The Latin word Advent means coming. In Advent, we await the first coming of the Lord. It is a time of expectation and joyful anticipation. We prepare for Advent and look forward to the coming of Christ. And when He comes He will bring peace
Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war,
O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord
-Isaiah 2:4-5
Picture: Lighting the Advent candle at Westminster Cathedral
It has become a recent custom at Westminster Cathedral that in marking the feast day of St John Southworth, the feretory containing the relics of our saint is moved from its usual resting place in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs into the nave of the Cathedral where visitors and worshippers may pray and light candles around the relics.
Father John Southworth was born into a family of Catholics in Lancashire in 1592. His family had been subject to persecution including having to pay heavy fines for not renouncing their faith. John Southworth’s father had himself been imprisoned for harbouring the Jesuit martyr-priest, Father Edmund Campion. Despite those times being very dangerous for Catholics in England and Wales, John Southworth travelled to Douai in France to study for his vocation which would conclude with his own martyrdom.
Following his ordination, Father John returned to England in 1619 and for most of the next 35 years carried out his pastoral duties and was arrested on no less than four occasions. Much of John Southworth’s work was in Westminster which in the middle ages was an area noted for its crime and abject poverty. Despite the reputation of the area and in the face of constant mortal danger, John Southworth served the poor, the ill and the needy in Westminster and Clerkenwell . During the years of the plague, at great personal risk he worked among the infirmed and dying and raised funds for the families of victims.
While John Southworth was released on three occasions of his arrest as a result of the intervention of Henrietta Maria, the French Catholic wife of King Charles 1, he was again detained in 1654. Refusing to renounce his faith and saying instead,
“My faith and obedience to my superiors is all the treason charged against me; nay, I die for Christ’s law, which no human law, by whomsoever made, ought to withstand or contradict… ”
John Southworth was condemned to death at Tyburn despite the pleas of many including those of several foreign ambassadors.
His remains were sent to Douai for burial and then transferred to and hidden in an unmarked grave during the French Revolution. They were discovered in 1927 and returned to England. When he was beatified in 1929, John Southworth’s relics were enshrined at Westminster Cathedral. On October 25 1970, Pope Paul VI canonised John Southworth in company with the other martyrs of England and Wales.
Today, The St John Southworth Fund in carrying on the spirit of it’s patron saint, supports the work of parishes and organisations on a wide range of issues including poverty, old age, infirmity, disability and deprivation in the dioceses of Westminster, Brentwood and Southwark and in the county of Hertfordshire.
Colours are used to denote the various seasons in the liturgical year. Purple which represents anticipation and preparation is the colour of Advent and Lent, red for feasts of the Lord’s passion, Blood and Cross while white symbolizes purity, joy and triumph so it is the most appropriate colour of Christmas and Easter. In this season of Ordinary Time the vestments are predominantly green, signifying the season of hope and growth.
In contemplating the mysteries of Christ we reflect not only on his life and miracles but his teachings as well. It was Christ of course who taught his apostles to say the ‘ Our Father ’ saying, ‘ So you should pray like this ’ ( Matthew 6:9 ), because Christ himself gave to all who did receive him, the power to be children of God ( John 1:12 ). Thus God was father to the apostles. Therefore just as the apostles did, we too in receiving Christ pray in the same way, in harmony and with one accord to ‘ Our Father who art in Heaven ’
St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the third century was an important Early Christian writer who spoke of the God of peace, the teacher of harmony who taught us unity and willed that each one of us should pray for all. Hence each of us does not ask for bread alone nor that he alone should not be led into temptation. Instead we pray for all and as St Cyprian writes so eloquently ‘ Our prayer is public and for all, and when we pray, we pray not for a single person, but for the whole people because we are all one ’
Christians know of course that Christ had also said that ‘ …your Father knows what you need before you ask him ’ ( Matthew 6:8 ). So when we say this wonderful prayer that is so rich in spiritual power, all that we pray for to God is answered if we ask for it in the name of the son, to which I would add, if we ask as it says in this wonderful prayer, that ‘ thy will be done ’. So indeed we are asking to do His will and since He alone knows what we truly need, then if this is in accordance with His will, He will grant in His own time.
No picture to see this week since my equipment is being serviced but as you know, God comes to us in our hearts. That is where we meet and see Him.
