of some of his successors, is a true contemplation of the Mystery of Faith. The columns rising above the ssnctuary and giving way to a light from above. Outside, on the Portico of the Passion, the extraordinary sculpture of Christ tied to the scourging pillar, caught our attention.

After Barcelona we travelled to Maresa and the cave of St Ignatius of Loyola, then onto Montserrat, before heading for Zaragoza where we spent the night.

On our first full day in Madrid all the Australians came together for a two-hour welcome event. The centre piece of this event was a tremendous proclamation of the Gospel by Bishop Chris Prowse.

One of the finest articles which I have read on Madwyd is by Michael Cook of Mercatornet.net: "7 reasosn for good cheer after Madrid". I attach the link here.

Finally, we came across this excellent still-life performer near the Plaza Mayor:

The Offerory Antiphon

2011-09-17T01:48:00.003Z

Twenty fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Si abulavero in medio tribulationes, vivificabis me, Domine: et super iram inimicorum meorum extendes manum tuam, et salvum me fecit dextera tua.

This is taken from Psalm 137, 7. My translation: If I walk is the path of tribulation, You will give me life, O Lord: and you will extend your hand against the hatred of my foes, Your hand will save me.

The awakening of a tremendous ministry

2011-09-13T10:12:00.005Z

The Course which I undertook at the hands of the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha was called "A seminar for seminary Spiritual Directors".

The ministry/charism/gift of Spiritual Direction is something that I have been a part of since before I went to seminary; first in receiving spiritual direction, then later in giving it as well as continuing to receive it as a priest. Yet, I was never introduced to a vision of Spiritual Direction, nor led to better undertand it. I really do take my hat off to the IPF for having created the opportunity for the sharing of skills and insights, inspiring a greater appreciation of the nature of Spiritual Direction, especially in the context of priestly formation.

The Course was given by three priests: Fr George Aschenbrenner SJ, one of the founders of the IPF who, for many years now, has lent his considerable experience and skill to supporting the Diocesan priesthood. Fr Joseph Kelly of the New York Archdiocese, an experience seminary SD who originally fashioned this Seminar, and Fr Vincent Fortunato OFM, a seasoned director with a particular gift for teaching. We course participants are indebted to these three priests who 'took the lid off' the world of Spiritual Direction and guided us towards a much greater vision of this ministry.

I had expected that most of the priests undertaking the Seminar would have been mature, experienced priests, and yes they were there; but there were also many young priests, already sensing the importance of refining their skill and aptitude for this work. Every priest is a Spiritual Director by virtue of Ordination, but this ministry is so important that it should have special training and formation. And how wonderful that priests can develop their skills as directors in the early years of their priesthood. I wish that I had undertaken this Course some fifteen years ago!

The Seminar was given alongside afternoon sessions dedicated to presenting us with the whole vision of Diocesan priestly spirituality which the IPF has developed and which they form the seminarians in. The afternoon sessions were given by Fr Nicholas Rouch and Mgr Rob Panke, both gifted teachers and experienced priests who expertly led us to link Spiritual Direction with a concrete vision of priestly spirituality.

We were awoken to the tremendous nature of Spiritual Direction during this three week Seminar at Creighton University, Omaha, and I am indebted to the Sydney Archdiocese for giving me the opportunity to be a participant. I whole heartly recommend this Seminar to other priests, whether you work in the Internal or External Forum, or in a parish. The Seminar is first and formost a priestly experience.

The photo above shows the clouds gathering as a storm formed over Omaha and we were all called down to the basement; but no tournados developed. The photo below was taken some 30 mins drive outside Omaha; the bison of the great plains, still around, magnificent, if somewhat primordial in appearance.

A priestly movement in Nebraska

2011-09-09T23:26:00.004Z

In June I flew out of Sydney and across the Pacific to take part in a course at Omaha, Nebraska. Here at Creighton University the Institute of Priestly Formation runs its summer sessions, comprised of a whole raft of courses and retreats for Diocesan priests and seminarians, with a special focus for the priest agents of priestly formation. This year was the seventeenth year that they have run their programs.
Briefly, the Institute for Priestly Formation was founded to assist bishops in making spiritual formation the heart of Diocesan priestly formation. Before arriving in Australia, just over three years ago, I had never heard of the IPF, but on reading some of their publications I was immediately struck by the endeavour which the IPF has made to form and renew the Diocesan Priesthood. And, speaking as a member of the SJMV (who have a similar endeavour), I was immediately enthusiastic about going to Omaha when I was offered the opportunity by the Good Shepherd Seminary here in Sydney.

I arrived in Omaha to find almost two hundred seminarians and about fifty priests taking part in summer courses. I was joining sixteen other priests participating in the "Seminar for Seminary Spiritual Directors". The concern for, and the joy of embracing the Diocesan Priesthood was palpable on the campus of Creighton University, which was almost totally given over to hosting the IPF courses. In Omaha city centre we encountered the magnificent bronze scuptures depicting the first pioneer wagon trains to cross the great plains (photo above), and the hugely swollen Missouri River (photo below), during its worst flood in 150 years. I'll post again, commenting on the course which I took.

The twenty fourth Sunday

2011-09-09T22:25:00.003Z

This Sunday's Offertory Antiphon (from the Graduale Romanum, 1979) is:

Sanctificavit Moyses altare Domino, offerens super illud holocausta, et immolans victimas: fecit sacrificium verspertinum in odorem suavitatis Domino Deo, in conspectu filiorum Israel.

This is taken from Exodus 24: 4-5. My translation reads: Moses made holy the altar to the Lord, offering on it a holocaust, and immolating victims: he made an evening sacrifice of sweet perfume to the Lord God, before the sons of Israel.

The Offertory Antiphon

2011-09-02T07:08:00.003Z

The Offertory Antiphon for this coming Sunday, 23rd of the Year is:

Oravi Deum meum ego Daniel, dicens: Exaudi, Dominem preces servi tui: illumina faciem tuam super sanctuarium tuum: et propitius intende populum istum, super quem invocatum est nomen tuum, Deus. (Taken from The Roman Gradual.)

A translation from NAB: "I prayed to the Lord, my God, and confessed, I Daniel: hear the prayer and petition of your servant; let your face shine upon your sanctuary: be attentive and act without delay, my God, because your name is imvoked upon your city and upon your people."

Still catching up on things.

2011-08-30T05:09:00.007Z

Today I learned of the fatal shooting of Facundo Cabral. This Argentinian novelist, singer-songwriter was shot dead in Guatemala City on 9th July. It seems that the gunmen were intending another target. How evil breeds evil! May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

You may already know of this extraordinary singer's work, if not you can find him on YouTube. I recommend the song, "No soy de aqui, ni de alla".

And of course, two years ago the other great Argentinian singer, Mercedes Sosa, died. Sadly, I never saw either of them in concert.

Who sets the agenda?

2011-08-27T18:44:00.003Z

Before coming to post on my jorneys overseas I wanted to make a comment on the demise of the UK Sunday newspaper the "News of the World". Its demise is a great thing to have happened; it is just a shame that more British newspapers did not fall in the "phone hacking" scandal. Who now will pick up where the "News of the World" left off.

The scandal revealed just how embedded in the media is British society, to the point of extensive corruption. Is it society or the media who sets the agenda? The classical answer has always been that society must set its own agenda; that the media must never control us. My point is that this recent scandal reveals that the media is no longer a passive mirror, reflecting society, but that the secular media has now expressly crossed a line.

There is scarcely a newspaper in the UK which is worthy of the name. Instead of "news" they feed us with sensationalism, propaganda and the mindless secular project. "Media objectivity" (the alignment by the media with the truth about humanity - a concern for true human values) is now very hard to find, and what we see is a form of human neurosis which which flows from the fact that the media empire has abandoned its relationship with the truth. Perhaps the best newspapers in the UK are the local and regional ones in which one can detect an attempt to communicate that which is actually going on.

A major issue in this matter in the integrity of journalism. Jornalism is a very great skill - a God-given skill - by which the truth of (often complex) human affairs can be communicated in an accesible way to those who don't have the opportunity to see or discern this for themselves. Both JPII and B16 have this gift but, of course Popes have a different mission to that of the journalist. George Weigel, amongst others, has this gift, and we should be discerning of all those who call themselves journalists or presenters, or editors, to look for the authentic gift in them. I have said before on this blog - we need authentic journalists.

The overriding concern for Catholics is to situate ourselves within the context of truth. We do this first by entering into the Liturgy of the Church, for here the essential truth about reality is revealed and formed in us. Secondly, by praying with the Scriptures (Lectio Divina), in the sense of actively endeavoring to read the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel and so to live our lives in faith. And if we are unable to do these things, to ask. We human beings cannot rely on the secular media empire to form our lives.

"Well, I'm back", he said.

2011-08-26T20:27:00.005Z

The last words of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" are a fitting expression of my return from having circumnavigated the world in about ten weeks. It's very good to be back and I will return to posting in a few days.

I left Sydney in early June and arrived back there yesterday; my journey took me first to Los Angeles, then Omaha, Nebraska, Chicago, England, Barcelona, Zaragoza and then to Madrid for World Youth Day, then on to Hong Kong, and so back to Sydney. All told, about 28,000 miles - a lot of jet-setting!

Blog-gap coming up

2011-06-06T07:16:00.002Z

Tomorrow is the first day of my world tour; back in a few months.

A teacher of the New Evangelisation

2011-06-04T10:22:00.004Z

While I was at seminary in Spain, the archbishop of Madrid was Cardinal Angel Suquia. In 1992 he gave an address to the Spanish Bishops about the New Evangelisation; this address was published in the Winter 1992 edition of Communio. I would like to comment here on some of the ideas which he spoke about in his address. (The Cardinal died in 2006.) I recomend the original article to you, particularly if you have a good Theological library that you have access to.

1. First the Cardinal speaks about what the New Evangelisation is not. It is not the recovery by the Church of privilages she used to have in society. Nor is it a seeking to (re)impose Christian values on a pluralistic society. It is not a question of placing Catholics in strategic positions in society, nor a removal of the 'enemies' of the Church from places of power, so that Catholics can hold centres of power. The reason for this is that these ways of thinking imply, on our part, a lack of trust in the redemptive power of Christ. Such ways of thinking are actually an obstacle to the New Evangelisation, becuase by thinking thus we relegate our responsibility to witness to Christ, in favour of relying upon political, cultural or social influence. Indeed, many in our era have yielded to these ways of thinking, and today we see two strong, but impotent currents: those who identify themselves with the dominant culture (those who have indicated that we should allow ourselves to be evangelised by the culture), and those who have endeavoured to preserve a Catholic identity within a bastion mentality, thereby renouncing the significance of Christianity for humanity.

2. Secondly, the Cardinal speaks about what the New Evangelisation is. It is the proclamation of the Gospel to a humanity that is 'new'. 'New' because post-Christian humanity has lost the sense of the Mystery of God and of its own mystery. Today's culture has deformed our humanity, such that men and women today need to be 'touched' by the Redemption so that they can incarnate it into their lives.

In what then, does this 'newness' of proclamation consist? It means that the Catholics must stop trying to legitimise themselves through culture and society, and dare to be who they really are, living the Mystery of Christ. It also means that the Catholics must become the companion of today's men and women. To do this they must renounce their lack of understanding for all those false ideologies and ways of living which have wounded so many people in our age, so that they can be concerned for people as they actually are.

The Church of the New Evangelisation is a people that carries in its life the signs of the Redemption, a people whose communion and whose life is a testimony that the Redemption has happened in them. The New Evangelisation then, is not a witness to 'Catholicism', nor to Catholic culture or prestige, but is the call to witness to Jesus Christ who has freed us. Our riches lie not in our own resourcefulness, but are the riches of Jesus Christ, who is able to fill to overflowing the hearts of today's men and women, just as He did twenty centuries ago.

More thoughts on the New Evangelisation

2011-05-30T05:09:00.004Z

The relationship between the Church and the world is somewhat misunderstood today. Both have a life and a mission, but the Church's life and mission are for the world. Whereas presently, the world does not value in the Church. This disparity lies at the heart of the New Evangelisation as a challenge.

I say that the Church's life and mission is for the world; the Church calls both us and the world to transformation in Christ. The New Evangelisation then, does not seek to promote the power or the prestige of the Church as an Institution, but seeks to make room in the world, and in the Church, for He who is Life. For the Church, transformation in Christ is the clear project for all humanity to embrace; the world however, does not see this clearly, even though transformation in Christ is its way forward. Thus, the Church today finds herself called to a new evangelisation. That which brings the Church and the world together is transformation in Christ. It is Christ alone who brings about an ecology of relationship between the Church and the world. The proclamation of Christ by the Church causes an effect in both the Church and the world.

Christ and the Church are bound so closely that they cannot be separated. Indeed, the New Evangelisation rounds upon the saying of St John the Baptist: "I must decrease, He must increase." Human issues, whether inside or outside the Church, revolve around one single issue, which is man's relationship with the one person who is necessary to him: God. Here the Church is called to help men and women (both the baptised and the non-baptised) to discover and express their issues in the light of this overriding truth. For human issues - whatever they are - are the hinge upon which the necessity of transformation in Christ can be proclaimed. Any human state of affairs is an opportunity for the Gospel to come to life. The primary way that Catholics do this is in showing by our lives that Christ is the answer. In other words, it is all about Christ and, who today, will be bothered about telling the world about Christ!

The fact is that all issues (unemployment, sexual orientation, climate chaos etc) can all be expressed in the context of our deepest aspiration: to be united with God. Issues, in a sense, condition the way in which the Gospel is proclaimed; that is, if people are involved in a particular activity and lack Christ, how can Christ be proclaimed in that context? It must be seen by Catholics then, that the New Evangelisation contains no element of judging, still less of condeming, but is wholly a mission of pastoring towards and in Christ.

Having said this, it seems to me that there are some fundamental questions for Catholics to reflect upon and embrace, and upon which, in some way, the New Evangelisation itself depends (since, in fact, the New Evangelisation depends upon me):

1. What does it mean to be at the heart of the Church; that place from which my life and my mission spring?

2. What does it mean to hear the Gospel, especially for those who have never heard it or live lives far from Christ?

3.What does transformation in Christ mean?

4.What does it mean to discover one's life within the Church and to participate in the mission of the Church?

5. What does it mean to contribute to the proclamation of the Gospel with my life?

6. What does it mean to learn from Christ?

7. When do I speak about Christ and what He has done, and what He has done for me?

8. How has Christ changed me and how is He calling me to change?

What is the New Evangelisation?

2011-05-26T02:29:00.002Z

The New Evangelisation is a movement of grace in the Church which is changing it from being a Church of maintenance to being a Church of mission.
It was Paul VI who first saw the need for a new evangelisation. in his 1975 Apostolic Letter Evangelii Nuntiandi he saw, prophetically, that "a new period of evangelisation" is needed because, he said, the “split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt the great drama of our time" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 2, 20).
John Paul II, recognising the insight of his predecessor's intuition, endeavoured to help the whole Church to see the need for a new evangelisation. He described it as new "in ardour, methods and expression". (Address to the Latin American Bishops, 1983) The New Evangelisation then, looks to new ways of proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel, because so many people in the world are so affected by the kind of culture in which they live that they cannot hear the Gospel being proclaimed by the older methods of evangelization. Yet he said, "the vital core of the new evangelisation must be a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ." (Ecclesia in America, 66).
For John Paul II our task is not simply one of re-evangelisation, but of a new evangelization; because faith and culture have come apart the Church must discern new ways of sowing the Gospel in culture, as was the case originally in the Apostolic era, and then later in that era which began with the Christianisation of the Roman Empire.
John Paul II spoke of the New Evangelisation as a task of the whole Church; "God is opening before the Church the horizons of a humanity more fully prepared for the sowing of the Gospel. I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelisation and to the mission ad gentes." (JPII, Redemptoris Missio, 3) In this new task, Dioceses, parishes, families, new movements and communities, young people, older people, priests and religious are called to take part.
"The Spirit”, he said, “is the principal agent of the new evangelisation." (JPII, Tertio Millenio Adveniente, 45) This means that God himself, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, is the principal cause of this new movement within the Church, a movement which touches upon the very identity of the Church, for the Church is both communion and mission.
In his 2001 Apostolic Letter Novo Millenio Ineunte, John Paul II expressed the ethos of the New Evangelisation at its beginning. He called Christians to fall in love with Christ again and to put out into the deep, courageously taking the Gospel into the heart of contemporary culture. "We must rekindle in ourselves”, he said, “the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost." (NMI, 40)
John Paul II spoke many times with great optimism about our era. In his 1990 Encyclical about the mission of the Church, he said, "If we look at today's world, we are struck by many negative factors that can lead to pessimism. But this feeling is unjustified: ... God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity, and we can already see its signs." (Redemptoris Missio, 86)
“The present generation of Christians is called and sent now to accomplish a new evangelization among the peoples of Oceania, a fresh proclamation of the enduring truth evoked by the symbol of the Southern Cross. This call to mission poses great challenges, but it also opens new horizons, full of hope and even a sense of adventure.” (Ecclesia in Oceania, 13)
"Church in Europe, the new evangelisation is the task set before you!" (JPII, Ecclesia in Europa, 45)
John Paul II named Our Lady as the "Star of the New Evangelisation", pointing to her "as the radiant dawn and the sure guide for our steps" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 58).
In his Jubilee 2000 address to Catechists in Rome, the then Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of evangelisation as teaching "the art of living." The New Evangelisation, he said, starts with the sign of the mustard seed; it does not mean great numbers but rather, "new evangelisation must surrender to the mystery of the grain of mustard seed and not be so pretentious as to believe to immediately produce a large tree. The method of the new evangelization”, he said, “consists in making the voice of the Lord accessible and comprehensible. Jesus had to acquire the disciples from God. The same is always true. We ourselves cannot gather men. We must acquire them by God for God."
Bendict XVI wishing to help the Church to embrace the New Evangelisation has created a new Pontifical Council for promoting the New Evangelisation. In doing this he said that, “without doubt a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently needed in all parts of the world. But for this to come about what is needed is to first remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community itself present in these countries and nations.” (Ubicumque et Semper) The Holy Father is teaching us that evangelization flows out of the very being of Christians; that if we are truly living the Redemption, then the New Evangelisation will arise organically from within the Church.
The New Evangelisation then, has been set in motion by the Holy Spirit who is guiding the Church to respond to the need of the world today, by bringing the Gospel and culture together, so that people can be transformed by Christ. Today’s era is similar to that of the Early Church; we are living in a newly pagan culture, in which the Church is being called to proclaim and witness to the truth and the power of Christ. New Evangelisation involves the whole content of faith right from the start, witnessing to Christ and the Redemption and inviting others to live the new life of grace in the universal communion of the Church.
As in the Apostolic era, so today, we do not know what the Church will look like in the future; what we can see is what the Church looks like today at the start of this era of the New Evangelisation, and we can offer ourselves humbly to God, that He might find us full of faith-filled hope in the mission of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Every priestly vocation is a mystery

2011-05-25T00:04:00.003Z

Here is the link to the Cardinal's homliy at the Ordination Mass last Saturday, 21st May 2011, in Sydney.

Five new priests in New Antioch

2011-05-22T06:27:00.004Z

Yesterday the Archbishop of Sydney ordained five men to the Priesthood in his Cathedral. It was a wonderful ordination Mass; "almost the whole city gathered to hear the Word of the Lord" (Acts 13:44). The Cardinal preached a tremendous sermon (which I will endeavour to post on the Blog), and the enormous congregation burst into a spontaneous applause as the recessional procession made its way from the sanctuary. The five new priests finally emerged into the sunlight shimmering with grace and joy. There is great happiness at present in the Church in Sydney - this is a grace in itself. Another grace, not to be overlooked, is simply the grace of being ordained priest by Cardinal Pell, who exhibits a real charism of fatherhood of priests.

Less than 100 days

2011-05-20T08:54:00.003Z

World Youth Day certainly does create a kind of excitement and culture which is unparalleled, and with less than 100 days to go the enthusiasm is mounting. MADWYD will be the fourth WYD that I have participated in, and I am looking forward to connecting with Spain again. The Australian contingent for MADWYD is now forming up - from Sydney alone, 1030 young people have registered, together with one Cardinal, two Bishops and thirty five priests. Many pilgrims are coming from other parts of Australia too. If you are still deliberating whether you should go or not, all I can say is that there is still time to register. Registration is open till the end of May. The rest of the world is waiting for you to say "yes"!

The accompanying Letter

2011-05-17T06:25:00.004Z

On 22nd February this year I posted a piece titled "Important Sources", in which I indicated those elements which are now important for the "reform of the reform" of the Liturgy. Although I mentioned in that post the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, I did not mention the Letter to the Bishops which accompanied it. Here now, a few words on this important ingredient. I will draw you attention to just a few points, but it is obviously important to read the whole Letter.

1. The Holy Father says, "It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman Missal as if they were "two Rites". Rather, it is a matter of a twofold use of one and the same rite."

The Motu Proprio has then indeed brought the two Forms of the Roman Rite together, and there is no contradiction between them, but they both express the same action of the Mass.

2. Later he writes, speaking about those who are attached to the older form; "This was especially the case in countries where the liturgical movement had provided many people with a notable liturgical formation and a deep, personal familiarity with the earlier Form of the liturgical celebration."

Now, it is good to note that the "liturgical movement" was something which began in the mid 1800s, and that it is still in progress now. And that this movement is something which was initiated during the "Tridentine" era, and its sole focus, for over 100 years, was the older Form. Also, it is good to note how the Holy Father points to a relationship between liturgical formation and liturgical development. Today's era of poor liturgical formation does not compete well with the liturgical formation of the era our grandparents and their forbears.

3. Later, speaking about the new Form he says that, "in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorising or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear." The Holy Father honestly recognises that during recent decades we have not necessarily had a good celebration of the new Form, and in such circumstances, it is not easy to evaluate the genuine development of the Liturgy.

4. He speaks about how young people today "have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist". Well, young people are not simply bthe Church of the future but are a part of the Church of today, and they especially have discovered (on behalf of the whole Church) that the old Form is an essential reference point for a deeper understanding of the Liturgy.

5. He states that "there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects linked to the attitude of the faithful" who are attached to the old Form. Yes indeed, it is one thing to be attracted to the old Form, it is another when the old Form is, as a ritual, made into the central focus of the Christian life. That place belongs to Christ.

6. In speaking about how the two Forms are now in a position to reform each another, he simply says; "the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching". This is a tremendously important aspect of the present liturgical era. Each Form can see, in the light of the other, its own inherent need for reform and development. It is important to note here that wherever the two Forms are kept apart, the potential for mutual enrichment is diminished. This is the case wherever the two Forms are seen as mutually exclusive, and where there is no intention for dialogue.

7. The Holy Father points to a certain updating of the old Form by the new in saying that "new Saints and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted into the old Missal." In this regard we look to the Ecclesia Dei Commission to take the lead here.

8. I note finally that the Holy Father then speaks about a consequence of the Motu Proprio, which we should look for is the enrichment of the new Form: "The Celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to demonstrate ... the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage."

This accompanying Letter to Bishops is then, an important instrument for us to refer to in interpreting the call which the Church has made to all of us with regard to the Liturgy.