The faithful will all be aware that when the season of Easter comes to a close, the Paschal Candle which has been on display and lit at masses since the Easter Vigil is moved from the sanctuary to the baptistery where it is used at baptisms. At funerals it becomes a symbol signifying Christian passing as a true Passover. This period between Trinity Sunday and Advent is known as Ordinary Time. During this part of the liturgical calendar, we celebrate the mystery of Christ in all its fullness.
Christ’s whole life is a mystery. In the Creed we learn of the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Paschal mystery. It reveals nothing in particular about the life of Jesus of the form one would read in a biography. Yet, that which is written was recorded as it says in the Gospel of John so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this, we may have life through his name. Thus there can be no denying the richness of the mysteries of Jesus.
Through the Gospels and the writings of men who were among the first to have known Christ, in the case of John, instructed by Jesus to write down all that he saw or as in the example of Paul, called by God to the faith, the deeds, miracles and words of Jesus himself are made known to us. They also reveal the Father since Christ himself had said
“To have seen me is to have seen the Father”
John 14:9
In undertaking his redemptive mission, Christ ensures that as we receive the sacrament of his body, we are also in receipt of his divinity and the salvation he brings.
The mysteries of Christ are not in the realm of a whodunit. Instead they are something unquantifiable, something that is of unlimited richness which when revealed to us assures us of endless grace and the continued love of the Father.
In his death through which all our sins are taken away and by his Resurrection, Christ justifies us and brings us once again to the Father. In the picture of man’s journey then, what we had lost in Adam, we would recover in Jesus.
Just as Christ himself made his journey from a boy into manhood and as we heard at this past weekend St Paul made his own unique journey from persecutor of the church to Apostle of Christ, it too is our unique and personal journey when we are called to follow Christ and in going with him, complete our journey to the Father.
Oswald von Nell-Breuning was furious.
The rage of the then 90-year old former architect of the papal encyclical of Pope Pius Xl written in 1931 was amply and not without a touch of humour, demonstrated to the assembled audience by Fr Patrick Riordan.
In 1931 Pope Pius discussed the ethical implications of the social and economic order and described the major dangers for human freedom and dignity arising from unrestrained capitalism and totalitarianism under the communist regimes, calling with urgency for the reconstruction of a social order based on the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. Von Nell-Bruening thus raged at relative lack of progress made by politicians of whom he was critical for having failed not only in their duty to inform society or persuade us with reasoned argument but instead choose to ignore our reasoned argument while placating us with sound bytes, as it were.
Fr Riordan went on the explore the relationship between faith and politics, returning to the Catholic position of a long-held belief of separation of church and state. If the concept of separation did truly exist, would faith then be subservient to politics? In respect of this, the question for Christians is what our faith requires of us in relation to politics. How should we react when faced with choices?
In developing the discussion, Fr Riordan drew on various writings by the leaders of the church, not least Mit Brennender Sorge, an encyclical of Pope Pius XI which was published in 1937. Smuggled into Germany and read out at mass on Palm Sunday, it was highly critical of Nazism and the manner by which it elevated one race above others and raised the notions of their perceived values to an idolatrous level, concluding that in the face of spiritual loss, the only alternative available was that of heroism. Pope Pius’s call to Christian witness was clearly answered by the Austrian Franz Jägerstätter who in turn refused the call-up into the Austrian army referring to the war and the conduct of it as unjust.
More recently Pope John Paul II writing with respect of the collapse of the Soviet Union, cited the events of 1989 as a warning to those who would see political realism as outweighing law and morality in the political arena. He spoke as events would show, of the success of the gospel spirit over an adversary determined not to be bound by moral principles. Pope John Paul II spoke of intrinsic evils, calling on us to stand up against them, not unlike a call to heroism as suggested by Pope Pius Xl and heeded by Franz Jaggerstatter and his wife, Franziska both of whom were persecuted for their beliefs.
In conclusion Fr Riordan investigated the role of evangelisation today and in reflecting on Pope Paul VI’s writings on the subject, looked to the challenges faced by Christians as they question the norms of conformity urged by the changing values and judgment of an increasingly secular and at times, unjust world when these are in contrast to the Word of God. Being true to the faith does also mean that we are not like sheep.
I have to confess that writing the blog on this lecture took me far longer than usual. It would indeed have taken even longer without the advantage of watching the splendid video of the lecture produced by the Communications Office of the Diocese of Westminster and the Agency for Evangelisation at Vaughan House which was the venue for these lectures.
At Westminster Cathedral, Fr Alexander in his homily at the vigil mass of Corpus Christi referred to the occasion as one of the great solemnities of the liturgical year and one by which we have the opportunity to thank God for the gift of Christ.
Man has much to be grateful for Christ, predating even the days when our Lord walked the earth. You may remember of course St Paul’s reminder to the brothers in Corinth about the journey of their fathers through the desert. He spoke about how they were guided by the cloud above them, that they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them as they went and indeed that rock was Christ. So Christ himself has been with us from our early days. It reminds me of the poem of the footprints in the sand, when the person observing two sets of footprints while walking along the beach with the Lord, upon looking back at the various scenes of his or her life noticed that during the lowest and most difficult moments only one set of footprints were to be seen. When questioned on being supposedly abandoned, the Lord’s reply was that during those trying times it was the Lord who was carrying that person. We know from the Holy Trinity, that if the Father did the carrying then so did the Son.
Thus it is fitting that we should always remember Christ and not only in the sacraments but in our daily lives since who could and would understand us in the way that he does. It is not as St Paul says that we have a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us but instead we have one who had been tempted in every way that we are. So we should be confident that in Jesus we have one in whom not only will we always enjoy kindness, generosity and understanding but we will also find his grace when we are in need of his help.
Returning to St Paul again who in referring to the partaking of the sacraments said,
Until the Lord comes therefore,
everytime you eat this bread and drink this wine,
you are proclaiming His death
Corinthians 11:26
it would be good that while we reflect on his words and give thanks for the deed and great gift that it is, to live a life that reflects the worthiness of the gift.
In my early days while newly-baptised in the faith, I recall my first Sunday of The Most Holy Trinity. It was a bright sunny day and I remember reflecting on its’ title as being a day when we specially celebrate God in Three Persons. I think that back then we simply used to call it Trinity Sunday and I remember with much pleasure the hymn set to the words of John Henry Newman.
Over time and particularly now as I approach and embrace my faith with greater awareness and renewed energy, I have come to see this special day as more than just a commemoration. I hope I have begun to understand it better and more fully. In doing so I also see that the message of the promise which was made and fulfilled by the Risen Christ at Pentecost is repeated and given greater emphasis today.
To me, the journey of the Word which begins with God the Father is then given us by the grace of the Son and further inspired by the coming of the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit having been sent to us is in us, the Word which comes from the Father is also in us. Therefore if we keep The Word, we will receive into our hearts the Father and the Son which was what Christ meant when He said
” If anyone loves me he will keep my word
and my Father will love him
and we shall come to him
and make our home with him ”
– John 14:23
Thus the words of the celebrant at the beginning of mass ‘ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all ’, takes on a special significance.
The Trinity is all bound into One with the Word being handed down by the Father through the Son and then made firm by the Holy Spirit. We cannot receive one without the other or any combination of two parts without the third since they are All in One.
Isn’t this the richest gift one could ever have or be given?
And I hold in veneration,
For the love of him alone,
Holy Church as his creation,
And her teachings as his own.
Adoration ay be given,
With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Image – Icon of The Most Holy Trinity Source – web
As the Father sent me, so am I sending you
John 20:21
It is Pentecost Sunday, the day when in fulfilling the promise made to his disciples at the last supper, Christ sent them an advocate to build up His church to be united and holy. Father Jeremy Davies pointed out in St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to build up the church into a community and into holiness, so as to build up each Christian into the image of our Lord Jesus and thus enable the fullness of Christ to dwell fully in every Christian. As his disciples were, we too are in receipt of this same promise of the Holy Spirit.
In addressing the gathering at Tyburn on Sunday, Fr Jeremy explained that Christ in bringing us into unity with His body paves the way for us to become the visible church, His visible church. Christ brings everyone into unity with God’s love by bringing them into union with Himself. The journey to God through the Son is possible since Christ himself is in union with the Father
On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you
John 14:20
and this journey is aided by the coming of the advocate as promised by Christ. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the spirit of wisdom and understanding that Luke says which opens the new testament to us. Through His son and by way of the Holy Spirit unlocking all the mysteries and teachings of Christ, God speaks to every human being on this earth. We are only asked to listen and to open our hearts.
The platform of the Westminster Catholic Evidence Guild at Tyburn bears witness to the message and promises of Christ each Sunday afternoon and is blessed with the presence of Fr Jeremy Davies who journeys down from Luton on the third Sunday of each month.
I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I learnt from my Father
John 15:15
And on each of these days, many friends are gathered to share in the special gifts that call us all to be Christians.