The enabling grace of "Universae Ecclesiae"

2011-05-14T23:41:00.004Z

The new Instruction Universae Ecclesiae points to the freedom of the Church in its Liturgy, which is the high point of her life. It opens up the whole Church to a much greater liturgical horizon than has been possible for some time. We have lived, for some decades now, an inadequte liturgical settlement, in which there was on one hand, an entrenched and disapproved of Tridentine usage, and on the other, a poorly initiated and developed New usage, both sides being prejudiced against the other.

The atmosphere which has surrounded this liturgical polarity has been, in my experience, one of personal opinion (like this one), narrow mindedness and an abscence of liturgical formation. In fact, the Church needs to occupy a much greater space than that which the liturgical settlement of the last forty years has permitted. It is a shame that we did not have the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum some years ago.

From the Council there was a clear desire to reform the old Rite (which was then never undertaken), and now there is a clear need to develop the new Rite so that it can be more Catholic. B16 has developed the context for this to take place. An era of inadequate dogmatism is being replaced by an era of freedom for reform. B16 is ushering in an era of openness to what the Liturgy is, rather than what we think it is. It is the way into the Mystery of Christ, who has the power to transform us.

Both sides may see inadequacies and deficiences in the new Instruction, but this document cannot be either totally prescriptive, nor can it legislate against prejudices, which ever side they are on. But it is endeavouring to establish a context in which the whole and undiminished Liturgy (which includes Latin, all the elements of the Tradition, and the developed sense of the Church that the liturgical reform has given us), can be better seen, celebrated and engaged with.

Thank you, Holy Father.

Tradition and progress

2011-05-12T11:53:00.000Z

The Holy Father gave a very helpful address a few days ago in Rome to the St Anslem Liturgical Insititute concerning the reform of the Liturgy. The text, published on Zenit, caught my eye when I read the Pope saying that the Liturgy needs both tradition and progress. He spoke of how today, these two concepts are often seen as "clumsily opposed", when "in reality, [they] are integrated: tradition is a living reality, which because of this includes in itself the principle of development, of progress." How important it is for us to really appreciate this in an era when the new and the old form of the Mass are contrasted by many as opposites, and when the tradition is regarded by many as little more than a bad memory.

However, the kernel of this address is the way in which the Holy Father describes the the intention of the reform of the Liturgy, and the way in which that reform is wrongly understood by some today. He says that the objective of the conciliar reform "was not primarily to change the rites and gestures, but rather to renew mentalities and to put at the centre of Christian life and ministry the celebration of the paschal mystery of Christ. Unfortunately, perhaps, also for us pastors and experts, the liturgy was taken more as an object to be reformed rather than as a subject capable of renewing Christian life".

These words really speak to my experience of the liturgical changes; that the reform became primarily a matter of mere change for the sake of change, and even change at the level of experimentation, as though the Liturgy was something that we could take and bend to our purposes. And that the desire to renew the lives of the faithful by placing the Paschal Mystery more truely at the centre of their lives, was undertaken in an inadequate fashion. This task seems now, at last, to be underway (at least in some quarters) in the whole project of the 'reform of the reform'.

Moreover, the Holy Father at the beginning of his address describes the basic outlines of the current liturgical settlement - the two main camps or liturgical positions within the Church today. He says that the reform needed to have been accompanied by a profound study of the Liturgy, so that it did not fall "into ritualism or subjectivism". The truth of this statement is seen today in that the old form of the Liturgy is seen as over-ritualised, whereas the new form has the tendency to be too horizontal, a tendency that allows both celebrant and people to make themselves the focus of the Liturgy. Yet the Holy father declares that the focus of the Liturgy is "the active presence of Christ". The true reform is the reform of ourselves and of the entire Church, which takes place when we come to Christ in order to draw life from Him.

We are still very close to the conciliar reform and clearly, it will take time for the true nature of the Liturgy and the purpose of its reform to be better grasped by the whole Church, and for us to learn again that the Liturgy is our greatest way to Christ; that the bond which links the renewal of the Liturgy and the renewal of the Christian life might become more evident. Let us thank God that he has given us such a great leader in Benedict XVI.

Poor grammar

2011-05-12T00:08:00.000Z

Reading the sermon given by the Archbishop of Westminster on May 7th to celebrate the Carthusian Martyrs, I was sorry to see him use the wrong grammer, which is currently so widespread in the UK. Refering to the recent Royal Wedding he said, "Furthermore, it struck me, sat as I was in the choir stalls with the Chief Rabbi and leaders of other religions as neighbours ... " This should have read, "Furthermore, it struck me, sitting as I was ... "

It is so common to hear, in the UK, people saying, "I was sat watching telly", or "He was stood at the bus stop"; News presenters too incorrectly use the preterite tense. And now, even the Archbishop as fallen into this incorrect grammar. "I was sitting", "he was standing", "I sat", "I was sitting", "he stood at his post"; this is correct English grammar.

Welcome postings

2011-05-11T11:48:00.006Z

I do hope that you have been pleased to see the last ten postings; they conclude the notes which I made some years ago when I undertook a reflective reading of the first half of Karol Wojtyla's book, "Love and Responsibility". I hope to do the same with the second half one day.

This precis can also be found on the tremendous web resource, http://www.xt3.com/, which has become a real hub for the younger part of the Church in New Antioch (which is what I like to call Sydney). Sydney today, like Antioch of old, is a growing center of the Faith. And like Antioch of old, people are coming to live in Sydney precisely because it is a growing centre of the Christian life. And again, just as in Antioch of old, today the Catholics of Sydney live 'cheek by jowl' with the secular/pagan world. Pray that vibrant centres of Faith will emerge and develop in all parts of the world, and that the Communion of believers will be full of confidence and joy.

Love and responsibility 10

2011-05-10T20:41:00.002Z

Love and Responsibility.
Love has a particular responsibility: Is my love complete and mature enough to justify the love of another person? Will my marriage enlarge my existence or will I lose my own personality, my ‘self’?
Marriage will call me to be responsible for my spouse, and to have feelings of responsibility towards him or her. Ultimately, this "being responsible" for my spouse rests upon my choice of the person on whom to bestow my gift of self. In marriage I will be called to rediscover myself daily in another person, and for this reason I cannot choose a spouse by sexual values alone. Sexual values do not determine the authenticity of choice. The value of the person must be the decisive one.
The truth about choice is tested when emotional reactions grow weaker and sexual values lose their effect, and only the value of the person remains. It is only when love is put to the test that its true value can be seen. My love for this particular person is real love because I have given myself this person with my whole life, and because the other person has made the same gift of themselves to me.
End.

Love and responsibility 9

2011-05-10T11:06:00.002Z

Married love.
Married love is very different from all the other forms of love, such as friendship and the relationships of family or work. In these relationships, love exists inside the person. Actions of goodwill and service to others deepen my relationships. But in marriage love exists between two people. Love which is given and received in marriage creates something new – the union of two persons – a new way of living.
The question arises: how can I make my inalienable and non-transferable ‘I’ someone else’s property? This can’t be done in a physical way but it is done in a spiritual way. Self-surrender as a form of love is the result of a process. Marriage is the culmination of a process of love which is blessed by God and in which spouses are called to live love in a decisive way. In the Gospel Christ speaks about love in these terms: "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt 10: 39)
In marriage spouses cannot live love according to feelings or values, or what they might think about such and such a situation. No, spouses are called to affirm each other as persons. They must decide to love. Love is a virtue which is produced by the will. It is the authentic commitment of my will towards my spouse. Married love is expressed in the orientation of all my actions and attitudes towards my spouse.
This is done first of all by choosing this person to be the companion of my whole life such that my life’s vocation will now have a particular direction. And then, in betrothed love, I no longer wish to be my own exclusive property.
Love, which has friendship at its heart, proceeds by way of renunciation, guided by the conviction that love doesn’t diminish or impoverish me, but enriches and enlarges me. I am aware of the magnitude of the gift which I have received – the self-gift of another person to me. In love I go out of myself to find a fuller existence with that person. Betrothed love commits my will in a particularly profound way. The consequence of this commitment is communion of life.

Love and responsibility 8

2011-05-09T20:08:00.002Z

How can I test my love?
How can I test my love before I marry? I can only do this by asking myself what the content of my love is. And, most importantly by listening to discern if the other person intuits the same thing as I – that a life of mutual self-giving is possible for us.
Love cannot be tested in a genital way; experimental sex is an obstacle to love because a couple need to get to know one another as persons. Sexual experimentation prevents this kind of knowing to develop between them and instead, sexual knowledge will override their need to know one another as persons.
The content of my love rests not upon my feelings or emotions but upon my struggle first to know myself and secondly to know the other person. The fact is that every person has the capacity for love, but this capacity is not ready made; it must be nurtured and protected. So, I should look at myself at the level of the virtues: how do I relate with the other, how do I influence him or her, how am I influenced by him or her, how have I changed, how have my other relationships changed, how integrated is my life, my work, all my other relationships, how do I listen to the advice of other people, how do I now respond to my family and friends. I need to look at my stability of character, my stability of interests, my confidence in decision-making, the way I pray, the way I approach God in the sacraments, the way I embrace the life of grace. And if the relationship is creating a true process of growing in maturity, then I can begin to know whether or not I can give myself, my whole self, to this other person in marriage.
For marriage to be a real possibility this same process has to occur in the other person as well. We both need to intuit the same thing, individually, within our selves; that we can make of ourselves a mutual self-gift. For this to happen I have to be able to listen to and to hear the other. I also need to be able to hear God speaking to me; prayer and God’s grace – His closeness to us - will help us both to test our love.

Love and responsibility 7

2011-05-09T02:36:00.002Z

Love as goodwill.
Loving a person for my benefit is incomplete love; I am called to seek the other person’s good. Love as goodwill is free from self-interest. There is a tendency in the experience of love to move from longing for the other person to seeking his or her good. This must be the case within marriage where sexual desire can be so conspicuous and make life both rich and difficult. Goodwill must always keep company with desire if love is to be true.
How does goodwill mature? It matures hrough trust. If I am always looking for the other person to respond to me, then I am too concerned about myself and this will paralyse the relationship. In fact, such self-interest can easily turn into jealousy or fear of unfaithfulness. This will overwhelm the relationship. If both parties only bring desire to the relationship then trust will not develop.
It is trust which allows love to become durable and reliable and to be a source of peace and joy. Every moment together is an opportunity to test our faith in each other and to reinforce it with virtue – this is what "dating" is really about. Honesty and patience are necessary ingredients here. A relationship then, becomes a school of life; I should ask myself, can I develop myself to the point that I can give my whole "self" to this person?

Love and responsibility 6

2011-05-08T20:06:00.002Z

Love as desire.
Desire is not the same as lust. Lust is using sex to satisfy desire. Desire is a natural, God-given experience. It springs from the fact that human beings are incomplete beings – we need other people. Sexuality is a limitation of our personality, an imbalance of our being. This however is a positive thing because it means that each one of us finds his or her completion or fulfillment outside ourselves – each one of us is made for someone. Acknowledging this limitation is the key to understanding the most important dimension of human life - our relationship with God. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." This Beatitude is the basis of our Spiritual lives.
Love as desire is the experience of longing for a person; the desire that love should be perfected in me. This longing must be protected from lust because desire has a great role to play in a relationship. Desire should set in motion the true project of a relationship, where dating is received as a God-given task. This means that I am called to allow my sexual feelings to be harnessed by love. Remember, I am much more than my feelings, I am a person, and desire is actually a call placed upon me, the call to mature, to integrate all the elements of my personality and so to be able to use my freedom: to make a gift of myself to another. If I do marry, this same project will continue in a new way in married life.