The summer series of talks relating to matters of Catholic moral and social teaching began at Vaughan House on Thursday 9th May with Mary Colwell addressing the audience on a subject close to her heart, the state and future of our planet. Those who follow current debate and discussion on this matter will know that one of Mary’s roles is as environmental adviser to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. Very appropriate therefore that she should open this series of lectures with her topic entitled ” Dialogue with the earth “.
Utilising material sourced in her work as a producer on the various media, Mary drew the attention of those present to the pressures on our environment and the resources of the planet brought about by social and economic demands, reflecting on the question posed by the ecological theologian Thomas Berry that mankind had broken it’s conversation with the earth. As nature’s resources in both our forests and oceans are plundered, she offered as food for thought what Catholic teaching and beliefs could do in not only giving us a way to consider the crisis placed upon our planet but for the Catholic Church to take a lead in addressing these issues and to help our planet recover not only from the ravages on it’s natural wealth but also the drastic changes to our planet’s ecosystem.
Mary herself wrote some years ago that people of faith would conduct their lives so as not to engage in rampant consumerism. Whilst on the face of it, the Gospels may not make direct references to the earth, it is very clear that in Genesis ( 1:26-28 ), we are called to be stewards of the planet. Implicit in this therefore is our role in taking care of the earth and managing it’s resources which are a gift to us. Mary asks too if we should not see the world as more than something which supplies us with resources but indeed something that reflects back to us the face of God which should therefore be treated with respect and reverence. As the Catholic church has a strong presence in those parts of the planet where there is much stress on the environment, Mary believes that indeed we have something to say but what we have to do is to bring a well-formulated proposition to the discussion or be dictated to by the world of science, business and politics. I need to make it clear that Mary’s approach is not that of an environmentalist. Instead she offers the basis of a dialogue which Catholics can bring to the environmental table. This is important since all of us share in what the earth offers and we share too, a grave interest in what it has to offer to the many generations to come. It is therefore not merely a case that we see fewer Swifts in our skies but that our children may see any at all and what hardships they may have to endure because we have spent today that which is rightfully theirs and that of their heirs tomorrow. We as Catholics should therefore bring our teaching to this important table of discussion.
Information on the series and video courtesy of the Diocese of Westminster
On Thursday April 11, in the first of a three-part series of discussions organised by St Paul’s Institute and sponsored by CCLA, an ethical fund manager, Archbishop Vincent Nichols placed before the audience, challenging views for our society and it’s communities, to consider what sort of City it is that we want that would better serve society. As keynote speaker for the evening, Archbishop Vincent took a view of the City as a place where people live and work. Since it is people who make the City, it follows that the City can therefore be a place of human flourishing. The Archbishop’s talk therefore was entitled ‘ Good People ’.
Quoting TS Eliot who said ‘ there is no life that is not in community….. ’ the Archbishop offered that if one were to take the view of a City as being a community, then we must pursue all that cultivates community. The ancient Greeks he went on to say, had a clear view on the purpose of the city, ‘ the polis ’ as they called it which was to build a good society where citizens thrived as members of a virtuous community. In a city since we are all in it together, the well being and fulfilment of each is in some ways dependent on others. There are ties of trust and solidarity to be recognised and developed between people and institutions which in turn create common bonds. These common bonds and shared common interests could result in good. In recent times though, the apparent legitimisation of the pursuit of self interest which were once believed to result in better outcomes for all had led to breakdowns such as the financial crisis, prompting searching questions about inequalities which have been generated by the approach of self-enrichment. Therefore more collective thought was needed about what can be changed for the good of all. Archbishop Vincent offered as a key to the answer, the concept of
‘Good people bound by good purpose’
Good first had to be defined, itself not an easy process since we no longer share many of the patterns of thought which would help establish its meaning. Instead of applying the conventional rationale of morality and duty he felt it would help to understand ‘desire’ as a vital and fundamental driving force of ethics and goodness. In our quest for relationships of deep friendship and for our lives to have meaning so as to make a contribution, we all have in us a desire for ‘good’. The Archbishop said that respecting others and seeking their good was essential to one’s own good. Seeking the good and responding to its attractiveness further takes us out of narrow, self-centered attitudes. It is he suggested the path to true human flourishing and fulfilment.
However he did recognise that our desire for the good can easily be distorted through selfishness greed, pride or lust. It is a struggle between good and evil that runs in every aspect of our lives. Thus in order to lean to the good we need to learn to pursue virtues that become our moral agents. These would help us do that which is right and honourable irrespective of reward and regardless of what we are obliged to do. The Archbishop then briefly explored the fundamentals of the virtues of prudence, justice, courage and temperance.
Prudence or right reasoned action was the opposite of rashness and carelessness. Courage ensured firmness and the readiness to stand by what we believe in times of difficulty while Justice enabled us to give what was due to others by respecting their rights and fulfilling our duties towards them and the virtue of Temperance which helps us moderate our appetites and use of the world’s created goods was the opposite of consumerism and the uninhibited pursuit of pleasure. These together form essentials of a happy life.
The formation of good people starts in the family which is the first school of citizenship. Loving, stable families are the vital building block of every society. Schools come next and are important in building character, as are universities and in the context of the City, the business schools. Whilst we should look to these institutions of the community to foster virtue and thereby build character, we should also look to the institutions of commerce to nurture and strengthen character. Such institutions should have a clear sense of purpose so as to be enterprises of ‘good purpose’.
When sight of purpose is lost then breakdowns of the system occur. Reflecting on the Francis Review into Staffordshire NHS Trust, Archbishop Vincent quoted the head of the professional standards authority who spoke of leaders having lost sight of their moral purpose. They seemed to have forgotten they exist to do good. Concern for finances had taken priority over care, compassion and respect leading him to say that “unless you know the purpose for which you are running an organisation you will never get the ethics right within it”.
That sense of ‘good purpose’ was not just for the public sector but also for commercial organisations. Mark Carney, the incoming Governor of the Bank of England spoke of the speaking of the need for companies to “define clearly the purpose of their organisations and promote a culture of ethical business”, and, in doing so, for employees to have “a sense of broader purpose, grounded in strong connections to their clients and their communities”. It is not simply a focus on profit as an end in itself but Archbishop Vincent suggested that the true justification of business was when profit was made while making the world a better place. Goods and services produced that truly serve people, create employment, offer fair returns to investors, while minimising harm. Any business looking to remain true to that purpose needed people with technical skills and competencies as well as the required character and virtues he outlined earlier. These “ architects of lasting business success ”in staying true to their virtues would create a culture within their organisations that actually promotes and strengthens good practice.
It should be noted that the exploration of ‘good people bound by good purpose’ comes up against the limits of law and regulation since these mechanisms are slow to react and new rules usually deal with the last problem not the next one. Furthermore a compliance mentality creates perverse incentives while increasing bureaucracy. Rules become a lazy proxy for morality and people think that if what they do is not against a rule, it must be in order. Such a society he counselled, would become inherently fragile. What is required the Archbishop believed was a fundamental transformation of purpose, so that business, and the financial sector is seen by everyone as it should be – at the service of society. Reform though must be credible or as John Kay, an economic commentator says, it will take another financial crisis before the City really wakes up to the scale of reform that is needed.
Archbishop Vincent though is firm in his belief that there is great potential for good in people which far too many employers do not release or encourage because of the primary aim to maximise short term profit. In mitigation, companies tended to justify themselves through additional programmes of social benefit or philanthropy but as the Archbishop insisted, these acts of benevolence should be supplementary to the shared value created by the core work of the business activity. Rather than react to laws and guidelines or engage in these programs, it was far more important for business to have a clear purpose to serve society. To this end, the quality of leadership is critical since all the good influences that support the way for a better society is hugely influenced by these choices made by leaders. The Archbishop drew on Paul Polman’s remarks as CEO of Unilever when he reminded the assembled guests at the launch conference of the Blueprint for Better Business last September that in the long term no business can succeed in a society that fails.
The Christian instinct Archbishop Vincent affirmed, sees the potential for good in a city and gave us all food for thought in noting that the Bible started in a garden and ended in a city. He then drew our attention to the setting of the evening’s lecture that the beauty that is St Paul’s Cathedral invited those of us present to gaze upwards and place our hopes and fears in the context of the Eternal. It also perhaps afforded us recognition of our frailty, our need of one another and our shared destiny. In closing, Archbishop Vincent left us with his impression that humanity had a most extraordinary capacity for good and that he deeply believed that there are many untapped ways by which we could organise the world of work in service of the common good.
There then followed a discussion with the panel consisting of Baroness Helena Kennedy, Tracey McDermott of the FSA, Peter Selby who is the director of St Paul’s Institute. Proceedings were under the chair and direction of Stephanie Flanders, the economics editor of the BBC. Questions were put to Archbishop Vincent from both the panel and audience. Archbishop Vincent’s responses in the video are well worth noting.
Please click above image for the video
Pictures courtesy of Marcin Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk
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