Love and responsibility 5

2011-05-08T09:52:00.001Z

Love as attraction.
Let’s look again at what love is. The first element of love is attraction. People attract and the basis of attraction is an impression which a person makes on my senses. Attraction is my response to values which I intuit in this person. So, in a particular person I find for instance, understanding, enthusiasm, style, intelligence – values which I find attractive. Because of this I want to know the person more than I would otherwise. Emotion is also involved, heightening my awareness of and receptivity to this person.
Attraction however can be blind. I can transfer values to the other person which are not really present in him or her. This happens when my emotional reaction becomes too strong. This reaction is dangerous to love because emotions do not last and love requires a far more solid basis. In fact, it is not a question of me discerning if my feelings towards another person are true emotions - they are! What I need to discover is whether the other person really possesses those values which I find attractive. The genuineness of my feelings cannot be the only test of love, I also need to discern the truth of the other person. Only by integrating the force of attraction and knowledge of the other can I allow love to grow.
Indeed, I should be able discern the quality of my attraction to the other. To test this I must ask myself, what of this person has entered into my heart? His or her physicality, personality, hopes for life, circumstances? Is it the whole person who has entered into my heart or just a part of the person? In asking myself this I will discover just how well I really know the other. Be attracted, but don’t let attraction become a stumbling block. Attraction is only the beginning – love is greater yet.

Love and responsibility 4

2011-05-06T21:17:00.001Z

The sexual urge.
The sexual urge is the powerful force which brings two people of the opposite sex together. Not only does the sexual urge lead to the physical contact of two people, but it also creates a disposition of mind and heart in those people. It is the setting within which the possibility of love arises. The sexual urge does not produce complete, finished and totally mature human actions. What are human actions always dependent on? They are dependent on the will; being able to make personal and freed decisions. Love develops not by feelings but by decision-making. Not just choice but commitment.
What is the difference between choice and commitment? Choice is based on preference. Commitment is based on my discernment of truth and the struggle for personal maturity - the ability to make a decision with my whole person. Paradoxically, our culture thinks of the sexual urge as only a biological function, yet its biological function is procreation – which our culture distains. In fact, the sexual urge sets the scene for the whole culture of love to develop and the real possibility that I am called to marriage.

Love and responsibility 3

2011-05-06T10:37:00.002Z

Love as emotion.
Our emotions affect us from within. What emotions do is to make our experiences in life more vivid. Emotion goes so far as to heighten our knowledge of ourselves. It is important to realise this. Our emotions affect the way we know.
So, when another person becomes the source of delight to me, I must take more care to make the relationship interpersonal. I must become more responsive to the other person. The first thing I must endeavour to do in a relationship is get to know the other person and be known genuinely by him or her. Emotions should lead me to become more responsible in the relationship. Part of this means being honest about who I am.
Only love, and not emotion, can raise sexual feelings to the level of an interpersonal relationship. Following my emotions will lead me instead, to use the other person for my satisfaction and this will actually prevent love from growing. It is important to realise that our culture today has a wrong understanding of emotion: emotion is not the "leading actor" of human love, but only a part of love, a much more important role belongs to my understanding and my free will.

Love and responsibility 2

2011-05-05T20:17:00.001Z

Love as a challenge
When a relationship begins between two people the way forward is not necessarily clear. The goal of the relationship – testing whether one is called to marriage with this particular person – is caught up at the outset with one’s own personal feelings, desires and ideas. A relationship can easily become an end in itself, fulfilling some feelings and desires but blurring the need for decision. If this happens to me then I am tending to make my partner become a means to an end; my relationship makes me feel good. But a relationship is more than a means to an end. To discover this depends upon what I think love is.
Today it is necessary to ask upon what basis love is measured. Is it measured according to my own personal criteria, my ideas, my hopes, my plans? Is it measured according to what society allows, what I see others doing, what I am allowed by law? Is it measured according to principles of truth and goodness which still lie at the heart of human society? Is it measured according to the Gospel and God’s will? Do I measure love according to some other rule? However I look at love, my approach to such questions as these will give me something upon which to test the truth of my relationship.
What is the truth of a relationship? The truth of a relationship, which I am called to discover, is founded on being able to see the good of the other person – how can I be of benefit to the other? If I can see this then a bond can grow between me and the other person which unites us internally and upon which love can grow. Ultimately, the truth of a relationship lies in whether it is moving towards marriage or not. A relationship which is not leading towards marriage remains at the level of friendship.
In fact, the experience of love demands much more than the fulfillment of feelings and desires, it demands that I must be in charge of my freedom. In practice this means that I must be able to steer a relationship towards its goal - marriage - and not just be steered by it. A state of indecision in me means that love cannot grow and that the relationship is floundering. If this happens I need to make a radical decision about the relationship.

Love and responsibility

2011-05-04T23:04:00.005Z

Some years ago I read the book "Love and responsibility" by Karol Wojtyla, written shortly before he was elected to the Papacy. The book is an in depth treatise on the experience of human love and relationships; it is an extraordinary work. The book is written in a very philosophical style, so in order to be able to convey its content to other people, who may never get to read the original, I made some simplified notes on the first half of the book. By way of tribute to JPII I will post these notes in ten short sections. This first segment compares love with desire.

When we look at humanity we see that it is neither complete nor finished-off; it is lacking something. We encounter ourselves as people who are looking, listening, enquiring, searching for fulfillment. Each one of us experiences this in our freedom of will; our desire for fulfillment. Everyone has his or her own freedom of will and so, at its root, the experience of desire is an intensely personal one. Desire is the experience of need. Is love the same as desire? No, love is much greater than desire. Desires come naturally to human beings, whereas we have the capacity for love, but love must be nurtured.
The capacity for love depends on a person’s willingness to seek something in common with others – he or she must subordinate him or herself to that thing for the sake of others. For instance, to make the roads safer places, drivers are called to respect a common code of driving. In doing so a driver subordinates his own way of driving to the needs of other road users. Now love is a deeply human capacity in which my freedom is placed at the disposition of others. Love is not something ready made – it has to be chosen. Love, at its root, is a decision.

Going under

2011-05-01T10:43:00.003Z

Recently I came across, in the religious interest magazine "The Tablet" (12th February 2011) an article about the priesthood in Australia by Chris McGillon, titled "Going under". He begins his article saying that some "fear that the priesthood in Australia is threatened with extinction", and he ends the article speaking of lingering "impressions of disenchantment ... which should provide food for thought for clergy and laity alike." This life-sapping article is based on a questionnaire, which he and a colleague sent to Catholic priests throughout Australia in 2008-09. The result of this questionnaire was their book "Our Fathers".

The article doesn't indicate what kind of questions were in the questionnaire, but suggests rather that Chris McGillon's way of looking at the Catholic priesthood is the one which the majority of priests who responded to the questinnaire favoured. And, not surprisingly, Chris McGillon is someone who thinks that Contraception is an issue that still needs to be resolved!

My experience of the priesthood in Australia is somewhat different. When I arrived in Oz almost three years ago I was extended an enormous welcome; I felt like a newly ordained priest who was being embraced close to the Church's heart. Now this was obviously a subjective experience, so let me speak a little more objectively about what I have seen (in Sydney).

There is a very strong and warm sense of fellowship among Diocesan priests. This is evident in the sacristy, in concelebrations and in glergy gatherings. Australian Bishops mingle freely and easily among the priests. The parishes are brimming with Mass-goers every day, yes, every day, not just Sunday. There are priests from many different Asian countries who are clearly welcomed and embraced (as I was) by brother priests and parishioners alike. People in the streets and in shops greet priests warmly with "Hello, Father". I have collaborated on two ocassions with other priests in parish missions in Sydney; in both of these the sense of the priesthood was manifestly Eucharist-centered, missionary, fraternally supportive. I have collaborated on many occasions with other priests in formation events in Sydney and experienced with them the great joy that priests are given when the Church is being built up.

I join other priests each month for the "Theology on Tap" sessions, where hundreds of young people delight in our presence in their midst. Working in the seminary in Sydney I have the immense joy of encountering every day young men who are alive in their vocations to the priesthood, and who are responding with the Theological virtues to the challenges which they meet; seminarians who are aspiring to offer their whole humanity to be formed by grace so that they can become God's intruments. And I know that since 2007, thirty five men have been ordained to the priesthood from the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney.

These are just some of my experiences, experiences which do not point to Chris McGillon's bleak view that the priesthood in Australia is going under. In any case, the Holy Spirit continues to be very active in His great Southern Land, in spite of surveys which have their own independent agendas.

Discovering JPII as a young priest

2011-04-30T08:48:00.004Z

So, it was five years after my priestly ordination that I was awoken to the greatness of JPII. Having been introduced to the Theology of the Body in 1993 I set about getting hold of copies of all the various Letters and Encyclicals he had written. Between 1994 and 1996, wherever I encountered a Catholic bookshop I would buy copies of those Letters I did not yet have, and I gradually put together a complete collection of all his teaching documents up to that time. And I remember setting about reading each one as I acquired it, making notes in the margins and re-reading it as I was so hungry to absorb its content. My Sunday sermons too began to be formed by JPII's teachings.

Indeed looking back, what was taking place in me was that I was discovering the whole Gospel anew through JPII. His witness to the Gospel was tangible. He was living the doctrine that he was teaching. And the Gospel he lived and taught was a Gospel which embraced the whole of humanity; that is to say, he witnessed to the Gospel is a fully human way, embracing the feelings, human affectivity, hopes, fears and sinfulness. Just about the whole world saw JPII take humanity to himself. No longer was Christianity a disembodied or cerebral spirituality. No, JPII showed me that is was safe to be both Christian and human, indeed, to be Christian is to be fully human.

Regarding the Priesthood itself, JPII gave huge encouragement to priests and renewed our confidence, but the special grace that I received from him was to appreciate how I was called to make my life over to Christ. That I no longer needed to see my life as a priest in self-important ways or evaluate myself according to human standards, but much less self-consciously to simply dispose my whole life a seed-bed for God to use.

He who stands at the forefront of the new era

2011-04-30T02:13:00.004Z

If it isn't evident already, then tomorrow's Beatification will make it even clearer, what an enormous gift from God is the life and witness of Pope John Paul II.

His Pontificate accompanied me for over half my life and I know that his influence in my life is very significant. My first memories of him go back to my student years and to the TV news reports of his first apostolic visits abroad. I remember that what fascinated us all were the impromtu conversations he held with young people who had gathered, at night, outside the place when he was spending the night. He would come to the window or porch and speak with the young people, and it was often simply a question of them wishing one another a good night's sleep.

I was a student representative at the Coventry Airport Mass on Pentecost Sunday 1982 during his visit to the UK. We were totally thrilled by his presence in the country and were simply filled with wonder the the Pope had, at last, come to England.

During my seminary years in Spain, apart from the Rector's own delight in and devotion to JPII ( he took us to Rome to see the Pope in my first year; we also participated in JPII's 1982 visit to Spain, taking part in the Mass at Toledo), the Holy Father rather dwindled into the background as no one else, involved with our studies, paid much attention to him. Looking back I can see that a similar attitude was taking hold in the UK, and it is significant that no video record of JPII's historic 1982 visit was made as a souvenir.

By the time I was ordained priest in 1988 I was still totally unversed in JPII's teaching, and it was not until I was introduced to the Theology of the Body by another priest in 1993 that I was awoken to the nature and importance of what this Pope was about.

TBC

Hope in the heart of Soho

2011-04-29T00:47:00.003Z

Can I also alert readers to Fr Tim's recent post (The Hermeneutic of Continuity) about St Patrick's Parish, Soho, London. This excellent post describes what is taking place in that extraordinary parish. This post will be of interest to any who are given over to evangelisation or who are interested in St Patrick's Evangelisation School which is based there. I have been involved with the School in the past and know the Parish Priest, Fr Sherbrooke; may God continue to bless this work of grace.

An extinguished site

2011-04-29T00:15:00.003Z

Apologies for not having posted for some weeks; yes, the past few weeks have been busy, but I have been working away from the seminary and have not had the necessary internet contact.

I wanted to alert you to the fact that my website, www.communityofgrace.org.uk, has been deleted from cyberspace. The site was hosted on the Diocese of Leeds website, but I have received no communication regarding the site's removal. The site was, in any case, somewhat dormant and was rarely visited. I shall look to the re-locate some of the site's content in another context. News of this, as and when.

A fresh start

2011-04-16T08:01:00.004Z

I hope that you are underway with the instructional and formative material in preparation for the introduction of the New Translation of the Roman Missal. We started using the New Translation at the Seminary in Sydney on Ash Wednesday. Five and a half weeks into the experience I can make some provisional comments.

First, I think that it will take us all some time to adapt to the new responses and get over stumbling over the old ones. For those of us who are regular participants in the Mass, the old responses are very much engraved in our being, and some attention and patience will be required by all of us. The new responses will take time to sink in.

Secondly, one of the comments which is offered by a number of speakers on the DVD resource "Become one Body, one Spirit in Christ" is that the priest especially, should read and interiorise the three prayers of the Mass before he proceeds to celebrate. This comment is, I think, of huge value. The only former occasions where I have done this was before celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. However, since Ash Wednesday this year I have looked over the prayers of the Mass every day. This has led me not simply to familiarise myself with the language of the prayers, but more valuably, to focus my heart and mind on the Mysteries which I am about to celebrate. I recommend this pratice to both priests and lay people; it will transform the way we approach the Mass. It is also very helpful to look over the prayer texts in Latin, and for that matter, the new English translation is very helpful for better understanding the Latin texts, precisely because they are a more formal translation of the Latin. The new translation will be a great help to both priests and lay people in the celebration of the new Mass in Latin.

Thirdy, the language of the New Translation is a huge step foward. It is much more Catholic and grace-filled than the previous. In its richness lies a whole life of faith. I think that in time its richness will transform the way we pray and live the Life of Grace. I find myself, in praying the prayers of the Mass, more consciously approaching and crossing the threshold of the Mystery of Christ and of Grace; that the prayers are introducing me more readily to the vast horizon of Grace.

It is hard to believe now that we had the previous English translation for so long. And I am particularly conscious of all those faithful people, who not wanting to lose the Old Mass, never lived to see this richer form of the new Missal.

A much-awaited history

2011-04-07T04:01:00.005Z

I was very pleased today to learn that Fr Michael Rear's book on the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham has been published. The book, "Walsingham: Pilrims and Pilgrimage" is the first comprehensive history of the shrine to be written. Moreover, the Holy Father was presented with a copy of the book a few days ago. I look forward to reading this volume. Many, many thanks to Fr Rear for his work on this history.

And what a great sign it is, that the new Ordinariate is under the Patronage of Our Lady of Walsingham. Pope Leo XIII said that when England returns to Walsingham, England will return to the Faith.

A relationship revisited.

2011-04-06T09:00:00.005Z

It is three decades now since Bob Dylan sang his magnificent anti-secularist songs, "Deadman" and "Yonder comes sin", for example. It may be too much to hope that he will sing these songs in a months' time when he tours Australia. Attitudes have changed radically since the early 80s; today, the atheistic secularism of the West is very hostile to the Faith.

The relationship between the Church and the world is seen in relief in our day. Even as late at the 1970s, British Society accepted and recognised itself as basically Christian. But secular attitudes and the culture which they have generated have taken hold very strongly. Prime Minister Edward Heath used to speak about how Christianity had influenced his political beliefs. He even wrote a book on Christian values. Today in a climate where the culture has become intolerant of Christians, the Bishop of Motherwell writes to Prime Minister Cameron challenging him to explain why he says that Christians are the intolerant ones.

During the last decade we saw the emergence of politicians (for instance, Tony Blair and Barak Obama) who have tried to redefine the relationship between politics and faith, and as a consequence to re-envisage the nature and place of the Church in the world (from a secular point of view). Pope Benedict's recent visit to the UK undid much of this posturing by politicians, by the Pope expressing in a simple and gracious way, who he and the Church is. His recently published interview with Peter Seewald "Light of the World" focusses on the relationship between the Church and the world. And although the Holy Father in some way, but wisely I think, understates the difficulties which the world is presently in, he speaks in such a way as to show very clearly the nature and mission of the Church, which is set in relief precisely by the world's current atheistic ideologies. This book is another important read for Catholics today, for as the Holy Father says, "The Church is always called upon to do what God asked of Abraham, which is to see to it that there are enough righteous men to repress evil and destruction" (page 166). Perhaps Bob Dylan too has a copy of this book.

Social network

2011-04-03T10:03:00.005Z

I have wanted to post on this subject ever since I read the Holy Father's message for World Communications Day which he gave at the end of January this year. My ears pricked up when I heard him liken the transformation in human relationships which is taking place through the internet to the upheaval in human relationships which was caused by the Industrial Revolution.

Although I have had a Facebook Profile since 2006, I have withdrawn from Facebook somewhat, at least in terms of the attention that I give to it. Facebook is but one network among many on the web and it is the only one that I have a part in. Direct human contact remains for me the predominant and essential medium of relating with others.

In the immediate decades before the advent of the Internet we saw the genesis of a form of youth culture in which teenagers came to inhabit a parallel world to that of older generations. This world had its own form of communication, one that was disconnected from the world that other generations inhabited, and which gave rise to the phenomenon of the 'generation gap'. Teenagers became disconnected from their parents and vice-versa. This culture is well expressed by such films as "Stand by me", "Paranoid Park" and "Elephant". This culture was the forerunner to today's social networks on the Internet, which have become a leading culture in our day.

However, the Holy Father is genuinely intuitive in reminding us of the era of the Industrial Revolution, during which the "human desire for relationship, communion and meaning" (B16) was profoundly altered, especially with reference to the family. Today's culture echoes that era, especially in terms of the family, which uniquely can offer the essential ingredients of life, which are human warmth, affection and belonging. Our real relationships, rather than our virtual ones must remain the main focus of our attention, and we should not be drawn away from the real meaning of our lives by the Internet. Nor should young people be lured away from their family and their real friends by 'youth culture'. The Industrial Revolution diminished our humanity, and it is clear that the Internet has the capacity to do likewise.

We are at the beginning of a new era and it behoves us to look critically at what is taking place rather than simply going along with the current. The Holy Father's message, which he titles "Truth, proclamation and authenticity of life in the Digital Age", asks indispensible questions about the contemporary Internet culture which "urgently demand a serious reflection":

"Who is my “neighbour” in this new world? Does the danger exist that we may be less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life? Is there is a risk of being more distracted because our attention is fragmented and absorbed in a world “other” than the one in which we live? Do we have time to reflect critically on our choices and to foster human relationships which are truly deep and lasting? It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives."

And that "the Gospel demands to be incarnated in the real world and linked to the real faces of our brothers and sisters, those with whom we share our daily lives."

You can read the whole of the Pope's message here.

For the Pearl of York

2011-04-02T05:42:00.005Z

Having led a number of pilgrimages in the past in honour of St Margaret Clitherow, I was so pleased to see that the tradition continues. And how wonderful that Mass was celebrated in York Minster for the anniversary of her martyrdom. St Margaret Clitherow never participated in Mass in the Minster since, by the time she was born the Mass was already outlawed. Yet, how fitting that the most famous citizen of York, and one of the finest persons from England ever to have lived should have the Mass celebated at the high altar of York Minster. May St Margaret bring a blessing upon York and the whole country. Thanks to Mike Forbester for these photos. You can find more here.

It is good to see that this Missa Cantata of the Extraordinary Form was celebrated by a Diocesan Priest. It is much more fitting that these Masses be celebrated by priests of the diocese as an ordinary part of the life of the Church, than that this ordinary part of the life of the Church be taken over by 'specialist' groups, who are somewhat remote from that life. And it is largely thanks to the Latin Mass Society of the Dioceses of England and Wales that this is the case. Long may it continue.

Sacred Signs

2011-04-01T05:44:00.005Z

It is very good to see today an interest, and a discerned interest at that, in Liturgical formation - genuine Liturgical formation. That is to say, a focus on the action of Christ in the Liturgy and how each of us, both celebrant and people actually participates in what He does in the Mass.

A few posts ago I directed readers to a number of important sources of the Reform of the Reform. I would like to recommend here the small book "Sacred Signs" which Romano Guardini published in 1927. This simple book is essential reading, I think, for today's context. It speaks about the meaning which lies behind all the gestures and movements, not so much of the priest, but of the person who goes to participate in a Mass. The liturgical culture today, which is so 'wordy' has relegated movement, action and gesture to the 'back foot'. Yet Liturgy is itself comprised of sacred signs and actions. Liturgy is a 'doing'.

Cardinal Ratzinger in his book "The Spirit of the Liturgy" speaks of how he was inspired by the book "Sacred Signs". I would recommend the book first of all to parents, since it is good if we can first learn the extraordinary value of sacred signs at an early age from our parents. However, if you have never been exposed to the richness of Liturgical gestures then this book is also for you. After that you can progress to Guardini's more elaborate book "Preparing yourself for Mass". This book would not suit children, but is essential reading for a generation who need now to pick up the pieces that were cast aside in previous decades.

When the new Mass was introduced in 1969 it was introduced as a solution to the need for Liturgical reform, but mere change was inadequate. In fact, genuine Liturgical formation was necessary but was ommitted. Participation, properly understood, not liturgical innovation, is what revolutionises the Liturgy.

I am very glad then, to see today an emerging interest, especially on the part on young people, to rediscover the vast riches of Catholic Liturgy. And how providential it is, in our day, that, arguably, the bishop with the most Liturgical understanding and vision was elected to the Papacy! Listen to what Benedict XVI teaches, to what he actually says about the Liturgy; be formed by him and the Reform of the Reform will take place through you.

Another sign for our times

2011-03-28T09:06:00.004Z

Thanks to the Spanish Bishop's "Campaign for Life 2011" for this expression of the renewed pro-life message.

A sign for our times

2011-03-27T22:54:00.004Z

For many parishes the New Evangelisation will start here - leaving the door of the church not simply unlocked, but wide open. This is especially important when Mass is being celebrated. Many churches do leave their doors unlocked, but for the newcomer or passer by the door may as well be locked. The church door needs to visibly open. An open door is both a sign of welcome and a sign of life. Some of the parishes where I have been Parish Priest liked to keep the church doors closed during the Mass; this is a sign that a congregation has gone into 'private members club' mode and that the focus of the parish is inward looking, or has become, simply, neo-pelagian. I had to work hard to convince my parishioners that an open door was a better sign to give. In one parish, the church was on a main road which clogged up with peak-hour traffic twice a day. I was so glad that when the doors were eventually left open, the slow stream of drivers crawling along could look straight in through to the altar and see the early morning Mass happening. Moreover, a slow realisation grew in the district that this was one church that was actually used each day - becuase, unlike the others nearby, people could see that this one was opened up everyday and that daily Mass was celebrated there.

Incidentally, the churches where I was Parish Priest all had a second set of glass doors within, which kept the church warm in the colder months.

Something new in the harbour

2011-03-23T10:06:00.002Z

It was very good to see, the other day, that one of the Watsons Bay ferries is named after Australia's first saint. Many will see, or journey on, this ferry between Circular Quay in Sydney and Watsons Bay near the South Head. This a avery fitting gesture to this saint who is, and was, so active in witnessing to the Redemption in Australia.

A Roman visitor

2011-03-20T10:02:00.006Z

Last week Cardinal Raymond Burke the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature came to Sydney, his first visit to Australia. Much of his time he gave to young people. His address to the Australian Catholic Students Association was very well received as he addressed the contemporary challenge of living and building the Christian Life in a neo-pagan culture. A summary of his talk has been published by Zenit.

The Cardinal also spoke at the tremendously formative monthly "Theology on Tap" in Parramatta (photo above). He addressed the question of how to concretely promote the Culture of Life: I was present for this talk and was very struck by how the Cardinal held the attention of maybe five hundred young people in a city pub. The new generation of young people in Sydney are so keen and so glad to have their spiritual fathers come to visit and are happy to hear any message of truth.

The Cardinal also treated us to a celebration of a Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The Mass was celebrated in a city Parish Church and drew one of Sydney's Auxiliary Bishops together with a huge throng of young people. It is a rare occasion today for people to witness the older form of the Liturgy with full pontificals, and to experience the Liturgy as it used to be. First of all, it is essential that young people have a point of reference in the old Liturgy so that they can see where we have come from - what the Liturgy used to look like. Fortunately this is possible today, and clearly the young Catholics of Sydney were very grateful to Cardinal Burke for allowing them to experience this rare form of the Liturgy. For a number of decades, people both young and old were denied this experience (apart from England and Wales where from 1971 a Pauline Indult had allowed the use of the older Liturgy), and the opportunity for having a greater appreciation of the Church's Liturgy.

Many young Catholics are seeking "form" both in the Liturgy and in their Spiritual lives, and it is appropriate that the Church is now responding to this desire. I think that it is also necessary that the other part of the equation be attended to; namely, to provide formation and catechesis about the older Liturgy and its structure, so that Christ rather than Liturgical forms might be whole focus of these expereinces. In other words, as well as the older Liturgy being celebrated, it needs to be studied and appreciated from the perspective of Christ, rather from that of mere ritual.

A renewed vision

2011-03-18T06:22:00.003Z

I have been reading Scott Hahn's recently published book "Covenant and Communion" and am full of praise for this masterpiece. Scott brings together some of the main seams of Benedict XVI's theology into a unified Biblical Theology. The Vatican Council asked that Theology be renewed upon the foundation of Sacred Scripture; Scott Hahn shows us how the Holy Father has done this, giving us not just a renewed appreciation of the Scriptures, but of God's plan for us expressed in the Church, the Liturgy and the Eucharist. This is not a beginners Theology book, but I do recommend it particularly to priests and all those who have already gone some way in studying Theology. Scott's new book shows us just how far our very dear Holy Father has taken us, by remaining so close to the message of Truth given in the Sacred Scriptures.

A sacred language for the Liturgy

2011-03-15T05:35:00.002Z

Zenit reproduced a fine article, on 11th March this year, by Fr Uwe Michael Lang about "the sacred language" of the Liturgy. You can visit the link here. It is always good to have Liturgical formation at this level.

Placing the text

2011-03-13T05:06:00.005Z

The study of Sacred Scripture is related with Theology; I offer here a schema to show the basic relationships which are involved.

Fundamental Theology concerns the study of Theology in itself; what it means to study God. Its methods, sources, parameters and its relationship with other sciences. Sacred Scripture is here, one of the sources of Theology.

Theology is the science of revealed religion; a disciplined reflection on divine revelation (as against the "study of religions" - which is a human science.)

Within Theology there are three main branches:

1. Positive Theology, which is an inventory of dogma and draws on the two soucres of Revealed Truth - Scripture and Tradition. It also includes the historical development of dogma.

2. Scholastic Theology, which is a systematisation of the Faith into a unified structure, using reason.

3. Biblical Theology is the unified understanding of the saving truths contained in the Scriptures which are given to us in the Church's Tradition. Biblical Theology draws only upon Scripture and its work is to collect the results of exegesis, so that they can be compared, assigned a place in the history of Revelation, and so that Scholastic Theology can be given with a firm foundation. Biblical Theology then, flows out of exegesis and is the foundation of Scholastic Theology.

A word about exegesis. Exegesis is the interpretation of biblical texts. Its method, which has come out of the Enlightenment, is analytical and scientific; it looks at the parts of the whole.

Biblical Theology, on the other hand, is synthetic; it looks at how the parts of Scripture relate with the whole. As such it complements exegesis by making exegesis a Theological discipline, rather than it being a purely secular study. Biblical Theology bridges the gap between exegesis and Theology: the Second Vatican Council taught that Sacred Scripture was to be the soul of Theology. In the past, Theology sometimes tried to do its work without referring to the Scriptures. However, Biblical Theology is not autonomous, it is not the whole of Theology as it draws only on Sacred Scripture. Theology must draw on both sources of Revelation, Scripture and Tradition.

XT3 moves into Lent

2011-03-08T11:37:00.003Z

XT3's new Lent Calendar App. is available to download now with daily readings, reflections, podcasts and video apologetics. The Sydney-based Catholic Network have produced a tremendous resource here for young people and are making very good use of their presence in the digital world. Congratulations and thanks to the XT3 team. Visit http://www.xt3.com/

Fr Benedict on Scripture, Part 2

2011-03-08T01:39:00.009Z

Continuing and concluding my notes from a talk given by Fr Benedict Groeschel CFR in Leeds in 2002, we can begin to appreciate Fr Benedict's own clarity of understanding about the nature of Scripture scholarship during the twentieth century, and particulary the impact of rationalism in the form of the "historical-critical method" of interpreting Scripture, which came to the fore in both Protestant and Catholic circles as a result of the Enlightenment. Fr Benedict in his talk continued to present the problem for the Church which came from a rationalist perspective on Scripture.

Today’s Catholic Scripture Scholars have arisen largely from the pro-Enlightenment group. In other words, today’s Catholic Scripture Scholarship is the Enlightenment’s enlightenment of Scripture. And this project does not sit well with Mystery; it is Mystery which makes rationalists ill at ease with the New Testament. The basis of this movement is the idea that the human mind can understand everything, and that we are embarked on an irresistible upward human journey, that science and reason are all powerful. This project, in effect, came to an end with the two World Wars.

A contemporary example of this current is Fr John Meier’s book “The Marginal Jew”, which endeavours to propose that common understanding which Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Agnostic Scripture scholars would agree about what Jesus said, did, knew and meant. Intending to refine the essential truth which lies at the heart of Scripture. However, asks Groeschel, what is an agnostic, or a Protestant, or a Catholic? But, since no one can really define these categories, how can one determine the essence of Christianity from such vague premises?

At the end of the Kulturkampfe a remarkable priest emerged: Fr Matthias Scheeben, who was able to see that Scripture scholars had reshaped the Mysteries of Christianity upon the basis of rationalism. His great work, “The Mysteries of Christianity” is a masterpiece of Catholic thought in the midst of a rationalist and mystery-denying era.

No one however, saw the Rationalist impact on Christianity as it was happening, better than Newman. We Catholics tend to know better the devotional side of Newman, yet his clarity of theological vision in the context of the impact of rationalism is most important. (See Fr Bouyer’s book “Newman’s vision of faith”.) Newman speaks about faith submitting reason to Mystery; having faith in spite of the darkness that surrounds me, removing the obstacles to faith so that the mind can believe in God. That Faith is a thankful and obedient experience. That Sacred Scripture are the words of God, and that we cannot therefore treat them like the words of men.

Concluding his talk, Fr Benedict indicated the place from which to start the study of Scripture: that Scripture is given to us by the Providence of God to guide us on the way to Salvation (CCC,107), and that this is the primary purpose of the Scriptures.

As an end note, could I just point out that Pope Benedict has, in his Apostolic Exhortation "Verbum Domini", declared that the "historical-critical method" has an important role in Scripture Scholarship, but that it needs to undergo a self-purification in order that it can be uselfully applied to the Scriptures without it adding its own agenda.

Shadows of men

2011-03-06T00:13:00.006Z

It should not surprise us at all, nor should we be condemnatory, that in our secular age which has lost sight of the love of God, an age in which by and large people do not believe that they are really cherished by God, that many men should enter into the culture of homosexuality.

The great platform upon which human life is lived is the relationship we have with God. Are we on our own in facing life? Is God concerned about us at all, or is He merely moved from afar when we encounter all that is bad in the world, Himself remaining hidden and silent? How could we be expected to believe that God has become man and entered into the very situation of our lives? Could this be true?

The Christian transformation of men, in history, through the action of the Gospel has revealed the greatness of masculine personality and character. What do the Apostles, St Paul, St Augustine, St Thomas More, Bl Louis Martin (the father of St Therese of Lisieux) have in common? They all pointed people towards God. In the light of Revelation which shows the first man blaming his wife and then hiding in the bushes, male greatness comes about when, in the Gospel, men accept God's company and lead others towards God. When is a man truly a man? When, by his life and example, he directs others on the path towards God.

Historically, we can see a number of contexts, in both the Church and society, where men truly embrace their masculinity. In the family, a father and a husband takes up an essential role of guiding, fostering and protecting the spiritual life of his wife and children. Bishops and priests have an indispensable Christian role of fatherhood, pointing out and leading the way. Single men also have assumed their God-given personality. It is the case that most men take up the role of becoming biological fathers, but before embracing this vocation all men have the vocation to spiritual fatherhood.

In our age, which has turned its back on the Mystery of Faith, it is sadly true that many men instead of aspiring to the fullness of their mission in the world, embrace a lie about themselves instead. Does God love and cherish these men? Of course he does. Can these men be saved? Of course they can. But that is precisely the point; it is not Salvation which is at stake, but our willingness to embrace that relationship with God which Salvation reveals.

There is a great need that today, many men will be open to God and to being loved by Him in Christ, and shake off the cultural lies that prevent them from embracing their true greatness. Every society, every community needs real men, men who point out to others and lead the way to God.

Speaking about Scripture scholarship

2011-03-05T20:23:00.008Z

Reading Pope Benedict's new letter 'Verbum Domini' put me in mind of a talk which Fr Benedict Groeschel CFR gave in Leeds in 2002 about Scripture scholarship during the twentieth century. He outlined very simply the origin of the main difficulty - rationalism - which we have had to deal with in Scripture scholarship, together with that attitude that leads to a genuine embracing of the Scriptures. I took notes during Fr Benedict's talk and enclose a summary of my notes here. Acknowledgements to Fr Benedict Groeschel CFR.

At the beginning of the twentieth century many Catholic Scripture scholars, people like Loisy and Tyrell had gone into the rationalism of Protestant scholarship and taken Scripture with them. So, in order to protect the Scriptures Pope Pius X commanded Catholic Scripture Scholars to get out of contemporary Scripture studies because of where they were going.

Almost half a century later in 1943 Pope Pius XII reversed the command of Pius X and opened dialogue between Catholic theologians and the Critical Methods that had been used by Protestants and in secular studies of the Bible. In his Encyclical - Divino Afflante Spiritu - he made many cautela and limitations, which as the Catholics moved into academic circles tended to be ignored. But in any case the Catholic Scholars had to enter into this circle with the rules that were in play.

The environment which the Catholic scholars encountered in 1943 was materialistic, sceptical, reductionist and profoundly anti-supernatural. One of its most important protagonists was Rudolf Bultman, whose basic hypothesis was that Scripture exists for preaching (the truth is that this is only one of its purposes), and that you can only preach that which people will believe. For Bultman, modern people do not believe in the miraculous and, he would go on to propose that the miraculous doesn’t even exist. This attitude comes from scientific reductionism, which says that if there is something which you can’t comprehend, pretend that it isn’t there.

Later, Raymond Brown the Catholic scholar, following this tradition, would propose in his book “Jesus, God and man”, that Jesus did not know who he was. In this book he declared that the only words in the Gospel which we know Jesus said are “This is my body”. These words are so extraordinary that they could not have been made up by the evangelists. However, Brown fails to ask how someone who doesn’t know who he is could have said these words, unless he thought he had divine power. The problem which all these exegetes have is a problem with accepting Mystery.

The origin of this whole attitude to the Scriptures is rationalism, which entered into Scripture Scholarship in Germany at the time of Von Bismark’s Kulturkampfe (1871-1878). This was a basically non-political attempt to bring cultural unity to the newly unified Germany. It’s principal goal was to bring Catholics into line with ‘enlightened’ Protestants. By the end of the Kulturkampfe Catholics were divided into two groups: those who embraced the achievements of the Enlightenment, represented today by Karl Rahner (that it is possible to Baptise the Enlightenment, including Kant and Freud, and get something good from it), and those who would not embrace the Enlightenment, represented by Romano Guardini, Karl Adam and von Balthasar.

(To be continued.)

The mustard seed, again.

2011-03-03T04:21:00.003Z

A new initiative has begun in parishes in the UK; small groups meeting informally to grow in faith using as their guide "The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church". I wish that there had been such groups in my parishes, when I was a Parish Priest. Visit the website to find out more. From small beginnings ....

An opportunity not to be missed

2011-02-28T01:14:00.010Z

With the new English translation of the altar missal only months away I do hope that you have been able to attend, to whatever degree, to the preparatory catechetical material. Indeed, the opportunity for Liturgical formation which was unfortunately omitted at the time of the reform in the late 60s, is now again possible. The need for Liturgical formation is probably not universally appreciated, even though the lack thereof is staring us in the face. And what is such a great grace to the Church is that the present Holy Father has a profound Liturgical awareness, and has given so much of his time and energy to offering genuine Liturgical catechesis to the whole Church.

The DVD resource "Become one Body, one Spirit in Christ" is a necessary part of our Catholic education at this time. The section "Receiving the new translation" should be given particular attention. Some sequences on the DVD have limited value and in one section and English priest gives a very inadequate definition of the Priesthood. I would also say that the very heart of Liturgical formation, "active participation", which is joining ourselves to the action of Christ in the Mass, is not treated adequately. However, this DVD is an indispensible resource for personal and communal use in an age which has, to a degree, lost sight of the Mass.

Another resource is available on the internet and you can watch its videos directly on-line, without purchasing a DVD. I recommend this website for its content: http://www.romanmissal.us/

The image above is a photograph I took a few weeks ago of a gothic statue of Our Lady in the old church in Perouges, France, near Ars.

Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge

2011-02-24T09:03:00.008Z

The other day a couple of us went down to the harbour in Sydney and behold, not a hand clothed with white sammite, but an enormous volume of water displaced by two queens; the largest passenger ships on the planet. Yes, together in the harbour were the Queen Mary II and the Queen Elizabeth. We caught a harbour taxi and got up close - quite a sight! The Queen Mary II is the larger ship; I could scarcely get the whole ship in the frame in order to photograph it.

Important sources

2011-02-22T22:03:00.005Z

While I was back in the UK for Christmas I was asked by someone about the 'reform of the reform' and what elements comprise it. This is an important matter, and here, in essence, was my reply. The 'reform of the reform' is the way in which the contemporary liturgical movement is developing the Liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council and the implementation of the 'Novus Ordo' Mass, so that it better expresses the nature of Catholic Liturgy. The main promoter of the 'reform of the reform' is Benedict XVI.

Two important factors are involved in understanding this movement. First, it is important to have a genuine understanding of the Liturgy (a liturgical catechesis), what the Liturgy of the Church is in itself. I would cite here just two sources: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1066 - 1209, and Joseph Ratzinger's book, "The Spirit of the Liturgy", especially its Preface and the whole of Part 4.

Secondly, it is important to recognise that the Liturgy develops over time, and that we are still very close to the reforms of the late 60s, and that the whole sense of a reform of the reform is only about five years old. Time is on our side and we shouldn't expect sudden developments; we are looking at an organic process of development/reform which will probably take 50-100 years.

So, with these things in mind, here are the main sources for appreciating the 'reform of the reform':

1. We should read, reflect upon and know the Council's document on the Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium".

2. We should have some knowledge of the previous Liturgy of the Mass, the so-called Tridentine Mass, in order to see where we have come from.

3. We should read and refect upon Benedict XVI's Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis", which gives us an over-arching vision of the reform of the Liturgy which has taken place.

4. We should note Benedict's teachings on the Liturgy in his homilies, addresses etc. For instance, what he says in his new book "Light of the World", pp105-106, 155-158, is very important.

5. The 'Benedictine' altar arrangement of the candles and crucifix.

6. The new English translation of the Altar Missal.

7. The Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificem", in which the Old and New forms of the Rite are brought together in order to shine light on each other; for the two forms to be reformed by each other, as it were.

Of course, there are lots of other sources, but my intention is to point out simply the heart of the matter and I hope that these indications will be helpful to others.

(I took the above photo last month in the old church in the village of Perouges, near Ars in France.)

Two A levels

2011-02-22T01:20:00.009Z

Cardinal Heenan commented in a letter to Evelyn Waugh in 1964 about the rise of the new Catholic pseudo-intelligentia, saying how anyone with two A levels considered themself an intellectual whose opinions were worthy of public interest. Well, what appeared in the 60s certainly gained momentum in the UK as the years wore on, and I have encountered this syndrome so many times that it really does seem to have become an obstacle to the Christian Life.

As a newly ordained priest I remember in 1988 a lady striding into the sacristy as I was vesting for Mass and wanting to know if I would be using inclusive language in the Mass. Five years later, I remember another lady, addressing a conference of the Leeds clergy, telling us that she would give the new Catechism, which was about to be published, a shelf-life of four years. In one of my parishes, in North Yorkshire, I encountered a culture of opinion to such a degree that the Parish itself was disfuntional. I was told, as Parish Priest, that it didn't matter if young people didn't go to Mass or Confession, that we mustn't burden them with Sacred Scripture, and that if Joseph Ratzinger were elected Pope there would be a schism in the Church. Now all of these were personal opinions, but opinions which actually were an obstacle to the Gospel and to the life of Church in that place.

Today the culture of opinion is all-pervading; signs of it are clearly evident in the Catholic world. The religious interest magazine "The Tablet" would be an example of this culture and how it places itself as a guiding and moderating influence upon the teaching and the message of the Holy Father and the Church, developing its own sort of orthodoxy, one which runs parallel to that of the Church.

What Cardinal Heenan noted with some concern in 1964 is a paralysing phenomenon of our age: Catholics applying a secular critique to Christianity. In fact, it is the opposite which is true - that it is Christ and the Church who enables us to understand our lives and the world in which we live. We see this formative attitude especially in people who actually listen to the Holy Father and the Church, and in those who participate faithfully in the Mass.

An un-ergonomic encounter

2011-02-19T20:21:00.005Z

Just before I entered seminary in the Autumn of 1982, an acquiantance recommended a particular book to me. Indeed, he said that this book should be compulsory reading for all seminarians. He seemed to think that there was a very important message in this novel for all aspiring seminarians. So, I took up his recommendation and acquired a copy of David Lodge's novel "How far can you go".

It was as though in an instant I was introduced, through this book, into the whole malestrom of dissaffection with Christianity which I had somehow skipped over in the past decade. The book was trying to describe how far a Christian could go in trying to live according to the world's lights, and still call himself a Christian.

I should have asked my acquaintance why he thought all seminarians should read this book. The book was a real 'turn off' for me, for I couldn't understand why anyone who wanted to follow Christ would actually try to put a huge distance between Christ and himself. Of course, from another point of view, this novel introduced me for to a whole growing culture, among British Catholics, of dissaffection with the Church and the Christian Life, which I would not encounter again until I returned from seminary in Spain six years later.

The bravest route

2011-02-18T20:13:00.006Z

My own experience of the new catechetics/religion did not happen until I went to Grammar School in 1972 - in my case to St Michael's College in Leeds. Earlier, during my years at Infant School, and even well into Junior school I had benefitted from traditional religious instruction. This was probably because my teachers had not been sent to attend courses on the new stuff, or were not ready to implement it, or because they had decided to keep teaching the Catholic Faith instead. I was also Confirmed when I was 8, and again prepared in a traditional way for this Sacrament. So, together with the whole background of Catholicism which I was growing up in, from family and parish, I emerged as a young teenager, untramelled by the new religion.

The Infant and Junior schools which I attended were later to adopt, in the early 70s, along with all other Primary schools in the Diocese, the "Veritas" RE scheme. Looking back, it is hard to imagine what lunacy drove the decision to inplement this Scheme, and in so doing to exchange the teaching of the Mysteries of Christ's life for reflections on pebbles and flowers.

At St Michael's College, where we were taught that Jesus wasn't God, and were subjected to coffee-table class Masses, I cannot now remember if a particular Scheme was followed. Certainly, I passed through High School long before "Here I am" or "Weaving the Web" were foisted upon RE departments. However, it was clear that the Catholic background in which I was brought up had instilled the Faith in me to such a degree, that the nonsense I was exposed to at St Michael's washed over me without gaining a foothold. And that, emerging from High School as a late teenager, I was eager to really deepen my undertanding and experience of the Catholic Faith. This I did as a "grace-led" project untill at the age of 21 I heard a call to be a Priest.

I sense that my experience holds two important ingredients for today's context. First, the Faith is planted and nurtured at home, rather than at school. Secondly, that the age to really form young people in living the Christian life (and of course this varies according to the individual) is precisely when they are emerging into young adulthood. Of course, the question of a person embracing the Catholic Faith concerns the whole vision which God has for a person's life, which we are all called to put ourselves in tune with.

With hindsight

2011-02-12T20:35:00.004Z

In the last post I mentioned a Catechetical College which had formerly existed in London called Corpus Christi College. This was the national catechetical centre set up by Cardinal Heenan in the late sixties and which he closed in 1975. The college was in the former Convent of the nuns of Our Lady of Sion (pictured above), on the corner of Chepstow Villas and Denbigh Road in Notting Hill near Paddington Station. The building is now divided into residential flats.

The first director of the college, Fr Hubert Richards, together with Fr Peter de Rosa and others set about producing a new catechesis and training others in its vision and method. Indeed, at the time, representatives from every Catholic school in the land were obliged to attend courses here. By 1971 it became clear that the college was a centre of heresy and a new director was appointed to re-align the college, Fr Michael Keegan, who also oversaw the closure of the college in 1975. But the damage had already been done. The original directorate and staff of the college had successfully purveyed within the Catholic Church in the UK their own new religion. With hindsight we can see that this new religion is actually a form of Pelagianism - the doctrine that human beings do not need grace in order to be saved, they can achieve salvation on their own. The new religion of Richards, de Rosa and others was spread, not so much through lay teachers but through religious and priests who thronged to Corpus Christi College to imbibe its noxious teachings. Most priests and religious who attended courses at the college returned to their posts with totally wacky ideas and many abandoned their vocations. I remember the lay RE teacher who took the class that I was in at St Michael's College in Leeds, teaching us in 1973 (I was 12/13 years old at the time) that Jesus was not God but was given a mission from God at his baptism in the Jordan. He also taught us, that same year, about all the different methods of contraception and how to put on a condom. This man, who went on to become the Head of RE at another High School in the Leeds Diocese, was for many decades paid an excellent salary in order to teach the Catholic Faith. I remember thinking, as he was speaking to us in the class, that this man was "off his rocker". We have been duped!

In the mid-nineties, Claire Richards, ex-nun and wife of the ex-priest Hubert Richards, published the heretical school RE curriculum "Roman Catholic Christianity". This book, although officially discredited, may still be in use in some Catholic schools.

There are many agents of Corpus Christi College still around in the UK today, and you will find signs of of its influence in these ways (amongst others):

1. Any explicit or implicit diminishing of the nature or mission of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind.

2. Any explicit or implicit diminishing of or undermining of the nature and mission of the Church, the Pope or the Priesthood.

3. Refering to the Teaching of the Church as "Church or Vatican policy", disassociating it from the Gospel and from truth.

4. Speaking of the Christian Life in terms of those things that Catholics "do", disassociating Catholicism from the Mystery of Christ.

5. Moralising instead of showing how the Moral Life of Catholics flows from the Mystery of Christ.

6. Placing the emphasis on social issues and campaigns.

How did the phenomenon of Corpus Christi College come about? I'm not going to go into the history of how the College came about; others have written about that. But is does seem to me, looking back, that after the Second Vatican Council was over, those who did have a vision were precisely those who were wanting to change the Catholic Faith into something else. And that they were lacking who had real vision for planting and nurturing the Catholic Faith in the changing world of the 60s and 70s. But what is absolutely clear is that both our present Holy Father and his predecessor are men of great vision, and that we need many others, at every level in the Church today, to have a genuine vision for living and handing on the Faith.

A half century

2011-02-07T10:39:00.003Z

Apologies for my prolonged abscence while being away from substantial internet access; I will endeavour to return again posting when I have the opportunity.

Tomorrow is my fiftieth birthday. 1961 was, as you know, a good year for babies and much has changed in life since then. For twenty-three of my fifty years I have been a priest. In fact, for me the greatest change of my life was when God not only took me and transformed me from being a man of the world to being a man of God, but went on to give me a share in the Priesthood of His only Son. I never expected this when I was young and I am still full of wonder because of it. A second 'transition in grace' took place two and a half years ago when I was called on mission to Australia and now find myself helping to form future priests; and I know that the Holy Spirit has found many generous young hearts in His great Southern Land.

In some way, I am amazed when I look back at the five decades of my life and wonder how I have emerged so untramelled by the bewilderment and confusion of this age. Take for instance, the new religion spawned by Corpus Christi Catechetical College in London and its agents, who came to virtually every school and parish in the late 60s and 70s pedelling their neo-Pelagianism (many of whom are still abroad in the land), but inspite of their crazed activity I imbibed the Faith of the Church instead.

I love the Church in Sydney and my little part in its Mission, but I miss too all my family and friends in the UK, not least the great crowd of priests and young people (and not so young), mostly from Youth 2000, who held a magnificent surprise party for me yesterday just outside London. I was overwhelmed!

Incidentally, Bob Dylan will be 70 in a few months time!

Blog-gap starting up

2010-11-18T19:39:00.002Z

It will be some months before I am able to post again; I will be giving a retreat and then spending some time in the UK, and I wont have computer access during this time.

A crucifix for Rome

2010-11-16T06:26:00.003Z

The crucifix from the seminary chapel in Sydney is going to Rome; it will have a home in the new Domus Australia which is being established for Australian pilgrims to the Eternal City. We will miss this quite imposing and life-size crucifix from our chapel; the Cardinal is however, commissioning a new crucifix for his seminary.

It was in August of this year that I came on staff at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, the seminary of the Sydney Archdiocese, in order to contribute to the formation of priests in Australia. This is the most unexpected and exciting appointment which I have been given during twenty two years of priesthood. The priesthood is at the very heart of the Church and it has received so much renewal during the past two decades, especially from JPII and B16. What an immense grace and a joy it is to witness today's vocations advancing towards ordination, opening up their lives to the Good Shepherd, to be fashioned in His image. Please pray for us, that we might all become priests after the heart of Christ.

At the centre of it all

2010-11-11T05:04:00.007Z

The contemporary debate concerning the relationship of the Catholic Church to the State, and the question of the Unity of Christians usually leaves out the basic truth that everyone is related to the Catholic Church anyway. Attempts to place or categorise the Church always fall way short of the mark and leave people in all sorts of weird postures. There is no getting away from the fact that what we call the Catholic Church is something which has been revealed by God and that it is the pillar and ground of truth in the world.

The division within Christianity in the UK is sadly responsible for this state of affairs in no small way. Where once there was unity of faith and practice, there is now a plethura of idea, opinion and posture, leaving a gaping vacuum at the centre - so evocatively expressed by the wide open space at the architectural climax of Canterbury Cathedral where once Becket's shrine stood (photo above).
The lack of unity has lead Christians down so many paths, many of them obscure, indivdualistic and unhelpfull, so that today we have the rationalists, the fundamentals, the neo-arians, the neo-pelagians, the congregationalists and the sectarianists, to name but a few. Where in all this mix of people doing their own thing does the Catholic Church fit? It is a bewildered age and it is not easy to see the essential nature of the Church; that there is such an entity as the Church, which is the pole and centre of gravity for everyone.
Thank goodness for the Martyrs, who pointed to the Church, and who the Church depended on so much in their day. But the Church does exist, and so the question of the Unity of Christians is a real question, one which will not go away. We are called to unity, and there is an authority in the Church which has the power to govern all of us. So, beyond all the opinions and all the clever ideas about the Christian life held by so many, there nonetheless remains the Mystery of the Church, revealed and given by God, an entity which is the foundational agent of the Christian Life for everyone who is baptised, and the herald of that Life to all those who are not. Without the Church no one would be Christian. What is this Church? It is the Catholic Church, and she uniquely has the responsibility and authority, from Christ, for governing and pastoring all the Churches, which means all the Baptised.
And secondly, that there is such a reality as the Mystery of Faith. We didn't invent it, procure it, or even ask for it. It was revealed and given. This Mystery is the Eucharist; the Mystery of Faith cannot be truthfully described by anyone in any other fashion. So those who say that the Eucharist is only symbolic, or simply a ritual, or "it doesn't matter how you celebrate the Eucharist", or even if you need to celebrate it at all, or that there is no Mystery of Faith, or that it has some other meaning; all these Christians (Catholics included) have a long way to go. The Mystery of Faith is the very core of our being - or at least, it is what everyone is called to have at the core of their being. That God has given Himself to us, and we are called to give ourselves to HIm. This is the Mystery of Faith; it is the very heart of human life.
So, as the Anglican Ordinariate comes into being and opinions are expressed, we need to have the authentic vision of the Christian Life before us - that it is a mystery of grace which God has given us. There are indeed many ways to live the life of Christ, but the Mystery of the Church and Mystery of the Eucharist are realities which we cannot change or set aside.

Let us, with homage and gratitude, be open to a fuller vision of these Mysteries which God has given to the world for the salvation of all men and women.

Embracing the Anglican Church

2010-11-09T10:31:00.005Z

Today's openness of the Catholic Church towards the Anglicans in offering, with the Ordinariate, an extraordinary path by which they can have full communion in the Catholic Church, is an expression of a long-held deep desire to enable the unity of the Church in the UK. At the Canonisation Mass of the Forty Martyrs in 1970, Pope Paul VI, at the end of his homily spoke these words - which in the light of recent events, seem quite prophetic:

May the blood of these Martyrs be able to heal the great wound inflicted upon God’s Church by reason of the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church. Is it not one - these Martyrs say to us - the Church founded by Christ? Is not this their witness? Their devotion to their nation gives us the assurance that on the day when - God willing - the unity of the faith and of Christian life is restored, no offence will be inflicted on the honour and sovereignty of a great country such as England. There will be no seeking to lessen the legitimate prestige and the worthy patrimony of piety and usage proper to the Anglican Church when the Roman Catholic Church - this humble “Servant of the Servants of God” - is able to embrace her ever beloved Sister in the one authentic communion of the family of Christ: a communion of origin and of faith, a communion of priesthood and of rule, a communion of the Saints in the freedom and love of the Spirit of Jesus. Perhaps We shall have to go on, waiting and watching in prayer, in order to deserve that blessed day. But already We are strengthened in this hope by the heavenly friendship of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales who are canonized today.

The 'hidden' antiphon

2010-11-08T21:56:00.003Z

I am pleased to see on Fr Finegan's and Fr Blake's respective Blogs, posts about the Offertory antiphon. In the Mass there are three Antiphons, not two - Entrance, Offertory and Communion. The Offertory Antiphon is at the moment 'hidden', as it does not appear in the Ordinary of the Mass in the Altar Missal. However, its place and nature are described in the GIRM (paras. 37b and 48), and it is included in the Revised Roman Gradual. Without wanting to talk about the importance of this Antiphon, other than to say that it proclaims the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist and expresses Christ's intentions as the Offertory of the Mass begins, we should be looking to build the reform of the reform by including the Offertory Antiphon in the Mass. The above mentioned Blog authors are right in calling upon those who are appropriately involved in the Liturgy to produce and insert these antiphon texts and accompanying chant tones.

I understand that the Revised Roman Gradual includes Offertory Antiphons taken from the Tridentine Missal but reorganised for the Novus Ordo. Whereas the new Altar Missal contains Entrance and Communion Antiphons which were newly written for the Missal. Also, I understand that there is an Anglican Gradual book, in Englsih, which also contains the three Antiphons organised for the Novus Ordo.

So, I add my voice those already calling for the Offertory Antiphons to be prepared and made available to be said or sung at the Mass - something which, clearly, we should already be doing.

Thanks to the King

2010-11-08T09:00:00.005Z

While the Pope dedicated the church of the Holy Family in Barcelona, outside a congress of homosexual men engaged in kissing one another. However, in saying farewell to the Pope before he left Barcelona, the King of Spain Don Juan Carlos expressed, on behalf of many, his thanks to the Holy Father. He said, "in both cities [Santiago and Barcelona] you have blessed us with words of peace and solidarity, of fraternity and spirituality, full of hope for a better world." The gesture of the King was in total contrast to that of those men who so inapproriately expressed their manhood outside the Sagrada Familia church.

The truth about mature manhood is that men are called to take some form of concrete responsibility for the Gospel. Men have the mission to be heralds or bearers of the Gospel. Not all men are called to be priests but the fullness of masculine identity is revealed when men embrace, internalise and express the Gospel. This is true for husbands and fathers, for single men, for working men, for young men who are dating, each in their own way, they become real men when they are advocates of the Gospel. What a great photo (above) of the King of Spain and the Pope, two men each in his own way revealing his responsibility for the Gospel and worthy of the world's gaze. Outside the church, the very opposite of masculine identity was taking place - a refusal to take responsibility, before the world, for the Gospel.

What a magnificent shrine to the Holy Family

2010-11-07T23:53:00.004Z

The dedication yesterday of the new Basilica in Barcelona (which is a church and not a Cathedral, as is often stated) honours the Holy Family in such a way that all Christian families are honoured by this act of the Church in down-town Barcelona. I visited the church in 1999 and was absolutely amazed by the beauty of its unique architecture. The Holy Father commenting on this yesterday, said that "Gaudí [the architect] desired to unify that inspiration which came to him from the three books which nourished him as a man, as a believer and as an architect: the book of nature, the book of sacred Scripture and the book of the liturgy. In this way he brought together the reality of the world and the history of salvation, as recounted in the Bible and made present in the liturgy. He made stones, trees and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in praise of God, but at the same time he brought the sacred images outside so as to place before people the mystery of God revealed in the birth, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this way, he brilliantly helped to build our human consciousness, anchored in the world yet open to God, enlightened and sanctified by Christ. In this he accomplished one of the most important tasks of our times: overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty."

How wonderful it is that the Church is such a clear sign of God in the world, and that the Family should have such a beautiful Shrine in the midst of secular Europe, that "all who enter here and all who in word or deed, in silence and prayer, have made this possible this marvel of architecture. May Our Lady present to her divine Son the joys and tribulations of all who come in the future to this sacred place so that here, as the Church prays when dedicating religious buildings, the poor may find mercy, the oppressed true freedom and all men may take on the dignity of the children of God."

"My fellow bishops ... "

2010-11-07T01:58:00.004Z

I recommend an article on the web by Scott Hahn, "The Paternal Order of Priests", inspired by the comment St Augustine once famously made to fathers in his congregation, in which called them his 'fellow bishops'. Scott Hahn develops the analogy in terms of the charism of fatherhood in priests. An important article for both husbands and priests.